Author Patrick Bringley worked for a decade as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). Early next year, Simon & Schuster will now publish his memoir, All the Beauty in the World, a portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures from the intimate perspective of one of its closest observers.
On November 16, join Untapped New York Insiders for a members-only virtual tour over continents and across millennia, visiting sacred masterpieces with Patrick Bringley, author of All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me. The event is free for Untapped New York Insiders (get your first month free with code JOINUS). Attendees will receive a link to join the webinar after completing the registration.
Sacred Art at the MET Virtual Tour
Join Bringley in leaving the “profane” world of Fifth Avenue and mounting the Met’s temple-like stairs to visit its sacred masterpieces. Discover awe-inspiring works from five curatorial departments — Egyptian Art, Greek and Roman Art, Islamic Art, African Art, and European Paintings — discussing both their histories and their spiritual significance. Why were these objects thought to transcend our ordinary, everyday world? And why might they have an aura of holiness even today? The unique, wide-ranging talk with a museum veteran will conclude with a Q&A.
On the tour, you will learn how the ancient Egyptians conceptualized time and why it operated differently within tombs and temples. Later, you will explore why the Greeks thought wine drinking was a sacred rite, with roots in the cult practice of “frenzied women.”
By the end of the webinar, you will understand why wooden statues in Congo were believed to be too powerful to be held in human hands, even in their makers’, and how a 14th-century Iranian prayer niche demonstrates the divine unity of the world’s infinite forms. Finally, you will learn why Old Master painters obsessed over suffering, relating the strong emotions of adoration and lamentation.
Sacred Art at the MET Virtual Tour
Next, check out the top 10 secrets of the Metropolitan Museum of Art!