The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture

by Peter Barnet

Book Overview

Home to an extraordinary collection of treasured masterworks, including the famed Unicorn Tapestries, The Cloisters is devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. This splendid new guide,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300111428
• ISBN13: 9780300111422
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art New York
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 2.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.7" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Ravishing pictures

The Cloisters is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and it's a precious jewel among our museums. At the end of the Victorian era and the beginning of the 20th century interest in the art and architecture of the Middle Ages peaked. Because so many wealthy people collected examples and donated them to the Cloisters, it became one of the finest examples of high quality art and architectural fragments from the Middle Ages. If you can't visit New York anytime soon, this book captures the museum in all its quirky detail, from the churches and apses to the sculpture and stained glass. Color pictures lavishly display the glories of the Cloisters. Small, architectural fragments decorate the building. There are doorway surrounds, altars, sarcophagus, capitals festooned with saints, apostles, and strange beasts. One striking piece--and it is only about 8 inches tall--is plate 46--which shows an ivory sculpture of the Madonna, and she is smiling down at the infant Christ. It's personal and tender in a way not usual for the time. Everyday objects are also on display, including a set of 52 playing cards which appears, from the picture, to be in perfect condition. An aquamanile in the form of a lion--plate 73--shows the pomp and pride of the renaissance that is to come.

a stunning work

What a beautiful book! This text "breaks apart" the structure of the Cloisters (itself assembled in a bit of a hodgepodge), taking individual elements and structures and examining them. As an example of how accurate the descriptions are and how vividly it describes things: a few months after first looking at the book, I read a mystery in which there was a chase scene and a shootout (!) at the Cloisters. Because I had read this book, I was able to follow the *entire* scene and picture each major landmark mentioned. I hadn't been to the Cloisters in 10 years, but the book brought it all back that well! The book is full of full-color photography, with descriptive text. However, this is more than a coffee table book; it deserves to be studied, not just propped up for looks. If you do get it, read it and do it justice!