Jennifer Sanchez: Cruisin the Met II

Joachim Patinir, The Penitence of Saint Jerome, 1518

my last visit to the met was a doosey, so here goes part II. don't know where i was headed or what got me to the painting above, but ooh so glad! the first thing that caught my attention was the dynamic big blue sky and landscape in this triptych. this image does it no justice! what were those northern europeans painting with back then? their colors seem ultra rich and their paintings are infused w/such beautiful light. and that landscape - it just keeps on going on forever! i was so enthralled by the landscape that i nearly missed the little creepy guys on the right panel in the lower right - eeeek! got some hieronymus bosch going on in there! click the photo, i've included a link to the met website where you can zoom in and take a good look at the little guys.

Doug + Mike Starn, Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't, and You Won't Stop

alright, what the hell is going on here?! what the hell are these people doing climbing all over and ghetto riggin' bambu together! wasn't expecting to check this out and therefore didn't realize you can get a crazy ass walking tour through their bambu menagerie! going back and getting a tour! this was amazing to look at. it looks like total chaos but there's gotta be some order to the madness or else all those sticks would be falling down quick the minute some kid runs starts climbing on it. noticed that there were little lights hanging from the bambu and can only imagine how beautiful it must look all lit up at night.

Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg, Hours of the Virgin, The Nativity, 1405–1408/9

ok, so i'm in art history classes in college, i learn about these brothers, yes they're great artists, blah, blah, blah. holy shit these guys are great artists!!! this is how small these shits are - the met had magnifying glasses for you to use to look at these illuminations! that small. it's like the freak who painted stuff on a grains of rice. the actual size of these are only 9 3/8" x 6 5/8". the color is brilliant! again those damn northern europeans. man, did they have an insane amount of cobalt up there, cuz their killing it w/the blue! and the detail is outta control. look above and that blue fleur-de-lis patterned background, the roof thatching (you can see individual pieces of straw!), and the crazy ass looped rope that's part of the shelter! these illuminations are pretty graphic and gnarly too. the brothers weren't shy when it came to violence and gore. this exhibition never seemed to end. ok it was laid out in a circle so i might have lost my bearings, but really there's lot to look at. it took these guys 4 years to complete the book. the met also had great video on view that broke down the whole process of making the vellum, aka calf skin! more gory detail below!

Hours of the Passion, Christ Pierced with the Lance

love how the guy in that lovely orange on the bottom right has his back turned to us!

Great Litany, The Great Litany Procession

from the wall text/website:

Pope Gregory leads a procession out of the city gate of Rome, preceded by churchmen singing from a choirbook. At lower left, two shrouded figures prostrate themselves, while a graphically presented and foreshortened plague victim flings out his limbs in death.

'flings out his limbs in death', jesus!