PJ's Studio: The Met: European Paintings 1300-1800

Sunday, March 9, 2025

The Met: European Paintings 1300-1800

In 2018, The Met began renovations to their European painting galleries. The skylights had deteriorated and needed to be replaced.

The galleries reopened in late 2023. Clearly, while they replaced the skylights, they decided to make a few more changes.

They rearranged the art to consolidate works by individual artists, and added a few pieces that they hadn’t shown previously.

I’m not sure that they were all “view” worthy. Most particularly this Botticelli. While it’s nice that the Met owns one, the fact that they hung it in a corner suggests that they too knew it wasn’t up to their usual standards.

There was also an entirely new room devoted to Meso-American art – all new to me. Stylistically very different from the other works in the section – undoubtedly due to the influence of indigenous peoples.

I noticed right away that some of the Caravaggios were missing – off to Palazzo Barberini in Rome for the Jubilee celebration.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/arts/design/caravaggio-palazzo-barberini.html

But, not surprisingly, they didn’t loan out their best one – The Denial of Saint Peter.

It attracted viewers as well as copyists.

But my favorite thing about the reimaging was that they brought in some modern pieces that were inspired by the European masters. So, we got to see how Picasso was influenced by El Greco.