The Cloisters

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The Cloisters

The Cloisters is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile, New York City in New York City, USA....
dedicated to the art and architecture of the European Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
. The Cloisters is located in New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, USA, specifically Fort Tryon Park

Fort Tryon Park

Fort Tryon Park is a public park located in the Inwood, Manhattan section of the New York City borough of Manhattan, United States, . It is situated on a 67 acre ridge in Upper Manhattan, with a commanding view of the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge, the New Jersey Palisades and the Harlem River....
near the northern tip of Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
island on a hill overlooking the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
. The Cloisters include the museum building and the adjacent 4 acres (16,000 m²).

Cloisters collection contains approximately five thousand European medieval

Medieval art

Medieval art covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art history in Western art history, the Islamic art. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, genres, revivals, the artists crafts, and the artists themselves....
works of art, with a particular emphasis on pieces dating from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries.

Among the famous works of art held at the Cloisters are seven south Netherlandish tapestries depicting The Hunt of the Unicorn
The Hunt of the Unicorn

The Hunt of the Unicorn is a series of seven tapestry dating from 1495–1505. The tapestries, often referred to as the Unicorn Tapestries, show a group of nobility and hunters in pursuit of a unicorn....
, Robert Campin

Robert Campin

Robert Campin , now usually identified with the artist known as the Master of Fl?malle, is usually considered the first great master of Early Netherlandish painting....
's Mérode Altarpiece, and the Romanesque

Romanesque art

Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic Art in the 13th century, or later, depending on region....
altar cross known as the Cloisters Cross
Cloisters Cross

The Cloisters Cross, also referred to as the "Bury St. Edmunds Cross," is a 12th century Romanesque art altar cross decorated with ninety-two intricately carved figures and ninety-eight inscriptions....
or Bury St.

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Encyclopedia

The Cloisters is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile, New York City in New York City, USA....
dedicated to the art and architecture of the European Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
. The Cloisters is located in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, USA, specifically Fort Tryon Park
Fort Tryon Park

Fort Tryon Park is a public park located in the Inwood, Manhattan section of the New York City borough of Manhattan, United States, . It is situated on a 67 acre ridge in Upper Manhattan, with a commanding view of the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge, the New Jersey Palisades and the Harlem River....
near the northern tip of Manhattan
Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
island on a hill overlooking the Hudson River
Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
. The Cloisters include the museum building and the adjacent 4 acres (16,000 m²).

Collection
The Cloisters collection contains approximately five thousand European medieval
Medieval art

Medieval art covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art history in Western art history, the Islamic art. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, genres, revivals, the artists crafts, and the artists themselves....
works of art, with a particular emphasis on pieces dating from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries.

Among the famous works of art held at the Cloisters are seven south Netherlandish tapestries depicting The Hunt of the Unicorn
The Hunt of the Unicorn

The Hunt of the Unicorn is a series of seven tapestry dating from 1495–1505. The tapestries, often referred to as the Unicorn Tapestries, show a group of nobility and hunters in pursuit of a unicorn....
, Robert Campin
Robert Campin

Robert Campin , now usually identified with the artist known as the Master of Fl?malle, is usually considered the first great master of Early Netherlandish painting....
's Mérode Altarpiece, and the Romanesque
Romanesque art

Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic Art in the 13th century, or later, depending on region....
altar cross known as the Cloisters Cross
Cloisters Cross

The Cloisters Cross, also referred to as the "Bury St. Edmunds Cross," is a 12th century Romanesque art altar cross decorated with ninety-two intricately carved figures and ninety-eight inscriptions....
or Bury St. Edmunds Cross, which was acquired under the curatorship of Thomas Hoving
Thomas Hoving

Thomas P. F. Hoving , is an American museum executive and consultant and the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art....
. The Cloisters also holds many medieval manuscripts and illuminated books, including the Limbourg brothers
Limbourg brothers

The Limbourg brothers, or in Dutch Gebroeders van Limburg , were famous Dutch Renaissance miniature painters from the city of Nijmegen. They were active in the early 15th century in France and Burgundy, working in the style known as International Gothic....
' Les Belles Heures du Duc de Berry
Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry

The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry is a fifteenth century illuminated manuscript Book of Hours commissioned by John, Duke of Berry....
and Jean Pucelle's
Jean Pucelle

Jean Pucelle was a School of Paris Gothic art illuminated manuscripts, active between 1320 and 1350. His style is characterized by delicate figures rendered in grisaille, accented with touches of color....
book of hours
Book of Hours

File:Boucicaut-Meister.jpgFile:Meester van Catharina van Kleef - Getijdenboek van de Meester van Catharina van Kleef4.jpgThe book of hours is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript....
for Jeanne d'Evreux
Jeanne d'Evreux

Jeanne d'?vreux was the third wife of King Charles IV of France, daughter of his uncle Louis d'?vreux and Margaret of Artois. She bore no male heir, thus "causing" the end of the House of Capet of the Capetian dynasty....
.

The building housing the collection is itself a work of medieval art
Medieval art

Medieval art covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art history in Western art history, the Islamic art. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, genres, revivals, the artists crafts, and the artists themselves....
. It is a composite structure, incorporating elements from five medieval French cloister
Cloister

A cloister is a covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church usually indicates that it is part of a monastic foundation....
s: Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa
Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa

Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is a Catalan people Benedictine abbey located in the territory of the commune in France of Codalet, in the Pyr?n?es-Orientales d?partement in France, in southwestern France....
, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert
Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert

Saint-Guilhem-le-D?sert is a Communes of France in the H?rault Departments of France in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.Situated in the narrow valley of the Gellone river where it meets the steep sided gorge of the H?rault River, Saint-Guilhem-le-D?sert is essentially a mediaeval village located on the Chemin de St Jacques pilgrim...
, Bonnefont-en-Comminges, Trie-en-Bigorre, and Froville
Froville

Froville is a Communes of France in the Meurthe-et-Moselle Departments of France in northeastern France.It is noted for its Romanesque architecture church, with a Gothic architecture cloister, part of which was moved to the Cloisters Museum of New York City....
. These disassembled European buildings were reassembled in Fort Tryon Park
Fort Tryon Park

Fort Tryon Park is a public park located in the Inwood, Manhattan section of the New York City borough of Manhattan, United States, . It is situated on a 67 acre ridge in Upper Manhattan, with a commanding view of the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge, the New Jersey Palisades and the Harlem River....
(1934/38) in a setting with gardens planted according to horticultural information culled from various medieval documents and artifacts. Notable works of architecture include the Cuxa cloister, with an adjacent Chapter House; and the Fuentidueña Apse from a chapel in the province of Segovia
Segovia

Segovia is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Segovia in Castile and Leon. It is situated north of Madrid, and can be reached by bullet train in 35 minutes from Madrid at ....
(Castilla y León, Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
).

History

The museum and adjacent park were created thanks to an endowment grant by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. was a major philanthropist and a pivotal member of the prominent Rockefeller family. He was the sole son and descendant of the billionaire Standard Oil industrialist, John D....
, who donated the majority of his collection; it was completed in 1938. Much of the art collection came from that of George Grey Barnard
George Grey Barnard

George Grey Barnard was an United States sculpture. Barnard was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Kankakee, Illinois. He first studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 1883–1887 worked in P....
, an American sculptor and assiduous collector of medieval art, who had already established a medieval-art museum near his home in the Fort Washington neighborhood. Rockefeller purchased Barnard's entire collection of art and architectural remnants as a gift to the Met; this collection, combined with a number of pieces from Rockefeller's own collection (including the Unicorn tapestries), became the core of the new Cloisters' holdings. Rockefeller subsequently purchased more than of land north of Barnard's museum with the intention of converting it into a public park and site for the new museum. Besides purchasing this land and donating it to the city, Rockefeller also purchased and donated to the State of New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
several of the New Jersey Palisades
New Jersey Palisades

The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson Palisades , are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in northeast New Jersey and southern New York in the United States....
on the other side of the Hudson River in order to preserve the view for the museum.
Summer internship
The Cloisters offers summer internships available to undergraduate students with an interest in art history
Art history

Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e.genre, design, format, and look.This includes the "major" arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as the "minor" arts of ceramics, furniture, and other decorative objects....
and medieval studies. The internship regularly garners nearly three hundred applications, interviews roughly ten percent of those applicants, and hires eight of those interviewed for nine weeks of the summer. The core of the internship is giving tours for the day campers that visit the museum, although interns also study the collection, assist with tours, learn about the workings of the medieval branch of the Metropolitan Museum as well as the museum as a whole. The internship is only available for first- and second-year college students and is particularly desirable in that it offers a substantial honorarium. The coordinator of the program is Leslie Bussis Tait. The internship program at The Cloisters is funded by the Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation.

See also

List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City

New York City is home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites, many of which are internationally known. This List of New York City lists contains the most famous or well-regarded organizations, based on their mission....

Literature

Peter Barnet and Nancy Wu, The Cloisters. Medieval Art and Architecture. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Press. New York: 2006.
Thomas Hoving. King of the Confessors. Simon & Schuster. New York, New York: 1981.
Thomas Hoving, King of the Confessors: A New Appraisal. cybereditions.com. Christchurch, New Zealand: 2001.
James J. Rorimer
James Rorimer

James J. Rorimer , was an American museum curator and the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.On his graduation from Harvard University in 1927, James Rorimer was immediately hired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, beginning a career with the Met that would last his entire adult life....
, The Cloisters. The Building and the Collection of Mediaeval Art in Fort Tryon Park, 11th edition, New York 1951.

External links

—About.com