Inside the Met: The Curatorial Departments April 2, 2008

Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Inside the Met: The Curatorial Departments
The Cloisters
Peter Barnet, Michel David-Weill Curator in Charge
Timothy B. Husband, Curator
Deirdre Larkin, Associate Manager for Horticulture
Nancy Wu, Museum Educator

The Cloisters, the Metropolitan’s only branch museum, houses an extraordinary collection of art and architecture from medieval Europe, particularly from the Romanesque and Gothic periods. It took John D. Rockefeller Jr., Museum curator James J. Rorimer, and architect Charles Collens thirteen years to realize their vision, which opened in northern Manhattan in 1938. Nancy Wu examines some of the magnificent cloisters and other Romanesque architectural elements that make up the museum. Deirdre Larkin discusses the importance of the gardens to The Cloisters. Timothy Husband highlights the collection’s Gothic masterworks, including stained glass, the Unicorn Tapestries, and the Mérode Triptych. And Peter Barnet talks about major recent acquisitions and gallery renovations at The Cloisters as it approaches its seventy-fifth anniversary.