Metropolitan Museum Of Art’s Collection Assignment

Instruction:

1.  Browse the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection and select one artwork that stands out to you.
Link to collection

2.  Download the image (or screenshot it) and embed the image into your post.

3.   Include the artwork information about the piece below the photo.

a. The information and order is: artist, title, date, medium/material (geography and culture if needed).

b. You’ll be asked to include this information for every work of art you discuss in this class so it’s good to work to find the information.

4. Include a link to the artwork below the artwork info.

5. In a paragraph of 250 words or more, tell us about the work and why you selected it.
Think about questions such as: What stood out to you when you first saw it? What feelings does it evoke for you?  Why did you choose it to share with everyone? Did your thoughts change about it after reading more, such as learning the title, place, time, material, etc.?

Example:

Hello everyone! My name is Dr. J and I’m excited to be your Instructor for Art 100 this summer.  I am an art historian and received my PhD in art history from UCSD and my BA from the University of Redlands. I’ve been teaching art history for over 10 years in Southern California. Before coming to ****, I spent three years teaching in Jackson, Mississippi. It was a great adventure living and teaching in the South but I’m happy to be back in the sunny state of California and close to my family. I love teaching art history and introducing students to the wonderfully diverse world of art. It is a joy to have students leave the course feeling confident about visiting museums and talking about art. I spend my time doing yoga, traveling (I went to Chicago in February for a conference and had my first deep dish pizza – wow) and like to read sci-fi (currently Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars). I also enjoy going to the movies and watching shows, especially those on HBO and Netflix. This summer I dug my old Nintendo NES out of storage and got it set up last week. I only have two games but hey, you have to start somewhere right?

From the Metropolitan Museum’s website I picked the Aztec Coiled Serpent. This piece stood out to me because of how densely coiled the snake is. I’m impressed with the artist’s creativity – how he/she thought through where to place all the curves of the snake’s body and where to position the head. It’s also really tough to carve stone like this because it’s so hard and the surface is really uneven. Snakes are also fascinating as they have such diverse symbolism from danger and evil to rebirth and fertility. As we’ll see in Mesoamerica art, snakes have a wide range of meanings but most are positive. While the exact meaning of this sculpture is lost to us today, I very much appreciate the time it took to create and the skill of the artist.