NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art - Rafaello Sanzio portrait
The façade of The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and Charles Follen McKim for the firm of McKim, Mead, and White. Hunt was responsible for the central building, construction for which began in 1898, and McKim created the north and south wings along Fifth Avenue, construction for which began in 1906 and ended in 1918. The expanded front steps were added in 1970 under the supervision of architect Kevin Roche for Roche Dinkeloo Associates.
When Hunt – considered the dean of American architects in his day – died in 1895, his design and elevations for the Metropolitan Museum were passed on to his son Richard Howland Hunt to carry out with engineer/architect George B. Post. The senior Hunt had envisioned a classical palace of art, alive with sculptural elements. His protégé, the sculptor Karl Bitter, was chosen to create the medallion portraits of six artists – Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Dürer, Rembrandt, and Velázquez – that adorn the spandrels of the arches, as well as the four caryatids representing Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, and Music. The keystones of the three arches were inspired by the head of the Minerva of Velletri (in the Louvre), and the lion gargoyles placed at intervals along the cornice are copied from classic models.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.
In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.
National Historic Register #86003556
NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art - Rafaello Sanzio portrait
The façade of The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and Charles Follen McKim for the firm of McKim, Mead, and White. Hunt was responsible for the central building, construction for which began in 1898, and McKim created the north and south wings along Fifth Avenue, construction for which began in 1906 and ended in 1918. The expanded front steps were added in 1970 under the supervision of architect Kevin Roche for Roche Dinkeloo Associates.
When Hunt – considered the dean of American architects in his day – died in 1895, his design and elevations for the Metropolitan Museum were passed on to his son Richard Howland Hunt to carry out with engineer/architect George B. Post. The senior Hunt had envisioned a classical palace of art, alive with sculptural elements. His protégé, the sculptor Karl Bitter, was chosen to create the medallion portraits of six artists – Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Dürer, Rembrandt, and Velázquez – that adorn the spandrels of the arches, as well as the four caryatids representing Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, and Music. The keystones of the three arches were inspired by the head of the Minerva of Velletri (in the Louvre), and the lion gargoyles placed at intervals along the cornice are copied from classic models.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.
In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.
National Historic Register #86003556