The Cloisters in Upper Manhattan

My grandmother took me to the Cloisters when I was a kid in an effort to give me a little culture. Unfortunately, I didn't understand what I was looking at. I thought it had been a real convent or abbey of some kind where nuns or monks had once lived. I thought it was strange that people would be treating it as a museum.

The Cloisters is actually part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's part of Fort Tryon Park in Northern Manhattan. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was instrumental in its creation in the late 1920's, including the donation of some of his own art collection and much acreage in New Jersey across from The Cloisters, so that its view across the Hudson River would remain pristine. How's that for being forward thinking?

According to the history of the Cloisters here, it's actually a conglomeration of Medieval religious art and pieces of actual cloisters and monastic buildings, gathered from France and other spots in Europe.

The first picture is a profile of the Cloisters taken near its main entrance. The next few pictures are taken from various places outside and in to give you a feeling of the atmosphere.

I've got to say, from the moment I stepped inside the building, I thought of K.M. Weiland of Wordplay and her recent book "Behold the Dawn," which takes place in the Middle Ages. I wish she'd been there because I'm sure she could have given us a really interesting rundown on the time.

This dramatic picture to the left is very much for atmosphere.

If you're a fan of the Middle Ages, try visiting Fort Tryon Park and The Cloisters in the very beginning of October. That's when they have the Medieval Festival, which draws some 60,000 people a year. They have medieval costumes, jousts, living chess, armored knights, medieval food... And this year they even had a unicorn from Ohio named Guy. Yeah, a unicorn. Not a real one, of course. It was a horse done up as a unicorn. Check out the details in one of the local papers here. We've never been, but it sounds like fun!

The Medieval Festival is supposed to be very well attended, so if you go make sure you're comfortably dressed and perhaps parked at a distance if you drive. There's free parking near The Cloisters and in Fort Tryon Park.

If you don't want to drive, there's at least one bus that will take you right to the door of Cloisters. It's a long ride through Manhattan, but it could be very diverting. The Cloisters itself isn't hard to walk through, which is good because they don't have lots of places to sit inside. You may appreciate that long ride back downtown on the bus afterwards. You can take pictures in The Cloisters, but not with a flash. General Information is here.

We went in late Fall, so we didn't get to see the summer gardens at The Cloisters. They have garden tours May through October. The gardens even have their own official blog on The Cloister site here.

For people like me who didn't know what a cloister was, it's a is a covered walkway around a square or rectangle garden courtyard.

The Cloisters has several cloisters. This picture on the left is a set of cloister arches from a French Carmelite convent in Trie-en-Bigorre from the late 15th Century. You can find out more about them here on The Cloister website.

This next picture is of the Chapter House from Notre-Dame-Pontaut. It's also from France in the 12th Century according to The Cloisters site here. The Cloisters did a write-up of many of their exhibitions. This particular area is one of the two things I remember seeing as a child.

According to The Cloisters website, a Chapter House is sort of a meeting room where the abbot would meet with his monks to discuss serious issues. It was usually off the cloister. The earlier dramatic window picture was taken inside this Chapter House. This is a side view. The Cloister website has a better picture.

The abbey that this belonged to was partially destroyed during the French War of Religion that took place between the Catholic Church and the Protestants at the end of the 16th Century. By the 19th Century, this particular Chapter House was being used as a stable until its purchase in the early 1930's.

This stained glass window is actually a series of windows from different places. I'm afraid my photographic talents didn't do it justice.

The top two center pieces are called The Adoration of the Magi. The Cloister website has a better picture and more on it here. These were made in Germany in the middle of the 13th Century.

The two two center scenes right beneath the first are called The Annunciation. They're also from Germany, although a little later in the 13th Century. You can get a better look at it and read more here.

I couldn't find all of these pieces in The Cloister database. The three on the far right are a mix of German and French, also from the 13th Century.

This piece called Virgin and Child is from the middle of the 14th Century. It's a pretty good size at 68 inches tall. It's French, carved limestone, with most of its paint intact. The thing that makes it appealing is the smiling, playful attitude between mother and child.

About the missing extended hand... It originally slid on. Most of the statues with extended hands are missing them.

I wasn't able to find anything on The Cloisters website about this piece.

This picture is actually a group of several exhibits. I’ll touch on the three most obvious ones.

The Crucifix is around 8 by 6 feet made from oak and pine in Spain at the end of the 12th Century. More info on that here.

The fresco up and behind the Crucifix is from early in the 12th Century. It was from an area between Spain and France once controlled by the Knights Templar. You can find info on it here.

The apse where all this comes together is the Apse from San Martin at Fuentiduena in Spain. It's from the end of the 12th Century. It was in an area claimed at various points by both Christians and Muslims. Not much is known about this particular church except that most of it was in ruins till 1957 when the Spanish government agreed to lend this piece of it permanently to The Cloisters. More info on this here.

This next piece is the other thing that I recall from my childhood trip to The Cloisters. It's called The Death of the Virgin and it's carved oak measuring 63 x 73 3/4 x 17 1/4. It's very striking since it almost seems to spill out of the wall. The Cloister Website has a close up view here that can be enlarged for better viewing.

As to the composition itself, eleven out of twelve apostles are present, with Thomas not quite making it. He’s supposed to be glimpsed through the doorway far right. But I can't see that in my picture and I can't make out Thomas in The Cloister website picture either. The legend is that Thomas came late and wouldn't believe in the Virgin's Assumption until an angel dropped her belt into his hands. Poor Thomas, a doubter to the end.

It's from the late 15th Century Germany. There were two other panels that are presently in the Netherlands.

This lady to the left is Saint Barbara, whose sainthood is disputed by some today. But she was very popular in the late 15th Century when this 50 inch statue was created in Germany.

The story goes that Barbara was the daughter of a wealthy man who kept her cloistered in a tower. Still, she managed to secretly become a Christian. Her father tried to arrange a marriage for her, but she refused. Her father was so angry that he handed her over to be tortured and ended up beheading her himself at her execution. The father's punishment came when he was struck by lightning on the way home.

Saint Barbara is still considered by some to be the patron saint of artillerymen and miners. You can find out more about this particular statue here on the Cloister's website.

This next to last item is the tomb effigy of Jean d'Alluye. He was a French knight and a noblemen of the mid-13th Century. It was said that he brought back a relic of the true cross with him from the holy land. And he was buried in an abbey that he helped found.

The interesting thing is that this effigy somehow ended up upside down over a local stream as a bridge. In its notes on this piece here, The Cloisters website doesn't explain how that came about. No doubt his great deeds had been forgotten. It's 83 1/2 x 34 1/4 inches in size.

There were several tomb effigies at the Cloisters, but I wasn't able to get good pictures of the others. And I think this one has the most interesting story.

Last but not least, this altar set-up caught my eye. I didn't know why there would be busts of three women sitting on an altar. But I assumed they were saints.

The Cloister website only mentioned one of these busts here. It's got a good picture of the bust on the far left. These three busts are actually reliquaries, which I had never heard of till researching for this blog posting. Reliquaries hold relics of the saints. In the case of reliquary busts, they would be for the skull of a saint. And the piece this particular bust's chest that looks like a medallion was meant to hold an additional relic. By the late Middle Ages, these busts would be gathered in groups on or near an altar and would also be carried in processions.

This reliquary on the far left is made of oak, probably in the early 16th Century, in Belgium. There's no hint of the saint's name.

Of course, the three reliquaries are on an altar, which has a history of its own. It's Spanish, from the mid-15th Century and it's made of alabaster. You can find out more details about it here. It was commissioned by an archbishop for a chapel in an archiepiscopal palace.


And so, I hope my grandmother is smiling down on me from heaven. I finally learned about The Cloisters!