At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
+9 At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
A visitor takes a photo of a painting during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
A visitor walks through a gallery exhibiting paintings by Rembrandt during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
A couple sits in a gallery exhibiting paintings by Rembrandt during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
A visitor takes a photo of paintings by Picasso and El Greco during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
Visitors look over paintings during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
Visitors look over Saint Anthony of Padua, ca. 1340, by Maso di Banco, during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
A couple looks over Rembrandt's painting Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653, during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
Visitors walk through a gallery during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
A visitor looks over Peter Paul Reubens painting Lot and His Daughters, ca. 1613, during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
A couple sits in a gallery exhibiting paintings by Rembrandt during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
A visitor walks through a gallery exhibiting paintings by Rembrandt during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
A visitor looks over paintings during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
At NY Met, European masters can be seen in a new light
Security guards walk through a gallery during a press preview at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on November 16, 2023. Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting November 20, thanks to a five-year, $150 million renovation at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bold redo of the museum's massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section's skylights. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP) /
NEW YORK—Five centuries of European painting can be seen in a new light starting Monday, thanks to a five-year, $150-million renovation at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The bold redo of the museum’s massive wing devoted to masters from the 14th to 19th century includes a range of improvements, including to the section’s skylights.
More than 700 Dutch, Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish and English masterpieces—by artists including Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt, Francisco Goya and El Greco—have been rehung and put back on display on the walls of the 45 galleries of the permanent exhibition “Look Again: European Paintings 1300-1800.”
The Met has one of the largest collections of European paintings in the world, according to its director, Max Hollein.
The Austrian art historian leads one of the richest museums on the planet, thanks in large part to its deep-pocketed donors.
But the major renovation was vital, especially as the Met has been losing visitors since 2019.
As part of the renovation, all the rooms topped by skylights have been repainted, reorganized chronologically and relit.
The aging skylights themselves were also replaced, according to the museum—a move which has “improved the quality of light” and “enhanced the experience of looking at (the) paintings.”
The sprawling museum—in Beaux-Arts construction and located on Fifth Avenue on the edge of Central Park—boasts the largest collection outside of Europe of Dutch art from the 17th century, and of Greco and Goya works outside Spain.
The Met has also recently acquired paintings by women artists or portraits representing them, such as a still life by the Flemish painter Clara Peeters from the 17th century, and the portrait of an Indian woman by the British painter William Wood at the end of the 18th century during India’s colonial era. —AFP
