Spending an Hour with Vermeer’s Sleeping Maid

Spending an Hour with Vermeer’s Sleeping Maid

Is there anything more luxurious than slowly absorbing a sublime work of art? I can easily forget this. When I visit a new art museum, I can get in a manic state. I don’t want to miss anything, so I am tempted to methodically make my way through every gallery. And by seeing everything, I see nothing. So, when I gave myself three days to retreat in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I made a conscious effort to [...]

Read More

Museum and Cocktail Pairings

Museum and Cocktail Pairings

Museums can be very romantic places. My favorite museum dates have been in quiet, off the beaten track institutions with eclectic collections. These places facilitate good conversations and set a mood for the whole encounter. You can really get to know someone by hearing his or her reactions to an artwork or artifact [...]

Read More

Swabian Sculptures at the Cluny

Swabian Sculptures at the Cluny

Although I was unclear about what Swabian Sculptures (sculptures souabes) from the Late Middle Ages actually were, I was still very excited to visit the current exhibition at the Musée du Cluny because the poster looked epic. Swabia, it turns out, is an historic region in southwestern Germany between the Black Forest, Lake Constance, and the [ ... ]

Read More

The Severed Heads of Notre-Dame

The Severed Heads of Notre-Dame

One of the best rooms in the Musée de Cluny (the museum of the Middle Ages) is the Salle Notre-Dame de Paris. And the most intriguing part? The series of floating kings' heads from the façade of Notre-Dame.  The story behind how they got into this room is fascinating. It was the French Revolution, and the people were disgusted by the [ ... ]

Read More