One of my favorite places to go when I’m in New York is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As much as I enjoy their Medieval Collection housed at the Cloisters, and their Asian Art to spend a day, I particularly love their antiquities collection including works from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.

One of the highlights of my visits is the Temple of Dendur, which was preserved in part due to Jacqueline Kennedy. She helped Egypt preserve the Abu Simbel Temple, a UNESCO site that would end up flooded from a man-made reservoir the government was needing to build. In return Egypt wanted to give a gift, and that gift, chosen by Jackie, was the Temple of Dendur which is now housed within the MET.  This trip, the museum also had the massive Athena statue from Pergammon on loan and display (as well as some other works), and Athena towers over you in the main lobby as a greeter to the sacred halls of art. Since I’ve seen the Pergammon altar that resides now in Berlin a few years ago, seeing this was like another piece of the puzzle.

At one point I got a bit lost among the modern art. The window not only reflected back the artwork on the wall, but it also had a winter landscape view of Central Park, and the silhouette of the city skyline as the sun began descending. I found the juxtaposition of inside and outside, solidity and transparency intriguing.

 

 

These images are not available for purchase, per the museum’s photography policies.