The Met Cloisters

The Met Cloisters is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to European medieval architecture, sculpture, and decorative arts. Located in Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights, Manhattan, it draws on collections that include cloister elements, illuminated manuscripts, and liturgical objects assembled from sites across France, Spain, and Italy. The museum's exhibitions and gardens reconstruct monastic environments associated with patrons such as the House of Plantagenet, House of Capet, and Cistercian Order.

History

Built between 1934 and 1938, the museum was developed through the patronage of businessman and collector John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the curatorial efforts of James J. Rorimer and Belle da Costa Greene. The institution incorporated architectural elements acquired from medieval sites including cloisters from Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, and the chapter house of Bonnefont-en-Comminges, transactions that involved negotiations with French and Spanish authorities and collectors such as George Grey Barnard and Joseph Brummer. Opening programs featured loans and gifts from institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and the Frick Collection, and the museum later expanded collections through donations by figures including Pierpont Morgan and Samuel H. Kress. During World War II and the postwar era, curators engaged with issues of provenance and restitution involving objects connected to the Nazi plunder epoch and the art markets of Paris, Madrid, and Florence.

Architecture and Gardens

The building, designed by architects Ralph Adams Cram, Charles Collens, and landscape architect Ralph Caygill, synthesizes medieval monastic forms from the Romanesque and Gothic periods found in regions like Provence, Catalonia, and Normandy. Structural elements include reassembled cloister arcades, a chapter house, and a chapel, incorporating capitals and portal fragments from sites such as Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, Santo Domingo de Silos, and Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. The gardens, designed with input from horticulturalists influenced by the medieval hortus conclusus tradition, feature medicinal and aromatic plantings associated with monastic gardens mentioned in texts by Hildegard of Bingen, Ibn al-Baitar, and Galen; plantings echo manuscripts like the Tacuinum Sanitatis and herbals linked to patrons such as Louis IX of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine. The museum's siting in Fort Tryon Park creates sightlines to the Hudson River and integrates Beaux-Arts landscape principles derived from projects by Frederick Law Olmsted and commissions to the New York City Parks Department.

Collections

The permanent holdings encompass sculpture, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, metalwork, textiles, and liturgical furnishings spanning ca. 800–1500 CE. Highlights include the 12th-century "Fuentidueña Chapel" masonry, the 13th-century Unicorn Tapestries associated with courts such as Bourges and Burgundy, and illuminated codices like a leaf from the Bibles Moralisées and psalters linked to patrons such as Charles V of France. Architectural sculpture includes capitals and archivolts attributed to workshops active in Rouen, Cluny Abbey, and Chartres Cathedral, while metalwork and reliquaries reflect craftsmanship from Limoges, Toledo, and Siena. The collection of medieval stone and wood sculpture contains works traditionally associated with artists and workshops linked to names like Master of Cabestany and the circle of Nicola Pisano, and the museum houses liturgical objects connected to devotional figures including St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Francis of Assisi. The holdings have been augmented through exchanges with institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Musée de Cluny, and the Museo del Prado.

Conservation and Research

Conservation laboratories at the museum employ methods derived from interdisciplinary collaborations with specialists from Columbia University, The New York Botanical Garden, and international centers such as the Institut de France and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Treatment reports address issues of polychromy on stone sculpture, vellum conservation on illuminated manuscripts like the Hours of Jeanne d'Évreux, and textile stabilization for ensembles comparable to those in the Museo Nacional del Prado and the National Gallery, London. Scholarly research has produced catalogues raisonnés, technical studies published alongside colleagues at the Guggenheim Museum, and provenance investigations in coordination with organizations including the International Council of Museums and the Monuments Men and Women legacy projects. The museum also participates in digitization initiatives with partners such as the Digital Public Library of America and the Getty Research Institute.

Visitor Information

Located within Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan, the museum is accessible via A Train (New York City Subway) and local transit connections managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Visitor services include guided tours, educational programs developed with institutions like Columbia University Teachers College and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's education department, and seasonal exhibitions coordinated with lenders such as the Louvre, the Museo Nacional de Arte Hispano, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Hours, admission policies, and special event schedules are announced by the institution's administration and published through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's communications channels; amenities on site include a study room for scholars, a museum shop stocked with publications from presses like Yale University Press and Thames & Hudson, and accessibility services complying with standards promoted by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Category:Museums in Manhattan