Last visit : January 2025
My rating : 7/10
Visit duration : from 10am to 9pm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York , known simply as the Met, is one of the most important museum institutions in the world. Founded in 1870, the museum is distinguished by the breadth of its collections, which range from classical antiquity to modern art.
This post is the result of my visit to the MET in January 2025.
The first conclusion I came to when planning my visit, confirmed in hindsight, is that the MET is too much, too big, to be able to think of visiting it in just one day; having only one day available, therefore, I studied the museum's collection in depth, making a selection of the areas to visit and those that for me were dispensable. Below I propose the itinerary of the visit that I suggest, which is obviously conditioned by my taste and my interests; I do not pretend that the itinerary that I have selected is valid for everyone, but I suggest that anyone visiting the MET with only one day available consult the museum map, the works on display and arrive at the museum already with clear ideas on what they want to see and what they are willing to ignore.
The first suggestion, which is almost a must, is to visit the museum on Friday or Saturday, when the opening hours are extended until 9 pm (at least today); on other days, the closing time at 5 pm requires a visit of the museum that is little more than cursory.
Suggested itinerary at the Metropolitan Museum
In the maps below I have marked in red the areas of the MET that I consider to be of greatest interest, commenting on them below in detail.
In 11 hours of visiting, including stops for meals and a few breaks to rest my legs, I managed to visit all the marked areas and also make a quick visit to the sections of medieval, Asian and Islamic art; I visited the Greco-Roman and Egyptian sections very quickly at the beginning of the tour, for fear of not being able to complete the visit in just one day; in conclusion I would say that just to adequately visit all the areas marked in red would require two days, while a whole day is enough if you quickly go through the less eye-catching rooms, stopping only at the works of greatest interest.
The Greco-Roman Section: The Richness of the Classical Tradition
As soon as you enter the MET I think it is natural to go either left or right, where two of the most important areas are located, namely the Greco-Roman section (on the left) and the Egyptian section (on the right).
The art of classical antiquity finds a rich and documentary representation at the Met. The impressive collection of Greek and Roman sculptures offers a journey through the evolution of the plastic form, from archaic rigidity to Hellenistic naturalism. Among the most significant works are the Attic funerary sculptures, which testify to the refined aesthetic sensibility of classical Greece, as well as the Roman marble portraits, which reveal the tension between idealization and realism typical of the imperial era.
One of the most interesting elements of the section is the collection of Attic black- and red-figure vases, which allows us to understand the stylistic and iconographic evolution of Greek ceramics. The decorative repertoire, with mythological scenes and epic narratives, serves as a direct testimony to the culture and religiosity of the ancient world. Particularly noteworthy is the Euphronios krater, a masterpiece of red-figure pottery that illustrates the technical mastery and narrative depth of Attic artists.
Among the most extraordinary pieces in the Greco-Roman section, the Monteleone Chariot stands out as a true masterpiece of Etruscan art. This refined 6th-century BC chariot, decorated with bronze leaf reliefs depicting mythological scenes, embodies the technical skill and symbolic richness of Etruscan civilization. Every detail, from the finely crafted wheels to the figures sculpted on the body of the chariot, conveys a sense of power and prestige, making this find not only an artifact of extraordinary beauty, but also a testimony to the complex artistic and funerary culture of the Etruscans. Its perfect preservation and the elegance of its decorations make it one of the most astonishing wonders in the entire Met.
Among the other works that I consider worthy of note in the Greco-Roman section, I would like to point out the Roman sarcophagus with the triumph of Dionysus, dating back to the 2nd century AD, of very fine workmanship.
In the central corridor of the Greco-Roman section there is also exhibited a valuable copy of a recurring model in Roman statuary, which has its most famous example in the so-called Capitoline Venus and in the so-called Venus de Medici exhibited in the Tribuna of the Uffizi .
The copy currently on display at the MET was purchased by a private individual at a Sotheby's auction in 2021 and will be on loan to the MET until 2028.
As I said, I spent relatively little time visiting the Greco-Roman section, which does display some splendid works; however, if you wanted to visit the entire MET in a day, I think it would be difficult to dedicate more than an hour to the Greco-Roman section, which requires you to move quickly through numerous rooms, dedicating yourself exclusively to a few works, among which I believe those highlighted are some of the most important.
The Egyptian Section: The Dialogue Between Archaeology and Art
Egyptian art is one of the Met’s most renowned areas, both for the quality of the works on display and for their scenographic display. The exhibition path allows for a close-up look at the stylistic continuity of Egyptian art, which remained remarkably consistent for over three thousand years. The collection of pharaonic statuary includes some notable examples, including the diorite statue of Pharaoh Senwosret III, an expression of the solemnity and power embodied by the rulers of the Old Kingdom.
The heart of the section is undoubtedly the Temple of Dendur, a Nubian temple from the 1st century BC entirely reconstructed inside a large room with windows overlooking Central Park. The setting, with natural light filtering through the windows and reflecting on the waters surrounding the temple, is undoubtedly visually striking, even if the contemplation of an entire Egyptian temple wrapped in gift paper, shipped via Amazon with a thank you note attached and reassembled in the middle of New York can only arouse more than one ethical and aesthetic perplexity in the most attentive observer.
Among the most significant objects in the collection are also beautifully decorated sarcophagi, painted funerary stelae, and everyday objects that provide insight into the role of art in daily life and the conception of the afterlife. The Met also has a rich selection of papyrus, including fragments of the "Book of the Dead," which offer a direct glimpse into the spirituality and religious beliefs of the time.
Among the infinite number of exhibits and artifacts on display, among which it is easy to lose one's attention, my gaze fell on the fragment of a female statue, of which only the penis and the mouth have survived; it is curious how the mutilation of a work can make it more interesting and in line with the taste of an era, emphasizing a single detail and reducing it to the synthesis of the work itself (rings a bell, Venus de Milo?).
I dedicated even less time to the Egyptian section than to the Greco-Roman section; I am not an expert in Egyptian art, so I decided to substantially sacrifice this section, reserving only a quick visit to it because of its prestige; for what I know, and for the very little time I dedicated to it, it seemed to me, in absolute terms, one of the best sections of the museum. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is one of the great museums that I have not yet been able to visit, so at the moment my terms of comparison are the Egyptian Museum in Turin, of which I am not a great admirer (I believe that it is a museum that certainly has great historical value, which I am not able to evaluate, but that on an artistic level has little to offer) and the British Museum . My feeling is that the British Museum 's collection, perhaps smaller in terms of the number of works on display, stands out for its quality in absolute terms (I'm thinking of some works such as the Gayer-Anderson Cat , for example, which I don't think have equals at the MET), but as I was rapidly passing through the corridors of the Egyptian section I caught sight of several works out of the corner of my eye that I would have liked to have had the time to linger on, and it is probably the Egyptian section that I sacrificed with the greatest regret.
The Gallery of Arms and Armor: The Art of War
Once you have completed your visit to the Greco-Roman and Egyptian sections, I suggest moving, still on the first floor, towards room 304 and then continuing to the right towards the weapons gallery.
Starting from room 304 and continuing towards rooms 500 and beyond, before reaching the Gallery of Arms, you will find a series of rooms dedicated to the applied arts in Italy, I would say almost exclusively from the 16th century although I could be wrong; from bas-reliefs by Antonio Rossellino and Mino da Fiesole, to bronzes by Andrea Briosco and Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, from the Farnese Table, to a presumed (with a little imagination) early work by Michelangelo , you will find some examples of the best that Italian craftsmanship of the 1500s could offer to the refined European courts.
Among these works is also the "studiolo di Gubbio", a study in wooden inlays commissioned by Federico da Montefeltro in imitation of the more famous studiolo in Urbino; the studiolo was imprudently dismantled from its original location at the end of the 19th century and sold on the antiques market... and today it is in New York. As I have already said about the Temple of Dendur, the arrangement of the studiolo, reassembled a stone's throw from Central Park to be displayed as if it were in Gubbio is an operation about which I cannot help but have more than one doubt and it matters little whether the work was legitimately acquired on the antiques market; it is not only a question of the legitimacy of the appropriation of works that are part of the cultural heritage of other countries but also of the identity of the museum institution: it is natural that the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam exhibits mainly works by Flemish authors, just as one goes to the Prado to see mainly works by Goya, Velazquez and El Greco, or to the Uffizi to admire the works of Botticelli, Leonardo and Michelangelo while out of the corner of one's eye the Ponte Vecchio enters the field of vision; what does it mean to see an Umbrian studiolo while you are in New York? Is it right?
Continuing along the route, you enter the collection of weapons and armor that displays, like the previous rooms, some magnificent examples of arts applied to war manufacturing, coming from all over the world. The exhibition includes European, Japanese and Islamic armor, with examples of exceptional workmanship. The Renaissance parade armor stands out, finely decorated with engravings and gilding, which reveal not only the defensive function but also the aesthetic and symbolic aspect of these artifacts; I report below only a few examples of works exhibited in this gallery that, once again, would have required more time than I was able to dedicate to it.
The Lehman Collection: The Taste of Private Collecting
After visiting the Gallery of Arms, I suggest heading towards the Lehman collection, crossing the medieval art section (which also displays many magnificent works, but as I said, at the MET you have to make painful choices).
The Lehman Collection, donated by Robert Lehman, represents an example of private collecting of the highest level. The selection of paintings, sculptures and decorative objects includes works by Botticelli, El Greco and Ingres. The exhibition itinerary allows us to grasp the evolution of artistic taste between the Renaissance and the nineteenth century, revealing the attention to quality and rarity of the selected works.
This section is relatively small and can be visited quite quickly; among the works on display I would like to point out a beautiful Rembrandt and a magnificent Carlo Crivelli, renewing my regret for not having been a banker in life.
The modern art section: innovation and avant-garde
The exploration of the first floor is completed with the southwest wing of the building, dedicated to modern and contemporary art.
Modern and contemporary art finds significant representation at the Met, with a collection that covers the most innovative movements of the 20th century. The exhibition itinerary includes works by Picasso, Braque and Matisse, which mark the turning point of Cubism and Fauvism, as well as works by Pollock and Rothko, which exemplify the gestures and chromatic introspection of Abstract Expressionism.
Special attention is paid to the American avant-garde, with works by artists such as Edward Hopper, whose melancholic painting captures the essence of urban solitude, and Georgia O'Keeffe, with her iconic, visually striking floral representations.
Having visited the MOMA in the previous days, the modern art section of the MET cannot but come out defeated by the comparison and seems almost rather inspired by the need to complete the collection with some great names of the 20th century; in general I do not believe that one enters the MET to see the modern art section, and I do not even suggest omitting it from the itinerary, because the collection still includes some excellent works and one cannot underestimate a collection that includes all the great names of the 20th century from Picasso to Bacon, from Brancusi to Modigliani, from Boccioni to Schiele, but I would not put this part of the collection among the most exciting episodes of my visit (especially if you visit the MET the day after the visit to the MOMA).
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