On Friday, October 30th I experienced my first trip to New York City. My older brother lives in NYC and I went to spend time with him, which in girl terms means: shop. Before all the fun started my friends and I decided to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We took the following pictures…
The Temple of Dendur, photo courtesy of Courtney Martin, junior year Art History Major
The drawings at the left (inside the back temple) show a section and plan of the entire Dendur complex as it stood in Nubia until 1963 and was rebuilt in New York. The shrine within the cliffs (cliffs were not brought to New York) was probably made first to symbolize the burial place of two brothers who drowned in the Nile River during Roman times. We decided to take a picture of these temples because we were fascinated by the reconstruction of the temples, and we could walk through them and look at the art on the walls within the temple.
Marble column from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis
In its original location this column stood over fifty-eight feet tall. The delicate foliate carving on the capital is unique
among extant capitals from the temple, and the vegetal scale-like pattern makes it exceptionally elaborate. Shockingly, this particular capital is slightly smaller than others that were found at the same site. This indicates that this column did not belong to the outer colonnade. This is my favorite because of the detail on the top and it’s amazing how clean it is with the little amount of tools they had at their disposal.
Wall painting with garlands and object related to Dionysiac rites
Walls of the exedra (a square alcove open to the peristyle of the villa) were decorated with richly colored panels that imitate expensive marble revetments. The center of each wall was marked by a bull’s head from which heavy garlands were suspended.
Wall painting from the villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, photo courtey of Courtney Martin
This particular panel came from the left hand wall. The light paint colors would give off the impression that the objects were illuminated by actual daylight from the entrance. I decided to use this picture because I have zero artistic ability and I think this wall painting is absolutely gorgeous.
City Adventures
Now for the really fun stuff, not that I don’t enjoy a good art museum but we were in New York City! After we left the met my brother took us to a small Irish bar called “The Rogue” where we indulged in a smorgasbord of appetizers and drinks. One of my biggest problems while we were at “The Rogue” was when we were drinking Guinness. The price was the same as a regular pint but the beer itself was significantly smaller, but that didn’t stop us. After satisfying our stomachs we got into a taxi and went on a shopping mission.
My friends, myself, and my brother in the Irish Pub: "The Rogue." This picture was taken by our lovely bartended Irene
In all honesty, I expected the shopping to be much better than it was. The stores were the same stores that we have here (maybe not HERE in Bloomsburg, but at regular malls) and the clothes were more expensive. Why? Just because we were in New York City?
So after about an hour of not buying much we decided to meet up with my brother again and that’s when we took us to So Ho. I’m not sure what it stands for but it’s a part of New York City. He raved about a pizza place called “Arturos” so that’s where we went next. While we were there we had some really good pizza, along with a liter of wine.
The most interesting experience for me was when my brother got up to the bathroom there was a group of 4 guys sitting behind us who offered my friend and I “purple haze”. I was absolutely shocked. Overall I had an amazing experience in New York and wish I had more time, it is really a completely different world, even compared to Philadelphia (I’m from around that area). I would strongly suggest to everyone and anyone of all kinds to visit New York City at least one time in their lifetime! It is an awesome experience!
