Visit to the Met

It was getting to be too long since my last visit to the Met, and the book I'm reading was making me curious about a few objects. Also, I just needed to feel like I was doing something with my Friday night, so I headed over to the museum after work. Here are a few things I saw:

Well, I didn't see Lynda Carter, actually, but I saw her Wonder Woman costume. She was my number one heroine when I was growing up, so it was a thrill to see the actual suit she wore featured in the Met's current exhibition on Superhero costumes. The show was fantastic, and includes contemporary haute couture items alongside vintage treasures like Christopher Reeve's Superman costume, as well as the costume that Robert Downey, Jr. wore in IronMan and Christian Bale's Batman costume.

This panel by Duccio was what I really came to the Met to see. I was reading about how it was acquired, and wanted to see it for myself. It is just gorgeous! Small, intimate, majestic. The parts of the wood that are worn away on the bottom edge are from lit candles placed before it in the chapel where it originally resided. Lucky for us the whole piece never caught on fire!

This notebook was written by Leonardo da Vinci, and is part of a special loan exhibition of pieces from the Victoria and Albert museum in London. I couldn't find any pictures of them, but what I really like in this collection were a number of clocks and compasses from the middle ages.

I had a very nice visit, and definitely plan to go back more often. On Friday nights the museum is open late and there is live orchestral music in the Great Hall. And the museum is so huge that one can never see everything. I get lost every time I go, and always stumble upon something amazing.