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Medieval art curator Melanie Holcomb talks about how maps help her make sense of the world.
I'm Melanie Holcomb and I'm a curator of Medieval art at the Metropolitan Museum.
I live in Brooklyn and I take the subway to work every day.
I love the New York subway.
I am fanatic about it. It's complex. It's intricate. If one line doesn't work another one will. And I am
astounded by how much of that information is conveyed in the subway map, which is just an extraordinary piece of communication.
What's great about the subway map is that it's not only about spatial distances, about
relative relationships between one stop to another. It also conveys time.
And this gets me back to the Met,
like this celestial globe that charts time and space, not just the position of the stars, but their movement over the year as well.
Look at this one from the Marshall Islands. It was made by a navigator, not so much as a map in the western sense of the word, but as an aid to remembering the swells and currents of the ocean.
I wonder why it is that we love maps so much.
I think in part it has to do with the fact that it allows us to be
God for a minute. It allows us to understand
the underlying order of a vast geographical space
or a complex system of things we cannot
even see; the heavens or
the body, like this map of the inside of the head,
or maybe just places that are faraway, and it allows us to grasp it all
in a single glance. But it also allows us to entertain the possibility of a journey
of imagining how were going to get from one place to another and what those various routes are.
You know with this Vermeer painting, I use to always look at the woman and think about the room that she's in, but now
I also see the map and I think of all the places it takes me to.
Is it about grasping the world at a single glance? Or is it about
setting off on a journey? Hmm, it's a little of both, I think, that makes maps or looking at maps such a
pleasurable experience.
Works of art in order of appearanceLast Updated: June 22, 2015. Not all works of art in the Museum's collection may be on view on a particular day. For the most accurate location information, please check this page on the day of your visit. |
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[Subway Passengers] 1938 Walker Evans (American) Gelatin silver print Gift of Arnold H. Crane, 1971 (1971.646.18) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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PhotographsSecond Floor | |
[View Down Subway Car with Accordionist Performing in Aisle, New York City] 1938 Walker Evans (American) Negative Walker Evans Archive, 1994 (1994.253.510.2) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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PhotographsSecond Floor | |
Astrolabe 1291 Yemen Pierced and engraved brass Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891 (91.1.535a–h) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Islamic ArtSecond Floor | |
Navigational Chart (Rebbilib) 19th–early 20th century Marshallese people, Marshall Islands Coconut midrib, fiber The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of the Estate of Kay Sage Tanguy, 1963 (1978.412.826) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the AmericasFirst Floor | |
Memory Board (Lukasa) 19th–20th century Democratic Republic of Congo; Luba Wood Gift of the Britt Family Collection, 1977 (1977.467.3) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the AmericasFirst Floor | |
Celestial Map of the Northern Sky 1515 Albrecht Dürer (German) Woodcut Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1951 (51.537.1) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Drawings and PrintsSecond Floor | |
The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise 1445 Giovanni di Paolo (Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia) (Italian, Sienese) Tempera on panel Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.31) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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The Robert Lehman CollectionFirst Floor | |
The Qianlong Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Six: Entering Suzhou and the Grand Canal Qing dynasty, dated 1770 Xu Yang (Chinese) Handscroll; ink and color on silk Purchase, The Dillon Fund Gift, 1988 (1988.350) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Asian ArtSecond Floor | |
Taima mandala Kamakura period, 12th–14th century Unidentified artist Japan Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk Rogers Fund, 1957 (57.156.6) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Asian ArtSecond Floor | |
Two Views of the Head 1746 Jacques-Fabien Gautier-Dagoty (French) after Joseph Guichard Duverney (French) Plate 4 of Myologie complète en coleur et grandeur naturelle Multiple-plate color mezzotint Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928 (28.52.2) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Drawings and PrintsSecond Floor | |
Leaves from a Beatus Manuscript ca. 1180 Spanish (Burgos, Castile-Leòn) Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment, metal leaf Purchase, The Cloisters Collection, Rogers and Harris Brisbane Dick Funds, and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1991 (1991.232.1–.14) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Medieval Art and The CloistersFirst Floor | |
View of London from Greenwich 1825 Joseph Mallord William Turner (British) Watercolor and gouache over graphite Bequest of Alexandrine Sinsheimer, 1958 (59.23.23) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Drawings and PrintsSecond Floor | |
Woman with a Lute ca. 1662–63 Johannes Vermeer (Dutch) Oil on canvas Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900 (25.110.24) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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European PaintingsSecond Floor | |
Astronomicum Caesareum 1540 Michael Ostendorfer (German); Written by Petrus Apianus (German) Hand-colored woodcuts Gift of Herbert N. Straus, 1925 (25.17) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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Drawings and PrintsSecond Floor | |
Celestial Globe with Clockwork 1579 Movement by Gerhard Emmoser (Austrian) Made in Vienna, Austria Case of silver, partly gilt, and gilt brass; movement of brass and steel Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.636) More information: The Collection Online Not on view
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European Sculpture and Decorative ArtsFirst Floor | |
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