Back The Cloisters Afrikaans متحف الأروقة Arabic The Cloisters Catalan The Cloisters German The Cloisters Esperanto The Cloisters Spanish The Cloisters Basque دکلویسترز Persian The Cloisters French הקלויסטרס HE
 View of the main entrance | |
  Location within New York City  The Cloisters (New York)  The Cloisters (the United States) | |
| Established | May 10, 1938 |
|---|---|
| Location | 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park Manhattan, New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°51′53″N 73°55′55″W / 40.8648°N 73.9319°W |
| Type | Medieval art Romanesque architecture Gothic architecture |
| Public transit access | Subway:  190th Street or Dyckman Street,  Dyckman StreetBus: Bx7, M4, M100 |
| Website | www |
The Cloisters | |
New York City Landmark No. 0835
| |
| Built | 1935–1939 |
| Architect | Charles Collens |
| Part of | Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters (ID78001870) |
| NYCL No. | 0835 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 19, 1978[2] |
| Designated NYCL | March 19, 1974[1] |
The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it contains a large collection of medieval artworks shown in the architectural settings of French monasteries and abbeys. Its buildings are centered around four cloisters—the Cuxa, Saint-Guilhem, Bonnefont and Trie—that were acquired by American sculptor and art dealer George Grey Barnard in France before 1913, and moved to New York. Barnard's collection was bought for the museum by financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. Other major sources of objects were the collections of J. P. Morgan and Joseph Brummer.
The museum's building was designed by the architect Charles Collens, on a site on a steep hill, with upper and lower levels. It contains medieval gardens and a series of chapels and themed galleries, including the Romanesque, Fuentidueña, Unicorn, Spanish, and Gothic rooms.[3] The design, layout, and ambiance of the building are intended to evoke a sense of medieval European monastic life.[4] It holds about 5,000 works of art and architecture, all European and mostly dating from the Byzantine to the early Renaissance periods, mainly during the 12th through 15th centuries. The objects include stone and wood sculptures, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts and panel paintings, of which the best known include the c. 1422 Early Netherlandish Mérode Altarpiece and the c. 1495–1505 Flemish Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries.
Rockefeller purchased the museum site in Washington Heights in 1930 and donated it to the Metropolitan in 1931. Upon its opening on May 10, 1938, the Cloisters was described as a collection "shown informally in a picturesque setting, which stimulates imagination and creates a receptive mood for enjoyment".[5]
- ^ "The Cloisters" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. March 19, 1974. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
- ^ "Historic Structures Report: Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service. 1978.
- ^ Young 1979, p. 1.
- ^ Landais 1992, p. 43.
- ^ "The Opening of the Cloisters". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Volume 21, No. 5, 1926. pp. 113–116