Famed for the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty, New York is not as well known for its medieval sculpture. On a wooded hill overlooking the Hudson River, though, the Cloisters Museum is not only a surprise, but a real breath of fresh air in one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world. In fact, this beautiful museum is just about as near to perfection as any one could hope to create in New York. A branch of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, itself housing one of the world's greatest museum collections, The Cloisters is devoted to the art and architecture of Medieval Europe. One former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris described it as "the crowning achievement of American Museology". One would find it hard to find anything so beautiful in New York. For lovers of Medieval Art, it is one of the most beautiful museums in the world. Visitors to New York would be foolish to omit this rare treasure from their itinerary. The building includes elements from five medieval French cloisters (quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade) and from other monastic sites in southern France. Cloisters were an integral part of any monastic complex, providing cover for the monks during inclement weather, yet still allowing them to walk freely in the fresh air. The collection now includes medieval works of art, such as manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. Around five thousand works of art from medieval Europe are on display, dating from about the ninth century, but with particular emphasis on works from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, George Grey Barnard (1863–1938), a prominent American sculptor and avid collector of Medieval art, is the one who acquired most of the sculpture in the collection. He did this whilst working in France before the Second World War, as a vendor of fragments of Medieval sculpture which had come into the hands of local people over the centuries. With the profits from some of his sales he acquired some pieces himself. Upon his return to New York, Barnard put many of them on display in a churchlike brick building on Fort Washington Avenue. This museum and all its contents was acquired for the Metropolitan Museum of Art by the generosity of the famous philanthropist and collector, John D.Rockefeller, Jr, (1874-1960). As well as financing the transformation of seventy-seven acres of land just north of Barnard's museum into a public park, he amazingly donated an additional seven hundred acres of additional land to the State of New Jersey across the Hudson River just so that the view from The Cloisters would remain unsullied! In addition to this, Rockefeller gave Medieval works of art from his own collection and set up an endowment for the future maintenance of the collections and for future acquisitions. Of all the gifts which Rockefeller gave from his own collection, the unique series of seven tapestries from the Lowlands known as “The Hunt of the Unicorn", is perhaps the most beautiful. Other highlights of the collection include a French illuminated manuscript dating from the early 1400s, a carved ivory cross from the 12th century, a stone Virgin from the 13th century that once stood in Strasbourg Cathedral, the Merode Triptych and stained glass windows from the chapel at castle Ebreichsdorf. Perhaps the best way to visit the Cloisters is to couple it with a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art itself. The bus ride is long, taking about an hour or so, but it offers an interesting bus tour of the Upper East Side, Harlem and Washington Heights, giving the visitor the chance to move from the world of Medieval France to that of modern-day New York, just as the Medieval cloisters allowed the monks the chance to move from the living space of the monastery to the church itself. Whichever part of the collection appeals most to individual visitors, it is the museum itself which is the star. Nestling in woodland, the most beautiful thing about the museum is just to wander around its reconstructed cloisters and chapels, being transported back to twelfth and thirteenth century France or Italy, imagining you are part of another world, very different from our own, where this life and the life of the hereafter sat very comfortably together and where people were quite in tune with the actions of their Creator. Aside from any individual item on display, the museum itself is quite unique from anything you will see in any museum in the world, providing space for quiet and contemplation and for wonder at the skill of the craftsmen who dedicated their lives to God's glory. The cloister gardens themselves, too, are delightful to sit in and to walk around, and the whole place is an oasis of peace and calm in a busy city. Muslims read in the Holy Qur'an: 'This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favor upon you and have chosen Islam for you as your Way of Life." [Holy Quran, 5:3] Museums are indeed a very restful and beautiful way to find refreshment and solace in our lives. The Cloisters Museum in New York is about as near to perfection as we can find in this world. No matter how beautiful the collections, though, there are higher values and greater things even than their near perfect display of beauty. Allah Alone is Perfect. We should find our solace and refreshment in Him. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, teaches at Al-Azhar University and is the author of nine books about Islam. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com, join him on Facebook at Idris Tawfiq Page and listen to his Radio Show, “A Life in Question," on Sundays at 11pm on Radio Cairo 95.4 FM.
