Art Moment III
Attention to Detail
Have you been to the Cloisters? That medieval-style building in New York that houses the Met’s collection of medieval art — tapestries, stained glass, paintings, and other European artifacts. Have you wandered its gardens and walked its stone hallways? If you haven’t, and you’re visiting the Big Apple, take the time to.
Back in grad school, I went. It was part of the sort of NYC art highlights tour you take as a student: the Met, the Frick, MoMA, the Whitney, the Guggenheim, and as many galleries as you can stand. Your feet get sore, and the sheer amount of art you take in starts to overwhelm and wear you down.
As we wandered the collection at the Cloisters, I had one of those art moments. It started when I saw a two-inch Netherlandish prayer nut — basically a prayer bead carved from boxwood. Did I mention small? The outside had an intricate patterned relief, impressive in itself and reminiscent of the delicate woodcarving I’d seen in old northern European churches. But it was what was inside that I had trouble comprehending. The bead is hinged and opens to reveal multiple scenes from the life of Jesus, the Adoration of the Magi on top and events from the end of his life on the bottom. There’s carefully carved script. Small hinged panels turn the top half of the bead into a triptych. Miniature figures, camels, horses, architectural elements, landscape elements — and it isn’t just one layer, but overlapping elements that build real physical depth.
It’s amazing. How did this get made? It dates from the beginning of the 16th century. It’s hand-carved. It’s tiny. I still can’t get over the sheer display of craftsmanship — not cast, but carved from wood. I went back two or three times during our visit just to show classmates. It’s one of those objects that revealed to me what we’re capable of: the training, the patience, the dedication, and yes, even the faith, it must have taken to make something like that.
So when I get lazy, I think of that prayer bead, and it reminds me: if someone could carve all that into two inches of boxwood, I can certainly make better work, focus harder, and give my personal best.
If you are interested in this art form, here is a link you might be interested in:
https://boxwood.ago.ca/
The Cloisters are really great. I had a similar experience there with one of the (several) tiny illuminated books they have on display.
It's really something.
Not really related, but to me it's similar. I was in Spain -- I think this happened in Barcelona, though maybe it was Madrid or Toledo -- with a girlfriend in 1995. We visited a church and there was an enormous reredos, a sculpted altarpiece that rose behind where the priest would have stood. It was created in or around the fifteenth century. The story behind this altarpiece was that it was begun by one craftsman, who worked on it his entire life, along with his son, who also worked on it his entire life, and then his son's son, again etc. It was beautiful, and detailed, and wow.
We got back to our hotel, and she was crying. Neither of us were (or are in my case) religious, and it was just overwhelming for her to consider that the entirety of three lives were spent creating this one beautiful thing for this one church in the belief of this faith, and here we were in 1995 in our sneakers and jeans, looking at it, and moving on. It really moved her.