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Course: The Metropolitan Museum of Art > Unit 2
Lesson 1: Q&A- Why does design matter in arms and armor?
- Why is writing so important in Islamic art?
- What's the story behind the world's oldest piano?
- Were there superheroes in the ancient world?
- What's at the Met for sports fans like me?
- What's that artist making in the galleries?
- Is there more than one way to see a work of art?
- Can I learn about Greek mythology at the Met?
- How were mummies made in Ancient Egypt?
- How did they get all this stuff into the museum?
- How can I recognize ancient Greek architecture?
- How does the Met decide how and where to hang the art?
- Can doodles be art?
- What's special about these galleries?
- How does the museum take care of all the armor?
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What's special about these galleries?
Hannah, age 7, finds out about how The Robert Lehman Collection came to be, and why these galleries have a sofa, curtains, and even a fireplace!
Video transcript
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
#metkids q&a Am I in sombody's house? the special rooms
of the Robert Lehman Collection Hi, I'm Hannah, and I'm seven years old. I'm Dita. I'm a curator
in The Robert Lehman Collection. Why do these rooms look
a little different? <i>(Dita Amory) What we do
in these exhibition galleries</i> is recreate the feeling
of a private house, <i>the house of the collector
who bought these objects,</i> <i>and his name was Robert Lehman.</i> <i>So, it's very special and unique.</i> I wanted to ask who made that painting. <i>(Dita) So this is a painting
by the famous Spanish painter Goya.</i> He painted for the king,
King Charles IV, and he painted portraits
of aristocratic families. <i>And, in this case, this portrait
of a mother and child,</i> represents one of four portraits
of the Altimira family. <i>There's another portrait
of a little boy in the family,</i> <i>brother to this infant child,</i> <i>—that's upstairs in our galleries—</i> <i>his name was Manuel.</i> <i>The baby in this portrait's name
was María Agustina.</i> I like the way
that she is looking this way, <i>and that it looks like
she's looking at me</i> <i>while I look at the painting.</i> <i>There's lots
of different things in this room,</i> <i>like paintings, sculptures, tables.</i> Why did Robert Lehman collect
so many different things? Oh, that's a very good question. <i>From the time he was a very little boy,
he traveled to Europe</i> with his mother and father
and his sister by steamship and they collected art all over Europe, and he did that every summer
as a little boy. <i>So he had a very good start
as a collector. </i> And he decided, later in life, <i>that he wanted to keep
his collection as a collection.</i> So he made an arrangement
with the Metropolitan Museum <i>to leave the collection to the Museum</i> <i>with the understanding that they try
to recreate the rooms of his house,</i> so that these rooms give you
a feeling of an era from the past <i>when people lived very grandly
in New York houses;</i> <i>at least some people did.</i> <i>If the Metropolitan Museum gave you
an empty gallery to fill with art,</i> what kind of art
would you put in the gallery? In Hannah's gallery? I think I would put in
a lot of Pablo Picasso's paintings. <i>(Dita) I think if you had a gallery
full of Pablo Picasso's paintings,</i> <i>you'd have lots of visitors.</i> Would you paint the walls white
or would you have a color? I would have lime green on the walls. <i>(Dita) Lime green, oh wow!</i> How many guards
would you need for your gallery? None. None! what's your @metkids question? ♪ (music) ♪