Pillsbury Press: Chroma at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

In January I went to Monmouth University to support Stacy who was part of a presentation being given about her experiences with a dig at Lord Stirling's estate in Basking Ridge, NJ.

2:00 pm - 2:25 pm: Lecture by Dr. Richard Veit (Monmouth University), Alan Cooper (Morristown Beard School), and Stacy Noonan: Unearthing William Alexander Lord Stirling’s Estate Finding a Forgotten Founding Father

Starting in the 1980s, and for nearly twenty years, Dr. Alan Cooper of the Morristown Beard School directed a major public archaeology project at the site of William Alexander, aka Lord Stirling’s Estate, “The Buildings” in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Dr. Cooper and a team of volunteers spent nine years excavating at the site and unearthed rich archaeological deposits and numerous archaeological features associated with one of the grandest estates in colonial New Jersey and the lives of its inhabitants and visitors. Stirling was a major figure in colonial New Jersey, who invested heavily in iron and copper mining, viticulture, and progressive farming. He also served was a Major General during the American Revolution. This presentation provides a brief overview of Dr. Cooper’s excavations at site and their significance and highlights current research on the collections being carried out by Monmouth University graduate students Nikki Bowers and Stacy Noonan.

The talk ran early (which never happens with academics) and I missed most of the presentation, but the ones after it were also really fun to hear. A different life path might have led me to be a real archaeologist instead of an amateur one. Though Stacy is about my age and already has two graduate degrees (law and library science), she is pursuing a third one in archaeology. She is an inspiration!

The next two lectures caught my attention: How Now Cornelius Low (title meant to help us remember how to pronounce Cornelius's last name) and one on about the Chroma exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In March, 2020 I visited the house just before the world shut down. They were having an exhibit on mid-century household items, i.e., the stuff I grew up using. In September 2021, I spent a few hours at the Cornelius Low dig just off the campus or Rutgers University. So close, we parked at the lot for the football stadium. I felt invigorated on that dig, possibly because I could go home afterwards and take a nice hot shower and sleep in my own bed (unlike when I was in Israel). I think it was also because I found items. I felt useful.

I loved hearing about the Chroma exhibit. A week earlier Ashley and Anna went into NYC to see it. They raved about it. It used to be that The Met was a "pay what you want" rate. Times are tough, or the pandemic made it possible to change that plan. There is a discount rate for college students in neighboring states, and free for college students in New York and New Jersey. Anna and Ashley attend college in Pennsylvania, but live in New Jersey. Don and I took a college class at Rider. They had to pay $15 each to enter. Don and I could pay what we wanted. I opted for $7 for the two of us because that's what I had on me, and we were only going to spend 30-40 minutes looking at the one exhibit.

The short version is archeologists are realizing those pasty white ancient Greek and Roman sculptures we grew up admiring were likely painted in vivid colors.

I'll let that sink in -- they were really, really colorful.

Current technology allows them to use infrared cameras to identify the colors used. They then made plaster copies of the sculptures so you could see the original and a model of what it likely would have looked like. When I first heard about this, I thought they were painting the originals. Yes, I should have known better.

Here are some examples:

Before

The museum was thoughtful to place the two statues near each other so you could get as close as the glass would allow, squint your eyes and see flecks of paint. It really changes the look.

For other statues, they had long explanations and pictures of the original. Still quite impressive and transformative.

They had some others I guess I did not photograph that were disturbing. There was a battle scene leaving one of the two sculptures with bright red blood dripping off of his dark body. They eyes, though, were the creepy part. Painted the statues looked as if they could see right through you.

Even the other more benign scenes seem to appear as if they could walk off the statue and join a costume party or elegant Met fundraiser.