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159-572: Parts of what was once building material from the 12th century abbey now partially make up The Cloisters museum in New York City. The origins of Cuixà abbey lie at Sant Andreu d'Eixalada, an abbey founded by the Benedictines in about 840, and located at the head of the Tet valley. In the autumn of 878, the river broke its banks, flooding and destroying the monastery (located near the river-bed) and causing

318-623: A medlar tree of the type found in The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries, and is centered around a wellhead placed at Bonnefont-en-Comminges in the 12th century. The Bonnefont is on the upper level of the museum and gives a view of the Hudson River and the cliffs of the Palisades . The Trie cloisters was compiled from two late 15th- to early 16th-century French structures. Most of its components came from

477-462: A 15th-century glazed earthenware vase. The area is covered by a skylight and plate glass panels that conserve heat in the winter months. Rockefeller had initially wanted a high roof and clerestory windows, but was convinced by Joseph Breck , curator of decorative arts at the Metropolitan, to install a skylight. Breck wrote to Rockefeller that "by substituting a skylight for a solid ceiling ...

636-552: A cohesive whole. Construction took place over a five-year period from 1934. In 1933, Rockefeller donated several hundred acres of the New Jersey Palisades clifftops across the river, which he had purchased over several years for the Palisades Interstate Park Commission to preserve the land from further development. The Cloisters' new building and gardens were officially opened on May 10, 1938, though

795-609: A disaster not only for the Cistercians. Some historians believe that the suppression of the English monasteries may have stamped out an industrial revolution. The reformed Congregation of the Feuillants spread widely in France and Italy in the 16th century. The French congregation of Sept-Fontaines (1654) also deserves mention. In 1663 Jean de Rancé reformed La Trappe (see Trappists ). In

954-548: A distraction from piety, and the builders of the Cistercian monasteries had to adopt a style that observed the numerous rules inspired by his austere aesthetics. However, the order itself was receptive to the technical improvements of Gothic principles of construction and played an important role in its spread across Europe. Cistercian architecture embodied the ideals of the order, and was in theory at least utilitarian and without ornamentation. The same "rational, integrated scheme"

1113-659: A fifteenth-century domestic interior similar to the one shown in [Campin's] Annunciation panel." Other significant acquisitions include late 13th-century grisaille panels from the Château de Bouvreuil in Rouen , glass work from the Cathedral of Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais at Sées , and panels from the Acezat collection, now in the Heroes Tapestry Hall. The building is set into

1272-407: A former Cluniac monk, ordered him to return. The remaining monks of Cîteaux elected Alberic as their abbot, under whose leadership the abbey would find its grounding. Robert had been the idealist of the order, and Alberic was their builder. Upon assuming the role of abbot, Alberic moved the site of the fledgling community near a brook a short distance away from the original site. Alberic discontinued

1431-595: A friend of a curator at the Cloisters, James Rorimer . Rorimer had long recognized the importance of Brummer's collection, and purchased large quantities of objects in the months after Brummer's sudden death in 1947. According to Christine E. Brennan of the Metropolitan, Rorimer realized that the collection offered works that could rival the Morgan Collection in the Metropolitan's Main Building, and that "the decision to form

1590-410: A functioning series of cloisters, many of the individual works, including capitals, doorways, stained glass, and windows are placed within the architectural elements themselves. The museum's best-known panel painting is Robert Campin 's c. 1425–28 Mérode Altarpiece , a foundational work in the development of Early Netherlandish painting , which has been at The Cloisters since 1956. Its acquisition

1749-591: A future Abbot of Clairvaux (to be appointed in 1243), Stephen was one of the outstanding figures in 13th-century Cistercian history, having founded the College of St. Bernard in Paris in 1244. He found his life threatened as a result of the Irish visitations: his representatives were attacked and his party harassed, while the three key houses of Mellifont, Suir and Maigue had been fortified by monks to hold out against him. However, with

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1908-699: A large number of men from knightly families, and when King Alfonso VII began looking for a military order to defend the Calatrava , which had been recovered from the Moors a decade before, the Cistercian Abbot Raymond of Fitero offered his help. Lay brothers were to be employed as "soldiers of the Cross" to defend Calatrava. The initial successes of the new order in the Spanish Reconquista were convincing, and

2067-534: A likely death toll of at least 12. The remainder of the monks were forced to seek shelter in the surrounding countryside. The community then transferred to its present site at Cuixà, a minor cenobitic community dedicated to Saint Germanus , led by Father Protais. In June 879, Protasius and Miro the Elder , count of Conflent and Roussillon , signed the founding treaty of the new monastery, whereby Cuixà extended its properties with those contributed by Eixalada and Protasius

2226-457: A long restoration from 1971, undertaken by Tina Kane and Alice Blohm of the Metropolitan's Department of Textile Conservation. It is today hung in the Late Gothic hall. The Cloisters' collection of stained glass consists of around three hundred panels, generally French and Germanic and mostly from the 13th to early 16th centuries. A number were formed from handmade opalescent glass. Works in

2385-572: A modern base, she is dressed in high contemporary aristocratic fashion, including a mantle , cotte , jewel-studded belt and an elaborate ring necklace brooch . Four of the effigies were made for the Urgell family, are set into the chapel walls, and are associated with the church of Santa Maria at Castello de Farfanya, Catalonia, redesigned in the Gothic style for Ermengol X (died c. 1314). The elaborate sarcophagus of Ermengol VII, Count of Urgell (d. 1184)

2544-554: A monk from Cluny who led five southern monasteries. When the Doge of Venice , Pietro I Orseolo , accepted Romuald 's advice to become a monk, he abdicated and fled in the night to Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa accompanied by Romuald and his companion, Marinus, who established a hermitage nearby. Cesare Borgia probably never came to the abbey, although he was named by his father abbot of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in 1494, one among many other revenue-earning titles, which he kept until 1498. The abbey

2703-578: A new era when he entered the monastery in the early 1110s with 30 companions. By the end of the 12th century, the order had spread throughout most of Europe. The keynote of Cistercian life was a return to literal observance of the Benedictine Rule. The reform-minded monks tried to live monastic life as they thought it had been in Benedict 's time; at various points they went beyond it in austerity. They returned to manual labour, especially agricultural work in

2862-489: A number of medieval sites. The Cloisters was rebuilt and expanded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1938 at Fort Tryon Park, Upper Manhattan and is now a significant Medieval museum within the Metropolitan Museum of Art . The centerpiece and namesake of the museum is a cloister built using fragments of the 12th century cloister of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. The Cuxa abbey was refounded in 1919 and subsequently restored under

3021-502: A plot of marshland just south of Dijon called Cîteaux ( Latin: "Cistercium". Cisteaux means reeds in Old French ), given to them expressly for the purpose of founding their Novum Monasterium . During the first year, the monks set about constructing malodging areas and farming the lands of Cîteaux, making use of a nearby chapel for Mass . In Robert's absence from Molesme, however, the abbey had gone into decline, and Pope Urban II ,

3180-516: A receptive mood for enjoyment". The basis for the museum's architectural structure came from the collection of George Grey Barnard , an American sculptor and collector who almost single-handedly established a medieval art museum near his home in the Fort Washington section of Upper Manhattan . Although he was a successful sculptor who had studied at the Art Institute of Chicago , his income

3339-560: A regular setting both for musical recitals and as a stage for medieval theater. Notable stagings include The Miracle of Theophilus in 1942, and John Gassner's adaption of The Second Shepherds' Play in 1954. Recent significant exhibitions include "Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures" which ran in the summer of 2017 in conjunction with the Art Gallery of Ontario and Rijksmuseum , Amsterdam. Cistercians The Cistercians ( / s ɪ ˈ s t ɜːr ʃ ən z / ), officially

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3498-399: A series of rooms and spaces, mostly separate from those dedicated to the installed architectural artifacts. The Cloisters has never focused on building a collection of masterpieces; rather, the objects are chosen thematically yet arranged simply to enhance the atmosphere created by the architectural elements in the particular setting or room in which they are placed. To create the atmosphere of

3657-826: A simpler lifestyle began in 17th-century France at La Trappe Abbey , and became known as the Trappists . They were eventually consolidated in 1892 into a new order called the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance , abbreviated as OCSO. The Cistercians who remained within the Order of Cistercians are called the Cistercians of the Common Observance (OCist). In 1098, a Benedictine abbot , Robert of Molesme , left Molesme Abbey in Burgundy with around 20 supporters, who felt that

3816-481: A single aisle nave and transepts taken from a small Benedictine parish church built around 1115 at Notre Dame de Pontaut. When acquired, it was in disrepair, its upper level in use as a storage place for tobacco. About three-quarters of its original stonework was moved to New York. The chapel is entered from the Romanesque hall through a doorway , a large, elaborate French Gothic stone entrance commissioned by

3975-531: A steep hill, and thus the rooms and halls are divided between an upper entrance and a ground-floor level. The enclosing exterior building is mostly modern, and is influenced by and contains elements from the 13th-century church at Saint-Geraud at Monsempron , France, from which the northeast end of the building borrows especially. It was mostly designed by the architect Charles Collens , who took influence from works in Barnard's collection. Rockefeller closely managed both

4134-682: A tract of wild, afforested land known as a refuge for robbers, forty miles east of Troyes , to the order. Bernard, 25 years old at the time, led twelve other monks there, and they founded the Abbey of Clairvaux . The abbey soon attracted zealous young men. At this point, Cîteaux had four daughter houses: Pontigny , Morimond , La Ferté and Clairvaux. In the 1130s and 1140s, the Cistercians expanded into "an order of immense size" by incorporating independent religious communities. The most foundations made by any Cistercian monastery came from Clairvaux. Rein Abbey

4293-457: A treasury at The Cloisters was reached... because it had been the only opportunity since the late 1920s to enrich the collection with so many liturgical and secular objects of such high quality." These pieces, including works in gold, silver, and ivory, are today held in the Treasury room of the Cloisters. The museum's collection of artworks consists of about 5,000 pieces. They are displayed across

4452-401: A young boy, possibly Ermengol IX , the only one of their direct line ancestors known to have died in youth. The slabs of the double tomb on the wall opposite Ermengol VII, contain the effigies of his parents, and have been slanted forward to offer a clear view of the stonework. The heads are placed on cushions, which are decorated with arms. The male's feet rest on a dog, while the cushion under

4611-548: Is Born as Man's Redeemer") from c.  1500 , South Netherlandish (probably in Brussels ), Burgos Tapestry was acquired by the museum in 1938. It was originally one of a series of eight tapestries representing the salvation of man, with individual scenes influenced by identifiable panel paintings, including by van der Weyden. It was badly damaged in earlier centuries: it had been cut into several irregular pieces and undergone several poor-quality restorations. The panel underwent

4770-447: Is attributed to Jean le Noir , and noted for its preoccupation with death. It was commissioned for Bonne de Luxembourg , Duchess of Normandy , daughter of John the Blind and the wife of John II of France , probably at the end of her husband's life, c. 1348–49. It was in a private collection for many years and thus known only through poor-quality photographic reproductions until acquired by

4929-582: Is dedicated to the ideal of Mary as the mother of God. Hanging within the apse is a crucifix made between about 1150 to 1200 for the Convent of St. Clara  [ es ] in Astudillo , Spain. Its reverse contains a depiction of the Agnus Dei ( Lamb of God ), decorated with red and blue foliage at its frames. The exterior wall holds three small, narrow and stilted windows, which are nevertheless designed to let in

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5088-506: Is placed on the left hand wall facing the chapel's south windows. It is supported by three stone lions, and a grouping of mourners carved into the slab , which also shows Christ in Majesty flanked by the Twelve Apostles . The three other Urgell tombs also date to the mid 13th century, and maybe of Àlvar of Urgell and his second wife, Cecilia of Foix, the parents of Ermengol X, and that of

5247-499: Is set on the museum's ground level, and was built to display its stained glass and large sculpture collections. The entrance from the upper-level Early Gothic Hall is lit by stained glass double- lancet windows, carved on both sides and acquired from the church of La Tricherie, France. The ground level is entered through a large door at its east wall. This entrance begins with a pointed Gothic arch leading to high bayed ceilings, ribbed vaults and buttress. The three center windows are from

5406-567: Is the c. 1248–67 sarcophagus of Jean d'Alluye, a knight of the crusades , who was thought to have returned from the Holy Land with a relic of the True Cross . He is shown as a young man, his eyes open, and dressed in chain armor , with his longsword and shield. The female effigy of a lady, found in Normandy, dates to the mid 13th century and is perhaps of Margaret of Gloucester . Although resting on

5565-484: 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

5724-576: The Adoration of the Magi and Daniel in the lions' den . The piers show Martin of Tours on the left and the angel Gabriel announcing to The Virgin on the right. The chapel includes other, mostly contemporary, medieval artwork. They include, in the dome, a large fresco dating to between 1130 and 1150, from the Spanish Church of Sant Joan de Tredòs. The fresco's colourization resembles a Byzantine mosaic and

5883-695: The Binding of Isaac , and Matthew and John writing their gospels. Capitals in the south gallery illustrate scenes from the life of Christ . The Cloisters' three gardens, the Judy Black Garden at the Cuxa Cloister on the main level, and the Bonnefont and Trie Cloisters gardens on the lower level, were laid out and planted in 1938. They contain a variety of rare medieval species, with a total of over 250 genera of plants, flowers, herbs and trees, making it one of

6042-456: The Black Monks . Cistercian influence more than kept pace with the material expansion. St. Bernard had become mentor to popes and kings, and in 1145, King Louis VII 's brother, Henry of France , entered Clairvaux. That same year, Bernard saw one of his monks elected pope as Pope Eugene III . Eugene was an Italian of humble background, who had first been drawn to monasticism at Clairvaux by

6201-575: The Burgundian court for Moutiers-Saint-Jean Abbey in Burgundy, France. Moutiers-Saint-Jean was sacked, burned, and rebuilt several times. In 1567, the Huguenot army removed the heads from the two kings, and in 1797 the abbey was sold as rubble for rebuilding. The site lay in ruin for decades and lost further sculptural elements until Barnard arranged for the entrances' transfer to New York. The doorway had been

6360-584: The C. K. G. Billings estate and other holdings in the Fort Washington area. The Cloisters building and adjacent 4-acre (1.6 ha) gardens were designed by Charles Collens. They incorporate elements from abbeys in Catalonia and France. Parts from Sant Miquel de Cuixà , Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert , Bonnefont-en-Comminges , Trie-sur-Baïse and Froville were disassembled stone-by-stone and shipped to New York City, where they were reconstructed and integrated into

6519-772: The Carmelite convent at Trie-sur-Baïse in south-western France, whose original abbey, except for the church, was destroyed by Huguenots in 1571. Small narrow buttresses were added in New York during the 1950s by Breck. The rectangular garden hosts around 80 species of plants and contains a tall limestone cascade fountain at its center. Like those from Saint-Guilhem, the Trie cloisters have been given modern roofing. The convent at Trie-sur-Baïse featured some 80 white marble capitals carved between 1484 and 1490. Eighteen were moved to New York and contain numerous biblical scenes and incidents from

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6678-711: The Cistercians , an order which originated as an offshoot of the Benedictines. The abbey was transferred back to the Benedictines in 1965. The abbey is one of the venues used by the Pablo Casals Festival , which was founded in 1950. Pablo Casals was filmed in the abbey in 1954 as he performed Bach's Suite No. 1 in G Major . [REDACTED] Media related to Abbaye Saint-Michel de Cuxa at Wikimedia Commons 42°35′42″N 02°25′00″E  /  42.59500°N 2.41667°E  / 42.59500; 2.41667 The Cloisters The Cloisters , also known as

6837-569: The Cluniac communities had abandoned the rigours and simplicity of the Rule of St. Benedict . Chief among Robert's followers included Alberic , a former hermit from the nearby forest of Colan, and Stephen Harding , a young monk from England. Stephen had experienced the monastic traditions of the Camaldolese and Vallombrosians before joining Molesme Abbey. On 21 March 1098, Robert's small group acquired

6996-506: The Cârța Monastery . By the end of the 13th century, the Cistercian houses numbered 500. In this period, the monks performed pastoral tasks in and outside of the monastery and began preaching and teaching, even though their movement originally forbade schools and parishes. At the order's height in the 15th century, it would have nearly 750 houses. It often happened that the number of lay brothers became excessive and out of proportion to

7155-482: The French Revolution of 1789, and subsequently sold, with the clergy evicted. Subsequently, the buildings fell into disrepair. Some sculpture from the abbey found its way into a collection of George Grey Barnard (1863–1938), a prominent American sculptor, and an avid collector and dealer of medieval art. In 1914, Barnard opened his "Cloisters" exhibit on Fort Washington Avenue, New York, along with sculpture from

7314-582: The Hudson River . Construction of the exterior began in 1935. The stonework, primarily of limestone and granite from several European sources, includes four Gothic windows from the refectory at Sens and nine arcades. The dome of the Fuentidueña Chapel was especially difficult to fit into the planned area. The east elevation, mostly of limestone, contains nine arcades from the Benedictine priory at Froville and four flamboyant French Gothic windows from

7473-574: The Limbourg brothers . In 2015 the Cloisters acquired a small Netherlandish Book of Hours illuminated by Simon Bening . Each is of exceptional quality, and their acquisition was a significant achievement for the museum's early collectors. A coat of arms illustrated on one of the leaves of the "Cloisters Apocalypse" suggests it was commissioned by a member of the de Montigny family of Coutances , Normandy. Stylistically it resembles other Norman illuminated books, as well as some designs on stained glass, of

7632-998: 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

7791-498: The Morgan Library & Museum in New York, who spent the last 20 years of his life acquiring artworks, "on an imperial scale" according to art historian Jean Strous, spending some $ 900 million (inflation adjusted) in total. After his death, his son J. P. Morgan Jr. donated a large number of works from the collection to the Metropolitan. A further major early source of objects was the art dealer Joseph Brummer (1883–1947), long

7950-544: The Order of Cistercians ( Latin : (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis , abbreviated as OCist or SOCist ), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict , as well as the contributions of the highly-influential Bernard of Clairvaux , known as the Latin Rule . They are also known as Bernardines , after Saint Bernard, or as White Monks , in reference to

8109-400: The Zbraslav abbey (Latin: Aula Regia , "Royal Hall"), founded in 1292 by the King of Bohemia and Poland , Wenceslas II . The order also played the main role in the early Gothic art of Bohemia; one of the outstanding pieces of Cistercian architecture is the Alt-neu Shul , Prague. The first abbey in the present day Romania was founded on 1179, at Igris (Egres) , and the second on 1204,

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8268-402: The garth . It is impossible now to represent solely medieval species and arrangements; those in the Cuxa garden are approximations by botanists specializing in medieval history. The oldest plan of the original building describes lilies and roses . Although the walls are modern, the capitals and columns are original and cut from pink Languedoc marble from the Pyrenees . The intersection of

8427-427: The transepts for private prayer, and an aisled nave that was divided roughly in the middle by a screen to separate the monks from the lay brothers. The building projects of the Church in the High Middle Ages showed that the era encourage colossal architecture, with vast amounts of stone being quarried; the same was true of the Cistercian projects. Foigny Abbey was 98 metres (322 ft) long, and Vaucelles Abbey

8586-429: The "human figures, beasts, and monsters" may have represented the "tension between the world and the cloister, the struggle to repress the natural inclinations of the body". The Saint-Guilhem cloisters were taken from the site of the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert , and date from 804 AD to the 1660s. Their acquisition around 1906 was one of Barnard's early purchases. The transfer to New York involved

8745-399: The 13th. The large limestone sculpture of Saint Margaret on the wall by the stairs dates to around 1330 and is from the church of Santa Maria de Farfanya  [ ca ] in Lleida , Catalonia. Each of the six effigies are supreme examples of sepulchral art . Three are from the Bellpuig Monastery  [ ca ] in Catalonia . The monument directly facing the main windows

8904-437: The 17th century another great effort at a general reform was made, promoted by the pope and the king of France; the general chapter elected Richelieu to be (commendatory) abbot of Cîteaux, thinking he would protect them from the threatened reform. In this they were disappointed, for he threw himself wholly on the side of reform. A formidable battle ensued, making it clear that Italian and Central European abbeys did not want to go

9063-409: The 18th–19th centuries. The first Cistercian abbey in Bohemia was founded in Sedlec near Kutná Hora in 1142. In the late 13th century and early 14th century, the Cistercian order played an essential role in the politics and diplomacy of the late Přemyslid and early Luxembourg state, as reflected in the Chronicon Aulae Regiae . This chronicle was written by Otto and Peter of Zittau , abbots of

9222-410: The Adoration of the Magi, frescoes of a lion and a wyvern , each from the Monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza in north-central Spain. On the left of the room are portraits of kings and angels, also from the monastery at Moutier-Saint-Jean. The hall contains three pairs of columns positioned over an entrance with molded archivolts. They were taken from the Augustinian church at Reugny . The Reugny site

9381-404: The Anglo-Norman invasion gives a rather gloomy impression. Absenteeism among Irish abbots at the General Chapter became a persistent and much criticised problem in the 13th century, and escalated into the conspiratio Mellifontis , a "rebellion" by the abbeys of the Mellifont filiation. Visitors were appointed to reform Mellifont on account of the multa enormia that had arisen there, but in 1217

9540-402: The Cistercian white mantle with the scarlet cross fleurdelisée . Calatrava was not subject to Cîteaux, but to Fitero's mother-house, the Abbey of Morimond in Burgundy. By the end of the 13th century, the knights had become a major autonomous power within the Castilian state, subject only to Morimond and the pope. They had abundant resources of men and wealth, lands and castles scattered along

9699-525: The Cistercians and founded a new order, named the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The Cistercians that remained within the original order thus came to be known as the "Common Observance". Cistercian architecture has made an important contribution to European civilisation. Cistercian foundations were primarily constructed in Romanesque and Gothic architecture during the Middle Ages; although later abbeys were also constructed in Renaissance and Baroque . St. Bernard saw church decoration as

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9858-440: The City of New York, and persons honored as trustees by the museum. The current chairman of the board is the businessman and art collector Daniel Brodsky , who was elected in 2011, having previously served on its Real Estate Council in 1984 as a trustee of the museum and Vice Chairman of the Buildings Committee. A specialist museum, the Cloisters regularly acquires new works and rarely sells or otherwise gets rid of them . While

10017-502: The Dominican monastery at Sens , Burgundy. Located on the south side of the building's main level, the Cuxa cloisters are the museum's centerpiece both structurally and thematically. They were originally erected at the Benedictine Abbey of Sant Miquel de Cuixà on Mount Canigou , in the northeast Spanish Pyrenees, which was founded in 878. The monastery was abandoned in 1791 and fell into disrepair; its roof collapsed in 1835 and its bell tower fell in 1839. About half of its stonework

10176-413: The Elbe. They developed grants of territories of 180,000 acres where they would drain land, build monasteries and plan villages. Many towns near Berlin owe their origins to this order, including Heiligengrabe and Chorin ; its Chorin Abbey was the first brick-built monastery in the area. By this time, however, "the Cistercian order as a whole had experienced a gradual decline and its central organisation

10335-412: The English improved the standing of the Cistercian Order in Ireland with nine foundations: Dunbrody Abbey , Inch Abbey , Grey Abbey , Comber Abbey , Duiske Abbey , Abington, Abbeylara and Tracton . This last abbey was founded in 1225 from Whitland Abbey in Wales, and at least in its earliest years, its monks were Welsh-speaking . By this time, another ten abbeys had been founded by Irishmen since

10494-510: The Irish-establishment of Abbeyknockmoy in County Galway was founded by King of Connacht , Cathal Crobhdearg Ua Conchobair , who died a Cistercian monk and was buried there in 1224. By 1152, there were 54 Cistercian monasteries in England, few of which had been founded directly from the Continent. Overall, there were 333 Cistercian abbeys in Europe, so many that a halt was put to this expansion. Nearly half of these houses had been founded, directly or indirectly, from Clairvaux, so great

10653-442: The Metropolitan does not publish separate figures for the Cloisters, the entity as a whole spent $ 39 million on acquisitions for the fiscal year ending in June 2012. The Cloisters seeks to balance its collection between religious and secular artifacts and artworks. With secular pieces, it typically favors those that indicate the range of artistic production in the medieval period, and according to art historian Timothy Husband, "reflect

10812-409: The Morgan Library in lower Manhattan. The Cloisters' books are today displayed in the Treasury room, and include the French " Cloisters Apocalypse " (or "Book of Revelation", c. 1330, probably Normandy ), Jean Pucelle 's " Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux " (c. 1324–28), the " Psalter of Bonne de Luxembourg ", attributed to Jean Le Noir and the " Belles Heures du Duc de Berry " (c. 1399–1416) attributed to

10971-436: The Rhineland. On one occasion the abbot of La Trinité at Vendôme loaned a monk named John to the Bishop of Le Mans , Hildebert de Lavardin , for the building of a cathedral; after the project was completed, John refused to return to his monastery. However, the monks did not construct their edifices alone. As early as 1133, St. Bernard was hiring workers to help the monks erect new buildings at Clairvaux. An illustration from

11130-433: The Rule of St. Benedict and never required a vow of silence . In the year of 1113, a charismatic young Burgundinian nobleman named Bernard arrived at Cîteaux with 35 of his relatives and friends to join the monastery. As Bernard's fame grew, the Cistercian movement grew with it. A supremely eloquent, strong-willed mystic, Bernard was to become the most admired churchman of his age. In 1115, Count Hugh of Champagne gave

11289-439: The South Netherlandish Nine Heroes ( c.  1385 ) and Flemish The Hunt of the Unicorn ( c.  1500 ). The Nine Heroes room is entered from the Cuxa cloisters. Its 14th-century tapestries are among the earliest surviving examples of tapestry, and are thought to be the original versions following widely influential and copied designs attributed to Nicolas Bataille. They were acquired over twenty years, involving

11448-578: The Southern Netherlands. The Unicorn tapestries were for a period used by the French army to cover potatoes and keep them from freezing. The set was purchased by Rockefeller in 1922, and six of the tapestries hung in his New York home until they were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1938. The museum's collection of illuminated books is small but of exceptional quality. J.P. Morgan

11607-607: The Welsh stock-rearing economy. In Yorkshire , Rievaulx Abbey was founded from Clairvaux in 1131, on a small, isolated property donated by Walter Espec , with the support of Thurstan , Archbishop of York . By 1143, three hundred monks had entered Rievaulx, including the famous St Ælred . It was from Rievaulx that a foundation was made at Melrose , which became the earliest Cistercian monastery in Scotland . Located in Roxburghshire , it

11766-587: The abbot refused their admission and had lay brothers bar the abbey gates. There was also trouble at Jerpoint, and alarmingly, the abbots of Baltinglass, Killenny, Kilbeggan and Bective supported the actions of the "revolt". In 1228, the General Chapter sent the Abbot of Stanley in Wiltshire , Stephen of Lexington , on a well-documented visitation to reform the Irish houses. A graduate of both Oxford and Paris , and

11925-404: The abundance of a wide variety of flora, they were produced for Anne of Brittany and completed c.  1495 –1505. The tapestries were purchased by Rockefeller in 1922 for about one million dollars, and donated to the museum in 1937. They were cleaned and restored in 1998, and are now hung in a dedicated room on the museum's upper floor. The large "Nativity" panel (also known as "Christ

12084-472: The acquisition of in situ architectural artifacts from local farmers. Barnard was primarily interested in the abbeys and churches founded by monastic orders from the 12th century. Following centuries of pillage and destruction during wars and revolutions, stones from many of these buildings were reused by local populations. A pioneer in seeing the value in such artifacts, Barnard often met with hostility to his effort from local and governmental groups. Yet he

12243-641: The architect William W. Bosworth . Purchased for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the acquisition included structures that would become the foundation and core of the museum. Rockefeller and Barnard were polar opposites in both temperament and outlook and did not get along; Rockefeller was reserved, Barnard exuberant. The English painter and art critic Roger Fry was then the Metropolitan's chief European acquisition agent and acted as an intermediary. Rockefeller eventually acquired Barnard's collection for around $ 700,000, retaining Barnard as an advisor. In 1927 Rockefeller hired Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. , son of one of

12402-507: The arrangement was approved by the General Chapter at Cîteaux and successive popes; the Knights of Calatrava were given a definitive rule in 1187, modeled upon the Cistercian rule for lay brothers, which included the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience ; specific rules of silence; abstinence on four days a week; the recitation of a fixed number of Pater Nosters daily; to sleep in their armour ; and to wear, as their full dress,

12561-567: The art historian who is concerned with the identification of both the original work and later areas of reconstruction". Two important series of prints are kept on microfilm : the "Index photographique de l'art en France" and the German " Marburg Picture Index ". The Cloisters is governed by the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan's collections are owned by a private corporation of about 950 fellows and benefactors. The board of trustees comprise 41 elected members, several officials of

12720-489: The borders of Castile, and feudal lordship over thousands of peasants and vassals. On more than one occasion, the Order of Calatrava brought to the field a force of 1200 to 2000 knights – considerable in medieval terms. Over time, as the Reconquista neared completion, the canonical bond between Calatrava and Morimond relaxed more and more, and the knights of the order became virtually secularized, finally undergoing dissolution in

12879-399: The brute forces of nature or evil, or are based on late 11th- and 12th-century monastic writings, such as those by Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153). The order in which the capitals were originally placed is unknown, making their interpretation especially difficult, although a sequential and continuous narrative was probably not intended. According to art historian Thomas Dale, to the monks,

13038-457: The building are intended to evoke a sense of medieval European monastic life. 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

13197-411: The building's design and construction, which sometimes frustrated the architects and builders. The building contains architecture elements and settings taken mostly from four French abbeys, which between 1934 and 1939 were transported, reconstructed, and integrated with new buildings in a project overseen by Collins. He told Rockefeller that the new building "should present a well-studied outline done in

13356-427: The church of Sankt Leonhard , in southern Austria, from c. 1340. The glass panels include a depiction of Martin of Tours as well as complex medallion patterns. The glass on the east wall comes from Évron Abbey , Maine , and dates from around 1325. The apse contains three large sculptures by the main windows; two larger than life-size female saints dating from the 14th century, and a Burgundian Bishop dating from

13515-505: The collection are characterized by vivid colors and often abstract designs and patterns; many have a devotional image as a centerpiece. The majority of these works are in the museum's Boppard room, named after the Carmelite church of Saint Severinus in Boppard , near Koblenz , Germany. The collection's pot-metal works (from the High Gothic period) highlight the effects of light, especially

13674-445: The collection of Joseph Brummer. The rooms contain the museum's collection of illuminated manuscripts, the French 13th-century arm-shaped silver reliquary, and a 15th-century deck of playing cards . The Cloisters contains one of the Metropolitan's 13 libraries. Focusing on medieval art and architecture, it holds over 15,000 volumes of books and journals, the museum's archive administration papers, curatorial papers, dealer records and

13833-477: The colour of their cowl , as opposed to the black cowl worn by Benedictines. The term Cistercian derives from Cistercium, the Latin name for the locale of Cîteaux, near Dijon in eastern France. It was here that a group of Benedictine monks from the monastery of Molesme founded Cîteaux Abbey in 1098. The first three abbots were Robert of Molesme , Alberic of Cîteaux and Stephen Harding . Bernard helped launch

13992-517: The designers of Central Park , and the Olmsted Brothers firm to create a park in the Fort Washington area. In February 1930 Rockefeller offered to build the Cloisters for the Metropolitan. Under consultation with Bosworth, he decided to build the museum at a 66.5-acre (26.9 ha) site at Fort Tryon Park, which they chose for its elevation, views, and accessible but isolated location. The land and existing buildings were purchased that year from

14151-614: The doorway represent the early Frankish kings Clovis I (d. 511) and his son Chlothar I (d. 561). The piers are lined with elaborate and highly detailed rows of statuettes, which are mostly set in niches , and are badly damaged; most have been decapitated. The heads on the right-hand capital were for a time believed to represent Henry II of England . Seven capitals survive from the original church, with carvings of human figures or heads, some of which have been identified as historical persons, including Eleanor of Aquitaine . The Romanesque hall contains three large church doorways, with

14310-404: The early design phase of the museum's construction, as well as historical photographic collections. These include photographs of medieval objects from the collection of George Joseph Demotte , and a series taken during and just after World War II showing damage sustained to monuments and artifacts, including tomb effigies. They are, according to curator Lauren Jackson-Beck, of "prime importance to

14469-445: The end they prospered. Already by 1152, Fountains had many offshoots, including Newminster Abbey (1137) and Meaux Abbey (1151). In the spring of 1140, Saint Malachy , the archbishop of Armagh, visited Clairvaux, becoming a personal friend of Abbot Bernard and an admirer of Cistercian life. He left four of his companions to be trained as Cistercians, and returned to Ireland to introduce Cistercian monasticism there. Mellifont Abbey

14628-459: The evils of hell. Those beside the mouth of hell contain representations of the devil and tormenting beasts, with, according to Young, "animal-like body parts and cloven hoofs [as they] herd naked sinners in chains to be thrown into an upturned monster's mouth". The Guilhem cloisters are inside the museum's upper level and are much smaller than originally built. Its garden contains a central fountain and plants potted in ornate containers, including

14787-512: The fabric of daily [medieval European] life but also endure as works of art in their own right". In 2011 it purchased the then-recently discovered The Falcon's Bath , a Southern Netherlands tapestry dated c. 1400–1415. It is of exceptional quality, and one of the best preserved surviving examples of its type. Other recent acquisitions of significance include the 2015 purchase of a Book of Hours attributed to Simon Bening . The museum's architectural settings, atmosphere, and acoustics have made it

14946-418: The fields. The Cistercians made major contributions to culture and technology: Cistercian architecture has been recognized as a notable form of medieval architecture , and the Cistercians were the main force of technological diffusion in fields such as agriculture and hydraulic engineering . Over the centuries, education and scholarship came to dominate the life of many monasteries. A reform movement seeking

15105-649: The four sides of its lower arms. Further pieces of note include a 13th-century English Enthroned Virgin and Child statuette, a c. 1490 German statue of Saint Barbara , and an early 16th-century boxwood Miniature Altarpiece with the Crucifixion . Other significant works include fountains and baptismal fonts, chairs, aquamaniles (water containers in animal or human form), bronze lavers, alms boxes and playing cards. The museum has an extensive collection of medieval European frescoes , ivory statuettes, reliquary wood and metal shrines and crosses, as well as examples of

15264-423: The full observance of the Cistercian way of life, safeguard monastic properties, initiate a regime of benign paternalism to train a new generation of religious, isolate trouble-makers and institute an effective visitation system." The arrangement lasted almost half a century, and in 1274, the filiation of Mellifont was reconstituted. In Germany the Cistercians were instrumental in the spread of Christianity east of

15423-431: The future course of western monachism . From one point of view, it may be regarded as a compromise between the primitive Benedictine system, in which each abbey was autonomous and isolated, and the centralization of Cluny . The Cistercians maintained the independence of individual houses: each abbey had its own abbot, elected by its own monks, and its own property and finances administered without outside interference. On

15582-542: The help of his assistants, the core of obedient Irish monks and the aid of both English and Irish secular powers, he was able to envisage the reconstruction of the Cistercian province in Ireland. Stephen dissolved the Mellifont filiation altogether, and subjected 15 monasteries to houses outside Ireland. In breadth and depth, his instructions constituted a radical reform programme: "They were intended to put an end to abuses, restore

15741-601: The highest level of a rich and powerful social structure of later fourteenth-century France". The Hunt of the Unicorn room can be entered from the hall containing the Nine Heroes via an early 16th-century door carved with representations of unicorns. The unicorn tapestries consist of a series of large, colourful hangings and fragment textiles designed in Paris and woven in Brussels or Liège. Noted for their vivid colourization—dominated by blue, yellow-brown, red, and gold hues—and

15900-410: The initiative passed to the mendicant orders , in Ireland, Wales and elsewhere. Relaxations were gradually introduced into Cistercian life with regard to diet and simplicity of life. Also, they began accepting the traditional sources of income that monks in comparable orders used: like rents, tolls, and benefices. The agricultural operations were blessed by success. Wealth and splendour characterized

16059-569: The invasion, bringing the total number of Cistercian houses in Ireland to 31. This was almost half the number of those in England, but it was about thrice the number in each of Scotland and Wales. Most of these monasteries enjoyed either noble, episcopal or royal patronage. In 1269, the Archbishop of Cashel joined the order and established a Cistercian house at the foot of the Rock of Cashel in 1272. Similarly,

16218-455: The lives of saints. Several of the carvings are secular, including those of legendary figures such as Saint George and the Dragon , the " wild man " confronting a grotesque monster, and a grotesque head wearing an unusual and fanciful hat. The capitals are placed in chronological order, beginning with God in the act of creation at the northwest corner, Adam and Eve in the west gallery, followed by

16377-454: The magnetism of Bernard. At the time of his election, he was Abbot of Saints Vincenzo and Anastasio outside Rome. A considerable reinforcement to the Order was the merger of the Savigniac houses with the Cistercians, at the insistence of Eugene III . Thirteen English abbeys, of which the most famous were Furness Abbey and Jervaulx Abbey , thus adopted the Cistercian formula. In Dublin ,

16536-545: The main portal of the abbey, and was probably built as the south transept door. Carvings on the elaborate white oolitic limestone doorway depict the Coronation of the Virgin and contains foliated capitals and statuettes on the outer piers; including two kings positioned in the embrasures and various kneeling angels. Carvings of angels are placed in the archivolts above the kings. The large figurative sculptures on either side of

16695-619: The main visitor entrance adjoining the Guilhem Cloister. The monumental arched Burgundian doorway is from Moutier-Saint-Jean de Réôme in France and dates to c. 1150. Two animals are carved into the keystones ; both rest on their hind legs as if about to attack each other. The capitals are lined with carvings of both real and imagined animals and birds, as well as leaves and other fauna. The two earlier doorways are from Reugny, Allier , and Poitou in central France. The hall contains four large early-13th-century stone sculptures representing

16854-543: The maximum amount of light. The windows were originally set within imposing fortress walls; according to the art historian Bonnie Young "these small windows and the massive, fortress-like walls contribute to the feeling of austerity ... typical of Romanesque churches." The Langon chapel is on the museum's ground level. Its right wall was built around 1126 for the Romanesque Cathédrale Notre-Dame-du-Bourg de Digne . The chapter house consists of

17013-460: The monasteries, so that by 1300, the standard of living in most abbeys was comparable, if not higher, than the standards middling nobles enjoyed. Two important papal bulls tried to introduce reforms: Clement IV's Parvus fons and Benedict XII's Fulgens sicut stella matutina . The General Chapter continued to battle against abuses. In Ireland, the information on the Cistercian Order after

17172-666: The movement of around 140 pieces, including capitals, columns and pilasters. The carvings on the marble piers and column shafts recall Roman sculpture and are coiled by extravagant foliage, including vines . The capitals contain acanthus leaves and grotesque heads peering out, including figures at the Presentation at the Temple , Daniel in the Lions' Den and the Mouth of Hell , and several pilasters and columns. The carvings seem preoccupied with

17331-423: The museum in 1969. Produced in tempera , grisaille, ink, and gold leaf on vellum , it had been rarely studied and was, until that point, misattributed to Jean Pucelle . Following its acquisition, it was studied by art historians, after which attribution was given to Le Noir. While examples of textile art are displayed throughout the museum, there are two dedicated rooms given to individual series of tapestries ,

17490-464: The order accepted developed land and relocated the serfs elsewhere. The outlines of the Cistercian reform were adumbrated by Alberic, but it received its final form in the Carta caritatis ( Charter of Charity ), which was the defining guide on how the reform was to be lived. This document governed the relations between the various houses of the Cistercian order, and exercised a great influence also upon

17649-803: The original vertical descent of authority produced "a system of centralized national control" much closer to that of the Premonstratensians or mendicants . The first Cistercian house to be established in Britain, a monastery at Waverley Abbey , Surrey, was founded by William Gifford, Bishop of Winchester in 1128. It was founded with 12 monks and an abbot from L'Aumône Abbey , in the South of France. By 1187 there were 70 monks and 120 lay brothers in residence. Thirteen Cistercian monasteries, all in remote locations, were founded in Wales between 1131 and 1226. The first of these

17808-459: The other hand, all the abbeys were subjected to the General Chapter , the constitutional body which exercised vigilance over the order. Made up of all the abbots, the General Chapter met annually in mid-September at Cîteaux . Attendance was compulsory, with the abbot of Cîteaux presiding. He was to enforce conformity to Cîteaux in all details of monastic observance, liturgy, and customs. Cîteaux

17967-512: The period. The book was in Switzerland by 1368, possibly at the abbey of Zofingen , in the canton of Aargau . It was acquired by the Met in 1968. The "Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux" is a very small early Gothic book of hours containing 209 folios, of which 25 are full-page miniatures. It is lavishly decorated in grisaille drawings, historiated initials and almost 700 border images . Jeanne d'Évreux

18126-409: The personal papers of Barnard, as well as early glass lantern slides of museum materials, manuscript facsimiles , scholarly records, maps and recordings of musical performances at the museum. The library functions primarily as a resource for museum staff, but is available by appointment to researchers, art dealers, academics and students. The archives contain early sketches and blueprints made during

18285-639: The preeminent form of Gothic medieval monumental painting". She bought c.   1500 heraldic windows from the Rhineland , now in the Campin room with the Mérode Altarpiece . Hayward's addition in 1980 led to a redesign of the room so that the installed pieces would echo the domestic setting of the altarpiece. She wrote that the Campin room is the only gallery in the Met "where domestic rather than religious art predominates...a conscious effort has been made to create

18444-616: The protection of the King of France Louis XIII , who became Count of Barcelona . At the end of the Thirty Years' War , Philip IV of Spain and Louis XIII of France signed the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees whereby Northern Catalonia was annexed to the Kingdom of France, while the rest of Catalonia came back under Spanish rule. The abbey was nationalized along with other ecclesiastical properties during

18603-440: The public was not allowed to visit until four days later. Rockefeller financed the purchase of many of the early collection of works, often buying independently and then donating the items to the museum. His financing of the museum has led to it being described as "perhaps the supreme example of curatorial genius working in exquisite harmony with vast wealth". The second major donor was the industrialist J. P. Morgan , founder of

18762-578: The purchase of more than 20 fragments which were then sewn together during a long reassembly process. The chivalric figures represent the scriptural and legendary Nine Worthies , who consist of three pagans ( Hector , Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar ), three Jews ( Joshua , David and Judas Maccabeus ) and three Christians ( King Arthur , Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon ). Of these, five figures survive: Hector, Caesar, Joshua, David and Arthur. They have been described as representing "in their variety,

18921-478: The resources of the monasteries, there being sometimes as many as 200, or even 300, in a single abbey. On the other hand, in some countries, the system of lay brothers in course of time worked itself out; thus in England by the close of the 14th century it had shrunk to relatively small proportions, and in the 15th century the regimen of the English Cistercian houses tended to approximate more and more to that of

19080-440: The rivalry with the famous Benedictine abbey of Cluny, where wealth and excess were said to have set in. Harding acquired land for the abbey to develop to ensure its survival and ethic. As to grants of land, the order would normally accept only undeveloped land, which the monks then developed by their own labour. For this they developed over time a very large component of uneducated lay brothers known as conversi . In some cases,

19239-650: The scene of violence and destabilization following Martin Luther 's efforts to gain independence from the Vatican. Many abbeys lost scores of monks, as these left religious life in order to marry. Monastic property was confiscated by nobles who saw an opportunity to proift from the chaos. During the English Reformation , Henry VIII 's Dissolution of the Monasteries saw the confiscation of evey single monastery in that country,

19398-443: The sculpture is properly illuminated, since the light falls in a natural way; the visitor has the sense of being in the open; and his attention, consequently, is not attracted to the modern superstructure." The Bonnefont cloisters were assembled from several French monasteries, but mostly come from a late 12th-century Cistercian Abbaye de Bonnefont  [ fr ] at Bonnefont-en-Comminges, southwest of Toulouse . The abbey

19557-487: The strength of the order which derived from this uniformity declined. Wars, amon them the Hundred Years' War , and a lack of leadership did damage. Many of the monasteries were controlled by dynasties who appointed their relatives to leadership positions, and pocketed the abbeys' profits. The system of placing abbeys in commendam was widespread and led to the spiritual and material decline of many abbeys. Germany became

19716-491: The time". The "Belles Heures" is widely regarded as one of the finest extant examples of manuscript illumination, and very few books of hours are as richly decorated. It is the only surviving complete book attributed to the Limbourg brothers. Rockefeller purchased the book from Maurice de Rothschild in 1954, and donated it to the Metropolitan. The very small "Bonne de Luxembourg" manuscript (each leaf 12.5 × 8.4 × 3.9 cm)

19875-412: The transitions between darkness, shadow and illumination. The Met's collection grew in the early 20th century when Raymond Picairn made acquisitions at a time when medieval glass was not highly regarded by connoisseurs, and was difficult to extract and transport. Jane Hayward, a curator at the museum from 1969 who began the museum's second phase of acquisition, describes stained glass as "unquestioningly

20034-481: The two Savigniac houses of Erenagh and St Mary's became Cistercian. It was in the latter case that medieval Dublin acquired a Cistercian monastery in the very unusual suburban location of Oxmantown , with its own private harbour called The Pill. For a hundred years, until the first quarter of the 13th century, the Cistercians supplanted Cluny as the most powerful order and the chief religious influence in western Europe. But then in turn their influence began to wane, as

20193-546: The two walkways contains an eight-sided fountain. The capitals were carved at different points in the abbey's history and thus contain a variety of forms and abstract geometric patterns, including scrolling leaves, pine cones, sacred figures such as Christ, the Apostles , angels, and monstrous creatures including two-headed animals, lions restrained by apes, mythic hybrids , a mermaid and inhuman mouths consuming human torsos. The motifs are derived from popular fables, or represent

20352-531: The use of Benedictine black garments in the abbey and clothed the monks in white habits of undyed wool. Alberic forged an alliance with the Dukes of Burgundy , working out a deal with Duke Odo I of Burgundy concerning the donation of a vineyard ( Meursault ) as well as materials for building the abbey church, which was consecrated on 16 November 1106 by the Bishop of Chalon sur Saône . On 26 January 1108, Alberic died and

20511-473: The very rare Gothic boxwood miniatures . It has liturgical metalwork vessels and rare pieces of Gothic furniture and metalwork. Many pieces are not associated with a particular architectural setting, so their placement in the museum may vary. Some of the objects have dramatic provenance, including those plundered from the estates of aristocrats during the French Revolutionary Army 's occupation of

20670-599: The very simplest form of stonework growing naturally out of the rocky hill-top. After looking through the books in the Boston Athenaeum ;... we found a building at Monsempron in Southern France of a type which would lend itself in a very satisfactory manner to such a treatment." The architects sought to both memorialize the north hill's role in the American Revolution and to provide a sweeping view over

20829-462: The way of the Trappists. Civic politics also played a role in the conflict. The Protestant Reformation , the ecclesiastical policy of Emperor Joseph II , the French Revolution , and the revolutions of the 18th century almost wholly destroyed the Cistercians. But some survived, and from the beginning of the last half of the 19th century there was a considerable recovery. In 1892, the Trappists left

20988-522: The way. He claimed to have found the tomb effigy of Jean d'Alluye face down, in use as a bridge over a small stream. By 1914 he had gathered enough artifacts to open a gallery in Manhattan. Barnard often neglected his personal finances, and was so disorganized that he often misplaced the origin or provenance of his purchases. He sold his collection to John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1925 during one of his recurring monetary crises. The two had been introduced by

21147-541: The woman's head is held by an angel. The Fuentidueña chapel is the museum's largest room, and is entered through a broad oak door flanked by sculptures that include leaping animals. Its centerpiece is the Fuentidueña Apse , a semicircular Romanesque recess built between about 1175 to 1200 at the Saint Joan church at Fuentidueña , Segovia . By the 19th century, the church was long abandoned and in disrepair. The chapel

21306-506: The world's most important collections of specialized gardens. The garden's design was overseen by Rorimer during the museum's construction. He was aided by Margaret B. Freeman , who conducted extensive research into the keeping of plants and their symbolism in the Middle Ages. Today the gardens are tended by a staff of horticulturalists ; the senior members are also historians of 13th- and 14th-century gardening techniques. The Gothic chapel

21465-479: The world. In 1133, Heiligenkreuz Abbey was founded near Vienna by Morimond monks; it is (as of 2024) the largest men's abbey in Europe. The order entrusted the oversight of the English, Welsh and (intermittently) Irish abbeys to two or more abbots-commissary, thereby abrogating the famous Cistercian system of filiation: not the mother abbeys, but the abbots-commisary had full powers of visitation. This variation on

21624-479: Was Tintern Abbey , which was sited in a remote river valley, and depended largely on its agricultural and pastoral activities for survival. Other abbeys, such as at Neath , Strata Florida , Conwy and Valle Crucis became among the most hallowed names in the history of religion in medieval Wales. Their austere discipline seemed to echo the ideals of the Celtic saints , and the emphasis on pastoral farming fit well into

21783-454: Was 132 metres (433 ft) long. Monastic buildings came to be constructed entirely of stone, right down to the most humble of buildings. In the 12th and 13th centuries, even Cistercian barns consisted had stone exteriors. The Cistercians acquired a reputation as masters in administering ecclesial construction projects. St. Bernard's own brother, Achard , is known to have supervised the construction of many abbeys, such as Himmerod Abbey in

21942-411: Was St Bernard's influence and prestige. He later came popularly to be regarded as the founder of the Cistercians, who have often been called Bernardines. Bernard died in 1153, one month after his pupil Eugene III. In 1153, the first King of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques (Afonso, I), founded Alcobaça Monastery . The original church was replaced by the present construction from 1178. The abbey's church

22101-501: Was a major early donor, but although his taste leaned heavily towards rare printed and illuminated books, he donated very few to the Metropolitan, instead preserving them at the Morgan Library. At the same time, the consensus within the Met was that the Cloisters should focus on architectural elements, sculpture and decorative arts to enhance the environmental quality of the institution, whereas manuscripts were considered more suited to

22260-624: Was acquired by Rockefeller for the Cloisters in 1931, following three decades of complex negotiation and diplomacy between the Spanish church and both countries' art-historical hierarchies and governments. It was eventually exchanged in a deal that involved the transfer of six frescoes from San Baudelio de Berlanga to the Prado, on an equally long-term loan. The structure was disassembled into almost 3,300 mostly sandstone and limestone blocks, each individually cataloged, and shipped to New York in 839 crates. It

22419-404: Was always to be the model to which all the other houses had to conform. Cistercian monks and nuns have a reputation of cultivating solitude and silence; the great monastics have explained silence as "the language of liberation, enlightenment, or union with God." Some observers deduced, incorrectly, that Cistercians take a vow of silence. Watching over one's tongue is, however, a general theme in

22578-532: Was an astute negotiator who had the advantage of a professional sculptor's eye for superior stone carving, and by 1907 he had built a high-quality collection at relatively low cost. Reputedly he paid $ 25,000 for the Trie buildings, $ 25,000 for the Bonnefort and $ 100,000 for the Cuxa cloisters. His success led him to adopt a somewhat romantic view of himself. He recalled bicycling across the French countryside and unearthing fallen and long-forgotten Gothic masterworks along

22737-556: Was badly damaged during the French Wars of Religion and again during the French Revolution. Most of the structures had been sold to a local man, Piere-Yon Verniere, by 1850, and were acquired by Barnard in 1906. The Treasury room was opened in 1988 to celebrate the museum's 50th anniversary. It largely consists of small luxury objects acquired by the Met after it had built its initial collection, and draws heavily on acquisitions from

22896-493: 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. The design, layout, and ambiance of

23055-497: Was built in 1136 by King David I of Scotland , and completed in less than ten years. Another important offshoot of Rievaulx was Revesby Abbey in Lincolnshire . Fountains Abbey was founded in 1132 by discontented Benedictine monks from St. Mary's Abbey, York , who desired a return to the austere Rule of St Benedict. After many struggles and great hardships, St Bernard agreed to send a monk from Clairvaux to instruct them, and in

23214-578: Was consecrated in 1223. Two further building phases followed in order to complete the nave, leading to the final consecration of the medieval church building in 1252. As a consequence of the wars between the Christians and Moors on the Iberian Peninsula , the Cistercians established a military branch of the order in Castile in 1157: the Order of Calatrava . Membership of the Cistercian Order had included

23373-855: Was founded in County Louth in 1142 and from it daughter houses of Bective Abbey in County Meath (1147), Inislounaght Abbey in County Tipperary (1147–1148), Baltinglass in County Wicklow (1148), Monasteranenagh in County Limerick (1148), Kilbeggan in County Westmeath (1150) and Boyle Abbey in County Roscommon (1161). Following the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the 1170s,

23532-561: Was founded in 1129 from Ebrach Abbey in Bavaria, which had been founded from Morimond Abbey in France. In 1129 Margrave Leopold the Strong of Styria granted the Bavarian monks an area of land just north of what is today the provincial capital Graz , where they founded Rein Abbey . At the time, it was the 38th Cistercian monastery founded; as of 2024, it is the oldest surviving Cistercian house in

23691-780: Was funded by Rockefeller and described at the time as a "major event for the history of collecting in the United States". The triptych is well preserved with little overpainting , glossing, dirt layers or paint loss. Other panel paintings in the collection include a Nativity triptych altarpiece attributed to a follower of Rogier van der Weyden , and the Jumieges panels by an unknown French master. The 12th-century English walrus ivory Cloisters Cross contains more than 92 intricately carved figures and 98 inscriptions. A similar 12th-century French metalwork reliquary cross contains six sequences of engravings on either side of its shaft, and across

23850-775: Was initially part of the territory of the County of Barcelona , then of the Kingdom of Majorca and the Principality of Catalonia within the Crown of Aragon . After the dynastic union of the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Castile , all of the lands contained therein became part of Habsburg Spain . During the Reapers' War or Catalan Revolt against Philip IV of Spain , the Catalan Republic (1641) asked for

24009-535: Was intact until at least 1807, and by the 1850s all of its architectural features had been removed from the site, often for decoration of nearby buildings. Barnard purchased the stonework in 1937. Today the Bonnefont cloisters contain 21 double capitals, and surround a garden that contains many features typical of the medieval period, including a central wellhead , raised flower beds and lined with wattle fences . The marbles are highly ornate and decorated, some with grotesque figures. The inner garden has been set with

24168-492: Was moved to New York between 1906 and 1907. The installation became one of the first major undertakings by the Metropolitan after it acquired Barnard's collection. After intensive work over the fall and winter of 1925–26, the Cuxa cloisters were opened to the public on April 1, 1926. The quadrangle -shaped garden once formed a center around which monks slept in cells. The original garden seemed to have been lined by walkways around adjoining arches lined with capitals enclosing

24327-437: Was named abbot. The abbey continued under the protection of the count of Cerdanya and Conflent . The territory then came under the domain of the family of Wilfred I , count of Barcelona in 870. In about 940, under the initiative of Sunifred II of Cerdanya, a new church dedicated to Saint Michael was built. In 956 the building was refurbished and made more sumptuous; the main altar was consecrated on 30 September 974 by Garí ,

24486-540: Was not enough to support his family. Barnard was a risk taker and led most of his life on the edge of poverty. He moved to Paris in 1883 where he studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts . He lived in the village of Moret-sur-Loing , near Fontainebleau , between 1905 and 1913, and began to deal in 13th- and 14th-century European objects to supplement his earnings. In the process he built a large personal collection of what he described as "antiques", at first by buying and selling stand-alone objects with French dealers, then by

24645-459: Was noticeably weakened." In 1335, the French cardinal Jacques Fournier, a Cistercian monk, was elected and consecrated Pope Benedict XII . He was devoted to reducing the culture of nepotism at the Vatican. He promulgated a series of regulations to restore the spirit of reform in the Cistercian Order. By the 15th century, however, the Cistercians had fallen on dark days. The General Chapter lost virtually all its power to enforce its decrees, and

24804-413: Was reconstructed at the Cloisters in the late 1940s The build was large and complex enough that it required the demolition of the former "Special Exhibition Room". The chapel was opened to the public in 1961, seven years after its installation had begun. The apse consists of a broad arch leading to a barrel vault , and culminates with a half-dome. The capitals at the entrance contain representations of

24963-606: Was succeeded by Stephen Harding, the man responsible for carrying the order into its crucial phase. Harding framed the original version of the Cistercian constitution, soon to be called the Carta Caritatis ( Charter of Charity ). Although it was revised on several occasions to meet contemporary needs, from the outset it emphasised a simple life of work, love, prayer and self-denial. The Cistercians soon came to distinguish themselves from Benedictines by wearing white or grey tunics instead of black; white habits are common for reform movements. Much of Cistercian reform took place against

25122-491: Was the third wife of Charles IV of France , and after their deaths the book went into the possession of Charles' brother, Jean, duc de Berry . The use of grisaille (shades of gray) drawings allowed the artist to give the figures a highly sculptural form, and the miniatures contain structures typical of French Gothic architecture of the period. The book has been described as "the high point of Parisian court painting", and evidence of "the unprecedentedly refined artistic tastes of

25281-410: Was used across Europe to meet the largely homogeneous needs of the order. Various buildings, including the chapter-house to the east and the dormitories above, were grouped around a cloister , and were sometimes linked to the transept of the church itself by a night stair. Usually Cistercian churches were cruciform, with a short presbytery to meet the liturgical needs of the brethren, small chapels in

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