The Cloisters

The birthday celebrations continue (although they are now seeping into Halloween).

I enjoyed another Scottish opera Friday, this time from good orchestra seats. Macbeth and his Lady dazzled. It was the second time I've seen Verdi's Macbeth, but this time the nationalistic theme came across much more strongly (there's something powerful about a refugee scene in which the huddled victims are slowly armed [and foliated] into non-victimhood). The sudden "apparating" and "disapparating" of the banquet table during the Banquo's ghost scene (an over-the-top-party) was a bit gimmicky, but pretty cool nonetheless. I liked the ensemble of witches, which felt like an exponential enlargement of the triune Ariel in The Tempest this summer. Reviewers called the witches "bag ladies", and they did have the eccentric movements down pat, but oddly, their bags made me think more of "ladies who lunch". In general I'd have to say that the non-named-character performers in this opera seemed to be having a blast.

On Saturday afternoon, as the rains slowed, the festivities moved to the Cloisters. The capitals and many other architectural elements were cobbled together from 12th and 13th century monasteries as well as other sources. This capital is likely from Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert (Herault). There was a tapestry-weaving demonstration in this area.

Downstairs, the Gothic Chapel featured "French and Spanish tomb effigies ... from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries." So I guess this guy is probably not just taking a nap:
For much more modern art (e.g., 15th C), you can visit the Boppard room. I liked this painting of the archangel Michael slaying a demon (it may be the antichrist). It's hard to see in this low-resolution picture, but the demon is a nightmarish grab-bag of parts. Its upper left arm is a lizard of some kind. Its torso is a face, with a mouth at the stomach; and its upper thigh and groin are both faces with eyes and mouths. To me, these extra faces suggest greed and lust.
An espaliered pear tree in the Bonnefort Cloister herb garden:

According to Wikipedia:

Espalier is the horticultural technique of training trees through pruning and grafting in order to create formal "two-dimensional" or single plane patterns by the branches of the tree. The technique was popular in the Middle Ages in Europe to produce
fruit inside the walls of a typical castle courtyard without interfering with
the open space, and to decorate solid walls by such trees planted near them. [It may have been invented much earlier, even in ancient Egypt.]
...
An espalier collects almost as much sunlight as a regular tree, yet has far less mass. ... [Espaliered trees may] be planted next to a wall, which can reflect more sunlight and retain heat overnight, or be planted so that they are facing south ... and absorb maximum sunlight. These two facts allow an espalier to succeed in cooler climates, where a non-espaliered tree of the same variety would fail. They also mature fruit more quickly. Certain types of trees [e.g., Pyrus (pears)] adapt better to this technique than others, although any fruit tree will theoretically work.

No visit to the Cloisters is complete without a tour of the unicorn tapestries. On prior visits, I couldn't figure out a narrative that made sense for all six tapestries. It always puzzled me that the unicorn is found, attacked, and killed, and then somehow ends up alive and chastened in captivity. I wasn't buying the resurrection theory (if the unicorn is a resurrected Christ figure, it should not be a captive). Turns out the historians aren't buying it either. The official museum position is that these are at least two unicorn tapestry series. Among other things, they point out that the "unicorn in captivity" tapestry and the "hunters enter the woods" tapestry both have a flat mille fleurs background very unlike the rich layered landscape of the other four (be sure to play "spot the wildlife" and also look for the subtle distortion when objects and animals are portrayed underwater). One of a number of known unknowns about these tapestries is the mysterious "AE" who supposedly was an original owner. For what it's worth, I thought the "AE" might really be an alpha and rotated omega, or an "A" and a very fancy "D" for anno domini, but no one else seems to like these theories.

And after all this cultural and horticultural enlightenment, we drove off to Lowe's and picked up a 2x4 (my first!), handsaw, and medicine cabinet. The gaping hole in my bathroom wall is now nicely filled in a mere six years after I moved in. What bliss! A girl could totally get used to this.