The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011. #61
Vanderbilt Mantelpiece
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire)
Date: ca. 1881–83
Geography: Mid-Atlantic, New York City, New York, United States
Culture: American
Medium: Marble, mosaic, oak, and cast iron
Dimensions: 184 3/8 x 154 7/8 x 37 1/4 in. (468.3 x 393.4 x 94.6 cm)
Classification: Architecture
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II, 1925.
Cornelius Vanderbilt II House, New York, until 1925
Inscription: [in mosaic, left cartouche] DEO / NON • / FORTUNE; [in mosaic, top center] DOMVS • IN • LIMINE • DOMINI / VOLVNTATEM • BONAM • / MONSTRAT • HOSPTI / INVENTI • SALVTATIO / VELEDICTO • ADIVM / ENTVMOVE • EXEVNTO; [above caryatids, left] AMOR; [right] PAX; [on fireback, monograms, each repeated three times n shiled] CV / AGV; [in center of oak entablature] v
THis mantelpiece originally dominated the entrance hall of the residence ofCornelius Vanderbilt II on Fifth Avenue at Fifty-seventh Street which was demolished 1925-27.
Working for the architect George B. Post, the artist John La Farge (1835-1910) created a lavis decorative program, one of which is this Saint-Gauden mantelpiece.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's earliest roots date back to 1866 in Paris, France, when a group of Americans agreed to create a "national institution and gallery of art" to bring art and art education to the American people.
On March 30, 1880, after a brief move to the Douglas Mansion at 128 West 14th Street, the Museum opened to the public at its current site on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. The architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould designed the initial Ruskinian Gothic structure, the west facade of which is still visible in the Robert Lehman Wing. The building has since expanded greatly, and the various additions—built as early as 1888, now completely surround the original structure.
The Museum's Beaux-Arts Fifth Avenue facade and Great Hall, designed by the architect and founding Museum Trustee Richard Morris Hunt, opened to the public in December 1902. The Evening Post reported that at last New York had a neoclassical palace of art, "one of the finest in the world, and the only public building in recent years which approaches in dignity and grandeur the museums of the old world."
By the twentieth century, the Museum had become one of the world's great art centers.
Today, the Museum's two-million-square-foot building houses over two million objects, tens of thousands of which are on view at any given time.
www.metmuseum.org/en/about-the-museum/history-of-the-muse...
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011. #61
Vanderbilt Mantelpiece
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire)
Date: ca. 1881–83
Geography: Mid-Atlantic, New York City, New York, United States
Culture: American
Medium: Marble, mosaic, oak, and cast iron
Dimensions: 184 3/8 x 154 7/8 x 37 1/4 in. (468.3 x 393.4 x 94.6 cm)
Classification: Architecture
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II, 1925.
Cornelius Vanderbilt II House, New York, until 1925
Inscription: [in mosaic, left cartouche] DEO / NON • / FORTUNE; [in mosaic, top center] DOMVS • IN • LIMINE • DOMINI / VOLVNTATEM • BONAM • / MONSTRAT • HOSPTI / INVENTI • SALVTATIO / VELEDICTO • ADIVM / ENTVMOVE • EXEVNTO; [above caryatids, left] AMOR; [right] PAX; [on fireback, monograms, each repeated three times n shiled] CV / AGV; [in center of oak entablature] v
THis mantelpiece originally dominated the entrance hall of the residence ofCornelius Vanderbilt II on Fifth Avenue at Fifty-seventh Street which was demolished 1925-27.
Working for the architect George B. Post, the artist John La Farge (1835-1910) created a lavis decorative program, one of which is this Saint-Gauden mantelpiece.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's earliest roots date back to 1866 in Paris, France, when a group of Americans agreed to create a "national institution and gallery of art" to bring art and art education to the American people.
On March 30, 1880, after a brief move to the Douglas Mansion at 128 West 14th Street, the Museum opened to the public at its current site on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. The architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould designed the initial Ruskinian Gothic structure, the west facade of which is still visible in the Robert Lehman Wing. The building has since expanded greatly, and the various additions—built as early as 1888, now completely surround the original structure.
The Museum's Beaux-Arts Fifth Avenue facade and Great Hall, designed by the architect and founding Museum Trustee Richard Morris Hunt, opened to the public in December 1902. The Evening Post reported that at last New York had a neoclassical palace of art, "one of the finest in the world, and the only public building in recent years which approaches in dignity and grandeur the museums of the old world."
By the twentieth century, the Museum had become one of the world's great art centers.
Today, the Museum's two-million-square-foot building houses over two million objects, tens of thousands of which are on view at any given time.
www.metmuseum.org/en/about-the-museum/history-of-the-muse...