The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Heavenly Bodies” exhibit, the largest ever staged by New York City’s premiere museum, is heading for its final weekend before it shutters on Monday (Oct. 8), offering one last chance to view more than 60,000-square-feet of exhibits.
The exhibit, a collaboration with The Costume Institute, has drawn more than 1.3 million visitors to The Met’s Fifth Avenue museum and nearly 200,000 to The Met Cloisters since opening on May 10, according to the museum.
During its final weekend, Saturday and Sunday, October 6 and 7, the exhibition will open for early viewing at The Met’s Fifth Avenue location.
Docents will be in the exhibition’s galleries to guide visitors, and The Met Store and The American Wing Café will be open. Tickets include a complimentary exhibition catalog and Met tote bag.
The exhibit, formally known as “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,”presents a dialogue between fashion and masterworks of medieval art in The Met collection to examine fashion’s ongoing engagement with the traditions of Catholicism.”
“Papal robes and accessories from the Vatican serves as the cornerstone of the exhibition, highlighting the enduring influence of liturgical vestments on designers. The 42 ecclesiastical masterworks come from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, and many of them have never been seen outside the Vatican,” according to the museum.
Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, assembled the exhibit in collaboration with The Met’s Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, a Met museum in Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights in New York City.
The Cloisters, a Medieval abbey imported from Europe in the 1930s, specializes in European medieval architecture, sculpture and decorative arts, with a focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods.
The last time the Vatican sent a loan of this magnitude to The Met was in 1983, for “The Vatican Collection”s exhibition, the Museum’s third most-visited show.
A more recent exhibit, “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer,” brought in more than 700,000 visitors during its run from Nov. 13, 2017, through Feb. 12, 2018, making it the 10th most attended show in the Museum’s history.
Visitors who purchase EmptyMet: Heavenly Bodies tickets online can see the show beginning at 8:30 a.m. Tickets are $100, and $40 for Members.
Check out the video below.
Run: May 10–October 8, 2018
Exhibition Locations:
The Met Cloisters and The Met Fifth Avenue’s
Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art,
Medieval Galleries, The Robert Lehman Wing,
and Anna Wintour Costume Center
Website: EmptyMet Heavenly Bodies