At the Met, an Ancient Balm for the Depths of Winter

1 month ago 26

Art & Design|At the Met, an Ancient Balm for the Depths of Winter

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/arts/design/mandalas-met-show.html

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Art Review

A centuries-old Buddhist model of the universe has new meaning for the shortest of days and longest of worries.

A view of an art gallery with a vividly colored piece composed of four multipanel paintings and a set of handwoven carpets.
Tenzing Rigdol, “Biography of a Thought,” 2022-24, acrylic on stretched canvas and woven carpet. The piece is part of “Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet,” which runs through Jan. 12.Credit...Graham Dickie/The New York Times

Holland Cotter

Dec. 26, 2024Updated 10:03 p.m. ET

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is, in these darkest days of midwinter, one of the city’s spiritual hot spots, thanks to the harmonic convergence of two outstanding and very different exhibitions, both closing soon.

On a visit to the treasure-chest display called “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350,” a survey of religious art from one of Italy’s major alt-Renaissance art capitals, you’ll find yourself wandering hushed paths among grave-faced saints — ordinary people stunned into wisdom by grace.

“Siena” has been pulling in a lot of foot traffic since it opened, but another show of comparable size and beauty, “Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet,” seems to be less traveled. Celestials are gathered in force here, too. But their vibe is different. They encircle you, as if alert to your attention. They smile and snarl, boogie and plié, all against jewel-bright geometric designs that pulse with a dance-floor beat.

Mandalas — the word has roots in a Sanskrit word for “round” or “surround” — come in many forms, the most common being paintings. Some 50 examples, large and small, most from the 11th to the 15th centuries, make up the bulk of this show organized by Kurt Behrendt, the Met’s associate curator of South Asian art.

Like most religious objects, mandalas are conceived to be spiritually functional, though judging by descriptions in the exhibition catalog, their function seems not to be fixed. Depending on the account, painted mandalas can serve as GPS-style guides to the cosmos; as attention-sharpening aids to meditation; and as learner’s manuals in the ways and means of personal salvation as prescribed by Buddhist disciplines.

Image

“Vajradhatu (Diamond Realm Mandala),” Central Tibet, 14th century. Distemper and gold on cloth.Credit...Graham Dickie/The New York Times

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