What is grief, if not love persevering?

February 14, 2023 12:27 PM

What you learn about beauty and grief as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Bringley writes about going to the Philadelphia Museum of Art with his mother shortly after his brother’s death. They each gravitated toward a single painting. Bringley found himself before a medieval Adoration of the Christ, depicting Mary tender and peaceful with her newborn son. His mother, meanwhile, went to an early Renaissance Lamentation, in which Mary cradles her son’s tormented corpse. They each stood before their paintings, the way I had stood in the lovely May garden with my mother, and they wept."

Patrick Bringley has written a memoir about his time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, All the Beauty in the World. Whether you're in a relationship or not, I hope that you find some beauty in this Valentine's Day.

posted by Halloween Jack (3 comments total)

This was so poignant in different ways for me.

1) A dear friend is still reeling from the sudden, devastating loss of her adult daughter, completely unexpectedly. She has been reaching out for beautiful things in her grief, that recall her beautiful daughter, gone far too soon.

2) One of my favorite uncles was a restorer at the MET. On a couple of wonderful occasions he brought me on the train from NJ to the museum, where I had free rein. It was wonderful. The basements full of boxed collections! His workshop! The gorgeous paintings and sculptures! It was heaven for me.

I shared this article with my heartbroken friend, hoping she can understand her desire for beauty in her sorrow. And I shared this with my cousin, in memory of her dad, and the beauty he introduced me to.

Thank you. This was lovely.
posted by annieb at 5:04 PM on February 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

This was lovely, thank you for posting it. In my visits to various museums I have often wondered what the guards are thinking as they sit or stand in their assigned places every day. Some rooms are so full of beautiful art I think it must be quite peaceful and contemplative. It seems like it is.

And I loved the shout-out to The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:33 PM on February 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

Thank you for this. I was fortunate to travel to Italy for the first time last summer... the trip of a lifetime. The trip, however, fell six weeks after my mother's unexpected death. The astonishing beauty of art in Rome, Milan, and Venice were a balm to me. But nothing caught me more by surprise than my entirely uncontrollable weeping in front of Michaelangelo's Pieta. Reading this, I understand. Much like Bringley and his mother's gravitation to specific works following his brother's death, I couldn't take my eyes away from the Pieta's display of a mother's love in my time of deep grief and loss.
posted by hessie at 12:52 PM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]