The Big Apple, New York City: Day 2, Part 1 Cathedral of John the Divine

Day 2, Mar 29, 2014, Saturday:

Cathedral of John the Divine, the Met

Here we are on our way to the Cathedral of John the Divine...

At Columbus Circle... Nice globe near Trump towers.

In the triangular shaped plaza facing Columbus Circle, Donald Trump placed this skeleton of stainless steel globe that has become an icon of this corner of Central Park.

Nearer the globe... Trump hotel signboard in view.

Columbus Circle, named for Christopher Columbus, is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South (West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the southwest corner of Central Park.

It is the point from which all official distances from New York City are measured.

This is  USS Maine National Monument, an outdoor monument, located in Central Park in Manhattan. Beaux-Arts edifice of marble and gilded bronze built in 1913 as a memorial to sailors killed aboard the battleship USS Maine.

The ship's mysterious 1898 explosion in Havana harbor precipitated the Spanish-American War.

Located at the southwest corner of Central Park at the Merchants' Gate entrance to the park, the monument consists of a pylon with a fountain at its base and sculptures surrounding it.

 The sculpture group of gilded bronze figures atop the pylon represent Columbia Triumphant, her seashell chariot being drawn by three hippocampi.

The bronze for this group reportedly came from metal recovered from the guns of the Maine. On the park side of the monument is fixed a memorial plaque that was cast in metal salvaged from the ship.

Here we are on the subway to  Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Surprisingly uncrowded!

 Cathedral sighted...

This is the Peace Fountain --a 1985 sculpture and fountain.

Depicts the struggle of good and evil, as well as a battle between the Archangel Michael and Satan.

The sculpture also contains the Sun, the Moon, and several animals.

Nine giraffes—among the most peaceful of animals—nestle and prance about the center.

One rests its head on the bosom of the winged Archangel Michael, described in the Bible as the leader of the heavenly host against the forces of Evil.

St. Michael's sword is vanquishing his chief opponent, Satan, whose decapitated figure plunges into the depths, his head dangling beneath the crab's claw.

Tucked away next to the Sun, a lion and lamb relax together in the peace of God's kingdom, as foretold by the prophet Isaiah.

Surrounding the periphery of the sunken plaza in which the fountain sits are plaques, rendered in a style artistically similar to the of the fountain itself, depicting various philosophers, thinkers and artists, most accompanied by a quote by the individual depicted.

Despite the Peace Fountain's associating with a Christian (Episcopalian) Cathedral, many of the luminaries thus depicted are non-Christian icons, such as Gandhi, Socrates, Einstein and John Lennon, whose image is accompanied by a quote from the lyrics of his song "Imagine". plaques, depicting various philosophers, thinkers and artists, most accompanied by a quote by the individual depicted.

Cathedral of St. John the Divine:

Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the 4th largest Christian Church in the world, area 120,000 sq feet.

The size of the Cathedral's interior, the fourth largest in the world, presents a superlative level of natural acoustics that confer a reverb time greater than eight seconds and an organic brilliance of tone. We enjoyed listening to the choir practice...

 

This choir parapet was originally installed in 1922 with twenty niches for statues of the spiritual heroes of the twenty centuries since the birth of Christianity.

Representing the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries are statues of William Shakespeare, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

The niche for the 20th century was left blank until that century was completed.In 2001 the choir parapet was completed with the addition of a sculpture of a group of four figures:

Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, Susan B. Anthony [ (February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) an American social reformer and women's rights activist]and Mohandas Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi on the right of the group of 4, Lincoln separate

The Mortlake Tapestries:

This is the famous "The Death of Saphira" (Raphael) from The Acts of the Apostles

Woven from English wool by Flemish loom operators following cartoons created by the renowned High Renaissance artist Raphael, the Cathedral's Mortlake tapestries (17th century) depict scenes of the acts of the Apostles drawn from the New Testament Book of Acts.

This confluence of English wool, Flemish hands, and Italian designs distinguishes the Mortlake tapestries as among those that were created during the golden age of tapestry-making.

Two of the set of nine were on view: "The Healing of the Lame Man"  and "The Death of Saphira" .

The Barberini Tapestries: The Life of Christ

The Barberini tapestries of the Life of Christ, once displayed in St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, Rome are some of the most impressive artworks of the Roman Baroque.

A thirty-year restoration of the tapestries, dramatically interrupted by a 2001 fire, is  completed

The tapestries were produced at the direction of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, a nephew of Pope Urban VIII, who founded his own private tapestry workshop in 1626.

 Over the course of a half century, the weavers there produced seven unique series, some as diplomatic gifts but most for the cardinal’s own use.

Themes range from the biblical to the mythological, and from ancient Roman history to the then-current events of Pope Urban’s reign.

Named after the looms of Roman Cardinal Francesco Barberini, upon which they were woven in the 17th century, and notable for having been created in southern Italy during a time when most tapestries were woven in northern Europe, the Barberini Tapestries illustrate scenes from the life of Christ.

They were originally intended as a gift for Cardinal Barberini's uncle, Pope Urban VIII, and were donated to the Cathedral in 1891, one year before its foundation stone was laid.

Selected tapestries from the full set of 12 are on rotating view in the Crossing.

The Cathedral boasts of lovely stained glass and several side altars.
Last supper relief panel here.

The Great Bronze Doors:

Cast by Barbedienne of Paris, who also cast the Statue of Liberty.  Each door is 18 feet high, 6 feet wide, and weighs 3 tons.

 The doors’ 60 bas-relief panels depict Old and New Testament stories on the exterior side, and flowers, birds and natural imagery on the interior side.

We could have stayed on listening to the divine choir groups practice but reluctantly made our move and took our subway..

Cleopatra's needle, Central Park:

We walked through from 81st street AMNH subway station to this part of Central Park on our way to Metropolitan museum.

This is Cleopatra's needle [1450 BC] at Central Park.

Made of red granite, 21 m (69 ft) high, weighing 224 tons and inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphs.

It is one of three similarly named Egyptian obelisks. The other 2 are in London and Paris. The Khedive of Egypt gifted the United States the remaining Alexandria obelisk as a gift for increased trade in 1879.

They were originally erected in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis on the orders of Thutmose III, around 1450 BC. The material of which they were cut is granite, brought from the quarries of Aswan, near the first cataract of the Nile. The inscriptions were added about 200 years later by Ramesses II to commemorate his military victories. The obelisks were moved to Alexandria and set up in the Caesareum – a temple built by Cleopatra in honor of Mark Antony or Julius Caesar – by the Romans.

A time capsule buried beneath this Obelisk contains an 1870 U.S. census, a Bible, a Webster’s Dictionary, the complete works of William Shakespeare, a guide to Egypt, and a copy of the Declaration of Independence. A small box was also placed in the capsule by the man who orchestrated the Obelisk’s purchase and transportation; to this day, its contents are unknown.

Part 2 of Day 2 continues here:

https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-big-apple-new-york-city-day-2-part_6.html