DATES: October 10, 2022 to January 8, 2023
LOCATION: The Met Fifth Avenue, The Tisch Galleries, Gallery 899, Floor 2
For the first time in the United States, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting an exhibition celebrating the art created during the Tudor dynasty. It is called The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England.
This exhibition features works of art made under the patronage of all five Tudor monarchs: Henry VII (reigned 1485-1509), Henry VIII (1509-47), Edward VI (1547-53), Mary I (1553-58), and Elizabeth I (1558-1603). It is organized thematically in five sections within an overall exhibition design that evokes the long galleries and intimate alcoves that defined Tudor palace architecture.
Through more than 100 objects, the exhibition traces the transformation of the arts under Tudor rule. It includes iconic portraits like Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger; magnificent manuscripts like the 1495 Book of Hours of Mary of England, Queen of France; spectacular tapestries like the 1470 Andromache and Priam Urging Hector Not to Go to War; plus sculptures, drawings, dinnerware, and armor.
“England under the volatile Tudor dynasty was a thriving home for the arts. An international community of artists and merchants, many of them religious refugees from across Europe, navigated the high-stakes demands of royal patrons against the backdrop of shifting political relationships with mainland Europe.
“The Tudor courts were truly cosmopolitan, boasting the work of Florentine sculptors, German painters, Flemish weavers, and Europe’s best armorers, goldsmiths, and printers, while also contributing to the emergence of a distinctly English style.” – The Met
RELATED EXHIBITION PROGRAMMING
October 21: MetSpeaks – Secrets of the Tudor Archives with author Elizabeth Goldring and exhibition co-curator Adam Eaker. They will discuss recent discoveries in British archives that transform our understanding of Tudor-era artists and their royal sitters.
November 15: Met Escapes
November 17: Picture This! tour
November 20: Discoveries workshops
December 4: MetLiveArts’ Sight and Sound series – Leon Botstein and The Orchestra Now will perform selections from a regal score by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The selections, adapted by Muir Mathieson, focus on three major figures of the Tudor era: “The Explorer” (Sir Francis Drake), “The Poet” (William Shakespeare), and “The Queen” (Elizabeth I).
December 11: Family Afternoon
“This magnificent exhibition brings the stunning majesty and compelling drama of the Tudor dynasty to life. By examining the wider political and societal context in which these sumptuous goods and extraordinary portraits were made, we can appreciate both their exquisite beauty as works of art and the complex and often turbulent stories they tell.” – Max Hollein
BALISSANDE FINISHING SCHOOL 