The Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition Tour

Monday, 18 June 2018

Throughout the history of humankind, religions have been influenced by the cultures within which they take root and cultures have been influenced by the religions that flower within them.  Certainly painting, sculpture, and music, in all their distinctive beauty and balance as well as their dissonance and disorder, have been appreciated as art forms contributing to the dynamic dialogue between sacred and secular realms.  Heavenly Bodies  explores the place of  fashion in that dialogue, specifically the longstanding tradition of Catholicism influencing haute couture  and vice-versa.

Having been conceived by Costume Institute curator, Andrew Bolton, and taken shape in close consultation with Vatican officials over an 8-year period, the exhibition includes more than 40 ecclesiastical vestments and ritual objects from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many of which have not been seen outside the Vatican.  These precious objects of ritual devotion are displayed along with examples of haute couture throughout The Metropolitan Museum’s main Fifth Avenue building and the Cloisters in upper Manhattan.  The opportunity to view these objects in this thought-provoking presentation is an enriching experience for believer and non-believer alike.

The after-hours tour of the exhibition was led by a curator from the Costume Institute on Monday, 18 June 2018.