The Cloisters branch of the Metropolitan Museum rarely receives the attention it deserves. But now a little special exhibition there could — should — bring flocks of people.
It’s a show of the Lewis Chessmen, 34 of which have been borrowed from the British Museum for The Game of Kings: Medieval Ivory Chessmen from the Isle of Lewis, which begins on Tuesday and runs through April 22. I took the occasion to write a short article about the chessman for the Wall Street Journal’s Saturday Icons page (of which I am a fan).
A grouping of some of them is at right.
The BM has never lent this many chessmen before. A different group of them, drawn from the collection of both the BM and the National Museum of Scotland, has been on tour in Scotland this past year, and visitors seemed to love them.
The Met will supplement the Lewis chessmen, which will be shown in an endgame of a famous chess match, with chess pieces from its permanent collection (more details here). It has many, according to its online catalogue — though not all are illustrated. One that was, at left, is a 13th century piece given by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1917. It’s similar to the Lewis chessmen, the Met asserts, though obviously much later.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of the British Museum (top) and the Metropolitan Museum (bottom).