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The Astor Court, located in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, is a re-creation of a Ming Dynasty-style, Chinese-garden courtyard. The first permanent cultural exchange between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China,〔"nyt 01-17-1979">Shepard, Richard (January 17, 1979). ("Metropolitan To Get Chinese Garden Court and Ming Room" ). ''The New York Times''.〕 the installation was completed in 1981. Conceived by museum trustee Brooke Astor,〔Abstract (full article requires purchase). Staff writer (June 12, 1981). (The Metropolitan Celebrates New Chinese Additions ), ''The New York Times''. Accessed July 20, 2010.〕 the courtyard was created and assembled by expert craftsmen from China using traditional methods, materials and hand tools.〔http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40A16F7385C12728DDDAB0A94DD405B8084F1D3〕 ==Origin== The design of the museum's Chinese garden is "based on a small courtyard within a scholar's garden in the city of Suzhou, China, called ''Wang Shi Yuan'', the Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets."〔Murck, Alfreda; Fong, Wen, ''A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art'' Reprinted from ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Winter 1980/81. p. 10.〕 Statements by officials of the museum credit Astor with the idea for the installation, stating that she recalled such gardens from a period of her childhood spent in Beijing, China, "and thought that such a court would be ideal as the focal point for the permanent installation of Far Eastern art."〔Murck, Alfreda; Fong, Wen, ''A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art'' Reprinted from ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Winter 1980/81. p 54.〕 The museum had purchased a collection of Ming Dynasty domestic furniture in 1976 with funds in part from the Vincent Astor Foundation. The hall adjacent to the courtyard and architecturally unified with it was created to provide a suitable space to display this collection.〔Montebello, Philippe de, ''Director's Note" in Murck, Alfreda; Fong, Wen, ''A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art'' Reprinted from ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Winter 1980/81.〕 In 1977, Wen Fong, Special Consultant for Far East Affairs at the Metropolitan Museum and a professor at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, went to China and visited gardens in Suzhou with Professor Chen Congzhou, an architectural historian from Tongji University in Shanghai, China.〔 It was their decision that the Late Spring Studio courtyard, a small part of the Garden of the Master of the Nets, should provide the basis of the museum's installation, for several reasons.〔Murck, Alfreda; Fong, Wen, ''A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art'' Reprinted from ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Winter 1980/81. Page 55〕 The measurements of the small court were appropriate to the area the museum had in mind.〔 Furthermore, its basic plan seemed to be relatively unchanged from its original construction as suggested by its "utter simplicity and harmonious proportions".〔Murck, Alfreda; Fong, Wen, ''A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art'' Reprinted from ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Winter 1980/81. Page 18〕 Artist and stage designer Ming Cho Lee, working from various architectural sketches and photographs, created drawings〔 and a model for the Astor Court which was shared with the Suzhou Garden Administration.〔Murck, Alfreda; Fong, Wen, "A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art". Reprinted from ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin''. Winter 1980/81. Pg. 60.〕 Suzhou officials responded positively and offered a number of modifications, and offered photographs of Taihu rocks they proposed be part of the design, and by the end of 1978 an agreement was signed for the project.〔 In China, construction began on a permanent prototype to remain in Suzhou. China granted special permission to log ''nan'' trees for the wooden pillars that are central to the architecture. ''Nan'', which is related to cedar, was driven close to extinction during the Qing Dynasty, and is only used in exceptional constructions such as the Memorial Hall of Mao Zedong.〔 Another critical element of the construction of a Chinese court is tile, and to meet the requirement of the project an old imperial kiln was reopened. Each ceiling and floor tile was made by hand — or rather by foot, as the clay was pressed into frames by the workers' feet.〔Murck, Alfreda; Fong, Wen, ''A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art'' Reprinted from ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Winter 1980/81. Page 62〕 The wood and ceramic materials and elements were crafted in China and shipped to New York City, where assembly began in January 1980.〔Murck, Alfreda; Fong, Wen, ''A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art'' Reprinted from ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Winter 1980/81. Page 61〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Astor Court」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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