The Glencairn Museum is located in Bryn Athyn, just north of Philadelphia, PA. Photograph by Brent Schnarr and courtesy of Glencairn Museum
«The Cloisters museum and gardens has many devotees, but I wonder how many of its visitors know about the Glencairn Museum, located in Bryn Athyn, just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Glencairn, like The Cloisters, is home to an excellent collection of medieval art on view in a building inspired by medieval architecture. As a current Met fellow and former Glencairn fellow, I have had ample opportunity to study the histories of these two marvelous collections, both of which took shape during the early twentieth century. Together they constitute an important chapter in the story of collecting medieval art in the United States, and I am continually impressed by the close relationship between them.»
Bryn Athyn Cathedral was dedicated in 1919. Its Gothic Revival style was accomplished through the use of many medieval building techniques. Photograph courtesy of Glencairn Museum
Glencairn became a museum in 1982, the same year the Met held a major exhibition showcasing 122 of the former's finest objects. Its collection was amassed by Raymond Pitcairn (1885–1966), a lawyer and businessman from Pennsylvania and a prominent member of the Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, Pitcairn oversaw the construction of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral in a Gothic Revival style and encouraged the use of medieval techniques in its construction. He was particularly interested in recreating medieval stained glass production, and his first acquisitions of medieval art, mostly Gothic window panels, were intended to help his glaziers study medieval practices and designs.
The Flight into Egypt, from the Infancy of Christ Window (?), ca. 1145. Abbey of Saint-Denis, France. Pot-metal glass. Collection of Glencairn Museum (03.SG.114). Photograph courtesy of Glencairn Museum
Although Pitcairn continued to build up his stained glass collection, amassing over 260 panels, he also grew interested in sculpture, particularly architectural fragments. Both Pitcairn and The Cloisters collector George Grey Barnard (1863–1938) were in the vanguard in this respect, purchasing architectural sculptures before most other American collectors knew what to do with them. Their shared interest in Romanesque sculpture even prompted Barnard and Pitcairn to conduct business together on one occasion. In 1921, Barnard was experiencing financial difficulties and offered Pitcairn a group of fantastically carved, twelfth-century capitals believed to be from the Benedictine monastery Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, some of which may have come from the monastery's cloister. (The Cuxa Cloister is, of course, a focal point of The Cloisters today.)
Cloister from Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, ca. 1130–40. Made in present-day France. Marble; 90 ft. x 78 ft. (2,743 x 2,377 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1925 (25.120.398–.954). Photograph courtesy Karin Willis
The Pitcairns had long lived in Cairnwood, a Beaux-Arts style home near the cathedral, but the growth of their art collection, as well as their family, prompted Pitcairn to design a new house. Glencairn was built between 1928 and 1939, making it an exact contemporary of the current building of The Cloisters, which was completed in 1938. Much like both Barnard's original building and the modern-day home of The Cloisters, Glencairn is strikingly medieval in style. The house is surmounted by a tall tower reminiscent of a Romanesque bell tower—much like The Cloisters' tower—and its interior space is dominated by a great hall. There is even a cloister supported by Romanesque-inspired capitals.
Raymond Pitcairn used plaster models in his architectural projects. Here he examines a model of Glencairn. Photograph courtesy of Glencairn Museum
Neither Glencairn nor The Cloisters fully recreate a single type of medieval building, such as a church or a castle. Instead, each stitches together different kinds of architectural spaces—cloisters, halls, apses, and towers—which together evoke the Middle Ages. Both places also incorporate many medieval architectural fragments into the building fabric, integrating old and new within their walls. Such a bold move had already been embraced by renowned patron of the arts Isabella Stewart Gardner as early as 1902, and Barnard had followed suit, providing the inspiration for The Cloisters of today and perhaps for Glencairn as well.
Looking at both museums, I am fascinated by the architectural ideas that their designers embraced. The designers' interpretations of medieval architecture are free-form, creating a "medieval mood" rather than reproducing a specific historical setting. In this respect, both spaces inspire their visitors to "think medieval" as they encounter actual works of medieval art. They aim to help visitors access the medieval past—an approach that perhaps was considered essential in a country that has no medieval history of its own. Though their designs belong to a particular moment in the history of American museum design, The Cloisters and Glencairn museums remain important voices in a larger conversation about how to best to explore the distant past.
Glencairn's Great Hall is decorated with mosaics, stained glass, and architectural sculpture. Many medieval fragments of architectural sculpture are incorporated into the walls. Photograph courtesy of Glencairn Museum
Glencairn's cloister is inspired by Romanesque cloister design. Photograph courtesy of Glencairn Museum
215-914-5055
Service Areas
