By Carter B. Horsley

Visitors to the re-opened the Greek and Roman Art Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see The City Review article) are likely to be overwhelmed by the number of works on view and enchanted by the fact that several of the galleries now have clear windows overlooking Central Park and Fifth Avenue and that the main gallery has a large skylight.

There is much to delight the eye as well there should considering that the renovation of the galleries over the course of about 15 years cost $220 million, not counting the art, an astounding sum.

The reconstruction of the galleries now permits the museum exhibit almost double the number of works in its Greek and Roman Art collection that are now on view. The new galleries now permit the museum to show almost 95 percent of the more than 5,000 works in the Greek and Roman Art collection.

By restoring the south wing to its original purpose, the reconstruction also pays homage to the vision of its first architects, McKim, Mead & White, who created it with Greek and Roman art in mind.

In comparison with the very handsome barrel-vaulted hall with skylights that was created several years ago, the new central hall, shown above on the right, now called the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, is pleasant but not as elegant.

The galleries are in the museum's south wing. The south wing opened in 1926 and its central hall then was a single-story peristyle court with Doric columns. As reconfigured by Kevin Roche of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo, the architectural firm that has overseen much of the museum's expansion in recent decades, the central hall now has a two-story peristyle hall with Ionic columns.

While it was originally opened in 1926 as a single-story, peristyle court with Doric columns, the new courtyard has a two-story peristyle with Ionic columns, doubling the height of the gallery. In 1954, the museum decided to convert the main gallery into a large cafeteria with a large pool with sculptures by Carl Millius. Several years ago, the museum decided to remove the pool and Millius sculptures and replace them with a sunken white-table restaurant service area.

Many of the works are perched atop grey stone columns. One observer, Michele Leight, observed, correctly, that the columns are drab and not worthy of the surmounted art works. Also many labels are hard to read as their background is grey. Surely $220 million could have provided some travertine or light-colored marble.

More recently, the museum opened a new restaurant in the basement to replace the two in the south wing. The new basement cafeteria had known of the grandeur of the south wing's height and especially the great Art Deco panel from the Normandie oceanliner that overlooked the bar area. In addition to the new basement cafeteria the museum opened a restaurant at the west end of the Petrie Court that is very attractive since it has views of Central Park but is not inexpensive and another very limited menu food area on the west side of the sculpture court of the American Wing that also overlooks Central Park.

By moving the restaurant operation out of the south wing, the museum was able to replace its kitchen with galleries that have windows facing south overlooking Central Park on both the main floor and mezzanine levels.

The center piece of the new central hall is a large, low, black-stone fountain. It ain't the Trevi Fountain and it ain't old! Its form and color and its slight gurgling sound are not terrible, but Anita Ekberg and other goddesses are not likely to traipse about in it.

The museum's Greek and Roman Art Department is following the lead of the museum's Egyptian and American Art departments in putting most of its collections on view, both in the main galleries and in the "study collections" in the South Wing's mezzanine. Furthermore, it has arranged to a certain extent the galleries in chronological order.

But a few have a lot of shards and the only way to locate particular objects is to find one of the few installed computer touch screens and try to master its system.

Sadly, the museum has published an expensive catalogue that unfortunately does not document all the objects now on view. Indeed, it has relative few illustrations.

The renovated galleries opened in April, 2007.

In an article published in The New York Times April 18, 2007, Robin Pogregin notes that in the former restaurant hall "The new tessera floor is modeled after that of the Pantheon, with green-and-red marble in alternating squares and circles. The floor pieces were cut and shaped in Italy, then hand-laid on sand bedding without grouting." “'It allows the stone to settle into place,” said Jeffrey L. Daly, the Met’s senior design adviser to the director for capital and special projects,' the article continued.

"Building a fountain was another point of contention. McKim, Mead & White’s 1920s court featured a modest rectangular pool surrounded by greenery and classical sculpture. But this time many of those involved were concerned that a water feature in the center of the soaring space would rivet the eye and upstage the art," Ms. Pogrebin wrote.

Not to worry....