The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the only museum in the United States with a curatorial department solely dedicated to ancient Near Eastern art. Many U.S. museums hold objects that belong to this classification, and collections can be found at art museums such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. They also exist in university teaching museums like the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum), and the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East—all with vast collections of ancient Near Eastern material culture. The Met, however, stands alone in the breadth and depth of such a collection Collecting the Ancient Near East at The Met
{"title":"Collecting the Ancient Near East at The Met","authors":"Yelena Rakic","doi":"10.1086/718036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/718036","url":null,"abstract":"The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the only museum in the United States with a curatorial department solely dedicated to ancient Near Eastern art. Many U.S. museums hold objects that belong to this classification, and collections can be found at art museums such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. They also exist in university teaching museums like the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum), and the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East—all with vast collections of ancient Near Eastern material culture. The Met, however, stands alone in the breadth and depth of such a collection Collecting the Ancient Near East at The Met","PeriodicalId":42073,"journal":{"name":"METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL","volume":"56 1","pages":"68 - 80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47305346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pink ribbons crisscross around the curved bellies of two porcelain vases, each crowned with a pair of bejeweled white elephant heads. Their curled tusks flank a large potpourri vase in the form of an extravagant ship. This ensemble has held pride of place in the Wrightsman Galleries for the French Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, demonstrating the exceptional craftsmanship of the Sèvres royal porcelain manufactory in executing Rococo flights of fantasy for royal and aristocratic patrons in mideighteenthcentury France (fig. 1). The garniture exemplified the French court’s predilection for Sèvres porcelain, which was exchanged as diplomatic gifts and prominently displayed on the mantels and tables of wealthy European residences. In subsequent centuries, Sèvres royal porcelain
{"title":"The Sèvres Elephant Garniture and the Politics of Dispersal during the French Revolution","authors":"I. Moon","doi":"10.1086/718037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/718037","url":null,"abstract":"Pink ribbons crisscross around the curved bellies of two porcelain vases, each crowned with a pair of bejeweled white elephant heads. Their curled tusks flank a large potpourri vase in the form of an extravagant ship. This ensemble has held pride of place in the Wrightsman Galleries for the French Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, demonstrating the exceptional craftsmanship of the Sèvres royal porcelain manufactory in executing Rococo flights of fantasy for royal and aristocratic patrons in mideighteenthcentury France (fig. 1). The garniture exemplified the French court’s predilection for Sèvres porcelain, which was exchanged as diplomatic gifts and prominently displayed on the mantels and tables of wealthy European residences. In subsequent centuries, Sèvres royal porcelain","PeriodicalId":42073,"journal":{"name":"METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL","volume":"56 1","pages":"81 - 97"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45019425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Among the glittering enamels, illuminated manuscripts, the ivories, and painted icons displayed in the Church Apse gallery in The Metropolitan Museum of Art sits the micromosaic icon of the Virgin Eleousa (Byzantine, early 1300s) (fig. 1). Measuring only 11.2 × 8.6 × 1.3 centimeters, the icon astonishes the viewer when hit by a moving, shimmering light, which makes the gold glitter, the background recede, and the Virgin and Child become threedimensional. Each tessera—many only a few millimeters wide—catches the light differently and the icon’s complex and fractured surface becomes captivating. The delicate chrysography on the robes of the Virgin and Child matches the tenderness with which the figures place their cheeks against each other, and the elongated fingers of the Virgin about to caress her son. On the
{"title":"Icon, Contact Relic, Souvenir: The Virgin Eleousa Micromosaic Icon at The Met","authors":"Maria E. Harvey","doi":"10.1086/718039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/718039","url":null,"abstract":"Among the glittering enamels, illuminated manuscripts, the ivories, and painted icons displayed in the Church Apse gallery in The Metropolitan Museum of Art sits the micromosaic icon of the Virgin Eleousa (Byzantine, early 1300s) (fig. 1). Measuring only 11.2 × 8.6 × 1.3 centimeters, the icon astonishes the viewer when hit by a moving, shimmering light, which makes the gold glitter, the background recede, and the Virgin and Child become threedimensional. Each tessera—many only a few millimeters wide—catches the light differently and the icon’s complex and fractured surface becomes captivating. The delicate chrysography on the robes of the Virgin and Child matches the tenderness with which the figures place their cheeks against each other, and the elongated fingers of the Virgin about to caress her son. On the","PeriodicalId":42073,"journal":{"name":"METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL","volume":"56 1","pages":"113 - 131"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45988282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
acquired a pair of silvergilt statuettes, a standing bishop and a crowned woman (figs. 1, 2). Each repoussé statuette is finely crafted from silver, with gold highlighting the figures’ clothing and decorative elements. The bishop, wearing a miter engraved with flowers, balances a book in his right hand and clasps his left hand around a nowlost object, most likely a crozier. Delicately robed and swaying on her axis, the female figure holds her voluminous dress in her right hand; her left hand is missing. A hole, likely a later modification, pierces her body. The Met purchased both statuettes from the Blumka Gallery in New York, although neither has a recorded provenance before the late twentieth century. A Source for Two Gilded Silver Figurines by Hans von Reutlingen
{"title":"A Source for Two Gilded Silver Figurines by Hans von Reutlingen","authors":"Elizabeth Rice Mattison","doi":"10.1086/718043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/718043","url":null,"abstract":"acquired a pair of silvergilt statuettes, a standing bishop and a crowned woman (figs. 1, 2). Each repoussé statuette is finely crafted from silver, with gold highlighting the figures’ clothing and decorative elements. The bishop, wearing a miter engraved with flowers, balances a book in his right hand and clasps his left hand around a nowlost object, most likely a crozier. Delicately robed and swaying on her axis, the female figure holds her voluminous dress in her right hand; her left hand is missing. A hole, likely a later modification, pierces her body. The Met purchased both statuettes from the Blumka Gallery in New York, although neither has a recorded provenance before the late twentieth century. A Source for Two Gilded Silver Figurines by Hans von Reutlingen","PeriodicalId":42073,"journal":{"name":"METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL","volume":"56 1","pages":"174 - 183"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46885719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
categorize, and separate objects into collections— actions that are at the heart of institutional identity formation. These processes are informed by cultural and historical events, and changing understandings and belief systems across an array of fields. In turn, museums prompt the shifting of public and academic perceptions of times, places, and peoples. How collections are classified touches on histories of taste and the formation of canons, but also notions of history. Some of the complexities of these processes can be seen through the lens of a specific collecting area— ancient American art—and the ongoing goals and objectives of what has often been referred to as an “encyclopedic” museum. Aztecs in the Empire City: “The People without History” in The Met
{"title":"Aztecs in the Empire City: “The People without History” in The Met","authors":"J. Pillsbury","doi":"10.1086/718033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/718033","url":null,"abstract":"categorize, and separate objects into collections— actions that are at the heart of institutional identity formation. These processes are informed by cultural and historical events, and changing understandings and belief systems across an array of fields. In turn, museums prompt the shifting of public and academic perceptions of times, places, and peoples. How collections are classified touches on histories of taste and the formation of canons, but also notions of history. Some of the complexities of these processes can be seen through the lens of a specific collecting area— ancient American art—and the ongoing goals and objectives of what has often been referred to as an “encyclopedic” museum. Aztecs in the Empire City: “The People without History” in The Met","PeriodicalId":42073,"journal":{"name":"METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL","volume":"56 1","pages":"12 - 31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42600238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Paris and London, methods for presenting exhibitions were undergoing a major reconsideration, and frames from this era began to take on a new role both visually and conceptually. This development was driven by artists to indicate that their works represented a new kind of vision. Many original frames have disappeared from the walls of private collections and museums, but it is possible to piece together concept and approach through photographs, treatises, drawings, catalogues, and a few precious extant frames. This study focuses on artistdesigned frames at the end of the nineteenth century with a particular emphasis on a material known as pâte coulante, unique in its ability to render extraordinary profiles, some of which could not have been realized by any Artists’ Frames in Pâte Coulante: History, Design, and Method
{"title":"Artists’ Frames in Pâte Coulante: History, Design, and Method","authors":"Peter Mallo","doi":"10.1086/718042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/718042","url":null,"abstract":"Paris and London, methods for presenting exhibitions were undergoing a major reconsideration, and frames from this era began to take on a new role both visually and conceptually. This development was driven by artists to indicate that their works represented a new kind of vision. Many original frames have disappeared from the walls of private collections and museums, but it is possible to piece together concept and approach through photographs, treatises, drawings, catalogues, and a few precious extant frames. This study focuses on artistdesigned frames at the end of the nineteenth century with a particular emphasis on a material known as pâte coulante, unique in its ability to render extraordinary profiles, some of which could not have been realized by any Artists’ Frames in Pâte Coulante: History, Design, and Method","PeriodicalId":42073,"journal":{"name":"METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL","volume":"56 1","pages":"160 - 173"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41594419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum of Art, a naval officer sits crosslegged at a desk and stares through the barred window of a prison cell, an open book in his hand (fig. 1). The drawing is pasted onto a blue mount and surrounded with inscriptions in English and French. Positioned immediately below the image, the French inscription comprises the artist’s signature: “fait au temple par hennequin ce 28 brumaire an 5 de la R.f. une et indivisible” [“made in the Temple by Hennequin on 28 brumaire year 5 of the French Republic, one and indivisible”]. Expressed in the French Revolutionary calendar, the date here equates to November 18, 1796. The signature is written in the squat handwriting of the artist Philippe Auguste Hennequin, who was at the time a political prisoner in the Tower of Philippe Auguste Hennequin’s Portrait Drawing of Sir Sidney Smith in the Temple Prison
在艺术博物馆,一名海军军官盘腿坐在桌子旁,透过牢房的栅栏窗凝视着,手里拿着一本打开的书(图1)。这幅画被粘贴在一个蓝色的底座上,周围有英文和法文的铭文。位于图像正下方的法国铭文包括艺术家的签名:“fait au temple par hennequin ce 28 brumaire an 5 de la R.f.une et incomparable”[“hennequin于法兰西共和国5年5月28日在寺庙中制作,一体且不可分割”]。用法国革命日历表示,这里的日期相当于1796年11月18日。签名是由艺术家菲利普·奥古斯特·亨奈肯(Philippe Auguste Hennequin)用矮胖的笔迹写的,他当时是坦普尔监狱中菲利普·奥古斯特·亨奈肯的西德尼·史密斯爵士肖像画塔中的一名政治犯
{"title":"Philippe Auguste Hennequin’s Portrait Drawing of Sir Sidney Smith in the Temple Prison","authors":"Katherine Gazzard","doi":"10.1086/718041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/718041","url":null,"abstract":"Museum of Art, a naval officer sits crosslegged at a desk and stares through the barred window of a prison cell, an open book in his hand (fig. 1). The drawing is pasted onto a blue mount and surrounded with inscriptions in English and French. Positioned immediately below the image, the French inscription comprises the artist’s signature: “fait au temple par hennequin ce 28 brumaire an 5 de la R.f. une et indivisible” [“made in the Temple by Hennequin on 28 brumaire year 5 of the French Republic, one and indivisible”]. Expressed in the French Revolutionary calendar, the date here equates to November 18, 1796. The signature is written in the squat handwriting of the artist Philippe Auguste Hennequin, who was at the time a political prisoner in the Tower of Philippe Auguste Hennequin’s Portrait Drawing of Sir Sidney Smith in the Temple Prison","PeriodicalId":42073,"journal":{"name":"METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL","volume":"56 1","pages":"144 - 159"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42929771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Vélez Blanco Patio and United States–Cuba Relationships in the 1950s","authors":"Tommaso Mozzati","doi":"10.1086/718035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/718035","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42073,"journal":{"name":"METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL","volume":"56 1","pages":"51 - 67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44872314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}