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The royal feast is set in a green landscape dotted with flowers and blossoming bushes against a gold sky with wisps of blue and white clouds. The group of figures in the upper left includes a falconer, horses, attendants, and two hunting cheetahs, while servers transport food and drink in gold and ceramic vessels, some presumably Chinese blue and white porcelain. Possibly this banquet was offered after a courtly hunt, a prestigious symbol of power and wealth. Among the groups of men sitting on elaborate carpets are three Chinese officials, identifiable by their black hats, kneeling together on the ground. Although their presence indicates the presence of foreign cultures within the Timurid court, the painting also reveals that not all are welcome to the feast; in the bottom half of the page a guard wields a stick to drive a group of men out of the garden.
Iran, Shiraz, Timurid period (1370-1501)
Opaque watercolor, ink, gold, and silver on paper
Overall: 32.7 x 22 cm (12 7/8 x 8 11/16 in.); Image: 26.1 x 20.7 cm (10 1/4 x 8 1/8 in.)
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The painting on this folio is the first half of a double-page frontispiece now detached from a <em>Shahnama </em>(Book of Kings) manuscript. CMA 1956.10 is the left half of the frontispiece.
John L. Severance Fund
The ancient Egyptians believed that the dung beetle, the Scarabaeus sacer, was one of the manifestations of the sun god. Representations of these beetles were used as amulets, and for ritual or administrative purposes.
This scarab has a special motif on the bottom, which is known as a-n-r-combination, because it consists of the sound-signs for 'ayn, n, and r. The signs are arranged in three columns, combined with lotus blossoms at the beginnings and ends; the columns are framed by an oval line. The bottom design is deeply incised, and the shape of the signs typical for the Second Intermediate Period: n with a horizontal line crossed by short vertical lines, c with a curved line, and an oval lop at the end.
The highest point of the back is the elytron (wing cases); two side-notches at shoulder height define the partition between pronotum (dorsal plate of the prothorax) and elytron. The head is trapezoidal, and the clypeus has four frontal serrations and a central base notch. The design of the back is simple, the carved side-notches short and not totally aligned. The proportions are unbalanced, and the pronotum is short in comparison to the head section and the elytron. The raised extremities have natural form and vertical hatch lines; the background between the legs is hollowed out. The base is long-oval, and the head part smaller than the rear part.
The scarab is longitudinally pierced, was originally mounted or threaded, and served as an amulet. Probably, it should grant magical and/or divine support (a-n-r-pattern) and regeneration (lotus). It is not possible to determine the exact meaning of the a-n-r-pattern, although several options, such as a relation to the name of the god Re, or to a magical formula, have been discussed. In this special case with the dominance of c and n, it would make sense to consider a magical formula, which should strengthen the recreative (scarab), and regenerative (lotus) function by repetition.
Egyptian
H: 3 9/16 x W: 9/16 x D: 13/16 in. (9 x 1.5 x 2.1 cm)
medium: light beige steatite
culture: Egyptian
dynasty: 15th Dynasty
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Tuesday Tech Term
URL: The Uniform Resource Locator is the global address of documents and other resources online.
Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference.
"The scene in the sketch presents something of a bird's eye view of the great chain of Wind River Mountains, throwing up their huge heads against a warm evening sky, their lofty pinnacles crested with snow and reflecting light with the brilliancy of burnished silver;- Across the green plateau to the right, the Caravan is seen winding its slow length along. In front of this, wild and rough rocks covered with a primeval growth of hemlocks, firs, and pines jut out into the river that is sweeping by, fed by the melting snows of the mountians. In the immediate foreground some Trappers are galloping to join a party who are on the extreme end of the bluff, looking at the 'promised land' which forms their mountian home; for at the base of these, they expect to meet large bands of their brother Trappers with whom they promise themselves a grand carouse and drinking bout;- in order to repay themselves for the abstinence they are compelled to observe in a military and well-governed camp." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837).
In July 1858 William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at twelve dollars apiece from Baltimore born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, and were delivered in installments over the next twenty-one months and ultimately were bound in three albums. Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.
8 9/16 x 12 7/16 in. (21.8 x 31.6 cm)
medium: watercolor on paper
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Parasol Handle, c. 1886–1903. Michael Evlampievich Perchin (Russian, 1860–1903), House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918). Gold, enamel, diamonds, and platinum filigree; 8.5 cm (3 3/8 in.); diameter: 3.2 cm (1 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of John B. Black 2018.226
More at clevelandart.org/art/2018.226
The ancient Egyptians believed that the dung beetle, the Scarabaeus sacer, was one of the manifestations of the sun god. Representations of these beetles were used as amulets, and for ritual or administrative purposes.
This scarab has a bottom inscription, which consists of three columns, framed by an oval line; the central column has a royal cartouche. The text contains the name, titles, and epithets of King Thutmose III. The inscription is carved in sunken relief. The layout is arranged to fit in the oval frame, but the two outer columns are not well balanced, and some signs collide with the borderline. The shape of the hieroglyphs is slightly rough, and the nfr-sign has three instead of two horizontal lines. The highest point of the back is partition between pronotum (dorsal plate of the prothorax) and elytron (wing cases). Pronotum and elytron display incised borderlines, single separation lines, and V-shaped marks for the humeral callosities (thickenings at the shoulders). The borderlines of the elytron ends at the rear in half spirals. The proportions of the top are unbalanced, the pronotum and head section are short in comparison to the elytron. The head has long-oval shape, the side plates are irregularly trapezoidal, and clypeus (front plate) shows a central base notch. The carved extremities show natural form, and vertical hatch lines on the upper sides for the tibial teeth and pilosity (hair). The symmetrical base has a long-oval shape; and the drill-holes of the scarab are framed.
The scarab is longitudinally pierced, was originally mounted or threaded, and functions as an amulet. This amulet should ensure for its owner support by the royal authority (cartouche) of the divine king (title: "Perfect God"), and all-inclusive protection (epithet: "who reverses the foreign countries".) The scarab was produced after the death of King Thutmose III, who was most probably understood as a protective god and successful model of divine kingship.
The change of the royal title nb t3.wj "Lord of the Two Lands" to nb t3.w "Lord of the Lands" may be either a writing mistake, or a variant to make the title match to the plural form in the epithet formula "all foreign countries." The esthetical balance of the signs (four horizontal signs at each side of the cartouche) may have played a role also.
Egyptian
H: 3/8 x W: 9/16 x L: 3/4 in. (0.9 x 1.5 x 1.9 cm)
medium: light beige steatite with green-blue glaze
culture: Egyptian
dynasty: 19th Dynasty
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
[url="http://www.livemaster.ru/item/1131964"][img]http://cs1.livemaster.ru/foto/300/1473662953.jpg[/img][/url]
Gleyre claimed that "Lost Illusions" represented a vision that he had experienced on the evening of March 1, 1835, while sitting on the banks of the Nile River near Abydos, Egypt. An aging poet watches pensively as a mysterious boat carries away his youthful dreams and illusions, personified by music-making maidens and a cupid strewing flowers. Although the figures in the painting wear classical Greek dress, their vessel resembles a "dahabieh," an Egyptian river boat.
In 1843, Gleyre succeeded Paul Delaroche as the head of the major private studio in Paris. His pupils included such diverse figures as the Academic artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, the future Impressionists Alfred Sisley and Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), and the American James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1904). This painting, begun by Gleyre's pupil Léon Dussart and reworked by Gleyre himself, replicates Gleyre's masterpiece "Le Soir" (now in the Louvre Museum, Paris). William Walters commissioned this painting from the artist through the Parisian art dealers Goupil & Cie. in 1865. It took two years to complete. Conscious of the delay, the firm wrote to Walters:
Mr. Gleyre has finally nearly finished his reproduction of his picture. . . We are happy to be able to tell you that this reproduction is beautifully done. It has taken a long time and has required more trouble from the painter than he thought.
H: 34 1/16 x W: 59 1/4 in. (86.5 x 150.5 cm)
Framed H: 52 1/4 x W: 77 1/2 x D: 7 1/4 in. (132.7 x 196.9 x 18.4 cm)
medium: oil on canvas
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.