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The depicted scene features a bearded, standing deity in a horned crown carrying a mace or staff. The deity faces a bearded, standing worshipper with one raised arm. Behind the deity is a third figure, standing with both arms raised. All three figures wear long robes. The scene also includes a cuneiform inscription in three registers.
Cylinder seals are cylindrical objects carved in reverse (intaglio) in order to leave raised impressions when rolled into clay. Seals were generally used to mark ownership, and they could act as official identifiers, like a signature, for individuals and institutions. A seal’s owner rolled impressions in wet clay to secure property such as baskets, letters, jars, and even rooms and buildings. This clay sealing prevented tampering because it had to be broken in order to access a safeguarded item. Cylinder seals were often made of durable material, usually stone, and most were drilled lengthwise so they could be strung and worn. A seal’s material and the images inscribed on the seal itself could be protective. The artistry and design might be appreciated and considered decorative as well. Cylinder seals were produced in the Near East beginning in the fourth millennium BCE and date to every period through the end of the first millennium BCE.
Babylonian
H: 13/16 x Diam: 1/2 in. (2.1 x 1.2 cm)
medium: brown and white stone
culture: Babylonian
Walters Art Museum, 1941, by purchase.
Maurice Denis was a member of the Nabis, a small circle of artists formed in Paris in 1888 and associated with the Symbolist movement. Taking their name from the Hebrew and Arabic terms for “prophet,” the Nabis abandoned the Impressionist goal of depicting the fleeting effects of nature, and instead sought to convey a deeper level of meaning through harmonious arrangements of decorative line and color. Denis’s painting depicts a crowd of figures standing on a riverbank, their forms simplified and rendered with pure colors, as they watch the blessing of a yacht on the Belon River near Pont-Aven in Brittany. The subject reflects the artist’s fascination with the humble, spiritual life of this rural community, culturally disparate from the tumultuous strife of modern urban life.
France
oil on canvas
Unframed: 75 x 80 cm (29 1/2 x 31 1/2 in.)
Did you know...
Denis was an extremely prolific artist who experimented with other art forms. His decorative murals can be viewed in many French churches as well as on the ceiling of the Champs Élysées Theatre in Paris.
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift
This manuscript was illuminated by a circle of at least five highly organized manuscript painters active in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. The principal illuminator was Alexander Bening, who painted the majority of the book's miniatures. Manuscripts produced by this circle of artists are renowned for the decoration of their borders, which typically feature a rich variety of realistically-painted flowers, birds, and butterflies. This prayer book, called a book of hours, was intended not for a cleric, but for the private devotions of a lay person-in this case, Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain (1451-1504). Isabella's coat of arms embellishes the book's frontispiece. It is unlikely that the book was commissioned by the Queen herself; rather, she probably received it as a diplomatic gift from someone courting her patronage, perhaps Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. A Franciscan friar, Jimenez was dependent upon Isabella for his advancement, first to the post of Queen's confessor in 1492, and then to Archbishop of Toledo in 1495.
Flanders, Ghent and Bruges, late 15th century
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Codex: 22.5 x 15.2 cm (8 7/8 x 6 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
The patron of scribes and deity of wisdom, Thoth was associated with the sun and the moon, traditionally the two "eyes" of the celestial-god Horus. The baboon, identified with Thoth, here holds a sacred Wedjat-eye, the so-called Eye of Horus, which symbolizes legitimate kingship, the structured universe, and life.
This carefully formed baboon holds the eye in front of his chest with his left hand below and the right above.
Egyptian
H: 1 9/16 x W: 15/16 x D: 1 in. (3.93 x 2.45 x 2.53 cm)
medium: Egyptian faience with light green glaze
culture: Egyptian
dynasty: 30th Dynasty
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
This basket was made for the Euro-American collectors’ market in the early 1900s but it is modeled on basketry bowls from which the Timbisha (Panamint) Shoshone once served food. When used indigenously, the main view would have been of the interior. Made-for-sale baskets testify to Indigenous women’s truly creative, resilient responses to forces that endangered their livelihoods and existence.
Native North America, Great Basin, California, Death Valley, Timbisha (Panamint) Shoshone
Willow, devil's claw, yucca root; coiled ( 3 rods)
Overall: 20.7 x 44.6 cm (8 1/8 x 17 9/16 in.)
Did you know...
This basket mingles 19th-century design features with 20th-century innovations, including the construction method.
Presented by William Albert Price in memory of Mrs. William Albert Price
This manuscript was illuminated by a circle of at least five highly organized manuscript painters active in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. The principal illuminator was Alexander Bening, who painted the majority of the book's miniatures. Manuscripts produced by this circle of artists are renowned for the decoration of their borders, which typically feature a rich variety of realistically-painted flowers, birds, and butterflies.
This prayer book, called a book of hours, was intended not for a cleric, but for the private devotions of a lay person-in this case, Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain (1451-1504). Isabella's coat of arms embellishes the book's frontispiece. It is unlikely that the book was commissioned by the Queen herself; rather, she probably received it as a diplomatic gift from someone courting her patronage, perhaps Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. A Franciscan friar, Jimenez was dependent upon Isabella for his advancement, first to the post of Queen's confessor in 1492, and then to Archbishop of Toledo in 1495.
Flanders, Ghent and Bruges, late 15th century
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Codex: 22.5 x 15.2 cm (8 7/8 x 6 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
Wang Hui studied paintings by earlier masters and digested their styles with unceasing virtuosity. He had such enduring affection for a landscape by Wang Meng 王蒙 (about 1308–85) that between 1686 and 1712, he made several copies, like this example. One of his compositional transformations here was moving the scholar from the pavilion directly into the landscape by the stream. <br><br>His faithful copying also included inscriptions. Wang Meng had written that he was trying to resuscitate the style of an earlier artist, Wen Tong (1018–1079); therefore, Wang Hui sought to revive both Wang Meng and Wen Tong.
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Painting: 79.6 x 39.4 cm (31 5/16 x 15 1/2 in.); Overall with knobs: 215.8 x 61.6 cm (84 15/16 x 24 1/4 in.)
Did you know...
As a leading figure in the Orthodox School of Chinese painting, Wang Hui believed that the act of painting was a dialogue with one or more masters of the past.
John L. Severance Fund
The depicted scene features a bearded, standing deity in a horned crown carrying a mace or staff. The deity faces a bearded, standing worshipper with one raised arm. Behind the deity is a third figure, standing with both arms raised. All three figures wear long robes. The scene also includes a cuneiform inscription in three registers.
Cylinder seals are cylindrical objects carved in reverse (intaglio) in order to leave raised impressions when rolled into clay. Seals were generally used to mark ownership, and they could act as official identifiers, like a signature, for individuals and institutions. A seal’s owner rolled impressions in wet clay to secure property such as baskets, letters, jars, and even rooms and buildings. This clay sealing prevented tampering because it had to be broken in order to access a safeguarded item. Cylinder seals were often made of durable material, usually stone, and most were drilled lengthwise so they could be strung and worn. A seal’s material and the images inscribed on the seal itself could be protective. The artistry and design might be appreciated and considered decorative as well. Cylinder seals were produced in the Near East beginning in the fourth millennium BCE and date to every period through the end of the first millennium BCE.
Babylonian
H: 13/16 x Diam: 1/2 in. (2.1 x 1.2 cm)
medium: brown and white stone
culture: Babylonian
Walters Art Museum, 1941, by purchase.
This manuscript was illuminated by a circle of at least five highly organized manuscript painters active in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. The principal illuminator was Alexander Bening, who painted the majority of the book's miniatures. Manuscripts produced by this circle of artists are renowned for the decoration of their borders, which typically feature a rich variety of realistically-painted flowers, birds, and butterflies.
This prayer book, called a book of hours, was intended not for a cleric, but for the private devotions of a lay person-in this case, Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain (1451-1504). Isabella's coat of arms embellishes the book's frontispiece. It is unlikely that the book was commissioned by the Queen herself; rather, she probably received it as a diplomatic gift from someone courting her patronage, perhaps Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. A Franciscan friar, Jimenez was dependent upon Isabella for his advancement, first to the post of Queen's confessor in 1492, and then to Archbishop of Toledo in 1495.
Flanders, Ghent and Bruges, late 15th century
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Codex: 22.5 x 15.2 cm (8 7/8 x 6 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference.
"Among the wild animals of the West, none gave us so much pleasure, or caused such excitement, as the bands of wild horses that at intervals came under our view. The beauty and symmetry of their forms, their wild and spirited action,- long full sweeping manes and tails - variety of color, and fleetness of motion,- all combined to call forth admiration from the most stoical. One of the greatest difficulties we experienced was to get near enough. They fought shy and held us at a long range,- shewing that they were prudent and sensible, in addition to other fine qualities;- often we had to resort to a telescope. The wheel like trained columns of cavalry, charge, scatter, and form again;- again they are seen in battalions scampering across the prairie, stopping for a moment,- snuffing the breeze,- taking a final look at the intruders from the last undulation, and are gone. The sketch will convey to the observer some idea of this glorious scene,- but it is almost impossible to catch such magic convolutions and secure the spirit of such evanescent forms under the excitement and difficulties that may be readily imagined to transpire at the moment." 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.
H: 8 1/4 x W: 12 15/16 in. (21 x 32.9 cm)
medium: watercolor on paper
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
A warrior would have worn this helmet over a cloth turban. He would have been confident of being safeguarded in battle by the writing around the helmet's rim. The inscription from the Qur'an is garbled, however, indicating that its Iranian maker may not have known Arabic. Yet the presence of Arabic writing apparently was thought to be enough to invoke the protective power of God's word.
This helmet once belonged to the royal arsenal in Istanbul, Turkey. It was probably part of the war booty amassed by the Ottoman Dynasty during the many wars between Turkey and Iran. Later, it was owned by the French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, who traveled throughout the Near East and painted many scenes of Muslim life.
Islamic
H: 15 3/16 x Diam: 9 3/16 in. (38.5 x 23.4 cm)
medium: steel, engraved and inlaid with silver
culture: Islamic
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.