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While most disk fibulae are decorated with filigree, this one was made by the technique of repoussé, in which metal foil is impressed from the rear to form a raised design. The gilt silver foil, decorated with C-shaped scrolls and raised beaded outlines, is attached by four rivets onto a circular bronze base and set with four triangular-cut garnets arrayed around a green glass bead. The corroded remains of an iron clasp on the reverse once fasten the fibula to clothing and still hold imbedded wool cloth fibers. A Frankish man would have used a fibula like this one to pin his cloak at the right shoulder.
Frankish
9/16 x 1 5/8 in. (1.5 x 4.2 cm) (d. x diam.)
medium: bronze, gilded silver, garnets, glass, iron
culture: Frankish
Walters Art Museum, 1959, by purchase.
Each of the four gospels in this book opens on a page with brilliantly illuminated borders depicting the author of the text as well as birds-principally peacocks, symbols of the immortality of the soul-and fountains, representing the fountain of life and the salvation of the soul. This volume consists of 428 leaves with texts in Greek. Its level of sophistication suggests that it was probably written and decorated in a monastery in Constantinople.
Byzantium, Constantinople
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; leather binding
Sheet: 28 x 23 cm (11 x 9 1/16 in.)
Did you know...
Gospel Books were carried in procession through Byzantine churches.
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
This Ethopian sensul, or "chain" manuscript, was made in the seventeenth century in the Gondarine region. It was created out of a single folded strip of parchment attached to heavy hide "boards" at each end, creating a small book when folded. Comprised solely of inscribed images, this pocket-sized manuscript would have served a devotional function for its owner, who while unidentified, inscribed the first image with a note reminding people under the threat of excommunication not to steal or erase the manuscript. Narrative illuminations, which tell the story of the Virgin Mary, allow for private meditation. The book can also function as something of an icon, for when it is opened to the middle and stood on end, the facing figures of St. George and the Virgin and Child form a small diptych, resembling other icons of this era.
Christian Highland Ethiopian
H: 3 x W unfolded: 23 in. (7.62 x 58.42 cm)
H each panel: 3 5/8 x W: 3 1/8 in. (9.2 x 9 cm)
medium: ink and pigments on medium weight parchment, reinforced with a heavier parchment backing covered with upper and lower boards made of heavy undecorated hide, stitched to ends of parchment strip
culture: Christian Highland Ethiopian
Walters Art Museum, 1996, by purchase.
<em>Views of Tiger Hill </em>depicts a historic site a few miles northwest of Suzhou. The scenes simulate a visit from arriving by boat at the foot of the mountain to climbing to Cloudy Cliff Monastery. Representations of the artist’s mature style, Shen Zhou included views in subtle colors in the suite of monochrome scenes. <br><br>A Suzhou native, Shen Zhou was supported by family wealth and rejected an official career in favor of life as a retired scholar. Turning to painting in midlife, he is regarded as the founder of the Wu School of painting, with its center in Suzhou.
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Album leaf; ink on paper or ink and slight color on paper
Image: 31.5 x 41.4 cm (12 3/8 x 16 5/16 in.); Overall: 36.5 x 49.9 cm (14 3/8 x 19 5/8 in.)
Did you know...
The Five Sage Terrace marks the top of Tiger Hill.
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
Zhao Zhong's flowers, each paired with a poem, echo the fine-style colored flowers of the academic tradition, but instead he used only ink. Fine lines define the contours of each plant, as well as the veins within each petal and leaf. Careful ink washes give subtle modeling to the forms. <br><br>The combination of lily, narcissus, and peony is unusual as the three belong to no known seasonal or symbolic system popular in the fourteenth century. Zhao’s medical training may have influenced the selection. Powdered lilies, for example, were prescribed to dispel grief, while the bark of tree peony roots was used as a treatment for various blood disorders.
China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
Handscroll; ink on paper
Overall: 31.8 x 153.2 cm (12 1/2 x 60 5/16 in.)
Did you know...
This handscroll is a very rare example of ink flowers in the linear <em>baimiao</em> style of the fourteenth century.
John L. Severance Fund
Objects of curiosity, coconuts from Africa or the East Indies were often turned into cups with silver mounts. The inscription in Dutch, "Drunkenness is the root of all evil," accompanies Old Testament scenes of Susanna threatened by the Elders, Delilah cutting Samson's hair, and Lot with his daughters, all involving succumbing to temptation. Other inscriptions announce that Cornelis de Bye carved the coconut and that his daughter Nelltgen had it mounted to commemorate his death, adding a further rhyme celebrating the bee's (Bye's) creation of pure honey through the love of God.
6 3/4 in. (17.1 cm)
medium: coconut, silver mounts
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
On the right side of this tsuba, a tiger is perched on a cliff. While tigers are not native to Japan, they have long been known through Chinese painting. The tiger is often a symbol of strength. The reverse of this tsuba shows two pine trees under a gibbous moon.
Japanese
3 5/16 x 3 1/8 x 3/16 in. (8.35 x 7.88 x 0.45 cm)
medium: iron, shibuichi, gold, silver, shakudo
style: Otsuki School
culture: Japanese
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen kilns, Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Hongzhi mark and reign (1488-1505)
porcelain with incised and underglaze coffee brown (iron oxide) decoration
Diameter: 25.8 cm (10 3/16 in.); Overall: 26 cm (10 1/4 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Collection
H. 3 in. (7.6 cm)
medium: Agate, mottled
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 02.18.983a, b 1902
Gift of Heber R. Bishop, 1902
After dreaming of its famous bell, a grieving mother seeks her lost child at Mii Temple. She arrives on the night of a full autumn moon, wearing a traveler's hat and grasping a branch of bamboo, a symbol of female frenzy. In an emotion-filled dance, the woman begs the priests to let her ring the bell, which is represented on stage by a miniature construction. At its sound, the child recognizes his mother immediately.
Japanese
H: 9 13/16 x W: 14 5/8 in. (25 x 37.2 cm)
medium: pigments on mulberry paper
culture: Japanese
Walters Art Museum, 1989, by gift.
Each of the four gospels in this book opens on a page with brilliantly illuminated borders depicting the author of the text as well as birds—principally peacocks, symbols of the immortality of the soul—and fountains, representing the fountain of life and the salvation of the soul. This volume consists of 428 leaves with texts in Greek. Its level of sophistication suggests that it was probably written and decorated in a monastery in Constantinople.
Byzantium, Constantinople
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; leather binding
Sheet: 28 x 23 cm (11 x 9 1/16 in.)
Did you know...
Gospel books were carried in procession through Byzantine churches.
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund