View allAll Photos Tagged URL
The 17th-century preference for naturalism led to the popularity of scenes of everyday life filled with mundane actions, such as people talking and drinking. Codazzi specialized in painting outdoor settings with villages or ancient ruins but not in painting figures. In this courtyard scene, Micco Spadaro, with whom Codazzi collaborated, painted the figures, as that was his specialty.
The cracked plaster of the walls of the inn suggests the passage of time, as does the presence of the majestic, ancient Roman portico on the right.
For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 340, p. 464.
Painted surface H: 27 3/8 x W: 31 3/4 in. (69.5 x 80.7 cm)
medium: oil on canvas
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Japanese
H: 8 3/8 x Diam: 5 1/4 in. (21.3 x 13.3 cm)
medium: stoneware with rice-straw ash and iron glazes
style: Kyoto ware
culture: Japanese
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
The Dutch "vanitas" (Latin for vanity) still life brings together the prevailing moral tone and an appreciation of everyday objects: how vain and insignificant are human concerns, and, therefore, how important it is to turn to God. The term comes from the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes (1:2) "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity."
These objects symbolize transitory human achievement and satisfactions. The atlas is open to a map of the East Indies, source of many Dutch fortunes, and there is a city council document with an imposing seal. The other open book is a history of the early counts of Holland-whose lands were absorbed by the dukes of Burgundy in the 1400s. The lute, music, and inkstand represent creative endeavors, which, like satisfaction in beautiful objects such as pearls, are transitory pleasures. Even the heavens and the earth, represented by two globes, are effected by Time, whose relentless passage is marked by the hourglass.
The little-known painter Adam Bernaert, who monogrammed this painting, often took his inspiration from paintings by the better-known Evert Collier. The present composition is closely based on a Collier composition signed and dated 1663, which in February 2008 was with the Dutch dealer Salomon Lilian.
H: 16 3/4 x W: 22 5/16 in. (42.5 x 56.6 cm)
medium: oil on panel
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
This head of a boy has hair that is broken and worn, and covered with dirt. The face is clean, possibly recut. The piece is broken at the neck. It is probably a forgery.
H: 12 1/4 in. (31.1 cm)
medium: black basalt
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Palmer, who was self-taught, was among the first American sculptors to break with the prevailing neoclassical style and adopt a more naturalistic approach.
This plaster is of the left foot only of Palmer's sculpture "The White Captive." Palmer created a separate foot carved in marble in early 1860, carved by Charles Calverley, and that at least two plaster versions were also made. One is now at the Walters, and the other, which was formerly owned by Henry T. Tuckerman of New York, is now lost.
This plaster foot was found in the Walters' townhouse, at 5 West Mount Vernon Place, in the 1940s. Although no documentation relating to the foot has come to light, it is likely that it was acquired by, or given to William T. Walters around the time it was made. William purchased a bust of Flora from the artist and a full-length subject of a child, titled "First Grief." A daguerreotype of Palmer's "Sleeping Peri" is in the museum's archive, and was also found at 5 West Mount Vernon place.
H: 6 × W: 4 13/16 × D: 10 13/16 in. (15.2 × 12.3 × 27.5 cm)
medium: plaster
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest [accessioned in 1941].