View allAll Photos Tagged URLs
Textiles formed a large part of Louis Comfort Tiffany's artistic production, especially since he used many of them in his designs for artistic interiors. His clients included many society notables, institutions, churches, and even the White House. Tiffany employed many women artisans in his business, including Dorothy Marshall Hornblower, who oversaw the textile department and likely designed this ethereal Art Nouveau pattern.
America, New York
plain silk velvet stencilled with vegetable dyes
Overall: 11.7 x 34.3 cm (4 5/8 x 13 1/2 in.); Mounted: 18.7 x 41.3 cm (7 3/8 x 16 1/4 in.)
Did you know...
This dragonfly design for a stenciled velvet fabric was likely used for drapery material.
Gift of Joseph F. Sindelar
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.)
Did you know...
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
[url=http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=25820&cat=0&page=1]FAVE-O-RITES 2013: Jun Faves[/url], Nettio Designs
[url=http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=25857&cat=576&page=1]freedom[/url], Jenn Barrette
This armor was developed for the joust-a sporting combat between two mounted contestants. Although all of the elements of this armor date from the same period, they are not all from the same suit. This armor is thus called "composed." It also shows the asymmetry of jousting armor. The participants rode along a wall-like barrier known as a "tilt" with their left sides facing one another. Consequently, armor on that side of the body had to be thicker. Note the large plate (grandguard) over the left shoulder for extra protection. Also, the breathing holes in the helmet were placed on the right side (farthest from an opponent's lance) to avoid injuries from splinters. The bracket attached to the right breastplate is called the lance-rest, a shock-absorbing support designed to accommodate the lance when "couched" under the right armpit.
South Germany, 16th century
steel, leather straps, brass rivets
Overall: 31 cm (12 3/16 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance
In this portrait, the Ōbaku school Buddhist monk Duli Xingyi (born Tai Li, 1596–1672), whose name is pronounced Dokuryū Shōeki in Japanese, sits upon a woven mat holding a ceremonial scepter known as a <em>ruyi</em>, or <em>nyoi</em> in Japanese. Above his head is an insciption he added to the painting in 1671, the year before his death. It may be translated to read: <br><br>Contemplative emptiness: the moon suspended over the village at midnight. Suddenly my soul is startled by the howl of an ape. Who could know that it would arouse me beyond my senses, and bring me an inner vision from Mt. Sumeru.<br>(translated by Stephen Addiss and Kwan S. Wong) <br><br>Originally from what is now the city of Hangzhou in China, Duli emigrated to Japan in 1653, where he took monastic vows. His skills in calligraphy and seal carving were formidable. Painter Kita Genki combined Chinese brush styles he learned in Nagasaki with Western painting techniques to capture Duli's likeness.
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Painting: 111.4 x 50.1 cm (43 7/8 x 19 3/4 in.); Mounted: 211.8 x 63.8 cm (83 3/8 x 25 1/8 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
This is the first of two albums boxed together with an external title reading <em>Famous Early Modern Calligraphers and Painters. </em>It begins with a lengthy inscription in Chinese by the Japanese artist Rai Sanyō (1780–1832) dated to 1817, and concludes with another, undated, by Tanomura Chikuden (1777–1835). In between, there are undated poems in Chinese by other Japanese artists, Nukina Kaioku (1778–1863), Rai Shunpū (1753–1825), Rai Kyōhei (1756–1834), and Kan Sazan (1748–1827), as well as paintings by Okada Hankō (1782–1845), Totoki Baigai (1749-1804), Nakabayashi Chikutō (1776-1853), Uragami Shunkin (1779-1846), Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841), Tsubaki Chinzan (1801-1854), and Nukina Kaikoku. While most of the paintings are not dated, those that are indicate that the group was painted over a large span of time, rather than on a single occasion. Nakabayashi Chikutō’s Chinese hermit treads a waterfall-dominated landscape dated 1808, while Nukina Kaikoku’s solitary Chinese boatman beneath a flock of geese is from 1849. The paintings are landscapes or floral images and follow recognizable Chinese brush methods transmitted to Japan through a variety of methods including printed manuals. The plants have symbolic meanings, sometimes related to their names in Chinese, which may be homonyms for terms like success or achievement. They often recall human qualities or desires, such as hardiness or longevity. The calligraphers and painters whose works are represented in the album were all deeply interested in Chinese culture. They were especially attracted to the idea they found in Chinese society of a community of educated friends who shared works in prose, poetry, and painting among one another through correspondence or gatherings. The ideal was a group who were not professional artists, creating works for clients, but a group who produced works to nurture friendships and cultivate their own minds. The cover of the album has a title slip reading <em>Album of Precious Works</em>, and is signed Chikutei Fu or Kan (竹釡 or possibly a much abbreviated 鍳), with a round, red seal reading Chikutei. This is a pseudonym used most likely by a Japanese person interested in calligraphy composed in Chinese and paintings with Chinese styles and themes. The name evokes a pavilion set in a bamboo grove, an image strongly associated with China in Japan. It is also likely that this person assembled the works into the album. Pseudonyms of this type were and continue to be used by those engaged in cultural pursuits such as poetry composition, painting, and collecting art. Having such a name takes one out of the normal business of life, and transports one to a space of creativity and aesthetic appreciation.
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
One of a pair of folding-albums; ink and color on silk and paper
Album, closed: 31 x 21 cm (12 3/16 x 8 1/4 in.)
Gift of Mary B. Lee, C. Bingham Blossom, Dudley S. Blossom III, Laurel B. Kovacik, and Elizabeth B. Blossom, in memory of Elizabeth B. Blossom
This whimsical, saddled, and fully harnessed but riderless horse was part of a larger curtain or wall hanging of a type popular in the late 5th and early 6th century.
Curtains and wall hangings were used in private homes, as well as in public and religious buildings, to prevent drafts, divide spaces, and provide privacy. The tapestry weave of this piece is ideal for such textiles, as it produces a design that can be viewed from either side.
The complete hanging likely would have had many identical roundels (one is in the Cleveland Museum of Art) in staggered rows on a background interspersed with baskets and birds. These designs are traditionally Egyptian, while the roundel borders of heart or rose petal chains and the stylized trees are adapted from imported Sassanian silks.
H: 16 1/8 x W:17 5/16 x D: 1/16 in. (41 x 44 x 0.1 cm)
medium: wool
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
The surface of the painting has suffered significant damage and limited research has been carried out on the painting. Originally it was likely a fine portrait.
The sitter is unknown but likely a member of a noble family of Begamo, the northern Italian city with which Moroni is associated. By the mid 1500s, it was quite common for a nobleman to be accompanied by a hunting dog, more as an indication of a classic noble pursuit than as an object of affection. As the nobleman is posed in left profile, his most striking attribute is his swept-hilt rapier (sheathed) in the newest style and probably made in the region. Although there appears to be a pendant weighing down the gold chain round his neck, he covers it with his right hand. This curious gesture simply calls attention to the fact that he is shielding something from our view. His pose turned to our left and looking back, in front of what appears to be a pier on the left side of a semi-circular, empty niche in ruins can be compared with the Portrait of Giovanni Gerolamo Grumelli (with a more fully-articulated setting) dated 1560 in the Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo. A similar backdrop was used for several of his portraits.
The technical status of the painting, as described in Federico Zeri, Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore 1976) no. 297, has not appreciatively changed.
Painted surface and stretcher H: 44 3/16 x W: 35 7/16 in. (112.3 x 90 cm)
medium: oil on canvas
by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
This pendant represents a jaguar, an animal with which a warrior would have wanted to be associated. The animal's mouth is open to display its dangerous teeth, and the end of its characteristic tail is curled upwards. The front feet have loops for suspension.
Raw and refined gold was as valuable as it was symbolic to the people of Precolombian Panama. Because of its reflective nature, which mirrored the shining sun, working with and wearing gold signaled a characteristic of the divine. In order to create complex and beautiful gold pieces, many goldsmiths adapted the lost wax method of metallurgy. This technique—probably initially developed in the Northwest region of Colombia—used wax and clay to create a mold, enabling molten metal to be poured into the cast and melt the surrounding parts to produce exquisite and thin ornamentation.
Pendants were worn by men around the neck on ceremonial occasions. Columbus noted that the inhabitants of Panama who came to greet him wore gold pendants in the shape of eagles. This piece could have been created in Columbus's time or during the previous 600 years.
Panamanian
1 3/8 x 3 9/16 in. (3.5 x 9 cm)
medium: gold and copper alloy
culture: Panamanian
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.