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Here, a "symposium," or men's drinking party, is under way. Entertainment at such events was provided by "hetairai," or female prostitutes, who also served as musicians and dancers. Reclining on dining couches are two bearded men and an unbearded youth, who tilts his head back to listen to the girl before him playing the double flutes. On the other side of the vessel, three young men are engaged in conversation. Kraters such as this one were used for mixing wine and water, as Greek and Roman authors write that drinking undiluted wine was considered barbaric and uncouth.
Greek
H: 15 3/8 x W: 13 7/8 x Diam: 12 3/8 in. (39 x 35.2 x 31.5 cm)
medium: terracotta, wheel made; red figure
style: Attic
culture: Greek
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
The presentation scene on this seal depicts a seated, bearded deity in horned headdress and flounced robe. An interceding goddess leads a worshipper, bald in a long robe, by the hand. She is posed with one arm raised, and she also wears a flounced robe and horned headdress. An inverted crescent is suspended in the field between them. Finally, a cuneiform inscription in three registers is incorporated into the scene.
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.
Neo-Sumerian
Diam: 1/2 in. (1.3 cm)
medium: hematite
culture: Neo-Sumerian
Walters Art Museum, 1941, by purchase.
Continuing a practice initiated by his father, Alexander III, Tsar Nicholas II presented this egg to his mother, the dowager empress Marie Fedorovna, on Easter 1901. The egg opens to reveal as a surprise a miniature gold replica of the palace at Gatchina, located 30 miles southwest of St. Petersburg. Built for Count Grigorii Orlov, the palace was acquired by Tsar Paul I and served as the winter residence for Alexander III and Marie Fedorovna.
Fabergé's revival of 18th-century enameling techniques, including the application of multiple layers of translucent enamel over "guilloché," or mechanically engraved gold, is demonstrated in the shell of the egg. So meticulously did Fabergé's workmaster, Mikhail Perkhin, execute the palace that one can discern such details as cannons, a flag, a statue of Paul I (1754-1801), and elements of the landscape, including parterres and trees.
H: 5 x W: 3 9/16 in. (12.7 x 9.1 cm)
medium: gold, "en plein" enamel, silver-gilding, portrait diamonds, rock crystal, and seed pearls
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Three Amazons on this black-figure lekythos face right, and appear to march one after the other. Their skin is white, but their facial features, eroded or rubbed away, are indistinguishable. Each wears a helmet, holds a long spear and has a horizontal quiver. The middle figure holds both hands near her waist; the other two have one hand raised.
Amazons are first mentioned in the "Iliad" (6.186) as allies of the Trojans; later authors emphasize their fearlessness and their status as foreigners. They were introduced on Attic vases in the early 6th century BC, and quickly became a popular subject. Early black-figure depictions of Amazons resemble Greek warriors, with one notable difference-their white skin color, which identifies them as "women." In red-figure vases, the Amazons acquire more feminine features and bodies, and their foreigness is emphasized by their attire: Scythian or Thracian clothing and subsequently Persian garb.
In some places in Greece, Amazons were the object of cult. Jennifer Larson (1995, 111-16) has suggested that despite the fact that they were considered hostile to the Greeks, their complete otherness from the Greek way of life also gave them protective powers and entitled them to be worshiped as heroines.
Greek
H: 8 1/16 x Diam: 2 3/8 in. (20.5 x 6 cm)
medium: terracotta, wheel made; black figure with white paint
style: Attic
culture: Greek
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
This view of the Piazza San Marco, Venice shows Bellotto's devotion to faithful observation. At the left is the church of St. Mark with the Doge's Palace just beyond, leading to the lagoon. Vertically dividing the canvas is the campanile (bell tower) with the Procuratie Nuove (a government building) extending to the right. At the extreme right, opposite St. Mark's, is the façade of the church of San Geminiano which was removed in the 19th century by Napoleon. The two wings of the Procuratie were then joined across the west end of the piazza. Bernardo Bellotto was the nephew and student of Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768) who ran one of the most productive painting workshops in Italy. Like his uncle, Bellotto specialized in vedute (views) of Italy, especially Venice, which were purchased avidly by British aristocrats traveling on the Grand Tour. Bellotto later worked for the courts of Dresden, Vienna, Warsaw, and Munich, painting topographical and imaginary views of those cities.
Italy, 18th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 164.5 x 264 x 12 cm (64 3/4 x 103 15/16 x 4 3/4 in.); Unframed: 136.2 x 232.5 cm (53 5/8 x 91 9/16 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
In creating luxurious accessories for a desk or tabletop, Fabergé often used native hardstones such as multicolored agate and jasper, green nephrite, pink rhodonite, and rock crystal found in the Ural Mountains of western Russia. By paying careful attention to the unique colors and textures of the stones, Fabergé and his craftsmen brought them to life, turning milky agate into a begging poodle or brown and black jasper into these sleeping puppies. The use of native materials also promoted Russian nationalism, which appealed greatly to the tsar and his family.
Russia, St. Petersburg
agate, chalcedony
Overall: 2.9 x 11.7 x 9.9 cm (1 1/8 x 4 5/8 x 3 7/8 in.)
Did you know...
Fabergé's artisans used multiple types of stone to make each puppy unique. Even the little rug they are sleeping on is made of stone.
The India Early Minshall Collection
Corn Fields, 1900. Félix Vallotton (Swiss French, 1865–1925). Oil on board; unframed: 26.2 x 46.2 cm (10 5/16 x 18 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.115
More at clevelandart.org/art/2020.115
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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 is a so-called Heart scarab which was used for the deceased. The linearly incised bottom inscription contains spell 30 B of the Book of the Dead. The left reading text is displayed in ten lines, separated by nine, very straight text-divider, and framed by an oval line. The hieroglyphs are less detailed and slightly irregular. The layout is well organized, and the signs evenly spaced. The back of the scarab is very high, and the highest point at the partition between pronotum (dorsal plate of the prothorax) and elytron (wing cases). Both parts have incised borderlines, a slightly curved double partition lines, and a triple division line between the wing cases. The rectangular head is flanked by quarter-spherical, two-stage eyes with lid markings. The side plates and the clypeus (front plate) are trapezoidal. On the left wing case is an inscription with name and title of the owner: "the priest of Amun: Bak-en-Djehuti," and on the right wing case a crossed lines pattern and a formula wishing him life. The style of the inscription on the back differs from that on the bottom, and it is most likely that the text on the back with the individualization was added later by another hand. The crossed lines on the right wing case are less deeply incised, and might have been added later, only the ankh-sign (meaning "life") looks similar to the inscription on the left wing case. The extremities have natural form, and vertical and diagonal hatch lines for the tibial teeth and the pilosity (hair). The low, oval base is slightly asymmetrical and has a smaller head.
The scarab was produced to be placed in the wrappings of a mummy. It was individualized by his name of the deceased: Bak-en-Djehuti. Such funerary amulet should cause the renewal of the deceased, and support him in the Weighing of the Heart procedure in the Judgement hall of the underworld.
Egyptian
H: 11/16 x W: 1 1/16 x L: 1 1/2 in. (1.8 x 2.7 x 3.8 cm)
medium: grey-green greywacke
culture: Egyptian
dynasty: 18th-19th Dynasty
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
This is URL. I agreed to allow a third dog to come live with us under one condition; I get to name it. (I am a web designer. Hee, hee!)
Saint Anthony (c. AD 251–356) was an Egyptian hermit known for having established the ideal of monasticism, seclusion, and meditation in Christianity. According to the Life of Saint Anthony written by the 20th bishop of Alexandria Athanasius (c. AD 360), Anthony was assaulted by several demons and tormented by erotic visions during his retreat to the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Martin Schongauer's print marks the very moment in which a highly animated demonic attack took place in the sky. Nine whimsical monsters—composed of reptilian, mammalian, and fish- and bird-like parts—flap, blow, and grasp a stiff and indifferent Saint Anthony. With his firm discipline, the saint epitomizes the Christian's struggle to resist evil temptations.
Germany, 15th century
engraving
Sheet: 29.9 x 22.1 cm (11 3/4 x 8 11/16 in.)
Did you know...
Prints of Saint Anthony like this one were believed to function as protective tools against ergotism (also called St. Anthony's Fire), a disease causing painful putrefaction of the limbs cased by fungus found on rye.
Dudley P. Allen Fund
Guanyin is a bodhisattva, a divine being who has attained enlightenment but chooses to stay in the world to help others. Guanyin (an abbreviation of Guanshiyin: “Perceiver of the World’s Sounds”) responds to the calls of those in peril.
Here, Guanyin sits in an attitude of tranquil ease, an arm resting on one knee while gazing at the moon’s reflection in the water below; the bodhisattva’s rippling garments puddle downward in a seemingly liquid cascade. In China, devotion to Guanyin, who came to be represented as an androgynous or female being, was popularized through sacred texts ("sutras"), miracle tales, and legends by which the deity became associated with natural elements, such as water and the moon, that evoke themes of impermanence and change.
The sculpture is a technical marvel. The entire figure, down to the slender fingers, is hollow and made in a technique similar to papier-mâché. Layers of cloth soaked in lacquer, derived from a tree resin, were wrapped over an internal clay support that was removed after the lacquer had hardened. X-radiography shows that the hollow interior was covered in a pigment containing red mercury, called cinnabar, that may have had both sacred and preservative functions.
Chinese
H: 50 x W: 34 1/4 x D: 22 5/8 in. (127 x 87 x 57.5 cm)
medium: dry lacquer, gold, and paint
culture: Chinese
dynasty: Ming [Ming] Dynasty
given to Walters Art Museum, 2006.
This ornament is made of a spondylus shell, from which the exterior surface has been carved away to reveal a layer of bright orange. The pampas cat inlaid on the surface in multicolored shell and stone has bean-shaped spots on his body, and grasps a gold gourd or fruit. In both Paracas and Nasca art, the small, non-domesticated pampas cat is strongly associated with beans and other crops. Perhaps it was thought to guard the fields from rodents and other pests.
Peru, South Coast, Nasca
Spondylus shell with shell, stone, and gold inlay
Overall: 7.5 x 7.4 cm (2 15/16 x 2 15/16 in.)
In memory of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Humphreys, gift of their daughter Helen
Guanyin is a bodhisattva, a divine being who has attained enlightenment but chooses to stay in the world to help others. Guanyin (an abbreviation of Guanshiyin: “Perceiver of the World’s Sounds”) responds to the calls of those in peril.
Here, Guanyin sits in an attitude of tranquil ease, an arm resting on one knee while gazing at the moon’s reflection in the water below; the bodhisattva’s rippling garments puddle downward in a seemingly liquid cascade. In China, devotion to Guanyin, who came to be represented as an androgynous or female being, was popularized through sacred texts ("sutras"), miracle tales, and legends by which the deity became associated with natural elements, such as water and the moon, that evoke themes of impermanence and change.
The sculpture is a technical marvel. The entire figure, down to the slender fingers, is hollow and made in a technique similar to papier-mâché. Layers of cloth soaked in lacquer, derived from a tree resin, were wrapped over an internal clay support that was removed after the lacquer had hardened. X-radiography shows that the hollow interior was covered in a pigment containing red mercury, called cinnabar, that may have had both sacred and preservative functions.
Chinese
H: 50 x W: 34 1/4 x D: 22 5/8 in. (127 x 87 x 57.5 cm)
medium: dry lacquer, gold, and paint
culture: Chinese
dynasty: Ming [Ming] Dynasty
given to Walters Art Museum, 2006.
Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. These words, which shaped how Miller’s contemporaries viewed the watercolors, reveal the racism and sexism embedded in 19th-century exploration and colonization of the western part of what is today the United States.
"The woman in front has her papoose. It is hung to the saddle bow by a strip of buckskin. The child is attached to the board and secured by buckskin highly ornamented and laced in front. If any one thing gives an Indian woman pleasure, above another, it must be the elaboration of this affair. Porcupine quills stained with all manner of colours, quite indelible, and of beautiful patterns, are carried down and across the front; now if she can procure some small bells to fasten on the guard piece of the head, the arrangement is almost complete." 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: 9 3/16 x W: 8 3/8 in. (23.3 x 21.3 cm)
medium: watercolor heightened with white on paper
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Mountain and River in Storm, early to mid-1600s. Hirowatari Setsuzan (Japanese, ?-1674). Hanging scroll; ink on paper; overall: 92.7 x 34.3 cm (36 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift from the Collection of George Gund III 2015.459
More at clevelandart.org/art/2015.459