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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.
This drawing records a grand procession through Venice's Piazza San Marco on the penultimate day of the 1782 celebrations for the visit of the Russian Grand Duke Paul (Pavel) Petrovitch and his wife Maria Feodorovna. Francesco Guardi was likely commissioned by the Venetian state to document the ducal visit. Drawing from the vantage point of the Procuratie Nuove (a palace on one side of the piazza), Guardi sketched five carriages festooned with allegories, which were meant to celebrate the governments of Catherine the Great and Venice. In order to include as much of the procession as possible, he manipulated the perspective of the buildings on the right side of the square.The loose handling and lively immediacy of the pen work suggests he executed it on the spot. One drawing (Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin) and two oil paintings (private collections, Venice and Milan) of the same scene survive. Cleveland’s sheet likely preceded these more detailed and polished compositions.
Italy, Venice, 18th century
pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash
Sheet: 25.9 x 36.8 cm (10 3/16 x 14 1/2 in.)
Did you know...
Before entering the museum's collection, this sheet may have been cut on the left, possibly to eliminate a sixth carriage that does not appear in Guardi’s other representations of the procession.
John L. Severance Fund
The p'ing-t'o technique of inlaying gold and silver foil on lacquer produced luxurious articles of elegance and fragility. These stray silver inlays were originally mounted on a mirror back or a cosmetic box whose lacquered surface has disintegrated. They combine auspicious symbols of Indian and Chinese origin--human-headed birds whose melodies filled the Buddhist paradise, and bird-riding deities who inhabited the skies of Taoist mythology. Like these imaginary beings, the lions were probably paired in a radial design; at least one has been lost.
China, Tang dynasty (618-907) - Song dynasty (960-1279)
beaten silver with chased details
Overall: 4.7 x 8.4 cm (1 7/8 x 3 5/16 in.)
Gift of Eugene Victor Thaw
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
This heavy gold signet ring bears the throne name of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (1351-1334 BCE). It was cast in one piece; the deeper parts of the hieroglyphics were cut into the model before casting and the finer details chased onto it afterwards. The hieroglyphs on the bezel of the ring are not consistent with the style of the Amarna Period (particularly the shape of the kheper-beetle, as well as the nefer-sign next to it). The ring was bought in Cairo in 1929 and it is possible that it was produced in Egypt in the time of the excavations at Amarna (capital of Akhentaten in Middle Egypt) in the early 20th century or shortly after.
Egyptian
Overall H: 5/8 in. (1.58 cm)
Bezel L: 1/16 x W: 9/16 in. (0.2 x 1.4 cm)
Inner Diam: 5/8 in. (1.6 cm)
Outer Diam: 1 1/8 in. (2.79 cm)
medium: cast gold
culture: Egyptian
dynasty: 18th Dynasty (?)
reign: Akhenaten (1351-1334 BC) (?)
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
After changing the default URL shortener from bitly to owly and restarting Firefox (still with all extensions disabled), I tweeted the link a third time. Hootbar detected that the Tweet was identical to one that had already been tweeted. (Note, however, that it posted it anyway, as the next screenshot shows.)
At the front of the ship, the young man calls out to the Hashimi, who sits beside the weeping slave girl. Despite their love, the destitute young man had been forced to sell the girl. She is overjoyed to see her long-lost lover and begins to sing so beautifully that the birds, fish, and the ocean itself join in the celebration.
Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 10.7 x 10.2 cm (4 3/16 x 4 in.)
Did you know...
Two black fish are visible in the swirling waters of the ocean.
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
One of the 1000's of high resolution textures available.from Mayang's Free Textures - see.http://www.mayang.com/textures/..This texture may not be sold without permission from the authors.