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A young male figure, probably the pilgrim Sudhana, sits on a cushion with a bolster and interacts with a parrot, perched on the trunk of a tree. Sudhana's gesture indicates that the bird should not be afraid. Most pages from this dispersed 355-folio manuscript have a single painting only on the recto side.
Nepal
gum tempera and ink on palm leaf
Average: 4.2 x 52.4 cm (1 5/8 x 20 5/8 in.)
Did you know...
The pages would have been bound into the book by strings running through the two holes in the center of the pages.
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
The style and quality of this manuscript's decoration is typical of deluxe Parisian books made for aristocratic or royal patrons. Most of the book's decoration appears to be the work of the Master of the Boqueteaux, an artist active at the court of King Charles V (died 1380). His style was apparently shared by a number of book illuminators working in and around Paris. It is very possible that the <em>Gotha Missal</em> belonged to Charles V, but is not provable because the manuscript has no royal portraits and lacks a colophon. Given the book's magnificent decoration, however, it would seem that it was produced for a Valois prince, if not for the king himself. The manuscript receives its name from the German dukes of Gotha, its later owners.
France, Paris
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; blind-tooled leather binding
Codex: 27.1 x 19.5 cm (10 11/16 x 7 11/16 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
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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
The visual focus of this altarpiece is the suffering and death of Christ on the cross. So-called Passion cycles in art include the events leading up to and following the Crucifixion, not only as single subjects but as scenes meant to be read in sequence. Passion cycles were promoted by the two great teaching orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, for whom this subject represented the main religious drama of their churches, and also by the German mystics who advocated private contemplation on the humanity and suffering of Christ. The original context for this altarpiece remains unknown, but it was probably made for a religious institution in Westphalia in the Rhine Valley. During the 1870s it was given to the Abbey of Schlägl, near Linz in Upper Austria, from which both altarpiece and artist take their names. The altarpiece is not preserved today in its original format, and some of the individual scenes are missing. Scholars continue to debate the original number of scenes and their sequencing; nine of the original panels have survived.
Germany, 15th century
oil and gold on wood
Framed: 88.9 x 157.5 x 8.3 cm (35 x 62 x 3 1/4 in.); Unframed: 74.3 x 69.8 cm (29 1/4 x 27 1/2 in.); Part 1: 84.9 x 81.4 x 8.3 cm (33 7/16 x 32 1/16 x 3 1/4 in.); Part 2: 84.6 x 152.2 x 8.3 cm (33 5/16 x 59 15/16 x 3 1/4 in.); Part 3: 84.6 x 78.7 x 8.3 cm (33 5/16 x 31 x 3 1/4 in.); Panel: 36.2 x 35 cm (14 1/4 x 13 3/4 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
This block statue is of a squatting man with an inscription on the front dress and rear.
Egyptian
H: 13 1/4 in. (33.6 cm)
medium: black granite
culture: Egyptian
dynasty: 22nd Dynasty
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
This miniature head depicts a man with wild curls that still retain their original red pigment. He is immediately revealed as a non-Greek by his carved mustache, associated with Celtic tribes, and cone-shaped hat called a Phrygian cap, associated with eastern peoples such as the Persians. During the Hellenistic period, various non-Greek peoples served as mercenaries or fought against the Greek kingdoms, and these foreign warriors were depicted extensively in art.
Greece, Alexandria or the Levant
marble with traces of paint
Overall: 10.5 cm (4 1/8 in.)
Did you know...
There is a small notch below the cap's crest that likely held an attachment, now lost.
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
The Virgin, who has suffered some damage over time, stands in a swaying pose to support the missing Child on her left arm. Her apron-style drapery hangs in deep folds, and her head was once ornamented with a metal crown. The rendering of her deep-set eyes and slightly pinched features is not found in French works, but can be seen instead in English ivory and alabaster sculptures as early as the mid-13th century.
English
65 x 2 1/4 x 1 5/8 in. (165.1 x 5.7 x 4.1 cm)
medium: ivory
style: Gothic
culture: English
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Wearing one lotus in his headdress and holding another in his hand, this pot-bellied figure personifies the lotus (padma) of the god Vishnu. Carved to stand alongside a larger-scale image of Vishnu, he would have tilted his head toward the god. As a flower that rises above the mud from which it grows, the lotus is a symbol of purity and is associated with creation and renewal.
H: 20 1/4 × W: 8 1/4 × D: 5 1/8 in. (51.5 × 21 × 13 cm)
Base H: 2 3/8 × W: 9 1/16 × D: 5 9/16 in. (6 × 23 × 14.2 cm)
medium: sandstone
Walters Art Museum, 2008, by gift.