waltersartmuseum

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Art of the Day: Single Leaf with Lutheran Devotional Design

This leaf, which appears to have been created as a singular work rather than part of a book, was designed and made by Johann Leonhard Tauber in 1752. Tauber, who identifies himself as a 63-year-old gravel-crusher in Nuremberg, Germany, "drew" using lines of texts of Christian doctrine, Martin Luther's catechism, and daily prayers. He identifies the ultimate design as the "Reichs Apffel," or "Orb of the Empire." Written in the most minute script, with the smallest text in the center of the flower virtually illegible to the naked eye, this work would have been a painstaking act of devotion. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2MgLx4h

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Art of the Day: Pyxis and Lid with Two Standing Horses

The horse pyxis was made only in Athens. Many examples have been found in the graves of women and are thought to have held food offerings or personal items of the deceased. The horses on the lid, which served as a handle, may reflect the prominent status of the owner's family, as horses were associated with the aristocracy during this period. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2XcRZua

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Art of the Day: Leaf from Breviary: Psalm 1, Initial B with David Playing the Harp

This small breviary, which contained the texts for each day's church service, is extraordinary for its length. Composed of more than 500 folios, it is only half of what was originally a two-volume breviary. The manuscript was completed for the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and St.-Lambert in Liège ca. 1420. This attribution is suggested, for instance, by the petitions to the congregation of this cathedral (fols. 114v-117v), as well as the armorial shield of the family of Surlet de Chokier of Liège represented in the initial "B" of Psalm 1. The manuscript has modest, but interesting, decoration with ornate initials marking the liturgical texts, and occasional angels playing instruments in the margins. The most notable pictorial effect is found in the initials inhabited by transparent figures on rich blue ground. The technique is found, for instance, on fol. 156r with the gold monstrance held by translucent angels for the feast of the Corpus Christi. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2VNIAHX

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Art of the Day: Doorjamb with Dancing Figures and Serpents

This panel once formed part of the right doorjamb (the vertical part of a doorway) framing the entrance into a temple or the sanctum of a temple. Three dancing figures reflect the activities of performers who offer dance and music to the temple’s god or goddess. On the inner part of the doorjamb, which would have been on the visitor’s right side, "nagas"—sacred serpents, represented with human heads and torsos on a snake’s body—join their hands in respectful greeting, a gesture that both welcomes visitors to the temple and praises the deity enshrined within. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2HCa13C

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Art of the Day: Scipio Africanus Freeing Massiva

As described by the Roman historian Livy (1st century BCE), the youthful Massiva was the nephew of Masinissa, king of Numidia in present-day Algeria who had supported Carthage against the romans commanded by Scipio Africanus (a Roman general so known because of his conquests in North Africa). Massiva was captured by the Romans on the battlefied in North Africa in 209 BCE and brought before Scipio. When Scipio learned the youth's identity, he chastized him for not obeying his uncle and staying off the battlefield. Scipio could had had him sold as a slave but instead he sent the youth back to his uncle for punishment but laden with gifts. The Numidian king and general was so impressed by this act of clemency and the moral code behind it that he went over to the side of the Romans and helped turn the tide of history. Tiepolo, the greatest Italian history painter of the 18th century, combines dramatic gestures, grand scale, and classical architecture to tell his story of generosity and statesmanship. Details such as the banner with the initials of the Roman state situate the story in Roman history. Under the artistic conventions of the time, North Africans of high status, including Numidians, were generally depicted with European features. The black youth chatting with the soldiers on the left is probably Scipio's servant. It is very likely that the painting was commissioned by the Corner family, among the richest of the Venetian nobility. The family traced its anestry back to Scipio and other members of the Cornelia line among the Roman elite. they were engaged in large-scale renovations at just about this same time. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2JCE0L1

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Art of the Day: Ritual Dagger

Originally the "phur-bu" was probably a simple peg used to secure tent ropes to the ground. No doubt the ability of the peg to pierce gave rise to the expression, "kilaya kilaya," (pierce, pierce) often a component of tantric mantras along with "han han," (destroy, destroy) or "maraya maraya," (kill, kill). The objects of destruction are, of course, enemies of the faith, evil forces, as well as psychic demons. This example, typically Tibetan in form, is particularly handsome and visually powerful. It has a three-sided iron blade adorned with silver intertwined serpents and a golden "makara" (mythical aquatic creature) guarding the joint of the hilt and the blade. Then, a silver thunderbolt with sixteen prongs has two knots of immutability at the two ends. The finial has three wrathful heads with open mouths and hanging tongues crowned by prongs of yet another thunderbolt. The square faces of the deity are particularly expressive, with their strongly molded features and a rich interplay of gilding, silver inlay, and lightly applied pigments. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2K1gu9V

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Art of the Day: Tiger Necklace

René Lalique revolutionized jewelry design by combining precious and non-precious materials selected according to their aesthetic appeal. By 1904, the year that he exhibited this necklace at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, Lalique had progressed beyond Art Nouveau, the movement with which he was originally associated. He began emphasizing compositions with symmetrical components and the use of animal motifs in a style that would become fully manifested in the designs he created for molded glass several years later. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2wcHgDY

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Art of the Day: Betel or Paan Box with Inscription and Floral Scrolls

This box is a "pandan," a container for "betel"- thin slices of the nut of the areca palm mixed with spices and lime paste made from ground seashells and wrapped in a leaf of the betel tree. Betel, chewed after meals to help with digestion, was very popular in the Punjab region. This box is inscribed with the name of its owner, Abu'l-Kharid Nur al-Hasan Khan. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2WavLM7

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Art of the Day: Bowl with Mythological Figures in Relief

Crafted in a mold that was impressed with stamps, the bottom portion of this bowl is filled with relief decoration of mythological figures. The lively mythological scenes are framed on the top with a variation on the egg-and-dart motif and a wide, plain rim. Four distinct motifs, each consisting of two stamps, repeat four times around the bowl. A statue on a pedestal, perhaps Apollo or Dionysus, stands above a dolphin. Next a woman seated on a rock lifts her veil, while beneath her an Amazon runs with her shield. A satyr head in a semicirclular frame hovers above the standing figure of Zeus with his thunderbolt, and finally a leaping stag appears below a circular frame that contains a bear before a corpse. Terra sigillata is a type of fine Roman ceramic known for its relief decoration and smooth red slip. The vessel and decorations were formed in a mold and were sometimes embellished with stamps, roller-dies, appliqués, barbotine, and incision. This type of pottery emerged around 40 BCE in Arretium (modern Arezzo) in central Italy and had an enormous influence across the Empire. In Gaul (modern France), cities like Lezoux, Montans, and the ancient site of La Graufesenque developed into prolific centers of terra sigillata wares. A potter’s name-stamp is almost always impressed on the vessel either on the floor or as part of the relief decoration. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2HF5egD

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Art of the Day: Green Tara

This Buddhist "tangka" (or "thanka," scroll painting) depicts the enlightened Buddha and compassionate goddess Tara, sitting on a lotus in her mountain paradise. Tara navigates men and women across the negative emotions that prevent them from attaining supreme peace and happiness, or "nirvana." Here, Tara replicates herself in order to save devotees from the eight great fears, each of which has a symbolic meaning. Appearing in smaller scale to the left and right of the central goddess, Tara’s eight emanations offer protection from lions (pride), elephants (delusion), fire (hatred), snakes (envy), thieves (false views), imprisonment (greed), floods (lust), and demons (doubt). A Tibetan inscription on the back of the painting indicates that it was the meditational image of the spiritual master Chason Dru-o (d. 1175) of the Kadam order. Another inscription identifies the central image as “The Reting deity,” meaning that Green Tara was the principal deity of the Reting monastery, located in Tibet. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2QenDVl

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Art of the Day: Adorant

Inlaid with green glass, the elaborate crown, earrings, and waistcoat of this devotee, which would have been placed in front or at the side of a Buddhist altar, resemble a Burmese royal costume. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/30tbPDn

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Art of the Day: Leaf from the van Alphen Hours: Initial H with Souls Cast into Hellmouth

This Dutch Book of Hours was made for a female patron, possibly pictured on fol. 109r, in the mid-fifteenth century. Originally richly illuminated by the workshop of the Master of Catherine of Cleves, the manuscript now lacks all of its full-page miniatures, although the eight surviving historiated initials speak to its original grandeur. Its rebinding in the seventeenth century resulted in the loss of several folios and the reordering of many of the texts. The imagery on this page is especially unusual for its marginal motifs, which include not only mussels, but also scallop shells. These shells were traditionally associated with guiding pilgrims on their path to the shrine of St. James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. A small painting over one of the shells here may be a depiction of that shrine. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2EjXAr8

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Art of the Day: Chous (Wine Jug) with Boy Riding Goat

This miniature "oinochoe," known more particularly as a "chous" ("choes" in the plural), dates to the last decade of the 5th century BC. As is most often the fashion with small "choes," this example features scenes of children, their accoutrements, and their play. This "chous" depicts two boys. One rides on a goat; the other stands nearby holding out a bunch of grapes to his companion. Both boys are crowned, and the standing boy, who also holds a toy cart on one shoulder, is adorned with protective amulets. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2WV3C8Z

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Art of the Day: The Shepherd Daphnis Playing a Pipe

The naturalism and lyricism of this bronze statuette make it a masterpiece of the Renaissance. Riccio (also known as Andrea Briosco), one of the greatest artists in this genre, was a member of the humanist circles of the university city of Padua. He excelled in creating small bronzes that captured the spirit of antiquity without resorting to copying. This is a shepherd from the mythic world of Arcadia, where satyrs, nymphs, gods, and humans lived together at ease. With the unfocused gaze of one lost in creative thought, he is Daphnis, who was taught to play the hollow reed pipe by the god Pan and became the inventor of pastoral poetry (poetry associated with shepherds) - a classical literary form revived in Padua during the Renaissance. There is a representation of Daphnis and Chloe together (42.97) by Henri Louis François, 1841-1896. The nickname "Riccio" means "hedgehog" and refers to the sculptor's extremely curly, indeed bristly hair, confirmed in his Self Portrait (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). It is very possible that he was in part of African ancestry. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2Edyrhw

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Art of the Day: Leaf from Cosmography: Diagram of the Winds

The T-O map of the inhabited world occupies the center of this wheel-shaped diagram. Twelve profile busts of the winds, their Latin names provided in encircling bands, are depicted in the diagram's wide outer ring; the narrower, unpainted ring just within it contains the winds' Greek names. The four major winds are associated with the four cardinal directions, with East located at the top of the wheel. The busts of the winds blow toward the Earth at the center of the diagram, and their breath, represented as green strokes, flows into the wheel's "spokes." Each spoke bears a brief characterization of the associated wind, and these are expressed mainly in the first-person, as if spoken by the wind itself. Thus, the spokes of this diagram function like speech bubbles in a modern cartoon. Created in England in the late twelfth century, this manuscript was intended to be a scientific textbook for monks. The manuscript is brief at nine folios, and was designed as a compendium of cosmographical knowledge drawn from early Christian writers such as Bede and Isidore, as well as the later Abbo of Fleury. Those writers, in turn, drew on classical sources such as Pliny the Elder for their knowledge but adapted it to be understood through the filter of Christianity. The twenty complex diagrams that accompany the texts in this pamphlet help illustrate them, and include visualizations of the heavens and earth, seasons, winds, tides, and the zodiac, as well as demonstrations of how these things relate to man. England is especially notable for the production of illustrated scientific textbooks. Although the grouping of texts and diagrams here is unique, the manuscript is related to other scientific compilations from this era surviving today in the British Library and at St. John's College in Oxford. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2HhM55c

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Art of the Day: Leaf from the Almugavar Hours: Christ amoung the Doctors and a Decorative Border with Flowers and a Coat of Arms

This Book of Hours was produced in Spain ca. 1510-1520 for a member of the Catalonian Almugavar (or Almogàver) family, whose coat of arms appears throughout the manuscript in the borders of the lavish full-page miniatures. There are twenty-six full-page brightly-painted miniatures (three are missing), of which six were removed from the original book after portions of them were cut out, and then returned to the manuscript, having been pasted onto heavy card-stock pages. There are also eighteen large decorative initials, and numerous pages with elaborate borders containing imaginary creatures scampering amongst illusionistic flowers and jewelry. A significant number of saints' feast days in the calendar associated with Barcelona help reinforce the Spanish attribution of the manuscript, although the style of the decoration is clearly influenced by contemporary Flemish design. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2Jj1pRh

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Art of the Day: Figural Urn

This urn likely was part of a larger grouping of similarly small figural sculptures surrounding a large one that created a ceramic narrative tableau like that of the famous royal Zapotec Tomb 104 at Monte Albán, Oaxaca. The urn portrays an impersonator of the Zapotec rain god Cociyo, here wearing a full face mask rather than the more common buccal (lower face, or mouth) mask. The figure's deeply striated hair was originally painted with what may have been an orange-hued pigment. In other renderings of these rain god impersonators, the hair is painted yellow, signifying maize silk. The same hairstyle, although unpainted, is also found on the large urn portraying the maize god (see TL.2009.20.293). This small figure wears a curious pectoral suspended by a thick twined rope around their necks. It may depict a folded piece of paper, cloth, or similarly malleable material tied with a braided band. In Zapotec tombs documented by archaeologists, small rain god urns have been found in sets of four placed around a large urn portraying the maize god/progenitor-ancestor. Such an arrangement replicates the five-fold Mesoamerican universe (the four cardinal directions plus the center), with the maize god/progenitor-ancestor as the axis mundi at the world's center, with its four sides defined by rain gods. The maize god at the center symbolizes the sacred mountain of origin from which all life emerged onto earth. The overarching narrative of these urn tableaux recounts the origin of the Zapotec people from maize and the seminal roles of the maize god Pitao Cozobi and the rain god Cociyo in Creation. Learn more about this object in our art site: http://bit.ly/2vSep7F