Tom Swope's blog

A large Gem Fragment

2011-12-04T11:47:00.001-08:00

Dear Readers,
I recently purchased the carnelian carved gem fragment, pictured above, set in a cheap silver setting allowing it to be worn as a pendant. I found it at an antiques show with a very nice antique dealer who I have purchased things from before. I thought it was probably ancient but could not really understand it, but at the price I bought it for, was willing to buy it to study it.

The first challenge of the piece was attempting to discern just what is depicted. And also, just what is this a fragment of? It measures just over an inch in maximum length, 26 to 27mm. It is more than 1/2 inch in thickness at the thickest point, 14mm, and tapers down to 4mm, about a 1/4 inch on the unbroken edge. I was wondered if this is a fragment of a larger vessel or some other type of object. I could see the head of a youth and what looked like a dog looking through a tree like plant, with a bit of drapery and what looks like an arm with the hand grasping a branch. I thought that perhaps the subject was Acteon looking through a tree at the bathing Artemis, but that didn't really jive with what is depicted here. So I sent images of it to my pen pal friend Ittai Gradel in Copenhagen, who is a gem expert who has proved invaluable to me in the past in understanding a gem. Within an hour I had a reply with an almost immediate identification of the subject. Based on the youth, the animal, the tendrilly plant, and the hand and forearm grasping it with the end of a windblown cloak at the edge, Ittai identified this as a depiction of the myth of King Lycurgus.

In the myth, Lycurgus was a king in Thrace, who was opposed to the worship of Dionysus and attacked one of his maenads, Ambrosia, who called out to Mother Earth who turned her into a vine. Coiling around the king she held him captive, while Dionysus's other followers, here a satyr and panther, tormented him. In one version of the myth, Ambrosia, now a vine, entwines around the king, trapping him and tearing him apart. What is likely depicted here is the moment of his entrapment, the youth is a satyr with a panther, who is somewhat dog like but does have the short snout of a cat, and not the long one typical of ancient depictions of dogs.

This myth is known from a handful of late antique objects, the most famous of which is the Lycurgus Cup in the British Museum. This is a cup of dichroic glass, which appears to be a pea soup green in reflected light, and deep purply red in light that passes through it. Its quite an arresting transformation, achieved by means that until recently, was not understood.

Above the cup in two views, the top in reflected light, looking very green, and below in transmitted light, looking very red. The top image shows the king as he is entrapped in the coiling vine, below a Pan and panther below him, taunting the trapped king. For more information about the cup and its science go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycurgus_Cup

Mosaic floor in a Roman Villa in Casale, photo taken by Yair Karelic.

The full scene is depicted in the mosaic above. Lycurgus is shown nearly nude except for his boots and cloak over his shoulder, he wields a double headed ax, and is about to bring it down on the nude Ambrosia below him, but a Maenad behind him has tapped him on the shoulder and he turns about to see her raising her staff like Thrysus to strike him. Ambrosia has already started to turn, her legs end in vines coiling around the King. Dating to the 4th Century A.D., The Villa Romana del Casale is in Sicily, and has what is regarded as one of the largest and most complex collection of Roman mosaics in the world according to Wikipedia.

The date of the Villa and that of the Lycurgus Cup, is late, 3rd to 4th Centuries A.D., and the somewhat crude style of the gem fragment indicate that it too dates to this period. Other than Greek vase paintings, which depict the myth differently, the Lycurgus myth is not seen until this late period, supporting the date. The meaning or significance of the myth and why it was depicted is lost to us, and according to the great scholar Martin Henig, courtesy of Wikipedia: "in cases such as this, we are not concerned with simple, popular paganism but with recondite knowledge. This is the sort of esoteric religion which the Emperor Julian, Symmachus, Praetextatus, Macrobius and Proclus relished. The religious thought behind these floors is probably deeper and more complex than contemporary Christianity and many of the keys to understanding it have been lost." While Henig is speaking about mosaics in the Villa at Casale, it applies to the other mediums, such as my gem fragment. What he is saying is that while it appears to be a straightforward illustration of a popular story, but in fact was freighted with meaning that is lost to us today.

Now that I had a handle on the subject, it became easier to see what the gem fragment depicted and to photograph it, since I now knew what to try to capture. Below are photos taken with my new DinoLite hand held microscope which is proving to be very useful in photographing gems.

In the detail above you see the Satyr, and the head and one paw of his attendant panther beside the vines tendrils.

the detail of the other side of the fragment clearly shows the kings hand wrapped by the vine, and grasping a tendril. The edge of his cloak can bee seen above the forearm, and the leaf on the vine does look grape like, which would be appropriate for a Dionysian themed image such as this.

What this fragment illustrates is how much can be learned even from a fragment, once you start researching it. This gem has great scholarly interest and is a rare example from a later period of the dying art of gem engraving. When complete, this gem must have been quite large for a gem, 3 or 4 inches across and had a domed top on which the scene was engraved. We will never know its context, what it was intended for or set into. But there is no question of its antiquity and its subject is now clear, giving it great interest.

Ancient Roman eagles, and eagles with snakes.

2011-10-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

Image from the official website for Pompeii and Naples

When attempting to find out the date of an object, one wants to find parallels, and from them you can deduce or support a dating for a piece. In my research I did not find the exact parallels I wanted but I did find a few other examples of sculptures featuring an eagle with a serpent. The photo above is of a fountain found at the House of the Faun in Pompeii. Here the eagle stands with his wings raised up but not fully outstretched. You can see a snake next to the eagle, sheltered in its raised wing as the eagle looks over at it. It is almost loving the way the eagle seems to have this snake protected under its wing as he looks back at it tenderly. The snake, whose head is missing, is coiled and almost standing on the coils. It is almost menacing, so one wonders what exactly is depicted; was the intent of the sculpture to show an eagle surprised by a dangerous snake which is one potential reading, or is it an eagle who has taken the snake under its wing literally. If one knew exactly what myth or image was being depicted one could tell.

As important as just finding a Roman eagle with a snake, even if not fully understanding their relationship, is the treatment of the feathers on the neck and body, which are the same. Neck feathers are smaller but similarly untidy in their arrangement as the body, sort of tousled, again nearly fur-like, although here due no doubt to the large scale and different medium, the feathers are distinct and clear, unlike on my bronze.

photo taken of an illustration in a book showing a statue of Zeus with his eagle.

Above is an image of a marble statue of Zeus with his eagle companion next to him. Again, like the marble above, the feathers of the neck are treated like those of the body, as found in nature, and their wavy appearance are almost fur-like.

Again taken from the web, a statue in the Vatican of Ganymede and the Eagle, who is Zeus in disguise. Here the feathers are more like fur again.

Another image taken of a book page with a photo of a relief of Ganymede and the eagle of Zeus. Here, even though a very poor resolution image, you can see a wavy fur-like pattern of the feathers as on my eagle.

Another photo from a book on Roman sarcophagi, here one found in Nikopolis, and again, even in this poor quality image you can see the wavy fur-like treatment of the body and neck feathers of the eagle. I would like to find other examples and get better quality photos of them, but even this small sampling supports that the Romans did depict eagles in the manner in my bronze.

However below you will see the exact iconography:

Taken from an article titled, Eagle and Serpent. A study in the Migration of Symbols, by Rudolf Witkower, published in the Journal of the Warburg Institute, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1939.

The photo is of a relief on the apex of the interior of a Triumphal Arch at Pola which is in Croatia. The eagle grasps the snake in his talons, and they look at each other in the same way as in my eagle. Here the snake is proportionately larger than in the bronze, and the low relief carving is not as well sculpted as the bronze or the other marble examples cited above. It is slightly provincial in the quality of its carving, as is found in the outlying areas of the Roman Empire. Wittkower interpreted the depiction on this arch to be about the triumph of Rome over its enemies, however, I am less sold on that idea. Again, the snake is hardly dead here, it is huge and quite dangerous looking. Its not even clear that the eagle intends to kill the snake, while he is holding the snake in his talons, he is also is looking at the snake as the snake looks at him, he is not rending the snake and dealing a death blow to it.

The Pola Arch may tell us the original purpose of the bronze and explain the holes in the wings and tail. Perhaps they were for attachment in an architectural setting, the coffer of a ceiling or an arch or other structure. It does read very well from below. There is no other way of displaying it, unless you mount it on a stand as I did, otherwise it would either have to be hung as it was at Christie's. Roman public buildings often had bronze architectural decoration. An infamous example is the Pantheon which was stripped of its bronze decoration by one of the Popes, which was melted down and cast by Bernini to make the Baldachinno over the altar at St. Peter's Cathedral. Survival of such bronze architectural decoration is rare, as it was pillaged to melt down for weapons, coins and the like.

I continue to look for parallels and evidence to support the eagle, and will report back here should something come up. If anyone can contribute reading this, please feel free to comment or email me with your thoughts.

The eagle; what species is it?

2011-10-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

The eagle against black

One thing struck me in particular about the eagle, the fur-like treatment of the feathers on the neck and body of the eagle. It resembles the pelt of a bear or the mane of a lion more than the feathers of a bird. I recalled seeing such treatment of the f Roman sculptures of eagles, but was finding very few examples in my books or online. I have a pretty good visual memory, so if I think I saw it, I am sure I did, it is just a matter of finding it again. Strangely, once I started looking for Roman representations of eagles, I found very few. While we strongly associate the eagle with Imperial Rome, when looking for representations of eagles at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, I found hardly any. In Rome I believe there are more, but I can find few illustrated in my books. I will have to make a trip to Europe to revisit Rome to find the one I remember seeing with this distinct fur-like treatment of the feathers.

Apart looking for ancient parallels the question I asked was, is this fur-like feathering based on nature? For this Google proved invaluable as a source of images of eagles. I found that one species of eagle that does have this type of feathering on the body, the Golden Eagle. This made sense to me, since it is the largest eagle that the Romans would have known of, and is because it is so majestic it became the symbol of the king of the Gods, Zeus.

A golden eagle on Google

In the photo a and you can see how the feathers of the neck go down to cover the body, no distinction between the neck and body. The feathers are long and tapered to a fine point, and are not stiff like wing feathers.

Golden eagle and carcass in winter

The action photo above of an eagle scavenging a winter carcass allows us to see how the feathers on the legs and body are fur-like.

The above images and others I have found, demonstrate that golden eagles have wispy long pointed feathers covering their neck and bodies down to their legs, that can look fur-like. Given the Roman and Greek interest in naturalistic depiction, this at least would seem to support the possible Roman date of this eagle. Now I needed to find other ancient Roman eagles with similar feathering of the body.

The Eagle cleaned and examined

2011-10-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

Above is a screen grab from Christie's website showing the eagle with the shiny black patina it had when I first saw it and bought it.

photo by Telyfoto Inc.

Above is the eagle as it now looks, after I cleaned it. I experimented with different solvents, and it was turpentine that worked to dissolve and remove the black. Amazingly, under it was a green patina, which looks like what you would see on an ancient Roman bronze. If this bronze was really 17th Century, under the black would have been bare metal. Patina is misleading when it comes to Renaissance bronzes as generally a patina is a reaction of a surface to its environment. In the Renaissance they often applied layers of shellac and varnish with colors to achieve a satiny look to the surface. And then other times they would apply chemicals to alter the surface inducing a chemical patina to imitate that on ancient bronzes. But they would not have put black on top of a green patina, what would the point be? The green would be covered by the black, they could just put the black on top of the metal and achieve the same effect, why add another process? If however this was an ancient bronze which was discovered in pieces, the wings and tail having broken off, the reattachment with solder would have been obvious, as some areas would have patina, and others would be bare metal. By covering the whole thing in black, the eagle was made to look uniform. A 17th Century bronze is unlikely to have ever been buried, and would not have acquired the type of patina that I found under the black. However, to be sure of that the patina was the product of long burial and not chemically induced, I took the eagle to a well known conservator in Holyoke Massachusetts, Susan White.

Above is a detail of the eagle after cleaning showing the patina, which is of the varied dark and lighter green with reddish undertones that you would expect from an ancient patina. Also visible are the dents and damages to the forward edge of the wing, and you can also see where the wing was joined back to the body. The round hole was done at the time of the repairs I think.

The examination by Susan White took several steps. First was a close microscopic look at the surface to see what the patina is made of. Then she also took it to a facility that has an XRF machine, which uses x-rays to determine the exact composition of the metal. This is useful to determine if something is a pastiche; made up of disparate parts but not belonging to each other, as is possible in a piece like this. Then Susan also took small samples, etched them with acid and examined the slices under a microscope to see if there is intergranular corrosion, where the corrosion products penetrate into the crystalline structure of the metal.

The initial examination under low powered magnification, 1x-7x, revealed a varied patina layer, thin in parts and thick and compacted malachite in others. The thin areas which in places reveal the metal underneath made the piece look as if it does not have age, but the thicker compacted areas indicated an object of some age.

Due to the evidence of reattachment of the wings and tail, Susan arranged to have the piece analyzed by X-ray Flourescence, XRF, which determines the exact composition of the alloys, and would reveal wether this was a pastiche or all of a piece. Several areas were chosen to scan, one on each wing and tail, and another on the body of the eagle. The scans of the different parts confirmed that they all belonged, they were statistically identical, proving they were cast from a single batch of alloy. It also revealed that the eagle is cast not of the usual bronze alloy, which is copper tin, but instead is copper zinc, in other words, brass. The exact alloy revealed by XRF is the following:

Copper 67%
Zinc: 25%
Iron: 6-10%
Trace amounts of lead were found, no greater than 1.7% in the snake, but averaging about 0.6%.

The iron is unexpected in a modern brass alloy, but the ability to smelt pure zinc was not developed until the Renaissance. The source ores for copper and zinc also contained trace amounts of iron, which got incorporated into the alloy if you cannot refine out the pure metals. Lead was often added to copper alloys to help with the flow of the alloy during casting, so is a perfectly normal element in such an alloy.

Brass is known to have been used in antiquity and in fact, I suspect that many objects described as being of bronze are in fact different alloys, of which copper zinc is one. Some art historians have taken to substituting "coppery alloy" for bronze when describing objects, as there were different alloys used with copper. One alloy in use in very early "bronzes" is copper arsenic, something that sounds positively dangerous to us now.

The metallographic examination consisted of Susan taking three small samples from the piece, one from the back of the left wing, a second from the back of the neck of the eagle, and third from the tail. An effort was made to ensure that the samples were not close to the areas of repair, as the heat from the soldering would alter them. The samples were mounted in epoxy resin and polished very finely to reveal their crystalline structure. After etching with 1:1 ammonia, hydrogen peroxide wash to bring out the crystals, the samples were looked at under high (25x) magnification which clearly showed the massive cuprite on the surface of the sample on the left wing, and the migration of the cuprite into the sample cross section along a grain boundary.

The conclusion of the results of the metallographic analysis suggest an early date to the First Millenium A.D., which would support a Roman date. However, as the nature of science, it can only provide support but cannot prove when it was made.

While the report seemed to bear out my hunch, I still needed to find parallels, if they exist, and overcome the doubt that pervades the field. An example of this; the head of the conservation department of the Metropolitan museum stated that there are no Roman brass cast sculptures, period. I doubt very much that this is true, the Romans certainly used brass, their coins were brass often, and coins were melted down to make sculpture and visa versa. When I go through the Metropolitan Museum's collection, I see many "bronzes" that I bet are in fact brass. Below is photo taken in the study collection of the Greek and Roman wing, of what looks like a brass object. I wonder how many of the Met's bronzes were XRF'ed or otherwise tested for their exact alloy composition. My bet is very few, so how can anyone categorically say that there are no Roman brass cast sculpture?
Above is a fitting from a chariot, with the head of medusa, cast of a bright brassy looking metal, which was striped of its patina, or never developed one. I have not had it analyzed but bet no one else has. I also would guess it is not a standard copper tin alloy, but cannot know that without testing it. I make these observations to illustrate how varied "bronzes" are from antiquity, in composition and patina.

Later posts will look at other factors in attempting to determine the age of my Eagle.

Discovery: Bronze Eagle with Serpent

2011-10-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Dear Reader,

I am going to tell another story of making of a discovery, and the effort to confirm it. I am generally reticent to disclose where I buy things, but in this case I am going to relate the entire experience of discovery and research as I attempt to prove my case. By sharing this with you, I hope to give the reader a sense of what goes on behind the scenes with art dealers. The story will also illustrate a problem that both benefits and works against me - the blindness and superficiality of many of the experts in the field of ancient art. What I mean by this will become clearer as I tell the tale.

In June of last year I went to New York to preview the antiquity auctions, and while at Christie's noticed a sign for a Decorative arts sale that included property from the collection of Michael Hall. Michael is someone I have known well for many years. He is a prominent, if controversial, dealer of European Works of Art, specializing in Renaissance bronzes. He is something of a collector as well, with objects from nearly every culture and time period on the planet; antiquities, African, Asian, the whole gamut. I was curious to see what he was selling off, so after viewing the antiquities sale, I went upstairs to the room where the bronzes from his collection were displayed. In a room full of many beautiful Renaissance and later bronzes, was the eagle, hanging by fishing line from the ceiling, described as being 17th Century Italian. Something about it piqued my interest. The sculpture had an intensity that I associate with Roman art, and the condition of the piece did not make sense for the date given it. While it was covered with the type of shiny black patina one associates with Renaissance bronzes, there were damages and small losses, something one sees in ancient pieces, but not later bronzes. In the past I have encountered ancient bronzes re-patinated in the Renaissance, so am always on the lookout for them.

I was able to register to bid at the sale online, from the comfort of my gallery, and bought the eagle at the low estimate. Earlier that morning I had some pieces at the Sotheby's antiquity sale, which sold well, so I felt confident to pursue the eagle. However, Sotheby's wouldn't pay me for a while, so I wasn't sure when or how I would be able to pay for it. Initially I thought I would just leave it at Christie's until Sotheby's paid me, but that demon of instant gratification got ahold of me, and I went into the City the Tuesday following the auction and paid for the eagle on my American Express card.


Here is the eagle after I brought it home, still with its shiny black patina.

The bronze is large, measuring 17 inches across the wings, huge for an ancient bronze. Several things struck me when I first saw it, where the serpent's tail is missing is a hole to attach it, and the serpents head is joined to the body with a tenon and pin. Also visible here are damages to the leading edge of the wing.


The back. Note the large round hole, and the areas where the wings join the body and the hole in the tail.

Looking at the back of the bronze its history becomes more apparent. Where the wings join the body there is a discontinuity of the feathers; the areas are blank of detail and look like the metal was applied with a knife, and the large round hole is odd. There are dents and dings apparent. It is evident on this view that the wings were broken off the body and re-attached with solder by brazing, and the hole was probably created at that time. The damages one expects on ancient objects, but makes little sense for a later piece. The hole in the tail and the others on the wings, not visible here, again indicate a use; perhaps it was attached to something else. But it does not appear that this was created as a stand alone bronze statuette as most Renaissance bronzes were.


Detail of the bronze

In this detail shot you can see the intense interaction between the eagle and serpent. While held in the eagle's claws, the serpent is poised to strike and looks directly into the eagles eyes. The eagle for his part, while holding the serpent, is looking down upon it; they seem locked into a mutual embrace for lack of a better analogy. While this can be seen as a confrontation of opposites, the ultimate earth dweller and the ultimate creature of the air, to me it seems less a contest than a dialogue. This is something you encounter in ancient art, but different in spirit than that of the Renaissance and later periods.

In post antique times the snake is often associated with evil, the Christians saw the serpent offering the apple to Eve as the Devil. However in antiquity snakes were often revered, there were certain cults where snakes played an important sacred role. Apollo is associated with snakes, in his divination role, and his son Asclepius has a snake as part of his symbol. Hermes has snakes twined around his staff, the caduceus and on the Athenian acropolis in the Erechteion, a sacred snake was kept in the foundation, tended by priestesses who fed it honey cakes. Its welfare was considered essential to Athen's prosperity and security, a refusal of food by the snake was considered a very bad omen. Snakes were associated with divination because they creep in the bowels of the earth, bringing her secrets back with them. The eagle, as the largest of the birds of prey, is associated with the sky, and a symbol and form of Zeus, the king of the Gods. While one could see the sculpture as symbolic of the battle between the earth and sky, dark and light, I see a dialogue, an oppositional but equal relationship. So while the eagle is holding the serpent in its talons, and appears triumphant, we do not see the eagle killing it, and I think there is a reason for that. What we see are two powerful creatures, rich in symbolic meaning, captured in this moment of balance.

It is not just the representation and feeling transmitted by the bronze, nor just the condition that lead me to think this sculpture is possibly ancient. There are specific stylistic features that also support an early dating. The feathers on the eagle's body, head and legs are treated sculpturally almost like fur, a wavy mane of sorts that goes from the head to the feet. This is something I recalled seeing in other Roman sculptures of eagles, but not in later ones. The feathers of the wings and tail are done with a confident rather loose linear manner, probably first in the wax and then cold carved after casting to make them clearer. Only the feathers on the bottom flapping edge of the wing are done in a more dimensional manner. The consistent, strong, but not fussy manner of rendering the feathers is typical of Roman bronzes.

However, to prove my hunch correct, I needed to see what the patina was, if it would come off, and what was under it. I also needed to find parallels for the subject and the style of its rendering. Only after doing my homework would I approach other experts. I had already sent photos to several people knowledgeable about ancient art, but it was before I had cleaned it, and they responded that they didn't see it as ancient. I am pretty sure it was simply the surface that put them off, I have often found the "experts" cannot see beyond the surface of a piece.

In subsequent installments here, I will take you through the process of my researching it, and while at first I had no idea where this would lead, it could lead to confirmation of my hunch, or disprove it.

Chinese Buddhist sculpture and Fakes

2011-05-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader,

This will be my first post here about what has become a new passion of mine, early Chinese Buddhist Sculpture dating from the Wei to the Tang Dynasties, from about 400 to 900 A.D.. I have always admired examples when I came across them, but not knowing that much about the period and type, paid them little mind other than that. My first encounter with one of these sculptures was at Harvard, a 6th Century A.D. marble bodhisattva, see below, which I found beautiful not only for its quality of carving and elegant style, but remarkable for its preservation as it had extensive color and gilding remaining.

Standing Bodhisattva
Chinese, 6th Century A.D.
White marble with polychromy, Height: 36 1/2 inches.
Harvard Art Museums

Harvard, thanks largely to the Grenville Winthrop bequest, and more recently the Sackler gifts, has a wonderful collection of ancient Chinese art, with many fine examples of early Buddhist sculpture. But I went on for most of my life looking at, and dealing in Classical antiquities; the art of Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. Over the past five years or so, I began to see beautiful early Chinese art on the market, for prices that were approachable for me, and I started to buy a few pieces. At first, when I saw the archaic jades and Buddhist sculptures, I assumed they could not be real; but over time, as I learned and looked, I began to see that these were great ancient works of art. But one problem with the field is just that, the doubt that is sowed by dealers and cognoscenti in the field, who say that most material on the market is fake. The frequently heard phrase is that the Chinese can make anything, it is their own culture and they have been copying older styles for centuries. Some go so far as to say that the historic collections in our great museums are full of fakes made for the Western market in the 19th and early 20th Century. Which of course leaves one with the question of what are you to believe, what is real, if you cannot even trust the museums where you trained your eye. However, as Chinese art was not my field, I was unaware of the extent of this attitude and a personal watershed moment occured when I visited a friend who is a dealer, who pulled out of his storeroom a small fragmentary marble Buddhist sculpture, about 8 inches tall, the torso and head of a bodhisattva, with drapery and jewels in the Tang style, perfect surfaces, and root marks and traces of encrustation. It was an incredible sculpture of extremely high quality and conviction, and he told me people were telling him it was a fake. I said I couldn't believe that, and offered to buy it, but alas, didn't have the money at that moment. About five years after that this dealer held an exhibition of Chinese Buddhist sculpture, and you began to see some Buddhist sculptures with other dealers. The scholars had changed their tune, what they were saying was fake a few years ago, they now believed in.

My first real job in New York in 1982, was working for the distinguished antiquities dealer, Mathias Komor. He had started his career in China working for an uncle in the foreign section of Peking, dealing in Chinese sculpture and antiquities. He left China during the revolution and started dealing in Classical antiquities, as it was then impossible to get art out of China. He told me, "Buy with your eyes, not your ears." This has stayed with me and served me very well. The meaning is this; look, think for yourself, and don't always believe what you read or people tell you. He pointed out that most of what he dealt in had no signatures, no labels, and you had to place them by style and use connoisseurship in judging the objects. For me, it has meant that I have been able to buy objects, often at major auction houses, that were incorrectly cataloged, as Nineteenth Century, and then prove their antiquity, reaping a nice profit from rescuing them from ignominy. So I am used to thinking for myself, and trusting my own eye.

Over the past few years I began to buy archaic Chinese jades, and have now moved into buying Buddhist sculpture. As a former friend of mine who is a major antiquities collector once said to me, "you take candy when they are handing it out." Meaning, that when great things are available, you buy them. This is the moment for early Chinese art, as for the past decade or so there has been a lot of material coming into the market, and only in 2009 did China ban the export of archeological material. The market and scholars were not unprepared for the flood of material, and it has only recently begun to be processed. Scholars, many who are Chinese, are shedding new light on the material, new archeological finds are putting them into context, and the market is starting to catch up. What this still means, though, is that the prices are a fraction of what comparable material would be in Classical antiquities or even Indian and Southeast Asian art. It is an incredible time to be looking at this field.

However, the whole issue of authenticity, while it works to my advantage at the moment by depressing the prices of what I want to buy, scares off potential collectors. For myself, I do not believe that the great historic museums are full of fakes, I do not believe that in the late 19th early 20th Centuries, the Chinese were making fake sculptures to sell to Western Collectors and museums. While there are certainly fakes being made today, their quality is low, and easily distinguished from the masterpieces I have been acquiring. (I also have scientific and scholarly reports on most of my sculptures which certify their authenticity.) However support for my point of view is found in the latest scholarship, published in recent exhibition catalogs.

The best refutation of the great museums being riddled with fakes comes in one of those catalogs, Treasures Rediscovered, Chinese Stone Sculpture from the Sackler Collections at Columbia University, published in 2008. In one of its introductory essays by Stanley Abe, From Stone to Sculpture: the Alchemy of the Modern. His essay states that the Chinese themselves were historically not interested in stone sculpture, they were interested in the inscriptions on early monuments for their historic and calligraphic interest, but they had no interest in the sculptures associated with them. A frequent practice of the Chinese was to take rubbings of the inscriptions on the stelas and other monuments, but with no recording of the sculptures on them. In the West, Abe has this to say, "Before 1905, Westerners did not think that China had produced significant works of sculpture..." In China, he points out that there were no Fine Art museums at the beginning of the 20th Century, and that the Chinese had no word for Fine Art, importing from Japan terms for art criticism. He goes on to further say, "In contrast, however to long-established types of prized aesthetic objects-- calligraphy and painting, antique bronze vessels, ancient jades, and ceramics-- sculpture was not collected or appreciated by Chinese connoisseurs." As China began to be explored by Westerners, and with the advent of photography, interest and knowledge of Chinese Buddhist sculpture began to be disseminated, and examples to be acquired by Western collectors and museums. However, even as museums began to exhibit examples of Buddhist sculptures, there was little interest by collectors in it.

A striking example of the general lack of interest in Chinese sculpture, is the story that Abe tells about the great dealer, C.T. Loo: "...Loo's Peking office acquired eight large stone statues--said to be from the Southern Xiangtangshan caves--but was unable to sell them in China. They were shipped to Paris but elicited no interest, and Loo asked his fellow Parisian dealer Charles Vignier to take a half share of the group. Photographs were circulated all over Europe, yet no buyers could be found. Finally, in 1915, Loo's photographs sparked interest in the United States..." Some were sold to Philadelphia, and other institutions here, but even so, this story repudiates the idea that there was this huge market for Chinese sculpture supporting the production of fakes. Given the chaos in China at this time, as the empire ended and the nation fell apart, collections were being sold, and new finds were being sold into the market; there was surfeit of material, there was no need to fake things.

Today is different, while there is a wealth of real material, there are fakes being made, but generally of low quality easily distinguished from the genuine objects of high quality. Further, scientific examination helps sort out the fakes. The whole issue of fakes serves dealers interests though, "only trust me, everything other people have is fake." This destructive attitude serves their short-term interests but damages the confidence of potential buyers in the market. However, I have observed that perseverance and vision eventually win the day as scholarship is now validating things that only a few short years ago were in question. Meantime, I will acquire every piece that I feel is beautiful and high quality, while they can still be had. Of course, I am a dealer, and sadly, I do have to part with incredible things, which cannot be replaced. But the pleasure of having had them in my possession, even if for a short time, brings me great joy, and enlightens me as learn through reading and studying the objects.

Chinese Buddhist Sculptures; their purpose and function

2011-05-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader,
Following up on the last post about Chinese Buddhist Sculpture and Fakes, I am now going into the purpose and function of these beautiful works of art.
As many of my readers are aware, but some may not be, Buddhism believes that the world is illusion and the source of suffering, that desire is the cause of pain, and to transcend the world and escape from the world is the highest good. Buddha, through meditation and his middle path, arrived at through years of different practices, attained nirvana, the state of full release from this world. Such an unworldly religion would seem to be antithetical to the creation of art, and for the first few centuries it was aniconic, with no images of the Buddha per se, his presence was represented by a footprint, the wheel of Dharma, the Bodhi Tree under which he attained enlightenment, and an empty throne. It was only in the Gandhara, which was influenced by Greece and Rome as Alexander the Great had gotten that far into India and ties developed between the two worlds, that images of the Buddha started to be created. Legend has it that the King Udayana, who was a disciple of the Buddha, after the Buddha passed into parinirvana, found his absence unbearable and commissioned the first statue of him. According to the legend all subsequent statues of the Buddha were based on that original image.

Standing Buddha
Gandhara, 3rd Century A.D.
Grey schist, Height: 38 inches.
(from my personal collection, sold in 2008)

The above image, of a Buddha I owned for a few years, and then sold, is the prototypical Gandhara Buddha. Characteristic of this style are the Western style drapery which is naturalistically rendered with the body revealed underneath it. Also typical are the un-Western proportions, dictated not by nature but by scripture, as you will read later here.
However, given the emphasis on the internal and personal experience of the follower, who through meditation was attempting to follow the Buddha into Nirvana, the role of art is hard to understand. However as Buddhism developed over time it broadened and incorporated other beliefs into it, and different schools of practice developed. The Mahayana, "Great Vehicle", made room for images, and in China, is explained best in the essay Merit-Cultivation Practices and Image Making in the Northern Dynasties, by Wendi Leigh Adamek, published in Treasures Rediscovered, Chinese Stone Sculpture from the Sackler Collections at Columbia University, in 2008. A remarkable catalog, this essay is one of the best explanations of Buddhism and the role of art in it that I have read to date.

According to Adamek:

"As noted at the outset, it is helpful to see Buddhist images in light of the complex links between faith and doctrine. From the devotional perspective, not only the images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas but also the scriptures themselves functioned as manifestations of the Dharma (Buddhist teachings), with a salvational power that was accessible to all devotees. This soteriological (from Soter, savior) or salvific, function does not run counter to the Buddhist doctrines of no-self and emptiness....According to this doctrine, ....there are no individual beings....All that appears to us is an illusion....
In the Huayan school of Buddhism, this is explained through a visual analogy: it is as if the universe is a vast net with glittering jewels hung at every intersecting point. Every jewel is reflected in all other jewels, and all the jewels are reflected in each. In reality, however, there are no jewels and no net; in other words there are no beings and no time and space. .....
Ordinary beings perceive the illusory manifestations produced by the interrelation of all phenomena and believe them to be real. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, however, are those who have realized the ultimate lack of reality of these phenemena. Buddhas (fully realized) and bodhisattvas (on the path to Buddhahood) are no longer bound by appearances, and they are able to work with conventional truth in order to help other beings overcome the illusions that produce suffering....
Devotion to Buddhas and bodhisattvas and to the images that represent them elicits a response, moving the salvific figure to deploy the power of his or her merit to relieve the sufferings of the devotee. Note that according to this view of reality, both the cosmic Buddhas and the images that represent them are illusions, but they are illusions created through merit and thus have the power of "skillful means."....
The Two Truths are two perspectives on the same reality/effect. The seemingly specific and illusory nature of images and merit on the conventional level is not different from unlimited, absolute emptiness. The two levels are inseparable, but they appear to refer to each other."

This is heady stuff, think about it for a moment; if all is illusion, time and space don't exist, then the Buddha is both in the image and in his "Pure Land" at the same time, these images both truly reflect the beings represented even though they are illusions. That the enlightened ones see through the illusion of this world, and can work with it, mean that truly, when you see halos around their heads, and flames shooting around them, these beings radiate power, the power to transform the world. As fire is a transforming agent, it destroys, melts, changes what it touches, so the Buddha's presence does to the world around him. Think of the movie the Matrix, when Neo sees the matrix and can then work with it, he transcended the rules of the matrix. The Matrix is one of my favorite movies as it is one of the best popular culture representations of this Buddhist idea.

Another aspect of Buddhist belief emphasized visualizations as a way to get closer to the Buddha and enlightenment. There were specific exercises and guides to visualization meant to help the believer in this. Images were an aid in this visualization, and were created according the the scriptural descriptions of the Buddha. There were two sets of attributes, the 32 Signs of the Great Man, and 80 secondary characteristics. Not to list them all, here are few to give you an idea of the scriptural description that shaped the images of the Buddha we see here:
Level feet, long slender fingers, arched insteps, hands reaching below the knees, well retracted male organ (that is why he appears almost feminine in the body), Golden hued body, Ten-foot aura around him, and many more, but lastly, Fleshy protuberance on the crown of the head (the ushnisha).

Standing Buddha, China, Northern Wei (386-534)
Gilt bronze, Height: 55 1/4 inches
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

One of the characteristics listed is finely webbed toes and fingers, which some early sculptures show, but later that unnatural feature is dropped. If one were really to create such a figure following the enumerated features, the result would be quite strange, freakish actually. However, the artists managed to find a harmonious medium, using some but not all of the prescripted attributes, but it explains why the figures are not naturalistic, and sometimes appear awkward or even provincial to a Western eye. In the East, the artists were interested in depicting a spiritual reality, not the physical reality we all refer too. The image above of a superb gilt bronze statue at the Metropolitan Museum has the webbed hands, which are huge, on overly long arms, and very unnatural proportions. But it is beautiful and very expressive. Interesting it is dated by an inscription on the back to the year 486 A.D., which makes it a relatively early Chinese Buddhist sculpture.

In summation, while Buddhism's goal is non-being, an escape from reality, achieved through meditation and other practices, the images created were aids on the path, and can be understood in the context of the scriptures and beliefs. The early flowering of Buddhism in China from the Fifth through Eighth Centuries produced some of the worlds greatest sculpture, the equal in its majesty, to Egyptian or Khmer Cambodian sculpture with which it shares an austerity and elegance.

The subject of a gem finally identified!

2011-03-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

Engraved banded agate, 20mm long

I have owned this gem for years; an intaglio carved of a domed banded agate, depicting an athletic young man holding a discus in his lowered left hand and an strings in his raised right. When I bought it it was unset, and I put it in a ring of my own making, with a heavy 22k gold bezel around the stone on a silver ring. Unfortunately the stone is cracked, but it is otherwise complete and quite beautiful in quality. The detail of the musculature is remarkably fine and precise for such a tiny image, and the intensity of the gaze is remarkable in how readable it is even though on such a tiny scale. This is a masterpiece of the glyptik arts, but what exactly are we looking at? What is this beautiful young man doing, and is this ancient or a Neo-Classical gem inspired by antiquity?

The impression taken with Sculpey

The first bit of information I got was when researching for parallels, I found an almost exact one in Lippold, Gemmen und Kameen des Altertums et der Neuzeit, published by Julius Hoffman Verlag, Stuttgart, 1920, illustrated with a photo of the impression, described as: "Athlet, Diskos in der Rechten, Riemen in der Linken, Romisch. Petersburg. A.G. XLIV, 30"

illustration of impression in Lippold, plate LV, number 14

So the gem in Lippold's book, which he dates as Roman following his citation of Furtwangler's Die Antiken Gemmen, is almost exactly like mine, so much so that for awhile I was wondering if mine was not the one in Lippold. But of course in Lippold the gem illustrated is said to be in St. Petersburg, which would mean in the collection of the Hermitage, which remains intact as far as I know.

A year or so after buying this gem, I was lucky enough to handle a collection of rings from David Daniels, including the one on the xerox below, which I took from the inventory at the time I had the group on consignment.

Xerox of inventory page for the garnet ring.

While hard to see, I think you can tell that the image is again, almost identical. This is unquestionably ancient as it is in its original massive and very beautiful gold ring. So far two close parallels, both accepted as ancient and hard to distinguish from mine. However for years I left it at that, put the ring in my safe and didn't think much about it. I didn't want to wear it, as the raised dome makes it more vulnerable and the crack made it even more so. However, inspired by some recent purchases of gems at the Miami Beach Antiques show, I revisited the gem.

A word about Gem collecting in the 18th into the 19th Century. Those of my readers unfamiliar with the world of engraved gems may wonder at the dim photographs of impressions from old books and the uncertainty as to dating and wonder what is this all about. The first thing to know is that gems were one of the most highly regarded and emulated of the ancient arts. There are several reasons for this, their survival in relatively high numbers and their reuse as embellishments for state and religious jewelry and objets d'arts. Some gems may never have been buried, as when the barbarians sacked Rome on multiple times, one of the targets was the treasury of the Capitoline Temples, which had a huge gem collection given to it by various benefactors over the Centuries. Small, of durable materials and highly portable, they were dispersed across Europe. When I went to Basel and visited the Cathedral Museum there, I was struck by seeing ancient gems set in reliquaries from the 10th to 14th Centuries, sometimes in very odd an inappropriate ways. For example I was surprised to see a gilt silver relief of the Virgin Mary where the face was a Roman agate cameo of none other than the Gorgon herself, Medusa. How wrong is that, the woman who can turn men to stone at a glimpse of her, on the body of the most benevolent of all female Christian figures? I suspect that the medieval artisans simply saw a female face, and recognized its age and preciousness, but not the subject since the Renaissance was centuries away, and simply put it where it seemed to fit. Personally, I love seeing that kind of reuse, since it in fact preserved many ancient pieces that who knows what would have become of them if they weren't highly regarded.

By the Renaissance though, when scholars were re-discovering the ancient texts and looking afresh at ancient art, gems were highly regarded and sought after. One reason for this is that alone of all the arts, gems survive complete and as they were intended, if devoid of their original settings. In other words you see complete scenes and figures, unlike the usually fragmentary survival of larger sculptures and architectural remains. And scholarship of them could be easily disseminated, they lent themselves to line drawings that could be turned into engravings, and you could take impressions of them, make casts of them, and once the skills of the artisans progressed, make new ones. In the Renaissance copying ancient gems was not their purpose, the artists of the day were interested in making art inspired by antiquity but they believed they could improve upon it so did their own thing with it. But by the 18th Century, with the wealth of the aristocracy pursuing everything ancient, and the taste being informed by the new archeological discoveries of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the gem engravers got very skilled at copying the style of the antique and making new gems inspired by the antique that fooled the people of the day.

Information was widely disseminated by the use of plaster casts of impressions and glass casts of the gems. A Scotsman James Tassie (1735-1799) developed a way to make very sharp detailed casts in colored glass and eventually developed a catalogue of of 15,000 of them, which only a very few of the wealthiest collectors bought in its entirety, Catherine the Great being one of them. The V&A is one of the few places with the complete impressions of the entire body, and Oxford got permission to take photos of the complete set, and it is all online now at the Beazley Archives along with the complete scan of the Raspe catalogue.

The most notorious case of modern gems being passed off as ancient was the case of the collection of Prince Stanlislas Poniatowski (1754-1833), a Polish prince, who settled in Rome and built up a large collection of gems starting with a small collection he had inherited from his uncle the King of Poland. The prince restricted access to the collection and it built up a mythic reputation. He published a catalog of it in 1830, and after his death it was sold at Christies in London in 1839, with collectors paying vast sums to acquire the gems. Within a few years though, doubts that had been percolating for years finally came to a head, when scholars could finally examine the gems. It became clear that the Prince had commissioned the 2600 gems from the foremost artists of his day, creating glyptich illustrations of Ovid, the myths of Hercules, and portraits of almost every ancient mythical or historic personage. Based on no ancient or contemporary works of art, these were original creations, if they were deceptively presented. By the mid-19th Century when the scandal had played its course, the mania for gems was essentially over, and gem carving declined in quantity and quality.

Burned by being duped by Poniatowski, scholars became ever more skeptical and this attitude has persisted to this day. One good thing however is that the "modern" gems were highly regarded as works of art on their own and many books on gem engraving such as Lippold and the Tassie impressions have it all, the ancient and the modern. This allows for one to educate ones eye, and chance upon cases where scholars may have been too conservative and put into the modern category a possible ancient piece or visa versa.

This brings me back to my athlete gem. Now re-interested in gems I started to research anew. One thing that changed since I last was researching this gem is the web, and the Beazley Archives from Oxford, which has done my world a great service by putting several entire catalogs of gems and impressions on the web. And then there is Google, which is busy digitizing books, many very obscure, which once could only be gotten in a few places in the world. I found the motif again in the Beazley Archives, mentioned before, see below:

Here is the screen grab of the photos that Oxford took of the Tassie impressions in the V&A. The number corresponds to their entries in the catalog by Erich Raspe, printed in 1791 in both English and French. The entry for the gems above is below:

I at first assumed that Number 7963 is the one in Lippold, and here, while no collection is given for it, the material is, Chalcedony. But since Lippold was early 20th Century, it may not be the same gem, as each is so similar that in these not so great images taken of impressions, are very hard to judge precisely. One point of difference is the position of the upraised arm, even in the dark and blurry images, they do appear to be held at a slightly different angle so they may not be the same gems. The second example, number 7964, is damaged but while a little different in the direction of the gaze of the athlete, very similar in pose and physique. Oddly enough, from a totally random source, I purchased a glass cast of number 7964, and because at first glance it appeared crude to me, I just stuck in on a shelf. However its closeness to the gem I put in a ring I remembered and brought it down to look at. It is much better than I remembered, with the musculature well rendered, and readable. There is a little bubble though in the face, and other tiny flaws resulting from its being a cast, see below:

Pretty remarkable actually, to have stumbled across this from a small dealer at some antique fair, although to be honest, I don't remember who or where now it was so long ago. It is irrefutably of Raspe's number 7964, the damage and pose are identical, and that gem has long been accepted as being ancient.

However, the subject of the gem remained unknown, it has been variously described as, athlete with reins, a discobolus, even a quoit player. Here enters a new friend, a pen pal really since our relationship has to date been exclusively through email correspondence, whose name is Ittai Gradel and who is known from a book he wrote a book on Emperor worship among the Romans. He first contacted me about the Athena Cameo, and I sent him images of another gem, the Hostilianus, and he was enormously helpful in figuring out what it was and who it represented, see my post about it: story of a gem...
Given Ittai's interest and knowledge of gems, and at his request, I sent him a photo of the Athlete. He was enthusiastic in his response to it, but of course the questions are, what is this athlete doing, i.e. what is the subject, and also is this ancient. Based on style and closeness to accepted ancient examples, we both agreed it is likely to be ancient. Ittai then turned his attention to the subject and in a triumphant email to me wrote this:

So your athlete is a *pentathlete* who has just thrown the javelin, and is now about to throw the discus. The reins/strap/thong he holds is indeed what I mentioned before, connected with javelin throw - e. g. described here (from wikipedia s. v. javelin throw):
'The one major difference between the javelin of the ancient games and the javelin of more modern times is a leather thong, called an ankyle that was wound around the middle of the shaft. Athletes would hold the javelin by the thong and when the javelin released this thong unwound giving the javelin a spiraled flight.'
(The Ancient Olympic Games by Judith Swaddling is the obvious ref here for further study)
Add to this that the pentathlete was in fact considered the ideal type of athlete (again from the excellent perseus site given above):
'Aristotle describes a young man's ultimate physical beauty: "a body capable of enduring all efforts, either of the racecourse or of bodily strength...This is why the athletes in the pentathlon are most beautiful." (Aristotle,Rhetoric 1361b)'

This explains the focus of the gaze of the young man, he has just thrown his javelin and has the discus for his next feat. It also explains the extraordinary physique of this athlete, he is meant to be so as a pentathlete, the ultimate athlete. I think Ittai is correct and he has figured out something no one else has in over two hundred years. Remarkable bit of sleuthing and insight on his part.

You can see why engraved gems are so engaging, they are beautiful, and when you start looking at them and researching them, offer a remarkable depth of knowledge to be acquired. And because they are fairly well documented often, you can find parallels, and in earlier catalogs sometimes even their history. In our time they have been neglected which means you can make discoveries, not only buying things that are unrecognized for what they are, but making new discoveries about them as Ittai did with the Pentathlete.

Springfield Museums again

2011-03-06T14:46:00.000-08:00

Last week I found myself heading to my conservator in Holyoke to pick up a piece, and decided to also pay a quick visit to the Springfield Museums, as I really enjoy them. This time I made it to the Springfield History museum, which turned out to be quite a treat.

Widow Seated with Her Dogs, 1640
attributed to Frans Luycx, Flemish, 1604-1668

For some reason this dour picture captured my attention. Beautifully painted the elderly lady is enshrouded with luxurious black satins, with two adorable dogs beside her, one of which reaches up to sniff her hand. This is a great portrait painting, which manages to be both intimidating and somehow sympathetic. At first formidable in appearance upon a closer look, the lady is seemingly almost approachable. The dogs betray her humanity.

Detail of the Portrait of a Widow

While not pretty, and pretty scary still, I think I detect the hint of a smile on her lips. Maybe she is not so mean really.

The real treat this trip though, because the last times I have gone I have not gone into it, was the History part of the museums. I had no idea that Springfield was such a major center of industry, the made cars, motorcycles, guns, Friendly's started there, the list goes on. Below are a few highlights of the automobile portion.

1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom I
made in Springfield MA

This beautiful Rolls Royce was one of the few made in this country, when Rolls Royce, recognizing the market in the US, located their production in Springfield MA. The depression finished it off, they last just about a decade making cars there. This Phantom belonged to a local businessman who was a major patron of the museums, M. Allen Swift. He owned the car for 77 years, the longest of any owner in Rolls-Royce's history, and took care of it himself, it reportedly still runs like new.

1928 Pierce Arrow, Brougham 81 Opera

This beautiful car is another star of the museum, purchased in Springfield in 1928. The label states that it is one of Americas most original cars with only 2763 miles on its odometer. That is very cool, this car never needed to be restored, since it has so little wear, and was always maintained.

The Springfield Museums are definitely worth a visit, there is a lot there to see, across a range of fields. You can expect more posts on it from me!

Theseus Gem

2010-12-11T08:44:00.000-08:00

The black agate intaglio of a youth set in rose gold ring.
gem measures 23 x 15 mm.

Dear Reader,
Yet another gem has entered my life, found with an antique jewelry dealer in NYC. It is an image of a heroic youth wearing what I first took to be a lion skin as a helmet as Alexander had in his coins, carved into black agate, and set in a Victorian rose gold ring engraved on the back with initials and the date, "July 23rd, 1880".

View of the back showing the inscription.

It was assumed by the dealer, and myself, that the gem has to be 18th, 19th Century, given the ring, the hard polish of the surface, and the extended oval with a lot of negative space around the carving, more than is typical in ancient gems. However what grabbed my attention as the quality of the carving and image; it is very direct and unfussy in execution and yet fierce. The large open eyes, bulging Scopaic brow reminiscent of Alexander the Great's images, the hair which springs up from the forehead, and the unpolished carved areas of the skin and hair, and the polish of the animal skin remind me of the best of ancient intaglio carvings. Usually the Neo-Classical copyists did not get the spirit of ancient work right, they are usually fussier and finer in detail than ancient work, showing off their mastery of the craft.

Another photo showing the intaglio in reflected light.

When I first saw the gem I assumed the skin on the head was the typical lion skin, known from images of Hercules who slew the Nemean lion and wore it as a helmet, and adopted by Alexander the Great in his portraits portraits and coins. Mithradates also adopted the lion skin to identify himself with Alexander and by extension Hercules. However upon closer examination once I got the gem home I realized that this was no lion skin but improbably, the head of a skinned bull with little horns and the legs tied around the neck with hoofs at the ends like a bow. Thinking that this might be an 18th Century carving inspired perhaps by an Ancient Greek Coin of some Hellenistic ruler who adopted a variation of the animal skin helmet, I searched my coin catalogues in vain. But not being a numismatist, my library is limited so I sent an email of the gem to a friend who is a coin and gem collector/dealer, Hadrien Rambach. He replied in minutes telling me that it was an image of Theseus wearing the skin of the bull of Marathon, and was after a gem in St. Petersburg. Thankfully the gem collection of the Hermitage is online, and I was able to find it see below.

(Image from the Hermitage website, of their gem.)
Head of Theseus, Ancient Rome.
Workshop of Hylloes, 1st Century BC to 1st Century A.D.
Cornelian, intaglio 2.7 x 2cm
Source of Entry: Collection of the Duke or Orleans, 1787

While beautiful, the St. Petersburg gem is not as finely carved as mine, the hair and animal skin are not as finely detailed, the carving of the face not as well resolved. However it is inscribed with the initials of Lorenzo de Medici, who once owned it, an incredible provenance. If this gem did not have that inscription and was brought to me, I would wonder about its antiquity given the not very accomplished carving.

A little about the subject; Theseus is the hero who is the mythological founder of Athens, and follows the example of Hercules in that he accomplished a series of exploits paralleling the labors of Hercules. Son of Aethra, a princess of a small city near Athens, he had two fathers, her husband Aegeus the king of Athens, and Poseidon, and as such Theseus had both mortal and immortal qualities. Aegeus took up with Medea when she abondoned Jason of the Argonauts, and he left Aethra in her familial kingdom with her son Theseus. He left his sandals and sword under a huge rock, telling Aethra that when their son was grown strong enough to move the rock himself, that they would prove his royal birth. When Theseus was old and strong enough, he moved the rock and took the sword and wore the sandals traveling to Athens and having adventures along the way. When he arrived at Athens, Aegeus did not recognize him, but his sorcerous wife Medea did and feared for the succession of her own son who she hoped would inherit the throne. So she convinced Aegeus to send Theseus to capture the Marathonian Bull on Crete, a terrible beast she hoped would kill him in the attempt. Of course Theseus accomplished the feat, and after sacrificing the bull is on this gem depicted wearing it as Hercules did the lion skin. One of my favorite parts of the myth is when Theseus returns to Athens and Medea recognizes who he is but his father does not, she convinces the king that this powerful youth was dangerous and serves him a cup of poisoned wine. Just as Theseus takes the cup, the father recognizes his sword and sandals, realizes this is his lost son and knocks the cup out of Theseus's hand saving him. I am not sure what happens to Medea, but rest assured, she does not die, merely flees. For her power, ruthlessness and ability to get away with things I admire her. She kills her own brothers to aid Jason's escape, kills her own children by Jason when he takes up with another princess and kills the princess and her father with a dress that bursts into flames, escapes in a chariot drawn by flying dragons, and next we see her as the wife of the King of Athens. What a fascinating mythological figure, I wonder what her real symbology and origin is.

The connoisseurship of ancient gems is very difficult, in that they were highly sought after from the Renaissance until the 20th Century, and widely imitated and emulated by some of the greatest glyptich artists who ever lived. In the early to mid 19th Century engraved and carved gems, cameos and intaglios, could be as valuable as houses to give you an idea of relative value. A contemporary engraved portrait intaglio had the same value as a painted one by Gainsborough or Romney bemoaned Lorenz Natter, (the same Natter who carved the Hostilianus gem in a former post on my blog), in his book "Traite de la methode antique de graver en pierres fines", printed in London in 1754. (According to The Romans of Seals and Engraved Gems, by Beth Benton Sutherland published my Macmillan 1965.) After the Paniatowski scandal and the doubt it created, the interest in gem engraving waned. The scandal was that his princely collection of carved gems was sold at Christie's London in 1839 as ancient, and it turned out to be that they were all commissioned by the prince, i.e., not ancient, really fakes if they were passed off as such. For the past one hundred years gem engraving has not been valued as an art form, although some exceptional older gems get high prices.

To sum up the case against this gem being ancient; the long oval of the stone and larger negative areas around the carving than most ancient gems have, and the bright hard polish of the flat areas. In favor of possibly being ancient; the carving style which is right on for ancient, and possibly the scratches and nicks on the stone's surface and edges, which seem incongruous given that the ring itself is in very good condition. The stone does sit up over the gold setting and is more exposed to damage, so that might account for the damages to it. I will just have to continue to research the gem and will relate back any findings. If not ancient it may be possible find out who engraved it, it is by one of the very best artists in the media, whatever period it was done.

Story of a gem; Discovery, disappointment and the joy of learning

2010-09-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader,
I live to find things, and frequently my hunches are proven correct, many times there is no way to fully prove a piece, and then sometimes I am just wrong. This story is a case of being wrong on my initial hopes, but surprisingly, I am very happy as I have learned a great deal and still own yet another precious piece of history.

The story starts with a visit to a friend on 47th St. in NYC, in the jewelry district. My friend is a dealer in antique jewelry and frequently he has pieces with engraved gems. This day he showed me a beautiful engraved imperial Roman portrait in chalcedony, set in a Georgian gold ring. The assumption he made was that the gem was also 18th Century, but when I looked at it I thought it might be ancient, and bought it. (see below)

Intaglio of a Roman Emperor, carved in blue chalcedony, set in a gold ring.
The gem measures 2.25 cm long.

The gem seen in transmitted light from the back.

You can see in the photos above the incredible quality of the carving. At first because of this high quality, I assumed it had to be Julio-Claudian, a period which represents the apex of gem engraving in antiquity. However the chopped military hair cut is not typical of imperial portraits of the time, the Julio-Claudian emperors sported long locks with distinctive arrangements which differed emperor to emperor and is one of their identifying attributes. However the profile is very close to that of Caligula, and he had a military upbringing so I thought perhaps it was him. However a gem enthusiast who got in touch with me at this time and to whom I sent images of the gem to, pointed out that not only was the hair style wrong, but so was the cloak with its prominent button completely wrong for a 1st Century date. He presumed it therefor to be an 18th century forgery. Then, in a subsequent correspondence he made the leap in thought to the 3rd Century AD and identified the subject as Gordian III, in which case the hair and cloak all were exactly correct. We at this point assumed the gem to be ancient as an 18th Century engraver would not do a gem carving of this quality of an obscure late emperor of little note. So it had to be ancient!

Certainly the coin portraits of Gordian III look a lot like the intaglio, although there is something about it which is not quite identical, which I attributed to the different media. See below:

A gold coin of Gordian III, which corresponds in all respects to my gem, the wreath, cloak and profile. The face is not identical though but very close, at least the profile is.

Needless to say I was thrilled and sent photos to Max Bernheimer of Christies who has a great interest in ancient gems and jewelry. After a first excitement and highish estimate, he asked about its history. I had none for it, the jewelry dealer I purchased it from had got it from two men whose collection of jewelry he bought. They were all over place in terms of taste and quality and this fine piece was not typical of their collection and there was no history as to where they got it from. But I told Max that obviously the gem had a history, it was set in a Georgian ring, but that my library was inadequate to fully research it.

The ring from the side showing the multi layered bezel setting and decoration of the shoulder.
It is clearly an 18th Century setting.

It turned out that Max does have a good library, a day later I got an email with good/bad news. The gem is from the Marlborough Collection, and earlier the Bessborough Collection, going back to the mid 18th Century. This is the most distinguished provenance you could hope for with a gem. The bad news, it is from a series of 40 late emperors carved my Natter to complement the Bessborough Collection which he cataloged as well. Based on gems and engravings, every effort was made to make the gems identifiable and true to Roman types. At first I was disbelieving, happy to have a piece with such a illustrious history, but disappointed my gem was thought not be ancient. My first thought, was who said it was 18th Century? However prompted by Max's revelation, I found the Beazley Archive, which has the entire collection illustrated online in impressions and photos of the gems. And there I found the impression of my gem, marked as by Natter, and described as lost.

The online image on the Beazley Archive website of the wax impression of the gem, described as being of Hostilianus, and whereabouts unknown.

Seeing it online was quite a surprise, and I better understood how Max knew that it was in the Marlborough collection but the identification as Hostilianus surprised me, and also I wondered why it was thought to be by Natter. The Marlborough collection, started by the 3rd Duke of Marlborough in the early 18th Century was greatly increased and developed by the 4th Duke whose acquisitions brought it up to 800 gems. The Dukes bought individual gems, but also acquired entire collections, most notably the Arundel collection created in the 17th Century and then the Bessborough collection which had been published in a catalog written by Laurent Natter in 1761. After the 4th Duke died in 1817, his collection of gems was sold by his family en bloc in 1875 to David Bromilow, who then sold it piecemeal in 1899 at an auction at Christie's London. The gems were dispersed and most lost to scholarship. The Beazley Archive under John Boardman's direction is attempting to relocate the lost gems, out of 800 only about 300 have known whereabouts. To have found one quite by accident is very exciting.

A silver coin of Hostilianus from 250 A.D. Image taken from the Auktionshaus H.D. Rauch, Vienna website.

I guess the coin of Hostilianus looks something like the gem, but he was usually depicted with a radiate crown, not just a laurel wreath. It is not as close a resemblance as it is to the coins of Gordian III.

Once I started looking at the documentation on the Beazley Archive website I learned that Natter described my gem as being of Hostilianus and it was part of a suite of 40 intaglio portraits of later Roman Emperors commissioned to fill out and complement the Earl of Bessborough's collection. It is thought that he carved the suite of himself, although I wonder about that, there is some variety stylistically within the group and it would be a great deal of work to carve so many really fine gems. It is not clear from the catalog that he carved them himself, what is clear is that they were carved for Bessborough, and are therefor all 18th Century.

What I find remarkable about this is how well documented this gem is. See below the scanned copy of the original catalog written by Natter in 1761 of the Bessborough collection.

This is the title page of Natter's catalog.

And here it is, Natter's description of the suite of Roman Emperors, translated here by a friend:

"Series of the Roman emperors from the Second Triumvirate to Valerian.

I shall observe merely that these portraits have all been copied from the best medals and the best ancient engravings; the connoisseurs will easily note the resemblance; in order to further elevate the quality of this collection, the types of gemstones have been varied as much as possible."

My gem is the so called Hostilien, number 38 clearly marked as being in Chalcedony.

Above the catalog description from the 1899 Christies sale. The suite of 40 emperors was sold in bloc, and subsequently dispersed. Interestingly and a clincher is that in the description it is stated that the settings were marked with figures corresponding to the list; on the side of the bezel of the ring is a slightly rubbed 38, clearly marking it as the Hostilianus above.

While initially disappointed to learn that my gem is not ancient, I am thrilled to have something from the Marlborough collection and to have identified a gem thought to be lost that has been actively sought by scholars for years. It is also extremely rare, and rare for me personally to be able to truly get a full understanding of an object. So many objects are unchronicled and one feels that one is guessing; here I now have full knowledge and can see the evidence with my own eyes. This is a thrill for me, and reward in itself.

Natural History Museum, New York; is it the worst run museum in the City?

2010-08-13T14:36:00.001-07:00

Hall of Northwest Coast Indians

In my newly kindled interest in Northwest Coast American Indian Art, I went to see the great collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It truly has a great collection, of not only Indian material, but an incredible pre-Columbian Collection, both from meso-America and South America. But, aside from some updated displays in the South American section, the other areas are conspicuously neglected. I have been going to this museum for 30 years now, and these areas have never been redone, light bulbs are out, the lighting is terrible and sepulchral, it is nearly impossible to see the great objects of art. And harder still to photograph, but thanks to the miracles of the newest iphone, I was able to take passable images.

I was inspired to re-visit the Northwest Coast Indian collections by my bracelet. While I found nothing quite like what I have, they have a lot of great, if unappreciated objects. One frustrating thing is that they have amazing totem poles and carved wooden columns probably from lodges, but not one of them has any identifying labels to tell you where they were from, who made them, or when. It is as if they are just decoration, when in fact they are extremely rare and important works of art, a collection like this could not be created today, the material is simply not there.
Below are some of the highlights.

These carved bone or whale tooth objects were worn by shaman as talismans, objects that relate their spirit stories and give them power to communicate with the spirits. Each is quite individual, different one from the other. Frequently human figures are featured, but always subject to animal forces, the lowest one has an enormous bird beast swallowing a small human, the mid figure has two fishmen wrestling over what appears to be a doughnut but is actually a mouth of some other beast. The top one has a human cowering between two enormous animal figures, almost Munch like.

Two more of these bone or ivory objects. The one of the left is particularly dense, the human figure is surrounded by power animals. The right one looks like an owl, made of other birds with an animal head on the bottom.

One of the totem poles, or perhaps a column from the interior of one of their lodges. No information is available on where, what or who of these, but they are fantastic. I love the way one animal has the other in its mouth, a chain of life. In the Northwest Coast Indian culture, it is not about one animal eating another, as much as transmitting power one to and from the other. Not that one animal was not eating the other but here for example a killer whale is shown with a seal in its mouth, with a bear biting his tail. Bears don't and can't eat killer whales but both are powerful creatures so in this culture I think this indicates one power leading into the other.

Better image of the killer whale, with a seal in its mouth, its tail in the mouth of a bear.

Another great pole, one figure on top of the other, and incredibly well carved.

A closer view of the pole above. I love the tiny human figure suspended upside down from the mouth of the giant bear, with another human held by another bear above.

The box above is beautiful, but the real gem of this case is the head-dress ornament of carved wood depicting a frog held gently in the hands of a human. The frog is being presented, supported and held, and wielded almost like a weapon, I imagine power radiating from the focused forward gaze of the frog. This is not an animal in panic, he is fully in command of his situation.

And of course the Pre-Columbian collections of the museum are the best of their kind in New York and probably one of the best in this country. Sadly, they were set up in the 60's, and no one has updated them since. The lighting is attrocious, and what few lights they have, many of the bulbs are out, as they were in this case with a series of spectacular Veracruz yokes in basaltic stone. They date to the 5th to 7th Centuries A.D., from one of the great cultures of Meso-America. Used or based on yokes used in the ritual ball game that was the focus of much of their religious ritual, these yokes show the interest in wrapping the object in the creature, here a frog around the piece, much as in Northwest Coast Indian art, and that of Archaic China.

Another beautiful Veracruz yoke in basalt, and another frog, this one however embellished by complicated patterns that are hard to decipher, and perhaps are yet other creatures or divine beings.

A detail of the yoke above, showing the complexity of the patterns of which this frog is composed of. In the dim light of the museum, and bad placement of the yoke in the case, it is almost impossible to make out what is represented.

While I love the collections of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, I am frustrated by the terrible manner in which so much of it is presented. It is a throwback to another era, when the art of "primitive" peoples were considered as ethnographic curiousities not worthy of a "real" art museum. Thus they are treated like so many stuffed birds or dead animals or fossils that the rest of the museum is filled with. And those are better lit than the great works of art of these collections. And it has been this way since I have been going to the museum. Yet, no end of money has been raised by the Museum, they built that huge monument to the big bang, the planetarium, which is beautiful and educational, but couldn't they find a few dollars to spruce up what should be considered some of their greatest treasures. Or they should transfer these collections to an art museum that would give the objects the respect they deserve.

The question for my readers, is this one of the worst run museums in New York and the country? Certainly not the world, many third world countries have museums equally ill displayed and lit, but poverty excuses them. But in New York? What is their excuse, except for directors who have no interest in art, with neither the ability to recognize great things nor respect for their own collections.

Haida silver bracelet

2010-08-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

I was just in Montreal, which I will post about soon, and bought a silver bracelet by a Haida artist named John Brent Bennett. I have always admired Northwest Coast American Indian art, but don't know much about it. I respond to its highly stylized images, and the great skill and sophistication of much of the objects from those cultures. I have seen other bracelets, and so when I was in Montreal, I went to the Canadian Guild of Crafts on Sherbrooke St., quite close to the Musee Des Beaux Arts. And there were just three engraved bracelets by this Haida artist, and I chose this one because it had the most identifiable features. On wearing it, I have learned a lot about Haida art, and finally have been able to decipher the imagery. And now I understand why I love Northwest Coast Indian art; it is part of a shamanic culture that extends the rim of the Pacific Culture. You find echoes in its imagery from thousands of years and miles apart. It is no accident this, but a product of a way of looking at the world, and communing with it and the spirit world as well as a sustained tradition and contacts that account for these similarities.

Three quarters side view, showing the face with part of the side. What we are looking at is an exploded body of an animal, I think here a badger, or bear, but not sure which. The face is clear enough, the claw is apparent, less obvious is the entire arm, and the rear leg which are also done in the same stylized manner. Once you see it, you see it, before, it was just a bunch of shapes tucked together.

The other side view, you can here make out the foreleg and the rear leg with claws that curl around the bracelet.

Now you might wonder why I would post about what at first glance might appear to be a tourist trinket. Some points to be made; this is hand engraved, and deeply so, by someone highly skilled with tremendous vision and understanding of his cultural traditions. He has captured the essence of a beast in what appears first to be pure pattern. This is an example of shamanic art at its best. I had not thought such traditions could be kept alive in our modern world, I think I may be wrong. Below are the other traditions and objects that this seemingly minor object relates to in my mind.

This basalt yoke is from Veracruz Mexico dating to the 5th to 7th Century A.D., which sold at Sotheby's New York in May of 2005. (Image found on google on thecityreview.com) It is carved with a stylized image of a frog who is stretched over both sides of the yoke. I see a strong similarity and it is not an accident, both are New World cultures and even if separated by time and space, they belong to the same cultural milieu. The images are not only about spirit animals, the one a shaman would transform into in his trances, but also apotropaic, the object was animate and would ward off evil.

This is a photo of a section of an Archaic Chinese bronze vessel, showing the classic Shang Dynasty toatie mask, which is an exploded monster figure stretched out across the surface of the vessel.

Here, from another google search as was the image above, is a diagrammed taotie mask, with the parts labeled. The same diagrammatic depiction as on my Haida bracelet.

The visual similarity between these archaic chinese toatie masks, my Haida bracelet and the pre-Columbian yoke is not coincidence, despite there being thousands of miles and years apart. As said before, they were all shamanic cultures, where the shaman was taking drugs going into a trance to commune with the spirit world. While not much is known about the more ancient religions, we do know a lot about that of the Haida and other Northwest Coast American Indians, as they are still with us and much tradition has been passed down. They are essentially animist, seeing spirit in all living things, animals being seen as prey and spirits that must be respected and appealed to for their own prosperity and protection. Who is to say we cannot work backwards taking the visual similarities and think that the ancient Chinese also saw the natural world in a similar manner? Or the pre-Columbians?
Such are the musings I have on what some might regard as a tourist trinket.

Worcester Art Museum

2010-07-31T11:37:00.000-07:00

Courtyard of the Worcester Art Museum

I just went to Boston to go to the museums and had dinner with a friend. While I love the museums in Boston, for the research I was doing, it was not particularly productive. But it is always good to see great art, which there is plenty of between the Museum of Fine Arts, the Gardner Museum, and Harvard's Sackler Art Galleries. As I was about to leave Boston I thought, why don't I visit Worcester, where I have never been, to visit its renowned museum. A quick map search showed me how to get there, and after a quick visit to Harvard, off I went to Worcester. I was rewarded by seeing some great things, the Worcester Art Museum is well worth a visit. It is not small, but not large, sort of a good size, and has some very distinguished things. American Paintings are not my thing, but they do have a very choice collection of them. This post is my picking just a few things that struck me, this is hardly meant to be comprehensive.

Another view of the courtyard, showing the justly famous mosaic from Antioch, the largest ancient Roman mosaic in this country. Dating the the Third Century A.D., it depicts animals threes, hunting, with a foliate border. On the floor of the central courtyard, it is under an enormous mural by a contemporary artist, juxtaposing the classical with the modern. I did not pay much attention the painting, while well done, it just did not capture my attention.

Chapter House, from the Benedictine priory of St. John Le Bas-Nueil.
West Central France, Limestone, 1150-1190

Off the Antioch Mosaic courtyard is this lovely room with columns and vaulted ceilings, something like what you see at the Cloisters in New York. I personally love period rooms and this is a great example of medieval architecture.

Limestone statue of Hetepheres,
Egyptian, Old Kingdom, early 5th Dynasty, ca 2440 B.C.

This extraordinary torso, epitomizes the spare elegance of early Egyptian sculpture. Here the slim female form is revealed under her thin dress with subtle modulations of the surface. You see here the human form at its most pared down, yet naturalistic depiction, something the Egyptians mastered. You see this form in Southeast Asian sculpture, and other early formative periods, but the Egyptians did this first. Being nearly life-size, this is among the finest Egyptian sculptures in America despite is fragmentary condition.

This capital is incorrectly identified in the museums label which describes it as being carved of marble, Roman, First Century A.D. Instead it is in fact limestone, and I think it is Greek from Taranto, and dating to the Fourth Century B.C. Quite a difference in rarity and importance since large scale architectural elements from Taranto are nearly unknown, I had never seen one before, so was surprised and happy to see this. Also a bit surprised that the museum so misunderstands it.

Marble statue of Hygieia, Roman, 2nd Century A.D.

This marble statue is quite beautiful, and well preserved, and while lacking its head and lower arms is nonetheless quite intact for an ancient sculpture. Also being life size or just over life size, it is quite impressive with its beautifully detailed drapery revealing the voluptuous form underneath. A very good example of Classical sculpture at its best.

Marble portrait of Caligula, Roman, First Century A.D.

This remarkably intact and beautiful head is one of the best surviving portraits of Caligula, who for his fearsome reputation to us today, inspired some of the best Roman imperial portraits ever. Truly a beautiful idealized portrait, and a world class object. The surfaces are nearly perfectly preserved, the slight but beautiful traces of burial encrustation, the relatively free carving of the hair, and sensitive carving of the face, along with its completeness set this head apart.

Bronze portrait bust of a woman. Roman, 2nd Century A.D.

This is another remarkable portrait, both for its completeness, its material bronze, and quality. Most ancient bronze sculpture was melted down by later peoples for the making of weapons, coinage etc. And then there are the vicissitudes of time and environment destroying bronze through corrosion. So to have a complete, intact, beautiful portrait of a young woman is quite rare. On the label it says this is possibly a daughter of Marcus Aurelius, which would fit the age and style of the bust, but one hardly needs to know who this is to appreciate its beauty.

Granite statue of Shiva, Indian, Chola Period, 10th Century A.D.

This belongs to a small group of very beautiful, complete statues of the seated god Shiva, here with four faces, which are one of my favorite expressions of Indian Art. I first took notice of the type when Sotheby's was selling off the Albright Knox collection, and when I paid attention to the type, I have found only two others, one in the Metropolitan Museum in NY, and another one in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. To the list I now have to add this one in Worcester. What is remarkable about this group is their consistency, while there are slight differences, they are all about the same size, and are uniformly beautifully carved. One thing I like about these figures and is common to the sculpture of the Chola period, is the slim waist and erect posture giving the figure an energetic feel. Another world class object.

Limestone Stela, from State of Campeche, Mexico.
Maya, Late Classic, ca 850 A.D.

Unbeknownst to me, Worcester has a very fine Pre-Columbian collection, of which this is the star. A very rare thing, a complete stela of monumental size, this hardly exists in museums in this country. Even the Natural History Museum in New York and the Peabody at Harvard have only plaster casts of such monumental works, so to find this in Worcester was a surprise to me.

Portrait of an Ecclesiastic.
Atributed to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio.
Italian, Florentine School, 1483-1561
Oil on wood panel.

And of course the Worcester Art Museum has great paintings, lots of them, in the tradition of an encyclopedic museum of European art, as any aspiring city such as Worcester in the early 20th Century had to have. I have a fondness for the beautifully painted portraits of the 15th to early 16th Century, and this is truly a great one. Despite the uncertainty of the identity of the subject, or even the artist, what is undeniable is the beauty and skill of the painting itself.

Portrait of a Young Noblewoman.
Unknown artist of the School of Madrid.
Spanish, 17th Century, Oil on canvas.

This impressive, large and beautiful painting is of a type that I particularly respond to, women of high rank in these stiff taffeta dresses encrusted with borders of gold, pearls and gems. This portrait is the red sister to the green taffeta dressed Archduchess in the Clark Institute in Williamstown Mass. Here the painter is unknown, the subject also, however, her youth, beauty and almost modern face, combined with the dramatic dress make for a striking work of art.

Portrait of Samson Vryling Stoddard Wilder, by John Vanderlyn
American, 1775-1852, oil on canvas.

Just a beautiful portrait of a handsome young man, who can resist that? It was painted in 1808-1812, when the painter and sitter were living in Paris, and you can see how the painter was influenced by the technically polished work of David and Ingres.

Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. James Dunlop
by Sir Thomas Lawrence, ca 1825
oil on canvas

Sir Thomas Lawrence was one of the most accomplished portrait painters of his day, his masterful brushstrokes speak to his tremendous skill at applying paint to canvas without being fussy but very exact and yet romantic. This is a particularly beautiful portrait of a lucky, prosperous, and apparently happily in love couple.

There is much much more in this gem of a museum, it is well worth a detour to see it. I have known about it for years, but never gotten to Worcester. My next post will be about another odd gem in this town, the Higgins Armory. Worcester is surprisingly rich in art.

King Tut!

2010-05-18T15:31:00.001-07:00

Small gold coffinette which contained some of the kings organs.
You can see the projections behind it, and get a sense of the theatrical
nature of much of the exhibition. Still a beautiful, masterfully made object.

King Tut is back in New York, not at an art Museum, it has become so commercialized that they are holding the exhibition near Times Square in what they call, "The Discovery Center", which until this exhibition, I had never heard of before. While having fairly modest expectations I felt I had to go, it is a rare opportunity to see things from his tomb. I arrived around 11am, just as all the school kids were arriving in enormous buses. A large crowd was milling about and waiting. It turns out they were being ushered in as groups, and I went and paid my $31. for a ticket. Pretty steep. I then waited as groups were allowed in to pace the crowds in the exhibition. I feared that this did not bode well for my viewing experience, I expected to be jostled and to barely be able to see things at my own pace. Fortunately, once we watched the obligatory silly video about meeting King Tut, once inside, I had no competition for looking as much as I wanted. It turns out that most people are really not interested in looking at things closely, so I could go from piece to piece as I wanted with hardly anyone else looking at them. And it is a treasure trove of major Egyptian artifacts. While there is actually very little from King Tut himself, there are a number of masterpieces from his ancestors. The exhibition putatively attempts to put King Tutankamun in context, with objects from his immediate predecessors. One advantage of an exhibition like this is that it allows one to really see things, that when in Cairo are lost in the huge number of art objects demanding your attention. Unfortunately they did not allow photography, so I had to crib images from the web, and could not get all the ones I wanted. But this will suffice to hopefully induce you to see the exhibit yourself, it is well worth it.

Yellow sandstone head of Nefertiti.

This beautiful head is one of my favorite of the portrait heads of Nefertiti. Incredibly sensuous with the soft polish of the yellow quartzite, it combines a realistic quality with the abstracted perfection of a deity, which is what she became during the Amarna period. Originally the eyebrows and eyes were inlaid, and the hair or headdress finished in another material. This head alone is worth paying the price of admission.

Alabaster container with painted decoration and dyed red ivory details.

This beautiful container has a lion with his tongue lolling out, painted in black with scenes of the king hunting with four negro heads supporting it symbolizing the kings suzerainty over the empire as they portray the traditional enemies of the Egyptians. It is a beautiful, complicated, incredibly well executed object, and once again, you are able to really see it in isolation whereas in Cairo, it competes with the abundant treasures from that tomb.

Coffin of Tjuya, wood covered in gold plate and inlaid with glass and stone.

This coffin belongs to one of the parents of Queen Tiy, the consort of Amenhotep III, one of the greatest rulers Egypt ever had and the grandfather of King Tutankamun. While I have known of this coffin for many years, and even saw it in Cairo, it was so eclisped by King Tut's that I did not really give it the time it deserved. Here in this exhibition, it shines as it deserves to for it is truly beautiful, sublime and masterfully made.

Here is a detail of the face of Tjuya, you can see just how beautiful it is. I was very happy to truly see this great coffin and pay my respects to the one for whom it was made.

Gold covered funeral mask for Tjuya, with traces of fabric which originally wrapped the entire mummy. Again, beautiful in person, here it looks a little silly I know.

Small serpentine head of Queen Tiye.

This small, it is only just over 2 inches tall, head is a masterpiece, not only exquisitely carved with minute detail, it also captures the commanding presence of one of Egyptian histories great personalities, the Chief Queen of Amenhotep III. The daughter of commoners, her father was wealthy landowner who rose to high position during the reign of Amenhotep III. Despite her non royal blood, she nonetheless rose to greatness at her kings side. Almost alone among queens, Tiye is represented on the same gargantuan scale as her husband in many important monuments. No subservient supporting role for her, she appears as the kings equal in many monuments. The 18th Dynasty is notable for its strong women, from Queen Hatshepsut who ruled as Pharaoh herself, to Queen Tiye and Queen Nefertiti.

Alabaster head from one of Tut's canopic jars.

About as fine an image of the King as exists this stopper for a canopic jar is justly famous.

Royal isignia, gold, lapis, carnelian and glass inlays.

The boy kings royal isignia, the Ureaus, with the vulture head symbolizing Nekhbet, and the cobra head and serpent representing Uadhet, the goddesses respectively of Upper and Lower Egypt, the great divide, the two kingdoms united under the rule of the Pharaoh.
This is a remarkable object, I think one of the few to survive from antiquity, the actual royal isignia worn by the king as part of his regalia at important functions. No doubt he had many other crowns, this was sort of an everyday marker of his divine status, worn alone or under another crown. As a child the image of the Ureaus, the two heads, vulture and cobra, looking forward above the face of the king, protecting him from harm, both spiritual and physical. Pretty powerful imagery and magic. Found on the kings head, under all the wrappings and the funerary mask.

Obsidian glass head from a composite statue of King Amenhotep II.
It is about life size, this image is the best I could find online.

Represented in the postage stamp size image above is an object that I have wanted to see for decades, one of the only obsidian heads from Egypt. Like the yellow quartzite head of Nefertiti, this comes from a composite statue, where the face, and exposed skin areas were in precious stones, the crown, body and garments in other materials. Obsidian boulders big enough to make this are not common, and the carving of it is masterful. The surface has a matte finish so it looks almost like wood, only on the break on the side do you see the glassy nature of the material. It is another rarely seen object of absolutely top quality, another reason to see this particular exhibition.

Springfield, Who Knew?

2010-02-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

Plaster cast of a section of the Pergamon Altar, in Berlin.

Guess where I was this week? The picture above is a clue, but can only mislead. I won't make you guess, I went to the Springfield Museums, something I had thought of doing for awhile, but just had never done. I was heading that direction to pick some pieces up from a restorer, so Springfield being sort of on the way, I went. In part this decision was spurred on by the brief research I did on the Museums, plural I emphasize, and one of them has a collection of Japanese Samurai arms and armor. If you have been following my blog, you will realize this was a flame to me the moth. Also described was a room of Ancient Treasures and a hall of plaster casts. I held out little hope for their antiquities aspect, the website was not promising, but there was certainly enough for me to justify the outing.
So there I go, nearly get lost on the way there; the directions provided gave a map, very helpful, but the directions from the highway to the museum were very poor. After a few false turns, I found my way to a complex of buildings; there are five museums there; a Science Museum, the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, a Connecticut Valley History Museum (closed the day I was there), the G.W.V. Smith Art Museum, and the Springfield History Museum (which I did not manage to get to). It turns out that the time I had allotted for this venture was inadequate; the good news, I have a reason to go back. Below are some highlights.

Of course I went right for the G.W.V. Smith Art Museum where the Japanese steel is, of which there was a good bit on display, see the rack of short swords above. While dimly lit by florescent lights, and it was a cloudy day, I still got my fix of beautiful Japanese swords.

Some more of the beauties on display. Sadly I cannot really tell you what they are, the labeling was completely inadequate, old typewritten folded cards, sort of out of place, and not clear which applied to what, and mostly missing altogether. Some of the blades dated to the Kamakura period I gathered though, I believe here, one of the two lower ones. They also had spectacular examples from the late 19th Century.

Look at the gorgeous hamon on the lower blade, I have never seen such a fancy curlicue design on one before. Truly a tour de force.

Above two beautiful swords with gorgeous hamons, in this case they go right across the whole blade like smoke. You can see what I mean by the labeling, it looks haphazard. I suspect these swords are truly great examples, while I am still a neophyte in the field, I think I know enough to recognize exceptional examples of swordsmithy.

A display of pole arms; can you believe that these viciously curved blades, naginatas, are described in the label as woman's weapons? I don't think I could wield them effectively, let alone a petite Japanese woman. Pretty scary thought though, truly a formidable weapons.

This exceptional helmet actually does have a helpful label, it as being by the Great Master Armorer, Mychochnin Nobuiye, dating to 1519 A.D. It says that is a rare example which in Japan would be considered a "National Treasure". I would not know enough to know that, but believe them. I have a feeling many of the swords would also be held in high esteem in Japan.

After seeing the Japanese armor I went on to see the cast hall which while small, is a great example of its type; a great teaching tool with the highlights of Classical and Renaissance sculptures, from the Pergamon altar above to the Hermes of Olympia, the Borghese Ares, to casts of sculptures by Michealangelo. The casts were well lit, given some drama to highlight them, which unfortunately the genuine ancient works of art in the large room after the cast hall were not. But the hall, titled Ancient Treasures, held a surprise for me.

What greeted my eyes upon entering the Ancient Treasure hall was a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures that I knew well, having sold the majority of them to the collectors from which these came, Melvin Blake and Frank Purnell. These were two doctors, lifetime partners, who I knew from my days at Robert Miller Gallery and beyond. I sold them the beautiful male figure in front as well as a number of the others on display. They both died one after the other over a decade ago, and I had a call and some correspondence from one of the brothers dealing with the estate, but then heard nothing. I was totally surprised to see this collection here. I was however very unhappy with the presentation, there was no lighting to first allow you to see them, or to make them stand out. I hope this is an area that the Springfield Museums would be willing to improve upon because they now have a very nice small, but fine collection of rare ancient classical sculptures, thanks to the Blake/Purnell estate. I will discuss some of them below.

This beautiful torso is most likely of Ganymede, although it could also be a young Apollo, it is hard to know given its fragmentary condition. I discovered it with a dealer and it was not mounted properly, so I had a base made for it, and had some encrustation cleaned from it. At the time I was working for Robert Miller when I sold it to Blake/Purnell. It is of superb quality, the carving masterful, the marble is white and highly polished emphasizing its high quality. Originally the figure leaned against a tree trunk if Apollo, or a large eagle representing Zeus, if Ganymede. The other hand held either an arrow, if Apollo, or a libation cup if Ganymede. The cloak may indicate Ganymede however, as it is the type of cloak worn by a shepherd, which the young Ganymede was when Zeus swooped down in the form of an eagle to seduce him and carry him off to Mt. Olympus.

This head of Zeus, I sold to Frank and Melvin, who loaned it to Claudio Bravo, a very close friend of theirs who had an apartment adjoining theirs. He did a beautiful color print of it, which I wish I had a copy of. I bought it at Sotheby's, it came from an old collection and had a restored nose and was an a not very nice marble base. When I took the nose off and put it on a new base, you could appreciate the head for the dramatic and beautiful Zeus head it is.

This is a double herm, literally a two faced object, with one face back to back with another. This side was better lit, so I could photograph it, the other did not photograph well. This I sold to Blake/Purnell after buying it in London, again at auction, but an estate sale in which I think it was not even described as being Roman, which is most certainly turned out to be. This side has a bearded man with rams horns in his hair, so probably represents Zeus Ammon, an Egyptianized version of Jupiter. It is of beautiful quality and originally stood on top of a squared columnar shaft probably about 4 feet tall, and probably graced a garden or peristyle.

However the classical sculpture from the Blake/Purnell collection was not the only surprise in store, see below.

Look at this, a full suit of Jade armor, Chinese, Han Dynasty. The Metropolitan Museum in New York has nothing like this, I have never seen one outside of a traveling exhibition from China. I did not even know this was in Springfield. What this is is a funerary suite of armor, something I know only from the Han Dynasty in China; the belief was that jade would keep the corpse from decaying, conferring a type of immortality to the deceased. It is made of small pieces of jade, most of which have altered from their original green to a sort of greenish white, strung together with copper thread, with some carved coverings for the eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. Not really all that beautiful, it is nonetheless impressive and represents the height of extravagant funerary equipment; jade has always been precious and difficult to work, this is like burying yourself with your fortune. To have this here is pretty remarkable to me, and again, its display is not designed to make you aware of just how special and rare an opportunity it is to see an object of this level.

This little fang-yi, a sort of bronze box with lid, is a superb archaic Chinese bronze vessel, of world class quality and rarity. It dates to the Shang Dynasty, approximately around 1500 B.C. Again a gem that I had not expected to see in Springfield and poorly lit and displayed. It deserves much more respect than it is currently being given, as is true with much in the G.W. Smith Art Museum, which is one of the more interesting museums in our area.

And above was just the first floor, the second floor had more treasures, such as this colored marble bust, one of two, copied from a famous Roman portrait bust of a member of the imperial family of the second Century A.D. While not a "great" work of art, they are really beautiful and of the highest quality of sculpture and quite true to the original ancient busts. And there is more, a large collection of Chinese cloisonne, which is not of interest to me particularly but interesting that it is in Springfield. But much on the 2nd floor is in the process of re-arrangement, and so not really viewable. So this completes the Smith part of the museums.

Erastus Salisbury Field, American, 1805-1900

This Historical monument of the American Republic
1867 -1888, Oil on Canvas, The Morgan Wesson Memorial Collection

This remarkable and very large painting dominates the first grand central gallery of the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, opened in 1934 to house the collection of Mr. and Mrs James Philip Gray. It is a classic collection of the turn of the 20th Century, with a little of everything from 1400 on, an encyclopedic collection of European and some very good American art, mostly paintings. This odd painting by Erastus Salisbury Field, a local Connecticut Valley early American art star, is really a folk painting, not the best in terms of technical skill, but what he lacks in that, he makes up for the ambition of its vision. I think it may represent a real exhibition, but it looks like a fantasy painting from the Renaissance of the Tower of Babel doesn't it? Really sort of fabulous and so unexpected, I have never seen an early American painting like this.

Arthur Parton, American, 1842-1914 A Mountain Brook, 1875 Oil on Canvas.

This landscape is a painting by Arthur Parton, who was born in Hudson, NY, where I live. I have heard his name, and seen some of his paintings but this example is on a level that I was not aware he reached; it is a truly beautiful landscape on the same plane as Asher Durand.

Portrait of an Artist, oil on canvas
Unkown Artist, French, 19th Century

This gem is anonymous, but is so compelling and painted with such brio and great technical mastery, that it does not matter. It does not hurt that the subject is a beautiful romantic looking young man. I am in love. The label goes on to say:
"The creator of Portrait of an Artist" is an intriguing puzzle. For many years it was attributed to Eugene Delacroix and was believed to be a portrait of his close friend Baron Von Schwiter. However, further research revealed this to be unlikely. The mystery and the romantic beauty of this work continues to intrigue historians and art lovers alike."
We all love a mystery, particularly when the subject is such a beauty as this youth is.

Portrait Bust of the Emperor Caracalla
Gilt bronze and colored marble. by Thomas della Porta, the Elder, Italian 1520-1567

This magnificent and extravagant bust is of a type that has had many tacky and ill done imitations, every pretentious decorator wants a pair to decorate an entry way; however this example is superlative in quality. It represents the very pinnacle of late Renaissance sculpture and is an homage to Roman antiquity. A faithful copy of a Roman portrait it captures the ferocity of Caracalla, who killed his own brother Geta as he sought refuge in his mothers arms. The colored marble bust is done with the same level of quality as the bronze casting. This bust is in fact one of a pair flanking the entrance to the second floor of the D'Amour Museum, which has the classic time line arrangement of really good European paintings, ending with an exhibition celebrating 75 years of the museums acquisitions.

The last floor I visited was the first floor, which is dedicated to American paintings and among the usual suspects, an O'Keefe or two, and the rest, I spied this odd ball gem below.

Vermont Marble Quarry, about 1941
John Koch, American, 1909-1978, oil on canvas.

While not widely known and perhaps not a great painter, I find the barely repressed homo-eroticism of John Koch's paintings very attractive. He belonged to a moment in time, married, he spent much of his time in Provincetown, Mass., and lived for a time in Paris where he learned to paint. I came across him first when I was working for Robert Miller, when he handled a very sexy painting of the artist and his model, a nude young man who was lighting the artists cigarette. I had never heard of him before and come across his paintings rarely; thus I think it worthy of note. Art does not have to be "great" to be very satisfying. This is one such example I fear. See the detail below to get a sense of why I like Koch's work.

Detail of John Koch, Vermont Marble Quarry.

Koch's male figures are just plain sexy hunks, his female figures exert none of the pull they do. Perhaps that is just me, but I think it reflects his own interest, the woman are covers for the homo erotic feeling that pervades the canvas.

Portrait of Marcel Duchamp, 1923-1926
Florine Stettheimer, American, 1871-1944
oil on canvas.

I leave this post with this magical portrait by one of my favorite New York painters of the early 20th Century, one who is barely known outside of certain New York circles but who had a fabulous and truly bohemian life in New York during the first decades of the 20th Century. Born of a wealthy Belgian banking family, she and her sisters had a salon in their apartment and entertained everyone who was anyone in the art world of the time, and Duchamp, the most important artist of the time was among them. He is transformed into a saintly ghost here, with a halo in gray and white. It is a beautiful, surreal and respectful portrait, with only a hint of the playfulness that typify Florine's other paintings. It was a surprise to find it here in Springfield, but the afternoon was full of such discoveries.

In conclusion the Springfield Museums are worth the trip, they are not far from here, or anywhere in our area. If you are passing by or through Springfield, Mass., they warrant a stop. And no one else was there, as no one seems to even know about these museums. Now hopefully a few more will.

The Art of the Samurai Exhibition at the Metropolitan

2009-12-18T11:43:00.000-08:00

Dear Reader, I have been wanting to post about this exhibition from the time I first saw it shortly after it opened in late October. (It runs until January 10th, 2010) One thing that kept me from doing so was being out of the habit of posting and my frustration with the fact that I could not take my own photos. However, even using the not great pictures on the Metropolitan Museums website is probably better than not letting people know about this amazing exhibition. It is a must see, and it brings together objects in one place that otherwise you would have had to travel all over Japan and beyond to see. The Met bills it as the first comprehensive exhibition of the arts of the samurai. What is remarkable is that it features a large number, nearly half the objects or so, of objects designated by the Japanese Government as "National Treasures", or "Important Cultural Properties"; objects of such significance to the Japanese that they cannot be exported or sold abroad, and are recognized nationally as being items of especially high value. You would not be able to see such a gathering of important and rare items in one place in Japan, as they come from all over the country.

The exhibition is a contrast between whimsy and deadly ferocity; the armor and helmets are colored, gilded, shiny and fantastical in form; the swords displayed as just blades are abstract perfection; pure, spare and deadly. The helmets in particular bring a smile to my face, they are so funny, who made this stuff up! Who in their right mind thought a pair of clam shells protruding like bat ears from a helmet was going to inspire fear and awe? But there it is, improbable, beautifully executed in metal, wood and lacquer. Of course, in full garb, not as disjointed objects, the whole presentation of a samurai must have been fearsome with their face covered by a mask, the helmet sometimes enormous above them, covered by flexible lacquered iron plate armor, and armed above all, with swords so sharp and strong that nothing could stop them.

I had to crib pictures from the Met's website and the catalogue and am not completely happy with the images, but they do serve to give a flavor of what is in the exhibit. I will start with what most amused me the helmets and armor:

Suite of armor with Multicolored lacing, with helmet featuring attachments in form of Kaji leaves. Muromachi, 15th Century. Iron, leather, gilt copper, lacquer, braid, and cord. Important Cultural property, Sana-jina Shrine, Shimane Prefecture

This suite of armor is remarkable for its completeness and fine condition. What amuses me is the sort of wreath of stylized leaves attached to the helmet forming almost horns.

Helmet in form of a Pagoda
Edo period, 18th century.
wood, lacquer, silk and iron.
Kyoto National Museum

Again, who thought a stylized cut out of a pagoda was going to inspire awe and fear? But somehow the scale of it, the total height of the helmet is almost three feet, and beautiful execution are remarkable, and the little horns above the brow are a cute touch, I am sure meant to intimidate, but the horns of a fallow deer are going to impress me? Not so sure about that.

Helmet with Crest in form of a Praying Mantis.
Edo period, 17th century.
Iron, lacquer, cord, silk, wood and papier-mache.

For me, this was the show stopper in the exhibition. This photograph does not do the helmet justice, to fully appreciate the ferocious mantis you have to see it from the side, where the mantis's raised front claws are poised to strike, its abdomen raised above its head in intimidating display and wings fully extended. One thing you have to hand to the Japanese was their respect and appreciation for insects, I can think of no equivalent in the West of an insect used so naturalistic-ally in the context of war. Yes the bee was a symbol for Napoleon, but not decorating a helmet like this. And this is just one of several bugs, and while this particular helmet is no longer on display, there are others nearly as impressive. Due to the fragility and age of many of the lacquer and silk objects were rotated out and into the exhibition.

Helmet with crest of Clamshells.
Edo period, 17th-18th century.
Iron, lacquer, silver, gold, silk and wood.
Iwakuni Art Museum, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
(scanned from the exhibition catalog)

This helmet cracks me up, what look like huge bat ears are in fact clam shells, done in gilt and lacquered wood, outward facing in heraldic stance. Who thought this up, who ever thought that left overs from dinner, the discarded clam shells would intimidate your enemy? And yet like the pert ears of some diminutive dog, these ear like decorations indicate an enemy at full attention. I guess. Whatever, this helmet illustrates the whimsy, imagination and incredibly beautiful execution of the armor in the exhibition.

Helmet in form of Rabbit ears.
Edo period, 17th Century.
Iron, lacquer, wood and papier-mache.
Yasukuni-jinja Shrine, Tokyo
(scanned from the catalog)

Like the helmet before, this rabbit ear helmet is so over the top as to amuse rather than terrify. Only distantly resembling rabbit ears, they are almost like long horns, except for their concave red painted interior surface. Another example of many of the improbable forms of the samurai helmets in the exhibit.

The range of forms that the helmets take is so idiosyncratic that it leads one to think that they reflect their owners own wishes, beliefs, and how they wanted to present themselves to the world. It is almost as if each samurai had a vision quest and from it took an emblem that was theirs alone. Certainly on the massed field of battle, a distinctive helmet allowed one to be picked out from a crowd, which may partly explain the diversity of the forms employed. But there is a humor, whether intended or not, that makes this exhibition so rewarding for the viewer.

But last, but definitely not least, the swords. The swords are the real draw, nothing else like them exists in the West. The ultimate expression of the warrior, and the height of technological innovation for their time, just the blades are presented, no hilts or scabbards or fittings, those are displayed separately. When you learn how the blades were forged, you look at these lengths of steel with awe. It takes 16 men three months to make a true Japanese sword. The steel is specially smelted in a three to four day melt, then forged, folded and folded and again and again; as much as fifteen times or more, to create as many as a million layers of steel, producing an reproducibly hard and strong blade. To give it flexibility a lower carbon steel rod is inserted into the blank, all this forged again, shaped by hammer, before being tempered in a ritual heating and sudden cooling that produces the final shape and hardness. And then, another specialist, the polisher takes the blade and grinds and polishes it for two weeks to create the final shape and polish. In the exhibition is a great brief video of the process, and online there are others.

What impressed me about some of the blades in the exhibition was their extreme age, the earliest examples date to the Kofun period, that is Fifth Century A.D., and the recognizable polish, tempering line, and form of the true Japanese sword is seen as early as 7th Century with one of the most beautiful swords in the exhibition, a straight blade known "Water Dragon Sword" is Nara Period, 8th Century, and nearly in perfect condition. This is a continuous artisinal tradition, over fifteen hundred years old, and still being practiced today by artisans, some of whom themselves have been designated as living National Treasures. We have no equivalency in the West, our history is too fractured for a traditional form of art to have survived and be valued for a millenia and a half.

Below is just one example from the Met website, as the swords have to be seen in person to be appreciated.

Blade for a Slung Sword, known as "Dai Hannya Nagamitsu"
Kamakura period, 13th Century.
Steel, Length 29 inches.
Tokyo National Museum
National Treasure

Just one example of many, this blade is noteworthy for the wave like tempering pattern along its cutting edge, and is by one of the most renowned swordmaker of his day, Nagamitsu. To quote the exhibition catalogue:

"This sword is called "Dai Hannya name because in the Muromachi period it was valued at 600 kan (equal to about 2,250 kg of silver) and that there are 600 volumes -also refered to as kan- of the Dai Hannya Sutra (Heart Sutra)."

It boggles the mind, a single sword being worth the two and half tons of silver. Yes that is right, tons of silver. Granted silver is not gold but that is an enormous value for a simple steel blade.
To read the catalog entries is to get lost in a whole vocabulary that attempts to put into words slight visual differences between blades. I will quote from one such description from the catalog entry for 86, a dagger by Masamune:

"The forging pattern is itame (wood grain), formed by mixing hard and soft steels, and is rich in ji-nie (visible crystals of steel in the flat area of the blade) with chikei (bright, short curving lines). The hamon (tempering pattern) is gunome mixed with notare (compact, irregular waves and broad undulations, respectively), has numerous nei, and is rich in variations, including areas of nioi, a tight, "snowlike" pattern comprising a crystalline structure in which the individual crystals of the steel are visible to the naked eye. Nioi is sometimes likened poetically to clusters of blossoms on distant cherry trees....."

As you can read above, there is a whole language in Japanese to describe the patterns visible on the swords resulting from the chemistry and forging of the steel. It is rather like reading the description of wines, an attempt to put into language a sensuous experience that is beyond verbalizing. It makes for tough but rewarding reading, forcing you to really look at what otherwise appear to be relatively similar if not nearly identical lengths of sharpened steel. You then start to see the patterns on the blades and one really is distinct from another.

Of course my inquiring mind posits the question; after all the enormous effort and labor that goes into the forging of a sword such as these, does it produce a demonstrably superior blade to any other? How would a typical European knight fared against a Samurai? Would one of these fabulous swords sliced the knight up into pieces, armor and all? I'd like to think so, but I don't know, they never faced each other in battle. By the time the Europeans encountered Japan they already had guns, so had the edge on the sword weilding Japanese. Of course the Japanese quickly adopted Western armaments, and became a world power by the beginning of the 20th Century.

On a concluding note, the Times had a little blurb noting that more men have been going to this exhibition than is usual, which is interesting. Certainly I am fascinated, and normally I eschew masculine things, but like Achilles who was hiding in the womens quarters in drag, when shown swords, went right for them, and blew his disguise and so was drafted into the Trojan war. Perhaps it is in our male dna, a fascination with weapons regardless of our various persuasions. Just a thought.

Archaic Greek Horse fragment

2009-12-10T11:11:00.000-08:00

I have not been posting for awhile, but I recently acquired a bronze horse head that has me very excited. See the photo below:

While small, it measures just 2 1/2 inches high by 2 3/4 inches wide, it is monumental in feeling, beautifully sculpted and very expressive. The volumetric and stylized treatment of the locks of the mane date the piece to the early 6th Century B.C. It is early archaic, the period just following the Daedalic period when Greek art is starting to come into its own drawing from influences from the Near East and Egypt. It is just a fragment probably part of an attachment to a large bronze vessel, perhaps from a horse such as flank the hydra handle from the Schimmel collection below:

photocopy of Hydra Handle from: Ancient Art, The Norbert Schimmel Collection

Edited by Oscar White Muscarella

Verlag Phillip Von Zabern. Mainz. W. Germany 1974

This handle has horse protomes of a type which my fragment may have come from. On my example the back is relatively plainly done, indicating it was meant to be seen principally from the front, which is typical of a handle or vessel attachment. However it is interesting to note that the horses in this hydra handle are not nearly as well modeled as my new acquisition.

Recently a scholar brought my attention to an Archaic Greek bronze tripod in Berlin, which is probably an even liklier parallel of the type of object my horse head came from. See below:

Bronze Tripod decorated with animal heads and figures,

from Metapontum, mid-6th Century B.C.

Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

The horse heads on the top are very close to mine, as you an see below. However, the modeling on mine is more naturalistic, the eyes again are not symbolic glyphs as in the Berlin example. But the scale and probably configuration of the head and limbs make it very likely that my head comes for such a tripod, and of the same period.

Detail of the Berlin Tripod above showing the horses, which have similar manes.

Note however that they eyes are done as stylized symbols as opposed to naturalistic eyes.

Below is an even closer parallel in type since it has the two front legs upraised, as must have been in my piece. This comes from another tripod like that above, and was in the Christos Bastis auction at Sotheby's New York. However even this, which is charming, is less sensitively modeled than mine, its eye again is an ideogram, rather than a seeing eye. Also the mane is less articulated and detailed than in my example. But the type is exactly what mine probably was.

A Greek Bronze Protome, ca. 6th Century B.C. Scanned from the

catalog of the Christos Bastis sale, Dec. 9, 1999, in New York, lot 78.

Height: 7 1/8 inches.

When I first saw my bronze horse head, I was immediately reminded of a favorite piece of mine in the Met, a fragmentary marble horse head that nonetheless is commanding, incredibly expressive and beautifully sculpted, see below:

Head of a Horse, Attic, 2nd quarter of the 6th Century B.C.

Marble, Height: 13 7/8 inches, Bequest of Walter C. Baker 1971

scanned from: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Greece and Rome.

published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987

Let me quote from the accompanying text:

"In Archaic art the horse is probably rendered with more care more consistently than any subject aside from the human figure. Not only was it valued for such qualities as beauty and speed, but ownership of a horse was available only to men of means. In Athens, for example, the middle class of citizens were called the "knights", being those who could maintain a horse and fight in battle on horseback.......This extraordinary piece shows every possible sensitivity to the articulation and texture of the horse's face; at the same time, the mane and forelock are ordered into stylized locks that convey the resilience of horse hair but that would hardly fall so regularly in real life...."

This could have been written about my little bronze horse head, it shares not only the stylized volumetric locks in its mane, but the sensitive modeling commented on above. Parallels for my horse head are quite rare and hard to find, but here are a few below:

Horse and Rider, cast separately, 3rd quarter of the 6th Century B.C.

Bronze, Height: 23.6 cm. London, British Museum

Scanned from Greek Bronzes by Claude Rolley

Sotheby's Publications, London, 1986

Again, this horse shared the stylized volumetric treatment of the locks of the mane, but while of a similar scale to my horse, the head of this horse is not done with the same level of sensitivity or detail, the eye for example, is an abstract glyph rather than the eye of a living horse looking back at you as in my horse head. However, the example above is a complete figure, of a fairly large size for a bronze, making it quite an important and rare thing.

The other parallel that came to mind when first looking at this piece are objects from the Norbert Schimmel Collection now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here is one of several that feature horses of a similar style to mine:

Mitra with Horse Protomes, Greek from Crete, 7th Century B.C.

Height: 15.4 cm, width: 24.2 cm.

Scanned from Ancient Art, The Norbert Schimmel Collection

Edited by Oscar White Muscarella, Von Zabern, W. Germany 1974

One of several pieces featuring horses, they all share the same stylized mane and expressive faces. While just a repouse relief, the quality is not equal to that of my horse.

Below are other views of the bronze horse now in my collection:

Here you see how the eyes are modeled in the round, not as mere glyph symbols, giving the horse expression and a focused gaze; it looks back at you.

This side view allows you to glimpse the sensitive modeling even of the underneath of the horse head, and again, you can see that focused gaze given by the sculptural modeling of the eyes.

The back view. Here the mane is rendered as a flat surface and in general there is less of the detailed modeling on the front view. This is typical of ancient Greek art when an object was meant to be seen primarily from one view, the other was done summarily. But the fact that it is finished and not rough or unfinished indicates that this object was fully cast in the round.

While we may never know precisely what this horse head came from, it remains a very rare example of the early Archaic style, when Greek Art was rapidly developing, and one style follows another in rapid succession until the culmination of the full Classical Style which was to remain with variations for nearly a thousand years through the Roman Period, the art style of the Mediterranean World.

The worlds first Mullet

2009-05-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

What a great portrait, soulful, romantic, he has high cheekbones, who could ask for a sexier guy?

I was at the Metropolitan Museum this past Tuesday, just going through the Greek and Roman Galleries, and came across this head, always a favorite of mine. From the front, he is a beauty. But from the side, it hit me, he has a mullet haircut! My god, who would have thunk it! Just proves the point, there is nothing new under the sun.

Here you being to see, the haircut is very precise, a Caesar cut from the front, carefully arrange locks very correct and formal, but the back, long loose tresses. Business up front, party in the back; isn't that what a mullet is?

Here you see the full view of the side. To be fair, this is a beautiful Roman portrait from the early 2nd Century A.D., and probably depicts either a barbarian, with a distinctive hairdo, or a member of a cult, whose haircut reflects his dedication to a deity. But isn't it a funny and unexpected haircut to see on a Roman portrait? He beats Donny Osmond's mullet!

Montreal, again and Napoleon

2009-05-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

Montreal's own mini St. Peters, the Cathedral of Mary, Queen of the World.

I just made a brief trip to Montreal last week, the first time in awhile. The excuse for going was to pick up a display cabinet allowing me to put jewelry in the window, made by a company near Montreal. The cost of shipping was high enough to nearly pay for a trip up to pick the piece up, and I love Montreal, so it was a great reason to go.

One of the acts, on a slack wire, pretty fantastic, in Ovo.

I went to the Cirque du Soleil's new show, Ovo, under a big tent on the waterfront. I always enjoy Cirque, the incredible feats of their acrobats gives me renewed respect for us as a species, truly amazing what training can do, no other animal has the range of abilities that we do. Not only was the show great, but the crowd was as well, beautiful, well dressed, interesting looking and lacking in the feverish transparent ambition that typifies New York City. These people were simply gorgeous because they are, with a relaxed attitude. Fun to see. I could not take photos of the show, and am too self conscious to photograph the beauties I saw so I have to leave that to my readers imagination.

Column honoring Lord Nelson, who defeated Napoleon in the naval Battle of Trafalgar. One wonders what the Montrealese thought of placing this column in their city.

Last time I was in Montreal there was a wonderful exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts of Napoleonic art and objects. One of the main lenders to that exhibition has given his collection to the museum so they now have a wing devoted to Napoleon. I love the Empire style, no great surprise there given that it is based on Classical antiquity. Somehow this wing seems to compensate for the column honoring Lord Nelson above.

This fabulous painting of Napoleon is by Andrea Appiani, ca 1800, when Napoleon was just First Consul. Totally sexy and beautiful here, this painting certainly heroizes its subject, and is a portrait that I had not seen before and that has not been reproduced much.

This incredible bust by the studio of Thorvaldsen is one of my favorite pieces in the museum. Here Napoleon is basically shown as god, with the eagle of Zeus supporting him, and the aegis with the Medusa head of Athena on his shoulder, and a crown of laurel leaves. All taken from ancient Roman images of the apotheosis of their emperors.

One of the best parts though of this bust is the back, which is carved with a palm tree symbolizing Napoleons conquest of Egypt. This is one of the only times I have ever seen the back of a portrait bust finished in such a way. This bust is worthy of its ancient prototypes, here the artist has truly captured the spirit of antiquity in its sincerity and earnestness to glorify its subject.

This teapot in the form of a swan is one of my favorite pieces in the museum. Just a beautiful conceit and beautifully made, very detailed. Two swans back to back, their arching necks forming the handle and spout respectively. Again the swan was a favorite motif in Roman art, being the symbol of Apollo.

I am very glad the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal now has a permanent gallery of Napoleonic art. It somehow seems very appropriate for the second largest French speaking city in the world, and is a mark of the peace we have now between France and England, we can enjoy the beautiful things created during the reign of one of Europes greatest rulers. I am somewhat sorry that Napoleon was defeated and wonder what the world would have been like had he triumphed. No doubt it was his own overweening ambition that brought him down, had he been content to simply govern France, he would probably have ruled for a long time.

Tony Oursler at Metro Pictures

2009-03-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

I am not usually one for the new media in art, but some of it stands out, and Tony Oursler has been doing video installations now for years, and is the master of the genre. His new show at Metro Pictures, up until April 11, is well worth a look. The illusions he conjures are very compelling and are as much a testament to the rapid evolution of video technology as Oursler's incredibly imaginative use of it. Below are photos I took on my iphone, the simplest camera in the world, and if they are compelling on these, you know they are in person.

A forest of burning cigarettes greets you as you enter the gallery. As they are video projections, the tips appear to burn with a moving red glow of embers, and smoke rise. Pretty great, very compelling.

On the floor are projected scratch of lottery tickets with a hand vigorously scratching off the numbers. Again, pretty great illusion, it reads really well.

I have not been writing as much about contemporary art in my blog lately, partly because I have not been doing the Chelsea galleries as much in the winter months, but I will post when something moves me to. I will be interested to see how the galleries weather our current economic storm.

My taste is vindicated

2009-03-21T09:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers, for those who have been following my blog, you may recall that I was doubting my own impeccable taste, a very rare admission of a possible failing on my part. This mild anxiety attack was brought on by Ugly Betty, which as much as I love the show, certainly would not want to be tainted with any commonality of taste with its protagonist. Please see my earlier post below to remind you of the issue at hand, my love for pearl or other bead dangles or drops from pendants or earrings.
Upon watching the Other Boleyn Girl and seeing the B pendant with pearl drops that Ann wears, which is nearly identical to that worn by Ugly Betty, I was doubting the art direction of the film, and wondering about my own taste. A crisis of faith in my own instincts.
Intrigued by the story in the Boleyn Girl movie, and wanting to better understand the history, I did a quick google on Ann Boleyn and imagine my enormous relief when in the Wikipedia entry on her, I found two paintings of her dating from her time, below:

See the B pendant, with the three pearl drops? So the art direction of the movie, The Other Boleyn Girl, was accurate, my doubts have been put to rest and my enjoyment of the movie legitimized. Most important however is that my love of pearl drop pendants is vindicated, my faith in my own impeccable taste has been restored. What a relief. I am sure my readers will be relieved as well!

Whats with the three pearl drops?

2009-03-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

After an absence from this blog, I feel moved to write again. I guess with getting the gallery going I have been distracted and truth be told, not very inspired. But the other evening I was trying out Netflix Instant Watch on my computer, in an attempt to figure out how to do without my cable bill, as I cannot see continuing to spend $80. a month for content I hardly ever watch when so much is available through the internet now. I have switched to DSL, which is fine, not super fast but fine. However my connection is not fast enough for satisfactorily using the Netflix service, strange because it is fine with Hulu or watching through the networks websites. Anyway, I digress, back to the intended subject. I was trying out Netflix online watching The Other Boleyn Girl, with Natalie Portman, among others. While the screen freezing up, starting and stopping and I was missing a third of the action, I saw the pendant that Ann Boleyn was wearing was a lot like some pieces I have made, and wait, just like that worn by my favorite TV character, Ugly Betty.

Here is a pendant I made with a green tourmaline and three suspended pearls:

Pretty isn't it? I thought it was so tasteful and reminiscent of antiquity, I was proud of my work.
Until I started watching Ugly Betty, see below:

Can you see it, that B with three pearls pendant under it? Did the stylist steal my idea? Or is my idea really that unoriginal and banal as to be featured on that paradigm of bad taste, my beloved Ugly Betty. I was mortified.
So there I am watching The Other Boleyn Girl, and this is what I see:

Its the identical pendant as Ugly Betty wears. Can you believe it? I hardly can. While I was enjoying the movie, and am going to have to rent the DVD, I cannot watch on my computer it turns out, this sartorial touch is a bit suspicious. I mean if Ugly Betty is wearing the same thing, can it be historically correct? I doubt it. Makes me question the rest of the art direction on the movie, I have to admit. I am going to have to research 16th Century costume and jewelry in England to get a handle on it.

What am I to do? Abandon the three pearl drops?

What dear reader do you think?

Gallery is open!

2008-11-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

Here is the building again, this evening, as I first took the brown paper off, and drew up the shade. And I had my first visitors a little after I took this shot, a very nice and attractive family from Williamstown visiting Hudson for the evening. They enjoyed the art, which is great, and the reason for having the gallery.
A closer look showing the view into the gallery through the red door.
And here is inside the door. I will have to reshoot this all during a bright day, the color is all off, but you get the idea, lots of sculpture, dramatic lighting, and display cases.
Another view, different angle.
View from the rear of the gallery looking towards the door.
Here is a large oak and glass display cabinet I found, housing an assortment of antiquities from Chinese jades to pre-Columbian terracottas. It works very well, and keeps them out of harms way.
And here is one of the displays I had made for the gallery, this one with archaic Chinese jades and bronzes. They work well, really allowing me to highlight the pieces.

Now that I am open, I hope you will come take a look when you get to Hudson. The address again is 307 Warren St., hours will be Thursday through Monday, 11am to 6pm, closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

I am going to have a gallery again!

2008-10-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I last contributed to my blog, one sort of loses steam after awhile. But big news, I am about to open a gallery, after many years of not having one and doing real estate here in Hudson. I have been thinking of getting back to art and making jewelry. After all, what gifts do I have which are unique to me; not selling houses, as good as I am at that. Every housewife got their license in the past few years, so being in real estate was hardly special. My knowledge of arcane areas of art and the jewelry I make are however special and rare, although perhaps not every ones taste. So I put my house on the market and someone came along who wanted it, and who owned a building on Hudson's main street, Warren St., and who offered to trade it for my house. I immediately said yes, the building at 307 Warren is a charming two story building with a large open storefront with great windows, and a decent, very livable apartment above. It needed work but minor things for the most part such as paint, some work in kitchens and baths, but nothing major and all easily done. So we did the trade and I am in my new place, but not open yet. That will take a few weeks more, getting the lighting and displays in order, etc.

Here is a view of my new building and home, 307 Warren Street, near all the restaurants and next to the local Chinese restaurant, The Red Chop Stick! You can buy archaic Chinese jades and take out dinner right next to each other.
Here is a closer, better view of the new store front with a few pieces in it. 307 Warren has great windows, a great show place for furniture and objects. It is large enough for me to do a mix of things, from the jewelry which doesn't need much space, to sculptures, antiquities and perhaps even some antiques. For me it is like having my parlors on the street, my collection is my inventory, and now people can see what I have gathered over the years. I do look forward to being able to share it with people.
So keep an eye out, I will post as I get completed and give you a look inside. This will give you an excuse to come visit Hudson and see the gallery and the other interesting shops and galleries in Hudson.

A new purchase; the She Bear

2008-05-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

I usually post about places I go and what I see, however, I do buy objects from time to time, and am going to post about them as well, when so moved. I am moved at the moment by one of my latest purchases, a small white jade carving of a bear with pendulous human breasts. While a strange subject, the carving is compelling, it is an intense concentrated work of art.

Standing just under two inches (48 mm) high, it is quite small, but incredibly finely carved with great attention to detail. The fur ruffs on the limbs and edge of jaw are incised with fine lines, the teeth are individually carved and even the tongue is freed, reaching from the bottom of the mouth to touch the palate in a fierce open expression. Most strange are the breasts, which are pushed together between its paws, as if being presented. Interestingly the piece is drilled through from the top of the head through its bottom, and may have been worn as a bead or ornament. It may have been a sleeve weight, fingered by a dignitary during long meetings.

Just what is going on here, and how to date this piece. I purchased it from a dealer in the City, Spencer Throckmorton, who told me he had it looked at by the current Chinese jade expert, Gu Fang, who gave it a Ching Dynasty date which would make it 18th Century at the earliest. There is no real scientific way to establish age of jade, but certain things about this, aside from its style of carving, conflict with that late date. There are traces of burial encrustation in the mouth, in the hole drilled through it. This makes no sense for such a late date, it would have been unlikely to have been buried, and to develop encrustation that adheres to an impermeable surface like jade takes a very long time. However for me, it is the style that argues most strongly for an earlier dating; this is a superb example of Eastern Chou through early Han Dynasty carving, say 500 to 200 or so B.C.

There are a number of other jade bears that share many features with this one, from the round eyes, to incised ruffs of fur, form, finish and scale. Two have been illustrated in catalogues of shows at Throckmorton Fine Arts, Enduring Art of Jade Age China, 2001, by Elisabeth Childs-Johnson, and its successor volume, Enduring Art of Jade Age China, Volume II, also by Childs-Johnson, NY, 2002. In the first volume number 50, is a Mythical Squatting bear, which while more elaborated than this, is somewhat comparable, and in the second volume, number 45 is titled a Performing Bear, which has the same one leg, one leg back stance as mine.
The text explains this piece: "The emergence of the bear as a popular image in Warring States and Han times may be associated with the emergent popularity of the legend of Chiyu, the God of War, who was envisioned as a human in the disguise of a bear skin wielding weapons.... and with the Impersonator of the Bear celebrated in the Zhou Li, or Rites of Zhou, who exorcised pestilence during the Great Exorcism rite, on the eve.... that inaugurated the New Year."

The deciding factor in dating this piece for me is its fierceness; this is no trifle, no mere trinket, this is a emphatic depiction of a transformational state. What we have here is a female shaman, transformed into a She Bear, presenting her human breasts to prove her human origin. She is in an ecstatic state, with the power to protect herself and commune with the spirits of the dead and formative powers. We know from the few cultures today in Korea and Mongolia, which are still shamanic, that female shamans are not uncommon, we know very little about this aspect of ancient China, but there is no reason to think it different then. The artist who carved this must themselves have been in this altered state of reality to capture this vision in such a hard difficult material.

I love Archaic Chinese jades, and one reason I can buy them is that the scholarship is so in flux. I am quite comfortable buying a piece which the experts will not endorse, as I have faith that scholarship will catch up. With Chinese art, I have seen this happen before, where objects coming out are at first disbelieved, but now are acknowledged as genuine. But one must be able to see for themselves, to take this type of risk, and as well, be willing to live with a mistake. This jade bear is one of the finest little things I own, and I look forward to continuing to research it, and find parallels for it.

Asia Week this year, 2008

2008-03-19T18:52:00.000-07:00

One of a pair of spectacular handles from a tomb.
Bronze, inlaid with silver and gold, these date to the Eastern Chou Period,
ca. 500-700 B.C. Apr. 10 inches in total length.
Chystian Deydier, Paris.

Unfortunately at many of the exhibitions of Asia Week, I was not allowed to take my own photographs, and nowhere on the web were others available. This was one of the only ones I could crib from the web, a detail of a pair of beautiful pull handles from the Eastern Chou Dynasty. Probably from the ends of a lacquered wood coffin, this is of bronze inlaid with silver and gold, and of beautiful design. At his boot in the Asian Fair, no longer at the Armory on 67th and Park, this year it was held at a church at 583 Park Ave. Strange quarters for this type of fair, Christian Deydier's booth made up for the oddness with some spectacular objects. My favorite of his offerings was a bronze mirror with a back inlaid with gold and silver in an intertwined dragon design reminiscent of the Book of Kells. Sadly, I cannot illustrate it here, no photographs allowed, and none available online.

Of course the best exhibitions belonged to Gisele Croese, at Nora Haime Gallery at 32 E. 57th St., my old building, the Fuller building, and Carlton Rochelle, also in the same building. Sadly, nothing on the web to illustrate the wonders on exhibit, and no photography. However, Gisele did publish a catalogue, from which I have cribbed images of the best object I saw this week; a nearly three foot tall bronze stand, of which I could only capture the top and a detail of the base. Suffice it to say the entire piece is breathtakingly beautiful, really psychedelic imagery in bronze, gold, and silver inlay. Let the pictures speak:

This is the top of the stand, which dates to the Late Warring States Period, about 400 BC.
Such stands could have held incense burners, or a drum, hard to know, but in this case it is in the form of three dragon heads, coming from a common stem. So amazingly fierce, and the supports above their heads, like elk horns.

Here is a detail of the base, like a trumpet end, only sitting on the ground, inlaid in silver with these fantastic dragons intertwined, again like the book of Kells. Stupendous example of Warring States imagery; a culmination of the Animal Style, the best of the best in craftsmanship and imagery.

I do not know how Gisele does it year after year, but she does; the best and most beautiful Archaic Chinese objects on the market.

On a different note, Rossi & Rossi from London at Neuhoff Gallery in the Fuller building again, had an incredible exhibit of Tibetan Tantric carpets. Amazing imagery, below is a tamer example of one of them. Others had naked aesthetics flayed with pudenda hanging down, others of flayed bodies with organs and bones scattered about, really amazing images. It is a type of carpet that one rarely sees more than one of at a time, and there were over a dozen on display.

Here is one of the carpets, a elephant tiger hybrid, flayed and spread out for the aesthetic to pray on. Peaceful, isn't it?

Rubin Museum of Art

2008-03-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

A favorite stop of mine when I go to Chelsea is this relatively new museum, located in the old Barney's building at the corner of 17th Street and Seventh Avenue. It is an imaginative reuse for a familiar place, I lived across the the street at 16th and Seventh, so I knew the Barney's store well. The spiral staircase of the women's section now serves like a downtown Guggenheim, for conveying one between the floors of exhibition space. It is beautifully done, the exhibitions and collections well displayed and lit. However, the organization of the collections and the labeling I find strange. For in fact this is not so much an art museum, as an educational institution whose mission is to bring Himalayan art and Buddhist religion to the west. As such the labels are less concerned with the work of art as what it depicts, and some of it is silly. For example, the floor with my favorite pieces in the museum is in sections labeled; Where is it made?; Why is it made?; How is it made?...etc. It is as if it was geared to kindergarten students, rather than people interested in art. What redeems it though is the quality and beauty of much of the art, and the beautiful installation and display of the objects. Below is a selection of some of my favorite pieces.

Statue of Maitreya.
Gandharan, ca. 3rd -4th Century A.D.
Grey schist.

This beautiful statue is a very fine example of Gandharan art, which comes from the part of the Kushan kingdom that had been conquered by Alexander the Great, and retained ties to the Western world and showed the influence of Greek and Roman art in its own style. Maitreya is the Buddha of the future, and here is depicted as a Bodhisattva, thus the jewels and rich clothing and adornment. You can always recognize him by several attributes, a small jar of water in one hand and the jewels he wears, often with large bracelets worn on the upper arms and sometimes only shown as a shape under his robe as here on his left covered shoulder.

another view of the Maitreya statue.

Here you can get a better view of the Maitreya showing the muscled torso, and sensuous treatment of this beautiful figure; he really is quite sexy here.

Statue of a Bodhisattva.
Tibetan, 14th to 15th Century.
Gilt bronze, apr. 36 inches tall.

This poignant sculpture is in gilt bronze, about half life sized, and is heavily damaged with limbs ripped off, bullet marks and holes, and appears generally abused; and yet despite these damages there is a peaceful tranquility that it radiates and a triumphant beauty. It comes from a monastery in that was destroyed by the Chinese army in the 1950's. There are many fragments from these monasteries on the art market, and in museums in the West, this is one of the largest figures I have seen, and one of the most beautiful and moving of them.

Upper part of a statuette of the Buddha Sakyamuni.
I believe it to be Indian, from the Kasmir region, 8th Century A.D.
Bronze, height apr. 12 inches.

Terrible photo of the complete figure above, I could not get a good one, and no better image
is available online. But just for those who need to see the complete figure, I am posting this.

This beautiful bronze statuette depicts the enlightened Buddha, freed of earthly desires and possessions, dressed simply and without adornment in a simple monks robe, distinguished however from mortals by the ushnisha, the bun on top of his head, and here his webbed fingers and unnatural proportions; his hands reach to his knees for example. All of this is specific to the Buddha, and deliberate, not a stylistic fault on the part of the artist. The long sweeping eyes that go right off the sides of his head are a feature of Kashmir, and Swat Valley art, and the treatment of the shallow folds of the robe and the way it clings tightly to the body dates this piece to the earliest period where the Buddha was given human form. However the label in the museum dates it much later, and I simply do not agree with it. I think this may be one of the rarest and most important objects in the museum, which is not being adequately recognized by the institution.

This mislabeling in the museum makes me question the quality of the art, there are many great works that I admire in the museum and three of them are featured here; I know these to be good examples of their kind; however the misunderstanding of this last piece and the emphasise in the labels on teaching about Buddhism rather than the art work in front of one makes me wonder about the works I understand less; are they any good? Are they good of kind, and are they correctly labeled? I wish more emphasis was given to the artworks and educating the public about them, as well as what they depict.

The Rubin Museum is always worth a visit and they have thematic exhibitions that change several times a year. After a day of seeing contemporary art in Chelsea it is a welcome respite for the eyes and soul.

Mount Holyoke College Art Museum

2008-01-30T15:15:00.000-08:00

Thomas Charles Farrer (British, 1839-1892)
Mount Holyoke, oil on canvas, 1865.

My youngest brother is now living in Holyoke Mass, about an hour and a half from my home in Hudson, so I am exploring the very fine small college museums there. That area, Northampton, Easthampton, Holyoke, Springfield, has a number of colleges and a few good small museums. I am looking forward to getting to know more about them and the area. I am starting with the Mt. Holyoke College Art Museum, which has a small but very satisfying collection. Above is a view of Mt. Holyoke painted by a British painter, and it captures the beauty of the landscape in that area. I happen to like this painting a lot, even though there are others of the same scene that are larger, as it reminds me of the luminist painters from the Hudson River School; it is remniscent of Kensett. And of course it is beautifully painted and polished in its execution.

Statuette of a Youth, Greek, early Classical, ca 470 B.C.
Bronze, cast and incised, Height: 9 inches.

This bronze statuette is the star of the collection in my eyes, I have known it since my early days of learning about ancient art; it has been included in a number of important exhibitions of ancient Greek bronzes and published many times. It is a Severe Period Greek statuette, a short moment between Archaic and Classical that lasted maybe 50 years, if that. It is characturized by the serious mein of the figure, and simplicity and severity of ornament, the way the garments drape, etc. So while a modest object in size, this bronze is very rare and quite important.

Head of a woman, Greek, Late Hellenistic, ca 200 B.C.
Marble, Height: apr 8 inches.

I could not this charming ideal head, typical in the soft carving and idealistic treatment of original Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period. It is from a statue made of parts, the head and possibly the hands an feet being carved of high grade white marble, the body in limestone or lower grade marble. This is typical of sculpture from South Italy where marble was imported, they used it sparingly. You can tell this by the cut off at the neck, which was shaped to fit into a socket in the body, usually draped torso, with the drapery hiding the join. It is hard to know who is depicted, it could be a goddess, or a royal figure, the filet she wears in her hair was reserved for royalty, or gods.

Ideal head of a Woman, Ellie Nadelman, ca. 1910-1911
White marble, about 20 inches tall.

Ellie Nadelman is one of my favorite American sculptures. He was active in the first part of the 20th Century living from 1882-1946. He is best known for his wood figures of men and women, a few of which are at the Metropolitan Museum, but he did a series of ideal heads, and it follows on the Greek head I feature before. He was looking to classical antiquity for his inspiration and yet enfused this ideal type with the spirit of his age, the sharpness of the nose here, the small closed mouth, are very much the ideal of his time, not that of antiquity. But the softness of the carving with smooth transitions is very much like that of Greek sculpture.

The Holy Family, School of Joos van Cleve (Flemish, 1485-1540)
Oil on Canvas.

I thought this one of the most beautiful things I saw at the Holyoke College Museum. I always like Flemish Renaissance paintings, and this is a beautiful example, it is exquisitely painted with incredible detail, it has a sense of vista, you have the gorgeous cloth of honor behind Mary, and the view of houses, cliffs, water and mountains beyond. And like so many Flemish paintings the iconography is a bit mysterious, what is the man doing, he looks like he is feeding baby Jesus porridge. Perhaps he is. Given the splendor of Mary's raimnent, Joseph looks out of place, like a poor priest. It is a very satisfying gem of a painting, on loan to the museum; I hope it is gifted to them, it really adds to the collection.

Hetch Hetchy Canyon, by Albert Bierstadt, 1875
oil on canvas.

This beautiful luminist painting is a gem of a Bierstadt, it has the qualities of his best works, and is of a respectable size, in other words, it is a really good example of his work. Being one of Americas greatest lanscape painters, he was the heir to Thomas Cole and Church, and while he painted mostly in the West, he can be considered a member of the Hudson River School of painters. This is a view of a canyon quite close to the Yosemite, one of his favorite places to paint. I googled Hetch Hetchy Canyon and found out that this painting marked the founding of Mt. Holyoke College Museum of Art, it was purchased a year after it was painted. It shows vision on the part of the donors, a Mrs. A.L. Williston and Mrs. E. H. Sawyer. I also learned that this canyon was dammed up to provide water to San Fransisco, and that there is a group arguing for the restoration of the canyon to its natural state. It was described by John Muir, "Hetch Hetchy Valley is a grand lanscape garden, one of Nature's rarest and most precious mountain temples."

There are many other notable works at this very fine small museum, and if you are in that part of Massachusetts, you owe yourself a trip to it.

Montreal MFA, and decorative arts

2008-01-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

view of the decorative arts galleries at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

One thing I really enjoyed about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, was its emphasise on objects, from ancient, to African to 20th Century design. While not a huge museum or collections, they really make an effort to be inclusive of all expressions of design and art. For anyone planning a trip to Montreal, the Museum of Fine Arts is a must see for lots of reasons, this being just another one.
Here is another view of the decorative arts galleries.

Another view of the galleries, showing my personal favorite, not necessarily the prettiest of the bunch, but close to my heart; the original Macintosh computer at the top, ca. 1984. Having become a Mac convert in the past four years now, I love my mac, and enjoyed seeing the original one. I remember them when they came out, computers in general were sort of exotic and Macintosh computers stood out for their simplicity of design and utility, and of course, the graphic interface, which we now take for granted on every platform.

The Artemis again

2008-01-22T15:07:00.000-08:00

After that spectacular sale at Sotheby's this last summer, the bronze statue of Artemis de-accessioned by the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY, has reappeared; at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, on loan anonymously. I was quite happy to see her again, on my own home turf, rather than having to travel to see her. Still no real clue as to who bought her and now owns her, but at least she is available to the public. There is a difference seeing something at a museum rather than at an auction house; here she was in the company of many other great things, and still she stands out as something noteworthy and special.
I look forward to getting to know her better by repeated viewings, which is how I see things best.

Strangest thing I saw at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

2008-01-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

Old Enemy, New Victim, by Tony Matalli, 2006
Latex resin, hair.

This has to be a mistake, I find it hard to believe that this museum feels the need, like so many today, to buy bad contemporary art. This sculpture is so weird, extremely well made, very naturalistic in a Madam Tussauds sort of way. I mean at least there is skill and craft involved, but to what end? What a stupid obvious allegory, the skinny chimp strangling the fat one; compelling visually, but just too trite. But perhaps my strong reaction is in part because this is exactly how I feel when going to Walmart; it is all I can do to keep myself from wringing the necks of the obese people there! (Just kidding, like I'm so skinny myself.)

One good thing is the installation, rather than being safely quarantined with other terrible contemporary art, it is in a gallery full of beautiful paintings, and is a strange but very interesting, juxtaposition.

African Art and the Cirque du Soleil

2008-01-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Ceremonial mask from the Lower Zaire Region in the Congo, Vili-Yombe tribe, 19th-20th Century.
Wood, pigments and animal skin.
Collection of Cirque du Soleil.

Unexpectedly, on exploring the wonderful Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, I came across a superb small exhibit of African art culled from the collection of the museum, with additions from other collections in Montreal, many of them from the Cirque de Soleil collection. While not an obvious connection, when you look at the sculptures, you can see how they had influenced the imagery that Cirque employs.

I love the Cirque de Soleil, I first saw one of their shows in NYC, years ago, and have vivid memories of it, and made a point of going to Saltimbanco while I was in Montreal. It is wonderful entertainment, with music, movement, incredible acrobatics with terrifying high wire acts and juggling, percussion artists. And beautiful visuals, including two male acrobats who use each other as props to do these amazing positions, erotic and beautiful at the same time. So to see the art that inspired much of the imagery in the show was great. I have enormous respect for Guy Laliberte, who founded Cirque and remains very involved in it. He started buying museum quality works about ten years ago, many from old historic collections, and the pieces are exquisitely beautiful. He loaned 36 objects from his collection to this installation with other objects from the Redpath Museum, which is affiliated with McGill University, and the balance from the Montreal Museum's own collection.

Ceremonial mask, Mbuya, Congo, Tshikopa region, Wester Pende.
19-20th Century, Wood, pigment, and black cords.
Collection of Cirque du Soleil.

Dance Mask: Mwana Pwo
Southern Kasai region, the Congo, Chokwe tribe.
19th - 20th Century, Wood, vegetable fibres, pigments.
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

With these galleries of African Art, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts adds depth to the experience of their museum, it is wonderful be able to see such a range of art, the people of Montreal are lucky to have this visual resource to go to. Visit their website for more information on this exhibition and the museum: www.mmfa.qc.ca

Montreal

2007-12-31T14:02:00.000-08:00

Graffiti on the side of a building on St. Catherine St.
I was taken by the scale of the image, against the relatively human scale of the buildings that typify Montreal, which is much more human scale than NYC.

After visiting my family for Christmas in Vermont, I thought I would take myself on a little vacation to Montreal, since I was two thirds of the way there; that is how far North my family is. I went to Montreal for the first time last summer for just two nights, and totally enjoyed it; of course the main attraction are the gay strip bars, which are unlike anything in the States. There I worship before the altar of another sort of beauty, than usually reviewed in these pages.
But in addition to the wonderful freedom Montreal offers, it also has some really good art to be seen. I have only begun to explore the art there, focusing mainly on the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which is pretty big, and has allot to see. But there is also a good Museum of Contemporary Art, and the McCord Museum, devoted to the history of Montreal, and others such as the Redpath Museum at McGill University which was not open and which I have not seen yet. In addition I understand there is something of a gallery scene, but being the holidays, none were open. So I have more to see on future trips.

Berri UQAM subway station, which has a beautiful back lit stained glass window over the tracks, and the enormous scale of the Ipod ad somehow seemed more art like than ad like in this setting. The subway in Montreal is clean, attractive, easy and a pleasure to use.

But enough of street art, after doing the obligatory shopping, which is great there and doing some damage, I made my way to the Museum of Fine Arts.

This is the old section, built in 1879, the first building in Canada specifically built to house art. Interestingly much of Montreal's history echoes that of New York City, the Metropolitan was established in 1870, the Montreal Museum was started in 1860, so around the same time. However, this museum is much smaller than the Met, as is the city.
This is a view of the Gilded Bronzes of Cartoceto di Pergola, and amazingly, this is the first time they have been displayed outside Italy. Belonging to the class of gilt bronze statues that the Marcus Aurelius of the Capitoline and the Horses of San Marco belong to, these statues, fragmentary as they may be, are rare survivors. For me they are a bit crude, the details and quality of the work is not fine, but workmanlike, although at a distance they are quite effective and splendid. It reminds one of two things, ancient art varies in quality, and that it was made for specific functions which were more important than their aesthetic appeal. These sculptures honor a family, there are two draped female figures and a man mounted on a horse, who they are is unknown at this time. While of high rank their quality indicates they were not imperial; even so a statue was a very important honor to have been granted, giving them a life into eternity.

Here are the two Roman portraits in the museum, both actually quite good. The forward one is identified in the label as being of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, or Caius Cassius Longinus, dating to the First Century A.D. It is a type which is known from other copies, two of which are in the Louvre, so the person depicted, whether or not it is the two identified, was a man of very high rank to have commanded multiple images of himself. This one is of really beautiful quality and is very well preserved, intact as far it exists with all its features, including the nose, which is usually damaged. The rear portrait is identified as the young Emperor Severus Alexander, dating to 222-235 AD. Again a very fine and well preserved portrait, and of an attractive subject so appealing on a number of levels. So while not rich in Classical art, at least the Montreal Museum has managed to get some good pieces.

Relief from the Temple of Isis at Behbeit El-Hagar, Egyptian, XXX Dynasty, ca. 378-341 B.C.
Carved of Granite. The scene depicted is Nectanebo II making an offering to a god.

Detail of relief above showing the god receiving the offering. Note the superb quality of this relief.

This relief is of beautiful quality, while in very low relief, every detail has been carved, and the style is that smooth ideal style of the Ptolemaic period and later. The temple that this relief comes from is well known an antiquarian circles as fragments from it come up for sale occasionally and in 2004 one of them was for sale at Christies and returned to the Egyptian government when they were able to prove it had been taken from the site in the 1990's. It was a large temple, dating to the Ptolemaic Period, and this relief is from the Persian Period just before the Ptolemy's. I believe the Met has a relief from this temple.

Statue of Vishnu, South Indian, Chola Period, ca. 1200 A.D., in grey granite.

Keeping to the sculpture part of the tour, I was struck by this beautiful Chola sculpture. My eyes have been opened to the quality of Chola stone sculpture after seeing the glorious Shiva from the Albright Knox sold at Sotheby's, so I note them where-ever I see them. Typical of Chola stone sculpture is the soft carving style, which looks as if it were pecked out of the hard granite with a rounded chisel or a hard pebble, with very little surface polish, unlike the hard precision of Egyptian stone carving. Even so, all the important details of jewelry and raiment are successfully indicated to convey a richness, and the surfaces appear that they would be soft and smooth to the touch, even though not polished. (Sadly I have never touched a Chola stone statue, I need to do so at some point. I have Egyptian statues, and I can testify to their smoothly polished surfaces.) While a modest example of Chola sculpture it is of quite high quality and is a very good example of its culture and time.

L'apotheose de Napoleon. Workshop of Thorvaldsen, Danish, ca. 1830, marble.
on loan from the collection of Huguette and Ben Weilder.

This amazing bust, by one of the greatest sculptors of the Neo-Classical age, depicts the French hero, General and Emperor of what he hoped would be the new Roman Empire, become a god. In the frontal view Napoleon is supported by an eagle, the symbol of Zeus, and he wears over his shoulder the aegis, also symbolic of Zeus/Jupiter and only worn by Roman Emperors when they became gods after death. The crown of laurel leaves completes the Classical references. But what most strikes me about this bust, is the treatment of the back, which has been fully finished with a carving of a date palm tree in relief, a clear reference to Napoleon's conquest of Egypt. The back of busts is always a problem, often they are left unfinished and roughly blocked out, sometimes they are smooth and polished, almost never are they carved. In this piece it is an important part of the sculpture so this bust was intended to be seen in the round.

The Napoleon Bust is in a wonderful exhibit All for Art! Our Great Private Collectors Share their Works. Culled from seventy collectors who live in or have a connection to Montreal, it is a wonderful selection across a broad range of art, from ancient to contemporary. This piece comes from collectors who seem to focus on Napoleonic art, judging from this and other pieces in the exhibition. Seeing them made me sad for the hubris that destroyed Napoleon, he really was a great ruler in some ways and energized the arts, and design. If only he had done what he did best, which was to bring France into the Modern world. Who knows, if he had not over reached, and was able to stay in power, perhaps he would have brought back the Gods of Antiquity, he certainly seemed to understand the pagan spirit.

This is it for this post, I will do more on what I saw in Montreal, it was allot.

Chelsea Galleries, December 2007

2007-12-23T14:45:00.000-08:00

Again hardly a comprehensive tour, just a few highlights.

Yan Lei, Color Wheel, 2006, acrylic on canvas.
Robert Miller Gallery

Yan Lei is a Chinese artist, and since Chinese art is all the rage, I guess every gallery now needs to feature some. The show as a whole is strange and disconnected to me, but I enjoy these color wheel paintings, which are truly hallucinogenic, the next images will make that more evident:

Here is another one of the color wheel paintings. As you approach the paintings, because they are quite large, nearly ten feet square, your eyes do strange things, and I felt like I was looking through a fog, my eyes felt as if they lost their focus. In fact, the paintings are sort of blurred, the boundaries between the different color rings are not distinct, and blend into each other. The effect was a little alarming, and my friend Charlene took a few minutes to get over it. Whether this clever manipulative trick deserves credit as great art is a question, but at least it is something I have not seen or encountered before.

Pat Steir, Sunspots II, 2007
Oil on canvas, 127 x 109 inches.

Probably my favorite show this past tour was that of Pat Steir at Cheim and Reid Gallery. I have known her work since I worked at Robert Miller in the 1980's, and still like her work. The latest group belongs to her waterfall and drip series which she started then, and has been perfecting over the years. Many of the paintings in the exhibition are black, grey and white, but my two favorite were the tarnished bronze, above, and the orange fall painting.

Installation view taken from the gallery website showing Pat Steir's, PINK, 2007
oil on canvas, again 127 x 109 inches.

This painting is impressive as well, but only as you approach closer do you see the real depth of Steir's technique, the surface sort of dissolves into fractal elements, that seem almost infinite in depth. Somehow she got the paint to run down the canvas but like oil and water, not mix but form complicated drips. I know it sounds simple, but the effect is really beautiful and so controlled over such a large surface that it is a profound effect. It appears like a view of a landscape from a great distance above.

This detail taken from about four feet, gives some idea of the complex patterns formed by the drip.

There are other good shows but nothing that really stood out for me this past trip, other than the pit and chocolate Santa in the former post. Below this tableau did strike me:

view of exhibition of Charles Ray: New Works at Matthew Marks, showing Father Figure (the truck), New Beetle (the white boy), and Chicken (on pedestal)

This shot is of Matthew Marks Gallery space on W. 22nd Street, one of the City's most beautiful gallery spaces, in whose immense white void a mere three sculptures are placed, a huge tonka toy farm truck and driver, a sappy cute boy in white playing with a toy car, and on the pedestal a egg hatching. When I went into the gallery all I could think was what a waste of space, and dismissed the exhibition as so much self pretentious dreck. What does it all mean? I hate the exaltation of the banal, although the hatching egg did have a certain fascination for me I have to admit. Only on reading the review did I realize that these works are tours de force, the truck is eighteen-and-a-half tons of stainless steel, painted. It is eight feet tall and ten feet long. That is allot of expensive material for such a meaningless object. So I have new found respect for the sheer extravagance of the materials the skill exhibited in the exquisitely detailed hatching chicken egg commands my respect. However, I do not think the work is consistent, I don't know what one has to do with the other, nor do I think this work will age well; it will be meaningless in decades hence, as incomprehensible in the future as it is to me now.

Best window in Hudson this holiday

2007-12-23T14:28:00.001-08:00

Windows of Mark McDonald's Gallery
555 Warren Street, Hudson

This extraordinary stained glass window is featured for the Holidays and I think it is just beautiful. It comes from a Miami Beach hotel, The Caribbean, designed by Murray Dixon in 1941, but who did the glass is unknown at this time. I love the waterlilies, which seem to be a favorite theme for artists, one just needs to think of Monet's which are so admired. Here we see them close up and gigantic, and I find them oddly peace inducing. Perhaps because they also are like the lotus, revered of the Egyptians and the Buddhists, as a symbol of spiritual transformation, the roots in the muck, the flower reaching for the heavens. Pretty exalted stuff for a tourist hotel, which just goes to show, great art can often be found where design is.

The Pit, and the Chocolate Santa

2007-12-19T15:18:00.000-08:00

my intrepid friend Charlene descending into the Pit, an installation at Gavin Brown's Enterprise in NYC

Like all New Yorkers, I read reviews, and this caught my eye, Holland Cotter's review of the artist Urs Fischer at Gavin Brown's Enterprise. Here I will quote a bit:

"The piece, titled "You", calls up many references from the past and the present: from Michael Heizer's earthworks to Chris Burden''s institutional underminings to Monica Bonvicini's simulations of the same. .......(it goes on and on about obscure references)....You have to stoop - an implicitly humbling posture - to enter and exit, as if at the door of a shrine or a tomb, and only one person can pass through at a time."

Intriguing I thought, I like tombs and shrines, I want to see this. What also impressed me was another review, I think it might have been on NPR, but not sure, that stated that it cost $250,000., to excavate that pit, and then of course it will be filled and cemented over again after the show. This is extravagance, a flagrant throwing of money away, tossing it into dumpsters, just to show that you can do it. While I love extravagance, I don't like waste, but wanted to see this for myself.

It is quite impressive, the small opening in the otherwise perfect gallery wall, and the pit has a kind of desert beauty, like some excavation in Egypt. It is intriguing and it would have been enough to simply look at from the entrance, but no, my friend Charlene quickly hopped down and made her way gingerly into it. I followed of course. It is impressive, but I think I can get this experience out in nature better. Also it smelled of dry dust, somewhat chockingly so.

It is certainly a concept, but would just remain that without the money that dug it, in a space in Manhattan. I cannot say I get this type of art particularly, or really care to, there is something disturbing about the casual destruction it entailed.

On a humorous note, we then quickly made our way up to Maccarone Gallery up the street, which has a huge installation piece that also demonstrates the tremendous resources being poured into contemporary art. It is a piece by Paul McCarthy, a complete chocolate factory in the gallery space churning out high quality chocolate figures of Santa, holding a butt plug as if it were a Christmas tree. It is pretty impressive, a complete fully functioning and staffed factory working making 1000 of them a day, and open 7 days a week to take orders. At just $100. a Santa, it is a relative bargain in the art world, although it really is best eaten.

The Santa's, hundreds of them, all lined up.

Cute, and at least produces something that can be consumed, and saved should you wish. Although they do tell you that it only keeps about a year. I am sure in some museum somewhere will be a nitrogen atmosphere glass case preserving one for perpetuity in case anyone cares in years hence.

Here they are all packed up, and carefully labeled, "Chocolate Santa and Butt Plug", in case you had forgotten. You could just put a toy in, close it up, re attach the label, keep it and sell it at an auction house in future years, who would know? Eat the Santa, it is good chocolate, we tried the samples they had available.

the New Museum on the Bowery

2007-12-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

By now everyone has heard of the New Museum, which just opened to the public, down on the Bowery. Watch out, this will be the next hot neighborhood, at least that is what is predicted by many. The building is odd, a stack of boxes off center, they look like they could topple. The skin of the building is in fact a metal mesh of large proportions, much like the mesh that plaster is put on, but much larger and of aluminum or steel. It does not read in the photos, but inside, looking out you can see the edges where they cut openings in it over the windows. Not sure what the mesh is supposed to do, but it is an interesting surface. Inside the museum, which officially has 60,000. sq. feet, does not feel that large. Each box is not particularly big, and you take an elevator up to the top gallery space and we walked down the stairs. I was not permitted to take photos inside, which is a shame, some of the spaces are beautiful, there is one stairway in particular that is dramatic and a beautiful space.

Another view showing more of the tower of boxes.

As for the art. Not much to say, a lot of old rags tied together it seems, one looking much like another, not a single well made or beautiful work in the entire exhibition. It reminds me of Whitney Biennials past, the ones that depressed me to go to. No surprise, Lisa Philips is the new director of the New Museum, she was formerly director of the Whitney. Compared to what is going on in the galleries in Chelsea this art seems tired and dated, and thank god craft, beauty, technique are back in vogue.

Below are some of the pieces on their website for a flavor of what is on view.

This piece is titled Elephant, 2006 and is by Isa Genzken.

This is by Shinique Smith, Split Endz (wig mix), 2005.

Pictures are worth a thousand words. What did I tell you, piles of rags tied up in different ways, by different artists. I don't have the patience to read what the artist is trying to say, I am sure something deep and profound; the object at hand is completely uninteresting to me. I for one like to look at art, not read about it.

Certainly one should go see for ones self, and see the building.

Their website is: http://www.newmuseum.org

Highlights of the Hood Museum at Dartmouth

2007-12-13T13:10:00.001-08:00

While we often think of America as being art poor when compared to Europe, there is actually quite a lot of good art tucked away in unexpected places. Small fine colleges frequently have very good museums, and Dartmouth has one that measures up to its high academic reputation. While not large, it is a satisfying museum with some very wonderful art. While the approach, above, is not very welcoming, inside it has great exhibition spaces.

At the entrance to the exhibition galleries I found this very curious juxtaposition, an abstract form of a black glazed vessel in front of the greatest treasure of the museum, the Assyrian relief panels. While at first I thought this vessel must be ancient it turns out to be a pot by a Kenyan born artist Magdalene Odundo. Currently living in England she is a professor of ceramics at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design University College in Farnham. No surprise, her work is inspired by ancient vessels and are so difficult to make, according to the information on the Dartmouth website, that she completes only a few each year. (This is the second ceramic artist I have stumbled across whose work is so laborious, an earlier post on a Chelsea tour featured the work of Eva Hild, another ceramicist doing coil built objects that take months to make. )

View of four of the six gypsum relief panels from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal, king of the Assyrian Empire in the 9th Century B.C. According to the museum label, these panels were discovered as part of the palace complex at Nimrud Iraq, in 1845. About 55 of the panels were exported to the United States, most to colleges, Dartmouth was able to get these six, some of the finest of the bunch. Interestingly the original gypsum slabs were one foot thick, in order to make them easier to transport the slabs were reduced to three inch thickness and cut into manageable sections.

Detail of one of the panels showing the King. Here you can get a sense of the incredible quality of the carving and preservation of these reliefs; each strand of hair is carved individually as are the tassels of his garment, and the details of his jewelry and weapons. One could mine these reliefs for ideas for jewelry designs that would be suitable today.

This detail of the same relief above is intended to show that the garments were embroidered with mythological scenes, incised in the stone and probably filled in with color, now lost. It is the first time I have seen that level of detail on one of the Assyrian reliefs, and I have seen a lot of them, the Metropolitan has a great suite of them. This was the only panel in the Dartmouth group with this level of detail, but I will have to revisit and look more closely at the Met's and those in other museums when I come across them.

One of the lost art forms of antiquity were the textile arts, which simply do not survive because of the perishable nature of cloth. This panel and some other sculptures from antiquity give a hint that it was a major art form in antiquity, one we can only imagine since no great textiles survive. On this relief we see a hint of what they may have been like.

I could not resist this little charmer, a Mochica vessel dating to 200 to 500 A.D., depicting a sick man pooping into a bowl. Those ancients, they would depict anything. No shame at all. It is wonderful. I wonder however about what is being depicted, administering drugs by enemas up the rectum was a big thing in ancient America, could something to do with that be the real subject of this arresting sculpture? Or perhaps it depicted an illness with an apotropaic purpose.

I cannot resist a beautiful young man, and neither could Paul Cadmus, the painter of this small gem, dating to the 1930's of a handsome factory worker on Mallorca. Done in a painstaking detailed technique inspired by Old Master paintings, that became Cadmus's signature style.

I also cannot resist the amazing technique and beauty of Maxfield Parrish's paintings, and this one, Hunt Farm (Daybreak), painted in 1946 is a great example of his style. The deep azure of the sky seems infinitely deep with billowing clouds set in it, with beautiful loamy moss like green ground and trees. It depicts a real site in Windsor Vermont, although it is so idealized and hyper real as to appear imaginary. One can see here why Maxfield Parrish was one of his times most popular and oft reproduced American painters.

Medusa, 1854, marble bust by Harriet Goodhue Hosmer.

This overwrought bust depicts that favorite anti-heroin, Medusa as a beautiful woman with snakes decoratively entwined in her hair and under her bosom. Wings in her hair complete her attributes as the gorgon earth goddess slain by Perseus. Here she is sympathetically portrayed, as the young beauty turning into the monster she became. In the myth she was born beautiful, but was seduced by Poseidon disguised as a horse in one of Athena's temples. Angered, Athena turned the maiden into a fearsome creature. Interestingly her image changed over the centuries, in the Archaic Period she is truly horrific and fearful, later Roman images depict her as a beautiful woman with snakes in her hair, as one historian wrote, her face had the stillness of death. Whether beautiful or monstrous, her visage turned men into stone, even after death; Athena wore her head on her chest as part of her aegis, it protected her by turning her enemies into stone.

No one describes the transformation better than Roberto Calasso in his beautiful book, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. He is Ovid reborn, he retells the myths so poetically and sheds such insights into the meanings of the myths that this book should be required reading for anyone interested in antiquity. In his words:

On the floor of one of Athena's temples, Poseidon was licking Medusa's pearly body, white in the shadows, with his marine saliva. Athena stood before them, a statue in her cell, obliged to watch those two writhing bodies twining together in the silence of her temple....She raised the aegis to annihilate them....the soft filaments of Medusa's hair, spread out on the floor, began to swell, and already you could see that the tips were turning into so many snakes' heads.

The Hood Museum is worth a detour should you find yourself going near Hanover, New Hampshire.

Orozco at Dartmouth

2007-12-13T12:03:00.001-08:00

My stepfather Stan Yarian in front of the huge fresco murals by Orozco at the Baker Library at Dartmouth.
The section seen here is the Coming of Quetzalcoatl, who was the great bringer of civilization in Aztec mythology. Described in their myths as a white bearded man, he is the large central figure with the pyramid temples of Teotihuacan, and flanking him are images of the ancient Aztec gods.

When I went to see my mother in Vermont, I decided to go to Museums on the way, I did the Clark on trip there, and the Hood Museum at Dartmouth on the way back. The great discovery of the tour of Dartmouth were the incredible mural paintings by Jose Clemente Orozco: The Epic of American Civilization. Painted in 1932 and 1934 they are a huge ambitious series of fresco wall paintings on the history of the Americas from the Indian point of view. Daring for its time, this subversive native view was made possible by a tutorial fund set up by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, but the commission was initiated by the College itself.

The murals incorporate the architecture of the large reading room, and depict the origins of the great Meso-American civilizations, from the immigrations into the Valley of Mexico, the legend of the coming and going of their civilizing god Quetzalcoatl, to the coming of white men and the destruction of the world of the native civilizations. It is a dark take on the usual triumphant American story, highly critical of the world we have wrought. The colors and painting are vivid and beautiful, Orozco is very much of his time, his style reminds one of other painters of that period, Rivera, Marsden Hartley even Georgia O'Keefe. This is one of the great art treasures in America today, there are very few large scale murals in this country.

Dartmouth has a great website with allot of information on the murals for those wanting more information, and the murals are accessible to the public during the hours the Library is open.

click to see more about the Dartmouth Orozco Murals

The panel above depicts human sacrifice as practiced in Meso-America; the victim here is splayed over the altar and the chest cut and the heart ripped out. The perspective here is varied, the victim is seen from above, the attendant figures from the side. While the victim appears to be hung upside down, he is in the painting laid over the altar which forced the chest up for easier access by the priests. The ritual of human sacrifice fascinated me as a child, I delighted in describing its gruesome details to anyone who would listen, so of course I gravitated towards this panel.

The panel above is harder to interpret, but certainly appears to be an indictment of modern civilization and education. In the brochure on the murals published by Dartmouth this panel is titled, Gods of the Modern world. It goes on to say that this panel depicts modern institutional education with the skeletal academics presiding over the birth of useless knowledge here depicted as a skeleton fetus. Pretty grim, and scary imagery that could also be interpreted as an indictment of our so called progress, which the rest of mural makes clear his view that it was done through the destruction of nature and the native cultures and peoples of this hemisphere. I personally subscribe to this view so found these murals thrilling in their intensity and darkness.

Hudson Find

2007-12-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

I was walking down Warren Street the other day and passing the windows of Rural Residence, and looked in the window and saw a framed watercolor that caught my eye.

English or American, 1824, page from a Personal Journal.

Not usually my sort of thing as at first glance this appears sentimental, something about it grabs me. It is superbly well drawn and executed the flowers are identifiable, botanical in accuracy of depiction, the colors vibrant, and the penmanship of the poem is just beautiful. This anonymous page from a personal journal reaches across time to touch us now; there is something amazing about someone executing the exquisite watercolor and composing this poem for their own private pleasure, this was not distributed and who knows who may have ever seen it during the authors lifetime. The flowers are cut out and glued down on the fine paper the journal is on, so this is a sort of collage. I wonder if in fact the flowers come from a book or printed illustration of some sort. They look like watercolors but without really examining them closely, they could also be from a print.

And it could be yours it is for sale for a modest price. Rural Residence, 315 Warren St. Hudson, NY.

Most incredible thing I saw last week

2007-12-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

Bronze head of a sacred Bull.
Roman, ca 1st Century A.D.
from Octodurus, in Switzerland.

This monumental bronze head is nearly two feet tall at least, and is displayed on a very tall pedestal giving it real majesty. On loan to the Metropolitan Museum from the Gallo-Roman Museum in Martigne Switzerland, this is apparently the finest Roman bronze found in Switzerland. What strikes me about it is that it looks Near Eastern and hardly looks Roman, the treatment of the hair on the forehead is so spiky, each lock is a pyramid, almost flame like, in a stylized non naturalistic manner more akin to Persian or early archaic Greek sculpture than Roman. It apparently had a third horn in the center of the forehead, as a marker of its sacred nature, as if the sheer energy of the piece did not already make that plain. It really is a beautiful and arresting sculpture and wonderful to see.

What strikes one about this head is the sense of the sacred found in nature, which the Romans never lost. They may have created one of human kinds greatest civilizations, with immense cities and huge public works, but they never lost their connection and reverence for the natural. This bull is very much an animal, but also a god, a being to be worshiped. We often forget this about Classical civilization instead focusing on their buildings and complex social structures and fascinating history; but they never ceased to be nature worshipers. Of course all that ended with Christianity, the enemy of nature.

Critical Mass exhibition in Catskill, NY

2007-12-09T08:20:00.000-08:00

Patrick Terenchin in his gallery, on the wall are the Frank Faulkner drawings.

Ending this weekend is a small exhibition of pencil drawings by Frank Faulkner, a long time resident of this area who has redone many houses in Hudson and Catskill, and who has a shop/studio space now on Warren Street, Smoke and Mirrors. The venue for the show is a new gallery in Catskill, Terenchin Fine Art, which is a beautiful clean exhibition space on the North end of Main St.

Frank Faulkner is best known for abstract heavily textured paintings combining organic shapes, leaves, branches, with abstract elements. Very beautiful they remind one of a forest floor with leaves and branches embalmed in bitumen. This current drawings are however a break from this in that they are of penises, not abstractions but closely observed and detailed drawings from life. Frank has been recruiting and drawing wee wees, as he calls them, for about two years now, building up a body of work that eventually may find their way into a book. He calls it serial imagery, the constant repetition of a form with many variations, which his paintings have always had. Of course there is a prurient element to the show and the process, which is part of the fun. I modeled for him, as have many men in the area, gay and straight, and it is an intimate, sexually charged experience, but no sex takes place, the artist is quite serious and intent on his work. For those who like penises, and that is most of the world, his show and the book will have a great deal of interest.

view of the Critical Mass exhibition, drawings by Frank Faulkner.

On Frank Faulkner's website and blogspot, is a description which says it best:

"Faulkner continues his interest in serial imagery concentrated on a specific form. Critical Mass takes this process to a new level by exploring the human figure and the human condition. In studio sessions using live models, the artist ignores the specificity of faces in favor of corresponding genitals: a body part useless for purposes of public identification. A readjustment and reevaluation of the tacit artist-model contract is required of the viewer. The images function as anti-portraits, concealing more than they reveal."

Link to his blog: http://smokeandmirrorsny.blogspot.com/

Link to his website: http://www.frankfaulkner.com/

Christies Sale results

2007-12-08T12:32:00.001-08:00

To be fair to the other premier auction house in the world, Christies, I will cover the results of this weeks sale. Christies had no great stars this time, unlike Sotheby's Guennol Goddess. The attendance after that spectacular sale the day before was sparse it was reported by an attendee, and the bidding anemic. However, even so, some pieces sold quite well, although there were some major disappointments.

Roman silver skyphos, two views. Lot 158, estimated $700,000. to $900,000. failed to sell.
In person the preservation of detail is not so good, it appears worn and unclear, even though the quality and complexity of the iconography indicates the highest level of production.

Primary amongst those was the failure of the Roman silver skyphos to sell. In the results you get online, if an object does not sell, is passed in auctioneer terms, its number simply is not there in the results. Judging by that, it did not sell, which given the high estimate, about one million dollars, must be a blow. Some other major lots failed to sell as well, including another silver piece below:

Roman silver platter, First Century A.D.
Estimated $300,000. - 500,000., failed to sell as well.
This piece is brilliantly well preserved with crisp details and a beautiful surface, it looks like it is only one hundred years old rather than the two thousand it really is. The failure of this to sell is harder for me to understand.

The two pieces above and the other items that did not sell in auctions illustrated the point that the high price realized by the Goddess does not translate to every antiquity.

Lest you think the Christies sales were a bust, there were some very good prices realized, below are a few highlights.

Mesopotamian Limestone Head, ca 2500 B.C.
At 4 1/2 inches high, this piece is monumental for its type, and nearly perfectly preserved with all its inlays. It must have come from a major sculpture, most of this period and culture are smaller. It was estimated at $150,000-250,000., and sold with the buyer premium for $241,000., a healthy price.

Egyptian Monumental Sandstone Head of Ramses II, ca. 1290 B.C.
my own photo, the Christies photos did not convey the drama of the piece.

Estimated at $400,000.-600,000. this sold for $517,000., including buyer premium. I was underwhelmed by the head from the photos online and in the catalogue, but in real life this is a majestic object, it is very well carved if damaged, and is just so big, it is over two feet tall, which does not seem like much until you are in its presence and you realize it is over twice life sized. It sold on the low end of its estimated range, but still respectably well.

Egyptian bronze scepter finial in the shape of the head of a jackal.
XIXth Dynasty, ca 1300 B.C., 4 1/2 inches high.

Again a piece I had hardly glanced at from the online photos, this in real life was a commanding if small object. I took my own photo because I found the ones Christies took did not capture the drama and impact of this little jackal head, probably the god Anubis. It was estimated at $80,000.-120,000., and sold for $229,000., again quite respectable and well over estimate.

The vulva gem illustrated in my earlier post on Christies also sold well for $27,400., it was estimated at just $1,000.-1,500. So obviously what drew my attention to it, did others willing to pay for it. The cover piece, the elaborate ring also in that prior post sold for $46,600., well over its $15,000.-20,000. estimate.

So all in all Christies realized the types of prices that the antiquities world is used to, healthy but not particularly noteworthy, no where near the values of Impressionist or Modern Masters or now even, contemporary art. The Guennol Goddess is a one of, until the next great antiquity in a public collection comes up for sale.

the Guennol Goddess sold.

2007-12-05T18:25:00.000-08:00

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the goddess exceeded all expectations, selling for $57,161,000., including buyers premium, at Sotheby's. That is fifty seven million dollars, when I thought the estimate was ambitious at 14 to 18 million dollars. To me, that is a frightening amount of money; while I think the object is priceless, this is enough money to fund a small nation, to remake a museum, or city in the US, it is allot of money. It is abstract, which might be the whole point, when it comes to objects of world class importance and unquestioned provenance, the money is meaningless, nothing is too much.

I went to the reception at Sotheby's on Monday evening and the theatrical display of the goddess complimented the little video about it on their website. They created a room with panels of cloth, with huge blow up images of the figure in front of it, you entered behind one such image to go into a black draped room, in the center of which was a black stand with the goddess in a Lucite case, dramatically lit. It was a temple and the cult image was the Guennol Goddess. Very effective, it allowed for the monumentality of this tiny sculpture to dominate the space. I have never seen such lengths gone to before with the display of an antiquity at auction. Sotheby's was rewarded for their efforts with a sales result that is beyond any achieved before for a sculpture at auction.

Finally I was able to speak to someone who attended the sale, and have the scoop on how the auction progressed. The room was packed, this attendee had never seen an antiquity auction at Sotheby's so well attended, and at the beginning of the bidding on the Goddess there were eight to ten bidders. At ten million the bidding stalled, the tension and disappointment in the air was palpable. At this point George Ortiz started the bidding back up, and at about 20 million dropped out. By this point the unidentified English gentleman started bidding, against the phone. By 30 million or so, it was just him and the phone, and he won it at 51 million hammer, the buyers premium brought the total paid up to 57 million. The winning bidder was a small time London dealer, who wished to remain anonymous but known to the cognoscenti in attendance, who could scarcely believe that he was bidding at that level. It is thought that he was buying on behalf of the Sheik of Dubai, who is building a world class museum in his efforts to transform his nation and prepare for when oil can longer be its primary source of wealth. It is thought that the under bidder on the phone was another Middle Eastern potentate.

While this price could only be realized by a bidding war between several buyers, unfortunately not all ancient objects have gained in value. This is the highest auction price for a sculpture of any kind, of any period. This will be the second time that record has been set by an ancient object; the Artemis from the Albright Knox being the first at a mere twenty eight million dollars. Perhaps people will begin to look at ancient art with fresh eyes and interest.

Other pieces also did quite well, my favorite piece aside from the goddess, was the head of Zeus, above, estimated at 300 to 500 thousand dollars, which sold, with buyers premium, for $965,000. This seems right to me, just under a million dollars for a beautiful sculpture that is monumental in size and impact.

Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass.

2007-12-02T14:56:00.000-08:00

View of the old wing, a beautiful neo-classical building in white marble. This is where the permanent collections are exhibited.

Because I did not go to my mothers for Thanksgiving, I paid her and my stepfather a post Thanksgiving visit. I prefer to see them when not too many people are around, and on the way I decided to make the most of the trip, which is a long drive, and go to the Clark which is on the way. It is one of my favorite museums, a rich and varied collection with many gems of art. Below are a few of my favorite, and I am sure that on future trips, there will be other favorites. This is why I like to go to museums repeatedly, you discover new things or new aspects of old favorites each time. Here are three to start with, the Clark is so rich, I came away with a trove of things, I could just go on and on.

Silver Soup Tureen and Stand, by Joseph Ignaz Wurth, Austria, 1779-81

I am not usually a big fan of silver, only responding to the most amazing pieces, of which this is one. I first paid attention to silver when the Ortiz Patino collection was sold at Sotheby's and the virtuosity of the pieces captured my attention and made me start to look at silver with different eyes. I suspect that this piece may well have come from that collection, its acquisition date is 1996, and the sale was held at Sotheby's in 1992. This piece is on that level of those in the collection, the very best of 18th Century craftsmanship. The chasing of the details is superb, a detail below will allow you to better see why such pieces are some of the worlds great works of art. This tureen was commissioned for a member of the court of the Empress Theresa of Austria, part of what was called "The Polish Service," which comprised some 400 pieces. The museum label in the Clark states, that this tureen is one of the most important examples of eighteenth-century Viennese silver to have survived the Napoleonic wars. Wars destruction of art is something we often forget in our time, and silver in particular was often melted down for it s monetary value. This objects value however is not in its material, but is superb artistry and design.

This detail of the top I hope gives some idea of the quality. Depicted is a head of broccoli or a cauliflower, some leaves of chard or other leafy green and what looks like sorrel or parsley. The details are finely engraved and chased into the silver so that they appear almost to be botanical illustrations in silver sculpture. The organic disorder of the vegetables contrasts with the rigid order of the classical forms of the tureen below them. This is silver at its very best, when it becomes sculpture.

Joseph Heintz the Elder, German, 1604
Portrait of Konstanz von Habsburg, Archduchess of Central Austria, later Queen of Poland.

This amazingly strange and impressive painting is probably my favorite in the museum, although it is certainly not the most popular with the public or that highly regarded by the museum itself, you cannot find her image in the highlights of the collection. This picture does not do her justice, the unfortunate child of the Hapsburgs she inherited their ugly features including the distinctive jutting lower lip, seen in portraits of one of the greatest Hapsburg princes, Charles 1st of Spain, known from many paintings. What impresses me is the contrast between the realistically portrayed homeliness of this royal personage, encased in glory. Every detail of her equipage speaks to her high rank; the dress is green silk taffeta so thick and glossy that it looks more like a structure than a dress, her arms are encased in gold embroidered sleeves, her hands gloved in the most supple leather, her throat held up by exquisitely embroidered lace, she has a pet monkey on a leash which holds up a red globe, as if offering the orb of the world to her, looking up at her with love. One feels for this prisoner of rank, her pet being her expression of humanity, her face blank of emotion. I think the artist has done a masterful job of capturing not only every detail of her magnificent jewels and dress, but also of creating what is a surprisingly sympathetic portrait, I actually am moved by this painting, not something one expects from a court portrait. As such, for its sheer technical brilliance, and subtle emotional depiction, this painting rises in my opinion to the class of a great work of art.

The next favorite piece in the collection is another object, a piano, but unlike any piano you have ever seen or even imagined.

Grand Piano and Pair of Stools
English, 1884-87
Designed by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, with fall painted by Edward J. Poynter.

Alma Tadema was the leading practitioner of a style of Romantic painting inspired by Classical antiquity, his paintings depict scenes from ancient Greece and Rome, were informed by the archaeological discoveries being made in Italy and Greece at the time. I have no idea who commissioned this piano, but it must have been somebody very rich; this piano is one of the most extravagantly ornamented and yet elegant pianos made. While not an ancient form, every opportunity to follow ancient forms is taken; the legs are in the shape of winged lions with lion paw feet, delicate acanthus tendrils and flowers ornament the sides, brass inlays in the shape of lyres surrounded by wreaths of glory punctuate the sides as well and the fall is painted with a scene of nymphs dancing in a classical landscape. Below are some details that help illustrate why this is such an exceptional object.

This view is of the fall, now protected by glass which somewhat obscures the beautiful painted dream scape of classical antiquity.

Here is my favorite detail, the beautiful tendrils of a flowering vine like plant. It is in relief executed in colored inlays of wood, ivory, and mother of pearl. It is amazingly complex and beautifully carved. Every detail of this piano is of this quality, the brass plaques and the music stand are also of the highest quality of execution, this piano is one of the most perfect classically inspired and richly ornamented pieces of furniture ever made.

The Christies antiquities sales

2007-12-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

My last post focused on the Sotheby's sale, largely because of the Guennol Goddess, and to be fair, here I will feature a few highlights of the Christies sale. No single object captures the imagination in their sale, at least from the catalogue online or the print one. Not having previewed the sale in person, I could change my mind.

Christies has chosen to do separate Ancient Jewelry sales, largely because of their expert, Max Bernheimer's personal interest in that area. This sale features some very interesting pieces, two of which stood out. Below is the most arresting gem:

Roman Carnelian Ring Stone, ca. First Century B.C.
Estimate $1,000. to $1,500.

Only the Romans would create such a pornographic image, which of course to them, had a very serious religious meaning. To us today, it is fantastically shocking and tittilating, really right out of a porno flick. What betrays the seriousness of its intent however is the very demure head of lady wearing her hair up in a melon coiffure. She looks totally calm and sedate while the rampaging hard cocks point towards the vagina. I love the Greeks and Romans, they celebrated life as a human and did not fight nature. I can only imagine that aside from its salacious effect this ring stone represented some aspect of fertility.

One of the stars of the jewelry sale is the ring below:

Late Roman gold and nicolo Key-ring.
late 3rd to early 4th Century A.D.

This unusual ring takes a form I have not seen before. The stone is engraved with a Victory holding wreath, a fairly common motif in gems, however the ring is wide, flat and pierced to create an elaborate inscription, here naming the name of a wife and her husband. On one side of the ringstone there is an extension again pierced to create "peltae amidst tendrils" according to Christies. A peltae is a small shield of crescent shape, in case you didn't know. (I didn't, I had to look it up.) Very unusual ring, and for all that, not really that expensive, the estimate is a relatively modest $15,000. to $20,000.

In the main antiquities sale a silver piece stands out, as it is the highest estimate in the sale. At least that I noticed. Below is a picture:

Roman Silver skyphos, two views.
Ca. late First Century B.C. to A.D.
4 3/8 inches high,

Unfortunately the images available on Christies website do not allow one to understand why this cup has such a high estimate. Silver cups with relief decoration such as this are very rare and important almost by definition, however I cannot tell what the quality of work is, or the detail. The description is quite detailed which may mean that the work on the cup is of high quality, I wish they had provide better images to see it. I look forward to seeing it in person.

One should go to the Christies website, there are a number of other objects of interest but these stood out for me.