Masterpieces in The Brooklyn Museum (Art Ebook)

MASTERPIECES IN
The Brooklyn Museum
The
museums
great
founded in the
embody
tury,
last
most of which were
of America,
quarter of the nineteenth cen-
the bold vision of this country as
celebrated the
hundred years
first
of
its
it
inde-
pendence. Thus in 1895 the citizens of Brooklyn
watched the lading of the cornerstone

intended to be the largest
museum
for
what was
structure in the
world, housing comprehensive collections of art,
natural history, and science as well as education and

the event, the growth of
research
facilities. In
BrookhTi
Museum was somewhat more
the scale of
modest, and
magnificent building by McRim.
its
Mead & White somewhat
smaller than originally
intended. But in the remarkable collections
on
to
still
assemble, the boldness of
evident, as
generosity of
The
is
its
its
it
went
original vision
the diligence of
staff
its
is
and the
patrons.
Today The Brookhn Museum owns over a million

objects from just about every field of human creativity. It
and
has one of the finest collections of Egyptian art
artifacts in the world;
an unrivaled
collection of
costumes; period rooms demonstrating important
American
interior design styles;
lections of Oriental as well as
and renowned
Western
art. Its
col-
master-
pieces span millennia and continents: an Egyptian
mummy cartonnage from the XXII dynasty, a seated

Buddha from third-century India, a gold lime container from Colombia made almost a thousand years
ago are displayed in the same museum that can offer
us prints by Diirer. Whistler, and Picasso: paintings
by Pissarro. Cole, and O'Reeffe: and photographs by

Steichen, Bourke-^^ hite.
and Strand.
Masterpieces in The Brooklyn
two hundred of the
Museum
reproduces
Museum.
accompany
finest objects in the
Short essays prepared by the curators

the reproductions. In addition. Linda
S.
Ferber, chief
curator, has contributed an introductory history of
the growth of the collections.
Thus
the reader
an inspiring and revealing picture

impulse
200
to create
illustrations,
and
to preserve.
including 96
in full
is
museum and
of the human
given both an exciting tour of a great
color
MASTERPIECES IN THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM
^mammi
sg^^gg^
I'fclgl*'
MASTERPIECES IN
The Brooklyn Museum
THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM

in association with
HARRY
N.
ABRAMS,
INC.,
PUBLISHERS,
NEW YORK
yf
V'^bSSU.
frontispiece:
Tete de Jeune
Homme
(Head of a Boy)
Pablo Picasso
(Spanish. 18811973)
1923
Grease crayon on pink \Iichallet laid paper
24'/2X i85/8 inches (62.1 X47.4 cm)
Signed lower
39.
8. Carll
right. Picasso
H. DeSilver Fund
ON THIS page:
Brooklyn Bridge (Mosaic)
John M\rin
(.\merican, 1870-1953)
1913
Etching and drypoint
1
1V2
X9
inches (29.2 x 22.9 cm)
50.166.2. Dick
S.
Ramsay Fund
PROJECT DIRECTOR
Margaret L. Kaplan
EDITOR
Mark
Library of Congress
D. Greenberg
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DESIGNER
Michael Hentges
Masterpieces in the Brooklyn
Museum.
Includes index.
1.
I.
This publication was organized at

The Brookhn Museum by Rena
Zurofsky, Vice Director for Marketing; Elaine Koss, Managing Editor:
and John .Antonides. Editor.
Art New York (N.Y.) 2. Brookl\-n Museum.

Museum. II. Harry X. Abrams. Inc.
BrookKii
N620.B6A64 1988 7o8.i47'23

ISBN 0810915286
ISBN 0810924005 (pbk.)
Published in 1988 by Harry N. Abrams. Incorporated. New ôrk

rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may
be reproduced \\-ithout the \\Titten permission of the publisher
.All
Cop\Tight
1988
The Brookh-n Museum

200 Eastern Parkway
Brookl^Ti.
New
York
1238
88-6110
Times Mirror Company
Printed and bound in Japan
i\
Contents
Foreword
History of the Collections
Egyptian, Classical, cind Ancient Middle Eastern Art
African, Oceanic, and
New World
Art
Oriental Art
Costumes and
54
83
Textiles
Decorative Arts
Prints,
24
Drawings, and Photography
113
140
169
Painting and Sculpture
205
Chronology
252
Index of Artists
255
Photograph Credits
256
Foreword
Robert
T.
Buck
DIRECTOR
THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM
IT OPENED IN 1897. The BrookhTi Museum building was the finest

achievement of the leading American architects of the late nineteenth cen-
^^HEN
tury, the
New York firm of McKim, Mead & WTiite.
America
in
which
social responsibilits"
new
era in
and cultural awareness were
inter-
number
t^îned with the inauguration of a large
It
of
reflected a
ci%'ic
projects that
were
seen as uplifting cuid enriching a devastated and di\dded society, scathed bv
Wax only a few decades
earlier. Lideed. the new museum was to be

Grand .Army Plaza, which surrounds one of the
nations most striking triumphal arches, dedicated to the victory of the Union
the Ci\il
located just east of BrookKn's
armies no coincidence but rather planned in the

plaimers. Simply put.
it
was
to
spirit of the
times by urban
be the largest cultural edifice in the world and
the ultimate statement in this country of the ci\-ilized achievements of
man-
kind in an institutional setting.
The Brookhn Museum
as
we know
it
today
the product of a steady-
is
evolution resulting in a remarkable amassing of over a million works of art
housed in seven curatorial departments and displayed in a grand structure
of
450.000 square feet. Acknowledged for its major holdings in Egvptian art
and American painting of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the
Museum is
also a storehouse of extraordinary treasures in a large
number
of
European painting from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century and contemporary painting and sculpture.
In the Department of Costumes and Textiles, one of the largest eind finest
collections of nineteenth-century Russian women's festive wear forms part of
a total holding of more than thirty thousand complete outfits from many
cultures and periods. In the Department of .African, Oceanic, Euid New \\orld
other areas, including fine examples of
Art
is
kept one of the nations outstanding collections of the art of the
Southwest American Indians. These objects,
many
quently entered the collection as the result of
taken by curators whose work in
many
of startling quality, fre-
Museum
ex-peditions under-
instances represents the only \\Titten
record of the trading habits of the peoples involved.
The Museum
"s
Oriental Department has special strengths in the areas of
Indian painting and sculpture and Islamic

ings in the
art.
with noteworthy Qajar hold-
On the Museum's fourth floor, twenty-eight superb Amerirooms, from the South to New England, unfold to reveal two
latter.
can period
hundred years
of evolution in interior design
and treatment and
constitute
the nucleus of one of America's major collections of decorative arts. Lastly, the
Prints
and Drawings Department has a
hand involvement
through
Drawing
its
\\\\\\
graphic
artists,
long, distinguished record of first-
building
its
collections especially
National Print Exhibitions, which will soon be joined by a
National.
^^^^^m
OK
JJ^
W:^
r:^-?^^'!âJEt^QMniÊSM&wJBbt
^^111ir-'
'IP
~J-lg
^TtWBti
^^-^
''^^^^:.^^-.
;'4
The BrookhTi Museum Master Plan Model,
1986, designed by Arata Isozaki and
James Stewart Polshek. View of south

facade from the Brooklvn Botanic Garden.
Midway through
the tenth decade of
anticipates celebrating
its
its
existence,
institution, poised to enter the twenty- first
and
The Brooklyn Museum
one hundredth anniversary as a very changed

century after an intense period of
Board of Trustees
announced an architectural competition to commission a master plan for the
renovation and expansion of the McKim, Mead & \\ hite building. The
winning team a joint venture of Arata Isozaki & Associates of Tokyo and
self- inspection
analysis. In the spring of 1986, the
James Stewart Polshek and Partners
of
New
building that looks as sensitively to the past as
Trusting that brilliant architecture, like

bearer of truth and
within,
may have therefore an
it
all
designed
a stunning
does daringly to the future.

great art,
is
at
moments
the
element of inevitability contained
The Brooklyn Museum community
volunteers.
York
of
board members,
city officials,
Museum members, staff, and supporters in general has embarked

New York cultural community on a future full of
together with the greater
opportunity of a unique kind. Paramount in our approach from the start of

the institution's master planning has been the consideration of the
building as a masterpiece in
Museum's
collection.
its
Museum
own right and therefore an integral part of the
Nowhere
else in
New
York indeed in the nation is
an institution of such size and history that still remains unfinished from
By forging the sensibilities of two centuries into one of
the most thoroughly researched museum projects of recent date, we have an
there
the previous century.
opportunity to construct one of the great

View
of north (front) facade.
museum
structures of all time.
treasures illustrated in this book are deserving of no less a home.
The
History of the Collections

Linda
S.
Ferber
CHIEF CURATOR
On Independence Day
United
States,
1825, General Lafayette, on a triumphant tour of the

boarded one of the Fuhon and South Ferry Companvs steam-
boats for the short trip across the East River to the village of Brookhii.
thriving
community then
from
The
on Manhattan Island is depicted in Francis Guys painting of 1 820. Accompanied from

the Brookl}-n ferry landing by a great throng of "citizens, trade societies and
Sunday Schools," the hero of the Revolution presided over the la\dng of the
quite independent
its sister city
cornerstone of a large brick building, the Brookl\Ti Apprentices' Library the

ancestor of
Henry
The BrookH-n Museum at
the intersection of Cranberrv
and
streets in today's Brookl\Ti Heights.
Francis G\n (American. 1-601820)

Winter Scene in Brooklyn, circa 181720
Oil on canvas
58V4X75
inches (149.2X190.5 cm)
97.13. Gift of
.\rts
The Brooklyn
Institute of
and Sciences
Only two years earlier, in the summer of 1823. a group of public-spirited

had met at William Stephenson's tavern to establish the village's first
free circulating library. The idea was William ^ôod's. a merchant who had
already founded libraries in his native Boston and in New York. The proposed
audience was a specific one young working-class men and the mission was
both practical and social: "Extending the benefits of knowledge to that portion
of our vouth. who are engaged in learning the mechanic arts, and thereby
qualif\ing them for becoming useful and respectable members of society."
In 1824 these citizens incorporated the BrookKii Apprentices* Library
Association not only as a library but as "a repository of books, maps, drawing
apparatus, models of machinerv. tools, and implements." These somewhat
disparate collections grew rapidly in temporary quarters on Fulton Street, and
by summer 1825a building for the Apprentices" Library Association was under
citizens
construction.
HISTORY OF THE COLLECTIONS
The initial course of lectures was held in the new building early in 827,
and the first painting commissioned in 1831: William Dunlaps Portrait of
Robert Snow, founding president of the Association. The building functioned
1
housing the Library as well as a number of civic

waned, however, and in
1835 the Library closed and the books were stored. The building was sold to
the city in 1836 for public use and demolished in 1857.
Sometime during 1838, the Library Association was revived and classes
in mechanical, architectural, landscape, and figure drawing were begun in
as a center for the village,
functions. After a decade of activity public support
in the BrookHn Lyceum Building on \âshington Street, north

Heights and "then the center of the wealth and culture of our young
city." The Brooklyn Lyceum, organized in 1833, ^^^ ^ local manifestation of
the popular national lyceum movement, which, like the Apprentices' Librarv,
promoted intellectual improvement and advanced the cause of public education through classes, lectures, and. at BrookKii. a natural history collection as
rooms rented
of the
well.
The move
Lyceum's elegant granite Greek revival building, completed in 1836, was to prove significant. In 1842 Augustus Graham, a prosperous manufacturer of white lead, a founder of the Librarv and bv then the
President, bought the building for the Association, thus reestablishing a permanent home for the institution that provided adequate space, not only for a
library that exceeded 2,500 volumes but for other activities as well. The
popular lecture courses were continued, and the first annual exhibition of
paintings was held in October. In 1843 the charter was amended and the
Library Association was renamed The BrookKii Institute because the original
usefulness." That same year.
name conveyed "too limited an impression of
Library and Lyceum were consolidated as The Brooklvn Institute. The Institute's natural history department was established then \\ ith the acquisition of
to the
The Brooklyn Institute. 840S-50S

182 and 184 Washinôn Street near
Concord Street
Photograph from Wallace Goold Levison,
1
'Reminiscences of The Brookl\Ti Institute
and some Early
Museum
Collectors,"
The BrookK-n
Archives
the Lyceum's collection: "birds

various fishes beautifully
some
minerals.''
mounted
few mammals:
number of shells
and
reptiles in jars in alcohol; a
... a considerable
The second annual
Institute exhibition, held later that year,
offered further evidence of the broadening scope of activity, consisting of
"models of machinery, curious specimens of nature and art. a fine collection of

and flowers
pieces of sculpture, with many superior works in
painting." These annuals were composed almost entirely of works and objects
loaned by the citizens of Brookhii. suggesting an abundance of local collectors
who must have inspired the Institute directors to announce during the fifth
annual in 1 846 their intention of establishing a permanent art collection.
In 1 848 Augustus Graham paid off the mortgage on the Institute building. While Graham was one of a number of library promotors, his traditional
prints,
recognition as the founder of the
Museum
is
due not only
to his dedication to
the infant institution during his lifetime, but also to his provision for
its
future.
Graham
died late in 1851 and was interred on Vista Hill in Greenwood

Cemetery. His confidence in the Institute's future was embodied in a bequest.
Along with funds
on secular and religious

and the work of the department of natural history,
Graham left a sum that marked the formal establishment of a Gallery of Fine
-Arts. Like a good mission statement, his endo\\'ment outlined what would
remain the primary intellectual and social commitments of the institution
until the mid- 1 g30s. although the Museum's massive collections were not to be
formed until the early years of the twentieth century.
The first Graham commission was extended in 1 855 to Asher B. Durand,
whose Fi?-st Harvest in the Wilderness is a landscape allegorv in tribute to the
Institute and its benefactor, "that pioneer in the wilderness,'' as The Crayon
hailed Graham. However, despite The Crayon's optimism, by 1878, when a
group of friends presented Guy's picture to the Institute, momentum had
declined and the permanent collection consisted of only fifteen works, all of
them American and seven of them portraits of officers. A report on the state of
to support the library, lectures
subjects, classes in draviing,
the "nucleus of a Fine Art Gallery observed that, in the twenty-six years since
"
Graham's bequest, "the value

the value of
been enhanced greatly, and

was "inadequate to purchase
of works of Art have
money reduced." Thus
the fund
every yeeir a work of Art worthy of the Institute."
By the mid- 1 860s. the activities of the Natural History Department were
on the wane, a state that was generally indicative of the depressed condition of the Institute itself. The Washington Street address was no longer
also
The
center of cultural activity
where buildings
for the recently established
fashionable.
.\rt
had moved to Montague Street,

Academy of Music and Brookl\Ti
Association were completed in 1861 and 1872.
up with the times, the Institute building was comremodeled in 1867, incurring a debt whose repapnent over the next
twenty vears absorbed nearly all income. As a result, the Institute entered "a
long period of suspended activities."
Brookl\"n, however, was on the move. The years between 1850 and 1880
In an effort to keep
pletely
had seen the establishment of many rivals for public support ind attention: a
short-lived Brookhii .Art Union
85 1 ). the BrookKii Sketch Club 857). the
( 1
( 1
Graham .Art School (1858), the BrookK-n .Art Social (1859). the forerunner of
the verv successful Brookh-n .Art Association (1861), the Brookhii Academy of
Design (1866). the Brookhii
( 1
.Art
880). All testified to the lively art
Club (18-8). and the Rembrandt Club

and cultural life of what was by then a large
and busy city.

Optimism ran high about BrookKii's future. The consolidation act of 1 855
had enlarged the boundaries of the city to include the village and to%\ii of
Bushwick and Williamsburgh, increasing the population to more than
200.000. Thousands commuted daily by ferry to businesses in New York. A
substantial building boom took place from i860 to 1880. Prospect Park,
designed bv Frederic Law Ohnsted and Calvert Vaux on farmland, stimulated
the development of nearby Park Slope. BrookKii's own Gold Coast. By i860
lO
BrookKn was
The uhimate harbinger of a

Churches seemed embodied in John A.
Roebling's Great East River Bridge, under construction by 1869.
.\n excerpt from Joshua Van Cott's 1881 address on the dedication of a
building for yet another urban amenity, the Long Island Historical Society
(now the Brooklyn Historical Society), captures the ambitious and competitive
optimism of Brooklyn at the time:
the third largest city in the country.
glorious destiny for the City of
obvious to anyone who will think about it that the business of New York
must, in a few years, draw out of New York its residences, except those of the
plainest and cheapest description. The great warehouses of New York, the great
It is
shops
and factories
city.
will drive the more elegant residences of New York out of the
The great Merchants ofNew York with their accumulations will have to
cross over the great bridge.
Every person who has seen the growth of New
York knows that New York is to be abandoned in less than a half century, and the
residences of the rich financiers will have to go to New Jersey or to Brookhn. IVe
are now at the beginning of a great movement of that kind when this City of
Brooklyn of ours no longer to be called the City of Churches but the Home City
istobe aggrandized, to be built up in institutions, is to have its
ofAmerica
.
university,
adds
its great
libraries, its great collections
to the sweetness
of life
of art,
is
to
have everything that
and the moral and intellectual excellence of a great
city.
This same
galvanized supporters of the nearly defunct Institute
spirit also
Cott among them to ambitious and even daring plans once the final
payment on the disastrous mortgage was made in 1887. The following year,
the proceedings of a Citizens' Committee on Museums of Art and Science
were outlined in The First Year Book of the Brooklyn Institute: "Boston has the
Lowell Institute, a Society of Natural History and an Art Museum:
Philadelphia has the Franklin Institute, an Academy of Sciences and a Gallery
of Fine Arts, and
New York has the \Ietropolitan Museum and the
American Museum [of Natural History]," yet, the writer lamented, "Brooklyn
has nothing corresponding to these institutions.'' Committee members spoke
eloquently of "the educating and uplifting influence of true .Art" and of the
that would not only indicate
importance of securing "a collection of casts
what was true in Art. but would also teach the history of its development." To
the conventional pieties of "educating and refming" the working class, the
citizens added the "element of enjoyment": "that people whose day's labor was
long and severe, should find in a museum that which would give them rest and
pleasure." Members reported on the origins and history of the successful
Metropolitan Museum of Art (founded in 870) and the American Museum of
Van
Natural History (founded in 1869).

Early in 1889. George Bro\Mi Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, spoke before the Institute and the Citizens' Committee on
"The Museum
of the Future":
The founding of a public museum in a city like Brook hn. is a work whose
importance can scarcely be overestimated. The founders of institutions of this
character do not often realize how much they are doing for the future. Opportunity such as that which is now open to the members of the Brooklyn Institute
occur only once in the lifetime of a nation. It is by no means improbable that the
persons now in this room have it in their power to decide whether in the future
intellectual progress of this nation, Brooklyn
is
to lead or to follow far in the rear
Brooklyn, the Committee decided, was to lead with a unique amalgam combining the best elements of The Metropolitan \hiseum of Art and the Ameri-
Museum
of Natural History, an institution that would, through its collecand programs, explore and present the entire spectrum of natural history
and human achievement to the citizens of Brook Ivii and "people from the other
side of the river and from a distance." The directors therefore "determined to
make the property of the Institute the nucleus of a broad and comprehensive
can
tions
1 1
institution for the
advancement
lectures
and
collections in art
and
of science
ad\:ancement of knowledge, but also
and
for the
art.
laboring not only for the
education of the people through
.
was felt," they concluded, "that

and Sciences worthv of her wealth,
science. It
Brookh-n should have an Institute of
.\rts
her position, her culture and her people."
The
old Institute, the
germ
of this
sixteen departments (which by 1897
had
grand scheme, was expanded into

gro\\-n to twenty- five). Some were
independent organizations that joined the Institute, like the Art Association
and the Academy of Music. The loose combination resembled a large univ ersity. "each department forming a society by itself, and yet enjoxing all the
The BrookhTi Academy of Music,

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Brookh-n Children's Museum were depart-
privileges of the general association."
ments of the
Institute until the 19708. Sites for programs were located all over
the city of Brookhii while the existing collections were still mostly housed in
on Washington Street.
was ob\ious. however, that these existing facilities were inadequate to
house this grand design, especially after a fire in 1 890 damaged the building
and destroyed part of the collection and library. By 1 89 1 under the energetic
leadership of President John B. Woodward (1855-1896). the Institute made
plans to build a large museum, a complex that would house nearlv all departments of the newly incorporated 1 890) Brookh-n Institute of Arts and Sciences
the old Institute building
It
in a single structure.
The
City of Brookh-n. authorized by the state legislature
to lease to the histitute the site
on Prospect Heights
just east of
Ohnsted and
Vaux's great park, also appropriated funds for the construction of the building,
a responsibility
assumed by the City
of
New
York
when
Brookl\Ti
became a
borough in 1898.
The land now occupied by The Brooklyn Museum,

Library, and the Brookhii Botanic Garden was part
bisected by Flatbush Avenue that
had been
Hoppin (American 186--
1941)
Rendering of the Central Museum

of The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and
Architect's
Sciences.
1893
and pen and ink
26'/8x67V4 inches (66.4 x 1-2.1 cm)
X737, The Brookh-n Museum
\\atercolor
BrookKn Public
set aside earlier in the
the future site for a public park. In 1866 Frederick
Fr-VNCIS L.V.
the
of a 320-acre tract
century as
Law Ohnsted and
Calvert
\aux submitted a report to the Brookh-n Park Commission suggesting that the
wedge of land east of Flatbush Avenue be reserved for "Museums and other
Educational Edifices" and that the area west of Flatbush Avenue continue to be
developed as Prospect Park. Olmsted and Vaux conceived of this cultural and
recreational complex as an organic unit to be connected to outMng areas of
Brookh-n by a system of parkways a term they coined in 1 868 to the south
(Ocean Parkway) and to the east (Eastern Parkway). Their grand urban plan
was realized and remains intact todav.
Prospect Park was opened in 1866 and some twenty-nine years later the
Institutes directors and City officials ^êre prepared to implement the rest of
Olmsted and Vaux's scheme. On Saturday afternoon. December 14. 1895.
Charles A. Schieren. Mavor of Brookh-n and soon to be an Institute Trustee
12
The Hall of Casts,

West Wing, third
898-99
floor
and donor,
laid the cornerstone for the
West Wing
of the Central
\4useum
of
The Brookl\Ti Institute of Arts and Sciences with the aid of W illiam R. Mead of
McKim, Mead & White, architects of the building, and P. J. Carlin, contractor
Francis Hoppin's 1893 rendering presents the imposing
Beaux- Arts building as originally proposed. Meant to house comprehensive
for construction.
collections of art, natural history,
research activities, the plan
and
science, as well as
myriad education and
if completed would have been the largest mu-
seum structure in the world.

With the decision to concentrate most of the departments beneath a
roof and with building plans underway, the loosely
of the Institute required central administration. In
single
amalgamated departments
890 Woodward appointed
1
Franklin W. Hooper ( 85 9 1 4) first Director of the reorganized Institute.

Hooper, a Harvard-trained scientist who had studied natural history with
Louis Agassiz, taught in the 1880s at Brookl}'n"s Adelphi Academy (now
Adelphi University), was active in the scientific endeavors of the old Institute,
1
and had served on the
Citizen's
Committee. Hoo}x^r was very much the driving

expanded Institute.
force in the development of the
West Wing of the Central Museum was opened in 1897 the

collections moved from storage to Eastern Parkway to be installed and enlarged as new sections of the building were opened in coming years. The
organization and growth of the collections in the new museum building were
When
the
regulated
at the
turn of the century by three departments: F'ine Arts; Ethnol-
ogy, newly established in 1903;
and Natural History.

13
The Fine
.\rts
Department came
to the
new museum building with
collection hardly larger than that recorded in the
878 inventory of paintings.

The "Opening Exhibition" of European and American paintings in June 1 897
consisted almost entirely of loans from private collections. \Mlliam Henry
Goodyear (18461925) presided as Curator over the department for almost
twenty-five years. A graduate of Yale University, Goodyear studied law,
history, and art history in Europe before embarking on a career as an archaeologist, architectural historian, and educator. Called "America's first art historian,'" Goodyear had served from 1882 until 1888 as Curator at The
Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1890 he came to BrookKn. first as Titular
Curator and the architect of successful and long-lived educational programs
and then, in 1899, as Curator of Fine Arts. He was Hooper's match in the
boundless energy and conviction with which he took up the histitute's cause of
public education. Goodyears range as a scholar was extraordinarilv broad. He
published \^"idely on art history and vigorously advanced his theory of cu-chitectural refinements intentional departures from geometrical uniformity to
enhance optical interest with extensive travel, articles, lectures, and photographic documentation of monuments from ancient Egypt to the 1 900 Paris
Exposition. Goodyear's primary focus on European art and architecture did
not pre\"ent him from taking a strong interest in American art an enlightened attitude at the time. He wTote regularly on these and other art topics
Museum
in early issues of the
Major
gifts of these early
Bulletin.
years included the bequest in 1906 of Caroline
sixty- one nineteenth- century American

and European paintings and watercolors. A portion of the estate of her brother.
^^ illiam Herriman, which included eleven works by Elihu Vedder as well as
an important work by Jean Francois Millet, was given in 1921. \Miile Goodyear was Curator of Fine .Arts, collector and connoisseur A. Augustus Healy
1 850192 1 ). who succeeded ^ôodward as President in 1 895, masterminded
major painting and sculpture acquisitions during these early years. One of the
earliest purchases was secured by a campaign Healy led to raise funds for 544
gouaches by James Tissot illustrating The Life of Christ. In 1906 Healy and
George Hearn purchased Henri Fantin-Latours important Portrait of
Madame Leon Maitre (1882) for the Museum from the artist's Memorial
Exhibition in Paris. Both purchases were probably made yvvXh the advice of
Healy"s friend John Singer Sai'gent, whose watercolors Heah- saw to it were
purchased for the Museum in 19 09. In 1910 the C}tus J. La\%Tence collection
of over one hundred bronzes bv French animalier .Antoine Louis Barye was
Polhemus, a collection that included
purchased
at auction.
and metalwork were then

Department, while Oriental materials were transferred early on to the Department of Ethnology. Original works were supplemented by nearly one hundred casts of Classical and Renaissance monuments
as well as hundreds of Goodyear's photographs and lantern slides of European
architecture. Goodvear worked closely with Susan A. Hutchinson, both librarCollections of European glass, ceramics, ivories,
also held in the
Fine
-\i-ts
ian and curator of prints, from 1899 to 1954. acquiring Homer watercolors,
Rembrandt and Whistler etchings, and other treasures, establishing what
would become in 1957 an autonomous Department of Prints and Drawings.

Goodyear died in 1924. an eminent art and architectural historian who was
lauded as "one of the few survivors of a type of American genius which
expressed itself in aggressive action with an intense fervor of intellectual
conviction."* Perhaps his greatest contribution was as a dedicated educator and
tireless promoter of Institute programs.
The Institute Department of Ethnology,
905. reflected the

intention of planners not only to include traditional European fine arts but also
established in
non-Western European cultures, especially those of

North and South America. The first curator. Robert Stewart Culin {18581929) was. like Hooper and Goodyear, a remarkable figure. A self-trained
ethnologist and folklorist. he assumed a museum post at the University of
to collect productions of
14
Installation of Porno Indian Collection in
California
Halt 1911
West \\ ing, third
floor
Pennsylvania, where he estabhshed himself during the
890s as an expert on
an initial focus on Oriental cultures,
Culin turned to the art and artifacts of the North American Indian and in 900
made the first of many collecting expeditions to the American west, a collecting
practice he continued after coming to found the department at The Brooklyn
Institute three years later. The energetic Culin immediately began to expand
the meager holdings of the old Institute by means of a series of field trips
through the Southwest, California, and Northwest Coast regions, acquiring
and carefully recording information about thousands of objects.
Although Culin was dedicated to the systematic documentation of North
American Indian cultures, his interests were by no means limited to those
geographic areas. After 1910 he traveled to the Orient and Central Europe
acquiring collections of paintings, sculpture, decorative art. and costume from
a wide range of cultures. He was adept not only at collecting but also at display.
His exhibits were admired and his clear labels praised. Sensitive to aesthetic
issues, he saw objects in terms of their formal qualities and technical finesse as
well as in terms of material and use. One of the notable early acquisitions of the
department was a large collection of Central African objects Culin purchased
in Belgium in 1922 today still the great strength of the Museum s .African
holdings. The interpretation of these objects as works of art in a landmark
folk culture
and games
of the world. After
exhibition the following year marked the

tion of such material
Museum as a pioneer in the reevalua-
previously interpreted
as anthropological
specimens
worthy of aesthetic appreciation on a par with Eurojx'an art.

The thousands of specimens Culin acquired on Museum expeditions
provided the pool of objects later to be dispersed into four curatorial departments that have since been further developed and refined into collections that
are today among the strongest and best documented in the Museum. These
include the direct descendant of Ethnology African. Oceanic, and New
World Art and some of the most important holdings in todays Department of
Costumes and Textiles and Decorative Arts. From Culin's travels in the Far
and Near East came the objects that formed the core of the Oriental Art
Department: Japanese, Ainu, and Korean holdings as well as the first Indian
as
art collections.
15
as,
small collection of Oceanic materials had been deposited at the Institute

part of the Natural History Department prior to Culin's arrival. WTiile
Museum field expeditions did not include this area, these holdings have
continued to grow over the years and today include a number of important
Culin's
objects.
The Department of Natural History. Institute Director Hooper's own

primary interest, was the oldest department, established in 1 843, and in 1 903
by far the largest collection, with more than 71 ,000 specimens. Vestiges mav
occasionally still be found in the corner of a remote storeroom. As construction
\Mng would be largelv

animal habitats, and marine mammals, all of
which were among the Museum's most popular displays for decades.
of the building continued, the galleries in the ^^'est
reserved for exhibits of
shells,
Hall of Invertebrates, 1920s

^êst
^Mng. fourth
floor
^^^len the Brookhii Botanic Garden was originallv established as a department of the Institute in 1910, the existing botanical collections and hbrary
were eventuallv transferred to the garden site just south of the Museum
building. The Garden was intended bv McKim. Mead & ^^ hite's master plan
to function not only as the parklike repository of a living collection but also as
the setting for a monumental entry and stairway dominating the south facade
of their great Beaux-.Arts
In 1914.
end. His
title
Museum
when Hooper
building.
an era had come
died, all recognized that
to
an
Director of the Institute was retired, and three directors were
appointed to guide the
Museums
(Central and Children's), the Botanic Gar-
den, and the Education Division. William
Henry Fox (18581952), engaged
to oversee the Museum a post he would hold for two and a half decades paid
tribute in his
Memoires
characterizing
him
"plans had no limits
"
to the d^Tlamic
man
founding director of the
Institute,
and vision. a "spellbinder" whose

and whose "ideas were colossal." As a practical admin-
as a
of "energy
"
however. Fox also recognized the unrealistic ambitions of the original

promotors of The Brookhn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Hooper was. in Fox's
words "afflicted with the impractical." "Sheer size." he continued, seemed to
istrator,
be Hooper's "standard of excellence" with "no sense of economy whate\er."'

Soon after his arrival in 1913, Fox appears to have understood that the
projected "biggest museum building in the world." now the ward of New \ork
had little chance of

had been added in 1905, and in
Citv with several other major collecting institutions,
completion.
The
central portion of the facade
190- the East Wing and Grand Staircase were completed. The original
building campaign would come to a final halt in 1927, just four years after the
Centennial of the Apprentices' Library, \\'ith only one-sixth of McKim, Mead
&
WTiite's original conception realized.
16
this
Seeking both to define and to consolidate the collections of what he called

"composite museum," Fox early on entertained the "heretical idea'' of
placing the natural history collections elsewhere.

over by A. Augustus Healy, had, in
fact,
The Board, then
presided
requested upon Fox's engagement that
he seek, in the President's words, to ''restore the balance between the art and
science displays which at present is heavily scientific." Fox recalled Healy's
words at that initial interview in 1912: "most of us on the Board of Trustees
.have a greater personal interest in art than in science and we feel that it would
be better for
Brooklyn if more attention were paid to the development of this
branch of the Museum." Franklin Hooper's death soon afterward removed a
primary obstacle to such a reordering of Museum priorities.
Fox accepted the challenge. Trained in law, with museum experience as
director of the Herron Institute (now the hidianapolis Museum of Art), he had
served as fine arts administrator of two international expositions. His vivid
recollection of his first visit late in 1912 to what he described as "a massive
Romanesque structure on the wide Parkway" is worth quoting at length:
.
The first few rooms we passed through were heavily scientific. The objects were
quite well, if corwentionally arranged. But they gave out an air of over- imporThe
tance and when we carried our inspection further, of overbalance.
.
Japanese hall through which we passed offered a kind of protest to the overwhelming force of natural science exhibits. This was part of the ethnological
collection and taste had been exercised in its arrangement and we thought the
effect excellent.
we were concerned with the section of the art exhibits

mind, so we inquired our way to the gallery of
that assailed our eyes was awful. The walls of a room one
Naturally
which Mr. Healy had
in
The scene
hundred and ten feet long by forty wide with smaller galleries adjacent were
paintings.
covered with three rows of paintings, without regard to their relation to each
other, a veritable maelstrom of clashing harmonies, color, subject, and school,
In a connecting room Tissot's life of
on a wooden cimaise.
permanent
screens, forming a barrier to
sides
Christ was hung on both
of
partly
in
the dark. In another gallery
anything like revolving exhibits and was
which was so conspicuous as to
stood a luridfull length portrait of the Kaiser
resting heavily
Painting
and Sculpture
West Wing,
fifth floor
Gallery, before
904
prevent the other canvases from being noticed.
17
The director- to -he's interests ranged further afield in his conviction that "there
\ast room for improvement in the art section" and in his and Mrs. Fox's
was
interest in the decorative arts: "On another floor there was a loan exhibit of lace
which Catherine pronounced to be very ordinary," he wTote, "and this, as far as
we could then see. was the Brookh-n Museum's only representation of the
applied arts."" Catherine Fox was to play an important role in the development
of these collections. A common passion for lace seems to have been the basis for
a friendship with Theodora ^^"ilbour which was to \ield great benefits to the
Museum. In 1931 Catherine Fox arranged for Mj. and Mrs. Edward S.
Harkness to purchase the Shabelsky collection of Russian costumes and textiles for
the
Museum.
Fox chcuacterized the "veteran" curator Goodyear as "somewhat impractical," but "a fine cabinet scholar." whose passion for research obviouslv
out^veighed installation skills. Characteristically, Culin was away on expedition when Fox arrived, but stories of his "eccentricities"' abounded. Fox described him as "an odd character" who "preferred to be an independent figure
in his special department with a minimum of control." \^ hen in residence, he
occupied "a little dark den of an office'' near the Japanese Hall that was bookImed. \\-ith a picturesque mass of objects littering the floor.
Fox"s o^Mi exhibition philosophy called for "a compact and scientific
installation, presenting each class of exhibit as a single unit." Such an arrangement was not only "convenient to the public." he \M-ote. but "a necessity"
in making "the story of ait clear and impressive." Fox admired Culin's skills in
installation and tm-ned first to those areas most in need of his attention the
"veritable maelstrom"" that was the painting and sculpture galleries. Mindful
of his mandate to "raise the art of the museum to the same standard set by the
scientific section." Fox sought to establish a distinct field of endeavor for the
Museum that would not compete \AT.th the "excessive old master atmosphere
of the Metropolitan Museum but, rather, guide the Museum "s energies toward
the exhibition and collection of modern or contemporarv art. "as it was then
understood," that is, primarily French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist
works and American early modern works. Fox even proposed that the two
"divide the Museum field in Greater New \ork"" the Metropolitan
emphasizing "works of the past" and BrookKn concentrating on later periods.
.Although the offer was declined for reasons of "insurmountable difficulties."
the plan was pursued at Brookh-n. with the support of Healy. himself most
interested in nineteenth -century French painting. In 1920. the President
presented the Museum's first work by Monet. The Doge's Palace. In the
follo%\ing decade important works by Lautrec. Gauguin. Pissarro. Degas,
Sislev. Cezanne, and Morisot entered the collection.
Healy "s passing in 1921 and Frank L. Babbott's ( 1 854 1 933) assumption
of the presidencv may have checked the momentum of the modernist trend in
BrookK7i. Fox was to lament lack of trustee support in his later quests for the
Lillie P. Bliss and Havemeyer collections (now at The Museum of Modern Art
and the Metropolitan Museum respectively), and although Katherine S.
museums
Dreier"s Societe .AnomTtie exhibited at the
went to
Museum
in 1926. the collection
were ultimately
Yale. Nevertheless. Babbott"s o\mi collecting proclivities
beneficial to the
Museum's limited but
choice "old master atmosphere."" His
fine collection of early Italian panel paintings,
1916. would come to the
Museum
as gifts
purchased between 1911 and

his childi-en over a span of
from
some four decades.

Trustee enthusiasm and connoisseurship had positive results in other
had declared \hiseum interest in the "applied
collecting areas as well. Fox
Museum was "early

and originality." The year after
his arrival, in 1914. a Department of Colonial and Early American Furniture
was established, predecessor of today's Decorati\e Arts Department, and most
probablv the idea of a new Trustee. Luke Mncent Lockwood 18-2-1951). a
Brookh-n attorney who was a noted authority on and pioneer collector of
American furniture and decorative arts.
arts" early in his tenure, citing
with pride the
fact that the
in the field"" in building collections of "rarity
18
The Museum's intention was to interpret objects of the American past

through the device of period rooms then a relatively new idea in museum
installation and a concept that has largely determined the growth of the
Museum's strong collection to the present. Although acquisitions of objects
and architectural elements began immediately, final installation of period
rooms was not possible until the central portion of the building and the East
Wing were
completed in 1927. Over the next two years, under Lockwood's

direction, twenty-one American period rooms of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were built. When they opened in late 1929, they formed the
central focus of the collection and remain one of the Museum s most popular
exhibitions. Continuing the tradition, the Museum in 1953 became the first
art museum in America to install a series of nineteenth-century period rooms.
Today the installation includes twenty-eight rooms ranging in date from a
1675 Dutch house from Flatlands, Brooklyn to a 1928 Art Deco library from a
Park Avenue apartment. Like other portions of the Museum s collections, these
rooms have been reinterpreted and reinstalled a number of times since 1929 in
attempts to achieve more accurate approximations of the past. At this time, two
other Trustee collector- scholars, John Hill Morgan (18701945) and Walter
Crittenden (18591947), were also in advance of popular antiquarian taste
and scholarship. They saw to it that the Museum began to build a fine
collection of Colonial American painting in the 1910s and 1920s to parallel
Lockwood's American decorative arts. Complementing the period rooms is one
of the best American ceramic collections in the country in addition to strong
collections of American furniture, glass, silver, pewter, and other metalwares
as well as European decorative arts.
Fox retired in 1935 after a long career, during which time the building
was completed and the major growth of the collections took place. The 1930s
were to prove a decade of reevaluation, a turning point for the Museum and its
collections.
Fox's successor, Philip Newell Youtz (18951972), trained as an educator

and was a practicing architect and a committed modernist. He was to have a
profound impact on the Museum during a short but highly active tenure,
implementing a radical five-year plan that marked the emergence of the
Museum
In
as
we know
it
today.
934 the Board adopted a new collection policy, allowing Youtz to carry
out Fox's "heretical design" of distributing the natural history specimens to

other
New
York institutions, bringing to a close the era of the "composite

ambitions of
museum" and la\dng to rest the nineteenth-century encyclopedic
the founders by finally abandoning science for art. The remaining collections
were eventually organized into seven curatorial units, dividing the holdings of
the Department of Ethnology between a Department of American Indian Art
and Primitive Cultures and a Department of Oriental Art. The history of
Western art was organized chronologically in departments of ancient, medieval, renaissance, and contemporary art later consolidated as the Department of Painting and Sculpture while print collections remained a division
The plaster casts, so prized by the Citizen's Committee of 890.

were discarded. Modern museum administrative practices and systematic
of the Library.
collection care
were introduced with the appointment of a registrar and the
establishment of the conservation laboratory.

In his conviction that the
"museum
of today
must meet contcniporar\
needs," Youtz sought to encourage practical use of the collections not only for
traditional educational purposes but as a research source for modem industry
and manufacturing interests. Such practical application of the collections to the

improvement of modern life was not new to the Museum. In fact, the original
audience for whose benefit the Apprentices' Library had been founded was one
of artisans and workers. While the Institutes constituency broackîed rapidly,
this initial impulse was not forgotten. As early as 1909. Culin considered the
possibility of the Museum's collections being used by artists and designers
working with industry. One motive for the acquisition of an African collection
was Culins conviction
that this unfamiliar art form, as well as the other
HISTORY OF THE COLLKCTIONS
IQ
"exotic" objects he collected,
would provide inspiration for American
industrial
designers and manufacturers.
Herbert
J.
Spinden (18791967), Culins successor, was of the same
opinion: "It has already been demonstrated that the ethnological collections in
our museums contain the best source materials in applied arts.

make it the slogcin of American industry that the finest products
We
should
and
must be reborn to fit the
needs and ideals of our modern civilization." Fox, too, had promoted the
growth of Museum collections of decorative arts: "I have always," he wTote.
""tried to project this phase of creative effort in design up to the prestige
enjoyed by the arts of painting, sculpture and architecture.
They are of
equal value and the history of their development is just as important."
It would be \outz. however, who organized these long-term Museum
commitments into an institutional plan, proposing in 1955 that an Industrial
Center for Greater New York be established at the Museum, to be funded bv
the Public ^ôrks Administration. ^^ hile the project as Youtz envisioned it was
not pursued, the collections of costumes, textiles, and jewelry were largelv
consolidated at that time into an Industrial Di%ision. which encouraged use
and research on these materials by member firms. This service developed in
the late 1 940s into the Edward C Blum Design Laboratory, named in honor of
the Institute Trustee who served from 1911 to 1946. Housed in the Department of Decorative Arts, the Lab was transformed by 1973 into todays Department of Costumes and Textiles, one of the most important costume collections
in the Lnited States.
Lnder Youtz "s leadership, not only were the collections and their uses
redefined but the building itself was reconfigured as well. The most radical
change was the removal in 1 954 of the Grand Staircase on the northern facade.
^Mlile justly criticized today as an ill- conceived violation of the original design
of the building, this controversial ""improvement" was intended as a socially
responsible gesture, eliminating the grand ceremonial entry, which literally
peoples are welcome ingredients but that
all
of all ages
these
elevated the visitor to the level of the arts, in order to facilitate public access
directly
from the
street.
Youtz wanted to ""turn a useless Renaissance palace into a serviceable

modern museum." At his insistence a great deal of Beaux-Arts ornament was
from the Museum interior to create the "'clean, neutral" gallery space
deemed most desirable by modernist standards. The collections themselves
were then configured into what was termed ""chronological" order a kind of
visitors art history survey through time and space beginning with the
ahistorical placement of American Indian .Art and PrimitiAC Cultures on the
first floor and rising to a ""gallery of living artists" on the sixth a floor plan
stripped
that survives nearly intact today.
In 1952 the children of the pioneer American Egyptologist Charles

^^ ilbour gave a fund in his honor for the endo\Mnent of a curatorial
Edwin
department of ancient
art.
The collection
Goodvear's supervision, dates
its
of ancient art. originally begun
under
beginnings from acquisitions of Egyptian
some obtained from excavations of Sir \\illiain Matthew

modern field archaeology. In 1908 the Museiun
acquired more Egyptian antiquities from the famous private collection formed
in the 1 880s by .-Vrmand de Potter. In 1916 the ^^'ilbour family began giving
most of his collection and his library to the Museum. Some three decades later,
in 194". The Museum received \\ilbours important collection of pap\Ti and
antiquities in 1902.
Flinders Petrie. the father of
the following year the ^^ ilbour
Fund made
possible the acquisition of the
Egyptian holdings of the New- York Historical Society. This huge collection
complemented the core collection already in place the PredMiastic and .Aichaic antiquities acquired through early exca\ations. and the Amarna (New
Kingdom) objects from \Mlbour"s holdings. Old and Middle Kingdom objects,
including sculpture and reliefs of relatively large scale.
In the early 1950s, the
reliefs
Museum also acquired a number of important

Museum of .Art including the tomb reliefs of an
from The Metropolitan
20
Egyptian Antiquities and Goodrear's

Photographs Demonstrating the Theory of
Architectural Refinements, circa
West \Mng. third
floor
904
Egyptian
vizier
stalled in
named Nespeqashuty. These
reliefs
were restored and
in-
1986. Acquisitions since the 1940s have consisted primarily of
objects of high aesthetic quality,
and the
installations have
been progressively
redefined in displays emphasizing art history rather than ancient history,

religion,
and archaeology. Today, the
collection
is
housed
in
nine galleries of
pre-Pharaonic and Pharaonic Egyptian art with a tenth gallery devoted in part
to the art of
cal interest,
Roman and
Christian Egypt. Those pieces of purely archaeologi-
once almost
all
on view, are now part of an important study
collection.
and Ancient Near Eastern collections are much smaller in

and number of objects than the Egyptian holdings, but they include
splendid Aegean, Greek, and Roman works as well as pieces of equally high
quality from various parts of the Middle East. In 1955, with the support of the
Hagop Kevorkian Foundation, the Museum acquired from the New- York
Historical Society collections twelve monumental reliefs from a palace of the
Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud that are the most spectacular of the
holdings of Ancient Near Eastern Art.
Culin's earlv ethnographic collecting trips to India, China. Korea, and
Japan from 1909 to 191 4 had established the foundation for what became an
autonomous Department of Oriental Art by 195". From the 1950s the holdings of later Near Eastern or Islamic art. today exhibited in the Department of
Oriental Art, as well as the Indian and Southeast Asian collections were
The
Classical
their scope
21
enriched through the interest of Trustee -collector Ernest Erickson (18931 983). who acquired important works in this and other non-European cultural
areas. Placed on long-term loan as Erickson acquired them, some 474 objects
were eventually given to the Museum by the Ernest Erickson Foundation in
1987. The\- are among the most important gifts of the last decade in magnitude cind overall impact on the quaht\ of the collections.
Ericksons earliest contact
at the
Museum
seems
to have
been
bert Spinden. Culin's successor in 1929 as curator of EthnologA.
\\nth
Her-
Bv 195"
Spinden was curator of the newly organized Department of ^\merican Indian

and Primitive Cultm-es created out of Stewart Culin's original Department
-\rt
He
continued to strengthen North American holdings bv borrowing cmd e\entualh acquiring the New-\brk Historical Societv's important
Eastern Plains Indian objects collected in the 1 830s bv Nathan Stinges Jarvir.
However. Spinden had committed his major curatorial energies to establishing Pre-Columbian art as a presence at the Museum based upon his passion for
the ancient Americas, especially .Andean art and textiles.
Spinden was in advance of collecting taste and scholarship in also acquiring post-Conquest ColonicJ material at a time when there was little North
.\merican museum interest in this aspect of the hemispheres art historv. In
941 he organized an important exhibition of Colonial and folk art of Latin
America. During the 1940s and 1950s, he also acquired Spanish Colonial
paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and costumes for se\'eral departments
forming a collection unique in .American museums.
During the same period. Curator of Contemporary .Art John I. H. Baur
(19091987). a pioneer scholar in the field of .\merican art history, was
making crucial additions to the coBection of eighteenth- and nineteenth
centiu-y North .American paintings and sculpture. Paralleling the strengths
.American pcdntings and sculpture is a watercolor collection distinguished by
comprehensive coverage of the nineteenth century in particular as well as
major holdings in the work of Sargent and ^^ ins low Homer. In 1 9 1 2 the first
twehe Homers were purchased from the artists brother, and with further
additions over the vears including fom superb works that had belonged to
Babbott given in 1978 the Museum has acquired an important collection of
Homers work in the medium.
The ^^ iUiam .\. Putnam Memorial Print Room was estahlished in 193"
to honor the Trustee and donor of prints. The creation of this study center
marked the separation of the Department of Prints and Dra^\ings from the
Library collections, where Carl O. Schnie^înd had succeeded Susan Hutchinson as Curator- Librarian. Lna Johnson assumed the curatorship when
Schniewind left for the .Art Institute of Chicago, continuing the National Print
exhibitions, a biennicJ survev of current work in the medium begim in 1921.
.\cquisitions from the Nationals have played a major role in establishing the
Museum "s strength as a survev coDection of five decades of contemporary
of Ethnolog^.
-American printmaking.
Photography has
also
been an important
process from the turn of the centurv".
tool in the
Museum educational
when Goodyear amassed hundreds
of
images of European moniunents that are today of interest as historical documents in the historv of the medium. .Although curators began to collect
photographs as art objects in the 1930s, they did not persist. Fortunately,
acquisition has now resumed with emphasis on current work paralleling the
Museum "s interest in contemporarv art m all media with the recent revived of a
curatorship of Contemporary .\rt.
In 1966 the Museum charted a new collecting area and adopted novel
methods of displav with the opening of tlie Frieda Schiff ^ârburg Memorial
Sculpture Garden. This outdoor gallerv of nineteenth- and twentieth -century
architectuTcJ ornament has become a favorite visitor retreat.
In his 1889 address to the Citizens" Committee, tlie Smithsonian Secre-
warned the supporters of the Museum

work would "never be finished."
tary
project
tliat. if
successful, tlieir
22
museum building has been provided, and the nucleus of a collection and
staff are at hand, the work of museum- building begins, and
this work, it is to be hoped, will not soon reach an end. A finished museum is a
dead museum, and a dead museum is a useless museum.
fJ
hen a
an administrative
The measure
of the founders" and their successors' achievement at "the work of

museum-building" is recorded in this volume. Far from being a static treasure
house, nothing including the building itself is ever "finished" at The
Brookh-n Museum. Change has been the constant. Each collection, each
department, has
internal
its
own
storv". its
own
cast of characters, a chain of events
and external that have charted or altered
contributed to the historv of the
Museum
its
course.
Each has
whole while institutional gOcds

have in turn exerted a powerful influence upon the growth of collections.
Curatorial departments have come and gone as holdings have been repeatedly
divided, redivided. and reorganized in efforts to define collections more
accurately.
The
collections
changed
changes in mission and curatorial
and patrons who continue
The
as a
to enrich
new scholarship emd

new audiences and to the donors
in response to
vision, to
Museum
earlier ethnographic orientation of the
holdings.
Museum has
left
a rich legacy
in the form of the non-\\estern collections as well as the core of the costume
Maiiy of Culin's pieces came from the field with context

than as isolated art objects. Consequentlv. the comprehensive
nature of the collections made it natural for the Museum to play a major role in
the ree\aluation of non-European cultures as worthy of aesthetic apprecia-
and
textile holdings.
intact rather
tiona role the Museum continues to play as successive generations discover

and rediscover the extraordinarv' collections housed here. The diverse collections at Brookl\Ta reflect a historv" of taste and of ideas about objects and their
makers in a way that those in other museums founded soleh' as museums of art
cannot.
\Miat
is
today
The Brookhii Museum began
in 1825 as
tending the benefits of knowledge" embodied in a
series
an idea "exof collections
through 164 vears of constant change. The audience changed. Brooklvn

changed, the building chcuiged. and the collection changed. The idea,
however, has remained constant as the mission that inspired the founding of
Brookhn Apprentices* Librar%\ The BrooklvTi histitute of .\rts and Sciences, and The Brookhn Museum.
I want to thank Joan Darragh and Leland M. Roth for the opportunity to
read their excellent essavs before publication in .4 \ew Brooklyn Museum: The
Master Plan Competition. Deborah \\\the offered invaluable support with her
the
expert knowledge of
Museum
archives.
am
especially grateful to Deirdre
LawTence for generously allowing me to consult her manuscript on Museimi

historv and her copious reseeirch files and for reviewing and commenting so
cogently upon my ovvti effort.
The following members
of the staff of The Brooklvn
Museum have written
the entries in this publication: Richard Fazzini. Curator. Robert S. Bianchi.
Romano. Associate Curator, and I3onald B.

Egyptian. Classical, and Ancient Middle Ea>tem
Associate Curator. James F.

Spanel. Research Associate.
and Ira Jacknis.

World
.\rt; Robert
Assistant Curator for Research, African, Oceanic, and New
Moes. Curator. Sheila R. Ccinby. .\ssociate Curator, and Amy G. Poster.
Associate Curator. Oriental .\rt; Elizabeth .Ann Coleman. Curator. Costumes
and Textiles: Dianne Pilgrim. Chairman. Kevin Stavton. Curator, and
Christopher W'ilk. .\ssociate Curator. Decorative Arts: Linda Konheim
Kramer. Curator. Barbara Head Millstein. .\ssociate Curator, and Barrv
Walker. Associate Curator. Prints. Drawings, and Photography: Sarah Faunce.
.Art:
Diane Fane. Curator. Francine
Farr. Assistant Curator,
Kotik. Curator. Barbara D. Gallati. Associate Curator.

Barbara Head Millstein. Associate Curator. .\nn Dumas. Assistant Curator.
and Teresa Carbone. Assistant Curator for Research. Painting and Sculpture:
and Deirdre E. LawTence. Chief Librarian.
Chairman. Charlotta
"^
Egyptian,
Classical,
and Ancient Middle Eastern Art
Early Female Figure
Egypt, El Ma'mariya
Predynastic Period,
(transitional), circa
Naqada Ila
35005400
B.C.
Terracotta, painted
1
Vi inches (29.5 cm) high
07.447.505,
Museum Excavations 19067
Since the 1880s archaeologists have

unearthed hundreds of pottery figurines of women in Egyptian Predynastic or prehistoric tombs. This
image and a nearly identical

from the same tomb are among
the few acknowledged masterpieces
striking
piece
of the type.
It
represents a slender
female raising her arms above her

birdlike
head and bending her
at-
tenuated fingers downward in a bold,
sweeping gesture. The entire figure

covered with a thin red wash. The
craftsman who made it applied a
is
layer of black resin to the
senting a
wig
head repre-
The
or hair.
figure's
lower body takes the form of a peg;
it
has been painted white to suggest a

skirt.
The meaning
of this statuette
is
unclear. Painted pottery vessels of
sometimes have represenshown on a much

larger scale than their masculine
companions. These figures have long
conical lower bodies and raise their
arms in a manner echoing the statuette. Their exaggerated size sugthis period
tations of females
gests that they played a supernatural

role,
perhaps as a goddess or guard-
ian of the deceased.
The unusual
head, resembling that of a great bird,
enhances the feeling of other worldliness. Since other Predynastic figu-
rines
show
faces,
we may presume
that the ar-
tisan
wished
imbue
this figure
naturalistically
to
modeled
with a nonhuman, perhaps divine,

appearance.
The rounded bottom prevented the

from standing. Only with the
end of the Predynastic Period were
figure
statues given bases enabling
them
to
stand upright.
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAI
AND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
25
Relief Representation
OF A Statue
Egypt. Saqqara.
Old Kingdom,
2345
Tomb D45
late
D\nasty \ (2475-
B.C.)
Limestone. 2974 inches (74.4 cm) wide

57.25E. Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Saqqara
D\Tiastv"
tions,
Tomb D 45 is dated to late

V on the basis of its inscrip-
and
this dating accords well
with the tombs

its
boldness.
relief style,
including
The physiognomy
of the
figure in this particular relief
is.
being only parparalleled in a few other works.
howe\'er. exceptional,
tially
Indeed, this face differs so
from
the
faces of
its
many
much
conventionalized
time that in the
last
cen-
Smenkhuptah and
ue's
Itwesh.
The
stat-
unconventional face has led some
scholars to interpret the phrase shesep

er
ankh accompaming
"statue according to
the
life'"
names
as
or "lifelike
image.
However, most scholars now transwords as "living" or '"re-
late those
ceiving statue"
reference to the
sculpture's magical functions. In fact,
the relief formed part of the largest
tury it was identified erroneously as a
kno\Mr Old Kingdom image of a
depiction of a non- Egyptian. Today
\ate persons statue, probably in a
remains one significant

focus of the ongoing debate over the
existence and nature of portraiture
in ancient Eg} ptian art. even though
scene where the sculpture received
this
it is
relief
not a representation of a person.
Egyptian reliefs of people normally show both shoulders frontally.

This relief. ho\\ever. clearly had
shoulders in profile,
making
resentation of a statue of
labeled
with
EGYPTLAN.
his
two
it
a rep-
its o\\7ier.
names
CLASSIC.AJL. .AND
offerings for
its
o^^ner"s spirit.
pri-
Some
image presumably reflect the type of sculpture

sho\Mi. one embodying an ideal state
of existence in which the image is
what one might call prosperously
portly. Nevertheless, there is someof the peculiarities of the
thing indeed "lifelike" about this

"livins
statue.
of
ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN
.\RT
26
Statue of Metjetji
Egypt, probably from Saqqara
Old Kingdom,
late D\-nasty
D}-nasty VI, circa
Wood,
Charles
contained
at least
deceased.
Tomb
cm) high
Egyptian tomb
one statue of the
statues
the
served as
sheltering
bodies,
substitute
They
B.C.
Edwin \Mlbour Fund
Every large-scale
spirit if
to early
stone, metal, gesso, painted
24'/8 inches (61.5

T
23602340
the
mummy were destroyed.
also received offerings of food,
and clothing brought by the

tomb owner's respectful descendants.
Since most tomb statues were
drink,
sealed in chambers, never to be seen
by mortal eyes, Egyptian artisans

did not feel compelled to reproduce
the subjects actual physical appear-
As long as the sculpture bore

an inscription with the correct names
and titles, the spirit could recognize
it and return to it for refuge and
ance.
nourishment.
Only on the
rarest of occasions do
we encounter
a statue that breaks
away from standard idealizing models and tempts us to believe that we

are gazing on a likeness of a specific
ancient Egyptian. This statue, representing a high official named Metjetji. is
such a piece.
The
lively face is
dominated by huge calcite and obsidian eyes. Their dowTiward cast suggests intelligence and contemplativeness,
the
perhaps characteristics of
man himself. The tautness
of the
and the head's ovoid shape are

rarely seen in the Old Kingdom. The
flesh
sculptor's decision to fashion a statue
of Metjetji with these features

to indicate that
of the
man
seems
they were distinctive
himself.
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAJ., AND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
27
Pepy
II
AND His Mother
Eg^-pt, possibh" from Saqqara

Old Kingdom. Dynasty M. circa 2220
2210 B.C.
cm) high
Calcite. i5~/i6 inches {39.2
39.1 19. Charles Ed\\in
Pepy
II
ascended
WUbour Fund
Egyptian
to the
throne as a child, perhaps
at
the age
An
Old Kingdom document

seems to indicate that he ruled for
ninety-six years:
some scholars.
however, would shorten his reioii
o to
of six.
sixty-four vears.
This statuette shows Pepv
II as
child seated on the lap of his mother.
Queen Mer^Te-ankhnes. Xo doubt

the piece
was carved in the
earliest
years of his kingship. Pepy II appears

in
the traditional
Eg\"ptian
king:
cloth.
with
cobra.
and the
its
called a shend)-t.
costume of an
nemes-head-
the
protective
uraeus-
short goffered kilt
The
queen's trap-
pings, including her \\ig
and long
dress, recall representations of no-
blewomen
of the Sixth D^Tlast^^
The
tiny hole in her forehead, however,

testifies to
her royal status.
It
once
accommodated a queen's s\"mbol. the

golden head of a \-ulture. the earthlv
manifestation of the Mother Goddess
Mut.
Royal stone statues of the late Old
are extremely rare. AW are
Kingdom
quite small
and show the
dency,
recognizable in mid-Dv-
first
artistic ten-
nasty V, of car\dng the arms and legs
round rather than connecting them to the rest of the statue

fully in the
by awkward stone "bridges. This

figure of Pepy II is unique among
"
Sixth D}iiasty sculpture in
its
use of
two primary vie^^ s. Xormally. Eg^-ptian sculpture was meant to be seen

only from the front. By placing Pep\
II and his mother at right angles, an
innovative
sculptor
has
created a
work that must be seen from two
dis-
tinct views.
eg^ttlan;. classical,
and ancient middle eastern art
28
Recumbent Dog
Mesopotamia, perhaps from Babylon
Old Babylonian Period, circa 19th
ture existed for millennia in ancient
tention to naturalism that character-
How-
izes the finest creations of the Old

Babylonian Period. The sculptor paid
great attention to the dog's wrinkled
century
B.C.
8V4 inches (22.5 cm) long

51.220, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. .\lastair
Mesopotamia (modern
Aragonite,
Martin
strong tradition of animal sculp-
B.
Iraq).
few statues of animals have survived from the major historical periever,
This figure
reflects the great at-
Those that we do have seem to

come from temples and represent
muzzle; heavy jowls; thick, muscular
animals associated with
his representation
ods.
vinities.
specific di-
The dog was sacred
to the
neck; and stout torso. So faithful was

that
of these
we can recognize the dog as an

modern mastiff.
early form of the
goddess Gula, the consort of the

great Babylonian god Ninurta. Quite
The Mesopotamians used
probably this image was a votive
less
of-
fering left in the temple by a pious
adherent of Gula's
cult. It
mav
have
once stood in a sanctuary of that goddess, perhaps in
details
the fear-
mastiff to protect their flocks
against
rapacious
predators.
The
thick collar around the animal's neck

signifies ownership.
one of the temples of
Babylon.
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAL, AND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
^9
Royal
Woman
Originally from Egypt, found near
Rome, perhaps
at
Hadrians
yilla at
Tiyoli
Middle Kingdom. mid-Eh-nasty XII.

circa 19291878 B.C.
Chlorite. 15V8 inches (38.9 cm) high
56.85. Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Some
of the finest sculptures of an-
Egyptian women were carved

during the Twelfth Dynasty. Their
faces
convey a youthful radiance
wide-open eyes, fleshy cheeks,

and slender lips. This tendency is
most conspicuous on images of royal
\\ith
women
Female
these,
her head: onlv a tinv portion of her
Amenemhat II named Ita. was found
natural hair
the uraeiis.
cient
recumbent
This head is recognizable as a

queen or princess by the hairpin in
the form of a uraeus-cohra on her
forehead. A hea\y striated wig covers
imperfect
is
The
state.
visible just
beneath
statue survives in
The
an
eyes, originally
made
of stone
from
their sockets in antiquitv. In
and metal, were pried
and
chin have all experienced damage.
Since the end of the wig tails off
addition, the figures nose. lips,
toward the horizontal, we know this

head originally belonged to a figure
of" a
sphinx.
sphinxes enjoved great popularity in

the court of D^^Tiasts
at
showing
Qatna
XII.
One
daughter
of
of
in S\Tia. Its similarity to the
BrookhTi head suggests that they

were contemporaneous.
The heads recent history begins in
1771.
when Galvin Hamilton,
Scottish painter, acquired
Anv Egvptian
quality
was
Hadrian's villa
it
piece of this
probably
at Tivoli.
Romans brought
it
Rome.
size and
in
found
at
whence the
from Egypt.
EGYPTLAN, CLASSICAL, AND .ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
30
Sesostris
III
Egypt, probably from Hierakonpolis
Middle Kingdom,
circa
late D\iiasty XII.
1878-1840
B.C.
Black granite, 21 7i6 inches (54.5 cm)
high
Edwin Wilbour Fund
52.1. Charles
At the apex of Egyptian society stood

the indomitable figure of pharaoh.
ReHgious tradition taught that he
was a god incarnate, the earthly

manifestation of the Sky God Horus
who ruled and protected Egypt. One
of the mightiest of these divine phar-
w ith abtime when
aohs, Sesostris III, governed

solute
authority
at
Egypt was the world's paramount

power. Evidence suggests that
when
faced by an increasingly hostile feudal
Sesostris
nobility,
III
simply
stripped the landed gentry of
ancient rights
and
privileges.
all its
This
action reduced the nobles to the level
and consolidated
of nonentities
all
national power in the king's person.
This impressive statue of Sesostris

shows him sporting the traditional regalia of a king: the nemesIII
headcloth with
its
protective uraeus-
cobra, the shendyt-ki\t,

tail
between his
and the bull's
legs. Sesostris Ill's
role as protector of Egypt's borders
is
symbolized by the nine bows beneath

his feet, representing Egypt's nine
traditional enemies.
Since the king was seen as divine,

royal statues normally have idealiz-
ing faces, without the blemishes or

lines that
mar mortal
flesh.
Durina
(3
Sesostris Ill's reimi.

however royal
^... ..v,..^.^.,
sculptors
model.
abandoned
The
king's face
this
perfect
now
features
lidded eyes, deep creases

running across his cheeks, and a
firmly set mouth. Sesostris Ill's
heavily
statues
come
closer to conveying the
impression of a real person than any

earlier royal images.
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAL. AND ANCIENT MIDDLE E.\STERN ART
31
Statue of Squatting
Man
Pro\enance not known
Thirteenth D\iiasty (1781circa 1650
B.C.)
Brown
quartzite. 2-'/^ inches (69.8
cm)
high
62.-".
1.
Charles
Edwin
Fund
A\ilbour
This magnificent statue of an un-
named
person
superbly illustrates
continued
the
influence
of
late
Twelfth DMiasty royal scvilpture on
works commissioned by pri\ate persons

in
succeeding generations.
Every detail of the facial modeling is
the legacy of Sesostris III and
emhat
Amen-
the two most important
III.
rulers of the latter pai't of the
Kingdom. The hea\y
Middle
eyelids, shghtly
downcast eves, tightlv dra%Mi cheeks,
pursed mouth, and especially the

flaring ears are the distinctive characteristics of late
royal
and
Middle Kingdom
private sculpture. In the
Thirteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties, however, these details were simplified

for
and mannered. This
statue,
example, lacks the folds and mus-
cles
the
in
cheeks that give late
Twelfth D\Tiastv sculpture
its
force,
although the eyes do have an exaggerated brooding look.
The hands
are rather large and the fingers
flat,
and each body part is treated as a

distinct component, as if to signify
that the artist was pa\ing careful attention to his prototypes. As a reinterpretation
piece
is
of
earlier
work,
thi-
thus an invaluable illustra-
tion of the ancient Egyptians" outlook
on their own
art.
Sesostris III
was no doubt highly
regarded by his successor. Amenenihat III. and by contemporary and

later private
persons.
effective ruler
who
As a highly
perfectly fulfilled
his role as pharaoh, Sesostris III
em-
bodied a cosmic principle of equilibrium kno\\'n as nidat. Little wonder, then, that later persons
advertise their
the
features
sought to
own virtue by cop\ing

of
such
revered
ancestor.
EG\TTL\N, CLASSICAL, AND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN .\RT
3^
Mi NO AN Jug
Originally from Crete
Of all the potters
Purchased by Dr. Henry Abbott before

1852 (reportedly from Lower Egypt);
formerly in the
New- York
Historical
Minoan IB
1500
Period, circa
1575
B.C.
Pottery,
wheel-made,
fired,
burnished,
and painted.
8'
cm) high
57.15E. Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
'/i()
inches {22.2
^^
orld.
came
the closest to achieving a perfect har-
mony between
Society Collection
Late
of the ancient
those of Minoan Crete perhaps
painted decoration
and vessel shape. The Minoans' most

common motifs feature lively maritime scenes.
tili
On this vessel, five nau-
are framed by various species of
marine flora. The animals' hard

shells occupy the space just beneath
the vessel's widest point, calling at-
and
tention to the jug's solidity
ume. The
vol-
long, graceful tentacles of
upward
adding a
the nautili, however, extend
toward the neck and spout,

sense of lightness to the
pot's
upper
half.
In keeping with preclassical draw-
ing conventions, the painter combined two viewpoints in a single-fig-
ure frieze.
The
pure
while the water plants
profile
nautili
appear in
are seen from above. Such a merging

of views also characterizes
wall
painting,
including
Aegean
frescoes
from the island of Thera.

This jug was found in Egypt,
where it was. no doubt, sent as part of
the trade that flourished between
Crete and the Nile Valley during the
sixteenth
ference to
vessel's
tion.
century
B.C.
Its
Egypt is responsible
remarkable
Minoan
damp Cretan
transfor the
state of preserva-
pottery found in the
frequently shows
soil
severe surface deterioration. Burial

in the drier soil of
Egypt spared this

potter's art from
masterpiece of the
such a
fate.
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAL. AND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
33
Head of
lo
a King
Egypt, exact provenance not knowTi
New Kingdom.
DMiasty XMII. circa
1554-1504 BC.
Sandstone, painted, 24 '/4 inches
(61.8 cm) high
37.38E. Charles Edwin ^^ ilbour Fund

(formerly in the Abbott and
New- York
Historical Society Collections)
\Mth
the expulsion of the Hyksos,
Asiatics
who
ruled Egypt for more
than a century, Eg} ptian sculptors

faced the challenge of reviving an art
form that had been largely dormant

during the long period of foreign occupation. Since very few statues were
made in the final decades of Hyksos
rule, artisans working for the first
kings of Dynasty X\ÎII. -\hmose
(circa 15541526 B.C.) and .\munhotep I (circa 15291505 B.C.), were
not obliged to perpetuate a flourish-
ing
style,
histead, they were free to
seek inspiration from Egypt's long

ai'tistic past.
These
artists
devised sculptures
hearkening back to the

style of the early Middle Kingdom.
No doubt the historically conscious
Egyptians wished to draw a parallel
between that remote era. which
marked the beginning of a glorious
age in Egyptian history, and their
\Adth details
own
fledgling djuastv.
So similar is the art of earliest Dynast}" XII and D}iiasty X\ III that for
many years this uninscribed head
was attributed to the Middle Kingdom. ^ê now know it to be an Eighteenth Dynasty piece with a treat-
ment of the eyes, eyebrows, and

mouth deliberately recalling earh
Middle Kingdom roval sculptures.
Its
open, ingenuous expression and
curious
however,
half- smile,
characteristic of the
are
New Kingdom
and seem to invoke the sense
of confi-
dence that pervaded Egypt following

the reestablishment of native rule. In
all
probability the
x\hmose
head represents
and successor,
or his son
Amenhotep
I.
EG\TTIAN, CLASSICAL. .\ND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
34
Statue of Senenmut
1 1
Eg\pt. Armant
New Kingdom,
D\Tiasty X\'III, reign of
Hatshepsut (1479-1458
Gray
B.C.)
granite, i8'/2 inches (47.2
cm)
high
Edwin
6". 68. Charles
\Ailbour
Fund
Senenmut, one of the most powerful

of the time of the female
pharaoh Hatshepsut, had at least
officials
made
twenty- five statues
of himself.
These display a variety of innovative

types, including that of a private per-
son
offering
divine
s\Tnbol
or
image.
According to
statue depicts
image
inscription, this
its
Senenmut
offering
an
of Renenutet, a goddess of the
city of Armant,
on behalf of the well-
being of his sovereign and in the
hope of eternal blessings for himself.

However, as the cobra resting on a
pair of upraised
human arms and
crowned with cow horns and a

disk
is
solar
also a rebus for \'Iaat-ka-Re.
the throne
name of Hatshepsut, the

made to stand visible in
entire statue,
a temple, can be "read" as a state-
ment
that
Senenmut
offers the
of his sovereign. For the
name
same reason,
the statue can be viewed as a declaration of,
and an appeal
alty to a controversial
for, loy-
female phar-
aoh, who was likened to a goddess of

nourishment in accord with the traditional concept of pharaoh as sustainer of Egypt.
Stylistically the statue's oval face,
arched
eyes,
eyebrows, widely opened

narrow and straight mouth,
and aquiline nose

plains
why
it
to several
era.
This ex-
relate
royal sculptures of
scholars
its
still
debate the
question of whether any of these features reflect Senenmut's actual phys-
iognomy rather than the influence of

a royal atelier. wIumicc the statue
may
have come.
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAL. AND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
35
The Lady Thepu
12
Egypt. Thebes.
Tomb
New Kingdom.
Dîiasty
reign of
reign of
1549
Amimhotep
Amunhotep
181
XMII.
late
III-\ery early
T\
1360
(circa
B.C.)
Painting on gesso over
mud
plaster
14V4 inches (37.6 cm) high

65.197. Charles Edwin Wilbom- Fund
Although painting, as distinct from

painted reUef. was used for Egyptian
tomb decoration from \ery early to
very late times, it was seemingly
most popular during the New King-
dom in the
cemeteries in the
southern
the
capital
cliffs at
Thebes.
of
There, where the stone was not
ways suitable
carving,
for
al-
artists
evolved stales of painting that exploited
many
the
of
medium's
potentials.
One apogee
of this painting tradi-
was reached in the reign of

Amunhotep III and survived into the
tion
very
early
part
of
the
reign
Amunhotep IV (Akhenaten).
that also ^^'itnessed the
of the
art
of the
first
of
a time
flowering
Amarna
Period.
Amunhotep III ruled over an Egypt

made wealthy and cosmopolitan h\
its
military, commercial,
tural contacts
^^'ith
and
cul-
other lands, a fact
that helps account for the sophisti-
cated elegance and opulence evi-
denced in much of the
art of his era.
such as this painting of the Lady

Thepu. with her elaborate wig and
headband, lavish jewehv. and

diaphanous garment.
This image comes from a scene in
which Thepu accompanied her deceased son. Nebamun. a Chief
Sculptor and Administrator of ^ôrkshops. in making burnt offerings to
the gods as part of an annual religious ritual of great magical benefit
to the noble dead. Although Thepu
appears to have been depicted as still
alive, in keeping with the Egyptian
floral
fancy,
desire to represent the ideal, essen-
and eternal essence of a subject,

shown as young and beautiful
despite the fact that she must have
been advanced in vears.
tial,
she
is
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAL. .AAD .\NCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
36
13
Nefertiti
Eg\pt. Karnak
(Amun
New Kingdom,
D\Tiasty XVIII, circa
13651361
B.C.
Sandstone, painted,
{42.3
Precinct)
i6''/
inches
cm) wide
78.39, Gift of Christos G. Bastis
Amunhotep IV
changed his name to Akhenaten and
moved the Egyptian capital from
Thebes to El Amarna. By then
Amunhotep IV had already drastically altered traditional Egyptian
art and religion. Prior to his kingship pharaohs appeared as perfect
beings with flawless faces and slenIn Year 5 of his reign,
der, well-conditioned torsos.

larly,
Simi-
the major gods of earlier times
similar rejection of classic
The
style.
royal couple appears with elongated
eyes set at
straight
an unnatural
slant,
emaciated
noses,
long
cheeks,
\\'ith knobby
and attenuated necks. Both
king and queen invariably show
thick lips, lantern jaws

chins,
bodies with swollen, almost feminine

breasts, a distended
spindly
This
arms and
relief
abdomen, and
legs.
represents
Nefertiti
assumed some combination of

human and animal form.
Amunhotep IV soon abandoned
presenting offerings to the Aton; the
these conventions. In the precinct of
The
often
the god
Amun
at
Karnak he erected
several sanctuaries to the Aton.
This
tiny ankh-sign before her nose
is
proffered by one of the Aton's rays.
block probably
came from
the
Hewt-benben, the Atohs Karnak

sanctuary where Nefertiti served as
The hierogH^hic
mysterious version of the sun god
principal celebrant.
looked like no other Egyptian deity.
behind the queen mentions Princess Mer\1:-Aton; no doubt

her figure originally appeared be-
appeared in purely iconic form: a

sun disk whose projecting rays ended in tiny hands. Images of the king
and his consort, Nefertiti, show a
It
inscription
hind her mother.
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAI., AND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
37
Statue of Sa-Iset
14
Eg%"pt. Assiut
New Kingdom.
Eh"nasty XIX. reign of

Ramesses 11 (12791212 B.C.)
Wood. 22'/i X5'/jX6 inches
(57. oX 14. oX 15.5 cml
47. 120.2. Charles Exlxîn Wilbour Fund
^êre this sculpture uninscribed.
it
would be attributable to EhuastA

XIX (12911 185 B.C.) on the basis of
the
st\"le
of
its
finelv detailed wig.
its
and its
physiognomy, although its face
once enlivened bv inlcdd eyes and
eyebrows de\'i ate s to some extent
from more conventional faces of that
elaborately pleated gcirments.
era. Happily, the statues mscriptions
not
onh place
it
in the exceptionally
long reiofn of Ramesses

ate
it
11
and
associ-
yyith the cit\ of Assiut. they also
identify
it
as belonging to Sa-Iset.
Royal Scribe and Overseer of the
Granaries
of
Upper
and
Lower
Egy^t. .\lthough two like-named
and like-titled men grandfather

and grandson are knoyvn from EhAssiut. it is most probable
nast\
XK
that this statue

Iset.
is
of the second Sa-
who held office during the latter
Ramesses 11 "s reign and the

beginning of the reign of Merenptah (12121202 B.C.). Much
part of
very'
more problematic are the questions of

yvhether. as has been argued, the
faces of the RrooklyTi Sa-Iset and a
few other statues of. or probably of.
Sa-Iset the \ounger deyiate sufficiently from artistic comentions of
their time to yvarrant the label "portraitlike"
and whether they resemble
each other sufficiently to help attribute them all to the second SaIset.
Sa-Iset
a divine
is
represented here holding
staff, a
pose that in private
was limited to the Neyv

Kingdom and yvas particularly common in the time of Ramesses II. The
statuary
inscriptions indicate that
it
yvas a staff
of ^êpwawet. chief god of Assiut.
and
that one function of the sculp-
ture yvas to help ensure that Sa-Iset

yvould enjoy his god's aid in achiev-
ing a long lifetime and a blessed existence in the hereafter.
EG\TTL\N\ CLASSIC.\L, AND .\NCIENT NUDDLE EASTERN ART
38
Cartonnage of
Nespanetjerenpere
15
Egypt, Thebes
Third Intermediate Period, probably

Dynasty XXII (945-718 B.C.)
Cartonnage (linen or papyrus mixed

with plaster), inlaid with glass and
lapis lazuli (eyes and eyebrows)
695/4 inches (177.0 cm) long
35.1265, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
A mummy cartonnage is a container

for a
body and was normally interred
within a coffin or sarcophagus of
more durable material. This cartonnage was made for a man named
Nespanetjerenpere, whose priestly titles
suggest he lived in the southern
capital of Thebes.
date
is
based on
its
The cartonnage's
medium, general
(including the almond-shaped

and slightly arched eyebrows),
and scheme of decoration. Every aspect of its form and decoration had
style
eyes
the magical purpose of helping to
ensure
happy hereafter
shown receiving
from a god-
ceased with the gods. This intention
back, where he
image of the
ram-headed solar deity on the chest
and the scene of Horus and Thoth
life-giving water twice
is
also evident in the
erecting the djed, spnbol of endin-ingness, and the god Osiris, on the
back.
More unusual
is
the decoration
is
dess and then kneeling under a flow

of
life signs.
This massing of divine images,

and magical texts
in lively colors on a white ground is
jiropitious svinbols,
of the front panels,
characteristic of funerary furnish-
depiction of Nespanetjerenpere
which for the most

part consists of deities whose accompanying texts identify each of them
wrapped as a mummy, the braided

and curled ''divine beard" indicates
with a part of Nespanetjerenpere's

body. The priest also appears in hu-
an intention
man guise in these panels and on the
w idespread tomb robberies, prominent

and well-decorated sepulchers were
not made.
for
its
owner.
to
associate
the
de-
ings
w hen,
of
Nespanetjerenixre's
era.
in part as a reaction to
39
"
'
ir-
"^
-X-
^ti),
Winged Gexie
16
Iraq.
Xinuud
(Assyria I.
from Room
of tlie Northwest Palace

Reign of Ashur-nasir-pal
859
participating in religious rituals.
Brookhii
II.
circa
885
Museum
The
possesses twelve
of the earliest Ass\Tian palace reliefs:
B.C.
Alabaster. 9
inches (251.1
55.153. Gift of
cm
high
Hagop Kevorkian
all
were removed from Ashur-nasir-
pal lis royal residence at
Ximrud
in
1855 but did not reach Brookhn until
Beginning
nasir-pal
in the reign of
II.
Ashiu-
Asswian kings deco-
rated the lower portion of their palace

walls
A\"ith
monumental
alabaster re-
These reliefs show the king performing the official duties of an AsSNiian ruler: fighting, hunting lions,
governing, overseeing the crops, and
hefs.
1955.
This slab depicts a great winged

genie who attends the king at a religious ceremony. He holds a single
ritual object, a pail, which mav have
contained liquid used to purify the
"Sacred Tree." a major icon of Ass^Tlan
religion.
The
braided hair and beard

ino;
Ions
ai'e
in keep-
with the fussiness of Ass\Tian
royal art.
He
wears a fringed shawl
draped over his knee-length, tasseled tunic. The ensemble is enhanced by an elaborate array of
jeweh-y. including a rosette
on
his
forehead, earrings, bracelets, and a
beaded necklace. The handles of two

daggers project from beneath the
genies sha\\l.
long cuneiform text appears
across the center of this
and other
scenes from Ashur-nasir-pal lis palace.
This "Standard Inscription" re-
counts the major events in the
il-
lustrious reign of the self- proclaimed
"Kins
of the ^ôrld."
EGYPTL\N. CLASSICAL. _\ND .\NCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
40
Amun-Re and Mut

EgA pt. Thebes. Karnak
Ehnasty XX\. circa -60656 B.C.
Sandstone, 29 x 51 x V4 inches
(-5.5X 79.0X4.5 cm)
1
87.184.2. Charles
Edwin Wilbour Fund
quarter of the
In the
first
nium
B.C. a
first
millen-
powerful state arose in
Kush (modern Sudan), far to the

south of Egypt proper. This state was
to survive for centiu-ies to
come. Far
shorter lived was the conquest and

control of
who
Eg\ pt by
six of its kings,
are counted as Egypt's
XX\th
While their own civilizaaccommodated Egypinfluences, in Egypt these Kush-
some details of costume or

though not always hints of a Kushite phvsiognomy in the depiction of
hea\'\- noses, prominent cheekbones,
and full mouths. Those same featmes could also be used for represenin
tations of other indi\ iduals
the gods. Such
is
emd even
certainly the case
D\iiasty.
with the relief illustrated, especially
tion rapidly
the figure of the goddess,
tian
all
ite
kings played the role of traditional
which
is
in
respects a splendid example of
royal relief at the southern
Egyptian
the Egyptian art created for them.

To be sure, some Egyptian depic-
Thebes during the second

half of Dynasty XX\.
The great god Amun-Re and his
tions of their Kushite overlords are
consort
decidedly un-Egyptian in terms of
tliroughout
appearance and royal

regalia. Nevertheless, most Eg> ptian
art of Dynasty XX\ is characterized
by the continuing evolution of native
styles that reflect Kushite influence
at
pharaohs. a fact clearly reflected in
their ph} sical
capital of
Mut
worshiped
were
EgApt and Kush. but
their traditional and most venerable
Eg\ptian cult places were at Keu-nak
Thebes, also the location of many
most important building pro-
of the
jects of
Ehnastv
XXV
EG^TTIAN, CLASSICAL. VND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
in Egypt.
41
18
Reliefs from the

of the Vizier
Tomb
Nespeqashuty
that
In the upper register of the section of
messages aversion to death,

and loss of separation, the
affluence of a man whose family
could afford numerous professional
mourners much more by poses,
gestures, and garb than by facial features. Here the women are wearing a
mourning garb with a tie at the
waist. leaWng the breasts bare, but
rehefs ilhistrated here
their faces are virtually expression-
timately from depictions as
Egypt. Thebes.
Tomb
Late Period, EhuastA' XX\I.
Psamtik
(664610
reigî of
B.C.):
Limestone, section illustrated:

29'/j inches (75.2
cm) high
52.151.1 .32 and 68.1. Charles E^win

\\ ilbour
Fund
is
part of a
depiction of funeral ceremonies for

the vizier Nespeqashuty.
Though the
Egyptians behe\ed death

might be followed by life eternal,
they were not emxious to leave the
existence they knew. Hence the presence here of female mourners who.
as in much Eg\-ptian art. convey
ancient
their
after
the pain
B.C.)
less.
at
The man
the
left
\\-ith
a qui\er of arrows
was presumably part
of a
DMiasty X^
III
(1550-1291
suggests that these figures
cire
part of a living artistic tradition, they

also clearlv
much
owe some debt to \\ orks of

earlier age.
This archaiz-
ing, a tendency displayed by

art of
Xespeqashutvs time,
much
is
also
apparent in the lower register of
female offering-bearers. Deri\'ed uleai'ly in
date as Dîiasty IV (26002475 B.C.)

of personifications of estates estab-
bearing to
lished
Xespeqashutvs tomb the funerary

equipment he might wish or need in
spirits
by kings to furnish their

with offerings of food and
drink.
Xespeqashuty's figures are
the hereafter.
related to their
procession
\\ hile
of
the
figures
existence
of
related
female figures in works inade well
scendants, that
Xew Kingdom
is.
de-
to depictions of of-
fering-bearers of less exalted status.
eg\ttiax, classical. .\nd .\ncient middle eastern art
42
Portrait of Wesirwer
ig
D)7iasty
Green
XXX, 580542
schist, 6'/i6
glyphs that read "\êsir-wer." or
B.C.
inches (15.4 cm)
high
55.
-5, Charles
Edwin \Mlbour Fund
The
identification and dating of this

head were the resuh of a continuing
international collaboration aimed at
developing a more complete assessment of the true aesthetic achievements of ancient Egypt, hi the 960s
a European Eg\ ptologist noticed that
the top of the back pillar of the statue
1
is
decorated with a figural scene de-
picting the deity Osiris seated on a

throne, the side of which
with a swallow.
Upon
is
decorated
reflection
and that that phrase is

a rebus, or visual pun, for the name
of a man \\ ho had been identified in
the inscriptions on a headless statue
"Osiris
it
was noticed that the god and the bird

are, in and of themselves, hiero-
is
great, "
in the Cairo
Museum.
Since the di-
mensions of the breaks of both head

and body are identical, it appeared
that the pieces belonged together
hvpothesis confirmed when casts of
the originals were joined break to
break.
The history of the
statue could now
had been erected

originally in the Temple of Amun at
Karnak during DMiasty XXX. At a
somewhat later time, however, the
be determined.
priests of the
It
temple reverently bur-
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAL.
WD
it along with hundreds of others

during a routine weeding out of the
dedicatory statues then cluttering
the site. Subsequently the head
seems to ha\e been broken off and
separated from its body that is. un-
ied
til
the 1960s,
when
for a short time,
head and body were reimited

Brooklvu
at
Tin-
Museum.
The modeling
of the portrait
is
both abstracted and mamiered. ex-
ecuted with subtly merging planes.

Earlier academic formulas have been
adapted and modified in a schematic

way so as to produce a mask like im-
age
that, altliough
ality,
still
divorced from re-
engages the
spectator's
interest.
.\NCIENT MIDDI F EASTERN .\RT
43
^>IÛ%K.
'^
1^
r
iV'
"^^Hk^^b
Ji
Statuette of
20
Alexander the Great

Egypt
Probably
1st
century
b.c.
Alabaster, 4'/h inches (10.5
54.162, Charles
cm) high
Edwin Wilbour Fund
Right: actual size
ander had features that clearly distinguished him from all other men.
Of his contemporarv portraits, none

was more famous than that created
by the court sculptor Lysippos. The
In 332 B.C. Alexander the Great entered Egypt without a struggle. The
Roman biographer Plutarch, writing
welcomed
who would free
described that image in his Life of

Alexander as one depicting Alex-
native Egyptians heartily
him
as the liberator
them from
the oppressive yoke of the
Persians then ruling the country.
He
was subsequently crowned as pharaoh at Memphis, the religious capital

of the land, traveled to the
remote
Oasis at Siwa in the Western Desert,
and
own hands
in
Greek
in the second century a.d.,
ander with a melting gaze in his eyes
and his head inclined to one
side over
his left shoulder.
This remarkably well-preserved

is based on that famous
work. Because of its small size, it was
statuette
the
probably the focal point of a private
city
the undisputed
shrine erected in honor of Alexander

by a wealthy Egyptian. Conforming
cultural center of the classical world.
to the luxurious tastes of the times,
For the next nine years he
the white alabaster bust
laid out
with his
foundations for Alexandria,
destined to
completing
known
become
his
the
course
set
conquest
about
of
the
When
world.
Babylon in 323
B.C.,
of
he died in
he had changed
history
and
had
brought the culture of Greece to the

nations of the East. His body was
ceremoniously laid to rest in his be-
was
initially
draped body sculpted from

a different-colored stone. That sense
of color was enhanced by the addiset into a
tion of a
diadem representing the
ravs of the sun. each metal spike of
which was affixed
means
to the
head by
of tiny drill holes that are
The
sculptor
still
was an accom-
loved Alexandria in a sumptuous

tomb, which has yet to be discovered.
Alexander the Great not only
piece with jewel-like precision, as
changed the course
of history but
subsequent develop-
evident from the rendering of the
He was
sketchy, almost impressionistic ren-
also affected the
ment
the
of
Western art
first
Greek ever
his portrait
of
history.
to
during his
complexion,
commission
lifetime. Fair
exceedingly hand-
some, and boyish in appearance with

a full
head
contempoa lions mane. Alex-
of hair that his
raries likened to
visible.
plished master and has crafted the
irises
and pupils
dering of the hair
of the eyes.
is
times
when
the
The
but one indica-
tion that this statuette could
been sculptured
is
have
in late Hellenistic
memory
of Alex-
ander was linked to Egypt's renewed

imperial aspirations.
45
The Brooklyn Black

Head
4744
B.C.
Diorite. i6'/4 inches (41.3
58.30. Charles
This head,
diorite
Edwin
cm) high
^îlbou^
named for the hard, black
from which
sculpted,
it is
quintessentially Egyptian
owes nothing
tistic
Fund
to
traditions.
work
is
that
Graeco- Roman arIn keeping with
pharaonic sculptural principles of the
Late Period, the
artists have conendeavored to juxtapose the

smoothly polished surfaces of the
face with the rough surfaces of the
sciously
hair,
only the
which have the

ticulated.
first
three rows of
indi^"idual strands ar-
The remaining
curls are
The
only roughly blocked out.
hair
does not grow organically from the

scalp, as in classical works,
rests
on the head
such observations,
but rather
like a cap.
it
is
From
evident that
punctuated with
faintly incised lines
are e\ident onlv in the frontal \iew
crab-
that effectively paint a picture of a
and are not de\eloped
claw configuration of locks lapping

the forehead, is rendered by purely
mature man. That maturitv is emphasized by the gaunt, sunken cheeks,

by the naso-labial furrows emanating from the wings of the nose to the
corners of the mouth, by the thin,
pencil-lined horizontal lips, and by
the heavy, upper lids of the typically
rendered Egyptian wide-open eyes.
All these physiognomic features
views. This absence of an integration
this classical coiffure,
pharaonic
stvlistic
with
its
means. The same
conclusion applies to the sculpting of

the features of the face, which are
modeled as a series of subtly merging

planes enhanced by linear adjuncts.
So. for example, the subtle undulations of the forehead
and cheeks are
of the front
and
in the profile
side views of a face,
wholly lacking in de\eloped Hellenistic
mark
and Roman portraits, is a hallof Egyptian art in all periods.
All the features of the head,
when
taken singly, can be paralleled on

other Eg}^tian portraits of the Late
Period.
EGYPTL\N. CLASSICAL. .\ND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
46
22
Ibis
Coffin
Probably from
Tuna el-Gebel (Greek
Hermopolis. modern Ashmunein)

Ptolemaic Period (305-50 b.c.)
Gilded wood, rock crystal, gold, and
silver
23'/2Xi5 inches (58.7X38.2 cm)

Edwin Wilbour Fund
49.48. Charles
Most
likely
from the
vast
animal
cemetery of Tuna el-Gebel in Middle Egypt, this beautifully fashioned

coffin once held the mummified re-
mains of ancient Egypt's most sacred

bird. The ibis was the more common
manifestation of the god Thoth, who
is sometimes also depicted as a baboon. Indeed,
Tuna el-Gebel has
\-ielded the mummies of thousands of
ibises
and baboons.
Thoth was the god of scribes and

was equated by the Greeks with
Hermes. Perhaps because writing
was considered an activity reserved
for the elite, he was also associated
The
with wisdom in general. In
pecially fine,
some
New Kingdom
texts.
fact,
Thoth
languages, not
in
is
eyes are rock crystal set in gold
bands, and the head,

are
made from pure
and tail
Dating to
legs,
silver.
the Ptolemaic Period, the coffm
unique but
is
not
nonetheless an es-
is
large,
and well-pre-
served example of its type.
The
artist
just
has adroitly captured the sinuous
often
in vignettes of illustrated fu-
curve of the beak and neck, and the

highly detailed legs are evidence of
nerary pap\Ti, such as the Book of the
the ancient Egyptian craftsman's care-
the creator of
all
Egyptian. As a scribe, he
shown
Dead,
at the
judgment
is
of the de-
ceased, talhdng the results on his
notepad as the dead person's heart
is
weighed against the feather of truth.

This coffin is fashioned from silver
and wood overlaid with gold leaf.
anatomy.
an occasional
ful observation of
Even
today,
ibis
can
be seen in rural Egypt, strolling

freely
through the
fields
and irrigaNow. as
tion canals of the Nile Valley.
then, the ibis
is
a treasured bird.
47
23
Funerary Cartonnage
OF A Lady of Means
Egypt
Roman
Imperial Period.
1st
century a.d.
Linen, painted and gilded gesso, with

various inlays
22"'L\
inches (57.8
69.35, Charles
cm) high
Edwin Wilbour Fund
Despite their conquest of Egypt in
amples in gold, reveal
50 B.C., the Romans were initially

unable to alter the cultural fabric of
the country. Wealthy Egyptians continued to practice their millennia -old
was in his depiction of

jewelry. These include a pair of stunning U-shaped earrings and two
and the pious habit-
green beads and the second a lavish,

bejeweled creation, most of the inlays of which are. unfortunately, no
religious beliefs,
ually interred their deceased with all
the traditional funerary parapher-
just
how
accu-
rate the artist
necklaces.
The
first
is
a string of
nalia. Nevertheless, the use of gold
longer extant, hi addition, the figure
human-
shaped, sarcophgtgi gradually gave
wears two finger rings, two bracelets,

and an armlet, all of which are ser-
way to cartonnage.
pent-form.
and wood
for anthropoid, or
a combination of
Her
right
palm
layers of papyTUS and/or linen coated
hand garland
with gesso, or plaster, which resembles modern papier-mache. The cartonnage was modeled by hand to depict the features of the deceased and
while still wet could be inlaid with
against her chest while her
exam\\ liicli
eyebrows.
and
ple, in the eyes
are made of glass and faience, a typically Egyptian glazed material. The
her wraj)around skirt
various materials, as seen, for
finished object could then be both
painted and gilded.
The deceased here is depicted as a

wealthy and fashionable Roman matron.
Her
coiffure
ranged as a
tightly
is
elaborately ar-
series of three
twisted
spiral
rows of
locks
that
frame her forehead and are
set off
a series of corkscrew locks
at either
by
Her accessories, most

which are known from actual ex-
presses a
of rose-colored jx^tals
left
hand
Her
clasps a cluster of ears of wheat.
costume consists of an opulent

Egyptian three-piece ensemble, the
fringed shawl of which is knotted to
To the
at
her bicast.
ancients, the serpent,
annually shed
its
who
and ulieat.
again from seed
skin,
which would s|)roiit

stored dining the winter season.
wtMC sNUibols of rel)irtli in the liereafter.
tire
These attributes, like the en-
cartonnage
an attempt
itself
itself,
were gilded in
to imitate gold, a material
imbued
with
the
SMiilwlic
values of incorruptibility and jX'nnanence. Thus, this
matron
side of her face.
the
of
tion.
is
anonymous Roman
w itii
ostentatiously dressefl
means
to
ensure her resurrec-
EGYPTIAN, classical, AND ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
49
24
Head of the
Omphalos Apollo
Greece. Athens
Roman
450
copy after an original of 460
B.C.
Mairble. 125/4 inches (52.4
18.166.
from
cm) high
The \\ood\vard Fund cmd
.\.
One
the
Augustus HeaK'
a gift
of the cultural characteristics of
Roman
Imperial Period was the
propensity to collect copies of famous
Greek works
of art.
some
of
which
were made over five centuries earlier.

The originals have, for the most part,
disappeared %\-ith the passage of
time, but a knowledge of and an appreciation for those works is provided
by the Roman replicas, which often
survive in numbers. Such is the case
for the so-called
Omphalos Apollo,
been identified
He was invoked whenever law codes

were ratified and was habitually offered as an example of both the highest moral principles and uncompromising religious tenets. This unsullied, upright god wâs represented
in art as the ideal of youthful, but
postpubescent, male beauty, an image consunmiately captured in this
head of the Omphalos Apollo. The
god is depicted w ith his head turned
slightly to one side, and with his long
replicas of which have
locks, characteristically
The RrookhTi Museum. London's

British Museum. Pariss Lou\Te. and
Athens's National Museum. The stat-
middle of his brow, tied up in a
in
ue is neimed after an altar, in the

shape of a stylized everted navel, or
omphalos, with which it was found in
1862 in the Theater of Dionysos beneath the South Slope of the Acropolis in Athens. This om.phalosshaped altar was a conscious allusion
to Delphi, the most famous oracular
center associated with Apollo. That
site was anciently considered to be in
the center of the
known world
in the
same way that the navel was regarded as the center of the body,
midway between the crown of the
head and soles of the feet.
Apollo, the Greek god of music,
archery, prophecy, medicine, and to a
lesser degree the care of flocks and
herds, was also associated with the
loftier,
parted in the
of braids visible at the back.
series
The
eyes
and mouth, with its parted lips, are

no longer arranged on strictly horizontal planes, a feature that departs
from
earlier traditions
and
antici-
pates that found later in the sculpture
high classical period. The submodeling of the facial lineaments

has been somewhat obscured by a
of the
tle
disquieting coating of the svu'face in

the nineteenth century with a resolutely unremovable material that attempted to mask the infelicitous restoration of a nose that has since been
removed. The treatment of the
hair,
especially the drill holes in the ends
on the forehead, indicates

head is a copy of the second
of the locks
that this
century a.d. of a bronze original

tributed
to
the
Attic
Calamis.
ethical aspects of civilization.
EGYPTL\N. CLASSICAL. AND ANXIENT MIDDLE EASTERN ART
at-
sculptor
^5
Beasts of Prey and

Their Quarries
Eg>pt
Roman
Imperial Period, circa a.d. 300
This
or
frieze,
band
Painted limestone
decoration,
14X51 inches (35.6 X 129.5 cm)

41.1266. Charles Edwin Wilbour Fmid
un\\ eathered that
adorned an
ing.
The
different
is
of sculptural
so well preserved
it
and
must have once
interior wall of a build-
sculptors have used several
types
of
drill
and
bits
chisels to sculpture the stone in order

to achieve the desired effect of light
and shadow across the surface

composition. Notice
how
of the
the con-
tours of each of the fixe beasts stand
out vividlv from the scarcelv visible
dark background. That effect would

have been originally heightened by
the application of paint, faint traces
of
which
there
if
ai-e
still
visible here
and
one looks carefidlv. The skins

been embellished
of the beasts have
each animal and contributes

feeling that the chase
in a dense forest. Moreover, the atti-
tudes of the weaker animals
of Coptic art. that
is.
creations of the
early Christians in Egypt.
designation
much
tic
is
of what has
been labeled Cop-
art has great affinities in both
and theme with the
style
duction of the RomcQi
animals are. from left to

right, a wild boar chasing a hart, a
hyena stalking a canine, and a spotted beast. A floral motif, perhaps to
be identified as laurel, surrounds
five
whole.
The
this relief
the
Such a
inappropriate because
wiih a varietv of lines or dots that
The
\\'ith
heads turned back are echoed

by the S-cufve of the tendrils, which
like\\ise turn back toward the spectators left. Such a compositional device is artfully employed to suggest
the ultimate outcome in which the
boar and hyena will fell their prey.
In the past, such relief representations have been considered examples
their
would have been filled \Wth black

pigment in order to depict each beast
as distinctivelv as possible.
to the
taking place
is
artistic pro-
Empire
as a
between
commissioned by
close parallels
and
that
Roman Emperor
Diocletian for
his palace in Split, \ugoslavia.
show
that this wonderfully pla\fid piece
is
better regarded as a product of the

late
Roman Empire.
egvptl\n. classical, and ancient middle eastern art
3-
African,
Oceanic,
and
New World
Art
\i
Gong
26
Nigeria: Benin people
i6th century
Ivory
1
4 '/8 X 3 V4 X 2
inches
'/4
X9.5 X 5.4 cm)

58.160. A. Augustus Heedy and Freink
L. Babbott Funds
(55.8
One
of only five in existence, this
intricately
carved ivory gong
an
is
exquisite record of the great political
and
artistic florescence of
Kingdom
the Benin
in the sixteenth centurv.
Because ivory was also carved

iting Portuguese,
bear in
mind
it
that
it
is
for vis-
important to
was
mid-
in the
fifteenth century, before the arrival

of
Europeans, that a particular king

encouraged ivorv carving and
ioba)
consolidated the visual vocabulary of
Benin divine kingship that lasted

hundred vears.
for
five
The medium,
function,
and
ico-
nography of this rare gong unequivocally connote royal power, wealth,
and
purity.
The
front of the
gong
oba supported by two retainers. Except for the large bead

necklace worn by the oba and the
snakes that issue from his waist, the
figures are identical. The bead necklace may be a reference to the conflict
between the sixteenth-century oba
Esigie and his brother .-\ruaran. who
fought for ownership of a special
coral bead granting the power to
make proclamations. The color and
economic value of the ivorv in addidepicts the
tion to the representation of croco-
and mudfish are s\TnOlokun. the sea god. who is

the oba's equal in the spirit world.
diles, snakes,
bols of
The
function of this gong was presumably similar, if not identical, to

that ot the undecorated gong used in
the present-day Emobo ceremony in
which the oba annually purifies and
strengthens the Benin nation by
dancing and striking the gong to
eradicate malevolent spirits.
APRICAN, OCEANIC, AND
NEW WORLD
ART: AFRICA
T3
HORXBLOWER
27
Nigeria: Benin people

1
7th century
Leaded brass. 23'/-!X-'/j inches

(59.5 X ig.o cm)
55.87. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B.
Martin
This freestanding representation of a

courtier placing a side-blo\\ii horn is
an outstanding example of the famous bronzes of the Benin Kingdom
of southern Nigeria. The casting of
bronze and brass objects was very
much a royal prerogative, for only the

king (oba) could commission objects
from the casters, who were organized into guilds. The oba would have
kept this beautifully cast and engraved hornblower on the altar of one
of his forefathers.
According to Benin oral tradition,

was introduced by the
neighborino; Kingdom of Ife around
the end of the fourteenth century.
Recent scholarship suggests, however, that brass casting had an earlier and more dispersed origin in
brass casting
Nigeria.
The
leaves
circle
with four projecting
decorating the hornblower's
costume refers to the river leaves of

Olokun. the Benin god of the waters,
and is also associated with the four
cardinal directions. This quatrefoil
design may have been adajjted from
European or Islamic design for use in
Benin sMiibolism. Other s\Tnbols include hinuan and animal heads and
the moon. The leopard's head motif
on the skirt front alludes to the association of the oba \\ ith the power fid
leopard each a king in its resjjective domain.
AFRICAN. OCE.\MC. AND NEW
WORLD
ART: AFRICA
56
Bom Bosh
28
Zaire: Kuba people

Mid- 8th century
1
Wood
(Crossopteru: febrifugo)
cm) high
ig'/2 inches (49.4
61.53, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert E.
Bhim. Mr. and Mrs. .\lastair B.

Martin. Mr. and Mrs. Donald M.
Oenslager. and the Mrs. Florence E.
Blum Fund
commemorative portrait of
King Bom Bosh is the oldest of eleven
This
such figures known in the world.

One hundred years after his reign,
Bom Bosh became the first Kuba
king to be memorialized in this

form.
The
tradition of these effigies,
called ndop,
was
instituted
Bope Pelenge between

1
by King
1760 and
780 as a means of materially ex-
pressing an increased authority of
Kuba
divine kingship.
More
specifi-
Bope Pelenge abolished the national cult of nature spirits, of which

the king was viewed as a mere priest,
in favor of a cult of the king as paramount nature spirit. Thus, where
previously there had been no ancestor cult among the Kuba, the equivalent of one was introduced with
Bom Bosh as its first locus.
Bom Bosh is not a portrait per se
cally,
but rather a conventionalized effigy
with distinguishing attributes. All
ndop
in fact share the
tines as
fure, a
Bom
hand-held
rie-shell
same basic fea-
Bosh: a visorlike coifa
belt,
state knife, a
cow-
luinbar-pad.
paimch. Inacelets, and a decorated

platform. Likewise characteristic of
the type are the
tina
i\nd
the
smooth polished pa-
tukula powder-filled
crevices that indicate
method
its
traditional
of preservation. Finally, this
ndop is unmistakably distinguished by the drum emblazoned
historic
with a severed hand, the symbol of
Botn Bosh's fame as a great military

leader
of the
who expanded the boundaries

Kuba kingdom.
AFRICAN, OCEANIC, AND
NEW WOHLU
\\\i:
AFRICA
Gravemarker
ig
Zaire or Angola: Kongo people. Ba
Boma subgroup
Late igth century
pigment. 22'/jX5"/8 inches
Steatite,
(57.2
X 15 cm) high
22.1203.
Stone
is
Museum
used relatively infrequently
medium
as a
Saharan
Expedition
for sculpture in
.Africa.
sub-
Only in the case of
pomtan figures of SiLeone and Guinea is it carved

with as much st^"listic variety and dythe nomoli and
erra
namism
as the gravemarker s of the
Bakongo ba Boma people who
live
on
both banks of the lower Zaire River.
The funerar^' monuments these

Kongo people carve are called bitumba. a derivation of the old Portuguese word for tomb. They originated in the second half of the
nineteenth century as a product of
and power accumulated

by longstanding trade \\\\h Europeans and were probably inspired by
the narrative tombs of Europeans in
the wealth
Kongo
cemeteries.
The common
de-
parture from frontality. as in this su-
perb example, can also be attributed

to
European
influence.
The high price of commissioning

a tumba from one of the many workshops in the area meant that a person
had
to
be quite affluent to have one

The detached
placed on his grave.
but dignified chief represented here

is
distinguished by his cross-legged
position
and looped fiber cap as well

and bracelets. The
as by his necklace
posture
is
a variant of the "thinker"'
theme, hi Kongo body language, the

chief is distancing himself from the
noise of the
mundane world
to concentrate
in order
on important matters.
Insofar as royal objects are believed

to record their o%\Tier's thoughts, this
chief
may
be communicating with
his predecessor by
smoking
his pipe.
APRICAN. OCEANIC. AND
NEW WORLD
ART: AFRICA
58
Mother -AND -Child

Figurine
30
Middle Kasai region: Luluwa
Zaire.
people
igth or 2oth century
x 3 Vs inches
1 4
(55.6x8.5 cm)
50. 24. Frank S. Benson Fund
\^ ood. metal,
The
ethereal dehcacy
and grace
of
mother- and- child figurine sets it

apart from all others conceived by
this
Luluwa
the
The
and neck
the
mother
of the
remarkable
of
of south-central Zaire.
sensitive carving of the

is
for the slight
forward
shaped
perfectly
attenuated neck,
gently
head
especially
face,
the
tilt
the
con-
and idiosyncratically modand mouth, the oversized,

half-cast eves, and the characteristi-
fidently
eled nose
cally sinuous scarification patterns.
Noticeablv exaggerated are the mother"s
hands and na\e\ and the position
of the child's legs, respectively con-
noting protection,
ibility.
of the figurine
Luluwa
is
nonfigurated.
tshibole
and
flex-
surface
oil.
figurine like this one,
whose lower portion
of
and
created by native
palm
application of
.\
fertility,
The luminous black
is
is
is
pointed and
called
buanga bun
used in the
territories
Demba. Kazumba, Luebo. and
Dibaya.
It
loincloths
women
is
carried in the belts or
of pregnant
or lactatiug
for protection.
NEW WORLD
M\T. AKHICA
59
Ceremonial Shield
31
Solomon
Islands. Santa Isabel
Circa 1852
Basketry, nautilus shell inlay on resin
base
32V8Xg'/4 inches (85.0X23.5 cm)

59.63. Frank L. Babbott and Carll H.
DeSilver Fimds
The
unparalleled virtuosity of the
Solomon Islanders
in the art of shell
demonstrated by this
rare and richly embellished war
shield collected before 1852 by Surgeon Captain James Booth of the
British Royal Xayy. There are only
about twenty of these shields extant
inlay
clearly
is
today.
Shell-inlaid shields were based
the
more common
elliptical
on
wicker
shield wielded by the peoples of

Guadalcanal. Florida. Santa Isabel,
and New Georgia islands. Guadalcanal islanders, the sole producers of
them
to
Santa Isabel
is-
these wicker shields, sold

others, including the
landers,
who
decorated the shields
with highly abstract linear designs

created with small notched pieces of
nautilus shell. This shield, bearing
the characteristic design format dom-
inated by an anthropomorphic figiu'e
with upraised arms,
is
distinguished
by two detached heads and a face
and a
set of foiu"
double arrowlike
points.
Excessive warfare in this region,

particularly headhimting.
the shield "s imagery and

acquisition
tige.
shield
and display
and
Beautiful
its
of
dictated
use in the
male pres-
fragile,
this
was probably never used
in
but served instead as the ceremonial insignia of a chief.
battle
AFRICAN, OCE.\MC. AND XE\y
WORLD
ART: OCEANIA
60
Suspension Hook
32
Papua New Guinea, Middle Sepik:

Sawos people
Wood, pigment
61 X
(
16x5
inches
55.0 X 40.6 X 12.7 cm)
Formerly in the Bremen
Museum
Collection
86.229.13, Gift of Mrs. Evehii A.
J.
Hall and Mr. John A. Friede
Although suspension hooks are ubiquitous in the area of the middle Sepik
River and its southern tributaries,
few are as elegant and well aged as
the one here. The degree of refinement of this hook may be explained
in part by the fact that it is made by
the Sawos people, who appear to use
hooks more frequently than other
groups in the area. The dominant
human figure of the hook represents
a
male ancestor spirit [wagen). The

head in high relief on the hook
pig's
proper refers to the Sawos's regard for
domesticated pigs as their

dren. Judging from
own
chil-
and artistic elaboration, this hook was hung in

the mens cidt house, where it would
have served both ceremonial and
utilitarian
its
size
purposes such as storing
net bags of sago flatbread

tivating spirits
welfare of the village, hi

case,
and
an attendant eats
betel nut
and ac-
responsii)l('
bung
lor
tlie
tlie
tor bnii
the
latter
chicken
on
tlic
hook, enters into a trance, and then
speaks on behalf of the hooks apotropaic spirit.
AFRICAN, OCEANIC, AM)
NEW VVOHLU
AHi: OCEANIA
61
Male Figure
D3
Papua New Guinea. Gulf Pro\Tnce. Era

River. Koira\i \illage
Wood, pigment. 2672X9 inches

(67.4 X 25.0 cm)
Collected by John \V. \andercook. 1929
5
i . 1
8.9. Gift of
John ^^ \andercook
.
The highly animated

produced here
is
figure
re-
the work of an ex-
ceptionally gifted
artist
from the
\âpo/Era area of the Gulf pro%"ince

of Papua New Guinea. Small silhouette figures of this
t\-pe.
called
bioma. are usually placed near the

within the partitioned men's
floor
ceremonial house in proximits' to tro-
and crocodiles.
bioma figures from
this area cire flat with two sets of
limbs, one upraised, one lowered,
and ridged edges along the outer
phy
skulls of pigs
Characteristicalh.
The
sides.
extraordinary
xitalitv'
of
having
been cut from a curved slab of w ood
this figure
that
is
a result of
its
was probably part of
cin
old
canoe.
This figure is one of fiftv-eight

most from the Pacific Islands, donated to the Museum in
1951 by John ^ômack \cindercook.
\andercook traveled extensively in
the Pacific Islands, collected works of
art. and wTote books and articles on
his travels. Although this figure is
not mentioned specifically in his illustrated book Dark Islands (1957;.
\andercook vividly describes direct
objects,
encounters w ith the art and people of

the
Papuan Gulf.
.\ERICAN. OCEANIC.
AND NEW WORLD ART: OCEANL\
b2
Canoe Breakwater
34
Papua New Guinea, Massim
region,
Trobriand Islands
Wood, pigment, 52V8X32VH inches

(133. oX 83.0 cm)
80.2, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Milton F.
Rosenthal
In the
Massim region of southeastern
New Guinea
the seagoing outrigger
canoe
is
work
of ceremonial gift
vital to the interisland net-
exchange
As such, the canoe is the

elaborate ritual and orna-
called Kula.
object of
The canoe breakwater
mentation.
{rajim)
is set
transversely across the
prow, closing the ends of the well of

the vessel.
for
It is
considered a
medium
supernatural powers activated by
magical
spells cast
when
set in
it is
place and thereafter by other spells

for specific occasions. In this
canoe breakwater
dual purpose
is
way
of protection
of
and aggression toward
o\Miers
the
assigned the
its
their
Kula trade partners.
The finely crafted canoe breakwâter here
marvelously exemplifies the
most diagnostic of Massim

traits.
The
clean contour
stylistic
is
filled
with complex curvilinear patterns in

very low relief on a flat pigmented
surface.
That most famous of Mas-
sim motifs, the scroll, here curls upward, forming two equal-sized lobes
outward as continuous
bands and depict the opposing frigate birds supporting the upper section. These zoomorphic and geometric elements, and possibly the
overall shape of the breakwater, symbolize flight and its attendant success to the Trobriand Islanders.
that ripple
NEW WORLD
ART: OCEANIA
63
Figurine
35
Mexico. Campeche: Maya. Jaina

600900
Ceramic, paint. 8'/j x
'
'/16
stvle
inches
(21.0X4.8 cm)
Ramsay Fund
70.51. Dick S.
This extraordinary combination of

man and flo\\er has been modeled
with such sensitivitA' and grace that
the form appears to be entirely natural. Hinidieds of figurines in this
style, mold-made as well as handmodeled, have been found on the island of Jaina. just off the Campeche
coast of Mexico, a place that
is
pre-
sinned to have fimctioned as a necropolis for the

sic
Maya of the Late
Clas-
Period (600goo). At this burial
ground one
or
two figurines were
placed in the arms of the dead along
with other offerings including seamusical instruments, and
shells.
or-
naments. The subject matter of the

figurines is varied, but the majority
represent elaborately di'essed hu-
mans. They ha\ e been interpreted as

portraits of the
Mava
elite or pro-
tagonists in an elaborate
m\1;hologv that
is
Underworld
on
also recorded
painted ceramic vases.
Human
figures
emerging from
flowers constitute a special class of
Jaina figurines. There are variations

in the tvpe of floN\ er depicted
the gender
and age
and in
of the individual
within the bloom. In this example a

slender vouthful male rises in an attitude of
ter-lily
calm authority from a wa-
pod. Because the water
lily is
associated with the Lnderworld in
Maya
art. this
figurine
may
s\Tnbol-
ize the
renewal of life after death. As
such
would have been an especially
it
appropriate burial offering.
AFRICAN. OCEANIC. AND
NEW WORLD
ART:
NEW WORLD
^H
Jaguar
56
Mexico: Aztec
1440-1521
X
'Vi 6 X 5 7i
X 14.5X 28.0 cm)
Stone, 4
(
12.3
'
38.4-3. Carll
'
()
inches
H. DeSilver Fund
Some
of the finest Aztec carvings are
naturalistic representations of plants
and animals including squash, cacti,

snakes, grasshoppers, and jaguars.
Often small in scale, these compact
sculptures tend to be made from a
hard, dense stone and are frequently
polished. This jaguar is an excellent
example of the type. Every part of the
animal is carefully carved, including the underside where the pa\\
pads are represented in low
relief.
The alert position
symbolized the earth and the realm of

darkness. Aztec kings sat on thrones
draped with jaguar skins and comidentified with the ruler;
manded armies
riors,
it
also
of "jaguar"
war-
representing the terrestrial as-
pects of the world, as well as "eagle'"
warriors, associated with the celestial

sphere.
Unfortunatelv no jaguar sculptures have been found in situ.

likely,
It
is
however, that they served as
of the head and the

emphasis on the oversized claws
palace or temple furnishings. Al-
aptlv express the jaguars latent en-
is
ergy and destructive power.
The jaguar had
both political and
though the provenance of this jaguar
unknown, it is in the metropolitan

stvle and must have been carxed in
one of the major
cities in
cosmological associations for the Az-
Mexico
As the most feared and powerful

predator in Mexico, it was closely
the Spanish Conquest.
tecs.
.\1-H1CA\,
OCEA.MC, AND
NEW WORLD
ART:
the basin of
in the fifty years
NEW WORLD
preceding
65
Life-Death Figure
37
Mexico, \eracruz: Huastec
9001 250
Stone,
6274X26^8
inches
(158.0X67.0 cm)
37.2897, Henry L. Batterman and
Frank
S.
Benson Funds
The dualism
can
this
art
is
that
permeates Mexi-
perfectly exemplified bv
Huastec
great
northern Veracruz.
statue
The
from
life-size fig-
ure represents a youthful male wearing a conical hat. large ear ornaments, a pendant, and a cloth
knotted around his waist. Parts of his
chest and arms and his lower legs are
covered with a dense pattern resembling the designs painted on Huastec
pottery. Compressed ^\^thin the youth's
broad back is a skeletal figure with
the
same
hands and
this
conical hat
feet.
The
and clawed
significance of
remarkable juxtaposition of life

is not kno\\Ti. It has been
and death
variously interpreted as a cult statue

of the
god Quetzalcoatl. who was

with the Huastec
closely associated
region, or as a representation of the
apotheosis of a Huastec ruler. .-Mthough other Huastec life-death figures exist, this is undoubtedlv the
most complete and the finest depiction of the theme.
Linguistically related to the
Mava,
the Huastec created their distinctive

style of stone
carving with an em-
phasis on freestanding figures and
>
NEW WORLD
ART:
NEW WORLD
66
dual imagery between the tenth and

fourteenth centuries. Huastec sculp-
may
tures
well have inspired the
whose imperial art style developed after they had conquered the
Aztec,
Huastec region in the mid-fifteenth

century.
The
collection
sculpture
is
history
of
this
unusually complete. In
1844 B. M. Norman, an American

traveler to Veracruz, contracted
laria
and was nursed back
ma-
to health
by Ann Chase, the wife of the American Consul at Tampico. On his recovery, Mrs. Chase presented him
with three "interesting relics" that
a previous
American
traveler
had
brought to Tampico from the vicinity

of San Vincente Tancuayalab. The
image was included
life-death
in the
Norman brought the large

sculptures back to New York and do-
group.
nated them to the New- York Historical Society.
Museum
the
first
In 1957
The
Brookl\Ti
exhibited these pieces for
time and. in 1950, was able
purchase them. This figure has

been the focal point of the Mesoto
american installation
at the
Museum
ever since.
NEW WORLD
ART:
NEW WORLD
67
Stela
38
Costa Rica. Central Highlands-Atlantic

\\atershed. Mercedes
1
2001 500
Stone. 22 '/16X 16 inches
(56.0X40.5 cm)
54.5094. .\lfred \\. Jenkins
Fund
Although Costa Rica's stone carvings

are not as well kno\\ni as
its
gold pen-
dants (the abundance of Avhich ga\e

the country
its
name, "rich
coast"),
they are artistically and technically

just
as interesting.
In the Central
HighlandsAtlantic ^âtershed
re-
gion, stone sculptural forms include
elaborately decorated metates. pedestal tables, bowls,
and freestanding
figures.
region
an upright slab carved with
is
rare type found in this
figures on the top.
presumed
to have
been used as a grave marker. A combination of low- and high-relief

car\ ing. these grave markers show
that the pre-Columbian artists in
this area had mastered a wide range
of stone-carving techniques.
This example from the
site of
Las
Mercedes was collected in Costa

Rica by Minor C. Keith, the founder
of the United Fruit Company, in the
early part of this century. It is unusual in the simplicitv of the slab and
lively
posture of the figures
quali-
make it especiallv appealing

modern taste. The twin figures,
ties that
to
precariously balanced
on a raised
band, apjêar to be about to climb

over the upjX'r edge of the slab.
Thev
have infantile bodies with the vertebral

ful
column delineated
as a grace-
curve, enhancing the sense of
movement. Each figure wears round

ear ornaments and has a circular
pattern car\ed on the cro%\n of the
head representing a hairdo or headdress.
.\FRICAX. OCEANIC.
AND NEW WORLD ART: NEW WORLD
68
Plaque
59
Panama. Code Province.
Sitio
Conte
7001 100
Gold,
gx8V2
inches (22.9X21.6
Museum
33.448.12, Peabody
to
cm)
Expedition
Panama
Cocle Province,
1951 The BrookKn Museum

sponsored archaeological excavations
In
conducted by Harvard University at

the site of Sitio Conte on the banks of
the Rio Grande in Panama, As a result,
the
Museum
has an excep-
well-documented collection
of Panamanian goldwork and ceramics. This plaque of hammered
gold came from one of the largest
and most lavishly furnished graves at
tionally
Sitio
Conte.
Nested with another
had been
Salient features of this composite
placed near the head of the body of

what must have been an important
creature are the serrated crests that
emerge from
local chief.
ing eyes, the prominent teeth, and
nearly identical plaque,
it
In contrast to cast objects, which
his head, the big star-
the clawed hands
were made with a mixture of gold

and copper, sheet-metal objects were
fabricated of almost pure gold. The
goldsmith hanmiered the metal to a
ture
thin sheet and then, working over a
jXMidages. the
resilient surface
such as leather or
sand, embossed the designs on
The
ure
on
frontal
this
saurian-human
plaque
ajipears
it.
fig-
on
is
The crea-
streamers emanating from the
ure
itself.
fig-
Bristling with sj)iky ap-
image confronts the
viewer in an attitude of aggression
and defense. In the

ure
is
literature this fig-
often referred to as a "croco-
dile god." but recentiv scholars
interj)reted
well as on plaques of various shapes.
or culture hero.
WORLD
feet.
profde heads attached to a belt or
painted pottery and cast goldwork as
AFRICAN, OCEANIC, AND NEW
and
usually flanked bv reptilian
ART: NF.W
it
have
as a nnlhical warrior
WORLD
69
Lime Container
40
In the
Quimbava
region of south-
Colombia. Middle Cauca Valley;
western Colombia there was consid-
Quimbava
5001000
erable
Tumbaga
8X4V8
(gold-copper
alloy),
in
metal-
was
less
abundant here than on the Pacific

slopes. Lost-wax casting reached its
inches (20.3 X 10.5 cm)
35.507, Alfred
experimentation
lurgy, perhaps because gold
r.
W. Jenkins Fund
zenith in this area with the production of these elegant vessels with fig-
A separate core was
Cast by the lost-wax technique, this
urative imagery.
hme
container has a male figure on
required to cast hollow forms: on this
one side and a female figvire on the

other. Both figures are nude except
for ornamental bands around their
piece there are four plugged core
heads, wrists, knees, and ankles.
The
hands, which were cast separately
and attached through the holes at the

now missing. Male and
female have the same broad face and
wrist, are
This idealized
countenance is found on
Quimbaya pottery as well as on gold
expression.
serene
human
flasks
and pendants.
support holes, two on the bottom and

two on the top of the lateral flanges.
Lime containers were used in
coca-chewing rituals. A spatula or
pin would have been required to
reach the lime through the bottles
narrow neck. The lime would then
be mixed with a quid of coca leaves
and chewed. Some gold containers

ha\e been found with the powdered
lime
still
inside.
NEW WORLD
ART:
NEW WORLD
70
41
Mantle
Peru, Paracas Peninsula
The most famous
Circa loo
seum's Peruvian collection
B.C.
Wool, cotton
58V4X24'/2 inches (149.2X62.2 cm)

38. 121, J. T. Underwood Memorial
Fund
doubtedly
this
piece in the
small
is
Muun-
rectangular
mantle known as The Paracas Tex-
designs embroidered on the
The border
of
textiles.
of this mantle, consisting
more than ninety
indi\ idual fig-
ures created by needle-knitting,
is
the site of
uniquelv varied and detailed, hi-
Cabeza Larga on the Paracas Peninsula on the south coast of Peru, it is

said to have been the piece that in-
cluded are elaborately dressed hu-
tile.
Discovered in
9 o
1
at
spired Julio Tello, the great Peruvian

archaeologist, to begin scientific ex-
cavations on the Peninsula in 1925.
There Tello found the necropolis site,

a complex of subterranean rooms
containing over four hundred miuumy bundles composed of layer upon
layer of spectacular embroidered
cloths as well as gold and feather
ornaments.
The
beliefs
best evidence
and
we have
of the
practices of the people
who buried their honored dead on

the Paracas Peninsula between 500
B.C. and A.D. 100 comes from the
AFRICAN, OCEANIC, AND .NEW
WORLD
mans, gesturing animals, fantastic

figures. and vegetation in various
stages of growth. The human figures, all male, are portrayed wearing
the tvpe of costumes and ornaments
that have been found arcliaeologically on the Paracas Peninsula. We can
assume, therefore, that these figures
represent ritual leaders in Paracas
society, dressed for a major ceremonv. With its emphasis on activity
and the descriptive clarity of the in-
dividual figures, the border vividly

illustrates the
way
in
which the Par-
acas people envisioned the relationship between
man,
nature,
and the
supernatural.
.\RT:
NKU WORLD
71
Hat
42
Peru: Huari
5001000
Cloth, reeds, feathers
6"/i6 inches (17 cm) high

41.228. A. Augustus Healv Fund
Feathers were highly prized bv the

ancient
Andean
peoples and were
ally
made
this
rare
of wool.
The designs on
featherwork version are
mantles, and hats. Sometimes the
similar to those found on both the

wool hats and fine Huari tapestry
shirts. Profile feline heads alternate
natural shape of the feathers was in-
with a pattern of squares and
corporated into the design, but in
angles on
used to create a great variety of cos-
tume
including
shirts,
feathers were
and texture. On
hat they have been attached and
other
used
this
elements
instances
the
solely for color
cut to create a design of exceptional
and beaut\\
Square hats are characteristic of
the Huari cultiue. but they are usubrilliance
all
tri-
four sides of the hat. In
keeping with the geometricization of

natural forms in Huari
art.
the fel-
heads and snouts have been

squared off. A different four-part
stepped design appears on the top of
ines"
the hat.
Tunic
43
Peru; Huari
Circa 600
1
9.
weft
00
cm
per
58 X 28V8 inches (96.5 x 72.0 cm)

86.224.109. Gift of the Ernest Erickson
Foundation
Htiari tapestry tunics are technically
and
artistically
among the
finest tex-
main body
Huari in the South-Central Highlands of Peru, the imagery woven

into the shirts is similar to that on the
decorate the
monumental
postures. .Although
of
Wool, tapestry weave: warp
stone
sculpture
of
Tiahuanaco in Bolivia, a great religious and commercial center dining the Middle Horizon Period (5001000). On the stone doorway known
as the "Gateway of the Sun" at Tia-
of this shirt.
Like the Sun Gate attendants, the

figures carrv staffs
and are
in active
the figures
all
are the same, their direction alternates and they are patterned by four
different color combinations.
variations
seem
make
These
the overall design
rich aixl comj)le\.
This
unusual,
but
not
produced by ancient Andean

weavers. More than prestige garments, they are complex statements
of political affiliations and religious
huanaco, the main deity is represented flatiked by rows of profile attendants running with staffs in their
luiiciue.
in
fringe
the bottom,
hands. Variations of these attendant
tional in the fineness of the wea\e.
beliefs.
figures appear in brilliant color on
\N
Huari tunics, arranged
centimeter. the designs are so tightly
tiles
Although the center of production

of
these
seems
extraordinary
to have
been
at or
tapestries
near the
site
in
precise
woven
vertical bands.
Six bands of eight figures each
itli
NEW WORLD
shirt
at
is
having
sleeves
thread count of
that they
appear
is
and
also excej)-
00 wefts pcr
to
have been
painted.
ART:
NEW WORLD
73
Mirror Handle
44
Peru. North Coast;
Chimu
Circa 1200
\\ood. gold, turquoise, traces of paint
1
V8 X
59/16 inches (29.5
x 14.2 cmt
Foundation
Chimu
.\lthough the
knoAATi for
its textiles
wood was
also
is
best
an important expres-
medium
sive
culture
and metalwork.
for
who
the people
dominated the North Coast of Peru

during the Late Intermediate Period
0001 400 Chimu wood cartings
range from roughly carved statues to
(
).
elegantly finished artifacts like this
which portrays a
mirror handle,
well-dressed individual holding a

trophy head in each hcind.
The
elab-
orate headdress, serpent-headed colIcir.
and sleeved tunic
the indi\dducil as a
ruling
clearly identify
member
of the
class. The\" also testify to a
relatively realistic
tume elements
carving
stA le:
depicted have been found in

burials.
The
cos-
similar to the ones
Chimu
trophy heads and the
distinctive facial
markings may indi-
cate a special prowess in battle.
The carving has been enriched

with inlays of highh prized materials:
tiny turquoise beads
on the
handle, collar, and headdress, and

gold painted over A\ith red in the
e\"es
and his victims.

A shallow concaxity in the back of the
of the central figure
carvong probably once held a mirror
made
of pxTite. Lnfortunateh". prac-
ticadly
nothing
is
kno\Mi of the func-
tion of mirrors in ancient .\ndean

cixilization.
Judging by the elab-
orateness of this handle, however,
and considering the subject depicted

on it. it seems likely that it was part of
a ruler's regalia.
AFRICAN. OCE.ANIC. AND
NEW WORLD
ART:
NEW WORLD
74
Water
Jar
North America,
New
45
Pottery making's long history in the

Mexico, Zuni
180050
Ceramic,
is
character-
ized by remarkable continuity in

slip
X 13V16
inches (31.5 x 55.5 cm)

05.132, Museum Expedition, 1903
12^/16
American Southwest
terials
and techniques and
ma-
creative
experimentation with forms and designs.
special vessel type that
can
and the ridge at the bottom, which

mid-body of the vessel as a
field for painted designs. Here the
isolate the
has created a striking pattern
artist
of
be traced back to the early nine-
butterfly.
teenth century, for instance,
within
large globular jar for carrying

storing water.
own
its
the
is
and
Each village developed

and
repertory of designs
many
shapes for water vessels;
these regional preferences are
of
still
apparent in the work of Pueblo artists
today.
forms that
architectural
nately enclose
and support a
The
hatching
fine-line
dark
the
stepped design has
borders
its
alter-
stylized
of
the
roots in the
prehistoric pottery painting tradition
and
is
also
found on the more spheri-
cal water jars that the
make
after
Zuni began
to
850.
R. Stewart Culin. the Museinn's

first
curator of ethnology, purchased
Zuni
1905 from the
Because systematic collecting of

Pueblo pottery only began in 1879,
this jar in
few vessels from the early part of the

century have survived. This fine jar
may have been still

when Vanderwagen
example of the early nineteenth-century Zimi style. Distinct
Zuni. Certainly the rich patina and

the wear on the rim suggest decades
is
a rare
features are the high,
flat
shoulder
NEW WORLD
in
missionary Andrew Vanderwagcn.

in use in
first
It
1898
settled in
of handling.
ART:
NEW WORLD
/D
46
Shirt
North
.\iiierica. Plains:
E^h
19th centuTA'
Hide. pcHtrupine
Blackfeet
quills, glass
beads, hair.
pigment
44X6g'/4 inches (1 1 1.8 x 175.9 ^^

50.67.5a. Frank S. Benson and Henr\
L. Batterman Funds
In
the
early
when this
shirt
century,
A woman made the garment and was
was made, only chiefs
responsible for the geometric decorationpainted green and brown dots,

beading, porcupine quill embroidery, strands of dyed hair, and cut
fringes. The male wearer of the shirt
nineteenth
and leading weirriors of the Plains

Indians wore such garments, but as
the century progressed they were
adopted more generally. This shirt.
acquired by The Brookhn Museum
in 1950. was presented to the NewYork
Historical
Matched with a
Society-
in
1875.
pair of leggings,
it
reportedly belonged to a chief of the
Piegan band of the Blackfeet.

The binan' shirt is a classic t^^'pe of
Plains mens clothing. The body is
constructed of the hahes of two ani-
mal
(usualh- deer) skins, cut just be-
hind the forelegs, which form the

front and back. The top (front leg)
portions of each skin were cut in half
again and se^^Tl to the body as
sleeyes.
The complex
decoration of this
shirt is partly attributable to a col-
laboration of male
.\FRIC.\N.
and female
painted the representational designs,

depicting his
only the
war
o\\iier
exploits. .\1 though
knew
the precise
identification of the motifs, their

eral
meaning is
row
gen-
On the front is
human figures,
clear.
of painted
probably signif\'ing enemies killed

in battle, while the back contains a
tomahawk, a
pipe,
two
rifles,
quiyers. three bows, and an
two
arrow
personal possessions taken on the
Both sides include a pair

of holes \%"ith red paint streaming
do^^^l. perhaps representing a war
woimd. and rows of marks resembattlefield.
bling bird tracks, the significance of
which
is
uiikno\Mi.
artists.
OCEANIC. AND NE^y
WORLD
ART: NEAy \yORLD
76
Girl's Puberty Basket
47
mrs. sam hughes

North America, California; Northern
Porno
Late 19thearly 20th century
Sedge, dyed bulrush, willow, black quail
topknots and red woodpecker crest
feathers, clamshell
1
beads
X loVs inches (28.0 X 27.0 cm)
07.256,
Museum
Expedition. 1907
The Ponio
finest
are widely regarded as the
makers
of basketry in native
Cahfornia. Combining utiHty and

beauty, baskets permeated
Pomo hfe,
from fishing and acorn processing to

birth, marriage, and death rites. All
women wove their own baskets, though
some weavers were acclaimed for
their skill and expertise. This coiled
basket is clearly the work of a master:
the sewing is tight and precise, the
form regidar and elegant, and the
design laid out on the surface with
imagination and balance. The use of
feathers and shell beads signifies that
this was a specially made ceremonial
a second for bathing, a third as a
drinking cup. and a fourth
The
or feed herself,
to
ods of menstruation, often handing
them down
to their daughters.
This basket traveled a circuitous

route on its wav to the Museum. Its
maker. Mrs. Sam Hughes of Potter
Valley. California, sold
druggist
who
it
to a local
in turn sold
it
to the
proprietor of a hotel in Ukiah. Cal-
1907 Brookhii curaCulin purchased it out of
ifornia. In July
tor Stewart
This basket was part of a set of four

used by a girl at her puberty ceremony: a basket like this to hold water.
time that
NEW WORLD
^^bmen continued
use these baskets during their peri-
basket.
for food.
was secluded in a reed hut

for eight days, during which time she
was not permitted to comb her hair
girl
the hotel showcase, writing at the

it
was "the finest obtainable
specimen of
ART!
its
kind."
NEW WORLD
78
48
Ceremonial Belt
North America. California: Maidu

Native
hemp and commercial
cotton
cordage, mallard duck and acorn
woodpecker scalp
The Indians
featherwork. used on headdiesses.
weft and white glass

which replaced the native
hemp and shell beads of earlier
headbands, cloaks, baskets, and
times.
of central
California
\\ere reno\\ned for their ceremonial
Circa 1855
feathers,
white glass
beads
-4'/i6X43/4 inches (188.0X 12.0 cm)
08.491.8925. Museum Expedition. 1908
belts.
In the mid-nineteenth century
ton
string
beads,
Although the
all
belt's
design was as-
important and wealthy Maidu pos-
sociated with distinct motifs, these
\\bmen
w ere regarded more as design names
were given belts by their grooms at

marriage, though men wore them as
well. Used principally during the cy-
native exjjerts, the triangular red el-
sessed belts like this one.
cle of
world-renewal dances in the
winter months, feather belts were
WTapped twice around
the waist of
making was such
Such elaborate
a laborious
and time-consuming craft that it was

practiced b} only a few men. In
feather belts all the feathers were individually inserted into
weaving
ements stood for wild grajje leaves,

the two narrow green bands for the
tongs used to remove hot stones from
the cooking fire, and the green rectangle for a large grasshopper.
the dancer.
Belt
than as representations. According to
interlaced
strands, completely cover-
ing the surface of the fiber structure.

For the red sections of this belt the
scalps of about 125 woodpeckers
were needed. Trade materials included here are the commercial cot-
NEW WORLD
belts
were rarely
seen by or sold to whites, and
when
Stewart Culin. Brookhiis
cura-
tor of ethnology,
first
purchased this belt
1908. he was told that the last

maker had died some years before.
in
Highly \alued by the Maidu. only a

handful of such belts still exist, and
of these. Brookl\7i"s example is without doubt the finest.
ART:
NEW WORLD
79
49
Chest
North America. British Columbia: Haida

igth century
Cedar wood, pigment

20 X 22 '/4X 555/^ inches
(50.8 X 56.5 X go. 8 cm)
08. 49 1.8903.
Museum
Expedition, 1908
The
Indians of the Northwest Coast
while the eyes of the major frontal
are reno\\iied for their ^^ oodworking.
face are themselves constructed of
Perhaps their most distinctive form
small faces. Similar patterns
was the kerfed. or bent- corner, box.

whose sides were constructed of a
two
single
plank
of
wood,
notched,
steamed, and bent to shape, se^^^l or

pegged on the fourth edge, and fitted
with a top and bottom. Like California baskets. Northwest Coast boxes
were used both domestically for
food storage and ritually to hold
masks and dance paraphernalia.
The decoration on this chest follows the classic "formline" style of
the northern coast. The primary struc-
tiue of the design
is
painted in a
Generally the motifs of Northwest

ancestral nnths. but box
at
as to the
signs
was
meaning
inconsistent.
of these de-
Some
the front
Though
and back are
different.
central element of the design
large head, below which
with appendages
punning is
west Coast
is its
The
is
body,
to the sides. \ isual
common trait of NorthHere many of the
art.
schol-
ars have suggested that the designs
on the front of a chest represent the

front parts of a creature, while the
back side represents the behind.

This chest was collected by
Charles F. Newcombe in Masset.
liunbia. probably in 1906.
bilaterally SNinmetrical.
chest
the turn of the centurv native testi-
mony
Queen Charlotte Islands.
is
and
designs were often ambiguous. E\en
secondai-y design elements are painted
each side
the
Coast art represent creatures from
swelling, bold, black line, while the
red and lightly carved out.
fill
sides.
Coand pur-
British
chased for the Museiun in igo8. Its

back has a section cut out and loosely replaced, which Newcombe explained was due to the chest "s use in a
performance "in which a child had

been put in the box and knives thrust
through, like the well
known Hindu
basket trick."
"eve" motifs serve as bodv joints.

.\FRIC.\N.
OCEANIC. AND
NEW WORLD
ART:
NEW WORLD
80
House Post
50
North America. British Columbia; Bella
BeUa
igth century
Cedar wood. 1
Vj x 38V16 inches
(283.0 Xg-.o cm)
1
11.696.1.
Museum
The totem
pole
Expedition. 1911
s\iiom'mous with
is
the art of the Northwest Coast nahi a society based on the accumulation of wealth and the demonstration of ancestral privilege, such
tives,
emblems played a
Of the several varieties of
crests or family
central role.
totem
pole, the
house post was probaFour carved
bly the earliest form.
posts supported the
great plank
framework
of the
communitv houses
oc-
'^
cupied bv extended families.

The house o\\iier inherited the
right to carve on his posts a set of
featured
figures
founding
the
in
m\1:h of his familv. This story would
be recited
^^ ithout
we can
to guests at great feasts.
knowing the
specific story,
only speculate as to the iden-
tity of the
creatures on this post, but
the principal figure
is
certainly a su-
pernatural bird, perhaps a thunderbird,
and
it
human
clasps a small
before a shield on
its
chest.
These
ceremonial shields, called "coppers."

were sMnbols of wealth. This set of
motifs was
of
common to the
whom the
Kwakiutl.
Bella Bella are a north-
ern group.
The competition
poles
was
to collect
fierce at the
totem
turn of the
centurv. but objects from the Bella

Bella are relatively rare in
collections.
posts
BrookKii's
was collected
Victoria
Charles
set
museum
of
four
in 1911 by the
physician-turned-collector
F.
Xewcombe.
AFRICAN. OCEANIC. AND
NEW WORLD
ART:
NEW WORLD
82
BJ'
Oriental Art
51
Ritual Vessel,
Type Kuang
China
Shang Djnasty.
2tli
century
B.C.
Bronze
6'/2X8'/i inches (16.5X21.6 cm)
72.165, Gift of the Guennol Collection
This kuang is typical of Shang ritits surface is covered with
ual vessels:
the ancient Chinese name
form of vessel, a ewer with a
hd having an animal head on the
front. Kuang were used for serving
and making offerings of rice wine.
Like virtually all extant examples of
ancient Chinese bronzes, this kuang
has been recovered from a tomb. The
Kuang
is
for this
zoomorphic designs. The designs suggest spirit animals rather than ani-
mals of the real world. They probably

represent powerful spirits meant to
be propitiated by the rituals in which
these vessels were used, for example,
spirits
who were
crucial to early ag-
riculture, such as the dragons
controlled rain.
who
A dragon appears on
on
kuang.
bright silverv vellow surface of the
either side of the spout
metal has acquired a handsome bluegreen patina from burial.
As usual, the spirit animals are surrounded by a squared-spiral pattern
this
derived from ancient pictograms for

thunder and suggesting the storm
clouds in which rain dragons dwell.
The face on the front of the lid
suggests a nnthical tiger with flask
shaped horns.
alistic
somewhat more
may be seen on top

either side of the
vessel
re-
ox head with curling horns
is
of the handle.
main body
On
of the
a fao-fieh (literally "glut-
ton") motif, the masklike face of a

fierce
guardian monster whose exact

is no longer known.
meaning
ORIENT.AL art: CHINA
84
BOÎZ!
52
Horse
China
T'ang
Dj-nasty, 7th-8th century
Glazed earthenware
17V4X
i8'/2 inches (45.1
X 47 cm)
37.128, Exchange
The tombs
of
(1525-1028
Shang Dynasty kings
B.C.)
have yielded the
skeletons of chariot horses

killed
and buried near
order to continue serving

spirit world.
who were
their ruler in
him
in the
Numerous human
etons nearby indicate that
skel-
many
of
the king's retainers were also dis-
patched to the spirit world with him.

Confucius (551-479 B.C.) is said to
have taught that this practice was unworthy of virtuous rulers and to have
recommended
the burial of inani-
mate figures as substitutes
for live
retainers, explaining that they
serve the
same purpose
would
in the spirit
world.
The
examples of Chinese
tomb figures (Warring States F'eriod.
48022 B.C.) were made of painted
earliest
By the Han Dynasty (206

it was usual to make
them from clay. Han and Six Dynasties Period examples (221581) are
unglazed.
and some have
wood.
are
B.C.A.D. 221)
cream-colored glaze, but the most
usually made of gray earthenware

polychromed after firing. During the
T'ang Dynasty (618907), when
tomb
became exceedingly
figures
spectacular ones are adorned with

colored glazes: amber, green, blue,
cream, and brown
War
horses like the one depicted
nished with dozens, and even the
came from
tombs
western end of the
Some T'ang examples
ORIENT.\L AHI
CHINA
combi-
here were the pride of T'ang noble-
men and
tained a few.
in various
nations.
popular, important tombs were furof lesser personages often con-
niilitarv officers.
Bactria. a
The
kingdom
silk
best
at
the
trade routes
through Central Asia.
85
A BODHISATTVA
53
China
Chin Ehuastv. 12th- 15th century
Wood
56'/2Xi7V8
inches (145.5X44.1
cm)
37.223, Gift of Ffcink L. Babbott
BodhisattA'as are Buddhist saviors,

deities
who have postponed their own
sahation (Buddhahood) until

tient
all
sen-
beings in the universe have
been sa\"ed. They work constantly

and diligently to bring that about. Li
contrast to a Buddha, who wears the
simple robe of a Buddhist monk,
bodhisattsas wearthe elaborate drapery, flowing scarves, and sumptuous
jewelrv of an Indian prince.
The Bodhisattâ
depicted
here
might be Avalokitesvara (Chinese:

Kuan-xin). the most compassionate,
and therefore the most popular,

bodhisattva. However, the diminutive figure of
is
Amitabha Buddha that

diadem worn
usually present in the
bv Avalokitesvara is not seen here,

and because the forearms are missing the deity cannot be identified bv
the attributes he may have held.
This image was produced under
the aegis of the Jurched Tatars, fierce
Central Asian nomads who conquered North China in 126. forcing
the Sung emperor to flee south. The
Jurched established their own dynasty, the Chin, which lasted until
the Mongols conquered North China
1
in 1234.
Buddhism had first gained a

China under the sponsorship of another nomad group, the
T"o-pa Tatars, who adopted it as their
state religion. The T"o-pa conquered
northwestern China in the late fourth
century. Buddhism spread from there
foothold in
to other parts of
China, then on
to
Korea and Japan.

ORIENT.\L art: CHINA
86
54
Blue-and-White Jar
WITH A Design of
Fishes and Water
Plants
China
Yuan Dynasty, 14th century
scale, since
Iranian cobalt seems to
China was imported from Iran and
spread throughout the Islamic world,
hannnedan blue." But soon cobalt

was being mined in China to meet
the demand. This jar has the intense,
where
it
it
has been widely used ever
since.
The technique came

from Iran
Blue-and-white ware, that is. ceramic ware decorated with cobakoxide painted designs covered with a
clear glaze, seems to have been invented in Iraq during the ninth century. The technique was imitated in
Iran at the time, but on a hmited
e\'er
was revived
and
centiu-y
eleventh-twelfth
in the
technique died out.
Estate of Augustus A. Hutchins
expanse more readily than
before.
Porcelain
1 Vv X 1 3V4
inches (29.8 x 54.9 cm)
52.87.1, Gift of the Executors of the
vast
have been controlled by the regime in

Iraq. Although for some reason the
to
China
in the thirteenth century
as a result of the
Iraq and Iran in
Mongol conquests of
121 g 20 and China
1279. These conquests put the

Mongols in control of an area extending from Eastern Europe through
Central Asia to China and Korea.
Goods and ideas flowed across this
in
oriental art: china
At
first
the cobalt oxide used in
"Mo-
referred to bv the Chinese as
almost purple, color of the imj)orted

cobalt.
The painted design
fits
and
enhances the powerful, swelling form

of the jar to perfection. Blue-andwhite
porcelain
came
a standard
subsequently
b(^-
Chinese ceramic
ware of the Ming Dynasty ( 568644) and has been produced in
1
large quantities ever since.
87
Landscape
DO
L.\N
\1NG
(Chinese, 15851664 or later)
China
Ching
Eh-nasty. dated in accordance
with 1653
Ink and color on
silk
66X26'/2 inches (167.6x67.5 cm)

84.72. Purchased with funds from
Stanley Herzman and the General
Acquisitions
Fund
The Chinese have always
loved jade,
and porcelain, but only

painting and calligraphy Eire classified as art. In Chinese painting,
landscape has been the primary subject since at least the tenth century
bronzes,
not landscape as a graphic equivalent

of actual scenery, but landscape as
created in the
artist's
mind, often
based on his study of earlier masters,

but interpreted in a personal way, as
an expression of his o\mi poetic sensibility. A Chinese landscape painting is usually an idealized view of
hills, lakes, trees, rocks,
and an
iso-
lated cottage, the sort of place to
which a
retire
scholar- artist
might hope
to
one day.
Lan Ying was
a major landscape
painter of the late
Ming
D}Tiasty
(13681644) and early Ch"ing. He

was a professional artist, as opposed
to the supposedly amateur scholarartists whose paintings and writings
were so fashionable at the time. Lan
was born and raised in Hang-chou,
the former capital of the Southern
Sung Dynasty (11271279). Although his teacher is unknown. Lan
Ying was trained in the landscape
tradition of the Southern Sung Imperial Painting Academy and its
Ming Dynasty successor, the Che
School. In his early twenties he began to study the paintings of old
masters associated with the
literati
His
mature work combines the best of
(scholar- artist) tradition as well.
^-r^l
both traditions.
ORIENTAL art: CHINA
50
Yaksa (Bhaisajyaguru)
56
Korea
United
Silla Period,
8th century
Bronze
7'/8X 2 inches (18.1 x
5.1
74.165, Frank L. Babbott
The
cm)
Fund
identity of the specific
represented by this image
Buddha
is
indi-
cated by the attribute (laksana) held

in his left hand.
It is
a bowl (pdtra),
not the alms bowl held by certain
Buddhist deities, but a medicine

bowl, or medicine jar, that holds ointills
of
mankind;
sometimes shown with
its
cover on,
ment
it
to cure all the
here represented with the
is
lid
removed.
The
not to say plump, face

image is a stylistic element
derived from Chinese Buddhist sculpture of the T'ang Dynasty (618
907). The style of the image as a
whole is based on that of the early
T'ang Period, for the body has not yet
full, if
of this
developed the ponderous massiveness characteristic of late T'ang Buddhist sculpture.

for
late
The Yaksa could pass
seventh -century Korean
sculpture but for the fact that the hol-
low figure was cast with two large,
on the back of the body

and another on the back of the head.
oval openings
This
is
typical
of eighth-century
Korean images but not of seventhcentury ones.
The alert and compassionate facial

expression of the Yaksa conveys a
feeling of profound spirituality, as
well as the caring, healing capacities

of the
Buddha
of Medicine.
ORIENTAL art: KOREA
89
57
Celadon Ewer
Korea
Kor\o EhTiastA.
Celadon was developed in

beginning of the Sung
D}Tiasty (960 1 279) and introduced
to Korea by Chinese potters in the
firing).
first
half of the
2 th
China
century
Porcelciin
9"/8Xg'/2 inches (25.1 X 24.1 cm)

56. 158.1. Gift of Mrs. Dar\\Tn R. James
III
Celadon is a high-fired, porcelaneous ware having a gray clav bodv

covered with a translucent graygreen feldspathic glaze. The green
color of the glaze results
from the
presence of iron oxide in a reduction

kiln (one in which only a limited
cimount of oxygen
is
available during
at the
tenth -eleventh century.
The rich, lustrous glaze on this

ewer is the "kingfisher blue" color
found on only the best twelfth -century Korean celadons. The body of
the ewer is carved A\'ith a design of
overlapping lotus petals framing leaf
sprays. The handle is in the form of a
lotus stalk bound at the top with
reeds, the lid in the shap)e of an upside-do\\Ti lotus blossom, and the lid
ORIENT.\L art: KOREA
knob in the form of a lotus bud just

beginning to imfurl. A tiny butterfly
is modeled in relief on the back of the
lid. Dots of white slip (liquid clay)
accent the ornamental motifs.
This kind of restrained use of
painted white slip under the glaze to
heighten incised decoration seems to
have been an important step in the
development of slip -inlay techniques
by Korean potters during the first
half of the twelfth century. Slip-inlay
became
the characteristic Korean
ceramic decorating technique of the

twelfth to sixteenth centuries.
90
58
Scholar
Contemplating a
Cascade
ATTRIBUTED TO
YI
CHONG
centlv the Japanese scholar
(Korean, 15781607)
Shujiro has been active in reattribut-
many of them to Korea.

The supposed artist of this
Album-leaf painting mounted as a

hanging scroll, ink on silk
1 1 74X io"/h inches (28.6 x 27.6 cm)
Museum
ing, Yi
paint-
Chong, was the grandson
of
Yi Sang-jwa, a slave in the household

of a scholar-official who developed
Purchase
Sixteenth-century Korean ink-wash
such phenomenal artistic skill that

the king appointed him to the Bu-
paintings are extremely rare outside
reau
major museums in Korea. Only a

handful have reached the West, usually by way of Japanese collections.
Most of these have been misiden-
trained from early childhood in the
Chinese, since they follow
Although he decided to become a Buddhist monk at eleven and
tified as
Chinese models quite
closelv.
Ke-
of
Painting.
Yi
Chong was
use of the brush. By the age often he

had become a competent landscape
painter and was also skilled
subjects.
ORIENTAL art: KOREA
at
joined a monastery \n the
figure
Diamond
Mountains, an area famous

granite
spectacular
ing
Yi D\Tiasty. 16th century
75.130,
Shimada
continued
short
life.
to
he
paint throughout his
He was
noted
pendent ways and

ality.
for its
pinnacles,
painting only
for his
inde-
difficult jx^rson-
when and what

down
he wanted to and turning
commissions from powerful {XTSons

if they did not suit him.
This painting follows the style of
the Imperial Painting
Southern
Sung
Academy
D\iiasty
of
China
1271279) as interpreted by artof the Che School during the

Ming DvTiasty (15681644).
(1
ists
91
Iron-Painted Dragon
59
Jar
Korea
^ i EhnastN
-th century
Porcelain
1
2V8 X
86.
45/8 inches (3 1 .4
57.
cm)
39. Gift of the Oriented Art Council
The dragon on
this jar seems naive.

and amusing, vet powerful
and mysterious. His function was to
protect food inside the jar from evil
spirits as well as to attract good for-
eccentric,
tune
for the jars o\Mier.
The dragon
was painted on the surface
of the jar
brown-black pig-
\\"ith
iron -oxide
ment
prior to the application of the
clear glaze.
The
jars dviiamic shape
enhances the visual impact of the

dragon. The diamond-shaped profile
results from forming the top and bottom halves separately on the potter's
wheel and then joining them rim-torim.
The
potters
who made these utilwere members of
tense or self-consciousness.
The few
iron -painted dragon jars that have
survived are
among
the most aes-
thetically satisfying pots ever
made.
The dragons on Korean blue -and

white porcelain jars made for use in
the royal palace
and
in Confucian
itarian storage jars
temples were more fully realized
one of the lowest classes in society

during the Yi D}Tiast\" ( 1 392 1 9 1 o).
paintings based on Chinese models

of the
Ming DMiasty (13681644).
They had
\Miile
awesome and
work quicklv and produce serviceable pots in large quantities just to eke out a meager living.
to
made
The
pots they
rect,
and spontaneous,
are natural, difree
ORIENTAL art: KOREA
from pre-
majestic, these
official" dragons are not nearly as

lively,
mysterious, and spiritlike as
the "folk" dragons on iron-painted
dragon
jars.
92
DOTAKU
60
Japan
2nd 5rd century
Yayoi Period,
Bronze
34'/2
1 1
inches (87.6 X 29.2 cm)
'/2
67.198, Gift of VIr. and
IVIrs.
Milton
Lowenthal
The Yayoi Period
(circa 300 B.C.

was Japan's BronzeIron Age. It is clear from skeletal
evidence that the Yayoi people were of
Mongoloid racial stock, unlike their
Jonion predecessors, who were CauThe Jomon people had
casoid.
circa a.d. 500)
crossed to the northern islands of
Japan from the coast of Siberia by

dugout canoe beginning around
10,000 B.C. and gradually spread
southward throughout the archipelago. Their culture was protoNeolithic: they made pottery
and pol-
ished stone tools but had no agricul-
The Yayoi people migrated to

Japan from the mainland by way of
the Korean peninsula, which forms a
land bridge to within 128 miles of
ture.
K\"ushu.
They grew
rice
and made
bronze and iron tools and

weapons. Thus they easily displaced
both
and dominated their Jomon predecessors.
Dotaku are bell-shaped bronze

ritual objects.
Their shapes suggest
the bronze bells of late
China (480221
of
Chou
B.C.).
dotaku are too thin
D\7iasty
but the walls

to resonate.
Groups of dotaku. lying on their

sides, were buried on hills overlooking rice paddies as offerings intend-
ed to propitiate the nature
spirits
whose goodwill was
essential to Ya-
yoi farmers, hunters,
and fishermen.
ORIENTAL art: JAPAN
93
Haniwa Figure of
Shamaness
6i
Japan
Tomb
Period. 5th6th centurv
Eartlienware
18X8V4
inches (45.- x 22.2 cm)
79.278.1. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley
Marcus
By
the beginning of the fourth cen-
new group caHing thenisehes
tury, a
the Yaniato people \\ere migrating
Japan from Korea. They had one

tremendous advantage over the \ayoi
people and the remnants of the
Jomon people thev encountered in
into
Japan: war horses. -After taking control
of K\"iishu.
\amato clans
the
moved northeastward
tluôugh the
Inland Sea to the Nara-Kyoto-Osaka
up one
area, \\here the^" set
as the
chieftains
first
of their
emperor of
Japan.
The \amato
tombs
for their
laj-gest
jDeople built
mound
important dead, the
tombs being
for
emperors.
The tomb chambers \\ ere filled with

luxury goods meant to serê the deceased warriors in the
These
spirit world.
artifacts are nearly identical to
those from Kava and Silla
kingdom
tombs in southern Korea.

Haniwa. however, are unique to
Japan. Thev are large, hollow earth
en\\are
shaped
cylinders,
either
plain
or
weapons, buildings, animals, or human figures. They were

placed in a circle around the shoulder
of the
it.
like
tomb mound,
or else
In Korea figures of
ians were
made
on top of
tomb guard-
of granite.
This haniwa represents the Shinto

priestess
who
presided over the fu-
neral ceremony,
which went on
for
several days, with eating, drinking,
and entertainment. The feast was

meant to contmue indefinitelv in the
spirit world,
with the clav priestess
presiding.
ORIENT.\L art: JAPAN
94
62
Pair of Lion-Dogs
Japan
Kamakura
Period, early
3th century
Japanese cypress with traces of
polychrome
21X11 74
X 28.6 cm) each

85.171.1 and 85.171.2, A. Augustus
Healy Fund, Frank L. Babbott Fund,
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Feinberg, Mr. and
Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, and Mr. and
Mrs.
inches (53-5
Mihon
F.
Rosenthal
These energetic guardian lion-dogs

originally stood on the veranda of a
Shinto shrine. They are called kornainu after Konia, an alternative Japanese name for the Koryo Dynasty of
Korea (918-1592), and inu, the
usual Japanese word for "dog." The
more familiar kara-shishi (mythical
lions) of Japan usually appear in a
secular context, while koma-inu
have a hieratic guardian function.
Lions are not native to Japan. Depictions of them were brought to
Japan with Buddhism, which was
introduced from Korea in 552 by way
of China and India, and shishi, the
Japanese word for lion, is derived
from the Sanskrit word simha. In India, where it is indigenous, the lion
often served as a symbol of the Bud-
ORIENTAL art: JAPAN
dha, whose throne was called the
Lion Throne, and in China early

Buddhist sculpture often showed a
pair of mythical lions
guarding the
Buddha's throne. In spite of the widespread popularity of
Buddhism
in
Japan from the mid -sixth century

onward, the oldest known Japanese
depictions of lions date from no earlier than the Fujiwara Period (897
1185).
The theme
did not
become
popular until the Kamakura Period

(1 1851 554), when samurai (the hereditary military class) took over the
government. This pair of lion-dogs
is
from the very beginning of the tradition and displays remarkable realism, strength, vigor, and grace. Later
examples have curled manes instead
of straight.
95
63
associated the flower with
sics
Thorns
fucian ideals of refinement and \irtue.
GYOKUEN BOMPO
(Japanese.
1548after 1420)
Muromachi
Period, early
During the
teenth
cm) each
The Roebhng
Societv
73.123.2, Purchase. OrientaJ Art

.Acquisitions
whom
orchids carried no
s\Tnbolism. also liked to paint them.
5th century
i2'/4 inches (63.5 X 31.1
73.125.1, Gift of
while Ch'an (Japanese: Zen)
priests, for
Ink on Koreem paper
25X
Con-
Orchids. Bamboo, and
Fund
first
century,
half of the four-
large
numbers
Chinese poetrv. Chinese caland ink paintings of orchids. His orchid paintings followed
the st\le of the Chinese master
Hsueh-chuang and the Japanese
skill in
ligraphy,
Tesshil Tokusai.
Gvokuen Bompo was one
of
of the
Japanese Zen student monks went to

China, where many of them mas-
the early fifteenth century. .After ser-
tered Chinese literature and cal-
ving the
Zen philosophy.
Gyokuen Bompo came from the next
generation, fewer monks of which
at
ligraphy as well as
great bunjin-sd
the
priest
(literati
monks) of
Shimoku Myoha
first
Toshoji monastery in Ka-
least the thirteenth century. Scholar-
made
the trip. Nevertheless he be-
makura and then at Nanzenji in

K}oto. he became the abbot of Kenninji and later of Nanzenji. The
Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi was
Confucian clas-
came
quite famous in Japan for his
his patron.
Ink-wash paintings of orchids have

been fashionable in China since at
artists tTcdned in the
studied in China, and so he ne\er
ORIENTAL art: JAPAN
96
The Actor Segawa
64
KiKUNOJO III IN THE

Role of Oshizu
TOSHUSAI
SH-\R.A.KU
1-94-95)
(active
Japan
Edo
Period. Kansei 6
794), 5th
month
\ôodblock print
i4''/8XgV4 inches (57.8x25.5 cm)

42.85. Gift of Mr. and Wis. Frederic B.
Pratt
Much
artist
has been written about the

Sharaku. yet after decades of
and speculation
research
knowTi about his career.
Httle
A Xoh
in the service of the lord of Awa.
Osaka, he
is
is
actor
now
credited with producing
more than 150

buki actors
for
print designs of kaone publisher within a
May 1 "94
February 1 795. All his actor prints
fall within two distinct groups: facial
portraits and portraits of actors in
full view on stage. The respect with
which he treats the face of each actor
was never attempted by the other artnine -month period from
to
ists
mat
However similar
of Edo.
in for-
to other prints of his day, his
works are completely different in

conception and quality.
This print of the actor Segawa

Kikunojo III is one of Sharaku's most
celebrated portraits of an onnagata
(male actor in a female

to
May
-94.
it
role).
Dated
portrays the sardonic
expression of a character in the
Gen-
roku play Ha naayame Bunroku Soga,

a
drama
that tells the true storv of the
vengeance of ten brothers twentyeight years after their father's assassination in

-01
1
ORIENTAL
.\RT:
JAPAN
97
65
A Cherry Blossom
Viewing Picnic
Japan
Edo Period. Kanei era (1624-44)

Ink, color, and gold leaf on paper
395/8 Xio5"/ inches
(100X266.7 cm)
39.87. Gift of Frederic B. Pratt
In the late sixteenth, early seven-
teenth century, the merchant class

rose to prominence in Japan, al-
though it continued to be held in

contempt by the ruling military aristocracy.
tesan
A new
districts,
subculture of courbath houses, and ka-
buki theaters sprang up to service the

merchants and their employees in
the large cities Edo (modern Tok-
rrr:
-<f**
>-
.r.
^^'WM
yo), Kyoto,
ture
came
and Osaka. This subculto
be called Ukiyo, the
painting tradition depicting the plea-
Floating World, parodying an old
Cherry Blossom Viewing Picnic
the right screen of a pair: the
Buddhist term describing the misery

and brevity of life in the real world.
is
By
the late seventeenth century, nov-
tion,
els
and woodblock
red kimono (third from the left in the

right screen) is probably the daugh-
ing the
theme.
from a
began takFloating World as their
Ukiyo-e
prints
prints
developed
late sixteenth -century
genre
screen
is
in the
Yawata Yotaro
by a yoimg samurai, apparently her

lover,
sures of ordinary people.

left
collec-
The young woman
male
who
is
accompanied by seven
retainers.
The eighteen women
in the left screen
courtesans,
many
are low-ranking
of
whom
acted in
ter of a
women's kabuki before it was banned

bv the government. The central courtesan is dressed in fashionable male
attire and is the object of a lascivious
by six
glance by the
Tokyo.
in the
samurai. She is surrounded

female attendants and followed
ORIENTAL art: JAPAN
girl in the
red kimono.
99
66
Seated Buddha Torso
India,
Andhra Pradesh, probably
Nagarjimakonda
Ikshvakhu Period, late 5rd centur\Pale green limestone
165/4 X 15 inches (42.5 X 38.1 cm)
86.227.24, Gift of the Ernest Erickson
Foundation
historical
the end of the second century and
Buddha. Sakycununi, first occurred

in the iconographic scheme of Bud-
ruled until early in the fourth cen-
Representations
the
of
monuments in Lidia in the first

century. The events of Sakyamunis
dhist
hfe were signified bv the position,
hand gestures, and attributes of the

Buddha figures. Here for instance,
the two deer in the center of the
throne indicate that the scene depicted
the
is
Buddhas
first
sermon
in
the deer park at Sarnath.
This Buddha
corded in the extant donors" inscriptions.
probably from Xa-
is
Hindu and Buddhist monuments coexisted at the site. ^^ hile the

kings of the d\Tiast\' were worshipers
of the Brahmanical gods and performers of \edic ritual, the Buddhist
monasteries there were largelv the
interest of the Ikshvakhu queens and
princesses whose pious gifts are retury.
The
stone sculptures of Xagar-
garjunakonda. one of the Buddhist
junakonda. like those of the
centers of southern India that flour-
the surrounding Amaravati region,
rest of
ished in the Guntur district and ad-
are
jacent areas of the eastern
Deccan
(modern-day Andhra Pradesh) from
enough
as earh" as the second century B.C.
carving and precise modeling. Most

were reliefs designed to adhere to the
These
brickwork of the monasteries. Free-
until the fourth century a.d.
centers were important
not only for
their role in disseminating
ism
to
Buddh-
southern and southeastern
Asia but also for their extensive participation in sea trade that originated
from
as far west as
Rome and
for the
complexe s of monuments primarily

erected bv their rulers.
religious
Thev are considered among
of
greenish limestone
soft
to have allowed for subtle
standing sculpture, however,
is
also
kno%Mi. including several exquisite

late
third -centurv
standing
Bud-
dhas.
This Buddha, head missing,
is
seated in the satamaparyanka asana

position (one foot placed
with the
on the other
sole of the right foot visible),
the
a slightly unusual position that ori-
greatest art centers of ancient hidia.
at Amciravati. His garment,

which covers the left shoulder only,
falls in deeplv modeled folds. The left
hand forms the dhyana mudra (ges-
Nagarjunakonda. the
garjuna"
named
"hill of
Xa-
after a great sec-
ond-century Buddhist philosopher
who was
responsible for
much
of the
renovation of nearby Amaravati
was discovered in 1926. .AJthough its

excavated stupas. monasteries, and
chajjels are
now
inaccessible as the
result of the recent construction of
dam. most
of the
antiquities have
been
the Xagarjunasagar
remains of
its
moved to the .Archaeological Wuseum of Xagarjunakonda.

The main artistic activity" at
ginated
ture
of contemplation),
risht arm.
now
while the
missing, was held
away from the body, probably in the

ahhaya mudra (gesture of protection). The wheel on the sole of the
Buddha's foot is one of the thirty-two
major and eightv minor laksana. or
signs, of the Buddha and refers to the
wheel of law. which he set in motion.
The two seated lions with their heads
turned back that flank the deer on
Xagarjunakonda grew through the
the front of the throne are associated
patronage of the Ikshvakhu rulers,

who succeeded the Satavahanas at
with roval and heroic virtues.
ORIENTAL art: INDL\
100
i^
A ii^.
Buddha Meditating
UNDER THE BoDHI TrEE
67
India.
Tamil Nadu. Nagapattinam
Circa gth century
Granite
69'/2X3i '/2X i8 72 inches

76.5 X 80 X 47 cm)
( 1
84.
32. Gift of Alice
Boney
Nagapattinam was once an important to\\7i in South India and the first
Indian port touched bv ships from
Malaya and Java. Its history dates
from the first century B.C.. when it
was noted for the region's earliest
Buddhist shrines. During the reign
of the Pallava and Chola dpiasties,
religious tolerance and artistic production both flourished there.
Nagapattinam Buddhist images

are recognized by certain characteristics,
finial
namely the flame- shaped
above the ushnisha (cranial
protuberance) on the Buddha's head,

the decorated border of his
monks
costume, the marks on the palms of

his hands,
and the shape
of his
uma
(forehead mark). All these characteristics are evident in this
depiction of the
attaining
powerful
Buddha Sakyamuni
Enlightenment
under-
neath the Bodhi Tree, one of the

impressive
and
most
Nagapattinam Buddhas kno%\Ti.
Sakyamuni is represented in a
cross-legged meditative pose on a
largest
rectangular throne decorated

base with a row of
lions.
rest in his lap in the
at the
Both hands
dhyana mudra
(gesture of contemplation). Flank-
him
two diminutive attenwhisk as a

s\Tnbol of respect. Behind them the
Bodhi Tree is represented as a pipal
tree with its branches arranged in
stvlized rows. A parasol emerges in
ing
cLre
dants, each holding a fly
front of the tree.
ORIENTAL art: INDIA
102
Seated Bodhisattva
lokesvara
68
India, Bihar,
Kurkihar
Pala Period, loth century
Bronze
57aX4V8
inches (14 x 10.5
cm)
and Mrs. Richard
72.55, Gift of Mr.

Shields
This bronze belongs to a hoard of
more than two hundred images and

ritual objects discovered
buried to-
gether at Kurkihar, the site of an ancient
Buddhist monastery in the
of Bihar in eastern India.
state
The im-
ages range in height from a few

inches to several feet
and date from
the eighth to the twelfth centuries.
While the
Kurkihar images
bronzes
from Nalanda, Kurkihar bronzes
from the ninth century on exhibit an
individual style. The predominant
figures are Buddhas with tall peaked
crowns and flamed aureoles, often
with details indicated by silver or
earliest
suggest a close
stylistic tie to
copper inlay.
This figure, however, represents a

Bodhisattva (Buddhist savior) seated
on an elaborate
in princely repose
lotus
throne supported by two
The back
of the throne
is
lions.
elaborately
carved with a long cushion and is

flanked by two rampant lions standing on elephants in turn supported
by
lotuses. It is inscribed
with a do-
name in a circular cartouche, a

common Kurkihar device. Behind
nor's
head
the Bodhisattvas
is
round
halo pointed at the top and
sur-
rounded by flames.
Considering
its
scale,
this
piece
represents
splendid
achievement.
It is
recognized as one
of
artistic
The Brooklvn Museum's most im-
portant examples of India's metalcasting tradition.
ORIENTAL art: INDIA
103
6g
Offering the Weapon

Chest to Amir Hamza
Illustration
India.
from the Hamza-nama
Mughal
Akbar Period. 156- 82

Opaque watercolor and gold on cotton
3678X295/8 inches (93.7 x -5.2 cm)
24.47.
Museum
Purchase
L n questionably
the finest
Mughal
The
paintings in the collection of
Museum
BrookKii
from the
tales of
are four pages
Amir Hamza.
Hamza-nama. These
In the page illustrated here.
Hctmza
is
a canopy receiving a
paintings, ori-
the foreground on the shoulders of a

spotted div (demon).
ors, lively gestures,
(reigned
1556
and
of costumes
The intense col-
detailed patterns
objects,
The extraordinary
pictorial
imusually large
early date of the
scale,
vi-
and
Ham^za-nama have
ical of the
most exciting pages
in a pose
and
this century. In addition to several
the gesture of the figure
same
540s, while
from the beloved

Persian painting. Even
the div derives
monsters of
of the
of the
depicted
setting associated with
Safavid painting of the
sparked much scholarly discussion in

smaller manuscripts
and dra-
matic setting of the painting are typ-
Hamza-nama. The Amir is
1605).
talitw
chest
carried above the raging waters in
manuscript ^îth 1.400 illustrations,

vividly epitomize
early Mughal
painting under the patronage of the
.Akbar
weapon
the
ginally intended for a multivolume
emperor
Amir
enthroned outdoors under
at
the lo\\er
right with forefinger raised to
mouth
156782, the Hamzanama has been considered a crucible

for the various native hidian and imported Persian styles from which the
the tree,
Mughal
sîithesis developed. \Miile
the wild gesticulation of the bearded
period, circa
is
a stock Persian sign of astonish-
ment. Yet in spite of these Persian

elements the painterly treatment of
hills,
and swirling water and
which
figure in the foreground find no
the
Hamza-nama was produced,

Mir Sa^^dd Ali and Abd al-Samad.
counterpart in sLxteenth- century Per-
were Persians, the fifty or more artists who worked for them were apparently predominantly Indian.
\\hat is remarkable about the
characterize early .\kbari painting
the heads of the royal atelier in
Hamza-nama is
formed
that the artists con-
to neither a Persian nor
an
Indian idiom. Rather, under the intense scrutiny and purported guid-
ance of their patron .Akbar. they

new style. Not surprisingly.
forged a
this
stv'le
and agwho was busy
reflects the vigor
gressiveness of .Akbar.
conquering India in the period in

which the Hamza-nama was copied
and
Rather, these traits
and perhaps are a result of early European influence.

.\nother unusual trademark of the
manuscript is the variation in scale
between different figures. Here the

figures on the left of the page are
noticeably Icirger than those on the
right, even though the text does not
call for
such a differentiation. The
number 40
in the lower margin and

verso
are page numbers.
on
the
41
The text on page 4 w ould have re1
ferred to the illustration facing
it,
not
the one here.
illustrated.
ORIENTAL art:
sian painting.
INDI.\
104
Head
70
of Shiva
Cambodia
First quarter of the
oth centurv
Tan sandstone
/'/aXjS/^ inches (19.0x8.9 cm)
83.182.5. .\nomTnous
gift
This handsome head of a male
is
identified as the Hindu divinity Shiva
by his usual attributes: a moon crescent in his headdress and a vertical

third eye incised on his forehead.
The head, carved in the round, portrays the broad face with stippled
beard and upturned mustache typical
of
figures
of
the
pre-.\ngkor
Period (circa 8501000).
multi-
back of the
head, which is marked by a high columnar chignon surmounted by a
tiered tiara
is
tied at the
lotus shape.
The Cambodian
attribution
difficult to ascertain
is less
than the exact
provenance of this piece,
for
the
sculptural remains at Cambodicin

sites such as Koh Ker and Bantay Srei
are often stylistically similar for this

period.
There are many inscriptions
dedicated to the worship of Shiva

these
sites,
was a thriving Shaivite

Cambodia at this time.
there
at
which would indicate that

cult in
ORIENTAL art: CAMBODIA
106
Seated Maitreya
Tibet
1
2 th- 13th
century
Gilt copper
g'/jXT'/i inches (24.1 x 19.1 cm)

e-'.So, Charles Stewart Smith Fund
This wonderfully preserved image of

a
Buddha
is
shown
in the gesture of
setting in
motion the Wheel of the
Doctrine.
The Buddha
as a
is
identified
Maitreya (Buddha of the Future)
by the stupa (ritual object) in his

headdress and by the flanking lotus.
The artist has emphasized the hierapose of the figure and the stereo-
tic
typed gesture of the hands while at

the same time conveying the Maitreyas authority
and withdrawal
into
meditation.
Although the spiked

this figure are seen in
snail curls of
some Buddha
images from western Tibet, the abstract
patterning of the folds of the
monastic garment are more typical of
Newari workmanship of Nepal.

Such differences make attribution
and dating of the piece difficult, but
it is known that Newari craftsmen
were often employed in Tibet to produce bronze statuary.
the
ORIENTAL art: TIBET
lO'
I
72
Mandala
of
Vajrasattva
Tibet
14th century
Opaque watercolor on cotton

i5'/2 X i5'/2 inches (39.4X 59.4 cm)
81.10. E. C. \\c)odward and various
funds
This mandala. or diagram, represents the cosmic universe of \ajrasattva, one of the five manifestations of
the
Buddha
in Esoteric
Buddhism.
Seated in yogic posture at the center,

he is portrayed in his customary
color, white, and wearing a red patterned dhoti.
He
is
elaborately orna-
mented with jewelry and a

and holds his usual
cro\\'n
attributes, a dou-
ble vajra (thunderbolt)
and a
bell.
Surrounding Vajrasattva are the

Guardians of the Four Cardinal Directions, each seated in a quadrant
facing the Buddha. Clockwise from
the top they are \ irupaksha. King of
the Xagas and Guardian of the \êst
(his color is red. and he holds a serpent):
Vaisravana.
God
of \\ealth
and Guardian of the North (he is

seated on a lion and holds a banner
and a mongoose): Dhritarasatra.
King of the Gandharvas and Guardian of the East: and Virudhaka. King
of the Demons and Guardian of the
South (he is blue and holds a sword).
ORIENTAL art: TIBET
diminutive
female
is
repre-
sented on each side of the outer
She represents one of the

forms of Prajnaparamita. the esborder.
sence
of
transcendental
wisdom.
\ases of immortality are depicted in

the four corners,
and elaborate
lotus
complete the spandrels.

This mandala is an outstanding
scrolls
example of Tibetan Buddhist

art.
ritual
Actually a temple banner, or
tankha. it exemplifies the early Tibetan painting tradition with its

pure luminous color, ex-pressive line,
and sMnmetrical composition.
108
Seated Buddha
73
Thailand
Sukhothai Period. 14th century
The demon king
models of the Gupta Period (320while

Lopburi
500),
sculpture
a style that somehow

combine seemingly incompatible qualities such as compassion and haughtiness, spirituality
and sensuousness, delicacy and
strength, languid grace and dynamic energy.
This Buddha is seated in the lotus
position with his hands in the
bhumlsparsa mudra: the right hand
Buddha,
ground and the
gods of the earth rose up to destroy
the demons.
The hemispherical bumj) (ushnisha) on top of the Buddha's head
contains his boundless knowledge
(hodhi). The flame arising from it
th-i 3th century) was based quite
pendant in front of the right knee,
His extended earlobes
palm
fact that Prince Siddhartha. the
Bronze
4274X
51
'/2
inches (107.3 ^ ô ^f")
82.228, Gift of
WiUiam Randolph
Reiss
The Sukhothai Period (1250-1378)

was a great golden age of Thai sculpture. Dvaravati sculpture
century)
had
(6th- 10th
closely followed hidian
on Khmer models of the Angkor Period

(877-1201). In the
Sukhothai Period, however, a truly
national Thai style emerged. As we
closely
see here,
it
managed
to
is
inward, with the fingers ex-
toward
the
downward
tended
ground. This ritual gesture refers to
the time
when the Buddha j)roved his
ORIENTAL art: THAILAND
perfect knowledge.
and
his armies attacked the
but he pointed
to the
represents his fiery energ\" (tejas).
dha Sakyamuni before
refer to the
Bud-
his enlight-
enment, wore the heavy earrings of

an Indian prince.
I
DC)
'4
A Blue
Iris
Signed; \a Sahib -al-Zaman (O Lord of

the .\ge) (active second half of the 17th
centim). one of the accepted

signatiires of
Muhammad Zaman
Iran. Isfahan
Dated 166364
Opaque
watercolor and ink on paper

sheet i3'/8X85/6 inches (53-3 x -21.3
cm); image: 7V2X45/8 inches
X 1 1.1 cm)
Hagop Ke\orkian Fund
Middle East Special Fmid
(19.1
86.23.
cuid
This exquisite painting is bv the

enteenth-century
Iranian
artist
Muhammad
Muhammad Zaman are
^ôrks by
sev-
somewhat rare and often manuscript
Zamcin. Signed "Ya

Sahib -al-Zaman." or "O Lord of the
.\ge." a pun on the artists name, and
dated a.h. 1074 (166364). it is the
earhest dated work bv the artist in an
American collection, his onlv kno%Mi
illustrations rather
depiction of a single flower, and the
chronicler's reference to a converted
onh" work bv
Museum
him
in
The BrookhTi
than single-page
Departing from the
seventeenth-century Iranicin norm,
he painted several scenes from the
New Testament. These paintings
compositions.
and a seventeenth -century

Iranian traveler of the same
Italian
name led
most of this century

to conclude that Muliammad Zamcin was in fact a Christian who
worked outside Iran in the 1660s.
However, in recent years scholars
have reexamined this story and have
found that no mention was made of
art historians for
collection.
Mtihammad Zaman. who is

known for his Europeanizing style,
may well have been inspired by a
Dutch
or Flemish botanical print.
Such
prints
were
increasingly
brousht to Iran durins the seven

teenth centurv by European travelers
and merchants. Intended for inclusion in an album. A Blue Iris might

have been placed opposite a European print of the Scime subject. Ap-
the
traveler
being an
Muhammad Zaman
painting inspired a whole school of
Thus, the decidedly

European and. to some eyes. Indian
influence on Muhammad Zamans
work must have come from imported
works of art rather than from
Muhammad Zamans o^^^l peram-
flower painting in eighteenth- and
bulations.
nineteenth-century Iran,
A Blue Iris comes to us \\"ith an

impeccable provenance. Formerly in
parentlv
Zamans
Mtihammad
for several
eighteenth -century flower paintings
bear
false attributions to
over,
him. More-
almost no painting or drawing
of flowers dated before
1663 depicts
the subject without a bird or butterfly
hovering nearby.
Zamans work must

the ver\'
make
first
Muhammad
ha\e been one of
Iranian paintings to
artist.
the collection of the bibliophile

P.
Kraus.
ig-2.
Prince
It
Hans
was first published

was subsequently sold
it
Shahram
in
to
of the former Ira-
nian royal family and then to the

contemporary British pgiinter Howard Hodgkin.
the break from the natural
ORIENTAL art: PERSIA
10
XiSHAPUR Bowl
Northeastern Iran or Transoxiana
gth loth century
the Eastern Islamic world, including
incising. Customarily, a clear lead
Cercimic. transpeirent colorless glaze.
the major cities of Merv'. Samarkcind
glaze covers the decorated surface.
black
slip,
white engobe.
biiff
(.Airasiyab).
Bukhara. Balkh. and
According
to Charles K.
Wilkin-
earthenware body
Nishapur. .\lthough wares excavated
sons classification, "black-on-white
wares" constituted one of the most
provinces of Iran. Khurasan, and
Nishapur and Samarkand are the

from this region today,
presumablv each of the major Samanid cities had kilns of its ovm
where ceramics similar to the bowl
shown here were produced.
This piece is demonstrative of the
Transoxiana during the ninth and
epigraphic.
49/16 X 14 inches
1.5
x 55.5 cml
The type
of potterv represented here
was produced
in the northeastern
tenth centuries.
By 8-5
the
Samanid
family had estabhshed an autono-
mous d\"nasty in Transoxiana with its

capital at
feating
Bukhara. In return
the
at
best kno\Mi
Foundation
Safarrid
for de-
d\Tiast\"
in
Khurasan,
the
Abbasid
caliph
granted the Samanids the governship of that province in 900. Thus, by
the tenth century the Samanids controlled a vast and important area of
numerous groups
of ceramics exca-
vated at Nishapur. These wares are
among
the most beautiful of
all Is-
Icimic ceramics. In general, thev consist of three t\"pes those decorated

with .Arabic writing or pseudo-A\Tit-
of
^^"ith nonepigraphic ornament, and those with a combination
the design is achieved by the use of a

white slip covering the pink or buff
ecLTthenware body, on which decora-
As discussed by Lisa Volov (Golombek). the inscriptions on Samanid
was painted in metallic pigments mixed with slip. By adding
in .\rabic kufic script
of
"black-on-white"
Samanid ceramics. The
tA"pe
claritA"
tion
slip to the
pigments, potters could
ing. those
of epigraphic auid other decoration.
epigraphic pottery invariably appear
and most often
express pithv sentiments, such as the
keep them from running. Designs in
inscription here: "Peace
dark brown or black eire often in

slight relief and embellished \\'ith
is silent
ORIENTAL art: PERSL\
veal the
and only
[?]
of the
is
that
which
his speech will re-
man
\\-ith faults."
Costumes and Textiles
Orphrey Band
76
English
Third quarter of the 1 4th century

Linen embroidered with silk and
metcillic thread
25 X 6.9 inches (62.5 x
-.5
cm)
49.216. Gift of Mr. cuid Mrs. .\lastair B.
Martin
During the Middle Ages one
of the
favorite subjects for artists in all
Norwegian. Gudbrandsdalen or VcJdres
dia was the earthly genealog\' of
region
Jesus. knowTi as the Tree of Jesse
Mid-late
King David (MatFour figures from this family
after the father of
thew I).
Wall Hanging
YY
me-
Wool and
-th century
linen,
slit
tapestry weave
47'/2 X 67 inches (120.- x
tree are depicted on this fourteenth-
2^.:s88, Gift of
70.2 cm)
Frank L. Babbott
century embroidered fragment. Identified
by the
scrolls
they hold, which
many
are inscribed in Gothic characters,
For
they are Ozias, -\zor. Achaz. and
Norwegian pictorial
wall hangings was the Parable of the
Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:115).
Over the years there was little change
in the format and depiction of the
parable, with, as here, two horizontal
Sadoch.
This fragment
nament
intended
part of an
band made to
is
phrey. a decorative
or-
or-
a vestment or other textile

for ecclesiastical use.
Two
companion pieces are in the Guennol Collection and the Cleveland

Museum of .Art. All are worked in
some of the finest and most distinc-
The
(the
set
how
the
out to meet a bridegroom
Lord), here portrayed in the
lower
left
corner. Fi\"e wise
took lamps with extra
oil,
women
while
five
foolish ones took only their lamps.
over Europe. Such
em-
The unprepared ran
characterized by silk
split
did not have enough light to see the
and couched metal thread on
Lord. These virgins are sho\Mi

weeping in an archway on the bottom row. On the upper row the five
exported
broidery
all
is
layers of linen.
The
natural dye
silk thread is an untwisted floss,

and the metallic thread is silver-gilt
foil uTapped around a silk thread
out of
oil
and
wisely prepared virgins, torches upraised
and ablaze, greet the Lord.
The wool yarns of this hanging are
core.
The
traditional
biblical story relates
women
needlework ever executed, a

type known as opus Anglicanium.
which at the time of its creation was
stitch
rows of people.
tive
two
centuries
subject of rural
hand spun and dyed, and the weaving is probably the work of a profes-
figural composition here can
easily be related to late medieval

manuscript miniatures in which the
sional.
The geometric
floral or
snow-
abound in
designs
that
Norwegian woven textiles here form
a full top and bottom frame and partial side panels. The piece most probablv was hung in a church.
subject is enframed by foliate forms.

Here a grapevine serves both as an
ovoid frame for the various subjects
and as the uniting branch of a gen-
flake
ealogical tree.
COSTUMES AND TEXTILES
114
78
Cravat End
cirticles
This cravat end is one of a pair

worked in mirror image. Hunting
scenes like the one it displays were
common subjects for lace but were
not generally utilized on objects of
attire. \Mien the cravat was worn, the
central mounted hunter, who is in
restricted to
Flemish
Cixca
725
Linen thread, bobbin lace

1 35/8 X 1 3 inches (34.0 x 35.0 cm)
31.778. Ella C. Woodwcird Fund
Historiccilly,
lace-enhanced
of attire have not
been
were then thrown within the pin

configuration.
The
solid
subject
motifs in this instance the human,

animal, and bird figures would be
made first and then joined and
grounded bv a net or mesh. Not all
the motifs were necessarily made by
pursuit of the deer or hare cJong the
a single individual, for several lace
items associated with the feminine
lower right edge, would be
wardrobe. During the seventeenth
pendant
and eighteenth centuries lacetrimmed personal garments those

worn closest to the skin were a
is
makers could be employed in turning out spot motifs. To give additional texture the main figures were
mcirk of
gentilits' for
both sexes.
For a man. lace might trim his
neck treatment. ^^ hen cravats and falling bands replaced widespreading collars in the early years of
the eighteenth century, the ends of
both were frequently embellished
with fine needle- or bobbin-made
lace. The depth and complexity of the
lace pattern were indications of both
the wearer's status and contemporeiry
shirt or
fashion.
folds.
lost in
The mounted hunter
diagonally framed by a fanciful
Eastern bird vendor

right
the upper
at
and a spear- and
shield- carry-
at the lower left. Above

and below him are a bird and a dog
respectively. In the upper left corner
ing hunter
is
Point
d'Angleterre
is
identified as
reseau,
Brussels-type bobbin lace.
It
was ex-
ecuted on a speciallv formed circular

which pins were stuck in
pillow into
the outline of the pattern. In a variety

of
%\"ith
a raised cordonnet.
many of the finest lace pieces

in American museum collections,
this piece and its mate, which is now
in
the Cooper- He%\itt Museum,
Like
passed through the hands of the
a feline.
This kind of lace
outlined
open-ended weaving up
to thirty
dealer-collector-lace
maker Marion
Because lace patterns are

it was once the established procedure among collectors to separate pieces with identical
executed many
Scissors
motifs.
Po\\y
s.
usually repetitive,
amputations.
bobbins wrapped with linen thread
16
79
Fan
European
Circa
750
Watercolor on paper, carved and colored

ivory
i2'/4 inches (51.1
cm) long
49.22.66, Gift of Mr. George Arents in
memorv
of
Annie Walter
.Arents
Folding fans were a popular and so-
the pseudo-mv^thological fashion that
cially useful accessory in the eigh-
was
teenth century. As the century pro-
period, plays a clavier while one of
gressed, they increased in
number
the
a favored artistic conceit of the
men
plavs a flute.
while the figural representations that

often adorned them diminished in
Supporting the leaf, which is decorated on the other side with an un-
scale.
scene,
are
pastoral
remarkable
intricately carved ivory guards and
In the musical gathering depicted

on this fan, the fan leaf painter has
sticks.
At the shoulder line of the

shepherd
four mirror-image
balanced two female votal accompanists with two male instnmientalists
sticks
whose caps indicate the informality
touches outlined in red
of the occasion. In the central
position another
com-
woman, dressed
in
couples are framed by gilded caralternate with

templ<"^
and
foil. These
two painted scenes of
flowers.
117
8o
Closed Bridal Robe

blue.
Norwegian
Circa 1 760
Embroidered and appliqued
30.955. Ella C.
silk
Woodward Fund
Extant examples of embroi-
as this tend to be decorative exlierior
sprays.
petticoats, aprons,
many
fabricated
gold, as
was a
found in this bridal
and fashionable
textile color in both ^ê stern Europe
and North America in the mid-eighrobe,
favorite
teenth century.
of being woven,
The
is
pattern, instead
applied in a typ-
Scandinavian manner with

unpatterned or self-colored patically
silk fabrics in deep rose,

emerald green, bright gold, and deep
terned
scraps of silk that form the
Icirger
that in
Chinese
qued
dered cind appliqued garments such
go%Mi.
layettes
instances have been
from
probably the
and baby's
garments,
earlier
own
mother's
bridal
The material was initially em-
broidered in the rapport

the design
manner
was worked to the shape
of
the garment. In this instance the

floral sprays increase in scale
shoulder
metrically
to
hem and
balanced.
worked with a
silk
from
areas
of
the
major
floral
was acquired for

by its then-Director.
Dr William H. Fox. and his wife on
a 1950 bu\ing and vacation expedition to Scandinavia, it was much altered, being in the form of an open
hen
^^
the
this dress
Museum
robe with petticoat. Careful struc-
examination revealed up
to
four major alterations during the
life
tural
garment but
fortunate!}" not
are
s\Tn-
of the
Satin
stitch
the one that befell the majority' of
twist
is
used
throughout, even securing the appli-
such wedding wear:

for
an
it
was not cut up
infant's lavette.
118
Waistcoat Foreparts
8i
chest.
French
Circa
5.86. Gift of Robert B.
toward the
the coat curved awa}
-60
Linen thread needle lace

2978 X 14V8 inches (74X57 cm)
1
Moreover, the torso and skirt of
Woodward
back, leaving the middle section of

the body in need of covering.
the
opportunity
for
Thus
decorative
While many waistcoat
foreparts
Throughout the eighteenth century

the most decorative element of a
mans attire was his waistcoat. Although body coats were outlined
were cut from patterned fabrics,

many of the most elaborate were
edged with metallic lace, finely
along the front closure with tightly

spaced buttons and buttonholes, they
woven en
stances
embroidered,
delicately
disposition, or in rare in-
made
of lace.
actually only closed with three or
gmd highly
four fiuictioning units
pieces would have
on the upper
and desirable
for a
gentleman
or courtier who wished to take a basic
yet fashionable shape,
and make a
memorable statement.
This
pair
of
foreparts
is
con-
structed in a needle-lace technique
waistcoats.
quilted,
costly
visible
The expanse
nature of such
made them
known
as
teristic of
Argentan and. as
needle-laces,
is
is
charac-
built
up
in
a series of buttonhole stitches. Be-
cause these fronts were probably applied to a colorful. supj)ortive. functional
under waistcoat, neither the
buttonholes nor the pocket flaps are

operational.
lx)tli
'9
82
Bed Rugg
American, Connecticut River Valley
1790
Wool embroidery on wool

86x89 inches {218.4X226.0 cm)
49.189.
Museum
Purchase
In an attempt to mitigate the cold of

late-eigh-
embroidered with a looped, closely

spaced running stitch of crewel wool.
teenth-century residents devised a
The yarns of this rugg are hand spun
bed covering that was both decorative

and practical. KnowTi as bed ruggs.
these wool coverlets usually had en-
and dyed in three shades
New England
winters,
This example.
one in the
Henry Francis Dupont Winterthur
Museum, has an inner scallop panel
larged
floral motifs.
howe\er.
along with
and an outer border
that resembles
waves.
The warmth
of these ruggs de-
of blue with
a white highlight thread.
The
sur-
been left uncut; about equal

numbers were clipped, and some
face has
pieces even display both techniques.
Since the rugg is initialed R.G.E.

and dated 1 -90. it is presumed to
ha\e been part of a bridal trousseau
and to haxe been made by and for
G.E.. whose husband was R. Be-
rived from their structure, here a
cause of the treasured nature of these
wea\e wool ground of blanket

weight patterned with a greenish
blue and ecru plaid which has been
bed coverings, they were passed from

generation to generation in an informal manner rather than bv will.
twill
83
Bed Valance
Russian, Vologda region
Circa 1800
Embroidered linen mesh

29X785/4 inches (79.0 x 195.5 c)
31.545, Gift of Mrs. Edward S.
Hcirkness in memory of her mother,
Elizabeth
Greenman
Stillman
In the eighteenth and nineteenth

centuries
Russian
females
of
all
produced numerous textile

many of which were intended to enhance the bed, especially on days when it might be
viewed by guests. A valance like this
would be attached to the top sheet
and hung along the side of the bed in
a traditional manner.
The bulbous domes of the buildclasses
objects,
ings depicted here give this piece a

distinctive
Peaceable
Russian character. The
Kingdom
aspect
of the
composition
is
standard:
domesti-
animals mingle with wild.

Since many domestic linens have
been associated with bridal trousseaus, it is not unreasonable to ascated
sume
bolic
that the central couple
of
the
felicitous
is svTti-
state
all
newl\"sveds anticipate.
While many Russian bed valances

all white or off-white, some are
are
Many
are
of bobbin lace sections,
and
highlighted with
made up
color.
a few. like this one. have bobbin lace
lower borders.
21
Woman's Festive
84
Outfit
Russian.
Madimir
region
Early 19th century

\cunous materials
31.449453. Gift of Mrs. Exlward S

Hcirkness in memory of her mother
Elizabeth
In
Greenman
StillmEm
1950 an exiled Russian count
traêled around the eastern United

States exhibiting a collection of old
Russian costumes and

selling to
museums
textiles
much
as
and
of the
them
Thus The Rrookh-n Museum, the
collection as he could interest

in.
Museum
of Fine .\rts. Boston,
the Cleveland
Museum
to share parts of
an important
and
came
of -\rt
collec-
Russian textile arts that had

been assembled in the 1880s and
tion of
1890s by a Russicin noblewoman

named Natalie de Shabelsky. Selections from this collection were considered of such importance during
Mme de Shabelskys lifetime that
they were routinely included in
^ôrld"s Fairs at Chicago in 1893,
Brussels in 1894. and Paris in 1900.
They
also
decorated
the
tersburg Palace of the
St.
Pe-
Grand Duke
Nicholas in 189091 and were fea-
tured as part of the coronation fes-
when Nicholas was cro\\"ned

Czar in 1896.
This outfit from the Shabelsky collection is the festive attire of a Russiem peasant woman a monied
tivities
peasant, not one
Such
attire is
otically
who
tilled the soil.
characterized by an ex-
shaped headdress (kokosh-
nik), a shirt (rubakha).
and a
loose-fitting tunic (sarafan).

tional
apron
long,
Addi-
garments might include an

(perednik),
short-sleeved
jacket (dushegreya). or a short, sleeveless jacket (epanechka).
At the time
was made the Russian silk

was
advanced enough to
industry
this outfit
produce European-influenced textiles. The Russian addiction to glitter

is
satisfied
with freshwater pearls,
and semiprecious stones, and

an abundance of metallic embroiderv and lace.
paste,
|i
^îfU^
<
'*^**^
85
'^fiSj^
Textile Panel
Spanish or Portuguese
Early 19th century
Cut and uncut pile silk satin

21^/4X39 inches (55-5X99.0 cm)
79.238, Gift of Michael Abraham
With
its
fringed overlay
end, this fabric
is
at the
lower
identifiable as gar-
ment material rather than furnishing fabric. During the second and
third decades of the nineteenth century,
women's dresses of fashion had
a small sprigging on the skirt with a
hemline border.
As with many textile items produced on the Iberian peninsula, the
fabric displays a certain heavy-handedness.
The centered vermicelli
Icmd
rigid
is
and
gar-
linear, not grace-
swagged, and there is an

awkwardness to the landscape,
which seems to depict a formal Portuguese garden with a tile-lined,
fully
man-made
stream.
An
element of
residual chinoiserie influence can be
found in the delineation of the water
and the columns and rooflines.

The two dueling figures outfitted
in eighteenth-century attire seem a
little unlikely for representation on
cloth that was probably made up into
a lady's formal evening dress. Still,
with its cut and uncut piles against a
shimmering silk satin ground, this
material must have created an eyecatching
impression
through candlelight.
as
it
moved
123
Man's Banyan and

Matching Waistcoat
86
American
Circa 1820
Silk brocade
22.244, Gift of Mr. and Mrs.
W.
Sterling Peters
Today with the relative cheapness of

clothing and textiles it is sometimes
difficult to comprehend the veJue
such goods had in the lives of our
ancestors. Many textile items were
refashioned,
first
as fashionable arti-
cles,
then in pieces of descending
scale
and importance, before ending
up
in children's clothes or piecework
quilts.
This man's banyan, or dressing

gown, for instance, with its shawl collar, slightly full sleeve caps, and ankle-length flared
about
skirt, is stylish for
1820, but the stylized
silk
brocade of which it is made was

probably woven in Lyon, France,
floral
about
fifty
years before.
Although with careful sleuthing it

is sometimes possible to determine
the previous shapes a textile was
made up in. in this case the answer
has remained elusive. The matching
silk waistcoat reminds us that although the banyan was for informal
wear a gentleman could wear it not
only at
home but
also at his place of
business.
124
Woman's Dress
87
French
Circa 1820
Cotton with needle lace and embroidery

26.31 la-b, Purchase A. Augustus Healy
Fund
prominent English
ladies' journal La Belle Assemblee
carried a fashion engraving of a
1820
In
the
Summer
"Parisian
Promenade
Dress" of fine white cambric muslin

rosettes and
openwork embroidery. The dress de-
trimmed with muslin
picted closely resembles this
ment
in the
Museum's
gar-
collection,
down to the long sleeves, since

Museum's dress originally came
even
the
with detachable sleeves so that
it
might serve for both late day and evening wear.

While the bodice and sleeve construction and decorative treatments
are nearly identical, variations are to
be noted in the hemline bands.
The
watercolored engraving shows seven

alternating rows of puffed rosettes
and a flounced scalloped hemline;

garment has only three rows of
fine inset cotton mull petaled rosettes. These are horizontally separated by undulating bands of cotton
the
satin stitched foliate
forms entwin-
ing snov^dn.akelike needle-lace insertions.
In cut the dress
is
period: square neck,
bodice,
all
back.
its
sleeve lengths, tubular
with a slight flare
skirt
and
two
typical of
medium-high
at the
hem
the fullness gathered to the
The
skill
of the
needlework
techniques and the up-to-the-minute fashion quality of the dress both

point to discerning ownership.
125
88
Quilt
American, attributed
Weltch
to Elizabeth
sporting a shield and clutching two
Circa 1825
Appliqued cottons
1
lo'/i
X 109 inches (280.7 ^ 276.8 cm)
78.36, Gift of
The Roebling
Society
of the
tial or
most remarkable patch-
work
quilts in
seum
collection
The Brookhii Muis
this "liberty quilt"
and
three
arrows.
Although this republican motif was

probably adapted from the PresidenGreat Seal, in this instance the
surrounded by only eight

stars rather than thirteen and holds
in its beak a branch rather than a
banner. \\ ith such a prominent politeagle
One
spravs
floral
is
attributed to Elizabeth ^êltch of
ical
\\arren County, \irginia (now part
was made in celebration of fifty

years of American independence in
^826.
of
West
Virginia).
While unique
in
neither design nor execution, this

quilt
both.
makes
It
vivid statements about
shows an American eagle
statement
it is
possible that the
quilt
Except
border,
for the sa\\ tooth
the
COSTUMES
quilt
is
piecework
executed
.\ND TEXTILES
pri-
marily in the applique technique.
The
quilting
itself
is
simple
Crosshatch or diamond design.
Of
special note are the leaves of the
flowering corner garlands, which are
worked
in a complicated reverse ap-
plique technique in which the white
sround
fabric
is
cut
awav and colored
pattern pieces stitched in from the
back. These patterned cotton materials
are a mixture of yard goods
suitable for either
garment
or house-
hold items. Some, as in the sunflower

border,
even retain their original
glaze.
126
Shawl
8g
French, possibly designed by Anthony
Berrus or
Amedee Courder
Circa 1855
Wool wrapped silk

i58x64'/4 inches (595X 161 cm)
85.142, Gift of
The Roebling
Society
When
the punch- card system of the

Jacquard loom was perfected in the
early nineteenth century, one of the
primary jobs to which it was applied

was the weaving of "paisley" or
"cashmere" shawls, some of which
were made especially for exhibition.
Such exhibition shawls frequently
had little to do with common exam-
which carried the "cone"
ples,
or
"buta" motif; rather they depicted

naturalistic botanical subjects or exotic
motifs populated with animal
and
human
forms.
The composition and complexity

of this shawl point to
its
having been
conceived as an exhibition piece,
possibly as the harlequin banded

border would indicate
for the
1855
Universal Exhibition in Paris. In
weaving
this chinoiserie fantasy, a
three-by-one
twill,
approximately
sixty wefts per centimeter
was used.
The Jacquard loom would have been

fitted
with about 200,000 punch
cards to direct the weave of the pattern,
which
is
unique over two-
thirds of the shawl.

ject is a lake over
The
central sub-
which hangs
eties of exotic vegetation;
lated
by
diverse
it is
vari-
popu-
collection
of
equally fanciful beasts, fishes, and
some of which are drawn from

Chinese mythology. Miniature people can be observed plucking fruit
from trees, enjoying tea, hunting, or
going about other daily activities. At
either end of the shawl is a splendidly
birds,
outfitted pleasure barge. All these
motifs are set
among
intermingling
architectural elements of both Chi-
nese and Persian influence.
127
go
Woman's Opera Cape
French, designed by the House of Worth
1890
Silk lampas, vehet,
and
lace
51.22.1g. Gift of the Princess Viggo
In the
garnering a Grand Prix
Princess
Gourd.
1930s the American-born

Viggo of Denmark distributed to New York City museums
garments from the wardrobes of her
late aunts Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt.
The Hewitt sisters had been instrumental in developing the design collection at Cooper Union, one aspect
of which is today a remarkable selection of textiles.
affluent,
From an
sophisticated
early age, as
Americans,
With
for
Maison
thirty- one -inch
its
spread between tulip sprays,
among
plays
skill
emplo\ing
at
it
dis-
other things Worth's

fabrics that be-
cause of the scale of their motifs
might otherwise be considered suitable only as furnishing fabric.
^^ brth
was kno\Mi
to prefer
Amer-
ican clients not only because of their
seemingly
inexhaustible
resources
they had been dressed in Paris by the
but also because "he found that more
dean
frequently than in the
of French fashion, Charles Fre-
Worth (18251895).
Unequaled
were
textiles
as
characteristic of Worth designs as
historical reinterpretations, and the
derick
nation
other
the
women
of
Americans
any
had
slimness without leanness, leanness,
sometimes called scra^^^liness. that

he abhorred." Although, like many
Worth s
parrot tulip lampas used in this cape
of
made
were physically well endowed, this

cape, which sweeps from a squared,
slightly raised shoulder line, would
elegantly conceal any enlarged fig-
one of the Hewitt sisters is

perhaps one of the most remarkable
for
clients, the He\%"itt sisters
used by the House of

Worth. Woven in 1 889 by A. Gourd
& Cie of Lyon, the fabric was distributed in Paris by Maison Morel.
Poeckes,
& Baumlin. Entitled
Talipes Hollandaise. it was included
in the section of Lvonnaise textiles at
with black lace softens the break be-
the Universal Exposition of 1889,
baroque
textiles ever
ure.
tween
standing neckpiece frilled
flesh
and
fabric.
The
a dusty rose silk velvet that
lining
is
harmo-
nizes well with the vibrant reds of the

tulips.
12^
^V'
Ball Gown and Court

Train
gi
French
.896
Embroidered silk, satin,
and artificial flowers
Anommous
70.55.5.
lace, silk velvet,
gift
One
of the treasured experiences of
ctny
late
nineteenth-,
early twen-
American lady was

presentation at a European court.
Thus Mrs. Washington A. Roebling,
tieth-century
the
woman who oversaw the
tion of the
comple-
BrookKii Bridge after the
incapacitation of her husband, the
bridges
pecially
engineer,
chief
was
es-
honored in 1896 when she
was presented not only to Queen Victoria
but also to the Empress of
Russia.
On
wore
both occasions. Mrs. Roebling

this
House
of
garment attributed to the

Worth. While meeting
92
memorable colors
bright gold and orchid. The orchid
theme is carried through to the selecis
uniform, attired in black
Ensemble
court etiquette requirements, the en-
semble
Man's Court
Presentation
tailcoat
in
tion of the floral trim
cloth orchids
English
black
1907
and beaver: cut steel.

and various other materials
50.72.55. Gift of Marion Litchfield
Silk velvet, satin,
hose,
velvet
waistcoat,
and patent
hat, to
silk velvet
and breeches, white
satin or
black
silk
leather shoes. His
be carried, was
to
be a black
beaver or silk cocked hat with a steel
outlining the train and dropping

from the shoulder. The gilt metallic
thread embroidery on the bodice
stomacher and the sham underskirt
panel are no more than late nineteenth-century adaptations of mid-
This court presentation ensemble belonged to Edward Hubert Litchfield,

son of the head of a prominent
wear a sword with a steel hilt,

and steel moimtings. which was to be held by a black
silk web waistband worn under the
eighteenth -century
Brookhn family who
built, as their
waistcoat with a black velvet frog for
home, an Italianate
villa that
the sword.
styling of the
styles, as is
garment
the
itself.
loop on a black silk cockade.

also to
still
Mrs. Roebling later also chose this

ensemble for a formal, full-length
stands in Prospect Park. Litchfield
portrait
by Emile Carolus-Duran
and an impressive studio photograph. Such documentation of how a
garment looked at its moment of
like his father,
highest fashion
Court of St. James. Following the

rigid requirements established in
Dress Worn at His Majesty's Court, he
was to ajjpear, if he had no sjjecial
is rare.
He was
spent
much of his life in London and,

was presented
at
the
a black scabbard,
white bow necktie and
white gloves were the
last
prescribed
was
mentioned
about the shirt, and buttons were to
be of cut steel. Litchfield was outfitted according to regulations, and
this suit has both the black and white
waistcoats. His hat is silk beaver.
articles:
nothing
131
93
Robe Saba Evening

is
Gown
French, designed by Paul Poiret
credited with
introducing into
early
twentieth- century
While
his days of greatest creative
fashion.
gown
that expresses his passion for
theater.
The
basic simplicity of the dress
more than
(1879-1944)
brilliance
1921
sparks flash from some of his post-
able strands of
war garments as well. In this Robe

Saba of 1921. for instance, he used
modified kimono sleeves, a medieval
girdle and squared train, and two-
Like
Beaded and appliqued red
silk velvet
Label: Paul Poiret' a Paris
-5.127. Augustus
Graham
School of
Design Fund
predate
dimensional
Splashes of intense color and lean,
linear silhouettes are
that the
two features
French designer Paul Poiret
silk velvet
^ôrld
decoration
\\ar
I.
black
and gold lame applique
and red-and-gold streamered glass

bead fringe to fashion a stylish
offset
shimmering beads.
Poiret's finest
prewar garments,
the go\Mi cries out to be seen in

tion.
is
by the uncontroll-
The designer was
mo-
so satisfied
he created an almost
identical garment, a Robe Sabbat, on
with
it
that
which the fleur-de-lis are replaced

bv a more diminutive beaded waist
and hemline decoration.
13^
Woman's Tabard
94
American, designed by Ravmond
Duncan (i8;-4-i966)
Circa 1920
Block-printed and hand-painted cotton
and wool crepe, 45'/4X 26V4 inches

5 X 68 cm)
( 1
1
X912,
Museum
Collection
Although much less well known than

his flamboyant sister Isadora. Raymond Duncan was an artist in his
own right. An accomplished designer and decorator, he had for
many
years a Parisian atelier that
and embroid-
specialized in fabrics
eries.
The garments he produced,
such as this unstructured tabard, reflected a fascination
ation
of classical
with the
civiliz-
Greece. Printed
and brush painted with natural dyes,

and shoulder
bands of a female figure plucking
tree fruit while the remaining rows
the tabard has border
are of blocked trees.

lieved to have
Duncan
is
be-
been assisted by his
brother Augustiti in the production of
some
of his textiles.
'53
Furnishing Fabric
95
French, designed by Emile-Jacques
Ruhlmann 118791935)
proaching his zenith as an exponent

of -\rt Deco design, a point he was to
Circa 192324
Silk
damask. 45.2 inches
cm) wide: pattern

inches
5.6 cm)
(1
14.8
( 1
71.1 50.
repeat 43.5
achieve
Museum
purchase with
funds given by Joseph
F.
ernes.
McCrindle.
Mrs. Richard Palmer. Charles C.

Paterson, Ra\Tnond \\brgelt. and others
In the spring of 1925 a Lyonnaise
Ruhhnann
Lisbonne.
home. The
named Weitz
firm
Paris,
of
to
2-
hired the
rue
de
decorate
his
o^^^ler of the firm.
Emile-
Jacques Ruhlmann, was then fast ap-
His
Mod-
interior design for \\eitz
called for the intermingling of two of

his
best-kno\\'n
and
motifs
vase of
arrangements of
stsiized roses. These motifs were incorporated into most of the furnishings, including this red and gray silk
damask fabric used for both upholstery and wall covering.
\\ hen the Museum acquired the
salon from the ^êitz house in 1972,
fruits
industrialist
the 1925 Exposition des
.\rts Decoratifs et Industriels
3.
at
o\"eraIl
the fabric was found to ha\e been
remo%"ed from the walls and stored in
German occupa-
the attic during the

tion of \\brld ^âr
probably saved
it
II.
move
that
from destruction
not only at the time but also during

the succeeding vears
fell
out of favor.
The
when
silk
.\rt Deco
was probably
locally, by another Ruhlmann

Ducharne.
as Lyon has tradiclient.
center
silk-wea\ing
the
tionally been
Ruhlmcinn
of France. At the time
decorated the house the fabric could
be had from his establishment in
Paris for 1 50 francs a meter.
woven
154
Evening Dress
g6
model go\Mis.
whose creations he imported were Callot. Lanand
vin.
Chanel,
Mainbocher.
Schiaparelli. whose name has been
buyer
French
Among
Circa 1934
Printed silk crepe
63.
3,
Gift of Mrs. V. D. Crisp
of
French
the designers
associated with this garment.
Through the doors

Bendel on
New
seventh Street
of the store
Henri
West Fiftyha\e passed some of

York's
most fashionable women in

America. Bendel made his name as.
at one time, the largest American
the
BendePs imports about 1954 may

have included this evening dress of
bias-cut oyster silk crepe with a deep
hemline panel printed in an abstract

feather motif in shaded grays. The
trails to
the back. Within the center
back of the train are a pair of eyelets

that permit it to be hooked at the
waistline.
Thus
secured, the train
forms a cascade of ruffles down the

back of the dress and gives it an even
hemline. The sash and the deep
V-back neckline extending to the
waist were fashionable in 1954. The
popularity of gowns with trains ex-
tended over
much
of the decade.
feathers are elongated as the pemel
155
Evening Dress
97
French, designed by Madeleine \'ionnet
(1876-1975)
1958-39
Appliqued
silk net
69.33.10, Gift of Mrs.
Edward G.
Sparrow
The
designer
of
dress,
this
Madeleine Marie Valentine Vionnet.

is one of the premier forces of twentieth-century fashion, her particular
contribution being the perfection of
bias-cut garments during the 1930s.
Born
in
rapidly
rural
^ôrked
Vionnet
France,
way through
her
dressmaking establishments in Paris

and London before opening her o\mi
Parisian couture house in 1912 on
the rue de Rivoli.
Having barely be-
gun, she then closed her doors

outset of ^^ or Id \^ ar
reopen with her former

at
at the
in 1914. only to
1918
was at
staff in
50 Avenue Montaigne.
It
this address, until her retirement in
1940. that she draped her most

memorable garments.
Although Vionnet's teachers and
mentors included some of the most
respected
names
of the time
Reilly, the Callot sisters,
Doucet they
could
Kate
and Jacques
compete
not
with her assured inventiveness. Utilizing a lay figure,
she fashioned
garments that moved much

more easily with the body because of
the elasticity provided by the bias, or
fluid
diagonal, cut of the fabric.
Her intermodern
est in the activities of the
woman
included the adaptation of
styles for
tire,
sportswear into formal
at-
here seen in this evening dress's
halter neck.
Much less
style is the
typical of her
dress's billowing,
pan-
niered skirt with glued -on applique

of grape clusters, a reflection of the
fashion influence of the 1959 film

Gone With the Wind. Together the
and caged pannier skirt

support represent a rare melding of
nineteenth- and twentieth -century
halter bodice
design.
136
Necklet
98
French, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli
(i89cj-i973)
designers: Charles James. Valentina.
from a distance they

seem to wander at will over flesh.
Along with a similarly decorated
jacket of an afternoon suit now
owned by the Museum, the piece was
part of Schiaparelli's 1938 autumn-
Elsa Schiaparelli, and,
for her ante-
winter collection entitled Painne, or
persona.
Pagan. That collection, which was

based on the theme of a primordial
Proven gal dress on the Riviera,

and witty and sophisticated apparel
ico,
Autumn 1958
and metal
8'/4X 772 inches (21.0 X ig.i cm)
in the great cultural centers of the
55.26.247, Gift of Paul and .\rturo
world. She wâs dressed by
Plastic
One
of the
women
Oil
most
of her da}
heiress
stylish
American
was the Standard
Millicent
tered her appearance to
Austrian
Alps.
American hidian garb
in
bellum Southern
Mainbocher.
The Museum
belle
many
items
forest, reflected Schiaparelli's inter-
action with the day's leading Sur-
Southwest
Jean Cocteau and Salvador

Although in theory drawn from
nature,
in
application
it
was
New Mex-
Because the insects are applied
unbelievable.
fit
her en-
vironment, wearing Tyrolian attire

the
of
from Rogers's wardrobe, including

this rather astonishing neckpiece on
which nineteen embossed and polychromed insects chase one another.
Huttleston
Rogers. Like a chameleon, she al-
in
some
the twentieth century's most creative
Peralta-Ramos
clear plastic,
holds
to
realists.
Dali.
137
99
Abstract or
Four-Leaf Clover
Ball Gown and Petal
Stole
Americcin, designed by Charles James
(190619-8)
1955 and 1956
Silk satin, velvet,
and
faille
53.169.1. Gift of Mrs. Cornelius

\ânderbilt \Miitney
64.254. Gift of Mrs. William Randolph

Hearst.
Jr.
For the Eisenhower Inaugural Ball of

1953. Austine Hearst, the wife of
tics:
^^ illiani
Bandolph Hearst. Jr.. commissioned

the
Anglo-American
fashion designer Charles James to
create something for her to wear. Although the resulting garment was
not. in typical Jamesian manner,
completed in time for the function, it
His eye for line and

texture is demonstrated by the application of the costliest silks: white
duchess satin, black velours de Lyon,
and ivory faille.
Here James is a sculptor who happens to have selected fabric as his
has since become one of the icons of

mid-century couture and by James's
medium.
o\âi
evaluation,
his
pinnacle
in
while the four lobes are not of
equal dimension, they readily
within a
structed
The
from
gai-ment
is
con-
thirty pattern pieces,
twenty-eight of which are cut in duthe remaining two singly.
dressmaking.
plicate,
Reworking a lobed hemline design of the 1 930s and melding it with

a quatrafoil millinery model of 1 948,
James fabricated a go\\'n of four
layers an inner taffeta slip, a structured under petticoat, a matching
petticoat flare, and an overdress. The
garment expresses James's fascination with geometry and mathema-
Once he had
fit
circle.
perfected the form he

went on to create other similarly
shaped garments, some of which
were copies, others adaptations. The
stole,
with
its
petal outline,
is
of black
and white satin. It was

adapted from the hipline yoke of a
ball gown James created in 1949silk velvet
Decorative Arts
'i
lOO
North Room, the

Jan Martense
ScHENCK House
Flatlands (BrooklvTi),
New
\brk
Circa 1675
(5.64X6.58 meters)
50.192, Gift of The Atlantic Gulf and
Pacific Compciny
i8'/2X2i
'/i
feet
WTien Jan Martense Schenck
built
are typical of this later date. Because
on Mill Island in the town

of Flatlands (now a part of Brookl\Ti)
around 1675, New York had only recently passed from Dutch rule to
the English. Schenck himself was
Dutch-born, and the two-room house
he built is in the Dutch vernacular
the house was greatly altered over the
his house
tradition of the seventeenth century.
Shown
here
is
the north room,
years,
some
of the details
such as
are
the fireplace and the bed boxes
reconstructions based on evidence
found in this and other early New

York houses.
Since Schenck o\Mied a mill that
stood near his house and was a relatively affluent citizen, the
room
which served as a parlor, dining

area, and sleeping room. The fireplace is of the Dutch type, with a
and no
projecting
mantelpiece
jambs, or sides. The triangular knee
braces of the exposed post-and-beam
construction are also a Dutch feature, as are the built-in bed boxes
furnished to
against the wall opposite the fire-
pieces of ceramics, both Oriental
place.
The room
is
installed as
it
might have looked after a remodeling of about
730, and the windows
reflect
standard of living.
is
a comfortable
The
table
is
cov-
ered with a "Turkey carpet" in turn

covered bv a linen cloth for protec-
and the chairs surrounding the

are upholstered in "Turkey
work" in imitation of the carpet. The
tion,
table
room
Dutch
also
includes
Delft,
number
which were made
imitation of Oriental wares.
of
and
in
Hall. The Cupola
101
House
Edenton. North Carolina
Circa 1725. woodwork 175658
ig'/i
18.170.
5'/2 feet (5.95
x 4.75 meters)
The \\oodward Memorial
Fimds
The
largest
and most impressive
eighteenth-century house to survive
North Carohna. is the

Cupola House. It is believed to have
been built around 1725 by Richard
in Edenton.
Sanderson, a
New England
tain. Its original
sea cap-
ground floor hall,
early colonists to display newly found

wealth and shows how household
goods were imported from both Eu-
rope and the other colonies as well.
The richness
of colonial life
is
seen
in the use of strong colors for the
walls
Prussian
and red-or-
blue
angethe wide
parlor,
chamber, pantrv. and
stair
passage
is
Mu-
ceramics and glass, the Chinese ex-
seum. The lavish interior woodwork

and the exterior cupola are believed
port porcelain, the English silver,
the
in
installed
the most
and the American Queen Anne and

Chippendale furniture. Venetian
blinds hang in the windows. They
were available in America from the
1 760s and were usually pamted. On
A "hall"
the
175658. when Francis

Corbin bought and remodeled the
to date to
house.
The
fully paneled hall
elaborate
is
is
room in the house.
a medieval term used to describe
an all-purpose room
for dining,
that
was used
but not exclusively
so.
In
America, a room specifically for dining did not occur for the most part
until around 1 790. The room is installed as if Corbin were about to
entertain. The scheme for the overmantel seems to be from a pattern
shown
in \^ illiam Salmon's Palladio
Londonensis (London.
was
748).
which
also the inspiration for the fire-
place in the
Museum's
Russell House
Parlor (see no. 102).
The room convevs
variety of English
floor
painted
canvas
floorcloth. .Although such floorcloths
were
first
produced in England, by
the second quarter of the eighteenth
century most .American
cities
had
at
one maker of painted carpets.

Furthermore, upholsterers, paperhangers, sign painters, and house
least
painters all ad\ertised floorcloths in
newspapers. They were the eighteenth
linoleum
for areas of hea\"\"
canvas
or
made
version
century's
durable
floorcloths
the desire of
is
and
were
of
and appropriate
use. Painted on
then
varnished,
either a single color
to imitate marble.
=^r=f^
102
Ilium.
II
mil
L Mil
III!
.11
wf-ry
Parlor, The Russell
.\round 1772 Joseph and \Mlliam
against the walls. Until the begin-
House
Russell built
ning of the nineteenth century, furniture moved both within one room
and throughout the house depending
on the need. In the case of the Museum's installation of this room, it
was decided to leave the mantel wall
empty, except for the Chinese export
vase, so the visitor could enjoy and
brick
story
Providence.
Rhode
Island
Circa 1772
14X14
feet (4.25
X 4.25 meters)
20.956. Purchased with funds given by

the
iiiiii
Rembrandt Club
Rhode
a fashionable three-
house
Island.
in
Providence.
The woodwork from
the northeast parlor of this house

the
most sophisticated and
crafted of the
Museum's
is
finely
series
of
eighteenth- century period rooms. As

in the
Cupola House Hall
(no. 101).
the inspiration for the classical over-
appreciate the beauty of the architec-
mantel seems to have come from

William Salmon's Palladio London-
ture.
ensis.
published in London in
748.
These English pattern books were a
1
frequently consulted source for architectural details.
In the eighteenth century, rooms
Many
eighteenth-century En-
glish paintings attest to the practice

of placing large Oriental porcelain
unused fireplaces, particularly during the summer. The sophistication of the woodwork and the
pots
in
occupation of the Russell brothers
for a variety of purposes.
makes
this stylish decoration appro-
merchants
and importers, could have entertained, dined, or done business in
priate.
The
were used
The
this
Russells, successful
elegant,
classical
space.
The
room is shown as if not in use. which

means that the furniture is lined up
DECORATR'E
.\RTS
beautifully executed
carefully ordered
woodwork
and
pro\ides
a glimpse of the taste of the most

affluent colonists on the eve of the
Revolution.
144
Parlor, the
Nicholas Schenck
103
House
Canarsie (Brooklyn),
New
looked in the 1820s after
York
fifty
years
decoration of the room, based on evi-
Nicholas Schenck built his
occupancy by the Schenck family,

the parlor of the Nicholas Schenck
house reflects this process of change
and assimilation.
Although the paneling of the wall
surrounding the fireplace dates from
house in Canarsie (a part of the town
the house's construction, the fireplace
what is now Brooklyn)

much had changed in
has been closed up and re-
from the eighteenth-century tripod
placed as a source of heat by a more
tea table to a sofa in the late Federal
Circa 1771, remodeled early 19th
of
century
i5'/2X 17 feet (4.75X5.20 meters)

1 283, Gift of the New York City
29.
Parks Department
When
of Flatlands in
around 1771,
the
area
since
Dutch-born
his
itself
modern and more
efficient cast-iron
Other new kinds of goods were

available to the middle -class
grandfather Jan Martense Schenck
stove.
built a
house nearby (see no. 100)

By the time
Nicholas Schenck, Jr. remodeled the
also
nearly a century earlier.
consumer
part to the advances of the Industrial
house in Canarsie in the early nine-
Bevolution.
Dutch families of New York had been Americanized and only traces of Dutch
ramics on the tea
teenth century, the old
culture remained. Installed at
Brooklyn
Museum
as
it
The
might have
at this period,
The
owing
in
transfer-printed cetable, for instance,
were made in the Staffordshire
re-
gion of England
be
imported and sold inexpensively in
America. Additional features of the
specifically to
DECORATIVE ARTS
dence found in period

ings,
riors,
and watercolors
prints, paint-
of related inte-
include the use of a French
wallpaper of small
floral
pattern
and
a vividly striped floor covering called

a Venetian carpet.
The
furniture
is
mixture of old and new, ranging
or
Empire
style,
which was the
height of fashion in the 1820s.
Taken as a whole, the Nicholas

Schenck parlor represents the way in
which the house of a middle -class
family might have evolved over decades of continuous use. Together
with the Jan Martense Schenck
House, it also shows the changes that
occurred in DutchAmerican culture in
New
York.
145
Parlor, The
Abraham Harrison
House
104
Irvington,
New
Jersey
Circa 1818
ig'/i
X 25 V4
24.422,
feet (5.97
Museum
x 7.24 meters)
The Harrison rooms also serve as a

perfect setting for the Museum's col-
(such as paint analysis) and period
first
century.
New
as estate inventories,
The
for
spare, elegant chairs
room from
are attributed to
from the Abraham Harrison

House in Irvington, New Jersey, rep-
documents such
manufacturers" archives, and period
flanking the center table in the parlor
this par-
technological
York furniture from

quarter of the nineteenth
Together with an adjoining dining
same house,
examination
both
the
the
and window treatments, are based on
architectural spaces.
lection of
Purchase
and well-proportioned
tuate serene
Duncan Ph\fe and
publications that provided guidelines
cabinetmakers and upholsterers.
For example,
we
learn from an in-
ventory of Harrisons estate taken af-
death that one of the most
represent the early phase of his neo-
ter his
around 1807, while

the window benches, which were
made by Phyfe for the Donaldson
family around 1823, exhibit the
expensive items in his house was a
phisticated
more robust
on a surviving point paper, or diagram, from the archives of an En-
lary of neoclassical details to accen-
Certain details of the installation,

including woodwork color, carpet,
lor
resents the high-style neoclassical

taste
popular in America in the early
part of the nineteenth century. So-
and restrained, both

rooms make use of a limited vocabu-
classical style,
style of his later
DECORATIVE ARTS
work.
carpet.
The
reproduction carpet used
is a relatively expenEnglish Brussels carpet based
here, therefore,
sive
glish mill.
146
Moorish Smoking
Room. The John D.
Rockefeller House
105
Newr \ark.
New
York
Circa 1885
i5Vi
i7'//iX
feet
15-55X4-76 meters)
46-(5. Gift of John D. Rodieidkr.
Jr..
and John D. RockeiyiET DI
The Moorish S/noking Room refM^sents a new trend in American design in terms of both st\le
and execu-
Inspired by Moorish nMtifs.
tion.
it
and Near
were populeir
exem[Jifies the Oriental
Eastern designs that

during the last quarter of the nineteenth centurv
Changing social structures as well

new h\lng patterns at this time
brought about new rooms, such as
smcting rooms. conser\"aties. bilhard rooms, and painting galleries. A
mans home became not onK' his cas
as
tie
but a SATubdi of his social
ai
cidtiural
standing in the commimitA
as well.
Throughout most of the
nineteenth century there were certain st\ les. like Gothic

that
w ere
certclin
fw
Ubraries.
considered appHX^Kiate for
rooms.
The
choices of style
increased toward the end of the century,
when
ever\
room
in the house
could reflect a different era or culture.
To help the confused home
owner deal with

decorator
was
mid- 18 70s. As a
came
this
plethtHci
of
the profession of the interior
st\"les
less
bom
residt,
in
the
design be-
focused on iudi\idual fur-
nishings than on the overaU appear-
ance and effect of the room.
The John D. Rockefeller House

was a brownstone built between
1864 and 1865 at 4 West Fiftvfourth
Street
in
New
York City.
Rockefeller piu-chased the house in
1884 from .\rabella Worsham. who

had bought it in 1877. During the
last Means of her residence she had
hired George Schaste\. an interior
desiojier. to redecorate and enlarse
the house. The Moorish Smoking
Room
is
a testament to the complex-
and beauty of the

Movement.
ities
.\esthetic
DECOR.ATIAT .\RTS
H7
WoRGELT Study
io6
ALAVOINE OF PARIS
AND NEW YORK

New
York,
New
York
1928, with additions of 1930

10 X 16V4X 14V2 feet
(3.02 X 5. 1 2 X 4.48 meters)
70.23-4, 70.96mn, Gift of Mr. and Mrs.
Ra^^llond Worgelt
The Museum's
only twentieth -cen-
tury period room, a study from a

Park Avenue apartment designed by
the Parisian decorating firm of Alavoine,
is
known to visitors
as the "Art
Deco Study." Though the
fashion-
able modernity of this style of interior

is
generally associated with the flam-
boyance and glamour of the Jazz

Age, the Roaring Twenties, or luminous, star-studded Hollywood movie
sets, the room's design managed to
combine traditional comforts with
the 1920s style of French interiors
Americans referred to simply as

Art Deco or Art Moderne. Alavoine
did few modern rooms, mainly specializing in high -style French historthat
ical designs.
The
Study is
dependent upon the geometric design, contrasting colors, and subtle
textures of the olive and pahsander
wood wall paneling that formed the
effect of the Worgelt
DECORATIVE ARTS
1928 room de1950 the paneling was made

slightly more complex and several
new features were added to the
room: a bold metal modernist win-
basis of the original

sign. In
dow
replaced a smaller, traditional
double-hung one
that
had been cov-
ered with a fringed curtain, and a

large
abstract
lacquer
panel
de-
signed by Henri Redard and ex-
ecuted by Jean Dunand was inserted

above the couch, replacing a series of
simple geometric wood squares. (Redard also designed a group of etched
glass panels with views of Paris for a
small walk-in bar that, because of
Prohibition, was hidden discreetly
behind a door that blended into the
wall decoration.)
The room was com-
pleted by the addition of glass by
Rene Lalique and
mond
Rivoire
sciil})tures
and Jan
by Ray-
and
.loci
Martel.
149
Curaca's Hat
107
Peru
1
7th century
Silver
(?)
with damasked vehet and cotton
flannel
4'
V16 X
3'/4 inches
(1
2.6
53. 7
cm)
41.1275.274c, Frank L. Babbott Fund
nous craftsmen were capable of is

demonstrated in the Museum's collection by this silver hat. part of a
ceremonial costume made for a curaca (native noble). The brim of the
hat is covered \\"ith two semicircular
plates, each featuring a complex
floral
During the three hundred years it

was subject to Spain, the region of
South America comprising the modern states of Peru. Bohvia. and Ecuador produced immense quantities
of silver. One-fifth was sent to the
king: the rest was traded as money or
fashioned into domestic, devotional,
and
ritual articles
by
local crafts-
menboth European and
Native
American.
The
elaborate
work these indige-
and
foliate pattern
bracketed
by cornucopias, while the decoration

of the cro\\Ti
mological
is
arranged in a cos-
scheme. Just above the
form a matching circle enclosing a

Flanking the sun and
moon are a facing pair of quadrupeds
(possibly llamas) and opposite them
a pair of guitar-placing mermaids.
floral spray.
Interspersed
among these figures
are
a variety of blossoins climaxing in a
blossom at the top of the hat with

stamens of coiled wire beads.
The native craftsmen in Spain's
American colonies created complex
and
syntheses of indigenous and foreign
dogs, lions, a fox.
imagery. European visual ideas were
and a variety of fowl and game

birds that on the front of the hat
pass under an unusual triangular
church or shrine with crosses in
arched niches. Above the church appear a solar disk and a crescent moon
whose ends have been extended to
transmitted by means of prints and
brim
is
birds
elephants,
a procession of animals
DECORATRX ARTS
book
this
may
illustrations.
native
The images on
costume,
for
instance,
well have been copied from the
title-page
decorations
of
religious
books or from the borders of biblical

illustrations or devotional prints.
1^0
Covered Goblet
io8
English
Circa 1685
Glass
18 inches (45.7 cm) high, 5 inches (12.7
cm) diameter at rim, 5'/2 inches (14.0
cm) diameter
at foot
Ex-Leckie Collection
15.706a and 13.706b,
Museum
Purchase
After the Restoration of Charles
England
the throne of
II to
in 1660, the
English glass industry flourished,

recovering from a period of disrup-
caused by the Civil War. With

renowned glass of Venice serving
tion
the
English glassmakers
as inspiration,
strove to develop a clear glass re-
sembling rock crystal, and by the

mid- 1670s
George
Ravenscrof
achieved success with the addition of
lead.
The
manipulated
masterfully
decoration on this splendid standing
cup with cover displays the
late sev-
enteenth-century English vocabulary of glass ornament.
body and the

tive
both the
decora-
prunts are applied over a double
thread; the lid

ial
On
lid of the piece,
is
crowTied with a fin-
of a serpentine
work with pin-
cered fringe; and near the stem and
near the
finial,
a diaper pattern
"nipped diamond waies" in

century has been
worked into the molten glass. This is
the most impressive piece in the
Leckie Collection, a group of more
than nine hundred pieces of English
called
the seventeenth
glass acquired by
seum
The
Brooklvii
Mu-
in 191 5.
DECORAXrVE
.-XRTS
I'îl
log
Chest of Drawers
.Vmerican, Massachusetts
16801700
Oak and
pine,
36 x 40 x
1
'
/a
inches
49.190.2. Bequest of Mrs. WUlicun
SterUng Peters bv exchange
made
in
New England
in
the seventeenth century reflects the
Enghsh
was
Bradford. Massachusetts,
remain in the panels of the center

drawers, which Eire decorated with
tradition
(91.5 X 101.6 X 54.6 cm)
Furniture
This chest of drawers, which descended in the Hancock family of
heritage of the early settlers
plied
compartments
duced in .America
after they
became
obsolete in English st\le centers.
that give the piece
\-i-
and rhythm. The top

and bottom drawers each have two
sual strength
tempted
surroundings they left behind, outst}ies continued to be pro-
in the
with black
boldly
dated
is
seventeenth-
into a vigorous series of geometric
with
re-create the familiar
English
century furniture. Oak was the primarv wood used in its construction.
The facade of the piece is divided
of that airea. Since the colonists atto
of
blocked
applied
panels
molding,
articulated
and
the
smaller middle drawers repeat the

pattern of the larger drawers in the
outline of their
The total
apphed moldings.
effect of the surface pattern
DECORAinX
.\RTS
enhanced by
originally greatly
vivid color; strong traces of red paint
facing pairs of birds.
The
panels of
the larger drawers are ornamented
and the apwere originally

painted black as well. Those areas of
the facade that were originalh" unpainted were covered with an overall
pattern of undulating black lines.
Such a survival of original paint on a
seventeenth -century object is unusual and helps us understand the
strong sense of vivid color that dominated the decoration of the period.
fleur-de-lis.
moldings
1^2
Tankard
lO
JACOB BOELEN
(American, born The Netherlands,
active
New
1657-1729)
York
Circa 1685
Silver
7'/8
X 5V8 inches
18.1
x 13.7 cm)
26.60, Gift of Mrs. Richard van
When
Wyck
and Mrs. Henry de Bevoise Schenck

memory of Richard van Wyck
in
Amsterdam -born
made
the
versmith Jacob Boelen
New
tankard in
sil-
this
still
Although the
an English one, in-
strong.
tankard form is
troduced by the new rulers of New
York, Boelen adapted it by adding
Dutch decoration
ents.
to suit his local cli-
The undulating meander wire
at the
base of the tankard and the
cut-card ornament of applied leaves

are typical of both
just
above
and
New York
it
silver
made
Dutch
in the late
seventeenth century. Also typical of

late seventeenth-century
New
York
tankards are the cocoon, or corkscrew thumbpiece, and the lush and
beautifully engraved baroque car-
DECORATIVE ARTS
surrounding
the
coat-of-
Thorne family.
The tankard was probably made
arms
York around 1685,
the influence of Dutch culture in the
colony was
touche
of the
for Richard Thorne, but when his

daughter Hannah married Cornelius van Wyck it passed into the
van Wyck family, in which it descended for over two hundred years
until it was given to the Museum.
Since silver tankards were not only
useful and beautiful objects but also
expensive status symbols that were
literally made of money, they often
passed from generation to generation
at
the
time
of
marriages.
The
Thorne/van Wyck tankard is an especially appealing one wliose impospresence bespeaks both fine
craftsmanship and beautiful design.
ing
153
Side Chairs
American. Connecticut
Circa i 74050
Cherry and maple
41 X i9'/2 X 1 -'/i inches
(104.1
X 49.5X44.5 cm) each
14.708 and 14.-09. Henry L.

Batter man
Fund
The
sculptural beaut}'
and attenu-
775). a noted Wethersfield surgeon.
ated elegance of these chairs ex-
or to his son-in-law.
Thomas Belden
emplify the restraint typical of the

finest furniture produced in .\merica
(1
Once
part of a larger
during
period.
Queen
the
Made
.\nne style
in \\ethersfield.
Con-
necticut, near Hartford, the chairs
are fashioned in cherry, the local
wood most common in Connecticut

furniture. The needlework upholstery
on the
slip seats is a
reproduc-
tion of the surviving original upholstery,

cin
which was no doubt worked by
earlv o\\'ner of the chairs.
The
either
chairs originally belonged to
Dr.
Ezekiel
DECORATI\"E ARTS
732 1
set.
782).
they remained in the Porter-
House in ^êthwhen, along %\'ith

other furniture from the house, they
Belden- Bid well
ersfield until 1914.
were acquired by The Brookhii Museum. Three years later, in 1917. the
Museum acquired two downstairs
rooms from the house as well. Thus
the chairs can now be seen installed
at
The Brookhii Museum
in the par-
house in wliich they ha\"e

resided since the eighteenth century.
lor of the
Porter (1^0-
154
Standish
112
HENRY WILL
(American, active 176193)
New
York or Albany. Ne\v York
Circa 176193
Pewter
7^/8
X4"/i6X
2'/,).
inches
X
.9 X 5.7 cm)
Ex-John W. Poole Collection
(20.0
45.10.142,
Museum
Purchase
The
well-to-do businessman of late
religious
Pewterers
services.
eighteenth-centurv America would
Henry Will were
have stored his pens, ink, and sander
who poured molten
(to
dry the ink) in what was then
name of a
Though marked pewter
referred to by the English

standish.
standi she s were common enough

two hundred years ago, this example
is, surprisingly, the only American
one known to exist.
During the eighteenth century,
pewter objects were used in nearly
every American household that could
afford them. Most people in homes
and taverns ate and drank from pewter; porcelain was rare and expensive, and the poor used wooden
plates.
Pew'ter
plates,
porringers,
skilled
tin
like
craftsmen
mixed with
small bits of copper, antimony, and
bismuth
molds to create
was then allowed to cool and harden before
being finished to a smooth surface
pleasing to the eye and touch.
Following the English tradition,
American pewterers stamped their
wares with unique marks bearing
into brass
their wares.
the
name
The
object
of the
maker
as well as
other hallmarks that signified
more than
little
a desire to be associated
with English guilds of
silver-
pewter-makers. The markings

this inkstand are so
and
on
numerous (two
full sets of
marks) and prominentlv
sconces were produced for domestic
displayed
(on
use, while flagons, chalices, beakers,
hinged top) that it may have belonged to Henry Will himself.
tankards, teapots, candlesticks, and
and baptismal basins were made
DECORATrVT ARTS
for
both
sides
of
the
155
Sweetmeat Dish
115
gouse bonnin and george

anthony morris
to
Philadelphia
1
77172
underglaze blue
7'/4 inches
45.174,
Museum
produce porcelain tablewares in
Although the company failed after just two years, it was

the earliest American attempt at porcelain production to meet wdth eyen
modest success. Not until 1826 was
Philadelphia.
Soft-paste porcelain painted in
5'/4
In 1770 Gouse Bonnin and George

Anthony Morris founded a company
5.5 x 18.4
Purchase
cm)
porcelain
once again
successfully
produced in America in Philadelphia by William Ellis Tucker.

Of the handful of Bonnin and
Morris wares still in existence, this
sweetmeat dish is one of the finest
examples. Because of its great rarity
and early date,

dation of
it
represents the foun-
extensiye
American
of
collection
ceramics.
In order to compete with
relati^'ely
inexpensive imported English ceramics,
Bonnin and Morris
closely
imitated the production of major English factories.
Thus
this
sweetmeat
dish bears a strong similarity to related objects
made by
tory in
England.
prising
three
Its
the
Bow
form,
fac-
com-
scallop -shell -shaped
dishes and a shell-encrusted central
pedestal supporting a circular dish,
embodies the rococo spirit in its use

of sources from nature to form an
object of complex outline.
The BrookKn Museum's
DECORATIVE ARTS
156
114
Sugar Bowl and

Cover
American
Circa 1800
Glass
Fine glass tableware such as this

bright blue sugar bowl was
much
prized in eighteenth -century
Amer-
Although the three major glasshouses of the time those of Caspar

Wistar, Henry William Stiegel, and
John Frederick Amelung all had
ica.
7~/8X6Vh inches (20.0 x
16.5
40.7a and 40. -b. Dick
Ramsav Fund
S.
cm)
sult, this
sugar bowl
the vividly colored
wares produced in
is
Bristol
exported to .America.
was
modeled
after
English table-
and often
The molten
ing in America that continued into
blown into a mold and

it and expanded
by further blowing: the piece was
then finished off by hand. This gave
the bowl a shimmering surface in a
"Venetian diamond." or ogival. pat-
the nineteenth century.
tern.
only limited financial success, they

established a tradition of glassmak-
Even though
the earliest makers of
glass tableware in
men
of
German
their clients
first
then removed from
spiral-ribbed finial, often
considered a Stiegel characteristic,
America were
all
tops the lid of the bowl, creating a
many
of
vigorous spatial inter|)lay in the fash-
descent,
were English. As a
DECORATIVE ARTS
glass
re-
ion of the rococo period.
157
Oil Lamp
WEDGWOOD
usually refined quality in black, red.
7301 795)
Few names in the history of ceramics
and the more famous blue. The black

stoneware, which he referred to as
"black Basaltes."* was the first color
he developed, around 1 768.
-\1 though \\edgwood*s basalt ware
(as it is now referred to) was not the
first black stoneware in England, it
was unusual in several respects. Because it was made from hard, finegrained stoneware, it offered a wide
more revered
Josiah ^êdgwood and
range of decorative possibilities. It

could be shaped or decorated by
the spirit of ancient
lathe-turning or cutting, and
ures lifting the
JOSL\H
(British,
Manufactured by ^êdg\v(X)d, Etruria.

England
Circa
790
Basalt ware
3
1
'/2
73/8
7 '/8 inches
(34.5X i8.8x
55.25.5.
18.1
cm)
The Emily Winthrop Miles
Collection
cire
better kno\\ii or
than that of
the factory that he founded in
759.
^êdgwood's abihties as a potter,

businessman, and tastemaker combined to create an enterprise that was
unusually successful from its in-
known for ere am -colored,

glazed earthenwares that came to be
faces could be variously
ished.
Basalt
Wedgwood
"s
first
ware
mat
its
sur-
or pol-
represented
attempt to concen-
trate almost exclusively
on ornamen-
rather than functional items such
fancy. Best
tal
called "Queen's ware" after his royal
tended to simulate those of Etruscan
client
he
and patron. Queen Charlotte,

stoneware of un-
also developed
as tablewares.
vases,
The
surfaces were in-
and the form and decoration
of
the objects were usually inspired by
DECORATR'E ARTS
classical subjects, as well (or the ancient
world viewed through eigh-
teenth-century eyes).
Classical
chitecture
and neoclassical
cirt
and
interior
ar-
decoration
were \erv much in fashion among the

British aristocracy at this time, and
decorative accessories that could be
used on mantels or in niches were an
integral part of the neoclassical interior.
Oil
lamps
like the
one pictured
here represented an attempt to evoke
oil
Rome. The
fig-
basin on this lamp
were based on those by Ahchelangelo

on the tomb of Pope Julius II in Florence. Such lamps are remarkable
for the strength and delicacy of their
sculptured modeling, the sensitive attention to their proportion and detail,
and the fine workmanship of the finished object, which was. after all. a
factorv product.
Pier Table
16
CHARLES-HONORE LANNUIER
decade of the nine-
(American, born France, active 1779-
After the
1819)
teenth century, the neoclassical style
New
in America became more robust and

began to reflect French taste more
strongly than ever. During the War
of 1812, France was an ally and England the enemy. It is therefore not
York
Circa 180419
White marble
top supported by
rosewood veneer frame with apphed
ormolu and gesso

56 X 55''/8 X 2 1 '/4 inches
(91.4X 141.9X54.6 cm)
41.1, Gift of the Pierrepont family
first
This pier table

cabinetmaker
neoclassical style in America.
is
signers he favored.
and
Men like
Percier, Pierre Fontaine,

la
the
de-
Charles
and Pierre
Messangere published neoclassi-
were disseminated
throughout Europe. In turn, English
designers such as Thomas Hope and
George Smith published books that
were influential in transferring the
style to America.
cal designs that
DECORATIVE ARTS
to
De-
signed to be placed against a wall, or

pier,
popularized by the
who emigrated
the premier proponents of the late
surprising that the finest furniture of
Emperor Napoleon
attributed to
New York in 1803 and became one of
the period, such as this pier table,

reflects the style
is
Charles- Honor e Lannuier, a French
between two windows, the
table
a superb example of the adaptation
of classical
phins,
details
columns,
dol-
and winged caryatids to a
nineteenth-century form.
combination
of
gilded
Its
rich
wood and
gilded metal mounts, polished rosewood, marble, and mirrored glass

creates a stunning impression of
strength and luxury.
The table has a history of ownership in Brooklyn, where it descended
in the Pierrepont family.
159
'"'^JT
\t\^^m^^
Pitcher AND Goblet
117
ZALMON BOSTWICK
New
York
Circa 1845
Silver; pitcher:
inches (28.0
cm)
high: goblet: 7V4 inches (19.5 cm)
high
81.179.1 and 81.179.2. Gift of the
estate of
May
S. Kellev.
bv exchange
The Gothic
style was a popular one

American architecture and furniture design during the 1840s, and
they were presented by John \\.
the publication of A.
Do\Miing's
Joseph
The Architecture of Country Houses
pitcher
in
J.
in 1851 further spread the influence

of the style. Surprisingly, however,
the Gothic Revival was never wide-
among
spread
American
sil-
versmiths. This pitcher and goblet,
along with their mates
Museum
at the
High
in Atlanta, are therefore
extremely rare examples of Gothic

Revival silver in addition to being
extraordinarily
hne representations
of the silversmith's art.
The
made by the New

Zalmon Rostwick,
pieces were
Livingston, a descendant of an old
New
York family, to his son-in-law
Sampson
in
1845.
Roth
and goblet bear the Sampson

crest and the initial S.
The pitcher is closely modeled on
an English prototype produced in
stoneware by Charles Meigh beginning in 1842. These English stoneware pitchers were no doubt popular
in America, for thev were copied not
only by Rostwick but also by ceramicists
like
Daniel Greatbach.
who
modeled a similar pitcher for the

American Pottery Company of Jersey
City,
New Jersey,
in the early 1840s.
who worked
In this way, English style interpretations were spread to America and
in
adapted here into new expressions.
York silversmith
at 128 Williams Street

1848 and 1849. An inscription on
the base of the pitcher indicates that
DECORATIVE ARTS
160
Bed
i8
JOHN HENRY BELTER

(American,
b.
Germany.
18041865)
New
\ork
Circa 1856
Rosewood: headboard: 65'/2X58'/j

inches (166.4X 148.6 cm): footbocird:
56x58'/2 inches (91.4 x 148.6 cm);

cm)
depth: 85 inches (210.8
59.50. Gift of Mrs. Ernest \ ietor
In both form
and decoration,
bed
this
embodies the robust exuberance of

the rococo re^'ival st\"le in America,
hi construction,
it
teenth-century
reflects the
nine-
with
fascination
technological innovation. Although

the
bed has
its stylistic
roots in the
rococo style of the eighteenth cenits manufacture was entirely

modern. It was made in the shop of
John Henry Belter, a German-born
craftsman uho began working in
tury,
New
\ork Citv in the 1840s. Belter
used laminated construction in his
manufacture
and relatively
furniture, a system of
that allowed a strong
lightweight material to be bent into

the elaborate serpentine shapes so
much
time.
a part of the fashion of the
Although laminated wood
\Aas
not his invention. Belter did patent a
number
of innovations
his career.
The
throughout
patent for this bed.
dated August ig. 1856. specifies a

bed constructed entirely of wood and
glue in a limited
number
of parts.
-\ccording to the patent, the bed can
be disassembled easilv in case of
fire
and eliminates the intricate joints

and recesses around the individual
parts of ordinary bedsteads, areas
"notorious
hiding
as
places
The Belter bed

Brf)okl\ii Museum, with its
bugs."
dinary
at
for
The
extraor-
carving of vines,
acorns, and cherub heads, is the most
pierced
elaborate one
known. Along with a

it descended in the
related bureau,
\ ietor
family of
New
York.
DECOR.ATnX ARTS
161
Century Vase
iig
Union Porcelain Works, Greenpoint,
Hard paste porcelain

2474 X 10 inches (56.5X25.4 cm)
43.25, Gift of Carll and Franklin
memory
of their mother,
Pastora Forest Smith Chase, daughter

of
Exhibition
Phila-
in
1876, is replete with

American symbolism. Examples of
1876
Chase, in
Centennial
delphia
Brookl\Ti
Thomas
Carll Smith, the founder of
the Union Porcelain
Works
Conceived by Thomas C. Smith,

owner of the Union Porcelain Works,
and designed by Karl L. H. Mueller,
the company's chief designer, the
Century Vase celebrates the optimism and national pride of America at
the time of the country's centennial.
The vase, which was exhibited in the
Union Porcelain Works booth
at the
in
animals appear as trophy

heads around the midband of the
base and, most notably, at the handles, which are in the form of bison
heads. On the neck of the vase, an
native
American eagle clutches bolts of

lightning in its talons. Below the
midband of the piece are scenes from
American history in white bisque.
These were described by a writer at
the time: "in bas-relief, we find Penn
same
wTiter went on to describe the
painted in
scenes,
color,
that sur-
round a profile of Washington on the

upper part of the vase: 'Above these
there are some representative paintings of the progress of the [industrial]
trated
arts.
by
The
a
telegraph
pole
is
illus-
upon which
workman is placing the last

number of wires: the steamer, a
of a
sew-
ing machine and a reaper are also

sho\Mi."'
The Union
Porcelain ^^brks of
Greenpoint. BrookhTi. was one of the
treating with the Indians, a log cabin
most important manufacturers of ce-
with the early
ramics in America in the late nine-
resting
from
settler,
his toil
ax in hand,
and the
story of
soldier
teenth century. This
monumental
and a
vase displays the eclectic vigor seen
standing by his cannon." The
in the artistic production of the age.
the tea -riot in Boston harbor,
DECORATTVE ARTS
162
120
Cabinet
Made by Herter
New York City
Brothers (18651905)
18-5
Ebonized cherry with painted and inlaid
decoration
X 165/4 inches
167.7X42.5 cm)
76.63. H. Randolph Lever Fund
42^/s X 66
(107. 7X
In the third quarter of the nineteenth

century, a
coming together
of
many
diverse forces contributed to a growing American interest in art forms of

all
kinds. This interest gave rise to
with the Anglo-Japanesque

aspect of the Aesthetic
popular
1
during
style,
1870s
the
an
Movement
and
880s. This style was the inspiration
of the English designer E. \^.
God-
the Aesthetic Movement, which en-
win, whose work Christian Herter
compassed ever\i;hing from painting

book covers and promoted "art
furniture."* "art pottery," and "art
probably saw on a
to
the early 1870s.
glass."
its
One
of the preeminent furniture
and decorating firms during
this
period was Herter Brothers of
New
York City. The firm was foimded in

1865 by Gustave Herter (18301
898) and his half brother Christian

840 1 883). both of whom had em-
( 1
igrated from Stuttgart.
Their
Germany.
visit to
England
in
This Herter Brothers cabinet, with

delicate,
rectilinear
form,
ebonized wood, contrasting lightcolored
and
marquetry,
painted
panels, exemplifies the best of the
Movement.
was part of a
George Beale
Sloan (18311904). a prominent
Oswego, New York, businessman
and a member of the State Senate.
Aesthetic
It
parlor suite OAMied by
name became synonymous
DECORATIVE ARTS
163
12
Side Chair
frank lloyd wright

(American. 18671959)
Oak
Park. Illinois
1904
Oak with leather upholstery
40 '/8X 14V4X 18'/^ inches
(101.9X 5-.5X4-.0 cm)
85.157. Mifseum Purchase
Frank Lloyd
^^ right
the most imAmerican ar-
is
portant and influential

chitect of the
tA\
entieth century. In
domes-
his architectural, especially
designs he conceived of furniture
tic,
and interior fittings
as integral to the
conception of a house. Following the
European designers, he spoke of a house

as a total work of art where exterior
and interior were both part of a grand
ideas of nineteenth- century
scheme, the design of one dependent
on the
other.
portant
Furniture had an im-
within the
interior:
space within a
room
defined the
it
as clearly as ex-
defined
walls
terior
function
architectural
the
building
itself.
The
was
side chair illustrated here
a design ^^ right employed in a
num-
ber of commissions aroimd
1904:
example belonged to
the architect himself and was used in
his Oak Park. Illinois, home and stuthis particular
dio.
gins
The
conception of the chair be-
with
certain
conventions
of
turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts

furniture:
the
material
is
oak.
stained to reveal the natural charac-
chairs con-
fiuniture was supposed to embody.
more important than comfort
and
clear, with nothing hidden from
view: and the overall design is simple
and uncomplicated.
Yet in terms of subtletv and artistry, this chair goes far beyond the
"simplicity" that Arts and Crafts
(Wright mocked the simplicity of

that type of furniture when he described it as "plain as an old barn
practicality. Its forceful abstract de-
This side chair is more than a

to be sat upon: it is a
forward to the geometric abstraction
teristics of the wfK)d: the
struction
is
straightforward
door.")
sign
reveals
that
sophisticated architectural construc-
architectin-e
in
which
artistic
DECORAXrVE ARTS
intention
is
luicompromising
nature of ^^ rights work and looks
mere chair
tion
the
or
was
to
become
central to
and design
modern
in the early
twentieth centiu\.
164
Corner Cabinet
122
emile-jacques ruhlmann
(French, 18791935)
From
room designed
family. Lyon,
for the
Weitz
France
Kingwood (amaranthe) veneer on

mahogany with ivory inlay
49"/ X 3 V4 X 2 3 72 inches
(126.6x80.6X59.7 cm)
1
71.150.1. Purchased with funds given
by Joseph
F.
McCrindle, Mrs. Richard
W. Palmer, Charles C.
Paterson,
Ra\'mond Wbrgelt. and others
The furniture of Emile-Jacques

Ruhlmann represents the highest
achievement of what is now generally
called Art Deco. The term is derived
from the name of an important
hibition held in Paris in
position
display wealth."
In
the
victorious
Arts
postWorld
War
Modernes
elite clients
enjoyed the opulence of
Internationale
Decoratifs et hidustriels
e.x-
1925 Ex-
French decorative art produced during the igios and ig20s.

Ruhlmann was the foremost decorator and cabinetmaker in Paris during the decade following World War
I. His luxurious furniture was made
strictly for wealthy clients who were
interested
in
associating
themselvesmuch as the designer was
with the venerable traditions of high
style
French
cabinetmaking.
Ruhlmann prided himself on the extraordinarily high cost of his furniture, commenting that "Only the
very rich can pay for what is new and
they alone can make it fashionable.
Along with satisfying a desire for
change, fashion's real purpose is to
des
and covers a w ide variety of modern
his furniture,
DEf:()RATr\'E
its
era.
Ruhlmanns
suggestion of the
ARTS
grandeur
pre -Revolutionary
of
and
France.
implication
its
through the use of exotic materials

gathered from
French colonies
throughout the world of the continuation of the French Empire.
The
beautifully proportioned
superbly
here
is
crafted
one of the
cabinet
finest
and
pictured
examples of
an
whose
decorati\e effect is dependent on the
beautifully figiued veneers and varithe art of the cabinetmaker.
exquisitely
detailed
It is
object
ously treated ivory inlays that cover

its
surfaces.
The flowers
of the large vase on

illusionistically
and
that spill out
its
center are
intricately ren-
dered: the thin lines of white ivory
and the dark wood between inlavs

create a sense of space and turn the
flat decoration into something dynamic and living.
165
123
"Beta"" Chair
(prototype)
NATHAN GEORGE HORWITT

(American,
b.
i8g8)
Manufactured by Howell Manufacturing

Co.. Geneva. Illinois
1930
Chrome-plated tubular
steel,
wood and
upholstery (not original)
26X 22"/8X
27'/2 inches
(66.0X58.1 X69.9 cm)

85. 1 55. Gift of Xathcui George Horwitt
Tubular
steel
furniture
made from
chrome-plated extruded
was
steel
and
examples of modernist American metal furniture. Its
clearly intended for domestic use
is
one of the
finest
one of the most significant achievements of modernist European design
bold use of the structural cantilever
of the 1920s. S}Tnbolic of the avant-
the
garde's desire for a brave
new world of
architecture and interior and object
design,
metal furniture, with
gleaming
surfaces,
skeletal
ture, futuristic look,
its
struc-
and implication
means bv which the
seat
and back
extend beyond their supporting
mentallowed the
sitter
miraculouslv in midair
ible
means
to
ele-
hover
A\"ithout vis-
of support. In fact, the
chairs very structure, with
its
two
C -curves,
is
claimed the arrival of what contemtermed a new "Machine

Age."
American designers began working with tubular steel onlv at the end
of the 1920s, and their designs
tended to be more conservative and
less ideological than contemporarv
ture of
design.
European work.
the traditional world of decorative
of
mass
production,
boldly
pro-
poraries
\\ hereas
European
its
the
main
The name of the

that it was somehow
aesthetic fea-
chair suggested
the result of sci-
entific inquirv. In fact, industrial de-
signers argued at the time that their
recentlv organized profession
was
science that could be rigorous, objective,
and completely detached from
They presented themselves
architects freelv used metal furni-
design.
ture in their domestic interiors, few
to the public as
Americans allowed
their steel chairs
elevating principles of art into design
sun room, or
while assuring manufacturers that
to leave the kitchen,
terrace.
Nathan Horwitts d}iiamic and

structurally daring "Beta" Chair was
DECORATn:E ARTS
wanting to infuse the
annual restvling of products would

in increased sales and a
healthv American economv.
result
166
"Normandie'"
Pitcher
124
PETER MULLER-MUXK
(American,
b.
Germany. 19041967)
1935
Chrome-plated brass
12 X 3 X g'/j inches
(30.5X7.6x24.2 cm)
Manufactured bv Revere Copper and
Brass Co.. Rome. New \ork
84.67. H. Randolph Lever Fund
During the 1930s American industrial designers seized upon the principles of aerod\'naniic
streamlining
as the perfect aesthetic expression for
the
dMiamic. optimistic, and
for-
ward-looking period in which they

were living. The shinv. chrome
plated surfaces of objects like this
embodied faith in the s^Tnbol

machine and the processes of
pitcher
of the
mass production as a panacea for

what had been, in economic terms,
hard times.
Though streamlining was

of design
most suitable
mode
for vehicles of
airplanes, ships, and

automobiles its sMnbolism was so
transportation
potent that
manner
jects.
it
came to be applied to
all
of stationarv domestic ob-
In the case of this pitcher, the
designer was inspired by the impos-
ing smokestacks of the famous ocean
Normandie, which had just

on its maiden voyage. Like the
liner itself, the pitcher's form was
sleek,
windswept,
and elegant.
liner
sailed
Though the pitcher did not have to

cut its way through water and air at
the highest speed possible,
upon the evocation
it
was
of that illusion
that manufacturers based their sales

pitch.
DECORATI\"E ARTS
68
Prints,
Drawings,
and Photography
125
The Great
Triumphal Chariot
OF THE
Emperor
Maximilian
Albrecht Diirer completed his first

dra\\'ing for the Great Triumphal
ALBRECHT DURER
(German. 14-1-1528)
Chariot
1522
Woodcut from eight
blocks on eight
sheets, overall size approximately
16X95
inches (40.5 x 241.3
83.43. Gift of
The Roebling
cm)
Society
(now
in
the
Albertina.
Vienna) in 151213. It was oriffinaUv intended to form the chmax

of a frieze in
woodcut commissioned
bv the emperor and. had it been completed, would have been sixty yards
long. Approximately half the design
was to be by Hans Burgkmair. while
women
personifying
the
The second drawing (now
\irtues.
also in the
Albertina) was submitted in 1518
with a text by Pirckheimer. \\
ith the
death of Maximilian in 1519. realiz-
seemed unlikely,
withdrew his drawing, and
published it himself as a woodcut in
ation of the project
so Diirer
1522.
The BrookKii Museums Great
other "little masters" contributing to
Triumphal Chariot
the project were Albrecht Altdorfer.
knoA\Ti
Leonard Beck. WoU Huber. Hans

Schaufelein. and Hans Springinklee.
As the leading artist of the highly
seven
is
one of eight
impressions of the
editions,
the
only
printed by Diirer himself.
first
of
edition
It is
a su-
perb example of what the eminent art
humanistic court sur-
historian Ed\\"in Panofsky identified
rounding Maximilian. Diirer was

entrusted with the honor of depicting
the emperor's chariot. His position in
Maximilians court was similar to
that of Michelangelo in Pope Julius
II's. and a conscious ri^"alry may well
have existed between the spiritual
and temporal rulers.
At the insistence of his friend and
(1512
which is characterized by elegant and ornate surface pattern. The
Museums set was formerly in the
collection of Count \ork von ^ârtenburg of Klein-Oels in Silesia, whose
Diirer collection was considered
among the most eminent in prewar
Germanv. Most of the plates are
wider and show less loss of the block
intellectual,
mentor Willibald Pirckheimer. Diirer revised his
much more
design,
allegorical
making
it
than the ear-
drawing by the addition of a regalia of emblems and twent^-t^^"o

lier
as Diirer *s "decorative style"

22),
than the set described in Meder's catalogue raisonne of Diirers graphic

work.
PRINTS. DR.A.WINGS. .\ND PHOTOGRAPHY: PRINTS
-o
issss:
QyoD-fN
P&yBCltTiA
AaM* AlBMNtaVMM#^
"MT^BÎ liMI
IMPIlJWIlfaf 6(D
MM>* >"fc-'^^M .<<
PRINTS, DRAWINGS,
AND F'HOTOGRAPHY: PRINTS
71
The Round Tower.
126
plate III
from
IXVENZIONI CaPRIC DI
Carceri
GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI
(Italian.
Circa
17201-78)
749
Etching
1
X 16 '/4 inches (54." X41.4 cm)

Frank L. Babbott and Ccirll
H. DeSiher Funds
21 Vj
3-. 556. 2.
images are
Giovanni Battista Piranesi. probablv
theory
the greatest architectural etcher of
related to stage
was best known throughout

the eighteenth and early nineteenth
dred years, however, connoisseurs of

prints have considered them Piranesi's greatest achievement and
one of the most important series in
eighteenth -century printmaking.
Because of the somewhat lugubri-
all
time,
centuries for his scenic
Roman views.
Large in scale and published in albums, these etchings were prized

and collected by visitors to Italy. In
1749. a publisher named Bouchard
is
that the
sets.
For the
closely
last
hun-
ous subject matter, the Carceri did
released a series of fourteen etchings
not appeal to print collectors of the
by Piranesi that were far more fantastical and imaginative than his im-
time.
ages
of
classical
ruins.
Scholarly
opinion varies widely on the mean-
ing and source of the Carceri, as this

series is popularly called.
current
ing the influence of the great \enetian
painter-printmaker
Giovanni
Battista Tiepolo (16961770).
Museum's
sue of the
set is
first
The
from the second
edition. In
is-
761. Pi-
ranesi himself published a second
which he reworked the

more detailed and tonal effect and added two
additional plates. These later states
are much more atmospheric and
brooding than the first edition and
edition in
plates considerably for a
Bouchard released three issues

between 749 and
of
which
are considered
all
760.
are
characterized
by
first edition and
light biting of the plate and a pri-
there have been four posthumous
marilv linear treatment, thus reflect-
editions.
of the first states
PRINTS, DRAWINGS,
much
less
rare.
Piranesi released
four issues during his lifetime, and
AND PHOTOGR.APHY: PRINTS
72
El De La Rollona
12"
(Nanny's Boy), plate 4
from Los Caprichos

FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES
(Spanish. 17461828)
1799
Etching and aquatint
inches (19. 3X 15.7 cm)
-V4X5V1
Augustus Healy. Frank L.

and Carll H. DeSiher Funds
5-. 55.4. A.
Babbott.
Gova's famous series of satirical etch-
and aquatints. Los Caprichos,
ings
consists of eighty plates with text. In

his
announcement
of the publication
Madrid
of the suite in the Diario de
on February 6. 1 799. he wrote of his

intentions: "Since the artist is convinced that the censure of human
errors and \ices (though thev may
seem to be the province of Eloquence
and Poetry) may also be the object of
Painting, he has chosen as subjects
adequate for his work, from the multitude of follies and blunders com-
mon
in eA'ery civil society, as well as
from the
vaxlgar prejudices
and
lies
authorized by custom, ignorance or

interest, those that he has thought
most suitable matter for ridicule as
well as for exercising the artificer's

fancy.'*
He commented on
plate:
"Negligence,
spoiling
make
the above
tolerance
and
children capricious,
naughty, vain, greedy, lazy and insufferable.
They grow up and yet reThus is nanny's little
main
childish.
boy.
The
"
preparatory drawing for
this plate, in
red cravon with slight
\ariations.
in the collection of the
is
Prado.
The Brookhn Museums Los Caprichos
ond
is
is
a proof set of
first
and
sec-
states prior to the first edition.
It
considered to be the earliest proof
set
because
it
contains the largest
ninnber of errors in the
titles at
the
bottom of the plates, far more than in

any other known proof set. Because of
the delicacy of the aquatint, even
later
impressions of any given plate
within the
first
signs of wear.
sions in the
edition begin to show
The
quality of impres-
\Iuseum
s set is
unsiu-
passed. with every nuance of tonality
and lively. The contrasts of

and dark areas create shimmering patterns that in later editions
lose their drama.
tresh
light
PRINTS, DRAWINGS, AND I'liOTOGRAPHY: PRINTS
173
ROTHERHITHE
128
J.WIES A.
MCNEILL WHISTLER
i860
Etching
loVs X 73/^ inches (27.6 x 20.1 cm)
57.188.65, Gift of Mrs. Charles Pratt
In 1859
James A. McNeill
who had
from
recently
Paris,
moved
began
WTiistler,
to
London
a series of etch-
ings of scenes along the
Thames
sents the
high point of Whistler's
early etching style.
Rotherhithe,
originally
Wapping, was the
cal,
with open sky in the upper two-
thirds of the plate.
The most
entitled
fifth in the
pub-
startling
and unusual
compositional feature of Rotherhithe
working on his plates directly

from nature. Although both ^^histler himself and the French printer
Auguste Delatre pulled a number of
composition served
as a basis for the 186164 painting
Happing (National Gallery of Art.
left of center.
Washington, D.C., The John Hay
of the pictorial space, along with the
impressions of the early images, thev
^^hitnev
were not formally published
ground
River,
until
1871 as ^ Series of Sixteen Etchings

of Scenes on the Thames and Other
Subjects,
Thames
generally
Set.
This
called
series,
The
cleanly
wiped and linear in treatment, repre-
lished series.
Its
Collection),
the
back-
which \\ histler described

as "like an etching." Both works depict the balcony of the Angel, an inn
in Cherry Gardens, Rotherhithe.
of
Whereas the painting is horizontal

and tighter in focus, the print is vertiPRINTS, DRAWINGS,
the asymmetrical vertical division
is
of the space bv the large post to the
This radical bisecting
deliberate flattening of the figures,

reflects
Whistler's interest in Jap-
anese ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

diîsion frames the masts at the
The
left
image within
the work, emphasizing the complexas almost a separate
ity of
the spatial organization.
AND PHOTOGRAPITi PRINTS

:
174
^fiîiiPP"'
Mary Cassatt
129
at the
Louvre: The
Paintings Gallery
EDGAR degas
(French, 18541917)
1879-80
Etching, soft-ground etching, aquatint,
and
dr\' point
12X5
inches (50.5 X 12.6
56.955, Collection of
cm)
The BrookhTi
Museum
Edgar Degas made two etchings deAmerican painter Mary

Cassatt and her sister Lydia visiting
the Louvre in 187980, both based
on an existing pastel (Lemoisne
581). The first one, The Etruscan
picting the
Gallery, wâs originally intended for
inclusion in a journal of original

prints,
Le Jour
et la nuit, for
w hich
several of his friends, including

satt
Cas-
and Camille Pissarro, made
etchings in the same, almost square

format. Despite Degas's enthusiasm
for the project, the journal
was never
published.
Degas made a gridded drawing

he then used to
draw the figures on the plate through
a soft ground. He subsequently used
the same drawing, with considerable
after the pastel that
reorganization of the relationship of

the figures, for the soft-ground draw-
ing of The Paintings Gallery. The

format of the latter print is exaggeratedly vertical, strongly resembling
the Japanese woodcuts of "pillar"
format that were extremely popular
France
in
at that time.
The format
accentuates the slim elegance of the
standing figure of
Mary Cassatt
in a
languid pose leaning on the tapered

vertical
line
of her tightly furled
umbrella.
and pulled only a few impressions
many
of
whose
work is primarily tonal, often worked
his plates through numerous states.
prints, he usually gave them to his

friends, keeping a few impressions in
He
his studio.
Degas, like
etchers
rarely editioned his prints, con-
sidering etching a private activity,
each
state.
Rather than selling his
The Brooklyn Museum's
impression of The Paintings Gallery
PRINTS, DRAWINGS,
is
one of six known impressions of the
twentieth (and final)
state,
h is one of
the impressions found during the in-
ventory of his studio after his death
and
is
Atelier
marked on
stamp
AND PHOTOGRAPHY: PRINTS
the verso with the
in red (Lugt 657).
175
In the Omnibus (The

Tramway)
130
MARY CASSATT
Drvpoint and soft-ground etching

i4'V8X io''As inches (56.5X26.5 cm)
41.685. Collection of
Museum, presented
S. Ramsav
The BrookKn
in memory of Dick
At the invitation of her friend and

mentor Edgar Degas. Mary Cassatt
exhibited her paintings and pastels
with the Impressionists, thus becoming one of the few women and the
only American to be prominently
the simplified areas of
flat color
and
an image on a
rather like
parts,
The bridge becomes
bold. as^^nlTletrical compositions of
screen.
Japanese woodblock
dimensional design bisecting two
prints.
Since she
The
a tA\o-
\\ ith Degas, she visited
was not conversant with woodblock

technique, she deîsed a method of
intaglio printing that approximated
treated like a large exotic flower.
Japanese
connected
with
movement.
the
the
Impressionist
areas of negative space.

dress,
baby's
and particularly the bonnet,
is
The
the lavers of transparent colors of the
structure of the trannvay's interior
1890 at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts,
Japanese prints and. in the process,
represented by a series of horizontal
where she was profoundly influenced

by the color woodcuts of Utamaro
and Toyokuni. major figurati\e artists. In
89 she began a series of ten
color prints in which she combined
created some of the most striking
lines,
and beautiful color prints of the

Western tradition.
Cassatt emploved several Japanese
that both indicate the posts of the
windows and
compositional techniques for In the
are treated as
her longtime study of old masters
Omnibus. The landscape through
modeling indicated by
u ith her new-foimd enthusiasm
the
great
exhibition
of
for
window
is
di\ ided
PRINTS. DRAWÎNGS.
into
three
is
with onlv two strong \erticals

serve as a frame for the
mother's head.
The
flat
subjects' dresses
areas of color
w ith
rich drypoint
lines.
1-6
Le Jockey
131
HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
(French. 18641901)
1899
Lithograph
2o'/4X i^'/n inches (51.5X56.0 cm)
57.20. Collection of
lar
The BrookhTi
More than any

the
other graphic artist of
Henri
period,
de
Lautrec \vas responsible
Toulousefor the great
popular revival of lithography in
France in the
artist
from walls
890s.
who
or
either
bribed
collected by
tore
the
them
poster
sell
contemporary artist he most admired and emulated, Lautrec was a

superb draftsman with a particular
interest in capturing scenes of popu-
of
Paris,
\\hereas
Degas
prostitutes.
to
Le Jockey was intended
be part of a
series
on the races
treated his subjects in a generalized,
proposed by Pierrefort. a young Pari-
somewhat romantic style. Lautrec

had an unfailing ability to capture
image
the telling gesture of his subjects
and worked
in
more expressive
Le Jockey, sometimes known

Galop
sian print publisher, but

realized.
pressions
of
was the only
One hundred imkey
the
stone
were
printed in black and white and another one hundi'ed executed in color.
style.
He was the first
them pristine examLike Edgar Degas, the older
hangers to
ples.
whose posters were
enthusiasts
entertainment and the demi-
monde
Museum
dêssai, is
as
one of Lautrec's
Le
last
lithographs. In the final producti\e
year of his
life,
he concentrated on
Lautrec's vantage point
cropping of the horse on the

of
special
interest
Viewed from the
in
rear,
Le
and
his
left
are
Jockey:
with a fore-
animals, particularly horses, one of
shortened body, the horses head ap-
His depiction
pears particularly elegant and grace-
his childhood passions.

is
never disinterested and
scientific;
ful.
The BrookHn Museum
has both
sence of the particular animal, as he
and the color

versions of Le Jockey \n its permanent
did with his cabaret singers and
collection.
he always seems to capture the es-
the black-and-white
PRINTS, DRAWINGS, AND I'HOTOGRAPHV: PRINTS
132
Woman
with Black
Hat
ERNST LUD\^^G KIRCHNER
(German. 18801938)
1910
Lithograph
23V2 X 1 - inches (59." x 43.2 cm)
57.194.1. CarlJ H. DeSiher Fund
is
graphs. Since most of his work was
closelv associated
never editioned. however, impres-
printmaking. .Although woodcut
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was one of

the founding members and the
strongest,
most
difficult
personahty
group of German artists kno\\ii

Die Briicke (The Bridge) that was
founded in Dresden in 1 905 and was
extremely influential until its dis-
the
medium most
with the Expressionists, most were
sions of almost
also seriouslv involved in lithographv
treme
of a
and etching. Kirchner's approach
as
lithographv was radical for
May 1915. Die Briicke

occupies an important place in the
solution in
development of
German
Expressio-
nism as the first distinctly German

movement in twentieth -centurv art.
Other key figures in the group were
Max Pechstein. Erich Heckel. and
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.
From 1907
on, all the
members
of
Die Briicke were deeph imolved in
its
using polished rather than grained

stones, as
he did not want the prints
to look like diâwings
but to have a
rougher, less highly finished look.
Like other members of Die Briicke.

he eschewed professional printers,
preferring to print his o^^^l work,
often in only a fe^^ impressions. His
graphic output was the largest of the
group, consisting of almost 1 .000
woodcuts, more than 650 etchings
and drvpoints. and over 450 lithoPRINTS. DRAWINGS.
JVoman with Black Hat. which
to
time,
anv image are of ex-
rarity.
is
printed in black on slightly greenish-yellow paper,
is
one of Kirchner's
most impressive early portraits. The

massed areas of black in the hat and
hair create visual weight at the top of
the composition and are juxtaposed
with the mainlv negative space at the
lower half.
The
expressiveness of the
somewhat jagged lines describing the neck and shoulders im-
thick,
part energy to the lower half, creat-
ing interesting tensions within the

composition.
AND PHOTOGRAPm PRINTS

:
Fox
133
GEORGES BRAQUE
(French. 1881-1965)
1911
Etching and drypoint

21 "/16 X i4'5/i6 inches (54.7 X 57.9 cm)
36.59.20, A. Augustus Healy Fund
the
In
of
fall
the
1907.
poet
Apollinaire
brought
Guillaume
Georges Braque to Picasso's studio to
see Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, thus
establishing a friendship crucial to

the
development
of
From
1 gog
when Braque entered
early
until
modernism.
August 1 g 1 4,
the army, the

two met almost daily and, in their
discussions, established the basis of
Cubism. Braque etched ten Cubist

subjects between igo8 and igi2.
but only two. Fox and Job, were published contemporaneously by his
dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler.
The other eight were not published
until ig5o-54.
Fox is a superb example of Braque's
anal\tical phase of Cubism, which is
characterized by sparse, rigid articulation
richly
with
worked
straight
lines
more
in drypoint than the
less-rich curvilinear marks.
Braque
amplified the composition in a paint-
ing of the same year. Bottle and

Glass (Foundation Hermann and
Margrit Rupf, Kunstmuseum, Bern).
Because the composition is not reversed,
it
is
almost certain that the
etching preceded the
The
oil.
point of departure for the
composition was an English- style
named Fox near the Gare Saint

Lazare that was frequented by the
circle of artists and writers that had
formed around Apollinaire. Braque
used several references to the actual
bar within the composition: a bottle
of Old Tom gin, a 15-centimes
saucer, and a playing card, as well as
"Fox" written in the upper right.
The thrust of the composition is vertical, from a broad base to a narrow
top with angular lines describing a
bar
^3^
^-1-
variety of planes.
PRINTS, DRAWINGS. AND PHOTOGRAPHY: PRINTS
179
The
MiNOTAUROMACHIA
134
of
PABLO PICASSO
mans
artist's
(Spanish. 1881-1973)
unconscious but also of the
vision because he could see in
the darkness of his lab\Tinth but was
1955
blinded by the natural light of the
Etching, scraper and burin
X 2774 inches (49.8 x 69.3 cm)

59.30. Frank L. Babbott and Loeser .\rt
ig'/j!
Funds
human
world. Being part bull, he
also a s\'mbol of sexual passion
is
and
chia,
arguably his most important
single etching,
when
both the Euro-
and his perwere in a state of upheaval.

The Minotaur first appeared in a
painting dated June 1, 1928 (Museum of Modern Art, Paris), but did
not take its final form in prints until
April 11, 1935 {Walking Minotaur
with a Sword). Half man, half beast,
the Minotaur was a sxinbol not onlv
classic
who was
period,
is
then
depicted five times:
two spectators in the tower, as

young girl leading the
Minotaur, as the wounded mare, and
as the
the innocent
as the torera holding the
sword of her
was an emblem to Picasso of his dark

and his creative forces. The artists
lightened side ascends the ladder out
humanistic side is represented by the bearded figure at the
blunders blindly through
rational,
Picasso created The Minotauroma-
his
pregnant. She
left of
the composition, dressed like
the crucified Christ.
The
figure al-
o\\"n
destruction.
As
the artists en-
of the scene, his subconscious side
Although an edition
it.
of fifty
was
num-
proposed, only fifteen were
pean
political situation
ludes to the iconography of the Cru-
bered.
sonal
life
where Joseph of -\rimathea

stands on a ladder to remove the
nails for the Descent from the Cross.
At the time he was working on this
plate, which went through se\'en
states, Picasso was contemplating a
break with his mistress Marie
Therese Walter, the inspiration for
been located, most of which are trial

proofs, dedication proofs, and un-
cifixion,
PRINTS, DRAWINGS,
Fifty-five
impressions have
signed proofs in the Picasso estate.
The Museums impression

Minotauroniachia
is
of
The
a particularly
beautifid proof impression dedicated

in the artists
artist
hand
to the
American
Mcin Ray.
180
"Folgen" (Obey/
135
Follow), plate 4
from
Cafe Deutschland
Gut
jorg immendorf
(German,
b.
1945)
1983
Linoleum cut w ith o\erpainting
62 '/2 X 7g inches
59.0 x 2 8.0 cm)
84.241, Other Restricted Income Fund
(
Of
the
new
generation of
German
many. The composition of the print

series Cafe Deutschland Gut is based
on one of the paintings in the cycle
lower
Adlerhdlfte (Half-Eagle) but
lin
is
re-
scene dispassionately from an inset
printed in different color variants in
trifugal thrust of the composition.
vertically
The
print
is
divided
his work, incorporating universally
by a pole down the center

behind the helmeted old soldier in
Germany
the foreground, representing the di-
ers
of
radical
thought. In the series of paintings
Cafe Deutschland, Immendorf created a revolutionary cafe that functions as a
microcosm
of postwar Ger-
busts of Sta-
to observe the
in the upper right, while the halo of
the most overtly political content to
twentieth -century
The
and Marx seem
Cafe Deutschland Gut consists of

ten progressive linoleum cuts, each
editions of ten.
with portraiture of some of the shap-
the central figure.
versed and distilled.
Expressionists, Jorg Immendorf brings
recognizable sxTnbols of
left corner while the Brandenburg Gate moves over the shoulder of
between East and West Germany, East and West Berlin. The rest
of the complex composition revolves
around this radical bisecting device
vision
in a dizzying circular motion.
German
eagle
The
banks around the
light over the bar echoes the cen-
half-hidden figure near the center

stands on a ladder removing a block
of ice
from the central beam.
Folgen
is
the fourth block in the
series often. Its closely
keyed tones of
red and pink render the already

dense image even more fascinatingly
complex. Cafe Deutschland Gut
is
one of the landmarks of the renewed
German
activity in block printing.
PRIMS, DRAWINGS, AND PHOTOGR.\PHY: PRINTS
181
156
The First Riding

Lesson (La Premiere
Lecon d'Equitation),
jean honore fragonard
(French. 17321806)
Circa
778
Graphite and browTi wash on laid paper

(watermark D + C BLAL~\\ and fleur-
Fragonai-d
is
and most
considered one of the
155/8X 17V4 inches (54.8X45.2 cm)
draughtsmen
of the eighteenth century. His draw-
57.189. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. .\Iastair B.
ings are particularly appealing to the
de-lys)
Martin
best
modern
versatile
sensibility because they are
neither overly intellectual nor aca-
demic. Although he was Francois

Bouchers student, his \ibrant. natural figures filled with movement and
life are distinctly different from the
caught
a relaxed and intimate
at
mo-
ment. However, the drawing has recently been dated to circa i~"8 by
Eunice \\ illiams. who substantiates
this date bv citing an etching made
after it in
i~78 by Marguerite
Gerard,
the
cu-tist"s
new dating
sister-in-law.
mind, one
can look with fresh eyes and realize
^^ ith this
in
and not
family bare-
that the faces are generalized
and
elegant, formed studies of his teacher.
portraits
He worked from memorv
and simple is not Fragonard's.

is not a mere genre stud} but
probably a scene from the artist's
imagination suggesting some uni\ersal and generalized statement
about humcin nature.
or direct
observation in a loose, fluid
This
work
was
stvle.
traditionally
thought to have been a depiction of

the artists family, including his son
Evariste.
who was born
prints, drawings,
in
-80.
that the
foot
This
and PHOTOGR.APITi: DR.\WINGS
162
'^^^''"^'^^??''?*?^.^'^
"'''
'
'-
'^"i
^''
^BPt'* " '.^^*'
Portrait of Mme.
137A
MONNEROT
THEODORE CHASSERIAU
(French. 1819-1856)
1839
Pencil on white \vo\e paper
lo'/^xS'/v inches (26.0X21.0 cm)

Inscribed, signed,
mon
and dated center right
ami/Jules/Th. Chasseriau/ \8-^g
58.163, Gift of John
S.
Newberry
Portrait of Jules
I37B
MoNNEROT
1852
J. Whatman Turkey Mill
844
wove paper
9'/^ X 7"/i6 inches (24.2 x 18.8 cm)
Signed, dated, and inscribed lower left
Pencil on
in pencil a
mon ami
Chasseriaii/i
Jules/Th''
852
39.622. Purchase Check
Fund
Theodore Chasseriau, a major
artist
mid -nineteenth century, was a

student of Ingres who broke away
of the
from his neoclassic master
[///>--x;; y>..
to favor
the romantic style of Delacroi.x. In

fact,
he combined aspects of both of
these masters in an original style,
which through his heirs, Gustave

Moreau and Puvis de Chavannes, ultimately led the
Among
his
way
to
modern
art.
most-admired works
are his large legacy of pencil porof
traits,
seum
is
superb
which The BrooklyTi
Mu-
fortunate to have these two
examples.
The
portrait
of
Mme. Monnerot dates to 839, placing it among his early mature works,
1
sisters.
From 1837
Mon-
corroborate the
style,
stiff-
but the charm and di-
identity of the sitter as that of her
rectness of this rather severe but
mother, for the work
kindlv
dated 1839.
is
woman
cannot be overlooked
and the dedication indicates that it

was a gift to her son. It was not until
while seated of an evening
at
home.
thirteen years later that he did a por-
The
of
Jules
if
seven.
the
became acquainted with the Chasseriaus in the 1830s. Her brother

Jules was a close friend of Theodore,
and she was an intimate of his two
earlier portrait of Mme.
ness of
fact helps to
dates to 1852, four years before

Chasseriau died at the age of thirty-
1895 by the Comtesse de Gobineau.

nee Clemence Monnerot. her family
The
This
trait of his
to a letter written in
he spent
nerot has a certain naivete and
while the portrait of her son, Jules,
According
to 1840.
every evening at her inother's house.
fine, delicate,
not slightly cold touch of Ingres or
more
Desomewhere
in between, with finely modeled
heads and looser, more relaxed lines
intense, looser style of
lacroix. Instead they lie
forming the
warmth
rest of the figure.
The
of both portraits conveys in-
timately the ix^rsonalities of the artist's
close friends.
PRINTS, DRAWINGS,
three-quarter
view
.Monnerot, on the other hand, shows
friend Jules.
Neither work has the
as she stares full face at the artist
his rather
impish and
sion with the sure
lively
hand
expres-
of a inature
and sophisticated artist. With these

two fine draw ings. we are able to see
samples of Chasseriau's portraiture
on pa[>er both at the beginning and
end of his career, as well as to attain
a deeper understanding of the artist
through a close glimjjse of his fX'rsonal
life.
AND PHOTOGR.VPHV: DRAWINGS
185
^^*
Portrait OF Madame
LA COMTESSE AdELE
DE Toulouse-
138
Lautrec
HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
(French. 18641901)
1882
Charcoal on L.
25V+X
Bei"\ille
Salanne paper
1- inches (65.5X4^.0 cm)
Unsigned
commemorate
Edward C. Blum.
38.39. .\nomiiions gift to

the 75th birthday of
February 24. 1938
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did this

mother in 1882 \vhen
he was eighteen yeai-s old. In March
of that year he had entered the studio
portrait of his
of
Leon Bonnat.
a highly successful
academic
portrait painter in the

dition.
ing,
It
was
his
first
and Bonnat.
of the day.
and
as
was the custom
made him draw
careful
precise charcoal studies
plaster casts or
tra-
formal train-
from
nude models.
Beturning home
summer of
make large
in the
1882, Lautrec began to
charcoal drawings of his family and

the workers on the famih estate at
These informal and intimate

remoyed from the
academic precision taught by Bon-
Albi.
studies are quite
nat.
The
conceiyed three-
loosely
quarter-length
drawing
mother knitting
is
trait,
of
his
a reyealing por-
capturing her personalit\' while
reyealino; the artists tender feelino;s
seems that by this time

Lautrec had become familiar with
for her. It
work of the Impressionists, esDegass sensitiye and relaxed

portrait style. This drawing and oththe
pecially
ers of the period contain the incisiye
psychological insights and profound

sensitiyity
teristic
of
toward humanit^ characLautrecs mature style,
without the bitter caricature and

pointed observations
we haye come
to associate with his work.
PRINTS. DRAWINGS.
AND PHOTOGRAPH DRA\VINGS

I
186
Cypresses
159
to
Theo
June 25, 1889, he ex-
of
VINCENT VAN GOGH
pressed his intense feelings about
(Dutch, 1853-1890)
these trees:
.88g
ways
and reed pen. brown and

black ink on white Latune et Cie
Pencil, quill,
"The cypresses are
them
like the
It is
the cypress trees in the fields around
The Art Institute of

made after a painting
same subject now in The Met-
the collection of
Chicago, was
of the
ropolitan
Museum
Van Gogh was
of Art.
New \brk.
in the habit of making
drawings after his paintings to send

to his brother Theo to keep him informed of his progress, and in a letter
it
astonishes
me that
see
as beautiful in lines
and
and the green

quality.
It
is
an Egyptian
is
obelisk,
of so distinguished a
a splash of black in a
simny landscape, but it is one of the

most interesting black notes, and the
most difficult to hit off exactly that I
can imagine."
The cypress tree, a subject with
which van Gogh is associated almost
as
much
tional
he became
of
proportions as
This drawing of cypress trees by

Vincent van Gogh, Hke one now in
that
thoughts:
my
they have not been done as
them.
does not seem acci-
make something
Blacons paper
2472 X 18 inches (62.5X46.8 cm)

58.125.19, Frank L. Babbott and A.
Augustus Healy Fund
It
therefore,
preoccupied with the great beauty of
canvases of the sun-
flowers, because
dental,
al-
occupying
should like to
nean countries.
as sunflowers,
symbol of death
PRINTS. DRAWINGS,
in
is
a tradi-
Mediterra-
the asylimi of
St.
Paid-de Mausole in
Saint -Remy where he
was hospifrom May 889 to May 890.

In this work the broad swirling
pen strokes seek a graphic equivalent
for van Gogh's vision of the trees as
he described them to his brother.
The large size and free style of the
drawing distinguish it from the
talized
smaller, detailed pen copies of his
drawings of the Aries period, which

were filled with a more studied variety of marks. The moniunentality
and clarity of this work place it
among the artists finest works on
pajXT.
\Û PHOTOGRAPHY: DRAWINGS
18'
L'Amour ex Platre
140
paul cezanne
:a
(French. 1839-1906)
1890-95
Pencil on laid paper
i9'/4X 12^/4 inches (48.9X52.4 cm)

59.623. Frank L. Babbott
Fund
Paul Cezanne's creativity did not di-
minish in the
last
life. To
work has come
years of his
the contrary, his late
~^
be recognized as the source of his

most innovative and significant conto
tributions to the art of the twentieth
century.
The
S}Tnbolists. the Fauves,
and the Cubists all found justification for the modern stales they developed in the late art of Cezamie.
This drawing from Cezannes late
period is after a plaster of a Baroque
statuette that was traditionally attributed to Pierre Puget but is now
thought
quesnoy.
by Francois
be
to
The
plaster
served, along with the
is
still
little
\
A'
\
Dupre-
wooden
on which Cezanne arranged

his still lifes. in his last studio on the
hill of Les Lauves in _\ix. He made
table
about ele\en pencil di'awmgs. four

watercolors.
it
and four
paintings of
oil
i8gos. stud\ing
in the
many different
angles.
it
from
The BrookKn
Museum
"s is one of the most beautiand finished studies of the sculpture, and it appears to be the one
ful
used
for a
Museum
painting in the National
in Stockholm.
and position
same
The angle
of the sculpture are the
works and even the
in both
shadows seem
to correspond.
Iconographically
this
statuette
plays a significant role in Cezanne's

late
work.
tions
It is
one of the
from the
many quota-
art of past centuries
that he incoi-porated in veirious
ways
in his paintings.
PRINTS. DRAWINGS.
AND PHOTOGR-APITi:
DR.\\M:N'GS
188
Nude Standing
141
in
Profile
pablo picasso
(Spanish. 18811973)
1906
Charcoal on Ingres
43.
The
laid
paper
1474 inches (53.6 x 36.2 cm)
21 '/8X
78. Gift of .\rthur \\ iesenberger
significance of Picasso's
Standing
ument
of the path to
putable.
Nude
in Profile as a historic doc-
It is
Cubism is indis-
a radical change from
the saltimbanques of Picasso's rose
period that immediately preceded

hi
October
Picasso
it.
saw
1905
Cezannes Bathers at the Salon dAutomne and was affected by the
monumentality of the figures. He
was also impressed by an exhibition
in the spring of 1 906 at the Loumc of
some recently excavated Iberian
sculpture. The sculptural form and
stylized features of the figure in this
drawing made in the autumn of

1906 show how quickly he could absorb and reconstitute sources.
Nude Standing in Profile is one of a
number of
Two Nudes
ern Art,
studies for the painting

in
The Museum
New
\brk,
work
of
Mod-
a significant
immediately
preceded Picassos 1907 masterpiece
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The
drawing is of particular interest in
transitional
that
tracing the experiments in geometric

simplification that ultimately led to
Cubism. The standing nude on the

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon,
although facing the other way. is
far left oi
closely related to
it.
Apart from its value as a studv,

this is a powerful independent drawing of a sculptural blocklike figure
standing firmly in the middle of the
sheet, looking pensively into space.
The female in profile is an image that

Picasso returned to in almost everv
phase of his long and varied career.
PRINTS. DRAWINGS. AND PHOTOGRAPHY: DRAWINGS
189
BiLDNIS EINER
142
SCHWANGEREX FraU
(Portrait of a
Pregnant Woman)
paul klee
(Swiss.
Early in his career Paul Klee
18791940)
1907
Pastel, watercolor
wash, and
made
and poetic etchings in an expressi\'e and decorative Art Xouveau

style, .\round 905 in Munich he besatiric
bro\\Ti ink
on
laid
paper
X 15716 inches (24.5X34.2 cm)

Signed and dated lower right Paul Klee
came interested in folk art.
especially
95/8
1907
58.1 10.
Museum
Collection
Fund
Bavarian glass painting. This drawing, one of the earliest works by Klee
in
an American
liminarv sketch
same
glass,
collection,
for
is
a pre-
a painting of the
subject done in Chinese ink on
now
in the collection of Felix
Klee in Bern.
A sensitive and charm-
ing study of the
artist "s wife. Lily,
it
was executed shortly before their son

Felix was born.
Art Xouveau influences are still
apparent in this work, but
PRINTS, drawings,
it
is
sitional piece looki]
naturalism and the Impressionists
new
was just enterwrote in his

and
he
ing Klees work,
is
beginning
to
diary. '"Tonality
mean something to me. in contrast to
the past when I seemed to have almost no tise for it." The delicate tints
of color in this drawing are well
for
sources. Color
suited to the gentleness of the subject.
The warmth,
wit.
and evocative
use of line and color displayed here

all
became trademarks
ture
of Klees
ma-
stvle.
a tran-
AND PHOTOGR.\PHY: DR-\WTNGS
190
143
Composition with
Four Figures
MAX WEBER
(American, 1881 1961)
1910
Charcoal on gray laid paper
24'/2 X 18 inches (62.2 X46.0 cm)
Signed and dated lower right
Max
Weber igio
57.17, Dick S. Ramsay Fund
In 1891
Max Weber came
with his
family from Russia to the United

States, setthng in Brooklyn. Several
years
after
from
graduating
Brookl\Ti's Pratt Institute,
he went in
1905 to Paris, where he attended

drawing classes at the conservative
Academie Julien but soon moved on
Academie Coland the Academie de la
to the less traditional
arossi
Grande Chaumiere. In these classes

he met some of the progressive
painters of the day, becoming good
associated
Stieglitzs
himself
Little
in
Galleries
Photo-Secession, the 291
is
a product of this
were related
to his love of African, Mayan, and
Aztec sculpture, they vsere more
likely inspired by an article by Gelett
Burgess in the Architectural Record
of
of the period,
May 1910
that included inter-
Braque, and
Metzinger and an illustration of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d Avignon of
9067. For all its relatedness to the
P icasso masterpiece, however. the
drawing is by no means a direct copy.
views
with
Picasso.
Weber
Alfred
chanical distortions, flattened space,
reconstructed in
the
and angular geometric masses of the
to create a imique and compelling
Gallery,
three female nudes in this drawing.
work.
908.
with
(actually three)
and others
Having absorbed the Fauve

color and simplified abstracted figures of Matisse, Weber was already
moving toward a kind of Cubism.
Although the masklike features, me-
friends with the Douanier Rousseau
and Matisse.
Back in New York
which was a gathering place for the

American avant-garde of the day.
There he was included in the 1910
exhibition
Younger
American
Painters along with Arthur Dove.
John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Maurer. and Arthur Carles.
Composition with Four Figures
of
period.
The elements
of Matisse, the Fauves,
and the early Cubists
PRINTS, DRAWINGS. AM) PHOTOGRAPHY: DRAWINGS
it
contains are
Webers
o\\ti vision
191
Le Moulin
144
Cafe
(The Coffee
Grinder)
JUAX ORIS
(Spanish. 18 ^7-1927)
1911
Charcoal on paper
185/4
X 12
'/2
inches (47.6X31.7 cm)
86.64. Purchased
\%"ith
Henrv and CherAl
In
go6.
at the
funds given by
^êlt
age of nineteen, Juan
moved to Paris from Madrid,

where he had studied art and worked
Oris
as
an
illustrator.
In Paris, he con-
tinued to do illustrations, submitting
humorous drawings to \arious jourwas not until igio that he

began to paint seriously.
.\1 though Oris knew Picasso and
Braque and was certainly aware of
their work during this period, he
found his oami way to Cubism
nals. It
through Cezamie.
He
did not de-
velop a definitively Cubist style until
1912,
when he had
his
tions in the Salon des
first
exhibi-
Independants
and the Section d"Or in Paris and at

Der Sturm Gallery in Berlin.
Le Moulin d Cafe is still strongly
rooted in Post-Impressionism,
though by 1911
Gris's
^^
al-
ork had be-
gun to move in the direction of Cubism. The sense of volume, strong

angularity, spatial ambiguity,
and
unusual perspectives seen in this

drawing all point toward the more
faceted and dislocated forms and
broken contours he was to develop in
his subsequent Cubist works.
PRINTS, DRAWINGS, AND
PHOTOGRAPm: DRAWINGS
19^
Tete DE Jeune Homme

(Head of a Boy)
145
PABLO PICASSO
(Spanish, 1881 1973)
1923
Grease crayon on pink Michallet laid
paper
24'/2X 18V8 inches (62.1 X47.4 cm)

Signed lower
right, Picasso
39.18, Carll H. DeSilver Fiind
Although Picasso looked to his Mediterranean heritage for inspiration
from time to time throughout his career, the years from 1918 to 1924 in
particular have
come
be called his
classical period. His marriage to
Olga Kaklova, a traditional ballerina
who tried to lead him from bohe-
mian
to
tendencies to a
life- style,
Cocteau,
more refined
his friendship with Jean
who was
advocating a re-
turn to classical tradition, and his

experience in 1917 working for Diaghilev in Italy, where he saw Roman
marbles and Pompeian paintings,
all
came together at this time to cause

him to break with Cubism.
At the beginning of
this period
Picasso created paintings and drawings
of
colossal
figures.
Around
1923, however, the exaggerated size

of these figures disappeared, and he
returned to simple, elegant
style
with
a serious feeling for humanity.
The
heavy strokes and serene

Head of a Boy
are found in other works of the same
year, including the charcoal and
chalk drawing Seated Woman with a
Hat, the oil and charcoal painting
The Sigh, and the figure painting
Pipes of Pan. The great beauty and
serenity of this drawing capture the
essence of the ideal classical youth in
simple forms and solidly modeled
soft,
introspective look of
contours.
Its
extraordinary quality
is
enhanced by the soft pink paper on

which it is created.
PRINTS, DRAWINGS, AND PHOTOGRAPHY: DRAWINGS
193
Study
146
Take
for
My
They Will
Island
ARSHILE GORKY
(American. 1904-1948)
'944
Crayon on white wove paper
22 X 50 inches (56.0 x 76.2 cm)
Signed and dated in pencil, lower
A.
right,
Ramsay Fund
Gorky (born Vosdanik

Adoian) was born in 1904 in Armenia. His childhood was a tragic
story of flight from his village to escape the Turks, during which his
mother died from starvation. After
arriving in America in 1 920, he took
up his studies in art, a career he had
felt
destined to pursue.
By 1930 he was an accomplished

painter,
having studied, absorbed,
and copied the masters
he absorbed the vocabularv

of Surrealism into his work and fi-
read on
attained
nally
Arshile
long
personal vocabulary and expression.
thirties
Gorky 1944
57.16, Dick S.
from
Impressionism
through
Cezanne to Cubism. During the
of modern art
his
mature
style
around 1943.
The drawing They Will Take My
Island was made in the summer of
1944 at a farm o\Mied by his wife's
As with
parents in Virginia.
num-
ber of other highly finished drawings

of this period,
it
became the
basis for
a closely related painting of the fol-
They Will Take
many
to Picasso's
My Island can
levels. Its
be
relationship
Guernica, a work painted
only a few years earlier that Gorky
known
to
have
admired,
ticularly significant.
The
is
is
par-
configura-
tions of violence, passion,
and de-
amazingly
similar.
are
struction
Both works are intensely personal
re-
sponses to war. political upheaval,
and the
loss of homeland.
This drawing, a major work of
lowing winter. The drawings of this
Gorky's final years, exemplifies liow
period reflect the flowers and
Cubism, the irrationality

and his o\\ti expressive passion were consolidated in his
work to form a personal and influen-
the bright colors
of nature,
fields,
seen
through a Surrealist imagination.
The imagery
after
of the outside world,
being absorbed into his uncon-
scious,
emerged
as his o%\ti intensely
PRINTS, DRAWINGS,
the logic of
of Surrealism,
tial style
that anticipated the forma-
tion of Abstract Expressionism.
AND PHOTOGRAPHY: DRAWINGS
194
147
Nude Balancing
Matisse, he in turn was a mentor to
MILTON AVERY
the next generation of American art-
(American, 18921965)
ists,
the
Mark
1948
Pencil and blue ink on paper
Barnett
16V4X 15V4
inches (42.6X55.0
Signed lower
left in
blue ink;
cm)
titled and
Expressionists.
Newrman have
their debt to
all
acknowl-
him.
Because of his skills as a colorist

he is recognized as one of the most
signed in pencil verso

86.221, Frank L. Babbott
edged
Abstract
Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, and
Fund
distinguished and original colorists
country has ever produced

Avery's fine draftsmanship has been
this
Milton Avery
figures of
is
one of the pivotal
American modernism.
In-
fluenced by the artists of the School

of
Paris,
especially
Picasso
and
somewhat overlooked. Yet he drew

daily and worked frequently from a
model. Indeed, figure drawing was
PRINTS, URAWÎNGS,
an activity that occupied him continCcireer. It was

not so much that he was interested in
the figure as he was in simply
uously throughout his
drawing.
Nude Balancing is outlined in ink

and modeled in pencil, a technique
characteristic of Avery's drawings of
the late 940s. In it. one can see the
influence of the clear and simple outline drawings of Matisse and PicasThe shading and geometric
so.
forms lend it an almost formal solid1
ity typical of Avery's
AND PHOTOGRAPHY: DRAWINGS
work.
195
148AB
Coney Island
Beach: A Double
Sided Drawing
Recto: The Artist
Sketching
Verso: Acrobats
REGINALD MARSH
Circa 1951
Chinese ink wash on heavy wove paper
22 '/i X 3o"/8 inches (57.2 x --8.6 cm)
Stamped in red. lower right verso, K

Marsh Collection^ in pencil lower right
Ch 2294
79.99.1, Gift of the Estate of Felicia
Mever Marsh
Reginald Marsh grew up in an upper-middle-class family and graduated from Yale in 1920.
graduation he came to
work
as
an
Upon
New
his
York to
Sometime in
was given an assign-
illustrator.
the ig20s he
ment by Vanity Fair to make sketches

of Coney Island. He was so taken
with the scene at the beach and \\ith
the amusement park that he went
back every summer three or four
times a week for his entire life to
sketch and photograph the muscle
men, the acrobats, the bathing beautiesthe mass of humanity. He once
estimated that one- sixth of his production
came from
prints, drawings, and photography: drawings
there.
196
In an article in the
Magazine ofArt
December 1944, "Let's Get Back
to Painting," Marsh said, "I go to
Coney Island because of the sea, the
open air and the crowds crowds of
of
people in
like
all directions,
in all posi-
without clothing,
tions,
the
great
moving
compositions
of
Michelangelo and Rubens."

Marsh's idols were Michelangelo
and Rubens. The tangled crowd of
bodies provided
him with
modern
vision of their great machines.
The
compositions, and a vehicle for his

other great passion, the documenta-
New York City, the

melting pot of humanity.
Marsh wrote to his wife, "I went to
who
Coney Beach yesterday afternoon.

fresh and strong blow-
complete,
tion of the life of
The wind was
ing great white caps in on the seas

the sea a rich blue
the
thick as ever I've seen,

delight.
The
be heard
scarce
to
my
sits
in
the
lower-left
corner
showing us his role as an observer of

life. The drawing on the verso is less
although
the
shown are other aspects

Coney Island beach: the
of
activities
life
on the
acrobats, the
guitar player, the ever-present
man
with a radio.
noise of the beach could
for
room
crowd as
much
miles and there was
to
sit
down
."
.
beach supplied him with everything

he needed for his art: a continuous
crowd of anatomy lessons, a forum
The Brooklyn Museum drawing,

being double sided, contains many
for the
land drawings.
reconstruction of traditional
Rubensian women on the recto is

seen being sketched by the artist,
different aspects of these
Coney
The dense crowd
Is-
of
PRINTS, DRAWINGS, .\ND PHOTOGRAPHY: DRAWINGS
197
,t
149
Climbing into the

Promised Land
LEWIS WICK HINE

1908
Gelatin
silver print
i4Xio'/2 inches (53.0X26.8 cm)

84.257.1. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Walter
Rosenblum
Lewis \\ ick Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and started his
working career in an upholstery factory. Soon, however, through his
friendship with Professor Frank
Manny of the Oshkosh State Normal
School, he was appointed superintendent of the Ethical Culture School
in
New York
camera and suggested
City.
Manny
gave Hine
mines, and so on. Frequently he took

his pictures against the wishes of his
subjects' employers.
After photographing in Europe

during World War I, Hine returned
to the United States to resume his
travels. By this time labor unions
were using his images to get their
problems recognized. Always in-
he
trigued by the dignity of labor, he
teach photography to his students.
undertook one of his greatest projects. Men At Work. Once he wrote of
that
Although Hine himself only began

photographing in 1903, by 1905 he
was sufficiently proficient to satisfy
an urge to use his camera at Ellis
Island, where the phenomenon of
immigration fascinated him. Climbing into the Promised Land is probably one of his best-known images.
This gripping picture of hope, confusion, and excitement is unequaled
in
its
In 1906 Hine joined the National

Child Labor Committee. Completely
caught up in the lives of the working
poor, he began traveling throughout
the United States to photograph
cranberry bogs,
workingman. "Some
of
them are
heroes, all of them, persons
is
it
privilege to know."
Hine
Although
obtained
work
with the W.P.A. in the 1930s, he be-
gan
to find
it
harder and harder to
achieve recognition. Roy Stryker of

the
Farm
Security Administration,
for instance,
thought his work out-
dated. In 1938 he joined the Photo
subject matter.
children working in
the
textile
mills,
League hoping
was
it
too
achievements
for
late.
all
new
His
projects,
but
pioneering
but forgotten, he
died penniless and alone, not truly

appreciated until at least twenty-five
vears after his death.
fish canneries, coal
PRINTS, drawings, /VND
PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHY
:
199
Mary Pickford,
150
March. 1924
edw.\rd steichen
1924
Vintage siKer print
g'/zX 7 Vj inches (24.1 X ig.i cm)

86.506.2, .\nomTiious gift in memorv" of
Thelma and Rcilph Zogg
Born in Luxembourg
ward Steichen moved
States
\\-ith
EdUnited
in 1879.
hibited in Europe as well as the
to the
United
his family in 1881. .Al-
though he began his career
as
painter ajid continued to paint until

after \\orld \Aar
I.
he took his
first
photographs in 1896 as design mod-
States,
was elected
to a Brit-
The Linked
1901. and became one of
he gave up painting to devote himself

entirely to photography.
ish photographic society-.
Ring, in
Steichen's great talent for sophisti-
cated portraiture led
him
to a jx)si-
the founders of the Photo-Secession,
tion as chief photographer for
a group interested in the purely pic-
Nast publications,
torial
image, in 1902.
He was
also
this
luminous
for
Conde
which he took
portrait of the silent
Marv
He
lithographs and gradually de-
instrumental in establishing with
screen star
veloped an interest in photography as
.Alfred Stie glitz the gallery at 291
an end in
Fifth
went on to become Commander of

Naval Photographv during \ôrld
^â^ II and eventuallv Director of
Photography for The Museum of
els for
itself.
His early photo-
graphic work brought
him
great ac-
claim, and Rodin considered
him the
perfect interpreter of his sculpture.
photographs were first

exhibited in 1899. and within a few
years he had become well known in
Steichen's
the
Pictorial
movement.
He
ex-
Avenue and designed Camera

Work magazine as a means of dis-
seminating his ideas.
World \Aar I caused Steichen to

change his mind about the pictorial
image. As supervisor of aerial photography, he was forced to
make
sharp, clear pictures. .After the war.
Modern
.Art,
Pickford.
New
later
York. There, in
1955. he organized the exhibition

The Family ofMan. perhaps the most
popular exhibition of photography
ever presented.
PRINTS, DR.\ WINGS, .AND PHOTOGRAPPTi
PHOTOGRAPHY
200
Woman
with
Camellia
151
CONSUELO KANAGA
(American 18941978)
Circa 1950
Gelatin silver print
io'/4X878 inches (26.0X22.2 cm)

Kemaga
82.65.10, Gift of the Consuelo

Estate
Consuelo Kanaga, one of the pioneers
of
was born
American photography,
in Astoria, Oregon.
She
how to use a camera and

her own photographs while
learned
print
working as a feature writer for the

San Francisco Chronicle in the 1920s.
Although her work includes a striking range of subject matter, she enjoyed most her portraiture of the
struggling poor. As she said, "I
medium like photography

would change the world."
thought a
In the late 1920s Kanaga took a
job with the
New
York American,
where one of her assignments was to

photograph poverty-stricken families
living in New York tenements. Here
she began to produce some of her
most moving work. Her portraiture
of black subjects in particular earned
her a place in the landmark Family of
Man exhibition organized by Edward Steichen, who considered her
photograph of a young mother and
two children. She Is a Tree of Life to
Them, among his favorites. Another
of Kanaga's best-known photographs
PRINTS, DRAWINGS,
was of a camellia in a glass of water.

She took it, she explained, "because I
thought it needed to be remembered." This portrait of a young
woman
black
with a camellia thus
combines two of her best-known

images.
The Brooklyn Museum owns
the
better part of Kanaga's estate, includ-
ing
1,608
black-and-white nega-
and 536
tives,
147
color negatives,
prints.
The
material was given to the
Museum
artist
through her estate by her

husband, Wallace Putnam.
AND PHOTOGRAPHY: PHOTOGRAPHY
201
1^2
Untitled
.\L\RGARET BOURKE-WTIITE
Circa 193051
Gelatin silver print
9V8 X
i5'/4 inches
(2
5-r><55-r <^)
"9.299.1. Gift of Samuel Goldberg in
memory
of his parents. Sophie
and
Jacob Goldberg, and his brother
Although Bol^ke-^^ hite photographed the Cornell campus in the
H\Tnan Goldberg
stvle of the
Margaret Bourke-\Miite started

photographing at Rutgers University
and the Clarence ^^ hite School of
Photography in New \ork. where her
pictures reflected her
first interests
romantic Photopictorial-
by 1927 she had abandoned the

Pictorial stsle and become a free-
ists.
lance
industrial
photographer.
By
one of her pictures graced the periodical's fi^rst cover.
whom
she produced a powerful book

on Southern poverty. You Have Seen
1929 her work was appearing reg-
Their Faces.
1942.
and her portfolio and reputation won
where she married E\eret Chapman and divorced

him two years later. At that time she
started hyphenating her name, a
coinpoiuid of her middle and last
names.
her a job as an editor for Fortune
magazine. In
1950 the magazine

where she took
sent her to Russia,
lovely but slightly disturbing

photograph of children at table.
By 1936 Bourke-^^ hite was work-
this
In 1939 she married
the novelist Erskine Caldwell, with
ularly in the Architectural Record.
biology and technology. She went on

to study at Cornell,
ing steadily for Life magazine, where
The
couple divorced in
During \\orld ^âr II Bourkeworked as a war correspon-
^^ hite
dent
for
Life,
compiling an un-
equaled record of photographic firsts.

She retired from the magazine in
1969 and died in August 1971
of
Parkinsons disease.
PRINTS, DRAWINGS, .\ND PHOTOGR-AJPITi": PHOTOGR.APHY
202
Mulberry AND
Prince Streets,
153
Manhattan
BERENICE ABBOTT
(American,
b.
Although thrilled by the writers

and artists she met during the 1920s,
Abbott was most influenced by the
'955
Gelatin
7
silver print
X gVs inches
( i
7.8
x 25.8 cm)
In 1918, as a young artist, Berenice

Abbott left New York and moved to
photographer Eugene Atget. After

his death in 1927, she purchased
thousands of his negatives and prints
through the dealer Julian Levy. Until The Museum of Modern Art, New-
Paris to pursue her studies in sculp-
York, bought
X858.3, Collection of The Brookl\Ta
Museum
ture, never
become
dreaming
that she
would
a photographer. She learned
photography as an assistant to the

famous Surrealist Man Ray, however, and by 925 had become a pro1
portrait
photographer to
such literary and
artistic figures as
fessional
Marcel Duchamp. Andre Gide. and

James Joyce. No matter what her
subject, her photographs never lost
the
precise,
natural,
carefully
quality of her early portraits.
lit
them
in
968 she acted
by printand exhibiting At-
as curator of this collection

ing, publishing,
get's
work.
Abbott had a great interest in
sci-
ence, creating photographs that
il-
She
said of her work, "I have tried to be
objective. What I mean by objectivity
is not the objectivity of a machine but
of a sensible human being with
the mystery of personal selection at
the heart of it." For her, "speed and
science" were the essence of both
photography and the twentieth cenlustrated
scientific
principles.
tury.
documented the
and country
storefronts,
Paris and its environs, so
Abbott photographed New York City,

beginning in 1929 in a project for the
W.P.A. The stunning detail captured by her 8-by-io negatives enhances the viewer's belief in their in-
This picture of Mulberry and

is one of the few Abbott
photographed with people in it. The
mysterious shadow figure in the foreground, caused by a time exposure,
can be likened to the spirit of Abbott
herself, which pervades her work. No
matter what the subject, Abbott is
credible accuracy.
always present.
Just
as
streets,
lanes of
Atget
PRINTS, DRAWINGS,
Prince streets
AND PHOTOGRAPHY: PHOTOGRAPHY
203
Sheik Ali Gourxah.
1-34
Egypt
paul strand
(American.
8go 1 976)
959
Gelatin
silver print
135/8X10^8 inches (34.0 x 2-. o cm)

85.193.2. Gift of Naomi and WcJter
Rosenblum
Paul Strand
phy
Le^^TS ^^
studied photogra-
first
the
\\ith
Hine
social
at
photographer
New York's Ethical
Culture Societ\\ Hine. in turn, introduced him to Alfred Stieglitz. and it
was
at Stieglitz "s
Gallery 291. Strand
asserted, that he learned the
"mod-
Although his first

photographs were soft-focus prints,
by 1915 he had begun his first experiments 'tt'ith abstraction. His famous image of a white fence, which
has been repeated endlessly bv other
ernist aesthetic."
photographers, best expresses his interest in
design during that period.

gave Strand a one-man
Stieglitz
exhibition at Gallery 291 in
March
and April 1916 and published his

photographs in the last two issues of
his periodical. Camera Work, devoting the final issue entirely to Strand "s
work. By that time Strand had totaliv
abandoned Pictoriahsm for "straight"
photography, soon to be the dominant form in American photographv.
and from then until the end of his

career he employed simple, straightforward imagery. The unadorned
person and object characterized bv
such portraiture as the mo%ing and
powerful Sheik Ali
his hallmark.
Goumah became
Strand moved to France

cal reasons in the
idealist,
for politi-
1950s. Ever the
he demanded the same stan-
dards from those
who
chose to follow
"Above all. look at the

immediate world around you."
he said. "If vou are alive it will mean
something to you. and if you know
how to use it. you will want to photo^îth
graph that meaningness.
clear vision you may make something which is at least a photohis methods.
.
First learn to photograph.

graph
That alone 1 find for myself is a problem %\"ithout end."
Strand was among the first photographers to be fascinated by ma.
chinery, especially the automobile.
He
also
made
films, including the
acclaimed Mannahatta in
1921. and put together extended
photographic essays in several countries.
He photographed until his
death in the United States in 1976.
highly
PRINTS, DR.\WTNGS. .AND PHOTOGR-APHA
PHOTOGR-APHY
204
Painting
and Sculpture
155
^^^ Adoration of
THE Magi
BERNARDO BUTINONE
(Milanese, circa 1450circa 1502)
Circa 1480
Tempera on panel
gV+xS'/i inches (24.9X21.5 cm)
This
78.151.6. Bequest of Helen Babbott
pcinels of
Sanders
little
panel
is
one of a
series of
roughly the same size h\
Butinone that represent scenes from

the
life
Originally to-
of Christ.
gether, these are
now widely
various
collections:
scat-
no particularly logical connection

between it and the architectural
form. This architecture is a topical
fifteenth-century theme for scenes of
the Nativity; the biblical stable
is
re-
ferred to in the thatch-roofed lean-to
Flight into Egypt in
The
Chicago, The
Adoration
Shepherds
in
a ruined building with classical fea-
London. The Massacre of the Innocents in Detroit, and so on. Scholars

differ as to whether the panels were
tures. s\Tnbolizing the destruction of
tered
in
predelle
of
panels
the
beneath the main
an altarpiece or
whether they were part of a triptych
centering around the widest panel,
which represents The Deposition.
composition
Butinone
of
recorded in 1484.
already the head of a
is first
when he was
studio
successful
Milan.
in
character of his st^le
The
clearly that of
is
at
the right, but the
main
structure
is
pagan world that will be transformed by Christ.

The scene is one of the most sigthe
nificant of the Christian stories cen-
tering around the Nativity: the
ment
mo-
which the most learned and

powerful men of the ancient Near
at
Eastern w orld. svinbolized by a black

King, a young King, and an old
King, come to pay homage to a newborn infant. This paradox is often
a North Italian influenced by Pa-
emphasized, as
duan and Ferrarese painting emd

most especially by the great North
the oldest
Italian painter of the previous gener-
and. in
ation.
Andrea Mantegna. The affinities with Mantegna can be seen
age. kneeling
in the slender figures delineated by
Butinone has presented this

theme with the combination of se-
tense,
w^ry
and
and in the motif of
lines, in the clarity
precision of detail,
the rocky curving
the scattered pebbles.
ing naivete, the
artist
P.\INTING
all
the dignity of his bearded
humbly
before a
little
child.
riousness and
charm
that
is
one of
the great attractions of quattrocento
em-
painting. Particularly dehghtful are

the brilliance of color, the costinne
with
its
has brought
this stony decorative motif right into
the center of the scene,
here, by the act of
and focus on
\\ ith charm-
hill,
phatic linear emphasis
it is
King taking off his crown

(which he would do for no one else)
w here
there
details,
and the presence
gin's little cat. sitting
neath her
of the Vir-
comfortably be-
stool.
is
AND SCULPTURE: EUROPE
20'
156
Venus and Mars
ATTRIBUTED TO PALMA VECCHIO

(Venetian, circa 14801528)
Circa 1510
and tempera on panel

X 67^ inches (19.0X 16.5 cm)
37.529, Gift of Helen Babbott
Oil
Though most
7'/2
tributing this luminous
McDonald
to
scholars agree in at-
Palma Vecchio,
it
little
panel
cannot be estab-
lished with certainty because there

so little
Palma's career before 1520. WTiat

certain
is
documented information on
is
under the
that the panel
is
very
is
much
spell of Giorgione, at a
time
when the great Venetian painter's
in-
on Venetian allegorical
painting was at its height. The
quality of the light, the subtle modelfluence
ing of the
flesh, the gentle reserve of
the figures
all
place the painting
within the poetic orbit of the
who
artist
established the coloristic,
mospheric
character
of
at-
Venetian
Venus
a fully rounded nude, stand-
is
ing in the pose that would,
from the
pudica.
tume
Mars
is
seen
if
be called the Venus
front,
portrayed in the cos-
Roman
soldier, which
would be knovni from Roman sculp-
of a
ture. Coexisting
Roman
qualities are elements that
come out
diate
with these Graeco-
of the artist's
quattrocento
more immethe
tradition:
elongated proportions of the figures,

the crisp linear play of the drapery,
and the
tion.
delicate detail of the vegeta-
An
painting
fill
arresting aspect
is
its
the pictorial
of this
stillness: the figures

field,
but they do not
carry out anv particular action. They
mu-
painting.
are related to each other in their
The classical deities such as Venus

and Mars had by no means been for-
tual attention, but at the
gotten during the medieval period,
and contemplation.
but they had been conceived in a way
Like the Butinone pamel Eind other

works in the Museum's collection,
this one was part of the collection of
early Italian paintings formed by
very different from that of antiquity
Here, at a moment when the

Renaissance was just arriving at that
point of aesthetic maturity we call
the High Renaissance, the effect of
itself.
the
artist's
direct experience of clas-
sical sculptures
can be clearly
the}
project a
mood
same time
of inwEirdness
Frank L. Babbott. a discerning conwho was President of the
noisseur
Brookh-n Institute in the 1920s.
felt.
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: EUROPE
208
Portrait of Jean
157
Carondelet
JAN CORNELISZ. VERMEYEN
(Netherlandish, 15001559)
Circa
530
Oil on panel
3oV4X24'/2 inches (78.0X62.2 cm)

47.76, Gift of Horace O. Havemeyer
Though
and
born
trained
at
Haarlem in the northern NetherVermeyen worked mostly
lands, Jan
in the southern Netherlands, peir-
He was
ticularly Brussels.
active at
Imperial Habsburg courts of

Margaret of Austria and Charles V
the
and was renowTied
for his portraits,
one of the best known of which is this

one of Jean Carondelet. Carondelet
was a noted cleric and statesman
who
served,
among
other posts, as
Archbishop of Palermo, Primate of

Sicily, and Chancellor of Flanders.
He was
also provost of the
Church
of
Donation in Bruges, where he was

buried. It has recently been sugSt.
gested that the portrait originally
hung in the
The type
here
is
dark
choir of this church.

of portrait exemplified
characteristic for the period: a
clothed
figure
silhouetted
medium-tone ground, with

an evenly lit face and naturalistically
against a
detailed costume treatment (even fur

collars
were typical in
northern
this
Working within
portrait type).
this
convention, the artist has given us a
painting of great penetration and

finesse.
The
texture of the
sitter's
hair and his fur collar are master-
gray gloves
he grasps so firmly in one hand. The
fully portrayed, as are the
tense activity of the other
hand
is
counterpoint to the massiveness of
and
the figure
face with
gaze. This
of portrait
to the strength of the
comprehending
was a period when the art
painting, conceived as an
its
steady,
effort to portray character
the
through
accurate rendering of details,
had reached a
particularly
high
point in northern Europe, and Ver-
meyen's portrait
is
a notable example.
painting and sculpture: Europe
210
158
The Great Red

Dragon and the
Woman Clothed
pera on canvas; the second and larger
that she, symbolizing both Israel
group, from about 1800 to about
the Church,
WITH the Sun
Of
1809, was
(English, 17571827)
Circa 18055
Watercolor with pen and black chalk on
paper
Image: ij'/sx 13V2 inches (43-5 ^54-5

'/a
X i6'^/i6 inches
(54.5X43 cm)
15.368, Gift of William Augustus
White
This watercolor belongs to the great

of biblical
series
illustrations
that
William Blake made for one of his

most faithful patrons, a government
clerk
named Thomas
group,
done
consisted of
Butts.
around
of watercolors.
more than
eighty paintings, twelve are drawn
from the Book of Revelation, and four
WILLIAM BLAKE
cm); sheet: 21
made up
The
first
17991800,
small paintings in tem-
this latter series
of
on just two
and 1 5, in which The
Great Red Dragon is a principal figure. The Book of Revelation, with its
richly symbolic language and its assumptions of a direct link between
the supernatural and human history,
held an affinity for Blake, and The
Great Red Dragon was akin to the
of these
concentrate
chapters,
kinds of mythological figures that

the poet had invented in his
own
Dragon,
and
about to bear to be the
Redeemer of the world. We see him

from behind, so that the emphasis is
on his great
tail,
which "drew the

and
third part of the stars of heaven
did cast
them
to the earth."
ure of the Dragon, with

legs
its
The
fig-
outspread
and huge extended wings, forms
a powerful cruciform shape that
fills
the picture plane and dominates, in

its
tones of ochre and reddish brown,
the horizontal curves of the golden
woman and
her
feet.
the pale yellow
moon
at
Both figures are conceived
in Bhike's characteristic style, a very
personal interpretation of the neoclassicism of his period, in which can
Prophetic Books.
The
is
who
represents
be seen elements not only of classical
Satan, stands in a threatening pose
form but of Michelangelesque anatomy and the flowing linearity of

Gothic sculpture.
over
The Woman Clothed with
Sun; he
is
hoping
the
to seize the child
21
Mlle. Fiocre in the

Ballet "La Source"
159
EDGAR DEGAS
(French, 18341917)
Circa 1866
Oil on Ccinvas
51
'/2
X 57 '/8 inches (130. 8x 145.2 cm)
21.111, Gift of James H. Post, John T.
Underwood, and A. Augustus Healy
The
subject of this painting
is
scene from the ballet La Source. This
Persian extravaganza sho\\ii
at the
November
1866
Paris
Opera
in
dazzled audiences with
its
exotic cos-
tumes and a sumptuous production

that included real water and horses.
Degas has portrayed Eugenie Fiocre,
a famous dancer of the day, at the
new kind
radical,
of composition in
which unconventional vie^vpoints incorporate fragmented views of the

stage and auditorium, conve^îng the
immediate perceptual experience of
a spectator present at the scene.
Although
in
many of his
trayals of dancers.
obsessive
later por-
Degas displays an
with
fascination
their
height of her career in the role of
highly disciplined poses and move-
Nouredda, just after her exciting solo

dance in diaphanous pantaloons.
Cooling her feet in the stream, she
reflects on her fate, for she must
abandon her lover to a certain death
and journey to her marriage with a
ments,
foreign prince.
as
Painted between 1866 and 1868.

this painting represents a pivotal
mo-
ment in Degas's career, poised between his earlier paintings of historical narratives and the contemporary
he
here
catches
ness
his portraits
ters in
Degas captures
makes
its title
clear, this
a painting of a performance.
modern world
Jacques
Seligman
from the
sale of the
Degas was
to
move on
por-
portraiture whereby, in order to cap-
genie Fiocre has cast
years.
By
Eugenie Fiocre in her

characteristic milieu the stage he
pursues his innovative approach to
this painting
V\ bile the
is
traving
show that we are witnessing a

scene on the stage are the title and
the pink satin ballet slippers that Euoff.
painting
much a portrait of an individual as
dance subjects that form such a large

part of his subsequent work. This is,
in fact, the first time that Degas
painted a scene from the ballet, although the only clues that he gives us
composition here follows a traditional frontal format, in the next few
his sit-
such moments of inactivity. As
ture the
to
Eugenie
moment of stilland introspection. In many of
Fiocre in an off-beat
realistically,
dancers,
musicians, writers in surroiuidings

he often shows his
sitters
that reflect their occupations.
The Brooklvn Museum purchased

from
a sale in
in 1921 of the seventy- one
Degas
New York
works by
that the great Parisian dealer
had acquired
Degas studio in
1918.
to a
213
The Climbing Path,

L'Hermitage,
pontoise
160
CAMILLE PISSARRO
(French, 18301905)
1875
Oil on canvas
2
'/8
X 25^/4 inches (54.0 X 65.0 cm)
22.60, Purchased with funds given by
Dikran K. Kelekian
In 1872, not long after his return
with Cezanne,
from London, where he and Monet

had hved during the Franco-Prussian War and its aftermath, Pissarro
moved to Pontoise, a village on the
structure
river Oise to the northwest of Paris
where he had worked in the late

1860S. It was during the decade of
his residence there that his style was
most purely Impressionist in characIn 1874, the year before this
painting was made, he was active in
ter.
helping to organize the

of the
tion
new
first
painting,
c.?;5,>
iTl
was during the
^^
together,
Both
artists
is
reflected in this
very choice of the motif
must have been one that appealed to

Cezanne as well: THermitage, the
northeastern side of Pontoise, which
Pissarro had painted also in the late
1860s, was an area where a steep
hillside rose behind the houses,
creating a sense of contracted space
quite different
views.
i87()s also that
is
Here
from the open river

up of space
this closing
most vividly expressed in the rising
path
at the right,
seen in ambiguous
yet convincing spatial relation to the
group
houses
of
in
the
middle
The Climbing Path, one
of the
often worked
boldest paintings of this period of
painting
Pissarros work, was bought by the
the
Cezanne
While
learned much from the older artist,
the influence was not all one way.
The Climbing Path is notable for resame
The
overall unity of
Courbet, whose use
of the palette knife
painting.
an
palette.
distance.
Cezanne
sometimes
for
at
dubbed
took place in 1886.

It
were looking
exhibi-
Impressionism by a critic of that

show. He was the one artist from the
original group who stayed with all
eight exhibitions, the last of which
Pissarro and
and
motifs.
vealing Pissarros concern, shared
Museum
in
1922. the year after
was exhibited
at the
\Iuseum
controversial exhibition called
ern French Masters:

sionists
and
it
in a
Mod-
The Post-Impres-
their Predecessors.
21^
i6i
The Village of
Gardanne
PAUL CEZANNE
(French, 18591906)
1885-86
Oil on canvas,
X 29 V8 inches (92 x 74.6 cm)

Woodward and A.T.
\Miite Memorial Funds
36'/4
23.105, Ella C.
autumn
In the
of
the following year,
1885 and most of
sight into his
Cezanne painted
his painting. Delicate linear nota-
in Gardanne, a village near his na-
Aix-en-Provence,
tive
house especially
renting
for the purpose.
Be-
method
tions, indicated
of constructing
wdth a
con-
sensitive,
tinually mobile blue line, provide a
scaffolding
on which he builds the
forms of the houses. The entire
side Brooklyn's painting, there are
solid
two other views of the subject, one in

the Barnes Foundation, Merion,
Pennsylvania, and one in The Met-
through a constant shift back and

forth between hard and soft forms
ropolitan
Museum of .\rt. New York.
In the 1870S, Cezanne had turned
away from the morbid,

that
fantasies
many
trate
still lifes,
feathery areas of blue -green foliage.
of
somber
to bright, outdoor colors
colors
and a mea-
sured. Impressionist stroke.
By
the
mid- 1880s, when he painted The

Cezanne's
Village of Gardanne,
quest for a disciplined form of painting led him to pursue the underKing
structure of nature, a pursuit that
resulted in an austerely geometric
which, by the 1890s, would re-
lax into a
tuous
more opulent and volup-
mode
of painting.
Cezanne must have found Gardanne, with the geometric forms of

its little houses stacked steeply up the
hill
and culminating
in
the
for-
tresslike church, particularly suited

to
his
canvas
purpose.
is
The
fact
Cezanne seems
he
thickly applied with the palette knife
style
cool tones: the solid
forms of the houses are built up \\\\h

planes of characteristic Mediterra-
and land-
portraits,
of
violently expression-
technique
istic
warm and
kept alive
nean, sunbaked color ta\Miy pinks,

interspered with
ochers, and tans
subjects
Schooled by Pissarro,
scapes.
moved from his
and
is
works to concen-
are the
of his early
on
introspective
surface of the canvas
that the
in this
work
to be
whether consciously or
unconsciously, a tension between
three-dimensional form and flatexploring,
ness.
The
solidity of the buildings
denied, to
some
extent, by the
is
way
their densely interlocked forms rise

vertically
up the canvas and by our
awareness of the
canvas
itself,
flat
which
is
surface of the
especially ap-
parent here, owing to the unpainted

area
at
the lower right. This sense of
an ambiguous relationship between

the objects depicted and the space
they inhabit was to lead, in the early
twentieth century, to the Cubists'
revolutionary analysis of space.
The
a
Village of Gardanne
number
made bv
is
one of
of adventurous purchases
the
Museum
in the early
1920s.
unfinished allows us an in-
216
162
Pierre de Wiessant
AUGUSTE RODIN
(French,
840- 9
1
Circa 1886-87. ^^st 1979

Bronze
84 V8 X 46 X 39 inches
(2
4.5
16.8X96.5 cm)
Iris and B. Gerald
84.210.9. Gift of
Cantor
The
recent major Cantor gift to the

Akiseuin of sculpture bv Rodin in-
cludes a notable group of twelve

studies
girtists
and figures from one of the

monuments. The
best-kno\\7i
Burghers of Calais. In
CaJais. like a
1 884 the cit}^ of

nmnber of other French
to\Mis during the vears after the defeat of
France bv the PrussiEtns in
1871. decided to erect a
monument
most famous hero. This

was the fourteenth -century merto their citvs
chant Eustache de
had been the
first
St. -Pierre,
of six
who
prominent
citizens to volunteer to surrender to
the besieging English king.

III.
during the Hundred
Edward
\eai-s
^âr
in order to save the citv from destruction.
ment
Hodins proposal for a monuwould include not just Eu-
that
stache de St. -Pierre but all six of the

Burghers was accepted, and he was
awarded the commission. During

worked in his
characteristic way on mgrny studies of
heads, of single figures both nude
and draped, and of the figures
grouped together.
the next four years he
From
the
first,
the figure of Pierre
de \\ iessant was conceived in a pose
whose
torsion
and gesture express

man whose
the inner conflict of a
moral will to sacrifice his life for the

common good is powerfullv resisted
bv the forces of self-preservation. The
exaggerated size of the hands, with
Like all the Burgher figures, this

one is diaped in a kind of loose sackcloth. Here it falls back to reveal the
mature male, against which

remind
the viewer of the Burghers" imminent
fate. (In fact, having presented themselves to the king in full expectation
of death, thev were ultimatelv pardoned on the plea of the pregnant
tragic vision, placed
powerful chest and shoulders of a
queen.)
atop a high pedestal.
their tensely spread fingers, further
communicates
this sense of psychic
conflict.
strong,
the prisoner's rope hangs to
PMMING
.\ND
sculpture: EUROPE
Rodin wished
Burghers placed
to
at
have the group of
ground
and
that citizens could see
them
easily:
\e\e\. so
relate to
but the late nineteenth-
century burghers of Calais, rather

put off by the intensity of Rodin's
them together
218
163
The Ducal Palace at
1895 and continued in London with
Venice
the
Thames
started
CLAUDE MONET
1908
Oil on canvas
32 X 399/16 inches (81.2 x 100.3 ^)
20.634, Gift of A. .Augustus Healy
visited Venice for the
time in 1908
sixty-eight,
when he was
and returned
1905.
work on a number
He
of can-
bient light yet does not dissolve
displeased with the results, thinking
pinks, blues,
had suffered from

being painted from memory, his
method in this case was, in fact, no
different from the way he proceeded
weaves thick strokes of paint
that the works
first
nearly
in the fall
with the other
paintings that
serial
preoccupied him during the
890s.
1909. Captivated by the city's

magical light and the way it could
transform its churches and palaces,
he pursued in a series of twenty-nine
Working
paintings his investigations of the
texture between different paintings
and atmosphere on a
motif in this case, architecturethat he had begun with the
Rouen Cathedral series in 1892 and
in the
of
effect of light
particular
Giorgio Maggiore, in this painting

he adopts a closer view facing the
palace head on. .A. soft, chalkv pink
makes the building radiate with am-
them
from memory when he returned
home to Givernv. Although he was
vases in Venice but completed
(French. 18401926)
Monet
in
series
in the studio
motif allowed
him
away from the
the chance to
elaborate his canvases, creating certain correspondences of color
same
and
Monet takes
With
a sparkling palette of
and
violets
the reflection
whose
the building
itself,
to float
a distant view
looking across the lagoon from San
Monet
inter-
to create
solidity vies
making
it
with
ap{)ear
on the water.
The Venice works were
the last
was
to paint.
easel paintings Vlonet
After this and until his death in
1926 he was
to devote
himself
to the
pursuit of light, water, and reflections in his
monumental wall
paint-
ings of waterlilies.
The Ducal Palace
series.
W bile in some of the Doge's Palace

j)aintings,
form.
its
presented to the
Museum
at Venice
was
Museum in
President
\.
1920 by
Augustus
Healv.
2 19
164
Nude
in a
Wood
HENRI MATISSE
(French, 18601954)
1905
Oil on canvas
16 X 12V4 inches (40.6X52.5 cm)
52.150, Gift of Mr. George F.
Of
This
brilliant,
small canvas, painted
probably in 1905 when Matisse was

in Collioure on the Mediterranean,
expresses the exuberance of the sun-
however,
it
ment from
pressionists
was a natural developthe discoveries the Imhad made in rendering
and atmosphere with small,
light
place even further to create a daz-
broken touches of paint and the radically new way of using strong, antinaturalistic color for emotive and
zling shower of tangerine, emerald
decorative
lit
south. Yet Matisse has exagger-
ated the naturally bright colors of the
green, mauve,
and cyclamen
spatter the nude
violet,
pink strokes that

form of the seated woman, making
her figure almost indistinguishable
from the wood that surrounds her.
Although the colors seem to have
been applied randomly. Matisse jux-
complementary and contrasting hues in order to intensify

their brilliance and achieves a dynamic rhythm in the arabesques of
the trees that frame the coiled figure.
Nevertheless, when Matisse showed
other works painted in this style at
the Autumn Salon in 1905. the public and the majority of the critics
could find in them no pictorial coherence. Shocked by their vivid color
and seemingly crude and savage
brushwork, one critic named Matisse
and his followers Vlami nek, Derain, and Dufy "Fauves" or "Wild
Beasts." The term has stuck and is
taposes
ends pioneered bv van
Gogh and Gauguin.
drawing on his personal interest in

Japanese prints and Oriental textiles,
and the figure could derive from Persian or Turkish tiles.
Despite
radical technique, the
its
subject of this painting
dition that
had prevailed
to about
The dramatic impact made by

made it
these paintings at the Salon
seem as if Fauvism was a style

had exploded in a vacuum. In
that
in \\estern
This pastoral
culminated in
The Joy of Life. 1906 (Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania), and it
has been suggested the Nude in a
Ifbod could be one of a number of
small studies of nudes that Matisse
nature.
strain in Matisse's art
made
preparation
in
for
that
painting.
Niide in a
Wood has the distinction
of being the
first
Matisse to be ac-
maker George
905
new but
depicting the nude in hedonistic har-
mony with
only a short time, from
not
painting since the Renaissance, of
quired by a collector
1907.
is
goes back to a long-established tra-
used to describe this style of

painting, which Matisse practiced for
still
In creating this
image. Matisse was probably also
ica.
li\
ing in .Amer-
The .American painter and frame
F. Of. an early admirer of Matisse's work, purchased
the
painting
Stein in the
donated
it
from Mrs.
summer
to the
of
Museum
Michael
1906 and
in 19^2.
fact,
221
165
The Carpenter's
Shop in Nazareth
ANONYMOUS
(La Paz)
18th century
Oil on fabric
295/4X32 inches (75.5X81.0 cm)

43.1 12, Frank L. Babbott
Fund
The Brooklyn Museum's
collection
of Spanish Colonial paintings
is
one
of the most important in North

America. It is rich in paintings of the
paintings,
which from the
later six-
teenth century on were produced in

large
numbers
in the printing cen-
ters of Flanders.
The Andean
Cuzco School, works central to an

understanding of the e\olution of
this
Colonial society in Alto Peru. In par-
invention and decorative charm. In-
ticular paintings of this school reveal
the character of the religious syn-
chretism that resulted as the Cath-
and governors of the sixand seventeenth centuries

cormnunicated Christian concepts
and images to the local Andean,
olic priests
teenth
The
Carpenter's
Shop
in
has composed
an original way
full of
among
the tools scattered on

ground are the flower patterns so typical of Cuzco painting. A
similar motif marks the robe of the
Christ Child, who helps Joseph saw a
cluded
the flat
board.
The
artist
has dra\%"n other themes
into the central subject: at the upper
post-Incan population.
is
theme
artist
in
Nazareth
a particularly rich and charming
right appears
God the Father,
also in
a flower-patterned robe, with a
tri-
example of the fusion of European

themes with the indigenous sen-
angular halo s\Tnbolizing the Trinity, while at the upper left is a small
sibility. It is one of the foremost examples of the way in which European imagery functioned not as a
model to be slavishly imitated but as
needlework by an angel whose

kneeling pose is drawn, as is that of
the \ irgin. from the traditional im-
medium
for the translation of re-
ligious ideas into a
new
theme
Child working in
of the Christ
context.
The
scene of the Virgin assisted in her
age of the Annunciation. In the lower

left
corner, delightfullv out of place
among the busv angels, is the warrior
his father Joseph's carpenter shop, as-
archangel Michael, in
sisted by angels, can be found in Baroque art in Italy, Spain, and northern Europe. Such images were
plumed hat and high

His figure is derived from Baroque sources but is distinctively
modified into a type very popular in
Peruvian painting.
usually
transmitted
painters by
means
to
Andean
of engravings of
full
regalia
including
boots.
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: SPANISH COLONLAL
222
Winter
l66
WILLL\M RUSH
(1756-1833)
1811
\\ood
28'/8X 21
Xg
inches (71. 4
x 53.3 x 22.9
cm)
42.242. Dick
Ramsay Fund
S.
Often acknowledged as the fnst na-
American sculptor. \^ illiam

Rush gained early training in wood
carving from his father, a ship's cartive
penter,
and in
~7
entered formal
apprenticeship under
Edward Cut-
bush, an English figurehead carver.
known work dates

from around 1789 well after the
opening of his o\mi shop and the establishment of an international reputation based on the \ital and naturalistic figureheads produced there.
Rush's transition from craftsman
to artist seems to have taken place
gradually, much of this ha\ing to do
with his studv of modeling with artist Joseph \\ right sometime between
1 789 and
1 795 and his association
with Philadelphia's most acclaimed
Rush's earliest
artist.
Charles \\ illson Peale. In ad-
dition to
being one of the founders
Columbianum artists society in

794. Rush helped found the Pennsylvania Academv of the Fine .Arts in
of
1
1805. His involvement in the formation of these important art organiza-
concern with aesgrander than those

customarily associated with figurehead carving. However, it was not
tions signals his
issues
thetic
with the creation of the

wood figures Tragedy
and Comedy for the New Theatre in
Philadelphia, that he made his first
until 1808,
freestanding
true efforts as a sculptor.
Rush went on
of
life-size
manv
portrait
ability
to
as
number
Lnited
Described in the ex-
position in the history of art early on
well
hibition catalogue as "representing a
and was celebrated in an important
as
which
desire and remark-
busts,
demonstrate his
able
to create a
sculptures
all
of
transcend
simple
craftsmanship. In 1881 he exhibited
Winter
at
tion of
The
the First
Annual Exhibi-
Societv of .Artists of the
States.
child shrinking
from the
cold." this
successful evocation of the season's
wind demonstrates the poetic

and dramatic nature of his vision.
As the first noted American-born
sculptor. Rush achieved a secure
chill
series of paintings
delphian
Thomas
by fellow PhilaEakins. one of
which. IVilliam Rush Carving His

Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill
River
908).
is
also in the
Museum's
collection.
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: UNITED STATES
224
167
The Pic-Nic
THOMAS COLE
(American. 1801 1848)
1846
Oil on canvas
44~/8X 71 'Is inches (121.6 x 182.6 cm)

Signed lower center: T Cole/ 1846
67.205.2. A. Augustus Healy Fund B
Lorraine
(16001682)
Cole was
at
powers in 1845
Thomas
Cole. America's first great
landscape painter, earned his reputation with romanticized views of the

American Northeast as well as with
grand moralizing allegories and European scenes that challenged his

naive audience. English by birth, he
emigrated to the United States in
1818 and worked as an engraver and
itinerant
portrait
artist
before the
Hudson River
and
the
painters of the English picturesque.
the
the contemplation of time and hu-
man
when he
received a
mortality.
The
height of his
guitarist, a probable self-por-
trait of Cole,
commission from James Brown, a

wealthy New York banker who ex-
the work,
pressed a preference for landscapes
ture.
with interesting figure groups. In an
itas s\Tnbol,
optimistic
mood Cole
ject of a picnic,
chose the sub-
using the motif of a
who was
also a talented
musician, acts as the primary voice of
communicating with na-
His music
is
a traditional van-
suggesting through
own ephemerality
the
its
passage of
mesbounty of nature,
time. Cole counters this doleful
popular pastime to describe the ideal
sage with the
coexistence of nature and civilization
which provides physical and spiritual

nourishment to those who embrace
and thus creating his most important

American pastoral. He employed
graceful and accommodating natu-
it.
Nature's sustaining wealth
is
ac-
centuated by the dispersal of the
such as the curved clear-
trappings of the meal throughout the
825. His art matured
ing and bending oaks, which he per-
under the influence of European

travels (1829 to 1852. and 1841 to
1842), which impressed upon him
ceived to be a positive influence on
setting and the flower garlands for

which three of the women trade their
success of his
landscapes in
first
the allegorical potential of the his-
tory-laden landscapes that figured

so
prominently in the art of Claude
ral forms,
mans moral outlook and social capacity. The effect is the suggestion of
bonnets,
age in the well-worn features of the

landscape, which, in the absence of
cal
classical ruins,
become
the fcKUS for
partaking of a tradition
long associated with the mvthologi-
goddess Proserpina, who returned from the Underworld each

year to bring spring to the earth.
225
i68
Mrs. Charles Dodge

deputy tax commissioner, and tax
commissioner from the 1840s through
CHARLES DODGE
(1806-1886)
the 1860s.
Wood
The
X 1 5V4 X
inches
X 40.0 X 27.9 cm)
60.36. Dick S. Ramsay Fund
245/8
The
guishing art from craft is inherent in

Dodge's work as a ship carver and
son of Jeremiah Dodge, the pro-
prietor of a
New
firm, Charles
perennial difficulty of distin-
(62.5
\brk shipcarving
Dodge became
mciker of cigar- store Indians. Yet.
at the intersection of folk art. crafts-
manship, and
Dodge
few available
business in which he would remain

active until 1 870, Dodge became involved in local politics, and he held a
the
ner in his father's business in 1853

and by 1 842 had estabhshed his o%\-n
mains within the mode of what has

been called the American vernacular, a tradition rooted in the pragmatic and utilitarian that gave rise to a
unique artistic expression standing
with this finely \\Tought bust (believed to be a portrait of his wife),

there is no problem in identifying
an artist as well as an artisan. Its smooth surface and sensitively rendered, though idealized,
features betray his knowledge of the
neoclassic style then in vogue, and it
a part-
have inspired him. \et the piece re-
as
It is
fine art.
likely that
ered himself an
Dodge never considartist
per se since the
facts outlining his ac-
surface white as an effort to
primary incommercial and political

spheres. However, in this
carved portrait, the viewer encounters an extremely rare glimpse of
Dodges potential had he chosen to
variety of elected
and appointed posi-
imitate the effect of the white marble
direct himself fully to the pursuit of
tions including
alderman, assessor,
of the neoclassic
shop. AMiile maintaining the carving
is
possible to interpret his painting of
wood
models that
may
tivities indicate that his
terests lay in the
artistic goals.
226
The Greek Slave
i6g
HIRAM POWERS
(1805-1873)
1869
Marble
66 X 9 V4 X
8 Vs inches
(167.6x50.2X46.7 cm)
1
55.14. Gift of Charles F.
Hiram
Povverss
Bound
family
moved
to
Cincinnati. Ohio, from his birth-
piction of the female nude,
it
contains
many historical, religious, and politi-
Woodstock, Vermont, when he
cal associations that served to miti-
was about thirteen. With the death of
gate the longstanding public resis-
his father shortly after the move, the
tance to images of the nude in

American art. Although the form is
based on classical prototypes, Powers
chose to place the content of the work
within the modern context of the
Greek War of Independence (1821
30) and by it referred to the many
place,
youth was forced
and
of jobs
to take
on a variety
finally attained the posi-
mechanical
Western Mu-
tion of supervisor of the
section of Dorfeuille's
seum. During that period he learned

model in clay from Frederick
to
From
Christian Greeks taken prisoner by
1837 he frequented New

York, Boston, and Washington and
supported himself through commissions for portrait busts, the most notable of which were those of President Andrew Jackson and Daniel
the Turks and later sold as slaves.
Webster.
the
Eckstein, a Prussian sculptor.
1834
to
Powers was one of many nineteenth-century American sculptors
who
established both
home and
stu-
DrawTi there by
the relative ease with which materials and labor could be procured,
dio in Florence,
these
sculptors
Italy.
also
sought
close
proximity to the objects and cultural
The
content later expanded, allow-
ing for the work to be interpreted as
an allusion
then
to antislavery sentiments
at issue in
The
America.
last of six full-scale versions of
work
be completed by Powers
in 1844 on
private commission), The Brookl\-n
Museum's version differs from its
(the first
to
was finished
predecessors in the artists sub-
five
stitution of
bar-manacles
for chains
By 1869, the year of

this version, The Greek Slave was an
important icon of American culture.
as restraints.
traditions
Known
classic visions derived.
licas
for
840s and 850s. and it received

great acclaim at the London Crystal
from which their neoPowers sailed

Europe in the fall of 1837 and
settled in Florence with the aid of
the
firsthand by thousands (rep-
toured major American
cities in
living in Italy since
Palace Exhibition in 1851), its image and meaning also entered the
.'\merican
consciousness through
The Greek Slave may be singled
countless reproductions in a variety
fellow sculptor Horatio
who had been
Greenough,
1825.
out as a paradigm of American neoclassical sculpture.
Daring
in
its
de-
of
media
as well as
in the |X)pular
and
through
articles
literary press.
227
Shooting for the

Beef
~o
george caleb bingh.\m

(American. 1811 1879)
1850
1841 to 1844.
Oil on canvas
33^8X495/8 inches (85.4 x 125.4 cm)

S. Ramsay Fund
40.342. Dick
Bingham
spent the
early part of his career painting portraits of
home
the citizenry of his adopted
Around 1845 he turned
state.
to genre subjects that pro\'ided vivid
Born
and raised in MisGeorge Caleb Bingham had

httle in his background to suggest
the success he would attain as an
important painter of portraits and
genre subjects. During an apprenin \ irginia
soiiri,
descriptions
life.
Many
of
American
picted the workings of the

cratic process
on the
frontier
paintings de-
of these
demoand
local level
from whom he received some training and the inspiration to become an
ture,
838 and
a sojourn in Washington. D.C.. from
is
member
of the Missouri legisla-
and held the post
of State Trea-
dissolution in 1851. Here,

for
him an unusually com-
plex composition, a
men
group of marks-
test their skills in a contest for
the bull tethered on the

there
is
no
left.
While
overt reference to political
content, the artist's emphasis on the
clusively
of study in Philadelphia in
its
what
theme
Mis(He campaigned vig-
orouslv for the \\ hig Partv. served as
of a brief period
in
souri politics.
he met an itinerant portrait painter
With the exception
before
reflected the artist's o^^^l role in
ticeship in cabinetmaking. however,
artist.
ing for tlie Beef is the last of twent\"

works he submitted to the Art-Lnion
of competition within
male
societs" recalls
an ex-
many of
his politically oriented works.
narrative content
and the
The
far- rang-
ing view of the frontier landscape
make this work an
surer from 1862 to 1865.)
combine
Bingham's genre paintings gained

national attention largely through
their distribution by the New Yorkbased American Art-Lnion. Shoot-
the era of Manifest Destiny in
to
icon of
its
suggestion of limitless opportunity

for those
possessed of the pioneering,
competitive
spirit.
228
Lake George
171
JOHN FREDERICK KENSETT

1870
Oil on canvas
14 X 24 '/8 inches (35.5x61.2 cm)
33.219. Gift of \Irs. \V. \V. Phelps in

memory of her mother eind father, Ella
M. and John
Kensett
in 1853.
visited
first
The
popular sketching
C. Southwick
Lake George
area had long been a

site for
many
art-
and for Kensett it would figure in

four major oils over the following two decades. His treatment of
the subject in the Museum's 1870
ists,
at least
By 1870.
the year he
view of Lake George.
pamted
Joliii
this
Frederick
Kensett had aheady explored and ex-
painting
hausted the Hudson River School
sons
aesthetic that
can
had dominated Ameripainting
landscape
greater part of the century.

time. too. he
had
for
By
indication that he
\\"as
again in the
the
process of reorienting his aesthetic
this
approach, .\lthough he chose to re-
fully developed his
now commonly
is unusual for several reaand may be interpreted as an
turn to a
site
traditionally linked
fined by the twentieth- century term
with the Hudson River School style

(which by 18-0 was becoming out-
"luminism."
moded), he refrained from
signature
style,
de-
reiterat-
ing the pantheistic sentiments inherent
in
the
work
of the
generation headed by
previous
Thomas Cole
and Asher B. Durand. In a similar

manner, although he adopted the
scale and composition of his "luminist" efforts, he exchanged the fixed
calm and mirror-smooth surfaces of
his earlier luminist works for a sensibility
The
residing in the transitory.
impending atmospheric
change swiftly moving clouds and
signs of
agitated
water reinforce
the idea of
trcmsition. as does the artist's
un-
characteristic depiction of the leike as

it
appeared in
PAINTING AiND SCLLFTL RE: UNITED STATES
late
autumn.
229
v"i
tlkî-^s^
ê^
-*|A
*^:
V
'
.H
...^^:
A Storm
1-2
in
the
Mountains
Rocky
Mt. Rosalie
ALBERT BIERSTADT
1866
Oil on
83X
Fund. Ella C. Woodward Memorial

Funds. Gift of Daniel M. KeUy. Gift of
Charles Simon. Charles Smith
Memorial Fund. Caroline Pratt Fund.
Frederick Loeser Fund. Augustus
Graham School of Design Fund.
Bequest of Mrs. William T. Brewster.
Gift of Mrs. \\.
-6.79. Dick S.
L.
Babbott Fund. A. Augustus Healy
Smith Fund. Bequest of Laura L.

Barnes. Gift of J. A. H. BeU. John B.
Woodward Memorial Fund. Bequest of
Mark
Finlev"
New
ingen. Germany, and raised in
Phelps. Gift
of Se\Tnour Barnard. Charles Stucirt
Ccin\as
i42'/4 inches (210.8X 361.3 cml
Ramsay Fund. A.
Augustus HeaH Fund B. Frank
Woodward
Albert Bierstadt was born in Sol-
Massachusetts. After re-
Bedford.
turning
to
Germany
1855
in
to
study art in Diisseldorf. then the cen-
an internationally popular
landscape painting, he
came back to the United States in
1857 to begin his career as a landof
ter
school
of
scape painter.
A Storm in the Rocky Mountains

was
inspired
by
1863 expedition to the
American West in the company of
writer Fitz Hugh Ludlow. As he had
done in 1859 during his first trip
Mt.
Rosalie
Bierstadts
west (an expedition that resulted in

his first heroically scaled landscape.
The Rocky Mountains), he made numerous on-the-spot sketches and
Lpon returning
studies.
New
to his
York studio, he incorporated them
panoramic
into this
For
all its
terms of
vista.
apparent truthfulness in
detail, the painting is not
topographically accurate.
It
in-
is.
stead, a composition in the literal
sense of the
word
rather than a faith-
ful rendering of a specific site.
highly subjective visual essay on the
sublime natural wonders of the New

it is executed on a scale commensurate with the vastness of the
AAbrld.
land
itself.
Bierstadts use of large canvases
comparison of his work
invites
that of Frederic E.
Church
to
as well as
the then-popular public attrac-
to
tions of
moving panoramas and
di-
This
had a personal level of content,
Mt. Rosalie (now Mt. Evans) was
oramas.
particular
painting
also
for
named by
the artist in honor of his
traveling companion's wife,

Bierstadt married in
whom
886 following
her divorce from the writer.
The
painting's history
dinary. Purchased in
is
extraor-
1867 by an
Englishman. Sir Samuel Morton

Peto. it remained in obscurity and
was rejxirted bv a Denver news|)aper
in 1869 to have perished in a fire.
Until its rediscovery in 1974 it was
known only by a chromolithograph

produced in 1868.
P.\INTING
AND SCLLPTl
RE:
UNITED STATES
231
173
J^-Ê
GEORGE INNESS
who was born
Inness.
1882
Oil on canvas
30V4X45
\ew
burgh.
inches (77.0
14.3
training
cm)
41.776, Bequest of \Irs. William A.
Putnam
York,
when
School
st\"le
zenith
of
its
the
began
in
\ew-
his
art
Hudson River
brighter palette, and
composition to his
was approaching the

popularity.
\et.
his
choice of instructor, the French artist
less.
formulaic
art.
Inness painted June (also kno\Mi

as
A Day in June)
art
at
a time
when
his
was beginning to achieve popular
Regis Francois Gignoux. with whom
as well as critical admiration.
ith
he studied in New York sometime

between 1843 and 1845. indicates
that his taste extended beyond the
mainstream of contemporary American art. While Inness's early paintings reflect his knowledge of the
Hudson River aesthetic, he gradually
placid
words Inness not only ex-
rejected the topographical specificity
the
pressed his personal aesthetic aims
and moralizing content inherent in

that mode. This tendency grew
Chicago \\orlds Columbian Exposi-
In an important
1878
article,
the
landscape painter George Inness articulated his views on the purpose of

art. sa\-ing. in part,
"A work
of art
does not appeal to the moral sense.
aim
is
not to instruct, not to edifv.
but to awaken an emotion." ^^

these
Its
but also confirmed the general displacement of the Hudson River

School stvle in American art by one
inspired by the French Barbizon
Europe in 1855.
with the work
tradition.
painters introduced a looser facture.
stronger following his second trip to

for direct contact
of
the
Barbizon
summer scene seems
The
enclosed
an almost palpable atmosphere

and exudes a calm serenity that in-
in
duces the subjective, emotional responses to which he aspired in his

art.
The painting was
sho^^^^ in sev-
important exhibitions during
eral
artist's
tion of
893.
lifetime,
It stcinds
including the
as a fine repre-
and exwhat was bv 1882 the

preferred taste in American landsentative of Inness's late stvle
emplifies
scape painting.
P.AINTING .\ND SCULPTURE: UNITED STATES
232
174
Letitia Wilson
Jordan
THOMAS EAKINS
1888
Oil on canvas
60X40
inches (i52.4X 101.6 cm)
27.50, Dick
S.
Ramsav Fund
Today the work of the Philadelphia

artist Thomas Eakins holds a place of
high esteem in the annals of the history of American art. In his own lifetime, however, his circle of admirers
was small, general recognition
of his
achievements came late in his career,
and his greatest impact was felt

through his activities as a teacher
rather than through the exhibition of
his work. Most of his oeuvre falls
within the category of portraiture, a
genre ordinarily generated as a result of a commission; yet, of the 246
known to have been executed by Eakins, only 25 were commissioned. The rest were largelv porportraits
traits of his
that
were
family and close friends
later given
away
or kept in
was
so
taken by her strong good looks
upon her
that he soon after prevailed

to
pose
for
had worn
him
in the
same
dress she
sister
some woman stands apart from contemporaneous aesthetic norms. In an
of Eakins's friend
and pupil David
era primarily disposed to the idealiz-
Wilson Jordan,
whom
ation of
The
subject here, Letitia Wilson
Jordan (1852-1951), was the

to
the artist
gave the painting on its completion.

Apparently, Eakins had seen Miss
Jordan at a party one evening and
women. Eakins
of his
French academic
Spanish
masters
Velazquez
and
Ribera, whose paintings he had seen
at the party.
Eakins's portrayal of this hand-
his studio.
synthesis
training and his study of the great
exj)ressed
in
Madrid. The meshing of two
strong European traditions resulted
allowed Eakins to accent rather than
in a
highly naturalistic realism that
and
complex amalgams of physand psychological realities
veil the |)ers()nalities oi his sitters
his fascination with female beauty in
to citrate
an unconventional manner. Much of

this was acconiplislu'd ihrougli his
uni(|iie to eacli subject.
ical
PAINTING AND SCUM'TIRE: UNITED STATES
^33
175
Emblems of the
War
Civil
pope
.\lex.\.nder
jects that
18491924)
(.\inericcin.
1888
Oil on canvas
54V16X51
'/8
he was often referred
inches (137.6X 129.8 cm)
Ramsay Fund, Governing

Committee of The BrookhTi Museum.
Badger Tibbits (1837-1880).
he achieved in his last

decades was obtained primarily
through work as a competent but un-
painting including
weapons, army-issue material, and a
inspired portrait painter.
flag (probably that of Tibbits's ovra
Pope's essays in painting vertical
and anon\Tnous donors
trompe-l'oeil
may
the Civil
ticularly fine
example
Har
is
a par-
of .\lexander
Pope's rare but masterful excursions

into the genre of trompe-Foeil
life
painting.
'êlf-taught
Pope was involved with his
still-
artist.
family's
Dorchester. Massachusetts, lumber
business until
1879.
By
Army major general named ^^ illiam

The
cial stabilit\-
66.5. Dick S.
Emblems of
to as
the "American Landseer," the finan-
the
it
still-life
of the
2nd Regiment
functions
as
medallion of
New
a
York Cavalry)
heraldic
device,
sorts that recalls the
The
heroism of the
work of \\illiam Michael Harnett (1848 1892), whose several versions of After the Hunt had gained
fame immediatelv before Pope ex-
posed by the use of the trompe-l'oeil

technique suggests the tangible na-
ecuted the first of his works in this

genre in 1887. .Although most of
existence in the present.
centered on himting
apparently failed in
Pope's
and dead-game
Boston City Directory listed him as

an artist. Although he was so well
regarded as a painter of animal sub-
sMnmetry
sponses to the popularity enjoyed by

the
following year
the
compositions
be interpreted as direct re-
calculated
objects in this
still lifes
subjects, with
blems of the Civil

private, visual
War he
memorial
Em-
created a
commem-
orating the achievements of a
Union
past.
duality im-
ture of the objects depicted and at the
same time denies
to the viewer their
No
longer
meant to function in the roles for

which thev were originally intended,
these "real
"
objects are
now reduced
sMnbols of Civil ^âr events that by

888 were fading from the range of
to
1
firsthand experience.
234
Poppies on the Isles

OF Shoals
176
CHILDE HASSAM
(American, 1859-1955)
1890
Oil on canvas
i8'/8X22'/ inches (46.0X56.0 cm)
85.286. Gift of
Mary
and Richardson
of Richardson
Of
the
Pratt Barringer
Pratt, Jr.. in
Lowell
artists
experimented with styles inspired by

French
Impressionism,
Childe
Has s am is perhaps the best known.
Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts
(now a part of Boston). Hassam began his artistic career as a draftsman
in an engraving firm and went on to
success as a free-lance illustrator.
classes
at
the
and practiced draw-
medium. One
w hich Hassam
In Poppies on the
Isles
pro\ ided
of Shoals
intense
and
in-
timate view of the Appledore garden,
of his stu-
concentrating on the wild poppies

that carpeted the grassy hills o\er-
operated the major hotel on the
looking the bleached white rocks
tliat
island of Appledore. one of a group of
edged the ocean
tiny islands located off the coast of
year after his return from Paris, the
New Hampshire. Hassam
work displays
ited the island resort in
first vis-
884. and
following an extended stay in Paris

from 886 to 889, where he studied
at the Academie Julian, he joined the
numerous painters and writers who
1
summered there.
Hassam painted many
views of
The garden was widely cele-
brated
in
contemjxirary
shore. Painted the
his assimilation of the
primary Impressionist concerns of

plein-airism.
broken and spontaneously applied brushstrokes, and
brilliant color. The strict, almost geometric division of the canvas into
foreground, sea, and sky, meanwhile,
regularly
pledore.
poorly
that he studied for
894,
Island Garden, published

for
dents was Celia Thaxter, whose fam-
class in that
documented, it is
some time
with the Vhmich-trained artist Ignaz
is
An
Hassam produced an
Celia Thaxter's famed garden on .Ap-
known
was known for his work in watercolors and briefly conducted a small
.Although his early training in the

arts
book.
in
the watercolor illustrations.
ily
who
took
Institute,
ing at the Boston Art Club.

During the early 1880s Hassam
memory
and Laura Pratt
many American
Gaugengigl.
hterature
and was the subject of Thaxters own
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: UNITED
tvpical of his garden series. This

mixture of compositional discipline
and painterly freedom establishes
the painting as one of the most pleasis
inn in his oeu\Te.

ST.'VTES
255
177
Paul Helleu
Sketching with
His Wife
JOHN SINGER S.\RGENT

1889
Oil on canvas
26V8X32'/8 inches (66.3x81.5 cm)

20.640, Museum Collection Fund
John Singer Sargent, one of America's most famous expatriate artists,

was born in Florence. Italy, of .American parents and received his artistic
training in Paris, where from 1874
to 1878 he studied primarily in the
atelier
of Emile Carolus-Duran
(18381917). Although he scored
early successes
^^'ith
his submissions
to the Paris Salon, his career took a
sudden downward turn %\'ith the
dis-
exhibited
more
his
conservative
paintings at the English Royal Acad-
emy, he often chose
to display his
experimental work
the
at
New Eng-
lish -Art Club, an organization he
helped to found in 1 886. The \EAC

exhibitions provided the only regular
English
outlet for
artists to
promote
work that reflected their assimilation

of French artistic taste.
At Broadwav Sargent usualh
However, in
astrous reception of his portrait of
painted en plein
Madame X at the
the case of Paul Helleu Sketching
in
Salon of
1885 he moved
to
884. and
London.
air.
with His Wife, he abandoned that
England another Londonbased American expatriate. Ed\\in
practice for one that integrated
Austin Abbey, introduced Sargent to
In
mod-
ern French facture with the careful
quil area that included the small vil-
draftsmanship instilled in him by his

academic training. The subjects are
the French ailist Paul Helleu and his
lages of Broadway. Calcot.
young
bride.
bury
Sargent
at
the art colony of Broadwav. a tran-
and FladAvon in
^ôrcestershire. Sargent was a regular summer visitor there from 1885
to i88g. the period of his most connear
the
River
on
while
who
.Alice,
Fladbury
their
in
visited
August
hone\Tnoon.
88g
Nu-
merous preparatory drawings of Alice

and a photograph of the couple posed
centrated experimentation with the
as in the painting confirm the belief
techniques of French Impression-
that the painting
ism. Although he
had long been
aware of Impressionism. haNing

been in Paris when the movement
first
burst on the scene, his renewed
manner
have stemmed
was
largely a studio
production. That the artist consid-
ered this painting an experimental
work
is
exhibit
indicated by his decision to

it
at
the
NEAC
interest in the Impressionist
thought that he gave
at Broadway seems to
from his natural inclination to experiment with avajit- garde methods
and his need to establish himself in
his new English milieu. While he
as a
it
in 1892.
It is
to the Helleus
wedding gift. The Museum purin

it directly from Helleu
chased
1920.
PAINTING -AND SCULPTURE: UNITED STATES
256
The Turtle Pound
178
WINSLOW HOMER
1898
V16 X 21 Vs inches (38.0 x 54.2 cm)

Membership Fund,
A. T. White Memorial Fund, and
A. Augustus Healy Fund
14'
23.98. Sustaining
ical
1
achieving his
first
rush of
crit-
and pubHc acclaim wdth the
866 exhibition of his painting Prisfrom the Front, Winslow Ho-
oners
mer experienced
several years of dis-
appointment and discouragement.

Having been hailed as one of Americas most promising and original
young artists, he found, by the early
theme
particular
States, a
duration of each
and public alike

in 1873 as a result of a landmark
New^ York exhibition of more than six
hundred American and European
watercolors sponsored by the American Society of Painters in Water Colors. Although Homer had had a caattention of artists
Watercolor over pencil
.\fter
movement in the United

movement that seized the
watercolor
sual
interest
in
watercolor before
The
with
or subject for the
trip.
Such
twenty-five watercolors he
to
month
stay in the
and
sky.
way
more than three

decades and pelded close to seven
hundred works. His sudden enthusi-
truthful record of a routine task (that
asm for watercolor may ha\e

stemmed not only from the aesthetic
tening before going to market), he
efforts that lasted
appeal of this old but newly validated
tuned
to nature. ^^ hile providing a
of capturing a
young
sea turtle to be
confined in a wooden pound for
mentation by imbuing his subject

with a conceptual monumentality.
panding
an
illustrator
for Harper's
This period of inertia in Homer s

career coincided with the rise of the
but also from his desire to
market
for
watercolor
paintings.
Homer executed
during his many
concentrating on a
For the most part

his
watercolors
summer
trips,
fat-
transcends the level of mere docu-
nature and the struggle
as
one
life,
that he perceived as being closely at-
The
Weekly.
of
1873, that vear marked his first sustained efforts in the medium
establish himself in the rapidly ex-
cess
in the
he presents a dignified por-
trayal of the islanders"
medium
rested on his suc-
is
Bahamas
pace with his expectations and that

still
the case
winter of 189899. Here, within the

simple but dMiamic construct of sea
1870s, that his career had not kept

his livelihood
is
Pound,
one of
knowTi
have painted during his twoTurtle
universal issue of man's place in

for life as
embodied in the captive turtle are

given immediacy and phvsicality
through the
artist's
brilliant
dling of the watercolor
han-
medium.
238
179
A Morning SnowHudson River
GEORGE BELLOWS
constraints exerted by the National
such small but important narrative
conservatism. Although Bel-
elements as a figure shoveling snow,
artistic
lows was never an

1910
Oil on canvas
45V8X 6374
inches
(1
15.2
X 160.7
^^
George Bellows arrived in New York

City from his native Columbus,
Ohio, in 1904 after having dropped
out of Ohio State University at the
end of his junior year. Litent on becoming an artist and armed with the
monev earned over the summer playing semiprofessional baseball and
selling sketches. Bellows enrolled in
William Merritt Chase's New York

School of Art. There he attended
classes taught by the wêll-established,
Henri,
albeit
controversial,
who along with such
Robert
associ-
John Sloan and George Luks

campaigned vigorously against the
ates as
official
member
of
group of New York realists

headed by Henri (later known as
"The Eight" and still later considered part of the Ash Can School), he
was deeply influenced by Henri's instruction to create an art based on
the
5 1 .96, Gift of Mrs. Daniel Catlin
ing energies through the inclusion of
Academy of Design, then a bastion of
life.
For Bellows as well as his con-
temporaries that meant the urban realities of
New
men going to
work, and boats plying

Even the billowing shapes
smoke and steam seem to signify
the river.
of
the hidden power of the city as
its
inhabitants prepare for another day's

activity. Bellows's
use of these narra-
passages certainly aligns his art

with that of the other Henri followers,
tive
yet perhaps
more than
all
of
them
Bellows chose to explore his com-
York.
A Morning Snow Hudson

depicts a scene along the
River
Upper West
positions with
lationships.
an eye
The
for abstract re-
elevated
vantage
Manhattan overlooking the

Hudson River and the New Jersey
Palisades beyond. With the assured,
point serves to flatten the pictorial
slashing strokes of a heavily loaded
ments that are in turn relieved by a
captured the
light reflected
subtle series of diagonals that occur

throughout the painting. Thus, in
from the freshly fallen snow.

Although he presents a relatively
narrative structure, the artist offers a
Side of
brush.
Bellows
effects
of
has
morning
quiet scene, the artist nonetheless
conveys the idea of the
city's
awaken-
which is then ordered by a

system of horizontal and vertical elespace,
addition to supphdng a satisfying
compelling composition that
may be
appreciated on a purely formal basis.
239
LoNGHORN Steer
i8o
After studying
SOLON BORGLUM
(-Ajuerican.
Academy
18691922)
1905
Bronze
36 X -6 X 20 inches
(91.5
X 193.0 X 50.8 cm)
Signed lower right

67.2-4.1. Gift of the City of
Department of Real
Kra\itz. cind the
Estate.
New
New
York
Benjamin
York City Parks
Department, Joseph Bresnan
for
at
the Cincirmati Art
two vears
as a pupil of
Ogden. Ltah. Solon Hannibal Borglum grew up in Nebraska,

where earlv in his youth he developed an abiding compassion for animals and a deep respect for the
in
Plains Indians.
He
started his career
eled to Paris in 1897 to attend the
tanners and leather workers.
The head was cast bv the Roman

Bronze \\orks of New \ork. It remained on the Schieren Building
from 1905 until the building was
condemned and demolished in 1967
sound reputation
to
for
sculptures of
This vigorous sculpted portrait of

a longhorn steer by Borglum was
commissioned in 905 by Charles A.
Schieren. a leather belt manufacturer
and one-time mayor of
Brookh-n who felt that he owed his
1
considerable fortune to cattle (his
was used
leather belting
sands of steam engines tln-oughout

the entrcuice to Schieren s factory at
him while
30-38 Ferry Street
instruction.
Brookhii
district for
Academie Julian, where he received

criticism from several sculptors, including Augustus Saint -Gaudens.
By 1901 he had established a studio
in New York Citv and de\"eloped a
in charge of his father "s cattle ranch,
him
foot of the
Bridge long kno\\ni as a
but his older brother, the sculptor

Gutzon Borglum, recognized his
talent as an artist and encouraged
gi'V'ing
an area near the
the sculptor Louis Rebisso. he trav-
cowbovs. Indians, and animals.
Bom
corner of Cliff Street in Manhattan,
the United States).
The
in thou-
steer
at the
graced
southwest
make way for a new entrance to the
bridge.
Borglum continued
to prosper, re-
many awards
for his work

and establishing a studio in Silvermine. Connecticut. Although he cre-
cei^'ing
ated several classical statues in the

life, he never gave up
West and \êstern subjects. His steer's head continues to be
one of the most popular sculptures in
the Frieda Schiff\\arburg Memorial
Sculpture Garden, especially among
last
vears of his
his love of the
children.
P.AJNTING -AND SCULPTURE: UNITED STATES
240
Night
i8i
.JUJOLPH A. WTLWLAJN
(-\inierkan.
18701952)
Circa 1910
Pink granite
inches
1 20 X -5 X 4 1
(
304-8 X i85~f X 104.1 cm)
66.251O.1. Gift
Bom
jrf
Lipsett Demolititwi Co.
Youngstown Cartage
anti
in
Karlsruhe.
18-0. .\dolph A.
grated to
Germany, in
Weinman emi-
New York in 1880 with his
widowed mother. By
the time he was

he was apprenticed to a wood
and ivory carver. .After later studying
fifteen,
Cooper Union and the -\rt Students League and with Augustus
Saint-Gaudens and Phillip Mcirtiny.
he opened his own studio in 1904.
Today his sculptures grace the Bronx
Countv Building and the Museum of
the Citv of New \ork. where his
at
statues of .Alexander
DeW itt
Hamilton and
Clinton, in two niches, face
Central Park.
Weinman was at the height of his

when he completed eight he-
career
roic
for
female figm-es of Day and Night
New Yorks
Pennsylvania Station,
monumental building designed by
Charles Follen
the
Roman
McKim in the strvle of
baths at Caracalla.
The
statues flanked foiu- clocks over the
four entrances to the station.
Day was
depicted holding a simflower clasped
while a hooded but

ha If -nude Night was shown with an
opium popp\' drooping from her
hand.
to her breast,
The station, begun in 1906 and

completed in 1910. was demoHshed
in 1965 to make way for the new
Madison Square Garden and a far
roore modest and undistinguished
skyscraper. Of the pieces of the station, which were buried in the New
Jer5e\
Meadowlands. onlv three
statues have been retrieved. Two.
Day and Night, can be seen at Ringwood Memor in New Jersev unrestored. .\nother. this statue of Night.
has been pieced together for the

seum's Frieda Schiff Warburg
morial Scidpture Garden.
.\
hi-
Me-
PAINTING AND SCL LPTl RE:
NITED STATES
241
182
Painting Xo.
Berlin
4<
\L\RSDEN HARTLEY
i9'5
Oil on canvas
47V16X 473/16
(1
58.
19.8
1
inches
19.8 cm)
58. Dick S.
Ramsay Fund
As one
of the
&st American
receive encouragement
artists to
and support
from the important XeA\ \ork
art
dealerphotogi'apher .Alfred Stieghtz.
Mars den Hartley was

the
first
also
among
to incorporate the effects of
European modernism in his work.

Even before his first trip to Europe,
Hartley had seen examples of the
work of Cezanne. Picasso, and Matisse at Stieglitz's gallery at
29
Fifth
Avenue and had experimented with

their
styles.
This limited contact
with the European avant-garde con-
him of the necessity of European travel, and with financial help

arranged by Stieglitz he left for Paris
in 1912. There he frequented the fainous salon gatherings of the American ex-patriates Leo and Gertrude
Stein, where he could see and discuss
vinced
the latest developments in Parisian
Unlike most of his American

compatriots. Hartley established his
closest friendships with a group of
young German artists. Inspired by
them and by his reading of Kandinskys On the Spiritual in Art. he
art.
went
to
Germany
early in 1915.
Hartlev was impressed by the mil-
pageantry that characterized

prewar Berlin and \\as convinced
that Berlin provided the environment
itary
in
which
his art could flourish.
returned in
May 1913
for
month residency and during this

executed Painting No.
journ
Berlin. T}îcal of his
period,
it
work
He
a sixso-
48,
of this
reveals his assimilation of
Picassos anahlic Cubist style, which

he had expanded to embrace an iconography incorporating the military
atino sphere of Berlin and the mvstical associations of
numbers,
and shapes inspired by
colors,
his under-
standing of the works of Kandinskv

and the French philosopher Henri
Bergson. In a letter to
Stieglitz.
he
noted that the painting represented

the
mystical
number
embodiment
of
the
eight (a nimiber generallv
associated with transcendence from
the material to the spiritual) but de-
nied the validity of fmther explanations of his art.
\Mth
left
the exception of a few pieces
in Paris with the Steins. Hartley's
Paris
and Berlin paintings were ex-
hibited at Stieglitz's gallery in Janu-
arv 1914. Critical reaction was positive,
and the exhibition produced
considerable income that permitted
Hartley to retiun to
Germany for an-
other extended stay from April 1914
through December 1915.
painting and sculpture: united states
242
Brooklyn Bridge
183
GEORGIA o'kEEFFE
(American, 1887-1986)
1948
Oil on masonite panel
47
'
5/1
5 1 7/8 inches
(121. 6x 131.5
77.1
1,
cm)
Bequest of
The Brooklyn
Mary
Childs Draper
Bridge,
typically
symbol of modernity and industrialism, is here endowed with yet another quality religious feeling. By
depicting a web of cables through a
chasm recalling stained-glass windows, Georgia O'Keeffe proclaims
this vast structure a
modern
icon, a
contemporary cathedral.
O'Keeffe is known not for her images of manmade objects but for her
pictures of the flora
Mexico:
and fauna of New

landscape,
desert
its
bleached animal
skulls,
and surreal
Brooklyn Bridge is not

completely detached from her paintings of nature, for it dovetails with
flowers. Yet
her
celebration
of
the
American
landscape, the bridge being a quin-
American image.
Moreover, the simplified rendering seen here is found in O'Keeffe's
tessentially
other architectonic images
same
ries,
of the
time, specifically her Patio se-
which she began in the
late
1940s. In her Patio works, as in this
image, space
is
revealed through a
framed opening and
is
reducible to a
geometric form.
244
The Hero
184
DAMD SMITH
1952
Steel
7i6X 25 Vi X 1 V4 inches
(187.0X64.7X29.8 cm)
73'
57.185, Dick
Ramsay Fund
S.
David Smith's oeu\Te defies strict arthistorical categorization. His early
work
abstracts
plants, insects,
urewhile
nature
and the
animals,
human
fig-
his late work, culminat-
ing in the geometric outdoor sculptures of his Cubi series,
is
minimalist.
Smith's The Hero conflates the abstract
and the
ible in this
is
figurative, for discern-
geometric
steel sculpture
a life-size female. She
is
revealed
balanced on a pedestal,
with a rectangle for a torso, two triangular forms for breasts, and a tank
frontally,
top for a head.
The Hero is a forerunner of more

than ten sculptures produced between 1 952 and 1 960 that Smith entitled his
Tanktotem
series.
refers to the industrial
tank
"Tank"
lids or
he used to construct his

pieces, while "totem" may be indicaboiler tops
tive
of the
Sigmund
and Taboo.
influence of
Freud's book Totem
The art historian Rosalind Krauss

maintained that Smith was "preoccupied" with Freud's discussion of
totemism: "The ambiguous attachment of a male name [The Hero] to a
female sculpture is consistent with
the Freudian explanation of totems,"
she wrote, "in which the male identityhis clan name is s\7ionpnous
with the prohibited female object."
But the title of this sculpture may
also be read as an indication of
Smith's interest in classical mythology, for many of his works allude to
Greek myth.
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: UMTKI) STATES
^45
Woman
185
WILLEM DE KOONING
(American,
b.
1904)
953-54
Oil on paper
35V4X 24V8 inches
(91
X62.2 cm)
57.124, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B.
Martin
The female
figure was predominant

Willem de Kooning's work from
the tirne of his arrival in America in
in
1926 until the 1950s. In the 1930s

and 1940s, his paintings of women
were realistic and detailed. Yet he
finally abandoned strict attention to
the figure, maintaining, "You could
lose your mind" drawing objects so
closely
resembling nature.
close rendering of the figure
is
Woman, where the image is
absent in
neither fully abstracted nor

pletely
representational.
com-
Human
body parts are discernible but are

masked by rich and frenzied painterly lines.
About his Woman series, de Kooning remarked: "It's really absurd to

make an image, like a human image,
with paint, today, when you think
about it.
But then all of a sudden
it was even more absurd not to do
it.
[Painting Woman, I, 1950
did
one thing for me: it elimi52]
nated composition, arrangement, relationships, light all this talk about
line, color and form because that
was the thing I wanted to get hold of.
.
put
it
in the center of the canvas
because there was no reason to put

a bit on the side. So
thought
it
might
as well stick to the idea that
two
a nose and
eyes,
neck.
it's
got
mouth and
."
.
Facial features are the artist's con-
cession to an identifiable figure.
knew
gnon
Picasso's
and
Desmoiselles d'Avi-
on view
of 1907, then
Museum
its
of
Modern
influence
He
is
Art,
at
New
clear in
The
York,
Woman:
Kooning endowed
ferocity.
few recognizable forms in the image,

dominate the face. .\ dozen years after
he completed his
the artist found
series,
in such hor-
"I look at
do with the idea of the
to
and almond-shaped eyes
oracle,
the Picasso painting. In addition, de
Woman
humor
them [the Woman

paintings] no\\ and they seem vociferous and ferocious. I think it had
rifies:
the masklike face, flattened forms,

all recall
his subject with
Fanglike teeth, one of the
ness of
and above
all,
idol,
the
the hilarious
it."
246
Untitled
(Composition #104)
i86
ad reinh.\rdt
1
954-60
Oil on canvas
10874X4078
inches (2 75.0 x 101.9
cm)
67.59. Gift of the artist
Although he was a contemporary of

the Abstract Expressionists.
hardt produced
AdRein-
geometric ab-
unrelated to
paintings
stract
work
flat,
the
of Jackson Pollock or \A illem de
Kooning. The works of those
artists
are filled with accidental aspects of
painting
the
process
random
and automatic drawingSurrealism's legacy to the New^

York School. But Reinhardt maintained that Surrealism was unimportant to his work: "Surrealism
ne\er had any fascination for me at
all. I would cast out all Expressionist,
Dadaist, Futurist, and Surrealist art.
They don t fit in with art-as-art at all.
In fact, the Surrealists were programmatically anti-art."
Reinhardt championed abstract
art. In the late 1 g3os, he was a member of the American Abstract Artists,
the Artists' Union, and the American
brushstrokes
From 1936
Congress.
Artists'
to
1941, he was one of the few nonobjective artists
employed by the Works
Project Administration division of

the Federal .Arts Project.
In Composition
control over the
#104
work
is
the
artist's
apparent in
The
solid bricklike blocks of color.
work
strictly
is
composed
deny
to
depth and affirm s\Tnmetrv.

Reinhardt denied that his paintings contained any content: "The
content
is not in a subject matter or

but in the actual painting ac-
story,
tivity.
just
style
Abstract painting
is
not
another school or movement or
but the
first
unmannered
truly
and untrammeled and unentangled,

styleless,
universal
other art or painting
painting.
is
No
detached or
meaning in Reinhardt's work. Wrote

Thomas McEvilley: "Critics seeking
empty or immaterial enough."

Contemporary critics, however,
the content of his
have attempted to find additional
nor to the problem of the surface, but
neither to
work should look

the Greek Cbristian cross
to the four-limi)ed
mandahis
of the
esjx'cially
the Taoist
man-
Orient
dala of 64 squares, which
is
virtually
identical to the internal quadrature
of Reinhardt's paintings."'
24:
187
Ocean Park. Xo. 27
RICH.\RD DIEBENKORN
(American,
b.
1922)
1970
Oil on canvas
100X81
inches (254.0X205.7 cm)
The Roebhng Society. Mr.

and Mrs. Charles H. Blatt. and Mr.
and Mrs. William K. Jacobs. Jr.
72.7. Gift of
In 1967 Richard Diebenkorn began

a series of paintings named Ocean
Park after the section of Santa

Monica. Cahfornia. where his studio
was located, hi contrast to Diebenkorns early. figurati\e works, the
Ocean Park paintings were abstract,
a change that the artist found to permit "an allover light which wasnt
possible for
tional works,
me
in the representa-
which seem somehow
dingy by comparison."
In Ocean Park. \o. 2 -Diebenkorn
reduces a scene to planes and fragments of color a la Matisse and
Mondrian, building up and scraping
off layers
of paint
to
signify
the
Ocean Park landscape. Depth and

spatial illusion are suggested bv the
advance and recession of color. Lsing
a low-key palette devoid of harsh
tones, the artist accomplished his
stated goal of communicating "a
feeling of strength in reserve, tension
beneath calm."
P.\INTI\G
AND sculpture: UNITED STATES
248
i88
The Inversion
SYX\X\ PLIMACK M.\N"GOLD

(American,
b.
1958)
1984
Oil on linen
60 X 100 inches (152.4 x 254.0 cm)

86.200. Gift of Henry. Cheryl. Daniel.
Michael, and
illie
Welt in memory of
Abraham Joseph Welt
Sylvia Plimack Mangold's

sion
is
The Inver-
a work full of polarities: image
competes with void, geometry conflicts with nature, traditional landscape painting faces off with abstraction. The canvas forms a narrative
about the painting process.
Plimack Mangold began The In"The land-
This places Plimack Mangold in the
American landscape painting

tion that
tradi-
culminated in the nine-
teenth-century
Hudson Ri\er
School.
mid-1970s. Plimack
Mangold depicted fragments of
flooring or domestic space in an intensely realistic manner. Although
the
Lntil
version as a larger work.
she
landscapes
after
scape originally stretched horizon-
moving from New York City
to the
tally
from
left to right, side to side."
she \\Tote. "I cropped
it
because
it
switched to
Catskills.
she never completely re-
jected her earlv works.
didnt work the negation of some
those interiors are
areas becomes a positive element in
dow framelike band
the support of the total picture."
The
around
Remnants
that
viewer to peer through a
landscape into a void, a typically
barrier.
scene
in
which
trees
stretch endlesslv into the distance.
\\Taps
this landscape, forcing the
painting depicts a natural flow of the
American
of
found in the win-
The
color of the
manmade
band
is
re-
peated in the landscape: hence the

title
of the painting: Inversion.
^49
i8g
Head
TOM OTTERNESS
(American,
1984
Bronze
55'/iX
(90.2
b.
1952)
33X25
inches
X 84 X 63.3 cm)
85.1 76, Gift of
Henry and Cheryl Weh
Though Tom Otternesss Head Hes
processions bespeak
within the tradition of bust-length
glibness as he manipulates and con-
portrait sculpture,
identification
artist
upon
it
confounds that
first
gaze, for the
has no interest in capturing a
sitter's likeness.
Rather.
Head recalls
mass-produced, machine-made imagery in which carbon copies pre-
dominate
and
distinction
disap-
torts the
humcin
the
figure.
Head, however, has a content apart

from humor. About five times the
size of
an actual human head, it rehead of Constantine.
calls the ancient
a colossal sculpture of the fourth
century that also denies personal
and concentrates on a
and ano-
pears. Rosetta Brooks \\Tote of this
character
imagery: "As simulation, the clone
sculptural statement of size
"more real than the
real'
lard]. dissolving the past
is
[Baudril-
and future
an eternal present."
of Otterness's work is humorous. His sculptures robotlike
into
Much
automatons.
reliefs,
and
P.\I\TING
body-as-puzzle-piece
intert\\'ined
pudendal
artists
mTnity. The resemblance is possibly

no coincidence, for Otterness is informed of art history. His travels
throughout Europe, the Middle East,
and Asia have influenced his work,
as ha\e m\thology. folklore, cuid pop
culture.
AND sculpture: UNITED STATES
250
Chronology
1823
group of concerned
citizens of the village of
Brooklyn organizes the Brookhii Apprentices" Library
Association for the purpose of "establishing a library, for collecting and for forming a repository of books, maps,
drawing apparatus, models of machinery,
1825
made
Plans are
cornerstone for the
1831
84 1
new building
Art joins the book collection

founders and
Library building.
for a
and implements."
On July 4.
General Lafayette, on a triumphal tour of America, lays the
in BrookhTi Heights.
when the Library acquires
its first
painting a
portrait of Robert
Snow, one
of the
president of the Library Association.
first
The Library moves
Lyceum building on ^âshington Street, housing

Whitman to have reached 1,200 volumes.
to quarters in the
reported by acting librarian \âlt
1842
tools,
The Library begins
program
collections previously
of exhibitions, including painting, sculpture, models of machinerv.
and
curiosities of nature.
1843
The
Apprentices' Library and the Brookhii
Lyceum
are legally consolidated
and renamed The BrookhTi
Institute.
846
The
1851
announces plans
Institute
European
artists,
for a
permanent gallerv of
fine arts "containing
with productions of the best painters of our
Augustus Graham, one
own
of the original founders of the Apprentices Library, dies
and
the Institute for the acquisition of books, natural history specimens, and paintings by
as for support of free lectures
1867
The \\ashington
growing
1888
An
and educational
committee plans
sciences. Legislation
890
The
is
for a
passed to
finest
leaves a
major bequest
American
artists, as
to
well
of design.
Street building of the BrookKii Institute undergoes
collections
Institute
and a school
specimens of the
country."
major renovation
to
accommodate
activities.
new building
set aside
that
would be a unique
museum
coinbining the arts and
land adjacent to Prospect Park for art and educational institutions.
The Brookhn Institute of Arts and Sciences, with departments ranging from
The new Institute eventually becomes the parent of the Brookhii Academy of Music,
the BrookK-n Botanic Garden, and the Brookl\Ti Children's Museum as well as The Brookhii Museum. After
fire damages the Institute building, the collections are stored in nearby institutions.
Institute
is
reorganized into
anthropology to zoology.
893
The
Institutes
Museum
Department
building.
of .Architecture organizes
The firm
of
McKim. Mead &
an architectural competition
W hite
is
1895
Brookl\Ti Alavor Charles Schieren lays the cornerstone for the
1897
The West Wing
1899
The
905
Museum
building and construction begins.
completed, collections are installed, and the building
is
opened
to the public.
organization and growth of the collections are regulated by three departments: Fine Arts. Natural
Sciences,
is
to provide a design for the
selected.
and Ethnology.
The Institute Board
of Directors sets
up an
acquisition fimd to encourage contributions
from the membership.
252
igo6
The Museum begins
1907
The East Wing, Central Pavihon, and Grand

composed
of
quantities of
Mut
excavations in Egypt, which continue today in the Precinct of

Staircase of the
Museum
are completed.
at
The
South Karnak.
art collection
is
532 paintings, watercolors, and photographs as well as plaster casts and decorative arts. Great
archaeological, ethnographic, and natural history material are accumulated through Museum
expeditions.
909
Thirty statues, designed under the direction of Daniel Chester French, are mounted on the exterior facade of
the
Museum
building. Notable acquisitions include eighty-three John Singer Sargent watercolors.
model
antiquities, a
1915
of a
humpback
Eg} ptian
whale, and ninety-three Chinese enamel vases.
Colonel Robert \Abodward. Institute trustee for twenty-five years, leaves the
Museum his
private art collection
as well as endo\\Tnent funds.
1916
The Museum begins
a major international exhibition
program with the Exhibition of Contemporary Swedish
Edwin Wilbour, a pioneer American Egyptologist, donate his collection of art objects
and his library to the Museum. These items from \\ ilbour's collection become the cornerstone of the Museum's
Art.
The heirs
of Charles
world-renowned Egyptian
William H. Fox, the
Museum
collection
Institute's
and are
Director of
of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts
1920
1922
Augustus Healy, President
subway
stop
is
later
augmented by an endowment fund given in \\ ilbour's
Museums from 1914
and Sciences
to
The
honor.
to 1953. shortens the title of the Central
Brookl\Ti
Museum.
opened in front of the Museum, and attendance increases markedly.

of
The Brooklyn
Museum his
Institute for twenty-five years, leaves the
private art
collection as well as endo\Miient funds.
1923
The Museum
fine art rather
holds a precedent- setting exhibition of objects from
its
African collection, interpreting them as
than as ethnographic specimens.
1926
The Museum organizes the International Exhibition of Modern Art, one of the
showings of modern art vet held in America.
1927
The
929
last
two
934
Museum
The Museum establishes
new
The
collecting policy
Natural History.
The
The
collections are
and continuing up
1941
The
McKim, Mead
in time there are twenty-eight
&
White
plan.
rooms ranging in date
Brookl\Ti
emphasizing the
fine arts, cultural history,
Museum,
front stairs are
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the
removed and
new
social
and
to the Gallery for
American
Museum
of
entry hall created.
rearranged in chronological order, beginning with the prehistoric
Museum
and the
natural history collections are discontinued and dispersed to several institutions,
including the BrookHn Children's
935
and most comprehensive
to 1928.
industrial aspects of art.
are completed according to the original
The Museum opens twenty-one American period rooms;

from 1675
sections of the
largest
Living Artists on the sixth
pericxl
on the main
tloor
floor.
Art School, jointly organized by The Brooklm Institute and the BrcKiklyn Art
Association in 1891, and previously housed in the Brooklvii
Academy
of Music,
is
installed in the
Museum.
^5^
194^
The Museum purchases

Design Laboratory
is
the Egyptian holdings of the Ne\v-\brk Historical Society.
opened
encourage the study of design. Later, in the
to
The Edward C. Blum
960s. the Design Laboratory
is
transferred to the Fashion Institute of Technology.
1950
Plans
for niaj or renoyation of the entire
A luseum aie begun \\ith the architectural firm
and
of BroA\Ti. La\\ôrd
Forbes.
1953
1
964
The Museum becomes
first
The Frieda
either side of the
Schiff
landmark by the
970
New
museum
to
open a
series of
nineteenth -century period rooms.
and Sciences
Museum main
"s
entrance.
to
is
architectural fragments
opened in the rear of the Museum. The Brookl}Ti
Museum
is
from demoldesignated a
\ork City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The Brookhn Academy

.Arts
1976
art
Warburg Memorial Sculpture Garden, containing
ished Ne%y \brk buildings,
American
Daniel Chester French's allegorical figures Brooklyn and Manhattan are remoyed from the Manhattan Bridge
and placed on
1966
the
of ]Music
becomes the
first
of the departments comprising
The Brooklyn
Institute of
be reorganized as an independent institution.
The New \ork City Landmarks Preseryation Commission approês the addition to the rear of the ^ luseum
new seryice extension designed by Prentice & Chan, Ohlhausen. The Brookhii Museum is added to
of a
the
National Register of Historic Places.
1985
The
The Brooklyn Museum
size of
organizational structure of the
World
.Art:
Oriental
archive.
fine
1986
cirts
Costumes and
.Art:
The
objects.
The
includes seyen curatorial departments: African, Oceanic, and
New
collections
Museum
is
estimated
at
one and a half
Textiles: Decorative -\rts: Egyptian. Classical,
and
to
two million
.Ancient
Middle Eastern
.Art;
Painting and Sculpture: and Prints and Drawings. There are also two research libraries and an
.Art
School
is
closed and the adult classes transferred to Pratt Institute to join a long-established
program.
Master Plan Competition Jury
selects .Arata Isozaki
&
devise a ne^^ master plan to improve existing conditions
.\ssociates/James Stewart Polshek and Partners to
and pro\ide
for the
Museum's growth
into the next
century.
254
Index to Artists and Makers
203
Alavoine. firm of
149
Avery. Milton
195
Bellows. George
259
Belter. John Henry
161
2^
Berrus. Anthony [?]
Bierstadt. Albert
250251
Bingham, George Caleb
22
Blake, William
2 1
Boelen. Jacob
155
Bonnin. Gouse
1 56
Borglum. Solon
240
Bostwick. Zalmon
160
Bourke-White, Margaret
202
Braque. Georges
1 ^^9
206207
Butinone. Bernardo
Cassatt, Mary
1 76
Cezanne. Paul
188 2 62 1
Chasseriau, Theodore
184-185
Cole, Thomas
225
Courder. Amedee [?]
127
Degas, Edgar
75, 212-213
Abbott. Berenice
de Kooning, \\ illem
246
248
Diebenkorn. Richard
Dodge. Charles
226
Duncan. Ra\Tnond
Diirer. Albrecht
Eakins,
Thomas
artley,
Mars den
242-243
assam. Childe
^55
erter Brothers
165
ine,
Lewis Wick
165
Rush. William
Hoppin, Francis L. V.
12
Horwitt, Nathan George
166
Hughes, [Mrs.] Sam
78
Immendorf, Jorg
181
Inness, George
252
James. Charles
158159
Kanaga, Consuelo
201
Kensett, John Frederick
229
Ludwig
Kirchner, Ernst
Schiaparelli. Elsa
Smith, David
de
159
88
Mangold. Sylvia Plimack
249
Marin. John
4
Marsh, Reginald
196197
220221
Matisse, Henri
Monet, Claude
219
Morris, George Anthony
1 56
^68
244
Otterness, Tom
250251
Palma Vecchio (attrib.)
208209
Picasso, Pablo
255
2,
Pissarro. Camille
Poiret, Paul
194
Lucientes, Francisco
Pope, Alexander
173
Powers.
Hiram
162
Vermeyen. Jan Cornelisz.

210
Vionnet. Madeleine
56
Weber, Max
191
\Aedgwood. Josiah
58
Weinman. Adolph \.
241
Weltch, Ehzabeth (attrib.)
26
Whistler. James A. McNeill
174
1
ill. Henry
55
Worth, House of
128129
^^ right. Frank Lloyd
164
\\
Chong (attrib.)
91
110
Zaman, Muhammad
Yi
180, 189, 195
182-185
Gogh. Vincent van
187
177. 186
Union Porcelain Works
OKeeffe, Georgia
135
701 7
245
Edward
Strand, Paul
Lan Ying
Miiller-Munk. Peter
236237
157
200
204
Toshusai Sharaku
97
Toulouse-Lautrec. Henri
Steichen.
78
190
Lannuier, Charles-Honore
154,
224
Sargent. John Singer
Klee. Paul
Piranesi, Giovanni Battista
Goya y
247
218
Ruhlmann, Emile-Jacques
198-199
258
omer, Winslow
Ad
Rodin, Auguste
Fragonard, Jean-Honore
Gorky. Arshile
Reinhardt,
72
214215
32
254
227
Juan
192
Guy, Francis
8
Gris,
Gyokuen Bompo
96
255
Photograph Credits
Geoffrey Clements: Plate 189; Gamma One Conversions: 172: W. Hartman: 1 1 3; Scott Hyde: 16,72,7699, 123, 147,
162; Justin Kerr: 1, 3, 5, 810, 14, 15, 1719, 25, 3234. 40, 42. 4446, 4852, 54, 59. 60, 64, 6668. 70, 107, 166,
168, 180, 1 8 1 Schecter Lee: 124; John Listopad: 69; Peter Muscato: 186; JohnParnell: 6, 12, 22;PhilipPocock: 63, 65,
75, 128, 131, 132, 136, i38a,b, 150155; Paul Warchol: 100106.
;
Catheryn Anders of the Collections Management Department and Kathleen Sloan of the Marketing Department
deserve recognitijpn for their splendid support in coordinating the extensive preparation and photography required for
thanks are also due to the technicians and art handlers
for their hard work on this project:

Jim
Hayes.
Andrew
Faintych,
Rollie
Erickson, David Horak, Susan
Dominique Blasi, Michael Allen, Tony Trapp.
McDonough, Randy Black, Lawrence Anderson. Bob Mizaki, and Polly Willman.
this project. Special
256
SOME OTHER ABRAMS ART BOOKS
The Museum of Modern Art, New York:

The History and the Collection
Introduction by Sam Hunter
1,070 illustrations, including 319 plates in full color
Treasures of The
By Marshall
New
York Public Library
Davidson
Bernard McTigue
300 illustrations, including 150 plates in
B.
in collaboration with
full
color
100 Works by Modern Masters
from
the
Guggenheim Museum
Text by Vivian Endicott Barnet;

Introduction and Selection by Thomas M. Messer
225 illustrations, including 100 plates in full color
The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum

R. Goheen; Foreword by Marc F. \Mlson
162 illustrations, including 150 plates in full color
By Ellen
Masterpiece Paintings
from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Selected by Theodore E. Stebbins,
and Peter
Jr.,
C. Sutton
126 illustrations, including 125 plates in
full color
ON THE JACKET FRONT
Haniwa Figure of a Shamaness

Japan
Tomb
Period, 5th-6th century
Earthenware
cm)
and Mrs. Stanley Marcus
18x8^/4 inches (45.7x22.2

79.278.1, Gift of Mr.
ON THE JACKET BACK
Ocean Park, No. 27

Richard Diebenkorn
(American, b. 1922)
1970
Oil on canvas
100x81 inches (254x205.7 cm)
72.7, Gift of The Roebling Society,
Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Blatt.
and Mr. and Mrs. William K. Jacobs,
H\RRV
N. Abrams, Inc.
100 Fifth Avenue
New
York, N.Y. 10011
Printed in Japan
Jr.
MASTERPIECES IN
The Brooklyn Museum

0-8109-1528-6

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MASTERPIECES IN

The Brooklyn Museum

most of which were

quarter of the nineteenth cen-

the bold vision of this country as

pendence. Thus in 1895 the citizens of Brooklyn

watched the lading of the cornerstone

world, housing comprehensive collections of art,

natural history, and science as well as education and

Museum was somewhat more

magnificent building by McRim.

Mead & White somewhat

smaller than originally

intended. But in the remarkable collections

assemble, the boldness of

Today The Brookhn Museum owns over a million

has one of the finest collections of Egyptian art

artifacts in the world;

costumes; period rooms demonstrating important

interior design styles;

lections of Oriental as well as

pieces span millennia and continents: an Egyptian

mummy cartonnage from the XXII dynasty, a seated

by Pissarro. Cole, and O'Reeffe: and photographs by

Masterpieces in The Brooklyn

two hundred of the

finest objects in the

Short essays prepared by the curators

curator, has contributed an introductory history of

the growth of the collections.

an inspiring and revealing picture

given both an exciting tour of a great

MASTERPIECES IN THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM

The Brooklyn Museum

THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM

inches (29.2 x 22.9 cm)

Masterpieces in the Brooklyn

This publication was organized at

Art New York (N.Y.) 2. Brookl\-n Museum.

N620.B6A64 1988 7o8.i47'23

Published in 1988 by Harry N. Abrams. Incorporated. New ^ork

The Brookh-n Museum

Times Mirror Company

Printed and bound in Japan

History of the Collections

Egyptian, Classical, cind Ancient Middle Eastern Art

African, Oceanic, and

Drawings, and Photography

Painting and Sculpture

IT OPENED IN 1897. The BrookhTi Museum building was the finest

New York firm of McKim, Mead & WTiite.

and cultural awareness were

t^^ined with the inauguration of a large

seen as uplifting cuid enriching a devastated and di\dded society, scathed bv

Wax only a few decades

earlier. Lideed. the new museum was to be

located just east of BrookKn's

armies no coincidence but rather planned in the