Lord Carnarvon's Bequest to the Museum

Author(s): Albert M. Lythgoe

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 12, Part 1 (Nov., 1923), pp.
272-273
Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3254851
Accessed: 17-02-2018 09:17 UTC

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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

ornament was polychromed as well as the

theco6peration
co6perationof aof
highly
a highly
trained
trained
architect
archite
gilded, but this polychrome decorationwith the decorator.
must have been eliminated shortly after the In the next gallery, F 23, six painted
room was put up, to judge from the con-panels by Hubert Robert from the Chateau
dition of the painting. of Bagatelle, given by Mr. Morgan in 1917,
The chief point of interest is, of course,are now shown in a new setting, and will
the charming enframement for the bed-form the subject of an article in the next
niche, with its channeled and gilded colon-BULLETIN.
nettes and richly decorated lambrequin. M. R. R. and J. B.
This alcove entrance was originally flanked
by two windows. The two little doors on LORD CARNARVON'S BEQUEST
either side of the enframement gave access TO THE MUSEUM
presumably to a
garde-robe or cabinet FOR
FOR some
somefifteen
fifteen
behind the bed-niche. years
years past,
past,through
through
The carved and the
the friendly
friendlyinterest
interest
gilded bed now shown shown by the late
in the niche is of the Earl of Carnarvon in
period of the room our Museum's Egyp-
but does not come tian programs, many
from Dijon. additions have come
Unlike those in the to our collection from
other two rooms, the time to time through
mantel in the bed- his generous gifts of
chamber is a com- objects yielded by
plete and very fine the excavations con-
example. Instead of ducted at Thebes by
relying on ormolu, him and his collabo-
the ornament is carv- rator, Howard Carter.
ed in the stone and Following the
gilded. The materi- tragic death of Lord
als of the wall cover- Carnarvon in Cairo
kGONITE VASE
ings and window FIG. I. ARA last April, one of the
S OF KING MERNEPTAH
curtains, as in the BEARING THE NAMES provisions of his will
other rooms, are proved still further
further
his very generous disposition
modern reproductions of eighteenth-century disposition towards
towards the
the
fabrics. Museum, in a bequest
bequest which
which he
he there
there made
made
to the
Although these rooms were made at Museum of one of the most valued
objects in his notable collection at High-
Dijon, a center naturally of lesser impor-
tance artistically than the capital, what-clere Castle-a lotiform vase of opaque
ever slight provincial flavor they have glass,
is of a delicate turquoise-blue color,
the rim mounted in gold, and bearing on
not particularly localized. All over France,
at this time, the decorators were the doing
side an inscription dating the vase to
much the same sort of thing and using thethe
reign of Thutmose III, of the XVIII
same motives in much the same way, dynasty.
following the engraved designs of Lalonde, The stem and foot of the vase were
Boucher fils, Prieur, and Forty, which en-missing, but since it was received by th
joyed a wide circulation. The rooms may,Museum this summer the missing parts
therefore, be taken as representative of have been restored in plaster, thus com-
the best of their period, for in few places
pleting its original appearance, as shown
was achieved the perfection attained at
fig. 2.
Versailles and Fontainebleau-a perfection The vase is one of the most beautiful
and important examples extant of Egyptian
possible only with unlimited resources and
272

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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

glass-making
glass-making of the of
Theban
theEmpire
Theban This
This
and Empire exceedingly
exceedingly
noteworthynoteworthy
and gift to our gift to our
becomes
becomes the point
the ofpoint
chief interest
of chief in thecollection
collection
interest has now
inhasbeen
the now
placed on
been
exhi- placed on exhi-
Museum's
Museum's already
already
notable representation bition
bition
notable representation in the
inEighth
theEgyptian
Eighth Room,
Egyptian Room,
of
ofEgyptian
Egyptian glass of
glass
that period.
of that period. while
while in a in
neighboring
a neighboring
case in the samecase in the same
With
With thisthis
bequest
bequest
of Lord Carnarvon
of Lord roomCarnarvon
room maymaybe seen be
the lotiform
seen the vase be-
lotiform vase be-
the Museum has at the same time received queathed
queathed by LordbyCarnarvon.
Lord Carnarvon.
as a gift from his widow, Almina, Countess A. M. L.
of Carnarvon, the superb alabaster (arago-
nite) vase, 154 inches (38.5cm.) in height, THE ALDINE HYPNEROTO-
shown in fig. I, bearing the names of King MACHIA POLIPHILI OF 1499
Merneptah of the
(Continued)
XIX dynasty. This
is one of thirteen IN addition to its
such vases, found in interest from the
1920 in the Valley of several aspects which
the Kings by Lord have been referred
Carnarvon and to, the Poliphilus is
Howard Carter, in one of the great
the earlier stages of source books for the
their work of search- understanding of
ing for royal tombs many things in the
which last year cul- great movement
minated in their dis- i ._ which we now know
covery of the tomb as the Italian Ren-
of Tutenkhamon. aissance. Its author,
Only a few hundred Fra Francesco Colon-
feet north of the tomb na (a caricature of
of Tutenkhamon, in whom is familiar to
a small side-valley those who remember
leading out of the Charles Reade's The
main valley and at Cloister and the
a point close to the Hearth), died the
entrance of the tomb second day of Octo-
of Merneptah, they ber, 1527, at the
unearthed this group "respectable age" of
of vases, most of FIG. 2. LOTIFORM VI ASE, BLUE OPAQUE ninety-four, and thus
them bearing the GLASS, XV II1 I DYNASTY lived through the
name of Merneptah most important years
but several of them that of Ramses II. of the fifteenth century as well as tha
This particular vase, which Lady Car- tion of the sixteenth which constitutes the
narvon has now so generously presented great glory of the "cinquecento." Prac-
to the Museum, was exhibited by Lord tically nothing is known about him aside
Carnarvon in London in I92I at the loan from his interests, which are presumably
exhibition of the Burlington Fine Arts well reflected in his book, but it is worth
Club held at Burlington House, and is remembering that he was six years old
shown in Plate XXXII of the catalogue. when the Greek Emperor and the Patriarch
The handles of the vase are in the form of came to Italy from Constantinople and
ibex heads, the horns of the animal in eachthat Raphael preceded him to the tomb
case completing the handle. The ears ofby seven years. His book, so we are told
the ibex were made separately and fitted at its end, was written in 1467 and, if one
into sockets, but are now missing. On the may draw conclusions from some of the
neck of the vase is a hieratic inscription inprefatory matter, was originally composed
ink giving its capacity-"22 Hins." in Latin and later translated into its

273

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