Why do the king and queens have such big necklaces.
Not just the kings and queens, but lots of people in ancient Egypt wore necklaces like this! Like many things in ancient Egypt, they were related to rebirth and eternal life.
Scholars think that this type of necklace, called a wesekh collar, which is made of beads, is based on necklaces that they used to make out of flowers.
Flowers were important to Egyptian beliefs because they appear to die and come back to life again like the ancient Egyptians hoped to do.
Do the animal mummies turn into gods?
The ancient Egyptians believed that they did! They believed that the animal's soul would become a god and join the other gods when they were mummified.
They also believed that they could send messages to the gods along with the souls of the animals. That's why they mummified so many!
Why are there so many images of the same thing? What is the intended effect?
Great question! Repeated plan imagery emphasizes the fertility concept. In the Egyptian galleries you may also see (albeit rendered very differently) plant imagery on funerary objects where plants also related to fertility and rebirth.
In these wall reliefs, Ashurnasirpal II intended to emphasize his role and a legitimate, powerful, and rightful ruler. Part of this included relating himself to the continued fertility of his lands.
Who is this?
That is Don José María Gómez de Cervantes y Altamiro de Velasco. He was the Count of Santiago de Calamiya and one of the signers of the Mexican Act of Independence. In this painting he is only 17 years old!
How can I tell an Impressionist painting from a Post Impressionist one?
That's a great question! And you photographed two great paintings to compare. There are no hard and fast rules here, but I can give you some general points. Typically, Impressionist works are a bit softer as you can see with the Monet on the left. Like the term "impressionist" suggests, it's an impression of a moment.
Post-Impressionist paintings, like Manievich's on the right are a bit harder and build on the "impression" with some abstracted reinterpretation. If you get up close to "Birch Trees," you'll notice the pale, neutral colors are built out of many bright colors used together.
Impressionist paintings do, also, tend to be a study in the effects of light, in a way. It's something Monet, especially was known for. The Post-Impressionists tended to focus a bit more on objects than air. Overall, Post-Impressionism has a looser definition, it's the movement that came after Impressionism.
Very informative! Thanks.
I wanted to ask how many layers this type of dress was made up of.
The style of dress is called a tobajilla, and is a variation on a style common in the 1780s that was popular in Spanish colonies at the time. As for the layers, it's a bit complicated:
For a dress of this style, the woman would start out with a structured slip style dress or skirt and corset that created the torso shape you see. These are the undergarments.
A layer of padding and another skirt were put on top, and then the decorated layers would be layered on top: including a stomach bib (the stiff part in the front with bows), a petticoat (the embroidered skirt part), and a jacket style garment that included the sleeves and back of the shirt portion.
So there would be many, many layers, including at least three skirts and three or four layers of "shirt" and corsetry, plus padding! I recommend looking up videos of 1780s and 1790s dressing. It required many many pieces that fit together almost like a puzzle and lots of assistance for fine ladies like Doña Mariana to get dressed!
Any idea what this Tiffany lamp might have cost in its day?
This lamp is dated to about 1910. I'm not sure, but it may have cost up to a few hundred dollars at that time, which would be the equivalent of a few thousand dollars today. Currently, however, the prices of Tiffany Lamps are entirely dictated by the auction market.Electricity was also a cost to consider: in 1910 it was about 15 to 20 cents per kilowatt hour, at a time when the average american made around 400$ per year (or 22 cents per hour at work)!
Tell me more!
This is one of three mummies on view, his name was Demetirios. You can find his name written in Greek letters in gold paint around the middle of the mummy. It also says 59 in Greek numbers which suggest he lived to be 59; CT scans of the mummy support this age. This mummy is a great example of the cultural melding that happened in Egypt in the Roman period. He was mummified like an Egyptian and had Egyptian gods painted on his wrappings. He has a Greek name and he has a Greco-Roman portrait complete with a golden laurel.
What inspired the design of this room?
You're looking at the Worsham-Rockefeller Room. No doubt you've noticed how highly patterned and colored everything is. The room is decorated in an orientalist style. In other words, many of the motifs are imagined or copied to bring to mind an "exotic" look associated with Asia and the middle east.
This room is also known as the "Moorish room" because it specifically focuses on the Moorish style of furniture and architecture popular in the United States at the time. The style, inspired by Spanish and Middle Eastern design elements, can be seen, for instance, in the arabesques on the walls, the arched windows, and the gilt details.
Thank you.
Can you tell me more about these two ceramic works?
Hi there! I'm really fascinated by these contemporary ceramic works by Japanese artists. I recently learned that there is a long tradition in Japan of allowing the materials themselves a role in the creation of each piece.
The first object you photographed, for example, was placed into the kiln as a lump of clay. The artist had full knowledge that the clay would significantly change in the kiln because of its unreasonable thickness. At the same time, he had no knowledge of what the resulting work would look like.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the second work you photographed, by Fukami, is executed with precision and the artist even gives instructions for installation.
