The wall text about the portrait of Pierre van Cortlandt links the work to British portraits. Would the vase with blue figures (and filled with flowers) also connect it to Dutch painting tradition?
Great question! The painter who created this work was looking at British paintings and would have used prints of British paintings as sources of compositions, costumes, and poses.
Many early American and immigrant artists were looking back to Europe for inspiration and to learn painting. Many artists active at this time were self-trained or believed that they needed to travel to Europe to learn painting.
The artist based this portrait on a print--a reproduction of a painting of a very young nobleman by the English artist Godfrey Kneller. Kneller's original portrait included flowers in a silver urn, which this unknown artist reinterpreted as Asian porcelain. Are there any other details in the painting that make you question the painting traditions that could be influencing the artist?
I was struck by the flowers - they made me think of Dutch still life paintings. And also the sitter's Dutch heritage.
Very interesting observations! Although based on a British portrait, including the pose of van Cortlandt, the style of clothing would have been the type of Dutch clothing known at the time.
Thanks!
Why did Leutze paint so many scenes of Columbus and colonial-era history? Were his patrons asking for this stuff? What was the particular appeal of this subject at the time?
Leutze's history paintings, which featured historical figures from Christopher Columbus to George Washington, were done for some personal political reasons. Leutze was born in Germany and his father was an anti-monarchy activist.
Leutze used these figures, who were prominent in American history, as a counterpoint to the contemporaneous situation in Europe, particularly Germany, and to promote the idea of a democratic, unified government in Germany.
American audiences, of course, reacted positively to these heroic depictions
of Columbus. Take this painting, for example. Columbus is shown as a hero who has been grievously wronged by the Spanish monarchy. If you look closely, you can even see the manacles he was supposed to have been wearing.
Thanks!
Do you know if these plates were inspired by or a tribute to classical Italian forms? The plate with the apple and the one with the snake make me think of the Adam and Eve story.
Piero Fornasetti, an Italian designer, was very proud of his country, his culture and heritage. The image of Eve on this plate is inspired by Classical Roman images of women and goddesses. The hair, eyes and lips all allude to the classical ideal. This series of plates, along with it's companion Adam series, is among Fornasetti's most famous works.
Makes sense that there would be an Adam series. It's a beautiful set. Not sure I'd like to be the dinner guest getting the one with the snake, though. :)
Haha! Good point! Though an image of an arm or a leg under your dinner might be equally as disturbing! Although Fornasetti is clearly referencing and celebrating the Classical and Renaissance traditions here, he's also deconstructing it (quite literally). Here is a body in pieces! Neither the ancient Romans nor the Renaissance Florentines would ever have depicted the human body as an imperfect fragment.
Oh, interesting point. Do you think he was trying to convey a message, or just deconstructing the body for its own sake?
That's a difficult question to answer. His son, Barnaba Fornasetti, who runs the studio today, said of his practice: "My father designed a kind of creative system that can still be used today and in the future. It’s a method of using images from the past, from all over the world, that are already stored in our brains, then reusing and recycling them in different ways while putting your own identity into it as well...It’s something old-fashioned and very fashionable. It’s not modern or antique. It’s not surreal, but it is,” he says. “It’s everything and nothing at the same time."
Why did they use three kinds of wood to do this drawer?
In 1690, the advantage of using two types of wood is both economical and practical. By making the frame out of the sturdier, more easily workable oak, and keeping only the exterior (front) panel in painted pine, the maker made it more durable and sturdy!
Hi how do they make the stylized lines on the terra cotta of this piece?
Great question! The Yoruba artist responsible for this beautifully naturalistic head would have incised the lines in the clay when it was still wet.
Before the clay would be dried out, and eventually fired to become ceramic, the clay is quite soft. The artist may have used a wooden stick or perhaps a metal stylist to carve these lines.
Are the lines just a stylistic preference?
Or do they have any function or purpose
Scholars are still debating! Some believe they are scarification marks, other scholars speculate represent body paint, since both scarification and face painting in certain ritual contexts was common in many parts of Nigeria into the early 20th century. However, there is no evidence of what kind of body marks were in fashion when these objects were made or what kind of people would have had these marks.
Whatever the intended purpose to these lines we can surmise that they may have been markers of identity, signifying a place of origin, status, or membership in a certain organization. Some writers have also suggested that they may represent the beaded veils that Yoruba rulers wore/wear to conceal their faces, although no Ife works show attachments for headgear with veils or face coverings. Personally I think the lines also serve to further highlight the incredibly sophisticated modeling of the face itself. Not an ethnographic answer, but worth considering the formal, too!
What's the name of this owl?
It's catalogued as "Standing Owl" in the museum's records. Not a very exciting name, I'm afraid!
But those two owls were originally located on the Herald Building on Herald Square in midtown Manhattan. The building is gone, but the Brooklyn Museum is displaying the owls on behalf of New York University, who owns them now.
Their eyes used to have green glass and live electric wiring inside them. The owls' eyes would blink on and off whenever the Herald Building's big clock struck the hour.
Cool (especially the blinking). Thanks.
I think he looks like a Fred, by the way!
Can you tell me a bit about these two chairs?
The goal of this installation is to showcase how European conceptions of chair have influenced and are influenced by African and non-Western seat design. As well as the cross cultural importance implied by sitting in a chair. Often times you'll see only the most important person in a room gets to sit in a chair -- to the left you'll see an American example and to the right you'll see an Asante example.
For the Asante , chairs and stools play a key role in stately regalia. Based on European furniture forms this type of chair represents the stability and commitment of a chief or king. The two finials on the top rear of the char are thought to represent an eagle’s talons and further reference to power of the seated individual. I personally love the highly ornamental use of the brass tacks. Kings and court officials had to sit in a highly prescribed symmetrical pose to embody stately grace and composure.
As you may have read on the label the American Wainscot Chair was intended for the most important person in the house -- and also took comfort second to the appearance of power and grace.
Could you tell me more about this portrait?
In this wonderful portrait of our museum's late curator of Paintings and Sculpture, John Baur, Neel uses thick layers of paint and wobbly outlines to imbue this formal genre with a more intimate gaze.
That makes sense, considering the fact that Neel and Baur were close friends, but this intimacy is a quality that permeates all of Neel's work, whether she is painting celebrities or strangers. Many of her subjects were people in the art world -- curators, art historians, gallerists, critics, and others.
Furnished room? Aaron Siskind? Tell me more!
Oh my, I love that Siskind photograph so much. It shows a random, everyday life scene in 1930s Harlem, but it's like the rest of the neighborhood (and the world even!) doesn't exist: all you see is the boy, the woman, and the shadowy face in the window.
It's the kind of perfect snapshot of normal life in New York that one gets after living here for a while. Siskind himself was born on Manhattan's Lower East Side and studied uptown at City College.
What is this?
You may have read on the label that this mask would be used in Yaka circumcision and initiation rituals. After the boys are initiated as men, they travel through numerous villages and are presented as adults. This mask was crucial in these presentations however, it wouldn't be worn. Instead it would actually be held by with a stick . The stick on this particular mask is hidden by the rafia.
