【大都会 English script】第三章:自然生灵 Animals
Chapter 3: Animals
<Introduction>
The earliest prehistoric cave paintings of primitive man featured animals, and they have remained an important subject for art through the centuries. Many of the creatures seen here embody something more than the zoological species depicted. Pagan gods, for example in ancient Egypt, often assume animal form. Christian art finds symbolism in every species. The challenge for the artist often lies in preserving the true character, energy, and appearance of the animal while also expressing a theological or metaphorical meaning.
Animal imagery frequently impresses with the realism of its details. However, animals represented in art owe as much of their form to tradition as they do to the observation of nature. Some artists use abstraction to reveal the subject's most essential qualities. In other cases, the creature is reduced to an element of a pattern, subordinated to decorative principles of symmetry, repetition, and non-realistic scale.
Many of these depictions of animals originally served specific human uses as cult objects or practical implements. The head of a ram, sensitively molded in silver, also functions as a drinking vessel. A bird bright with colorful enamel is at once a dove, a container for the sacred Host used in the Catholic Mass, and a representation of the Holy Ghost. These images are skillfully fashioned, often by artists who saw them daily, but they are also indebted to earlier artistic, literary, and religious traditions.
(一)自然生灵:走兽
据《圣经》记载,狮子是万兽之王,其形象历来被用于守卫财产和人员的安全。不管是在意大利文艺复兴时期的头盔上,还是在来自伊朗的彩色稿本上,狮子均代表了力量和凶猛。骏马则因其高贵、优雅而俊美,长久以来被人仰慕,在这里它既以一种现实主义风格的逼真形象出现在一只埃及的装饰把手上,又以一种引人遐想的抽象形式出现在一尊几何时期(Geometricperiod)的希腊小雕像上。一幅描绘各种哺乳动物的作品则形象地传达出力量、愚钝、野性与征服等寓意。
I. Animals: Lions, Horses and other Beasts
The Bible cites the lion as the mightiest among beasts, and its image has been used to protect both property and persons throughout history. The lion conveys power and ferocity, whether on an Italian Renaissance helmet or in an illuminated manuscript from Iran. The horse, an animal long admired for its nobility, elegance, and beauty, is rendered here in realistic detail in an Egyptian decorative handle and as an evocative abstraction in a Greek statuette from the Geometric period. A menagerie of other mammals projects strength and foolishness, wildness and subjugation.
Bull's head ornament for a lyre
Early Dynastic III, ca. 2600–2350 B.C.
Mesopotamia
Bronze, inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli
13.3 x 10.5 cm
Fletcher Fund, 1947 (47.100.81)
This bull's head, an object most likely made for attachment to a lyre, was cast in one solid piece. Its skilled craftsmanship complements the rich materials used in its manufacture, including pupils inlaid with lapis lazuli imported from northeastern Afghanistan. Wavy ridges ending in curls delineate the bull's beard, while the hair locks at the top of the head are perhaps worn smooth by long use. Above the eyes, stacked folds suggest wrinkled skin and highlight the expressiveness of the animal's gaze. A ridge across the bull's nose may represent a strap, indicating the animal is shown wearing a false, ceremonial beard.
Lyres with bovine heads of gold, silver, or bronze affixed to the front of the sound box have been found at several sites in Mesopotamia in contexts dating to the third millennium B.C. Most famous are the eight bull-headed lyres from the Royal Cemetery at Ur (British Museum, London; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia; and Iraq Museum, Baghdad). On one of these, a large lyre with a gold and lapis bull's head, a shell inlay panel depicts a funerary banquet conducted by animals. An ass plays an eight-stringed bovine lyre much like the one the plaque itself decorates, while a bear supports the front upright arm and crosspiece, and a small fox-like animal shakes a sistrum in accompaniment.
Together with percussion and wind instruments, lyres were used to play royal and divine songs of praise, to accompany conquering armies, and for private amusement. The unique names of some ancient lyres were recorded in texts: one from the court of the southern Mesopotamian ruler Gudea (ca. 2100–2000 B.C.) was named "Abundant Cow," evoking a bovine-headed example like the one this head originally adorned. It has been suggested that lyres with bull's head attachments may have had a deep tone, in keeping with the low tones of bovine vocalizations.
Reference:
Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn. "The Musical Instruments from Ur and Ancient
Mesopotamian Music." Expedition 40 no. 2 (1998), pp. 12–19.
Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn, et al. "Musik." In Reallexicon der Assyriologieund vorderasiatischen Archäologie 8, edited by Dietz Otto Edzard (Berlin, 1997), 463–82.
Muscarella, Oscar White. Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1988), pp. 327–29.
Head of a hippopotamus
Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III, ca. 1390–1352 B.C.
Egyptian alabaster (calcite) with traces of gesso and red pigment
14 x 12.2 x 15.2 cm
Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, Gift of Henry Walters, by exchange, Ludlow Bull Fund, Beatrice Cooper Gift, and funds from various donors, 1997 (1997.375)
The river-dwelling hippopotamus was once common in Egypt, but like other potentially dangerous animals such as the crocodile and the lion, it no longer lives wild in the Nile Valley. The ancient Egyptians had an ambiguous relationship with these unpredictable and aggressive creatures. On the one hand, they feared their potential destructiveness; on the other, they admired their strength and ferociousness. Gods and goddesses represented by the beasts were incorporated into the Egyptian pantheon as deities whose fierce natures, if properly respected and appeased, could offer protection against powerful negative forces.
Ancient Egyptians viewed male hippopotamuses in a particularly negative manner. Scenes showing the pharaoh or other high-ranking individuals officiating during a hippopotamus hunt symbolized the triumph of order over chaos. Seth, a deity often connected to harmful and negative forces, was sometimes associated with a red hippopotamus. In contrast, the Egyptians viewed female hippopotamuses as benevolent creatures that could be invoked to help women during the perilous times of pregnancy and childbirth. Rare white or albino hippopotamuses were also viewed as beneficial animals.
This alabaster head was originally part of a hippopotamus statue that was about one meter long. It likely comes from the mortuary temple of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, at Luxor, a structure rich in monumental animal imagery. The animal's seemingly placid expression and the white color of the stone suggest that it signified a beneficial hippopotamus. However, traces of red paint, which are preserved in furrows at the sides of the mouth, may indicate that the statue represented Seth. Ancient Egyptian statues connected to chaotic forces could be ritually "killed" during temple ceremonies, and this sculpture may have been used in such an observance.
Reference:
Arnold, Dorothea. "Recent Acquisitions A Selection: 1997–1998." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 56, no. 2 (Fall 1998): p. 6.
Statuette of a horse
Iron Age, Geometric period, 8th century B.C.
Greek
Bronze
17.6 x 13.3 x 3.5 cm
Rogers Fund, 1921 (21.88.24)
Greece's early Iron Age, a time also known as the Geometric period (ca. 1050–700 B.C.), witnessed dramatic transformations fundamental to the cultural genesis of classical civilization. The foundation of the polis, or city-state, the introduction of the Greek alphabet, the establishment of Panhellenic sanctuaries, and the expansion of the Greek-speaking world by means of colonization to the east and west all occurred during this early era of Greek history.
Horses constitute one of the primary pictorial symbols of the Geometric period.Throughout the Greek mainland, workshops manufactured solid-cast bronze horse statuettes to dedicate at sanctuaries as offerings to the gods. These small statuettes, among the finest bronzes produced, achieved extraordinary elegance and clarity of form by paring the horse's anatomy to its essence. Here the animal stands at attention, its ears pricked forward. The artist gave special prominence to the powerful hindquarters that taper to thin lower legs, a form balanced by the contour of the massive neck and fine, arching mane.
In most Greek city-states, horse ownership was a defining characteristic of the upper class. Likewise, cavalry was a prominent feature of the military: soldiers on horseback played a decisive role in the outcome of some of the first historic battles, such as the Lelantine War of the late eighth century B.C. Among the finest stylized renderings of a horse from ancient Greece, this statuette epitomizes Geometric art at its most accomplished.
Reference:
Hemingway, Seán. "Horse and Man in Greek Art." Sculpture Review 55, no. 2 (2006): pp. 8–13.
Picón, Carlos A., et al.Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York 2007, pp. 49, 413, 415, no. 31.
Zimmerman, J. L. Les chevaux des bronze dans l'art geometrique grec. Paris 1989, pp. 180, 190.
Vessel terminating in the head of a ram
Iron Age III, ca. 7th–6th century B.C.
Northwestern Iranian
Silver alloy
36.8 x 21.4 cm
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1955 (55.10)
Animal horns were among the earliest drinking vessels used in the ancient world and provided a time-honored prototype for clay and metal containers made in subsequent centuries. The bottom of this silver vessel consists of a carefully modeled ram's head with ribbed, swirling horns. A stylized version of this ribbing continues up the walls to a slightly flaring lip. The vessel's impressive size, combined with the commanding power imbued in the ram, seems designed to convey the authority of those who were privileged to imbibe from it. Comparison with excavated material indicates that this and two similar silver vessels (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, and Cleveland Museum of Art) were most likely produced in northwestern Iran, in the lateseventh century B.C.
Expertise in silversmithing and a great sensitivity to the animal form characterizes the metalwork of ancient Iran beginning in the Proto-Elamite period of the earlythird millennium B.C. The malleability of silver made it the perfect medium for creating naturalistic renderings of animal anatomy. This vessel began as a thick sheet or roughly shaped blank that gradually was hammered into the desired shape. Periodic heating—a process known as annealing—was required to relieve the stresses that accumulated within the metal during working and could cause cracking. Surface details such as the line around the ram's nostrils and the annular hair pattern on the top of the animal's head were added by punching and chasing, using metal tools to lightly strike the surface.
Reference:
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "Four Early Silver Objects from Iran." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 53, no. 2 (February 1966): pp. 38–50.
Wilkinson, Charles K. "Two Ancient Silver Vessels." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 15, no. 1 (Summer 1956): pp. 9–15.
32 x 11.9 x 23.3 cm
Statuette of a cat
Egypt, Ptolemaic period, ca. 323–30 B.C.
Leaded bronze
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1956 (56.16.1)
Domesticated cats first appeared in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. They were likely introduced into Egyptian homes to protect food stores from the depredations of rodents. As the animals lost their wild nature, they seem to have been increasingly viewed as amusing pets. New Kingdom tomb scenes often depict cats seated beneath their owners' chairs or on sporting boats in the Nile marshes, where they flush out birds for their masters.
Cats also had sacred associations and were identified with the feline goddess Bastet, a protective deity connected with fertility and childbirth. Particularly during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, a popular means of honoring feline and other animal deities involved presenting a mummified animal as an offering to the god. Massive cemeteries containing animal mummies are known from these later eras of Pharaonic culture. Because worshipers purchased the offerings as pre-wrapped packages, they were often deceived about the contents. Rather than containing the mummified remains of cats, falcons, or other creatures associated with particular deities, the mummies sometimes held only parts of the animal, the bones of other animals, other organic materials, or nothing at all.
This graceful and dignified bronze statuette originally served as the container for a cat mummy. The creature's elevated status is indicated by the piercing in her proper right ear, which originally held an earring, and the incised design of a necklace with an udjat eye, a protective amulet associated with healing. The extraordinary quality and fine embellishment of the object indicate that it was offered to Bastet by a worshiper of high economic and social standing. The container was presumably deposited in one of the major feline sanctuaries in Egypt, perhaps in Bubastis, in the Egyptian Delta; at Saqqara, near modern Cairo; or in Speos Artemidos, in Middle Egypt.
Reference:
Arnold, Dorothea. "An Egyptian Bestiary." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 52, no. 4 (Spring 1995): pp. 40–41, no. 45.
Dorman, Peter F., Prudence Oliver Harper, and Holly Pittman. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Egypt and the Ancient Near East. New York, 1987, pp. 82–83.
Statuette of a panther
Roman, Imperial period, 1st century A.D.
Bronze, copper, silver, and niello
10.5 x 21.9 cm
Rogers Fund, 1907 (07.261)
This statuette depicts a female panther lying on her side, her left foreleg and hind leg raised in the air and her head lifted and turned to the left. Her ears are pressed back and her mouth is open in a defensive gesture. The pose likely represents playful sparring, but the sheer power conveyed by the artist through the feline's massive head, pronounced musculature, and sinewy body underscores the ferocity a mother panther is capable of when she senses danger.
Cats were not common Roman household pets until the second century A.D. In the first century, when this sculpture was made, panthers were an even rarer sight, sometimes appearing in venationes (wild beast shows) or gladiatorial games. Aside from its unusually long neck, which is typical of Roman representations of panthers in the first century A.D., the naturalistic rendering of this finely executed bronze panther with its inlaid spots of copper, silver, and niello suggests that the artist had observed a big cat firsthand. The statuette was found in 1880, on the Via Babuino, in Rome, together with a number of other bronzes including a statuette of the god Bacchus and a female panther draped with ivy, the style, pose, and craftsmanship of which indicate that it was likely a product of the same workshop and quite possibly the same figural group. Panthers were frequently associated in Greco-Roman art with Dionysos (or Bacchus, as the Romans called him) and the god's mythical triumph in the East.
Reference:
Friedman, Winifred. "A Roman Panther Handle in the Fogg Art Museum."
Acquisitions (Fogg Art Museum) (1966–67): pp. 43–53, esp. pp. 50–51.
Richter, Gisela M. A. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes. New York, 1915, pp. 162–66.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. "The Babuino Bronzes." In In Memoriam Otto J. Brendel: Essays in Archaeology and the Humanities, edited by L. Bonfante and H. von Heinze, pp. 155–58, pls. 38–40. Mainz, 1976.
Vessel in the shape of a bear
200–400 A.D.
Roman or Byzantine
Copper alloy
13.8 x 16.7 x 9.2 cm
Edith Perry Chapman Fund, 1966 (66.18)
This copper vessel, probably used to hold oils or ointments for the bath, was filled through the hinged opening at the back of the bear's neck and emptied through its mouth. The animal's eyes have pierced holes for pupils, which prevented air lock. There are related vessels in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, and the Brooklyn Museum, but the most similar one, formerly in Berlin, was lost in World War II.
The vessel represents a captive bear, as indicated by the harness the animal wears around its neck and chest. In ancient Rome, wild animal shows were popular entertainments; in the third century A.D., one such performance featured a thousand bears. The existence of public spectacles featuring captive animals gave the maker of this vessel the opportunity to see real bears at close quarters. While small in scale and utilitarian in function, this little sculpture demonstrates the close observation of nature that characterized classical Roman culture.Animated by the gesture of turning its head to the side, this bear is further detailed with his carefully articulated, incised fur and his extended tongue.
Reference:
Barnet, Peter, and Pete Dandridge, eds. Lions, Dragons, and Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table. Exh. cat. New Haven, 2005, p. 178, no. 31.
Daim, Falko, ed. Byzanz Prache und Alltag. Bonn, 2010, p. 273, no. 306.
Kozloff, Arielle P. "A Bronze Menagerie." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63 (March 1976): pp. 83–88, fig. 27.
Aquamanile in the shape of a lion
ca. 1400
German, Nuremberg
Copper alloy
31.9 x 11.8 x 31.8 cm
The Cloisters Collection, 1994 (1994.244)
The imposing presence of this lion aquamanile (water vessel used for hand washing), especially when seen in profile, is generated by the creature's large scale, erect stance, curling tail with flamelike tufts of hair, and expressive face. The lion's jaws open wide to reveal sharp teeth and a protruding tongue; its brows arch dramatically and its nostrils flare. The dragon that forms the vessel's handle turns its head to the right with a threatening open mouth, further animating the work. The surface is embellished with skillfully engraved lines in the tufts of fur on the tail, at the rear of each of the four legs, and most notably in the pattern covering the lion's swelling chest.
Aquamanilia were the first medieval hollow-cast vessels, and the earliest surviving examples date to about 1200. The maker of this later work used the cireperdue (lost wax) method, in which wax is molded around a rough clay model into the desired form of the sculpture, coated with a mixture of brick, clay, and ashes, and melted out to create space for the molten metal. The vessel was filled through the square opening at the top of the lion's head, and water was poured through a spigot that protruded from the lower section of the creature's chest.
This lion can be placed with a cohesive group of so-called flame-tailed aquamanilia attributed to the south German city of Nuremburg and dated to about 1400. Among the related examples are lion aquamanilia in the collections of the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich. These objects are close enough in conception, form, and handling for us to assume that they were produced in the same workshop. The attribution and dating of the group are based on close comparisons with a winged lion represented in relief on the cast epitaph of the Imhoff family in Lauingen an der Donau, Germany, dated to about 1400, and a mask of a youth from a lost Nuremberg fountain monument.
Reference:
Barnet, Peter, and Pete Dandridge, eds. Lions, Dragons, and Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table. Exh. cat. New Haven, 2005, p. 178, no. 31.
The Lion, from a dispersed manuscript of the Nuzhatnama (The Book of Pleasures) by Shahmardan ibn Abi'l-Khair Razi
The Lion, from a dispersed manuscript of the Nuzhatnama (The Book of Pleasures) by Shahmardan ibn Abi'l-Khair Razi.
Early 17th century
Iranian
Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
7.6 x 10.5 cm
Rogers Fund, 1913 (13.160.8)
This image of a lion striding through bulrushes comes from a dispersed manuscript of the Nuzhatnama (The Book of Pleasures), an encyclopedia of natural sciences, history, and literature originally composed in the early twelfth century by Shahmardan ibn Abi'l-Khair Razi for a prince of Yazd, Iran. It is one of nineteen extant folios that include paintings of quadrupeds, birds, and plants. As with the other animals illustrated in this volume, the accompanying Persian text describes the lion's physical characteristics, such as its blood, hair, teeth, and claws.
Lions were still present in the wild in seventeenth-century Iran, and individual drawings of them abound in the work of some of the major court artists, such as Sadiqi Beg (active 1570–1610) and Mu`in Musavvir (active ca. 1630–1700). The vigor and naturalism of this lion's dangling tongue, expressive eye, and alert tail, as well as the painterly treatment of the vegetation and rocks, suggest that the work dates to the early seventeenth century. A similarly posed lion appears in a drawing by Sadiqi Beg and also on contemporary molded monochrome ceramics. Assigning this image to a school is more problematic, since this manner of painting does not resemble that of either of Iran's dominant cultural centers, Qazwin and Isfahan. The manuscript may have been produced in Astarabad or Mashhad, cities that grew in importance during this period under the rule of powerful regional governors.
Reference:
Contadini, Anna. "A Wonderful World: Folios from a Dispersed Manuscript of the Nuzhat-nama." Muqarnas 21 (2004): pp. 95–120.
Schmitz, Barbara. Islamic and Indian Manuscripts and Paintings in The Pierpont Morgan Library. New York, 1997, pp. 48–49.
Helmet in the shape of a lion's head
ca. 1460–80
Italian
Steel, copper, gold, glass, pigments, and textile
29.8 x 21 x 31.8 cm, WT. 3.7 kg
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1923 (23.141)
This helmet is the earliest surviving example of a type of armor developed in Renaissance Italy known as all'antica (in the antique style), a term also used more generally to describe art and aesthetics inspired by the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome. Beautifully sculptural and naturalistic in its shape, the helmet is believed to represent the head of the Nemean Lion, a fierce beast from Greek mythology that could not be harmed by manmade weapons. It was finally slain by the classical hero Hercules in the first of his famous twelve labors. Hercules wore the lion's impenetrable pelt as a headdress and cloak, not only for protection but also as evidence of his legendary prowess. Both in antiquity and during the Renaissance, Hercules was frequently portrayed wearing the pelt, which in the vocabulary of the visual arts came to be seen as a symbol of indomitable strength, courage, and perseverance.
The helmet consists of a delicate copper outer shell that was skillfully embossed to create the lion's head and then given its golden color by fire gilding. For strength and support, the head was mounted over a plain steel helmet called a sallet. The lion's eyes are made of glass and its fangs were silvered to make them stand out against the background of the helmet, which was painted black and red in this area to represent the lion's mouth. A person wearing the helmet would appear to be looking out of the animal's mouth, just as Hercules did when he wore the pelt of the Nemean Lion.
Reference:
Pyhrr, Stuart W., and José-A. Godoy. Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries. Exh. cat. New York, 1998, pp. 92–94.
Dish with a lion
ca. 1500
Spanish, probably Manises, Valencia
Tin-glazed and lustered earthenware
Overall 47.3 cm
The Cloisters Collection, 1956 (56.171.155)
A product of the rich complex of diverse cultures and religions that characterized late medieval Spain, this lavish ceramic object links the Islamic East with the Gothic West. The large copper luster dish features the figure of a lion, cleverly arranged to fill the circular form. The lion's tail develops into a flower, and other flowerlike forms are strewn along his legs and around his body, animating the space. Acacia blossoms cover the reverse. These organic motifs are drawn from ancient artistic heritages, including both the classical Greco-Roman world and ancient Persian traditions. The lion was incised in the soft clay before firing and then drawn in glaze, a technique common in Valencian lusterware of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Lusterware refers to glazed pottery that simulates the shine of precious metalwork. Metallic oxides in the glaze create a shimmering effect, transforming ceramics into luxury objects. The demanding process requires at least two firings and the application of a white, tin-laden base coat prior to the final painted embellishment. The Islamic potters who introduced the technique to Spain first taught it to Christian ceramicists around Malaga. The center of production migrated to the area around Valencia in the fourteenth century. The widespread popularity of lusterware caused it to be exported throughout Europe; it was highly valued in royal and ducal courts in France, Sicily, Germany, and the Lowlands.
Reference:
Dectot, Xavier. Céramiques hispaniques (XIIe-XVIIIe siècle). Paris, 2007, no. 72 (related work in collection of Musée National du Moyen Âge, Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny, Paris).
Ecker, Heather. Caliphs and Kings: The Art and Influence of Islamic Spain. Washington, D.C., 2004, pp. 78, 100, 159, no. 80.
Ray, Anthony. Spanish Pottery, 1248–1898: With a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 2000, esp. p. 95.
Glass panel with three apes building a trestle table
1480–1500
German
Colorless glass, vitreous paint, and silver stain
26 x 22.5 cm
The Cloisters Collection, 1990 (1990.119.3)
This appealing glass painting shows natural-looking animals behaving unnaturally. Apes appear in medieval art as early as the Romanesque period, and they were often associated with human folly. Drolleries in the margins of thirteenth and fourteenth-century manuscripts frequently feature animals performing human tasks, and this scene of three apes attempting to build a table perpetuates that tradition. The table balances precariously on opposing single and A-shaped trestle legs, and so the scene was likely a moralizing commentary on useless or foolish work. The contrast between the artist's naturalistic representation of the apes and their distinctly human activity sharpens the satire. The setting for the apes' labors is indicated only by the checkerboard floor, a motif that also appears in the work of latefifteenth-century German graphic artists such as the Master E. S. (active ca. 1440–1468) and Israel van Meckenen (ca. 1440/45–1503).
Silver stain glass panels, often in the shape of roundels, were popular in the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in both ecclesiastical and secular contexts. Although the original location of this diamond-shaped example has not been identified, works of art in other media include representations of similar panels installed in domestic settings. Unlike the brightly colored stained glass of cathedrals, silver stain scenes were painted on colorless glass. Outlines were indicated in dark brown or black vitreous paint and then fired. The scene was then embellished with a silver compound that, when fired again, yielded a translucent color ranging from yellow to ochre to amber, depending on the concentration of silver and the length of firing.
Reference:
Husband, Timothy B. In Mirror of the Medieval World, edited by William D. Wixom, p. 202, cat. 244. Exh. cat. New York, 1999.
Husband, Timothy B., ed. Stained Glass before 1700 in American Collections: Silver Stained Roundels and Unipartite Panels(Corpus Vitrearum Checklist IV). Studies in the History of Art 39, Monograph Series 1. Washington, D.C., 1991, p. 132.
Severo Calzetta da Ravenna (Italian, active by 1496, died before 1543)
Statuette of a rearing horse
ca. 1520–30
Bronze
20.6 x 7.8 x 23.2 cm
Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964 (64.101.1413)
Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, can be variously treated to achieve a ravishing interplay of form and surface. The Italian sculptor and founder Severo Calzetta practiced in both Padua and Ravenna. A true entrepreneur, he was one of the first to produce multiple copies of his models, which quickly reached many corners of Europe. Zesty little creations, they nonetheless show little anatomical sophistication. Animals are relatively rare in his oeuvre; he was typically interested in human figures, investing them with a rectilinear expressivity that carries over into this steed. His several horses of this rearing type are essentially arranged in shorthand formation, along a single plane, somewhat like those depicted in heraldry or painted by contemporary artists such as Vittore Carpaccio (ca. 1460–ca. 1526).
Reference:
Draper, James David. In Highlights of the Untermyer Collection of English and Continental Decorative Arts. Exh. cat. New York, 1977, p. 160, no. 297.
Jestaz, Bertrand. "Une statuette de bronze: Le Saint Christophe de Severo de Ravenna." La revue du Louvre et des musées de France 22, no. 2 (1972): pp. 75–76.
Antoine-Louise Barye (French, 1795–1875)
Tiger Attacking and Antelope
Possibly modeled about 1836; cast after 1868
Bronze
34.9 x 55.9 x 25.7 cm, 24.75kg
Gift of Maria A. S. de Reinis, 1982 (1982.452)
While the primal energy of the animal world was a favorite subject of French artists of the Romantic school, the meticulous observation of nature evident in Antoine-Louise Barye's animal sculpture owed much to advances in the study of the natural sciences made during the eighteenth century. In 1793, the former royal botanical garden in Paris was combined with the transplanted menagerie of the royal palace at Versailles, together titled the Jardin des Plantes. In Barye's time, as now, both the botanical garden and the zoo were administered by the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, where a cabinet of comparative anatomy had been established. Thus, Barye was able to study animal anatomy as well as to sketch and model living animals, many of them of exotic origin, without ever leaving Paris.
Trained as a goldsmith and later by the sculptor François-Joseph Bosio (1768–1845), Barye was employed until 1817 by Fourrier, a firm that specialized in cutting steel dies for stamping ornamental designs in metal. Early in his career, he also worked for one of the leading Paris goldsmiths, Jacques-Henri Fauconnier (1779–1838), casting and finishing silver. These experiences are evident in the attention to surface detail found in the best of Bayre's bronzes. The small ones were cast for both aristocratic patrons and the middle class. Beginning in 1844, the popular parlor sculptures could be ordered directly from published catalogues.
Reference:
Johnston, William R., and Simon Kelly. Untamed: The Art of Antoine-Louis Barye. Exh. cat. Baltimore, 2006, pp. 94–95, no. 15 (illus. of similar example).
Poletti, Michel, and Alain Richarme. Barye: Catalogue raisonné des sculptures. Paris, 2000, p. 215, no. A81(1) (illus. of similar example).
François Pompon (French, 1855–1933)
Polar Bear
ca. 1923
Marble
29.2 x 48.3 x 17.1 cm
Purchase, Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1930 (30.123ab)
Classically trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, a frequent exhibitor at official French salons, and a studio assistant to Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) from 1890–97, François Pompon did not begin exploring stylized naturalism and the animal subjects for which he is best known until around 1910. At the age of sixty-seven, he exhibited a life-size plaster sculpture of a striding polar bear, with paws slightly separated, at the 1922 Salon d'Automne. In 1923 he displayed a smaller marble variant of this theme, with the bear's front and back right paws touching; the Metropolitan's Polar Bear is one of twelve known marble examples of this smaller version created before the sculptor's death. The popularity of the two sculptures led Pompon to produce both models in a variety of sizes, from tabletop to full-scale, and in a range of media including plaster, porcelain, marble, and bronze.
As a genre, animalier sculpture—depictions of animals—reached its height in mid-nineteenth-century France. The public taste for it, however, lasted well into the twentieth century, if principally as a form of decoration. Indeed, Polar Bear was a favorite model of Pompon's friend and renowned decorator Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (1879–1933), who featured it prominently in many of his interiors, most notably his widely visited room settings at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), the vast and influential state-sponsored design fair in Paris that today lends its name to the Art Deco style.
The Metropolitan Museum purchased this sculpture in 1930 from the Galerie Edgar Brandt, the eponymous Paris showroom of the well-known metalworker (1880–1960). In addition to displaying his own works, Brandt exhibited sculpture, paintings, furniture, glassware, ceramics, and other decorative arts by his friends, underscoring the close relationship between the fine and decorative arts in French Art Deco.
Reference:
Chevillot, Catherine, Liliane Colas, and Anne Pingeot. François Pompon, 1855–1933. Exh. cat. Paris, 1994, p. 212.
(二):自然生灵:飞禽
在古埃及,人们常将猎鹰视为太阳神荷鲁斯的化身。各种以猎鹰为题材的绘画和雕塑作品皆以一种具有威慑力的简洁风格充分表现了它的力量。在基督教文化中,鸽子和老鹰都被赋予了特殊地位,因为圣灵常以鸽子形象出现,而老鹰则是福音传道者圣约翰的象征,在展出的一件法国圣餐器皿和一张意大利诵经台中均有所体现。本部分出现的一些作品中的鸟类纯属装饰目的,让我们有可能接触到一连串图案装饰传统。作品中出现的另外一些鸟类,例如一件19世纪美国圆盘上描绘的鹤鸟,体现出艺术家对动物学的浓厚兴趣,以及他们对特殊品种的鸟类及其习性的细致观察。
II. Animals: Birds
In ancient Egypt, the falcon was identified with the sky god Horus. Pictorial and sculptural renditions of the bird capture its power with a commanding simplicity. Christianity accords special status to the image of the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove and to the eagle that symbolizes Saint John the Evangelist, as demonstrated in a French Eucharistic container and an Italian lectern. Some birds represented in this section are purely decorative motifs, links in a long chain of patterning traditions. Others, such as the cranes painted on a nineteenth-century American plate, display their makers' interest in ornithology with close observation of specific species and their habits.
Bow fibula with four ducks
Iron Age, ca. 900 B.C.
Villanovan
Bronze
8.8 x 13.7 cm
Fletcher Fund, 1926 (26.60.87)
The Villanovans of Italy are named after the site in the modern province of Bologna where the first cemetery belonging to this early culture was excavated in the middle of the nineteenth century. Originally identified by their cremation burials in biconical ossuaries ornately decorated with incised decoration, the Villanovans were the predecessors of the Etruscans, an ancient civilization (ca. 720–100 B.C.) that flourished in central Italy between the Po River to the north and the Tiber River to the south and east.
One cannot overestimate the importance of the fibula in antiquity. This ubiquitous article of jewelry was used across cultures as a means of fastening men's and women's garments and took a wide variety of forms, from very plain types to ornately decorated displays of wealth. In this elegant Villanovan example, four water birds, likely ducks, swim in a row along the bow's edge, which cleverly recalls the contour of a small body of water such as a pond. Delicate patterns on the bow, bold spirals above the spring and catchplate, and concentric rows of tiny dots on the clasp add to the richness of the design, which was achieved with a great deal of meticulous cold working of the metal.
Reference:
Haynes, Sibyl. Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History. Los Angeles, 2000.
Picón, Carlos A., et al. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 413, 415, 467, no. 307.
Richter, Gisela M. A. Handbook of the Etruscan Collection. New York, 1940, pp. 4–5, fig. 14.
Inlay of Horus-of-Gold Name
Egypt, Late Period, Dynasty 30, reign of Nectanebo II, ca. 360–43 B.C.
Polychrome faience
15.5 x 2.7 cm
Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926 (26.7.996)
This delicately colored faience inlay is actually an elaborately constructed hieroglyph. It depicts a falcon viewed in profile standing atop a small, stylized necklace with pendant-drop beads and hanging ties. The falcon symbolizes Horus, one of the major deities of the Egyptian pantheon and the god of kingship; the necklace-sign constitutes the word for "gold." This combination of signs precedes one of the pharaoh's five titles, aptly called the "Horus-of-Gold name" by Egyptologists.
The ancient Egyptian writing system used stylized representations of human beings, the natural world, and inanimate objects to designate individual sounds and whole words. The basic hieroglyphic sign-list contains approximately 175 signs that depict all or parts of mammals, birds, fish, and invertebrates. A further 86 signs represent trees, plants, earth, water, sky, and celestial phenomena. For the ancient Egyptians, hieroglyphic signs and other images representing the natural world had a life and power of their own; they were not merely word pictures. At various times in Egyptian history, hieroglyphs representing living creatures that were deemed particularly dangerous were either rendered in an abbreviated format or mutilated in a manner intended to cause a ritual "death."
This object belongs to a group of inlays in the Metropolitan's collection that dates to the reign of the Dynasty 30 pharaoh Nectanebo II. Traces of wood recovered from the backs of these inlays indicate that they were originally set into one or more wooden objects, perhaps a shrine housing a statue. Other inlays from the group would have formed one of Nectanebo's names.
Reference:
Bianchi, Robert Steven, and Florence Dunn Friedman. "Inlay in the Form of the Composite Hieroglyph 'The Horus [or Falcon?] of Gold.'" In Gifts of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Faience, edited by Florence Dunn Friedman, p. 200, no. 61. Exh. cat. Providence, 1998.
Franco, Isabelle. "Golden Horus." In The Pharaohs, edited by Christiane Ziegler, p. 402, no. 41. Exh. cat. Milan, 2001.
Statuette depicting the god Horus in falcon form protecting King Nectanebo II
Egypt, Late Period, Dynasty 30, reign of Nectanebo II, ca. 360–43 B.C.
Metagraywacke
72 x 20 x 46.5 cm, WT. 55.3 kg
Rogers Fund, 1934 (34.2.1)
Ancient Egyptians believed that they could call upon the animal aspects of powerful deities to bless and protect their ruler. At the same time, the pharaoh himself was a deity who could embody the superhuman characteristics of formidable animals. This elegant statue perfectly expresses the seeming paradox: the falcon form of the god Horus shelters the diminutive figure of Nectanebo II, while simultaneously representing the pharaoh himself. The sculpture's smoothly flowing planes and Horus's intense, fixed gaze emphasize the falcon's regal qualities; his brute power is manifest in the bird's large, sharp claws. The double crown on Horus's head indicates that we are in the presence of an extraordinary creature.
Horus was one of the most important figures in the ancient Egyptian pantheon. A sky god who embodied divine kingship, he was usually depicted as a falcon or a falcon-headed man. Nectanebo II had a particularly strong connection to Horus's cult. Indeed, this composition may be read as a rebus of Nectanebo II's Egyptian name, Nakhthorheb: "nakht," the sword in the pharaoh's left hand; "Hor," the Horus falcon that dominates the statue; and "heb," the festival-hieroglyph in the pharaoh's right hand. The last sign probably refers to the city of Hebyt, which was the site of the great temple constructed by Nectanebo II for Isis, mother of Horus.
Representations of the pharaoh in wall paintings and carved reliefs commonly depict the Horus falcon hovering above. On ancient Egyptian statuary, falcons sometimes spread protective wings around the ruler. The Horus falcon does not depict a specific species, but rather incorporates characteristics of several types native to Egypt.
Reference:
Arnold, Dorothea. "An Egyptian Bestiary." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 52, no. 4 (Spring 1995): pp. 44–45, no. 50.
Eucharistic dove
ca. 1215–35
French, Limoges
Gilded copper with champlevé enamel and glass beads
19 x 19.8 x 7.2 cm
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.344)
The association of the dove with the Holy Spirit goes back to the Gospel of Matthew. When Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God is said to have descended upon him in the form of this long-tailed bird. Thus to the medieval mind, a sculpture of a dove represented both nature and God. This object is made from two principal sheets of hammered copper joined along a seam that passes through the center of the dove's breast and back. Additional sheets form the wings and the tear-shaped lid. Lifelike details include the bird's ridged beak and jointed talons; rich gilding adds to the vibrant effect. The enameling on the colorful wings and tail feathers, however, is more decorative than descriptive.
This copper bird served a practical function in the Christian liturgy: the lid on its back conceals a small cavity where the consecrated Host was placed. The tradition of making Christian vessels in the shape of doves originated in the third century, and period documents attest to their use as Eucharistic containers in fifth-century France. Many documents from the twelfth through the fourteenth century mention gold and silver liturgical dove vessels in wealthy French churches, although few are preserved. Surviving vessels like this one were instead made of gilded copper and adorned with enamel typical of Limoges. Here the enamel work is highly accomplished, with three or four colors arranged in some cells. This level of sophistication suggests a date in the early part of the thirteenth century. The object's suspension system is modern but replicates a hanging method known to be medieval. The dove would have hovered above the altar, evoking the creature's natural and supernatural characteristics while also protecting the Host from mice and other vermin.
Reference:
Boehm, Barbara Drake. "Eucharistic Doves." In Corpus des émaux méridionaux. Vol. 2. Edited by Danielle Gaborit-Chopin. Paris, 2011.
Boehm, Barbara D[rake], and Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye. Enamels of Limoges, 1100–1350. Exh. cat. New York, 1996, pp. 318–19, no. 105.
McLachlan, Elizabeth Parker. "Liturgical Vessels and Implements." In The Liturgy of the Medieval Church, edited by Thomas J. Heffernan and E. Ann Matter, pp. 369–429, esp. pp. 398–99. Kalamazoo, Mich., 2001.
Giovanni Pisano (Italian, about 1248–1319)
Lectern with the eagle of Saint John the Evangelist
ca. 1301, with later additions
Italian, Tuscany, from the pulpit of the Church of Sant'Andrea, Pistoia
Carrara marble, with addition of Pentelic marble
70.5 x 61.5 x 40.6 cm
Rogers Fund, 1918 (18.70.28)
This majestic eagle, with wings poised as if ready for flight, clutches an open book in its talons. Despite the detailed tooling of the bird's feathers and sturdy anatomy, it is as much a creature of religious tradition as of nature. The eagle is the animal symbol for Saint John, and this example was originally the crowning element of a tetramorph, a sculptural composite of the symbols of the four Evangelists. It was made to serve as a lectern atop the pulpit of the church of Sant'Andrea, at Pistoia. A hexagonal book rest supported on the eagle's back held the Gospels for reading during Mass. (The eagle's head is a later restoration.) The pulpit was completed in 1301, dismantled in 1619, and reassembled in the twentieth century. A cast of this sculpture is integrated into the pulpit today.
The carving is the work of one of the greatest Italian Gothic sculptors, Giovanni Pisano. A contemporary of Giotto (1266/76–1337) and Dante (1265–1321), Pisano was their peer in artistic achievement. Giovanni trained with his father, Nicola Pisano (active 1258–1278), and went on to create great sculptural pulpits for Pisa and elsewhere. He was the capomastro, or master builder, of Siena Cathedral, where he designed the facade and carved many of the full-length statues. He worked in all sculptural media and was influenced by antique sculpture, his father's style, and French Gothic designs, synthesizing these diverse sources into an innovative personal style that influenced a generation of later artists. The high quality of his work is evident here in the crisp carving and naturalistic detail of the eagle's feathers and the proud posture of the figure as a whole.
Reference:
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Lisbeth, and Jack Soultanian, with contributions by Richard Y. Tayar. Italian Medieval Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters. New York, 2010, pp. 156–59, no. 35.
Modeled by Johann Friedrich Eberlein (German, 1695–1749)
Manufactured by Meissen Porcelain Manufactory (Meissen, Germany, 1710–present)
Eagle owl
ca. 1735
Hard-paste porcelain
52.1 x 29.4 x 23.8 cm
Bequest of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of his wife, Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1977(1977.216.9)
This figure of an eagle owl belongs to a large group of porcelain mammals and birds ordered for one of the Saxon royal palaces in Dresden, Germany. Known as the Japanese Palace, the building was intended to house the vast porcelain collection of Augustus II (1670–1733), the elector of Saxony and King of Poland. Augustus was a voracious collector of both Chinese and Japanese porcelains in the early eighteenth century, and his interest in Asian ceramics led to his establishment of the Meissen factory near Dresden in 1710. The early production at Meissen was strongly influenced by Augustus's Chinese and Japanese porcelains, and the designs for the interiors of the Japanese Palace incorporated both Asian and Meissen examples.
In 1730, Augustus initiated a commission for large-scale animals that would be displayed in the Japanese Palace. The original order called for almost six hundred creatures in sizes approximating, when possible, the subjects' true dimensions. Given the scope of the commission, the scale of the sculptures, and the complexity of the required modeling, this undertaking had no precedent in the medium of porcelain in either Asia or Europe. The figures were originally to be painted in naturalistic colors to enhance the sense of realism, but it was soon discovered that the additional firing required for the enamel colors subjected the largest sculptures to excessive risk of cracking or other technical problems.
Among the many mid-sized sculptures that were decorated with enamels is this eagle owl clutching a dead dove. The modeler, Johann Friedrich Eberlein, imbued the sculpture with animation and a sense of presence not only through the angle of the owl's head and its expressive gaze, but also by depicting a specific moment in time, in this case just after the bird caught its prey. One of five eagle owls recorded in the Japanese Palace in 1736, this example is the only one to have survived intact to the present day.
Reference:
Wittwer, Samuel. The Gallery of Meissen Animals. Munich, 2006, pp. 100–101, 345–46.
John Bennett (American, 1840–1907)
Charger with cranes in a landscape
1877
Earthenware
Diam. 43.2 cm
Purchase, Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation Gift, 2008 (2008.176)
The late 1870s and early 1880s was the height of the Aesthetic Movement in America, a movement that sought to infuse art into all aspects of daily life. This era marked the beginning of the studio movement in furniture, glass, and ceramics. John Bennett, an English-born ceramic decorator, was a significant conduit for bringing art pottery to the United States. Bennett had developed his technical expertise and distinctive style at the Doulton Pottery in Lambeth, London. His work was included in the firm's prominent displays at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, and in 1877, the year this charger was made, he immigrated to the United States, setting up a studio in New York City. The artist is best known for introducing to North America the "Lambeth" style of decoration, a technique that involved painting in thin, richly colored pigments coated with a clear, shiny glaze.
In subject matter and style, Bennett's work has much in common with that of English reform designers such as William Morris (1834–1896). Like Morris, his imagery was dominated by highly stylized natural forms—most commonly, flowers—rendered as flat, two-dimensional patterns. The decoration of this charger represents a slight departure for Bennett in its subject of birds in a landscape. Its composition of two cranes in a field of grasses set against a bright ochre background responds to the vogue for Japanesque design that prevailed during this period. Overall, the charger is an excellent example of the nature-inspired Anglo-Japanese style characteristic of Aesthetic Movement pottery.
Reference:
Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. "Aesthetic Forms in Ceramics and Glass." In In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement. Doreen Bolger Burke, et al., pp. 198–251. Exh. cat. New York, 1986.
66cm x 45.1 cmDesigned by Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848–1933)
Manufactured by Tiffany Studios (New York, N.Y., 1902–1932)
Hibiscus and Parrots Window
ca. 1910–20
Leaded Favrile glass
66 x 45.1 cm
Gift of Earl and Lucille Sydnor, 1990 (1990.315)
Louis Comfort Tiffany occupied the foremost position among American practitioners in the arena of stained glass during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and today his artistic accomplishments are renowned. He wholly redefined the medium, heralding new types of glass and new techniques to achieve an entirely original look in pictorial windows. In the late 1870s, Tiffany, along with his fellow artist and competitor John La Farge (1835–1910), introduced opalescent window glass. Henceforth, his windows incorporated a full arsenal of colored, textured, plated, flashed, and acid-etched glass. At the same time, Tiffany's scientists developed an astonishing array of coloristic effects in the glass itself, in many instances melding multiple colors. He called his distinctive glass "Favrile," a term derived from the Latin word for handmade.
In addition to the revolutionary materials and techniques Tiffany introduced into the
medium, the artist heralded a new subject matter for stained glass: the natural world. Landscapes, gardens, and floral motifs dominated his nature themes. Tiffany's designs involving birds are relatively few, one of the most notable being a window that he exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, which was based on a print by the American artist and naturalist John James Audubon (1785–1851). While the present window relates in a general way to some of Audubon's birds, it appears to be an original composition. The highly exotic and colorful creatures must have appealed greatly to Tiffany's sensibilities. While most of the flowers Tiffany integrated into his art were native to North America, he favored birds from exotic foreign climes, whose brilliant plumage satisfied his love of a rich, jewel-like palette.
This vibrant hibiscus and parrots window showcases Tiffany's brilliant use of color and texture in glass. Shading creates the forms of the two birds' heads, and a mixture of blues and greens produces their dramatic plumage, with the tail given greater realism through the texture of the glass, which is sensitively ridged to simulate the individual barbs of the feathers. The creamy hibiscus blossoms likewise demonstrate the studio's technical prowess in depicting illusionistic effects through texture and subtle variations in color. Tiffany's distinctive mottled glass convincingly conveys the impression of sunlight filtered through foliage. The window's small size and secular subject suggest that it was probably intended for a domestic setting.
Reference:
Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. "Louis Comfort Tiffany at The Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 56, no. 1 (Summer 1998): pp. 76–81.
Johnson, Marilynn A. Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages. London, 2005.
Joppien, Ruddiger, ed. Louis C. Tiffany: Meisterwerke des amerikanischen Jugendstils. Hamburg, 1999.
<Introduction>
The earliest prehistoric cave paintings of primitive man featured animals, and they have remained an important subject for art through the centuries. Many of the creatures seen here embody something more than the zoological species depicted. Pagan gods, for example in ancient Egypt, often assume animal form. Christian art finds symbolism in every species. The challenge for the artist often lies in preserving the true character, energy, and appearance of the animal while also expressing a theological or metaphorical meaning.
Animal imagery frequently impresses with the realism of its details. However, animals represented in art owe as much of their form to tradition as they do to the observation of nature. Some artists use abstraction to reveal the subject's most essential qualities. In other cases, the creature is reduced to an element of a pattern, subordinated to decorative principles of symmetry, repetition, and non-realistic scale.
Many of these depictions of animals originally served specific human uses as cult objects or practical implements. The head of a ram, sensitively molded in silver, also functions as a drinking vessel. A bird bright with colorful enamel is at once a dove, a container for the sacred Host used in the Catholic Mass, and a representation of the Holy Ghost. These images are skillfully fashioned, often by artists who saw them daily, but they are also indebted to earlier artistic, literary, and religious traditions.
(一)自然生灵:走兽
据《圣经》记载,狮子是万兽之王,其形象历来被用于守卫财产和人员的安全。不管是在意大利文艺复兴时期的头盔上,还是在来自伊朗的彩色稿本上,狮子均代表了力量和凶猛。骏马则因其高贵、优雅而俊美,长久以来被人仰慕,在这里它既以一种现实主义风格的逼真形象出现在一只埃及的装饰把手上,又以一种引人遐想的抽象形式出现在一尊几何时期(Geometricperiod)的希腊小雕像上。一幅描绘各种哺乳动物的作品则形象地传达出力量、愚钝、野性与征服等寓意。
I. Animals: Lions, Horses and other Beasts
The Bible cites the lion as the mightiest among beasts, and its image has been used to protect both property and persons throughout history. The lion conveys power and ferocity, whether on an Italian Renaissance helmet or in an illuminated manuscript from Iran. The horse, an animal long admired for its nobility, elegance, and beauty, is rendered here in realistic detail in an Egyptian decorative handle and as an evocative abstraction in a Greek statuette from the Geometric period. A menagerie of other mammals projects strength and foolishness, wildness and subjugation.
Bull's head ornament for a ... |
Bull's head ornament for a lyre
Early Dynastic III, ca. 2600–2350 B.C.
Mesopotamia
Bronze, inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli
13.3 x 10.5 cm
Fletcher Fund, 1947 (47.100.81)
This bull's head, an object most likely made for attachment to a lyre, was cast in one solid piece. Its skilled craftsmanship complements the rich materials used in its manufacture, including pupils inlaid with lapis lazuli imported from northeastern Afghanistan. Wavy ridges ending in curls delineate the bull's beard, while the hair locks at the top of the head are perhaps worn smooth by long use. Above the eyes, stacked folds suggest wrinkled skin and highlight the expressiveness of the animal's gaze. A ridge across the bull's nose may represent a strap, indicating the animal is shown wearing a false, ceremonial beard.
Lyres with bovine heads of gold, silver, or bronze affixed to the front of the sound box have been found at several sites in Mesopotamia in contexts dating to the third millennium B.C. Most famous are the eight bull-headed lyres from the Royal Cemetery at Ur (British Museum, London; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia; and Iraq Museum, Baghdad). On one of these, a large lyre with a gold and lapis bull's head, a shell inlay panel depicts a funerary banquet conducted by animals. An ass plays an eight-stringed bovine lyre much like the one the plaque itself decorates, while a bear supports the front upright arm and crosspiece, and a small fox-like animal shakes a sistrum in accompaniment.
Together with percussion and wind instruments, lyres were used to play royal and divine songs of praise, to accompany conquering armies, and for private amusement. The unique names of some ancient lyres were recorded in texts: one from the court of the southern Mesopotamian ruler Gudea (ca. 2100–2000 B.C.) was named "Abundant Cow," evoking a bovine-headed example like the one this head originally adorned. It has been suggested that lyres with bull's head attachments may have had a deep tone, in keeping with the low tones of bovine vocalizations.
Reference:
Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn. "The Musical Instruments from Ur and Ancient
Mesopotamian Music." Expedition 40 no. 2 (1998), pp. 12–19.
Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn, et al. "Musik." In Reallexicon der Assyriologieund vorderasiatischen Archäologie 8, edited by Dietz Otto Edzard (Berlin, 1997), 463–82.
Muscarella, Oscar White. Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1988), pp. 327–29.
Head of a hippopotamus |
Head of a hippopotamus
Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III, ca. 1390–1352 B.C.
Egyptian alabaster (calcite) with traces of gesso and red pigment
14 x 12.2 x 15.2 cm
Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, Gift of Henry Walters, by exchange, Ludlow Bull Fund, Beatrice Cooper Gift, and funds from various donors, 1997 (1997.375)
The river-dwelling hippopotamus was once common in Egypt, but like other potentially dangerous animals such as the crocodile and the lion, it no longer lives wild in the Nile Valley. The ancient Egyptians had an ambiguous relationship with these unpredictable and aggressive creatures. On the one hand, they feared their potential destructiveness; on the other, they admired their strength and ferociousness. Gods and goddesses represented by the beasts were incorporated into the Egyptian pantheon as deities whose fierce natures, if properly respected and appeased, could offer protection against powerful negative forces.
Ancient Egyptians viewed male hippopotamuses in a particularly negative manner. Scenes showing the pharaoh or other high-ranking individuals officiating during a hippopotamus hunt symbolized the triumph of order over chaos. Seth, a deity often connected to harmful and negative forces, was sometimes associated with a red hippopotamus. In contrast, the Egyptians viewed female hippopotamuses as benevolent creatures that could be invoked to help women during the perilous times of pregnancy and childbirth. Rare white or albino hippopotamuses were also viewed as beneficial animals.
This alabaster head was originally part of a hippopotamus statue that was about one meter long. It likely comes from the mortuary temple of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, at Luxor, a structure rich in monumental animal imagery. The animal's seemingly placid expression and the white color of the stone suggest that it signified a beneficial hippopotamus. However, traces of red paint, which are preserved in furrows at the sides of the mouth, may indicate that the statue represented Seth. Ancient Egyptian statues connected to chaotic forces could be ritually "killed" during temple ceremonies, and this sculpture may have been used in such an observance.
Reference:
Arnold, Dorothea. "Recent Acquisitions A Selection: 1997–1998." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 56, no. 2 (Fall 1998): p. 6.
Statuette of a horse |
Statuette of a horse
Iron Age, Geometric period, 8th century B.C.
Greek
Bronze
17.6 x 13.3 x 3.5 cm
Rogers Fund, 1921 (21.88.24)
Greece's early Iron Age, a time also known as the Geometric period (ca. 1050–700 B.C.), witnessed dramatic transformations fundamental to the cultural genesis of classical civilization. The foundation of the polis, or city-state, the introduction of the Greek alphabet, the establishment of Panhellenic sanctuaries, and the expansion of the Greek-speaking world by means of colonization to the east and west all occurred during this early era of Greek history.
Horses constitute one of the primary pictorial symbols of the Geometric period.Throughout the Greek mainland, workshops manufactured solid-cast bronze horse statuettes to dedicate at sanctuaries as offerings to the gods. These small statuettes, among the finest bronzes produced, achieved extraordinary elegance and clarity of form by paring the horse's anatomy to its essence. Here the animal stands at attention, its ears pricked forward. The artist gave special prominence to the powerful hindquarters that taper to thin lower legs, a form balanced by the contour of the massive neck and fine, arching mane.
In most Greek city-states, horse ownership was a defining characteristic of the upper class. Likewise, cavalry was a prominent feature of the military: soldiers on horseback played a decisive role in the outcome of some of the first historic battles, such as the Lelantine War of the late eighth century B.C. Among the finest stylized renderings of a horse from ancient Greece, this statuette epitomizes Geometric art at its most accomplished.
Reference:
Hemingway, Seán. "Horse and Man in Greek Art." Sculpture Review 55, no. 2 (2006): pp. 8–13.
Picón, Carlos A., et al.Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York 2007, pp. 49, 413, 415, no. 31.
Zimmerman, J. L. Les chevaux des bronze dans l'art geometrique grec. Paris 1989, pp. 180, 190.
Vessel terminating in the head |
Vessel terminating in the head of a ram
Iron Age III, ca. 7th–6th century B.C.
Northwestern Iranian
Silver alloy
36.8 x 21.4 cm
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1955 (55.10)
Animal horns were among the earliest drinking vessels used in the ancient world and provided a time-honored prototype for clay and metal containers made in subsequent centuries. The bottom of this silver vessel consists of a carefully modeled ram's head with ribbed, swirling horns. A stylized version of this ribbing continues up the walls to a slightly flaring lip. The vessel's impressive size, combined with the commanding power imbued in the ram, seems designed to convey the authority of those who were privileged to imbibe from it. Comparison with excavated material indicates that this and two similar silver vessels (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, and Cleveland Museum of Art) were most likely produced in northwestern Iran, in the lateseventh century B.C.
Expertise in silversmithing and a great sensitivity to the animal form characterizes the metalwork of ancient Iran beginning in the Proto-Elamite period of the earlythird millennium B.C. The malleability of silver made it the perfect medium for creating naturalistic renderings of animal anatomy. This vessel began as a thick sheet or roughly shaped blank that gradually was hammered into the desired shape. Periodic heating—a process known as annealing—was required to relieve the stresses that accumulated within the metal during working and could cause cracking. Surface details such as the line around the ram's nostrils and the annular hair pattern on the top of the animal's head were added by punching and chasing, using metal tools to lightly strike the surface.
Reference:
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "Four Early Silver Objects from Iran." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 53, no. 2 (February 1966): pp. 38–50.
Wilkinson, Charles K. "Two Ancient Silver Vessels." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 15, no. 1 (Summer 1956): pp. 9–15.
Statuette of a cat |
32 x 11.9 x 23.3 cm
Statuette of a cat
Egypt, Ptolemaic period, ca. 323–30 B.C.
Leaded bronze
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1956 (56.16.1)
Domesticated cats first appeared in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. They were likely introduced into Egyptian homes to protect food stores from the depredations of rodents. As the animals lost their wild nature, they seem to have been increasingly viewed as amusing pets. New Kingdom tomb scenes often depict cats seated beneath their owners' chairs or on sporting boats in the Nile marshes, where they flush out birds for their masters.
Cats also had sacred associations and were identified with the feline goddess Bastet, a protective deity connected with fertility and childbirth. Particularly during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, a popular means of honoring feline and other animal deities involved presenting a mummified animal as an offering to the god. Massive cemeteries containing animal mummies are known from these later eras of Pharaonic culture. Because worshipers purchased the offerings as pre-wrapped packages, they were often deceived about the contents. Rather than containing the mummified remains of cats, falcons, or other creatures associated with particular deities, the mummies sometimes held only parts of the animal, the bones of other animals, other organic materials, or nothing at all.
This graceful and dignified bronze statuette originally served as the container for a cat mummy. The creature's elevated status is indicated by the piercing in her proper right ear, which originally held an earring, and the incised design of a necklace with an udjat eye, a protective amulet associated with healing. The extraordinary quality and fine embellishment of the object indicate that it was offered to Bastet by a worshiper of high economic and social standing. The container was presumably deposited in one of the major feline sanctuaries in Egypt, perhaps in Bubastis, in the Egyptian Delta; at Saqqara, near modern Cairo; or in Speos Artemidos, in Middle Egypt.
Reference:
Arnold, Dorothea. "An Egyptian Bestiary." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 52, no. 4 (Spring 1995): pp. 40–41, no. 45.
Dorman, Peter F., Prudence Oliver Harper, and Holly Pittman. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Egypt and the Ancient Near East. New York, 1987, pp. 82–83.
Statuette of a panther |
Statuette of a panther
Roman, Imperial period, 1st century A.D.
Bronze, copper, silver, and niello
10.5 x 21.9 cm
Rogers Fund, 1907 (07.261)
This statuette depicts a female panther lying on her side, her left foreleg and hind leg raised in the air and her head lifted and turned to the left. Her ears are pressed back and her mouth is open in a defensive gesture. The pose likely represents playful sparring, but the sheer power conveyed by the artist through the feline's massive head, pronounced musculature, and sinewy body underscores the ferocity a mother panther is capable of when she senses danger.
Cats were not common Roman household pets until the second century A.D. In the first century, when this sculpture was made, panthers were an even rarer sight, sometimes appearing in venationes (wild beast shows) or gladiatorial games. Aside from its unusually long neck, which is typical of Roman representations of panthers in the first century A.D., the naturalistic rendering of this finely executed bronze panther with its inlaid spots of copper, silver, and niello suggests that the artist had observed a big cat firsthand. The statuette was found in 1880, on the Via Babuino, in Rome, together with a number of other bronzes including a statuette of the god Bacchus and a female panther draped with ivy, the style, pose, and craftsmanship of which indicate that it was likely a product of the same workshop and quite possibly the same figural group. Panthers were frequently associated in Greco-Roman art with Dionysos (or Bacchus, as the Romans called him) and the god's mythical triumph in the East.
Reference:
Friedman, Winifred. "A Roman Panther Handle in the Fogg Art Museum."
Acquisitions (Fogg Art Museum) (1966–67): pp. 43–53, esp. pp. 50–51.
Richter, Gisela M. A. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes. New York, 1915, pp. 162–66.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. "The Babuino Bronzes." In In Memoriam Otto J. Brendel: Essays in Archaeology and the Humanities, edited by L. Bonfante and H. von Heinze, pp. 155–58, pls. 38–40. Mainz, 1976.
Vessel in the shape of a bear |
Vessel in the shape of a bear
200–400 A.D.
Roman or Byzantine
Copper alloy
13.8 x 16.7 x 9.2 cm
Edith Perry Chapman Fund, 1966 (66.18)
This copper vessel, probably used to hold oils or ointments for the bath, was filled through the hinged opening at the back of the bear's neck and emptied through its mouth. The animal's eyes have pierced holes for pupils, which prevented air lock. There are related vessels in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, and the Brooklyn Museum, but the most similar one, formerly in Berlin, was lost in World War II.
The vessel represents a captive bear, as indicated by the harness the animal wears around its neck and chest. In ancient Rome, wild animal shows were popular entertainments; in the third century A.D., one such performance featured a thousand bears. The existence of public spectacles featuring captive animals gave the maker of this vessel the opportunity to see real bears at close quarters. While small in scale and utilitarian in function, this little sculpture demonstrates the close observation of nature that characterized classical Roman culture.Animated by the gesture of turning its head to the side, this bear is further detailed with his carefully articulated, incised fur and his extended tongue.
Reference:
Barnet, Peter, and Pete Dandridge, eds. Lions, Dragons, and Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table. Exh. cat. New Haven, 2005, p. 178, no. 31.
Daim, Falko, ed. Byzanz Prache und Alltag. Bonn, 2010, p. 273, no. 306.
Kozloff, Arielle P. "A Bronze Menagerie." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63 (March 1976): pp. 83–88, fig. 27.
Aquamanile in the shape of a . |
Aquamanile in the shape of a lion
ca. 1400
German, Nuremberg
Copper alloy
31.9 x 11.8 x 31.8 cm
The Cloisters Collection, 1994 (1994.244)
The imposing presence of this lion aquamanile (water vessel used for hand washing), especially when seen in profile, is generated by the creature's large scale, erect stance, curling tail with flamelike tufts of hair, and expressive face. The lion's jaws open wide to reveal sharp teeth and a protruding tongue; its brows arch dramatically and its nostrils flare. The dragon that forms the vessel's handle turns its head to the right with a threatening open mouth, further animating the work. The surface is embellished with skillfully engraved lines in the tufts of fur on the tail, at the rear of each of the four legs, and most notably in the pattern covering the lion's swelling chest.
Aquamanilia were the first medieval hollow-cast vessels, and the earliest surviving examples date to about 1200. The maker of this later work used the cireperdue (lost wax) method, in which wax is molded around a rough clay model into the desired form of the sculpture, coated with a mixture of brick, clay, and ashes, and melted out to create space for the molten metal. The vessel was filled through the square opening at the top of the lion's head, and water was poured through a spigot that protruded from the lower section of the creature's chest.
This lion can be placed with a cohesive group of so-called flame-tailed aquamanilia attributed to the south German city of Nuremburg and dated to about 1400. Among the related examples are lion aquamanilia in the collections of the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich. These objects are close enough in conception, form, and handling for us to assume that they were produced in the same workshop. The attribution and dating of the group are based on close comparisons with a winged lion represented in relief on the cast epitaph of the Imhoff family in Lauingen an der Donau, Germany, dated to about 1400, and a mask of a youth from a lost Nuremberg fountain monument.
Reference:
Barnet, Peter, and Pete Dandridge, eds. Lions, Dragons, and Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table. Exh. cat. New Haven, 2005, p. 178, no. 31.
The Lion, from a dispersed manuscript of the Nuzhatnama (The Book of Pleasures) by Shahmardan ibn Abi'l-Khair Razi
The Lion, from a dispersed ... |
The Lion, from a dispersed manuscript of the Nuzhatnama (The Book of Pleasures) by Shahmardan ibn Abi'l-Khair Razi.
Early 17th century
Iranian
Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
7.6 x 10.5 cm
Rogers Fund, 1913 (13.160.8)
This image of a lion striding through bulrushes comes from a dispersed manuscript of the Nuzhatnama (The Book of Pleasures), an encyclopedia of natural sciences, history, and literature originally composed in the early twelfth century by Shahmardan ibn Abi'l-Khair Razi for a prince of Yazd, Iran. It is one of nineteen extant folios that include paintings of quadrupeds, birds, and plants. As with the other animals illustrated in this volume, the accompanying Persian text describes the lion's physical characteristics, such as its blood, hair, teeth, and claws.
Lions were still present in the wild in seventeenth-century Iran, and individual drawings of them abound in the work of some of the major court artists, such as Sadiqi Beg (active 1570–1610) and Mu`in Musavvir (active ca. 1630–1700). The vigor and naturalism of this lion's dangling tongue, expressive eye, and alert tail, as well as the painterly treatment of the vegetation and rocks, suggest that the work dates to the early seventeenth century. A similarly posed lion appears in a drawing by Sadiqi Beg and also on contemporary molded monochrome ceramics. Assigning this image to a school is more problematic, since this manner of painting does not resemble that of either of Iran's dominant cultural centers, Qazwin and Isfahan. The manuscript may have been produced in Astarabad or Mashhad, cities that grew in importance during this period under the rule of powerful regional governors.
Reference:
Contadini, Anna. "A Wonderful World: Folios from a Dispersed Manuscript of the Nuzhat-nama." Muqarnas 21 (2004): pp. 95–120.
Schmitz, Barbara. Islamic and Indian Manuscripts and Paintings in The Pierpont Morgan Library. New York, 1997, pp. 48–49.
Helmet in the shape of a lion' |
Helmet in the shape of a lion's head
ca. 1460–80
Italian
Steel, copper, gold, glass, pigments, and textile
29.8 x 21 x 31.8 cm, WT. 3.7 kg
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1923 (23.141)
This helmet is the earliest surviving example of a type of armor developed in Renaissance Italy known as all'antica (in the antique style), a term also used more generally to describe art and aesthetics inspired by the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome. Beautifully sculptural and naturalistic in its shape, the helmet is believed to represent the head of the Nemean Lion, a fierce beast from Greek mythology that could not be harmed by manmade weapons. It was finally slain by the classical hero Hercules in the first of his famous twelve labors. Hercules wore the lion's impenetrable pelt as a headdress and cloak, not only for protection but also as evidence of his legendary prowess. Both in antiquity and during the Renaissance, Hercules was frequently portrayed wearing the pelt, which in the vocabulary of the visual arts came to be seen as a symbol of indomitable strength, courage, and perseverance.
The helmet consists of a delicate copper outer shell that was skillfully embossed to create the lion's head and then given its golden color by fire gilding. For strength and support, the head was mounted over a plain steel helmet called a sallet. The lion's eyes are made of glass and its fangs were silvered to make them stand out against the background of the helmet, which was painted black and red in this area to represent the lion's mouth. A person wearing the helmet would appear to be looking out of the animal's mouth, just as Hercules did when he wore the pelt of the Nemean Lion.
Reference:
Pyhrr, Stuart W., and José-A. Godoy. Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries. Exh. cat. New York, 1998, pp. 92–94.
Dish with a lion |
Dish with a lion
ca. 1500
Spanish, probably Manises, Valencia
Tin-glazed and lustered earthenware
Overall 47.3 cm
The Cloisters Collection, 1956 (56.171.155)
A product of the rich complex of diverse cultures and religions that characterized late medieval Spain, this lavish ceramic object links the Islamic East with the Gothic West. The large copper luster dish features the figure of a lion, cleverly arranged to fill the circular form. The lion's tail develops into a flower, and other flowerlike forms are strewn along his legs and around his body, animating the space. Acacia blossoms cover the reverse. These organic motifs are drawn from ancient artistic heritages, including both the classical Greco-Roman world and ancient Persian traditions. The lion was incised in the soft clay before firing and then drawn in glaze, a technique common in Valencian lusterware of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Lusterware refers to glazed pottery that simulates the shine of precious metalwork. Metallic oxides in the glaze create a shimmering effect, transforming ceramics into luxury objects. The demanding process requires at least two firings and the application of a white, tin-laden base coat prior to the final painted embellishment. The Islamic potters who introduced the technique to Spain first taught it to Christian ceramicists around Malaga. The center of production migrated to the area around Valencia in the fourteenth century. The widespread popularity of lusterware caused it to be exported throughout Europe; it was highly valued in royal and ducal courts in France, Sicily, Germany, and the Lowlands.
Reference:
Dectot, Xavier. Céramiques hispaniques (XIIe-XVIIIe siècle). Paris, 2007, no. 72 (related work in collection of Musée National du Moyen Âge, Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny, Paris).
Ecker, Heather. Caliphs and Kings: The Art and Influence of Islamic Spain. Washington, D.C., 2004, pp. 78, 100, 159, no. 80.
Ray, Anthony. Spanish Pottery, 1248–1898: With a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 2000, esp. p. 95.
Glass panel with three apes .. |
Glass panel with three apes building a trestle table
1480–1500
German
Colorless glass, vitreous paint, and silver stain
26 x 22.5 cm
The Cloisters Collection, 1990 (1990.119.3)
This appealing glass painting shows natural-looking animals behaving unnaturally. Apes appear in medieval art as early as the Romanesque period, and they were often associated with human folly. Drolleries in the margins of thirteenth and fourteenth-century manuscripts frequently feature animals performing human tasks, and this scene of three apes attempting to build a table perpetuates that tradition. The table balances precariously on opposing single and A-shaped trestle legs, and so the scene was likely a moralizing commentary on useless or foolish work. The contrast between the artist's naturalistic representation of the apes and their distinctly human activity sharpens the satire. The setting for the apes' labors is indicated only by the checkerboard floor, a motif that also appears in the work of latefifteenth-century German graphic artists such as the Master E. S. (active ca. 1440–1468) and Israel van Meckenen (ca. 1440/45–1503).
Silver stain glass panels, often in the shape of roundels, were popular in the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in both ecclesiastical and secular contexts. Although the original location of this diamond-shaped example has not been identified, works of art in other media include representations of similar panels installed in domestic settings. Unlike the brightly colored stained glass of cathedrals, silver stain scenes were painted on colorless glass. Outlines were indicated in dark brown or black vitreous paint and then fired. The scene was then embellished with a silver compound that, when fired again, yielded a translucent color ranging from yellow to ochre to amber, depending on the concentration of silver and the length of firing.
Reference:
Husband, Timothy B. In Mirror of the Medieval World, edited by William D. Wixom, p. 202, cat. 244. Exh. cat. New York, 1999.
Husband, Timothy B., ed. Stained Glass before 1700 in American Collections: Silver Stained Roundels and Unipartite Panels(Corpus Vitrearum Checklist IV). Studies in the History of Art 39, Monograph Series 1. Washington, D.C., 1991, p. 132.
Statuette of a rearing horse |
Severo Calzetta da Ravenna (Italian, active by 1496, died before 1543)
Statuette of a rearing horse
ca. 1520–30
Bronze
20.6 x 7.8 x 23.2 cm
Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964 (64.101.1413)
Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, can be variously treated to achieve a ravishing interplay of form and surface. The Italian sculptor and founder Severo Calzetta practiced in both Padua and Ravenna. A true entrepreneur, he was one of the first to produce multiple copies of his models, which quickly reached many corners of Europe. Zesty little creations, they nonetheless show little anatomical sophistication. Animals are relatively rare in his oeuvre; he was typically interested in human figures, investing them with a rectilinear expressivity that carries over into this steed. His several horses of this rearing type are essentially arranged in shorthand formation, along a single plane, somewhat like those depicted in heraldry or painted by contemporary artists such as Vittore Carpaccio (ca. 1460–ca. 1526).
Reference:
Draper, James David. In Highlights of the Untermyer Collection of English and Continental Decorative Arts. Exh. cat. New York, 1977, p. 160, no. 297.
Jestaz, Bertrand. "Une statuette de bronze: Le Saint Christophe de Severo de Ravenna." La revue du Louvre et des musées de France 22, no. 2 (1972): pp. 75–76.
Tiger Attacking and Antelope |
Antoine-Louise Barye (French, 1795–1875)
Tiger Attacking and Antelope
Possibly modeled about 1836; cast after 1868
Bronze
34.9 x 55.9 x 25.7 cm, 24.75kg
Gift of Maria A. S. de Reinis, 1982 (1982.452)
While the primal energy of the animal world was a favorite subject of French artists of the Romantic school, the meticulous observation of nature evident in Antoine-Louise Barye's animal sculpture owed much to advances in the study of the natural sciences made during the eighteenth century. In 1793, the former royal botanical garden in Paris was combined with the transplanted menagerie of the royal palace at Versailles, together titled the Jardin des Plantes. In Barye's time, as now, both the botanical garden and the zoo were administered by the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, where a cabinet of comparative anatomy had been established. Thus, Barye was able to study animal anatomy as well as to sketch and model living animals, many of them of exotic origin, without ever leaving Paris.
Trained as a goldsmith and later by the sculptor François-Joseph Bosio (1768–1845), Barye was employed until 1817 by Fourrier, a firm that specialized in cutting steel dies for stamping ornamental designs in metal. Early in his career, he also worked for one of the leading Paris goldsmiths, Jacques-Henri Fauconnier (1779–1838), casting and finishing silver. These experiences are evident in the attention to surface detail found in the best of Bayre's bronzes. The small ones were cast for both aristocratic patrons and the middle class. Beginning in 1844, the popular parlor sculptures could be ordered directly from published catalogues.
Reference:
Johnston, William R., and Simon Kelly. Untamed: The Art of Antoine-Louis Barye. Exh. cat. Baltimore, 2006, pp. 94–95, no. 15 (illus. of similar example).
Poletti, Michel, and Alain Richarme. Barye: Catalogue raisonné des sculptures. Paris, 2000, p. 215, no. A81(1) (illus. of similar example).
Polar Bear |
François Pompon (French, 1855–1933)
Polar Bear
ca. 1923
Marble
29.2 x 48.3 x 17.1 cm
Purchase, Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1930 (30.123ab)
Classically trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, a frequent exhibitor at official French salons, and a studio assistant to Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) from 1890–97, François Pompon did not begin exploring stylized naturalism and the animal subjects for which he is best known until around 1910. At the age of sixty-seven, he exhibited a life-size plaster sculpture of a striding polar bear, with paws slightly separated, at the 1922 Salon d'Automne. In 1923 he displayed a smaller marble variant of this theme, with the bear's front and back right paws touching; the Metropolitan's Polar Bear is one of twelve known marble examples of this smaller version created before the sculptor's death. The popularity of the two sculptures led Pompon to produce both models in a variety of sizes, from tabletop to full-scale, and in a range of media including plaster, porcelain, marble, and bronze.
As a genre, animalier sculpture—depictions of animals—reached its height in mid-nineteenth-century France. The public taste for it, however, lasted well into the twentieth century, if principally as a form of decoration. Indeed, Polar Bear was a favorite model of Pompon's friend and renowned decorator Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (1879–1933), who featured it prominently in many of his interiors, most notably his widely visited room settings at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), the vast and influential state-sponsored design fair in Paris that today lends its name to the Art Deco style.
The Metropolitan Museum purchased this sculpture in 1930 from the Galerie Edgar Brandt, the eponymous Paris showroom of the well-known metalworker (1880–1960). In addition to displaying his own works, Brandt exhibited sculpture, paintings, furniture, glassware, ceramics, and other decorative arts by his friends, underscoring the close relationship between the fine and decorative arts in French Art Deco.
Reference:
Chevillot, Catherine, Liliane Colas, and Anne Pingeot. François Pompon, 1855–1933. Exh. cat. Paris, 1994, p. 212.
(二):自然生灵:飞禽
在古埃及,人们常将猎鹰视为太阳神荷鲁斯的化身。各种以猎鹰为题材的绘画和雕塑作品皆以一种具有威慑力的简洁风格充分表现了它的力量。在基督教文化中,鸽子和老鹰都被赋予了特殊地位,因为圣灵常以鸽子形象出现,而老鹰则是福音传道者圣约翰的象征,在展出的一件法国圣餐器皿和一张意大利诵经台中均有所体现。本部分出现的一些作品中的鸟类纯属装饰目的,让我们有可能接触到一连串图案装饰传统。作品中出现的另外一些鸟类,例如一件19世纪美国圆盘上描绘的鹤鸟,体现出艺术家对动物学的浓厚兴趣,以及他们对特殊品种的鸟类及其习性的细致观察。
II. Animals: Birds
In ancient Egypt, the falcon was identified with the sky god Horus. Pictorial and sculptural renditions of the bird capture its power with a commanding simplicity. Christianity accords special status to the image of the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove and to the eagle that symbolizes Saint John the Evangelist, as demonstrated in a French Eucharistic container and an Italian lectern. Some birds represented in this section are purely decorative motifs, links in a long chain of patterning traditions. Others, such as the cranes painted on a nineteenth-century American plate, display their makers' interest in ornithology with close observation of specific species and their habits.
Bow fibula with four ducks |
Bow fibula with four ducks
Iron Age, ca. 900 B.C.
Villanovan
Bronze
8.8 x 13.7 cm
Fletcher Fund, 1926 (26.60.87)
The Villanovans of Italy are named after the site in the modern province of Bologna where the first cemetery belonging to this early culture was excavated in the middle of the nineteenth century. Originally identified by their cremation burials in biconical ossuaries ornately decorated with incised decoration, the Villanovans were the predecessors of the Etruscans, an ancient civilization (ca. 720–100 B.C.) that flourished in central Italy between the Po River to the north and the Tiber River to the south and east.
One cannot overestimate the importance of the fibula in antiquity. This ubiquitous article of jewelry was used across cultures as a means of fastening men's and women's garments and took a wide variety of forms, from very plain types to ornately decorated displays of wealth. In this elegant Villanovan example, four water birds, likely ducks, swim in a row along the bow's edge, which cleverly recalls the contour of a small body of water such as a pond. Delicate patterns on the bow, bold spirals above the spring and catchplate, and concentric rows of tiny dots on the clasp add to the richness of the design, which was achieved with a great deal of meticulous cold working of the metal.
Reference:
Haynes, Sibyl. Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History. Los Angeles, 2000.
Picón, Carlos A., et al. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 413, 415, 467, no. 307.
Richter, Gisela M. A. Handbook of the Etruscan Collection. New York, 1940, pp. 4–5, fig. 14.
Inlay of Horus-of-Gold Name |
Inlay of Horus-of-Gold Name
Egypt, Late Period, Dynasty 30, reign of Nectanebo II, ca. 360–43 B.C.
Polychrome faience
15.5 x 2.7 cm
Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926 (26.7.996)
This delicately colored faience inlay is actually an elaborately constructed hieroglyph. It depicts a falcon viewed in profile standing atop a small, stylized necklace with pendant-drop beads and hanging ties. The falcon symbolizes Horus, one of the major deities of the Egyptian pantheon and the god of kingship; the necklace-sign constitutes the word for "gold." This combination of signs precedes one of the pharaoh's five titles, aptly called the "Horus-of-Gold name" by Egyptologists.
The ancient Egyptian writing system used stylized representations of human beings, the natural world, and inanimate objects to designate individual sounds and whole words. The basic hieroglyphic sign-list contains approximately 175 signs that depict all or parts of mammals, birds, fish, and invertebrates. A further 86 signs represent trees, plants, earth, water, sky, and celestial phenomena. For the ancient Egyptians, hieroglyphic signs and other images representing the natural world had a life and power of their own; they were not merely word pictures. At various times in Egyptian history, hieroglyphs representing living creatures that were deemed particularly dangerous were either rendered in an abbreviated format or mutilated in a manner intended to cause a ritual "death."
This object belongs to a group of inlays in the Metropolitan's collection that dates to the reign of the Dynasty 30 pharaoh Nectanebo II. Traces of wood recovered from the backs of these inlays indicate that they were originally set into one or more wooden objects, perhaps a shrine housing a statue. Other inlays from the group would have formed one of Nectanebo's names.
Reference:
Bianchi, Robert Steven, and Florence Dunn Friedman. "Inlay in the Form of the Composite Hieroglyph 'The Horus [or Falcon?] of Gold.'" In Gifts of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Faience, edited by Florence Dunn Friedman, p. 200, no. 61. Exh. cat. Providence, 1998.
Franco, Isabelle. "Golden Horus." In The Pharaohs, edited by Christiane Ziegler, p. 402, no. 41. Exh. cat. Milan, 2001.
Statuette depicting the god .. |
Statuette depicting the god Horus in falcon form protecting King Nectanebo II
Egypt, Late Period, Dynasty 30, reign of Nectanebo II, ca. 360–43 B.C.
Metagraywacke
72 x 20 x 46.5 cm, WT. 55.3 kg
Rogers Fund, 1934 (34.2.1)
Ancient Egyptians believed that they could call upon the animal aspects of powerful deities to bless and protect their ruler. At the same time, the pharaoh himself was a deity who could embody the superhuman characteristics of formidable animals. This elegant statue perfectly expresses the seeming paradox: the falcon form of the god Horus shelters the diminutive figure of Nectanebo II, while simultaneously representing the pharaoh himself. The sculpture's smoothly flowing planes and Horus's intense, fixed gaze emphasize the falcon's regal qualities; his brute power is manifest in the bird's large, sharp claws. The double crown on Horus's head indicates that we are in the presence of an extraordinary creature.
Horus was one of the most important figures in the ancient Egyptian pantheon. A sky god who embodied divine kingship, he was usually depicted as a falcon or a falcon-headed man. Nectanebo II had a particularly strong connection to Horus's cult. Indeed, this composition may be read as a rebus of Nectanebo II's Egyptian name, Nakhthorheb: "nakht," the sword in the pharaoh's left hand; "Hor," the Horus falcon that dominates the statue; and "heb," the festival-hieroglyph in the pharaoh's right hand. The last sign probably refers to the city of Hebyt, which was the site of the great temple constructed by Nectanebo II for Isis, mother of Horus.
Representations of the pharaoh in wall paintings and carved reliefs commonly depict the Horus falcon hovering above. On ancient Egyptian statuary, falcons sometimes spread protective wings around the ruler. The Horus falcon does not depict a specific species, but rather incorporates characteristics of several types native to Egypt.
Reference:
Arnold, Dorothea. "An Egyptian Bestiary." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 52, no. 4 (Spring 1995): pp. 44–45, no. 50.
Eucharistic dove |
Eucharistic dove
ca. 1215–35
French, Limoges
Gilded copper with champlevé enamel and glass beads
19 x 19.8 x 7.2 cm
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.344)
The association of the dove with the Holy Spirit goes back to the Gospel of Matthew. When Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God is said to have descended upon him in the form of this long-tailed bird. Thus to the medieval mind, a sculpture of a dove represented both nature and God. This object is made from two principal sheets of hammered copper joined along a seam that passes through the center of the dove's breast and back. Additional sheets form the wings and the tear-shaped lid. Lifelike details include the bird's ridged beak and jointed talons; rich gilding adds to the vibrant effect. The enameling on the colorful wings and tail feathers, however, is more decorative than descriptive.
This copper bird served a practical function in the Christian liturgy: the lid on its back conceals a small cavity where the consecrated Host was placed. The tradition of making Christian vessels in the shape of doves originated in the third century, and period documents attest to their use as Eucharistic containers in fifth-century France. Many documents from the twelfth through the fourteenth century mention gold and silver liturgical dove vessels in wealthy French churches, although few are preserved. Surviving vessels like this one were instead made of gilded copper and adorned with enamel typical of Limoges. Here the enamel work is highly accomplished, with three or four colors arranged in some cells. This level of sophistication suggests a date in the early part of the thirteenth century. The object's suspension system is modern but replicates a hanging method known to be medieval. The dove would have hovered above the altar, evoking the creature's natural and supernatural characteristics while also protecting the Host from mice and other vermin.
Reference:
Boehm, Barbara Drake. "Eucharistic Doves." In Corpus des émaux méridionaux. Vol. 2. Edited by Danielle Gaborit-Chopin. Paris, 2011.
Boehm, Barbara D[rake], and Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye. Enamels of Limoges, 1100–1350. Exh. cat. New York, 1996, pp. 318–19, no. 105.
McLachlan, Elizabeth Parker. "Liturgical Vessels and Implements." In The Liturgy of the Medieval Church, edited by Thomas J. Heffernan and E. Ann Matter, pp. 369–429, esp. pp. 398–99. Kalamazoo, Mich., 2001.
Lectern with the eagle of ... |
Giovanni Pisano (Italian, about 1248–1319)
Lectern with the eagle of Saint John the Evangelist
ca. 1301, with later additions
Italian, Tuscany, from the pulpit of the Church of Sant'Andrea, Pistoia
Carrara marble, with addition of Pentelic marble
70.5 x 61.5 x 40.6 cm
Rogers Fund, 1918 (18.70.28)
This majestic eagle, with wings poised as if ready for flight, clutches an open book in its talons. Despite the detailed tooling of the bird's feathers and sturdy anatomy, it is as much a creature of religious tradition as of nature. The eagle is the animal symbol for Saint John, and this example was originally the crowning element of a tetramorph, a sculptural composite of the symbols of the four Evangelists. It was made to serve as a lectern atop the pulpit of the church of Sant'Andrea, at Pistoia. A hexagonal book rest supported on the eagle's back held the Gospels for reading during Mass. (The eagle's head is a later restoration.) The pulpit was completed in 1301, dismantled in 1619, and reassembled in the twentieth century. A cast of this sculpture is integrated into the pulpit today.
The carving is the work of one of the greatest Italian Gothic sculptors, Giovanni Pisano. A contemporary of Giotto (1266/76–1337) and Dante (1265–1321), Pisano was their peer in artistic achievement. Giovanni trained with his father, Nicola Pisano (active 1258–1278), and went on to create great sculptural pulpits for Pisa and elsewhere. He was the capomastro, or master builder, of Siena Cathedral, where he designed the facade and carved many of the full-length statues. He worked in all sculptural media and was influenced by antique sculpture, his father's style, and French Gothic designs, synthesizing these diverse sources into an innovative personal style that influenced a generation of later artists. The high quality of his work is evident here in the crisp carving and naturalistic detail of the eagle's feathers and the proud posture of the figure as a whole.
Reference:
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Lisbeth, and Jack Soultanian, with contributions by Richard Y. Tayar. Italian Medieval Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters. New York, 2010, pp. 156–59, no. 35.
Eagle owl |
Modeled by Johann Friedrich Eberlein (German, 1695–1749)
Manufactured by Meissen Porcelain Manufactory (Meissen, Germany, 1710–present)
Eagle owl
ca. 1735
Hard-paste porcelain
52.1 x 29.4 x 23.8 cm
Bequest of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of his wife, Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1977(1977.216.9)
This figure of an eagle owl belongs to a large group of porcelain mammals and birds ordered for one of the Saxon royal palaces in Dresden, Germany. Known as the Japanese Palace, the building was intended to house the vast porcelain collection of Augustus II (1670–1733), the elector of Saxony and King of Poland. Augustus was a voracious collector of both Chinese and Japanese porcelains in the early eighteenth century, and his interest in Asian ceramics led to his establishment of the Meissen factory near Dresden in 1710. The early production at Meissen was strongly influenced by Augustus's Chinese and Japanese porcelains, and the designs for the interiors of the Japanese Palace incorporated both Asian and Meissen examples.
In 1730, Augustus initiated a commission for large-scale animals that would be displayed in the Japanese Palace. The original order called for almost six hundred creatures in sizes approximating, when possible, the subjects' true dimensions. Given the scope of the commission, the scale of the sculptures, and the complexity of the required modeling, this undertaking had no precedent in the medium of porcelain in either Asia or Europe. The figures were originally to be painted in naturalistic colors to enhance the sense of realism, but it was soon discovered that the additional firing required for the enamel colors subjected the largest sculptures to excessive risk of cracking or other technical problems.
Among the many mid-sized sculptures that were decorated with enamels is this eagle owl clutching a dead dove. The modeler, Johann Friedrich Eberlein, imbued the sculpture with animation and a sense of presence not only through the angle of the owl's head and its expressive gaze, but also by depicting a specific moment in time, in this case just after the bird caught its prey. One of five eagle owls recorded in the Japanese Palace in 1736, this example is the only one to have survived intact to the present day.
Reference:
Wittwer, Samuel. The Gallery of Meissen Animals. Munich, 2006, pp. 100–101, 345–46.
Charger with cranes in a lands |
John Bennett (American, 1840–1907)
Charger with cranes in a landscape
1877
Earthenware
Diam. 43.2 cm
Purchase, Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation Gift, 2008 (2008.176)
The late 1870s and early 1880s was the height of the Aesthetic Movement in America, a movement that sought to infuse art into all aspects of daily life. This era marked the beginning of the studio movement in furniture, glass, and ceramics. John Bennett, an English-born ceramic decorator, was a significant conduit for bringing art pottery to the United States. Bennett had developed his technical expertise and distinctive style at the Doulton Pottery in Lambeth, London. His work was included in the firm's prominent displays at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, and in 1877, the year this charger was made, he immigrated to the United States, setting up a studio in New York City. The artist is best known for introducing to North America the "Lambeth" style of decoration, a technique that involved painting in thin, richly colored pigments coated with a clear, shiny glaze.
In subject matter and style, Bennett's work has much in common with that of English reform designers such as William Morris (1834–1896). Like Morris, his imagery was dominated by highly stylized natural forms—most commonly, flowers—rendered as flat, two-dimensional patterns. The decoration of this charger represents a slight departure for Bennett in its subject of birds in a landscape. Its composition of two cranes in a field of grasses set against a bright ochre background responds to the vogue for Japanesque design that prevailed during this period. Overall, the charger is an excellent example of the nature-inspired Anglo-Japanese style characteristic of Aesthetic Movement pottery.
Reference:
Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. "Aesthetic Forms in Ceramics and Glass." In In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement. Doreen Bolger Burke, et al., pp. 198–251. Exh. cat. New York, 1986.
Hibiscus and Parrots Window |
66cm x 45.1 cmDesigned by Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848–1933)
Manufactured by Tiffany Studios (New York, N.Y., 1902–1932)
Hibiscus and Parrots Window
ca. 1910–20
Leaded Favrile glass
66 x 45.1 cm
Gift of Earl and Lucille Sydnor, 1990 (1990.315)
Louis Comfort Tiffany occupied the foremost position among American practitioners in the arena of stained glass during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and today his artistic accomplishments are renowned. He wholly redefined the medium, heralding new types of glass and new techniques to achieve an entirely original look in pictorial windows. In the late 1870s, Tiffany, along with his fellow artist and competitor John La Farge (1835–1910), introduced opalescent window glass. Henceforth, his windows incorporated a full arsenal of colored, textured, plated, flashed, and acid-etched glass. At the same time, Tiffany's scientists developed an astonishing array of coloristic effects in the glass itself, in many instances melding multiple colors. He called his distinctive glass "Favrile," a term derived from the Latin word for handmade.
In addition to the revolutionary materials and techniques Tiffany introduced into the
medium, the artist heralded a new subject matter for stained glass: the natural world. Landscapes, gardens, and floral motifs dominated his nature themes. Tiffany's designs involving birds are relatively few, one of the most notable being a window that he exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, which was based on a print by the American artist and naturalist John James Audubon (1785–1851). While the present window relates in a general way to some of Audubon's birds, it appears to be an original composition. The highly exotic and colorful creatures must have appealed greatly to Tiffany's sensibilities. While most of the flowers Tiffany integrated into his art were native to North America, he favored birds from exotic foreign climes, whose brilliant plumage satisfied his love of a rich, jewel-like palette.
This vibrant hibiscus and parrots window showcases Tiffany's brilliant use of color and texture in glass. Shading creates the forms of the two birds' heads, and a mixture of blues and greens produces their dramatic plumage, with the tail given greater realism through the texture of the glass, which is sensitively ridged to simulate the individual barbs of the feathers. The creamy hibiscus blossoms likewise demonstrate the studio's technical prowess in depicting illusionistic effects through texture and subtle variations in color. Tiffany's distinctive mottled glass convincingly conveys the impression of sunlight filtered through foliage. The window's small size and secular subject suggest that it was probably intended for a domestic setting.
Reference:
Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. "Louis Comfort Tiffany at The Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 56, no. 1 (Summer 1998): pp. 76–81.
Johnson, Marilynn A. Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages. London, 2005.
Joppien, Ruddiger, ed. Louis C. Tiffany: Meisterwerke des amerikanischen Jugendstils. Hamburg, 1999.
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