The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 58, no. 2

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Recent AcquisiA SELECTION: 1999-2000The Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org

This publication was made possiblethrough the generosity of theLila Acheson Wallace Fund forThe Metropolitan Museum of Artestablished by the cofounder ofReader's Digest.The Metropolitan Museum ofArt BulletinFall 2000Volume LVIII, Number 2 (ISSN 0026-I521)Published quarterly. Copyright ? 2000 by TheMetropolitan Museum of Art, Iooo Fifth Avenue,New York, N.Y. I0028-OI98.Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., andAdditional Mailing Offices. The MetropolitanMuseum ofArt Bulletin is provided as a benefit toMuseum members and is available by subscription.Subscriptions $25.00 a year. Single copies $8.95.Four weeks' notice required for change of address.POSTMASTER: Send address changes toMembership Department, The MetropolitanMuseum of Art, IOOO Fifth Avenue, New York,N.Y. I0028-0198. Back issues available on microfilmfrom University Microfilms, 300 N. ZeebRoad, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. VolumesI-XXXVII (1905-42) available as clothboundreprint set or as individual yearly volumes fromAyer Company Publishers Inc., 50 NorthwesternDrive #Io, Salem, N.H. 03079, or from theMuseum, Box 700, Middle Village, N.Y. II379.

Contents5 Director's Note7 Contributors9 Ancient World16 Islam17 Medieval Europe22 Renaissance and Baroque Europe32 Europe I700-I90048 North America I700-190054 Twentieth Century71 Africa, Oceania, and the Americas75 Asia

General Manager ofPublications: John P. O'NeillEditor in Chief of the BULLETIN: Joan HoltEditor: Jennifer BernsteinProduction: Joan Holt and Peter AntonyDesign: Bruce Campbell DesignCoordinators: Mahrukh Tarapor andSian WetherillAll photographs, unless otherwise noted, are byThe Photograph Studio of The MetropolitanMuseum of Art. Photographers: Joseph Coscia Jr.,Anna-Marie Kellen, Paul Lachenauer, Oi-CheongLee, Bruce Schwarz, Eileen Travell, Juan Trujillo,Karin L. Willis, and Peter Zeray. Other source:Malcolm Varon (front cover and pp. 54-60).Copyright notices: front cover and p. 57: JoanMir6, The Potato (I999.363.50), ? 2000 ArtistsRights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris;p. 54: Henri Matisse, View of Collioure and the Sea(I999.363.42), ? 2000 Succession H. Matisse,Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York;p. 55: Henri Matisse, Laurette in a Green Robe,Black Background (1999.363.43), Still Life withVegetables (I999.363.38), ? 2000 Succession H.Matisse, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork; p. 56: Salvador Dali, Accommodations ofDesires (I999.363.I6), ? 2000 Foundation Gala-Salvador Dall / VEGAP / Artists Rights Society(ARS), New York; p. 58: Piet Mondrian,Composition (1999.363.57), ? 2000 Artists RightsSociety (ARS), New York / Beeldrecht,Amsterdam; p. 59: Paul Klee, The One WhoUnderstands (I999.363.3I), ? 2000 Artists RightsSociety (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn;Pablo Picasso, The Scream (I999.363.66), ? 2000Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society(ARS), New York; p. 60: Francis Bacon, ThreeStudiesfor a Self-Portrait (I999.363.1),? 2000Estate of Francis Bacon / Artists Rights Society(ARS), New York; Jean Dubuffet, Jean Paulhan(1999.363.20), ? 2000 Artists Rights Society (ARS),New York / ADAGP, Paris; p. 6I: AlbertoGiacometti, Woman of Venice (1999.363.25),? 2000 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York /ADAGP, Paris; p. 62: Edouard Vuillard, Interior atSaint-Jacut (2000.197),? 2000 Artists RightsSociety (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris;p. 64: Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait with a Stylus(1999.232.6),? 2000 Artists Rights Society (ARS),New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; BereniceAbbott, James Joyce, Paris (I999.406), BereniceAbbott / Commerce Graphics Ltd., Inc.;p. 65: Walker Evans, Floyd and Lucille Burroughs,Hale County, Alabama (I999.237.4), ? WalkerEvans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art;p. 67: Anselm Kiefer, The Unknown Masterpiece(2000.96.8), ? Anselm Kiefer; p. 68: RichardHamilton, Swingeing London 67 (1999.314), ? 2000Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS,London; Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy)(2000.272), ? Richard Prince; p. 69: Vija Celmins,Ocean Surface (1999.293),? 1983 Vija Celmins andGemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, California; MichalRovner, Border #8 (1999.240), ? Michal Rovner;p. 70: Kiki Smith, Litter (2000.136),? Kiki Smith;Yoichi Ohira, 'Acqua alta di Venezia" Vase(1999.292), 0 Yoichi Ohira.On the cover: The Potato, by Joan Mir6 (pp. 56-57)

Director'sNoteOne of the most important bequests ofworks of art in the history of the MetropolitanMuseum, and doubtless the mostimportant for the Department of ModernArt, was that of Natasha Gelman of theJacques and Natasha Gelman Collection.We feature in this Bulletin only a very smallpart of it, but the whole was publishedin 1989, when the Metropolitan held thefirst public exhibition of the Gelmans'magnificent holdings.The bequest, numbering eighty-five paintings,drawings, and bronzes, presents the artof the past century, particularly of its first half,at a remarkably high level of quality, withmajor works in areas where the Metropolitanwas heretofore deficient. For example, theMuseum gains its first painting by FrancisBacon through this bequest, and groups suchas the fourteen Picassos, nine Matisses, andnine Mir6s add depth in critical areas. Asfurther testimony to the importance ofcollector/curator relationships in the life ofa museum, the Gelmans' benefaction wasclearly born of their long and deeply rewardingfriendship with William S. Lieberman,whose closeness to the couple is also manifestin the title he holds: Jacques and NatashaGelman Chairman of the Department ofModern Art. The Gelman Collection will beinstalled in the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing ingalleries named for these most discriminatingand generous donors.Inter vivos offerings continued to enrichthe Museum as well, notably those ofAmbassador and Mrs. Walter Annenberg,which readers of this annual Bulletin chroniclingthe Museum's acquisitions will havenoted come with most welcome and admirableregularity. Degas's Race Horses andMonet's Camille Monet in the Garden atArgenteuil are among the highlights of theAnnenbergs' gifts to date. Another Monettheenchanting Jean Monet on His HobbyHorse of 1872, an early Impressionist study ofthe artist's son-arrived as a gift of the SaraLee Corporation. Also worth special mentionas an important addition to our Impressionistholdings is The "Kearsarge"at Boulogne, amajor seascape by Edouard Manet acquiredthrough a combination of Peter H. B.Frelinghuysen's promised gift and funds froma number of other sources.Moving backward several decades, I citetwo fine works of the Romantic period thatentered the collection by purchase. Ourfirst painting by Caspar David Friedrich,obtained with Wrightsman funding, helpsgive a truer sense of the merits of schools ofnineteenth-century painting other than theFrench. And a splendid watercolor byTheodore Gericault not only is one of hisfinest and most elaborate but also is connectedto the Museum's monumentalEvening: Landscape with an Aqueduct, beinga sketch for a pendant to that painting.Finally, among the purchases that havehad the greatest impact on the Metropolitan'scollection overall is the spectacular andsculpturally powerful (but sadly unphotogenic)dragon finial, a Korean gilt bronze ofthe ninth or tenth century that is a star ofour new Arts of Korea galleries. Likewise, themagisterial depiction of the Lamentation byLudovico Carracci-a pivotal work of theearly I58os, when Ludovico and his cousinsAnnibale and Agostino buried Mannerismand laid the groundwork for Baroque art-isnow a cornerstone of our collection of ItalianBaroque paintings.It is as difficult as ever to end my contri-bution to this publication without mentioningevery object reproduced on the pages thatfollow, as well as the many more listed inour Annual Report. All contribute materiallyto the Museum's performance of its primarymission. I am profoundly grateful to thedonors of works of art or of the funds fortheir acquisition, whose generosity ensuresthat our millions of visitors, and especiallyour dedicated members, who return timeand again, will never lack for new andunexpected visual pleasures.Philippe de MontebelloDirector5The Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org

ContributorsAmerican Decorative ArtsNorth America I700-oo00: Alice CooneyFrelinghuysen (ACF), Curator; Peter M.Kenny (PMK), Curator; Amelia Peck (AP),Associate Curator; Catherine HooverVoorsanger (CHV), Associate Curator.Twentieth Century: Alice CooneyFrelinghuysen (ACF).American Paintings and SculptureNorth America I700-oo00: H. BarbaraWeinberg (HBW), Alice Pratt BrownCurator; Kevin J. Avery (KJA), AssociateCurator; Carrie Rebora Barratt (CRB),Associate Curator.Ancient Near Eastern ArtAncient World: Joan Aruz (JA), ActingAssociate Curator in Charge.Arms and ArmorAncient World: Donald J. LaRocca (DJL),Curator. Renaissance and Baroque Europe:Stuart W. Pyhrr (SWP), Arthur OchsSulzberger Curator in Charge. Europe700-oo900: Stuart W. Pyhrr (SWP).Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the AmericasAfrica, Oceania, and the Americas: Julie Jones(JJ), Curator in Charge; Alisa LaGamma(AL), Associate Curator.Asian ArtAsia: James C. Y. Watt (JCYW), BrookeRussell Astor Chairman; Barbara B. Ford(BBF), Curator; Maxwell K. Hearn (MKH),Curator; Martin Lerner (ML), Curator;Miyeko Murase (MM), Research Curator;Steven M. Kossak (SMK), Associate Curator;Zhixin Jason Sun (ZJS), Associate Curator.Costume InstituteTwentieth Century: Myra Walker (MW),Acting Associate Curator in Charge.Drawings and PrintsRenaissance and Baroque Europe: Carmen C.Bambach (CCB), Associate Curator;Nadine M. Orenstein (NMO), AssociateCurator; Michiel C. Plomp (MCP),Associate Curator; Perrin Stein (PS),Associate Curator. Europe 1700-I90o: ColtaIves (CI), Curator; Perrin Stein (PS).Twentieth Century: Samantha J. Rippner(SJR), Curatorial Assistant.Egyptian ArtAncient World: Dorothea Arnold (DA), LilaAcheson Wallace Curator in Charge.European PaintingsRenaissance and Baroque Europe: KeithChristiansen (KC), Jayne WrightsmanCurator. Europe I700-oo00: Gary Tinterow(GT), Engelhard Curator of Nineteenth-Century European Painting.European Sculpture and Decorative ArtsRenaissance and Baroque Europe: Olga Raggio(OR), Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Chairman.Europe 1700-1900: James David Draper(JDD), Henry R. Kravis Curator; Clare LeCorbeiller (CLC), Curator; William Rieder(WR), Curator; Jessie McNab (JMcN),Associate Curator; Wolfram Koeppe (WK),Assistant Curator.Greek and Roman ArtAncient World: Carlos A. Pic6n (CAP),Curator in Charge; Joan R. Mertens (JRM),Curator; Christopher S. Lightfoot (CSL),Associate Curator; Elizabeth J. Milleker(EJM), Associate Curator; Sean Hemingway(SH), Assistant Curator.Islamic ArtIslam: Stefano Carboni (SC), AssociateCurator; Navina Haidar (NH), AssistantCurator.Medieval Art and The CloistersMedieval Europe: Peter Barnet (PB), MichelDavid-Weill Curator in Charge; BarbaraDrake Boehm (BDB), Curator; Helen C.Evans (HCE), Curator; Timothy B.Husband (TBH), Curator; Charles T. Little(CTL), Curator.Modern ArtEurope I7oo-I9oo: Sabine Rewald (SR),Associate Curator. Twentieth Century: SabineRewald (SR); Lisa M. Messinger (LMM),Assistant Curator; J. Stewart Johnson (JSJ),Consultant for Design and Architecture;Jane Adlin (JA), Curatorial Assistant; JaredGoss (JG), Curatorial Assistant; NanRosenthal (NR), Consultant.Musical InstrumentsEurope I700-9o00: Herbert Heyde (HH),Associate Curator. Africa, Oceania, and theAmericas: J. Kenneth Moore (JKM),Frederick P. Rose Curator in Charge.PhotographsEurope I700-oo00: Malcolm Daniel (MD),Associate Curator. Twentieth Century: MariaMorris Hambourg (MMH), Curator inCharge; Jeff L. Rosenheim (JLR), AssistantCurator; Douglas Eklund (DE), ResearchAssociate; Laura Muir (LM), ResearchAssociate.7

ANCIENTWORLDAmarna heads, such as, for instance, those ofTutankhamen (r. ca. I336-1327 B.C.), thissculpture expresses benign serenity, communi-cating the ancient Egyptian belief that the godsare supremely aloof from mortal concerns.DAHead of a GoddessEgyptian, early Dynasty 19, reign of Seti I orearly reign ofRamesses II, ca. 1295-I270 B.c.Light brown quartziteH. 6/8 in. (16.2 cm)Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, zooo2000.62This head once belonged to the statue of anunidentified female deity. The gender is suggestedby the lack of a beard, and the simplehairstyle points to the divine status of thesubject: mortal women wore elaboratelycurled wigs at the time this piece was carved.The complete statue represented the goddessseated or standing, either alone or as part ofa group of two or more deities and possiblythe king.The sculpture was carved from quartzite, amaterial in which, through the ages, Egyptianartists created their most sensitive portrayalsof humans and gods. The Museum owns severalmasterpieces in this stone, most notablyheads of Senwosret III (acc. no. 26.7. 1394),Amenhotep III (acc. no. 56.I38), and QueenTiye (acc. no. 1I.I50.26). This head joins thegroup with the distinction of being impeccablypreserved, as even the delicately aquilinenose is complete. Stylistically, the piece representsthe later-Ramessid-stage of post-Amarna art at its very best. While a somewhatmelancholy sweetness characterizes earlier post-PyxisMinoan, Late Minoan IIIB period(ca. I320-1200 B. C.)TerracottaDiam. io?4 in. (26 cm)Gift of Alexander and Helene Abraham, inhonor of Carlos A. Picon, I9991999-423This cylindrical pyxis with twin lifting handlesstands near the end of a long ceramic traditionon Minoan Crete. It is remarkably wellpreserved except for its lid. While the painteddecoration is not as fine as that of earlier worksproduced in the workshops of the Minoanpalaces, the quality of potting and pyrotechnologyreached a high point during thisperiod. Expertly thrown with a hard, palecoloredfabric, it is a good example of theskill of the potters on Crete at the end of theLate Bronze Age.The shape is a less common variation ofthe pyxis type, a characteristic Minoan vessel,which usually has a taller cylindrical body.The abstraction of the ornament, as well as thebreaking of the main decorative zone into panels,suggests a date in the Late Minoan IIIBperiod rather than earlier. These artistic developmentsfollow mainland Helladic potterystyles and are seen in many Minoan works fromthis time. The stylized snakes on the panelslikely relate to the vessel's funerary function.SH9The Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org

probably made locally as a votive offering.JRMseal (top) was made when there was a growinginterest in portraying animals in a modeledstyle, in the treatment of figures in space, andin movement-all features associated withWestern stimuli. The winged horse has talonsusually seen on the lion-griffin, cervine horns,and a dragon-shaped phallus. The inscriptionnames a court cupbearer. The second seal is anear-duplicate of an example excavated atEnkomi, Cyprus, in I934. Both depict a heroin a short kilt, his arms outstretched overtwo lions with their forelegs on altars. Onthe Museum's example the hero may wear theMycenaean boar's-tusk helmet. In style thetwo are identical and point to the productionof"look-alikes" by the same hand.JAMare and FoalGreek, 8th-7th century B. c.BronzeH. 3Y in. (9.8 cm)Gift of Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford, inmemory of Mr. Frederick M. Stafford, 1999I999.526This work, which has been on loan to theMuseum since 1983, represents a significant,much published addition to our extraordinarycollection of art of the Geometric period(ca. I000-700 B.C.). Among bronzes, groupsin which the principals interact are much rarerthan single figures. The mare with her foalprovides a fine counterpar to the famous combatbetween a man and a centaur (acc. no.I7.190.2072). Such pieces served as dedications,with Olympia as the sanctuary at which animalsculptures were given in greatest number.Attributed to a workshop in Elis, the region inwhich Olympia is located, this group wasThe two examples shown below are from theimportant collection of 228 seals formed atthe beginning of the twentieth century bythe donor's grandfather Dikran Kelekian.Included in the group are cylinder and stampseals that date from the late fourth millenniumB.C. to the Sasanian and Early Byzantineperiods of the early first millennium A.D.The geographical range extends from Anatoliato Mesopotamia and Iran, with rich materialfrom Syria and Cyprus.These two seals can be dated on stylisticgrounds to the late fourteenth to thirteenthcentury B.C., a period of intense interactionbetween parts of the eastern Mediterraneanworld and the Near East. The MesopotamianArmband with a Herakles KnotGreek, Hellenistic period, 3rd-2nd century B.C.Gold, garnet, emerald, and enamelDiam. 3 2 in. (8.9 cm)Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Christos G. BastisGift, 19991999.209This massive armband, of the highest quality ofHellenistic metalwork and in superior condition,belongs to a type of which there are only afew other complete examples. It is constructedof a Herakles knot and an openwork banddecorated with ivy tendrils bearing leaves andberries. The leaves are delicately chased,Cylinder Seals and Modern ImpressionsTop: Northern Mesopotamia, Middle Assyrianstyle, i3th century B.c.ChalcedonyH. i 3 in. (3.6 cm); diam. ?2 in. (1.3 cm)Bottom: Cyprus, Cypro-Aegean style,i4th-i3th century B. c.HematiteH. /8 in. (2.3 cm); diam. 3S in. (o.8 cm)Gift of Nanette B. Kelekian, in memory ofCharles Dikran and Beatrice Kelekian, 19991999.325.89, .22310

and each group of three berries is solderedto a triangular pallet. Their stems are madeof hammered and tapered solid-gold wire.The knot is composed of inlaid garnets setbetween two large rectangular garnet cabochons.Its design is enriched by the motif of aflowering plant bearing six gold blossoms and awhorl of leaves at its base. The large center leafof the whorl is represented by an emerald, andthe lesser leaves were enameled in green, whichsurvives only on one small leaf. Distal to thegarnet cabochons are imbricated filigree bandswith extensive traces of reddish purple (manganese),green, and possibly white enamel. Ofgreat technical achievement, the piece invitescomparison with our pair of gold triton armbands(acc. nos. 56II.5, .6), illustrating thevariety of forms this class of objects assumedin the Hellenistic period.CAPIn terms of technique, the terracotta wassurely press molded but then extensivelyworked over by hand. There is a circular venthole at the back. A smaller round hole at thetop of the head could have served to securean attribute such as a crown. This beautifulClassical terracotta is remarkable in that itechoes so vividly monumental sculpture ofthe period in marble and in bronze.CAPStatuette of a Draped GoddessGreek, late 5th-4th century B. C.TerracottaH. I4 3 in. (37.5 cm)Gift of Robin Symes, in memory ofChristo Michailidis, zooo2000.I63This youthful, heavily draped woman standswith her weight on the left leg, which isadvanced. The right leg trails behind. Sheturns her head gracefully to the left. Her longgarment features a surprisingly low overfold,clearly indicated at the level of the knees. Hermantle is drawn over the head and drapedover the right shoulder, descending in a trian-gular mass at the front. A rosette earringadorns her right ear.The woman holds an edge of the mantlein her right hand. Her left arm and hand aremissing, together with whatever attribute shemight have held. The majesty of the figuresuggests that a goddess rather than a mortal isrepresented. The lack of attributes, however,prohibits a definite identification.II

for its remarkable stylistic affinities with bothGreek and Etruscan art, typical of Campanianworks made in a region where Greek, Italic,and Etruscan peoples were living in closeproximity to one another.CAPAryballos in the Form of a HedgehogEast Greek, Archaic period, 2nd halfof6th century B. C.FaienceH. 4/8 in. (II. cm)Marguerite and Frank A. Cosgrove Jr.Fund, I9991999.254This charming container for scented oil ismade of faience, a material first developed inEgypt during the early third millennium B.C.For approximately one hundred years productionof such small containers flourished atNaucratis, a trading emporium founded bythe Greeks in the late seventh century B.C.,and at other eastern Mediterranean sites,including Rhodes.Many of these vases take the form of ananimal-fish, goat, rabbit, monkey, evengrasshopper-but the most common andperhaps most successful type represents thehedgehog. This is a particularly large and fineexample. Its compact, rounded body is wellsuited to a vessel: the forepaws rest firmly onthe base, and the face, surrounded by a ruffof spines, has an alert expression, a snubnosedsnout, and wide-open eyes. The bodyis covered with cross-hatching punctuatedwith purple-black dots to indicate the spines.An Egyptianizing, sphinxlike head emergeson top of the back, just in front of the mouthand handle of the vessel. This may have beenan amusing parody, for the tiny outstretchedforepaws of the hedgehog and its large ruffalso bring to mind the reclining leonine formof the Egyptian sphinx.EJMEJMStatuette of a Bearded ManCampanian or South Italian Greek,ca. 500-450 B.C.BronzeH. 94 in. (23.5 cm)Purchase, Jeannette and Jonathan RosenGift, zooo2000.40This statuette, a rare and unusual bronze ofthe fifth century B.C., is best described asCampanian. It most likely served as a votiveoffering to the gods, presented at a sanctuaryeither in anticipation of a divine favor or infulfillment of a previous promise or vow.The bearded man stands with his leftfoot forward and arms, bent at the elbows, athis sides. His close-fitting tunic appears to bestitched around the neck. It has a seam at theshoulders and a pleated border around thearms and lower torso. The tunic is short,leaving the genitals exposed.A thick roll of hair, characterized by thinvertical incisions, frames the face. The manwears a snug cap with a narrow border atthe front decorated with three rosettes. Boththe headgear and the tunic are uncommondetails. The statuette is especially interesting12

Lid of a Ceremonial BoxRoman, late Ist century B. c-early Ist century A.D.Gilt silverL. 3 4in. (8.3 cm)Purchase, Marguerite and Frank A.Cosgrove Jr. Fund and Mr. and Mrs.Christos G. Bastis Gift, 20002000.26Attributed to the Hunt PainterBlack-Figure KylixGreek (Laconian), ca. 550-525TerracottaB.C.Diam. 7 5 in. (19.4 cm)Gift from the family of Howard J. Barnet,in his memory, 1999I999.527olIn Lakonia pottery and metalwork flourishedparticularly during the Archaic period (ca. 700-480 B.C.). Although the range of vase shapeswas limited, the technical precision and, insome cases, the iconography link the potter'sand the metalworker's products. Lent to theMuseum periodically since 1981, this cup is aparadigm of Laconian vase painting. (Theartist is named after two depictions of a boarhunt.) The potting here is fine and sharp.The interior shows, at left, a fully armed footsoldier, his spear on the far side and his shieldbehind him. His companion bends to put onA shield leans on thegreaves (shin guards)."wall" behind him, and a cuirass occupies thecenter of the tondo. A bird and a bag for gearcomplete the picture. In the exergue twofoxes frolic. The fame of Archaic Sparta lay inits military organization, which did not, however,preclude artistic creativity. This kylixdisplays beautifully both aspects of the citystate'srenown.JRMIts quality and iconography mark this lid asan exceptional object. The extremely finedetails of the repousse are further enhancedby the subtle use of gilding. The lid is decoratedin high relief with sacrificial animalsand religious objects, packed tightly onto aframed rectangular panel, while the remainingbackground is stippled. Featured prominentlyare the heads of a ram, a bull, and a goat, animalscommonly used as offerings at majorpublic ceremonies. Below the three headsappear cultic objects, including a flaringtorch, a libation bowl, a bundle of wood, asheathed knife, and a pomegranate. Someobjects are partially hidden by two other animals,a small bound deer and a rooster,which also represent offerings.Such elaborate and symbolic decorationstrongly suggests that the box to which thelid belonged had some religious function. Aremarkably similar silver lid preserved in theStaatliche Museen zu Berlin (attached to anancient but alien silver box) was acquired inRome in I84I. Our lid has been associated forabout three generations with the Romanbone pyxis and the rock crystal and silverspoon illustrated on page 14.CSL/CAP13

Scale ArmorEurasian, ca. 6th century B.C.LeatherL. 2734 in. (70.5 cm)Purchase, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Gift, zooo2000.66Not only is this extraordinary armor thebest-preserved scale armor from antiquity, butit is also the single known example entirelyof leather that survives from such an earlyperiod. It consists of a sleeveless garmentmade of fifty-six rows of hard scales, whichare secured by rawhide laces to a soft leatherlining. The armor reaches from the shouldersto the upper thighs, with a wide band at theSpoon and PyxisRoman, ist century A.D.Rock crystal and silver (spoon); bone (pyxis)L. (spoon) 73/8 in. (18.7 cm); h. (pyxis with lid)3 4 in. (8.2 cm)Purchase, The Concordia Foundation Gift,20002ooo.I; 2000.25a, bRoman spoons often form part of lavish setsof silver tableware. Individual examples arealso common but are usually of bone, bronze,glass, or wood. This spoon is highly unusual,since the bowl was carved out of a singlepiece of rock crystal. One principal type ofRoman spoon, the cochlear, with a smallercircular bowl and long handle, was used primarilyfor eating snails, shellfish, and eggs.The present example probably would nothave been used for such purposes because ofits size, shape, and materials. It is best seen asa luxury item, meant to accompany the toiletbox of a wealthy Roman matron.The very fine bone pyxis was also possiblypart of a cosmetic or trinket set. Althoughsimilar bone and wood containers are known,especially from Egypt, it is difficult to find aparallel of the same high quality. The twoobjects come from the same collection, andit is tempting to surmise that they werefound together.CSL14

2000.42.2 2000.42.4waist wrapping around the torso and overlappingunder the right arm. Straps to close itare on one side of the chest and at the smallof the back.Historically, scale armor, usually ofbronze or iron, was among the most longlivedand widely used forms of protection. Itfirst appeared in Egypt and the Near Eastabout the middle of the second millenniumB.C. and continued to be worn in Europe aslate as the seventeenth century A.D. Based onthe style and construction of the Museum'sexample, it seems most likely that the armorwas made by one of the nomadic culturesof Eurasia-possibly the Scythians, whodominated the steppes from the sixth to thesecond century B.C.Votive PanelsBactria (northern Afghanistan), Kushandynasty, ca. 3rd century A.D.Terracottand gouacheH. (each) 22 2 in. (57.2 cm)Purchase, Raymond and Beverly SacklerGift, zooo2000.42.2Gift of Isao Kurita, zooo2000.42.4Each of these rare Central Asian votivepanels depicts a deity (with nimbus) beingapproached by a male worshiper, probablynonroyal but portrayed as of equal stature tothe god. Compositionally, they follow scenesof homage and investiture from the post-Hellenistic West and from Iran in which aking and a god appear side by side. On thepanel at left a majestic figure with a full beardand long wavy hair, who has been identified asthe supreme deity Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd,receives a suppliant in the characteristicIranian short tunic and leggings, handsclasped in adoration. Along with the hands ofa missing worshiper, the god Siva/Oesho isdepicted on the panel at right. Four-armedand three-headed, with a prominent thirdeye, he wears an animal skin and a belted,diaphanous garment and holds a trident.Here, the rich intercultural style that developedin the Kushan realm is most clearlydisplayed: Indian divine iconography; theIranian type of two-figured composition; andGreco-Roman naturalism in the drapery andpose, as well as in the use of light and shadowto suggest modeling.The panels have holes at the corners andwere probably set up, together with two othersacquired by the Museum, on the interiorwalls of a sanctuary, perhaps a family shrine.JAI5

I S L A Mon Mount Lebanon. One day, after starvingthrough the night, he receives some breadfrom an infidel, who is depicted in this folioas the hirsute English monarch Charles II.As the recluse prepares to walk away, a malnourisheddog catches on to his robe andreproaches him for accepting food from aninfidel. The recluse, humbled by this encounter,observes, "He who has no faith is less thanthe dog of the infidel."NHPanel of Four Calligraphic TilesMorocco, I4th-early i5th centuryGlazed and carved composite bodyL. 22 4 in. (6.5 cm)Purchase, Leon B. Polsky and CynthiaHazen Polsky Gift, in honor of Patti CadbyBirch, I9991999p. 46Manuscript of the "Nan wa Hlalwa"(Bread and Sweets)India (Deccan, Aurangabad), ca. I690Ink, gold, and colors on paper; leather bindingH. 9!4 in. (23.5 cm)Purchase, Friends of Islamic Art Gifts, 1999I999.I57The Nan wa Halwa (Bread and Sweets), apoem about the merits of the ascetic life,was composed in Persian by the Sufi poetMuhammad Baha' al-Din 'Amili (I547-I62I).This illustrated version of the text reveals thelively and fertile mixture of Mughal, Rajput,and Deccani painting traditions that coexistedin Aurangabad at the end of the seventeenthcentury. The manuscript consists oftwenty-four folios. Four depict episodes fromthe poem (in this case, with considerable wit)inside richly painted borders; several of thetext folios are illuminated with appealingfloral motifs; and one flyleaf bears a strikingpanel of anthropomorphized calligraphy inthe form of a face.The story told here in a single frame isthat of a recluse who spends his time prayingThe decoration of these tiles was achieved bycarving away most of the layer of purplishblack glaze that originally covered the entiresurface, leaving only the inscription and thevegetal scrolls in dark relief. The technique iscalled zilij in Morocco, where this type of tilewas made for decorative architectural friezesfrom the fourteenth through the seventeenthcentury. Although it is not possible to identifythe building these tiles once embellished, itmust have been an important secular structurein Fez or Marrakesh. To judge from the colorof the glaze, which was common in the earlyperiod of zilij tile production, the frieze wasprobably assembled in the fourteenth or earlyfifteenth century. Delicate spirals terminatingin elegant split palmettes provide a backgroundfor the Arabic inscription, which was copied ina cursive calligraphy similar to that known asthuluth. Apparently, the frieze repeated thesame four words over and over, the second andfourth of which rhyme; the cheerful and welcomingphrase can be translated as "Whatexcellent companions are happiness and goodfortune!"SCThe Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org

Relief with GriffinByzantine (Greece?), 2nd halfofi3th centuryMarbleH. 23/2 in. (59.7 cm)Purchase, Rogers Fund and Jeannette andJonathan Rosen Gift, 2000ooo2000. 8IThis commanding image of a griffin with itshead turned and its wings flexed is an exceptionallyfine example of monumental stonecarving of the Late Byzantine, or Palaiologan,era. The panel, worked in low relief, resembles Greece that were carved in a style influentialan elaborate Byzantine silk in its arrangement in Serbia and the Balkans. On tombs griffinsof the creature within a roundel. Small Greek may have been meant both to protect thecrosses at the midpoint of the border on all people buried within and to symbolize theirfour sides identify it as having been made for royal lineage. The fleurs-de-lis on the griffin'sChristian use. Christians of this era still consid- shoulder and haunch typify the era's comeredthe mythical griffins to be guardian figures, plex cultural interplay, as similar motifs areoften of the dead, and symbols of power and found in contemporary Islamic and Crusaderauthority, thanks in part to their legendary role depictions of animals. The panel will be disinthe life of Alexander the Great.played to great advantage with other importantPossibly, the panel was once part of a stone carvings in the Museum's new Mary andtomb similar to those known from northern Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art.HCEI8

Chess Piece in the Form of a KingGerman (probably Cologne), 2nd half ofi4th centuryWalrus ivoryH. 2 2 in. (6.4 cm)Pfeiffer Fund, zooo2000.153the seated voussoir figures, carved about I375,in the portal of Saint Peter at the cathedral inCologne. The king's costume suggests that itwas not executed before the I350s, whenclose-fitting garments with prominent rowsof buttons can be seen in manuscripts andother works of art.PBPraetextaGerman (Cologne), ca. I450-75Tapestry weave; wool, silk, linen, and metallicthreads6/8 x 63 / in. (I6.2 x 16I.9 cm)The Cloisters Collection, 1999I999.392aThis rare surviving example of a completepraetexta, intended to hang just below thealtar table above the frontal, is in remarkablecondition. The tapestry-woven panel retainsits original color, its original woven edges(selvages) at top and bottom, and the startingand end points of the weaving, which weremore commonly trimmed off. Most extraordinarily,the tapestry appears never to havebeen washed. It has kept its original stiffnessand surface integrity, which make it one ofthe best-preserved medieval tapestries in theMuseum's large collection.Cologne was known in the fifteenthcentury as a center for pattern-woven orphreys,but such ornamental bands were typicallynarrow, woven in a compound twill calledsamit, and their pictorial details were frequentlyenhanced with embroidery. This praetextafeatures a Latin inscription, in white Gothicletters against a blue-green background,which reads Ave regina celorum mater regisangeloru[m] (Hail, Queen of Heaven, Motherof the King of the Angels). A flowering vinesurrounds the inscription, and an image of thestanding Virgin and child appears at the center,between the words celorum and mater.PBIn contrast to Romanesque kings who sitrigidly with swords across their laps, such asthose of the well-known Lewis chessmen(British Museum, London), this rare examplefrom the Gothic period shows the ruler in amore relaxed pose, seated on a cushionedthrone. His long hair falls from under hiscrown in ringlets, his feet rest on a recumbentlion, and he holds an orb in his left hand andthe remains of a scepter in his right. Madeto function as a game piece, the carving is atthe same time a sophisticated royal imagein miniature.The piece is not close enough stylisticallyto any other ivory to identify it as part of aknown chess set. Cologne, however, had along tradition of walrus-ivory carving, andthe king accords well with the French-inspiredstyle prevalent there during the fourteenthcentury. It can be compared especially withDetailI9

Devotional Diptych with the Nativityand the AdorationFrench (Paris), ca. I5ooSilver and niello; engraved and gildedcopper-alloy frameOverall 4 x 8 in. (10.2 x 20.3 cm)The Cloisters Collection, zooo2000.I52The unknown maker of these niello plaquesdepended for their composition on designsgenerated by the same workshop that providedthe cartoons for the celebrated UnicornTapestries now at The Cloisters. This workshopflourished for several generations underroyal patronage; the leading master of thesecond generation (ca. I485-15Io) is knownas the Master of the Hunt of the Unicorn,identifying his most prominent achievement.In addition to tapestries, this masterdesigned illuminated manuscripts and illustrationsfor printed books, the most famousof which are those in a book of hoursprinted in Paris by Philippe Pigouchet forthe publisher Simon Vostre in I496. Thescenes on the Metropolitan's plaques correspondvery closely to metal-plate illustrationsin the Pigouchet book of hours. A distinctiveand immediately recognizable style and avocabulary of facial types, stances, gestures,architectural elements, and other motifs thatwere employed by the workshop over anextended period of time forthrightly link thediptych with the Unicorn Tapestries-thusfurthering our understanding of the originsof those masterpieces, as well as of the praxisof a major medieval workshop.TBHWorkshop of Lukas Zeiner (Swiss, ca. 1450-before i519)Stained-Glass Panel with a Coat ofArmsand a Female SupporterSwiss (Zurich), i5oo-Io05Pot-metal and colorless glass, silver stain, andvitreous paintI5 x 22 in. (8 x 55.9 cm)Purchase, Bequest of Jane Hayward, byexchange, 2000ooo2000. 35This panel, bearing the arms of Kaspar vonHohenlandenberg, was produced in theZurich workshop of Zeiner, Switzerland'sforemost glass painter at the end of theMiddle Ages. The heraldic shield is supportedby a woman in luxurious garb. Overher left shoulder is the insignia of a chivalricorder known as the Fish and Falcon Society,the primary function of which was to organizetournaments for sport and entertainment.The panel was originally incorporatedinto the glazings of the assembly hall of achapter of the society and was not intendedfor a domestic context, despite the intimacyof its imagery. The perky dog and the pink,or carnation, lying under the chair are symbolsof faithfulness, while the red shoe thatprominently emerges from under the woman'srichly worked hem suggests sexuality andfecundity, thus promising the continuationof a distinguished family line.Two very similarly composed panels fromthe same workshop, one dated 150o andemblazoned with the coat of arms of Martinvon Randegg, who was married to Barbaravon Landenberg, are in the SchweizerischesLandesmuseum, Zurich.TBHSorgheloos in PovertyNorth Lowlands, 15o1-20Colorless glass, silver stain, and vitreous paintDiam. 9 in. (23 cm)The Cloisters Collection, I9991999.24320

Sorgheloos ("carefree" in medieval Dutch)was the antihero of one of the most popularmoralizing stories in the Lowlands of thelate Middle Ages. Loosely based on the prodigalson of the Christian parable, Sorgheloosignores all admonishments and embarks onthe life of a spendthrift wastrel. Inevitably themoney runs out, friends abandon him, andSorgheloos is ruined. Unlike the prodigal, whoreturns to a forgiving father, Sorgheloos, unredeemed,is condemned to poverty. This harshcautionary tale found considerable resonanceamong the God-fearing, hardworking denizensof mercantile towns in the Lowlands.Here, Sorgheloos sits forlornly on anupended washtub before a boiling kettle ofherring in a barren, crumbling house. His onlycompanion (besides a pitiable dog and cat) isPoverty, who can be seen through the doorwaygleaning straw to feed the fire. The roundel'sexecution-in several tones of paint, rangingfrom pale umber to dark brown, and threehues of silver stain, from pale yellow to copperybrown-is unusually accomplished. Themattes were extensively worked with a badgerbrush to produce subtle tonal gradations.Details and outlines were added with both astylus and the tip of a brush.TBH21

R E N A I S S A N CE AND BAROQ U E EUROPEthe Virgin and child, now lost-is one ofDaddi's earliest and most Giottesque effortsand is especially notable for the restrainedexpressiveness and nobility of its figures. Themournful attitudes of the Virgin and SaintJohn, seated on the ground in positions ofhumility, derive from figures of captives onRoman sarcophagi. (Interestingly enough,similar expressive gestures were explored con-temporaneously by Simone Martini in Siena.)Although the figures of Christ and the lamentingangels have suffered from abrasion, thepicture is of great beauty and is crucial forunderstanding the mainsprings of Daddi's art.KCLorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni)Italian, documented in Florence i39i-d. 1423/24Christ Entering the TempleCa. 1408-1IPen and brown ink, brush and brown wash,over traces of leadpoint, on fine-grained vellum(flesh side); lines at right in red ink12 X 9/2 in. (30.5 x 24.2 cm)Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, I9991999.391Bernardo DaddiItalian (Florentine), active by 1327-d. probably 1348The CrucifixionCa. I325-30Tempera on wood; gold groundI84 x I 3/8 in. (46.4 x 28.9 cm);painted surface I7 2 x Is/8 in. (44.5 X 28.9 cm)Gift of Asbjorn R. Lunde, 1999I999.532A narrative artist of exquisite sensibilities,Daddi was among the most importantFlorentine artists of the first half of the fourteenthcentury. His vision was shaped byGiotto, with whom he may have trained, andhis paintings combine a clarity of structureassociated with fresco painting with thejewel-like color and refined execution of aminiaturist. In the I33os and I34os his busyworkshop produced numerous portable altar-pieces for private devotion. Although thesecan be somewhat repetitive, his work fromthe I320S is of an unfailingly high order.This picture-one wing of a diptych thatdoubtless included a companion painting ofThis rare underdrawing for an unfinishedmanuscript illumination sheds light on theworking practices of Lorenzo Monaco, theCamaldolite monk who became the greatestand most versatile late Gothic painter inFlorence. It was produced at a time whenmost Italian studies were made on the samesurface as the actual finished work. Tendrilsof ornamental foliage, with exquisitely naturalisticflowers carefully constructed over ruledauxiliary lines, emanate from a historiatedinitial D. The elongated figures, set withinthe elaborate pictorial space of the initial, aremodeled atmospherically with wash.This and a related drawing, Christ'sEntry into Jerusalem (now in the BibliotecaApostolica Vaticana), originally formed asingle page in the famous Santa Maria degliAngeli choir books-already regarded in theRenaissance as the crowning achievement ofthe art of illumination in fifteenth-centuryFlorence. The page pertained to the sungliturgy of the Mass for Palm Sunday. Here,the figural scene within the initial wasinspired by the recommended reading forthe feast (Matthew 2I:I2). The presence ofchildren at right alludes to the verses thatimmediately follow Christ's entry into the22The Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org

temple,/s z fi_________-_ __-_.___ _. ___-________--_-_tion of contours is expressive. To accentuate^^^^histhe depth of the shadows in the cloak's folds,of thetheifulf^llmen pr^hescratched in some contours with the stylus.:-?~~~~~~~~~~~ j::^^:*' ^JThe ^^^drawing was preparatory for thefigure of an onlooker at the extreme right inB~'~ '~~~~::';'~ withachis ....panel painting The Discovery of the Cup' in-s ^/^%~Benlamin Sack (Galleria Borghese, Rome),.]2sllngMan^^y^~in4ProMt Standing??^based on an episode told in Genesis 44:12-13.That work was part of a famous narrativeiJ"2 3a:'~ cycle on the life of the virtuous Joseph, which,along with panels by Francesco Granacci,Cai^ ;St. ~e Andrea del Sarto, and Pontormo, decoratedP iurchse, f aolorat ofthet marital bedchamber of PierfrancescoGiuseppe Gazzoni-Frascarali , Borgherini and his wife, Margherita Acciaiuoli.Commissioned by the groom's father andprobably executed between 1515 and eis8, thetef namongmasteroTpanels for the Borgherini bedroom rankthe canonical ieces of earlyCCB:ml ari, f4a4t-e his the sion ofandPurchase, Lila Ache son Wallace, Mr. andHewitt Wiener Foundation Gifth mrts, 999athe youthlin of this delicate study (probably aMrs. David M. Tobey, and Jessie PriceGifts, workshop Harryassistant) G. SperlingwearsFund,the street and cloth es ofearly-sixteenth-century Florence: a large cap(berrettone), a shirt with puffy sleeves, tightbreeches, and an enveloping cloak, whichamplifies the volume of his body. Bachiaccaarticulated the figure and surrounding space23

SirenItalian (probably Rome), ca. 1570-90BronzeH. 32 in. (81.3 cm)Rogers and Edith Perry Chapman Funds,20002000ooo. 6This bewitching, just-under-lifesize figureof a siren in the guise of a beautiful nudewoman wearing a crown-her hair spreadover her shoulders and her hands graspingtwin fish tails-immediately evokes the imageof the emblematic siren of the Colonnafamily, one of the two most powerful feudalclans in medieval and Renaissance Rome.Given its large size, this bronze example mayoriginally have been made for the ColonnaPalace in Rome. In the seventeenth century itwas probably inherited by Anna Colonna,wife of Taddeo Barberini. If this is the case,the figure may be the "siren of bronze with acrown on her head" inventoried in 1644 in theBarberini Palace.A poetic, mythical creature inspired byancient statuary, this siren conveys a strikingvitality through the naturalism of her masterfulmodeling. The harmonious profile of heropen forms and the treatment of her abundant,wet, tousled hair recall the rhythmicalposes and details of the four bronze youths ofRome's renowned Fontana delle Tartarughe,created in I585 by the Florentine TaddeoLandini. One of the most gifted sculptors ofthe day, he may well be the author of thisextraordinary figure.ORi24

Collar Platefor a Helmet of Henry IIIof FranceFrench (probably Paris), ca. I570SteelW. (maximum) Io04 in. (25.9 cm)Gift of Prescott R. Andrews Jr., I999I999.448Design for a Sword HiltGerman (probably Nuremberg), ca. I540Pen, ink, and wash on paper82 X Ix 3/8 in. (21.5 x 29 cm)Rogers Fund, zooo2000.27Designs for Renaissance swords are exceptionallyrare, although notable examples bysuch renowned artists as Hans Holbein theYounger for the court of Henry VIII andGiulio Romano for the duke of Mantua arepreserved. Previously unrecorded, our newlyacquired drawing is a significant addition tothis small corpus. The style and iconographypoint to Nuremberg and possibly to one ofthat city's most celebrated artists, PeterF16tner (ca. I486-I546). The design is noveland has strong Italianate features, hallmarksof Flotner's oeuvre. The pommel was conceivedin the round with four female headsbeneath an imperial crown, while a twoheadedimperial eagle is incorporated into theclassical trophy of arms that embellishes thegrip. The asymmetrical guard has a shieldbearingdemi-lion at one end and a Janushead at the other.The trophies recall one of Flotner's woodcutsfor a dagger grip, whereas the crownedpommel is virtually identical to one in thedesign for a sword of Emperor Charles V thatis dated I544 and ascribed to the Nuremberggoldsmith Wenzel Jamnitzer (50o8-1585). Ourdrawing is by a different hand and is probablyslightly earlier in date, but the imperialimagery suggests that it, too, was created forCharles V.Detached elements of armor are valued byspecialists for their individual aesthetic qualitiesas well as for the evidence they provide ofthe original form and decoration of the completeharness. This plate served as the lowermostfront collar lame of a helmet embossedin low relief with grotesque ornament in thestyle of the Parisian goldsmith-engraverEtienne Delaune (15I8/I9-I583). The helmet,now lacking its collar, is preserved in theMusee de 1'Armee, Paris, and originally formedpart of a lost parade armor that was madeabout I570 for the future Henry III of France(155I-1589, r. I574-89). The appearance of theharness, which was covered with foliate scrollsinhabited by allegorical figures, lions, snakes,and fantastic beasts, is recorded in a contemporaryportrait of the young prince. Prior toascending the French throne, Henry ruledbriefly as king of Poland (1572-74), where heappears to have left behind his splendid armor.Our collar plate and presumably the Paris helmetwere preserved in the armory of powerfulPolish magnates, the Radziwills, in their castleat Nieswicz. The collar plate was given by PrinceAlbrecht Radziwill to Stephen V. Grancsay, theMetropolitan's assistant curator of Arms andArmor, in 1927 and was acquired by the donorfrom Grancsay a half century later.SWP25

Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo da Ponte)Italian, I5o0/18-159 2Studiesfor a FlagellationCa. I565-68Pastel, with red chalk, on light brown (formerlyblue) laidpaperIr x 9/2 in. (38.2 x 24.2 cm)Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, I999I999.390The poignant figures in this large sheet werebased on the live model and served as studiesfor a painting of 1565-68, The Flagellation ofChrist (Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice). Theupper portion of the drawing portrays a halfdressedman being violently scourged. Histhighs and high brown boots are broadly suggested.Sketchier still, the head and shoulders ofChrist are seen below in a three-quarter view.Bassano, who led a prolific workshopemploying his family, was the most innovativeVenetian draftsman of the later sixteenthcentury. He was famous for his naturalismand for his daringly direct and painterlypastel technique, which was not unlike theway he wielded the brush on canvas. Thismature work, among his most monumentalsurviving drawings, attains an extraordinarygrandeur of expression. He first outlined thegeneral forms of the two figures with long,jagged strokes of black pastel, varying theinflections of tone, and then worked in thecolors. He pressed hard on the paper to createsome accents of highly saturated hue.Pastel had not become a mainstreammedium for Italian artists until the I53os toI540s, when Bassano more or less emerged asits undisputed master.CCBLudovico CarracciItalian (Bolognese), 555-1619The LamentationCa. 1582Oil on canvas372 x 68 in. (95. x 172.7 cm)Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace and TheAnnenberg Foundation Gifts; HarrisBrisbane Dick, Rogers, and GwynneAndrews Funds; Pat and John Rosenwald,Mr. and Mrs. Mark Fisch, and Jon andBarbara Landau Gifts; Gift of Mortimer D.Sackler, Theresa Sackler and Family; andVictor Wilbour Memorial, Marquand, TheAlfred N. Punnett Endowment, andCharles B. Curtis Funds, zooo2000.6826

This astonishing picture of about 1582-asdirect in its emotional impact as in itspainterly technique-is a pillar of the reformof painting initiated in Bologna by theCarracci, Ludovico and his cousins Annibale(I560-1609) and Agostino (I557-I602). Basedon a return to nature and a study of thegreat masters of the Renaissance in northernItaly and Venice, the Carracci reform wouldrevolutionize European painting and lay thegroundwork for Baroque art.The figure of Christ has been taken from aposed model and is painted with an almostshocking lack of idealization. His right handis distorted, as though it had been broken inthe process of taking him down from thecross. The Virgin, unconscious with grief, isshown as plain and middle-aged rather thanconventionally young and beautiful. Ludovicoinsists on an emotionally charged, even dissonant,image and has used light to enhance theeffect of a physically present event: diffusearound Christ's feet, it falls with increasingstrength on his chest and head.Painted for Alessandro Tanari, papal trea-surer in Bologna, The Lamentation remainedwith his descendants until about I820-30.All trace of it was then lost until last year,when it reappeared at auction. It is now a keystoneof the Metropolitan's expanding and dis-tinguished collection of Baroque paintings.KC27

Hendrick GoltziusNetherlandish, 1558-1617After Bartholomeus SprangerNetherlandish, 1546-1 61IThe Feast of the Gods at the Marriageof Cupid and PsycheI587Engraving, printedfrom three plates on threeattached sheets; second state offourOverall I6 x 335s in. (43 x 85.4 cm)Purchase, The Elisha WhittelseyCollection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund,Martha Feltenstein Gift, and A. HyattMayor Purchase Fund, Marjorie PhelpsStarr Bequest, zooo2000. I3who is being admitted to the ranks ofthe gods, can be found at the head of the tablejust right of center. Divine wedding guestssurround the couple. Toward the left Bacchuspours drinks while Ceres, to the left of himwith her horn of plenty, directs the arrival ofthe food. Apollo and the Muses, on the right,serenade the company. Spranger's preparatorydrawing for the print is preserved in theRijksmuseum, Amsterdam.NMOComprising about seventy figures, thisprint was the largest and most famous ofthe Haarlem engraver's collaborations withSpranger, court painter to Emperor Rudolf IIin Prague. Its bravura display of elegant, twist-Psyche,ing and turning nudes placed among dense,serpentine billows of clouds was of greatimportance in disseminating throughoutEurope Spranger's Mannerist aesthetic andGoltzius's virtuoso engraving style.As is typical of Mannerist works, the mainsubjects of the scene are relegated to thebackground; the small figures of Cupid, withlarge, jutting wings, and his mortal bride,28

Hendrick GoltziusNetherlandish, 1558-1617The Adoration of the ShepherdsCa. i600-I60oBlack, yellow, and red chalk, accented in penand brown ink8 8 x 8%2 in. (20.7 x 21.6 cm)The Elisha Whittelsey Collection,The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 19991999. I67As told in the Gospel of Saint Luke (2:8-I6),an angel announced to the shepherds thebirth of the Messiah, and they went toBethlehem to adore him. This drawing's circularformat fits the theme perfectly, becauseit dictates that Mary and the shepherds betightly grouped around the infant and bringsan intimacy to the scene. The close relationshipof the protagonists is further enhancedby the four figures in the background, whoseem to have no idea of the important eventthat is unfolding in the immediate vicinity.The contrast of the Virgin's sinuous,courtly beauty with the nearly caricaturaldepiction of the onlooking shepherds was acommon visual juxtaposition in the art of theperiod. This delicately finished compositionis signed with the artist's monogram, HG(beside fecit at lower right), and dates fromabout I6oo to I605, to judge from the softnessof his chalk technique.MCPMartin FreminetFrench, I567-1619The AnnunciationCa. i6io-i5Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brush andgray wash, heightened with white7 5 x I 3/8 in. (9.3 x 28.8 cm)Purchase, Gift from the family of HowardJay Barnet, in his memory, zooo2000.20fromThe decoration of the Chapel of the Trinityat the Chateau of Fontainebleau occupiedthe senior artists of the French court formany years. Following the deaths of ToussaintDubreuil in 1602 and Etienne Dumonstier IIin I603, Henry IV summoned Freminet backItaly to take over the project. Thisrecently discovered sheet was an early ideafor the lunette depicting the Annunciationabove the high altar.Typical of Freminet's Mannerist-revivalstyle is the inverted composition, in whichthe central figures of the Virgin and thearchangel Gabriel are calm and diminutivein the middle ground while the foregroundcorners of the lunette are densely packedwith subsidiary figures in poses of elegantcontortion. Freminet's muscular, Michelangelesquestyle had a strong impact onthe development of the second school ofFontainebleau.A large presentation drawing by Freminetfor the high altar (Musee du Louvre, Paris)shows the lunette as it was actually painted,with some changes from the Metropolitan'sstudy; most notably, Gabriel was given astanding pose. The altar was ultimately builtto a different design, however, beginningfourteen years after Freminet's death, and inthe end it obscured a large portion of theAnnunciation fresco.PS29

Peter Paul RubensFlemish, I577-1640Portrait of the Jesuit Nicolas Trigault inChinese CostumeI617Black, red, and white chalk; blue pastel;pen and brown ink17 2 x 93 in. (44.6x 24.8 cm)Purchase, Carl Selden Trust, severalmembers of The Chairman's Council, Gailand Parker Gilbert, and Lila AchesonWallace Gifts, 19991999.222Rubens drew this monumental yet sensitiveportrait when Nicolas Trigault (1577-I628), aJesuit missionary, was visiting Antwerp in 1617.Trigault had lived in China since i6io butreturned to Europe for a four-year fund-raisingtour on behalf of the Jesuit missions in theEast. Throughout his career Rubens acceptedcommissions from the Society of Jesus, provid-ing the relatively new and revolutionary orderwith altarpieces, book illustrations, frontis-pieces, and a famous cycle of ceiling paintingsfor their church in Antwerp.In Trigault's time the number of Jesuitsliving in China had reached twenty, but theirposition was precarious. The missionariesassumed the role of learned scholars amongthe mandarins; in order to achieve their goalsand obtain official recognition for theirCatholic faith, they learned the Chinese language,adopted Chinese names, and emulatedthe local manners and dress. The beard andcostume, an amalgam of Korean hat andChinese robe, suited that goal. Rubens capturedbeautifully the cut, texture, and weightof the robe. Trigault died in Nanking (Nanjing)in I628.MCPClaude Lorrain (Claude Gellee)French, I6o4/5?-1682The Round Tower Ruptured to Revealthe Statue of the King of the RomansI637Etching758 x 53 in. (19.4 x 13.7 cm)Purchase, Marianne and Paul GouraryGift, 19991999.361Although he was born in the duchy ofLorraine and spent his entire maturity in30

Roelandt SaveryNetherlandish, 1576-1639Study of a Tree TrunkGraphite, charcoal dipped in oil, brush andgray wash, red chalk12 x 15/2 in. (3o.6x 39.4 cm)Purchase, Anonymous Gift, in memory ofFrits Markus; Harris Brisbane Dick Fund,and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 19991999.223Rome, Claude is considered, along withPoussin, one of the two founders of theFrench school of painting. He also made abody of prints, their subjects, for the mostpart, parallel to those of his paintings: pastoral,biblical, and historical themes set inexpansive, light-filled landscapes. An exceptionis the rare group of eleven etchingsdocumenting the fireworks display held inRome in 1637 to mark the coronation ofFerdinand III as King of the Romans withinthe Holy Roman Empire. As was the case formany Baroque pageants and festivals, complexephemeral structures were designed withprogrammatic imagery.This print represents the climax of thedisplay: a round tower, having exploded andburned, collapses to reveal an equestrianstatue of the new ruler. A segment of thetower wall is seen in the process of falling,amid a shower of fireworks. The image wasachieved through the reworking of an earlierstate. By burnishing areas and rebiting theplate in several stages, Claude imbued theprint with a sense of life and movementrarely found in his oeuvre.PSBoth dead and alive, a mighty, uprooted treetrunk, together with a tangle of stumps, roots,and branches, is the sole subject of this drawing.Savery, like several other Netherlandishartists around I6oo, was fascinated by suchhighly charged animations of natural forms.Savery might have encountered this treeduring his extended journey to the Swissand Tyrolean Alps, from I6o6 to I6o8, onwhich he fulfilled the order of Holy RomanEmperor Rudolf II (r. I576-I612) "to searchfor rare wonders of nature." This sheet correspondswith the chalk-and-wash studies fromthat trip; it unites a naturalist's attentive eyewith the restless energy of late Mannerist art.Savery developed his initial graphite sketchwith breathtaking assurance, alternating layersof colored washes with charcoal, whichhe dipped in oil and applied in strokes bothhatched and crosshatched, narrow and broad,dark and light.MCP3I

EUROPE 1700- 1900After a Model by Juste-Aurele MeissonnierFrench (Paris), I695-I750Pair of CandlesticksParis, ca. I730-50Gilt bronzeH. (each) 2 ' in. (30.8 cm)Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 19991999.370o.a, b; .2a, bMeissonnier was an architect, painter, silver-smith, and one of the leading Rococo designers,with the position of architecte-dessinateurla chambr et du cabinet du roi. His boldlyasymmetrical model for these candlestickswas recorded in three drawings that werethen engraved by Gabriel Huquier and publishedin Dousieme livre des oeuvres deJ. A.Meissonnier, Livre de chandeliers de sculptureen argent (1728; pls. 73-75). The designbecame widely popular and was often executedin gilt bronze. Examples of the highestquality, such as the present pair, wereprobably supervised by Meissonnier himself.The model was also made in silver. It wasused for a three-branch candelabra, part of afamous silver service acquired by the duke ofKingston in I737, which is now in the Museedes Arts Decoratifs, Paris.WRAlexander CampbellScottish, d. 1790Pair of Flintlock PistolsDoune, ca. I750-70Steel and silverL. (each) I 3/ in. (29.8 cm)Gift of Edward Coe Embury Jr., PhilipAymar Embury, and Dorothy EmburyStaats, in memory of Aymar Embury IIand his wife Jane Embury Benepe, 200ooo2000.194.1, .2The Highland warriors of Scotland carrieddistinctive arms of novel design. Their pistols,unlike those made elsewhere in Britain,were constructed entirely from metal, usuallysteel, and were engraved and often silverinlaidwith geometric and foliate ornament ofCeltic inspiration. This pair, signed by therenowned gunmaker Campbell, of Doune,Perthshire, is a classic example of the type.Among the defining features are the scrolled"ram's-horn" butts, button-shaped triggers(without trigger guards) and prickers (to cleanthe touchhole), decorative pierced rosettesbehind the head of the cock, and belt hooksmounted on the side opposite the locks.Our pistols are also noteworthy for theirAmerican association. The grips are inlaidwith silver plaques inscribed "Abrm B.Embury / New York 1830," identifying themas having belonged to a member of a distin-guished New York family. The pistols'unusually crisp condition testifies to theirpreservation as treasured heirlooms foralmost two centuries.SWP32The Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org

Such sheets would have been consideredfinished works, as suggested by Liotard'spractice of applying colored wash on areas ofthe verso corresponding to hair, flesh, andclothing. Presumably, this was intended toenhance subtly the tonal variations on therecto of the sheet.PSJean-Etienne LiotardSwiss, 1702-1789Portrait of a ManRed and black chalk92 x 7Y8 in. (24. x _r8.7 cm)Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2000zooo200ooo0.7Born in Geneva and largely self-taught,Liotard spent a great part of his life traveling,capturing the likenesses of Europe's upperclasses with a steady and penetrating eye. Hisportraits, typically executed in chalk or pastel,exhibit a quasi-scientific clarity of observationmore suggestive of Enlightenment curiositythan of Rococo artifice.In the present sheet attention is focusedon the face, where a soft network of hatchingin red and black chalk gently marks thetopography of the sitter's features as revealedby the fall of light. The thoughtful yet formalpose, with eyes gazing evenly into the distance,conveys a calm authority. The identity ofthis handsome and self-assured man cannotbe stated with certainty, though a traditionwithin the previous owner's records identifiedhim as a member of the Andre family, bankersin Geneva and Paris.33

FranSois-Andre VincentFrench, 1746-1816Study for "Boreas Abducting Oreithyia"Ca. 1782Red, black, and white chalk, with stumping20 x 51/8 in. (50.8 x 39.I cm)Inscribed (lower right, in pen and brown ink):fait par Vincent, membre de l'institutPurchase, David T. Schiff Gift, andHarry G. Sperling and Louis V. BellFunds, zooo2000.37This forceful sheet is a study for the centralpose of Vincent's reception piece, the paintinghe submitted to the Academie Royale in1782 in order to gain the post of academician(Musee du Louvre, Paris; on deposit inChambery). The abduction is described inOvid's Metamorphoses (6.682-707). Boreas,the north wind, enamored of the maidenOreithyia, daughter of King Erechtheus ofAthens, becomes angry when his gentleentreaties fail and decides to resort instead tohis characteristic brute force.The subject was a common one amongRococo artists; it had been treated by Boucher,Deshays, Natoire, and Pierre, among others.Vincent, however, was alone in evoking thestormy atmosphere and violence found inOvid's version of the story. Using the troiscrayons technique (which combines red,white, and black chalk), Vincent set forththe dramatic contrast he envisioned forthe painting. The figures are drawn essentiallyin red chalk, with highlights in whitethat suggest a stark, milky light falling onOreithyia; stumping in black chalk indicatesshadow and the dark sky beyond. The detailof Oreithyia's left hand, emblematic of herresistance, is studied in the lower part ofthe sheet with great clarity, as if it werecarved in marble.PSPierre-Paul Prud'honFrench, I758-1823Andromache andAstyanaxCa. 1798Pen and gray ink, with brush and brown wash,over traces of black chalk, on laidpaperI 34 x 85/8 in. (29.8 x 21.9 cm)Harry G. Sperling Fund, 19999999.348Prud'hon depicted Andromache severaltimes, perhaps most notably in the Metropolitan'spainting Andromache and Astyanax(acc. no. 25.IO.I4), which was unfinished atthe time of his death but completed soonafterward by his student Boisfremont. TheMuseum's new drawing was probably amongthe earliest of Prud'hon's treatments of thescene in which the heroine of Racine's drama(based on Greek legend) discovers in heryoung son's face the visage of her dead spouse,Hector. At that moment she declares, "C'esttoi, cher epoux, que j'embrasse" (It is you,dear husband, whom I embrace).Although he is better known for worksin black and white chalk, in this instancePrud'hon drew in pen and ink. He preparedthe drawing to be engraved as an illustrationfor Didot's lavish edition of Racine, publishedbetween I803 and I805. Prud'honproudly displayed the sheet at the Salon of1798 but lost the Didot commission nonethelessto the painter Girodet, largely owingto the intervention of the Neoclassicistmaster David, who vigorously promoted theinterests of his own students.CI34

and skiff in a landscape of operatic grandeur.Alpine mountains, Roman ruins, andgigantic tropical trees dwarf the busy muscularmen in the foreground, but their laborimparts energy to every corner of the scene,as does the artist's brisk and lavish penwork.Other sketches by Gericault now in theMus&e du Louvre, Paris, and the Mus&eBonnat, Bayonne, show tiny figures draggingboats and are probably connected with thisproject. Two more drawings, in the Fogg ArtMuseum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, andthe Mus&e des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, are alsorelated. The Metropolitan's watercolor, however,is the most elaborately worked of thegroup and is closest to the finished painting.CIJean-Louis-Andre-Theodore GericaultFrench, I71-I824Landscape with Fishermeni8i8Graphite, pen and brown ink, brush andbrown and blue wash, on laidpaper83/4 X 8/8 in. (22.2 X 20.6 cm)Purchase, Fletcher Fund, David T. SchiffGift, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection,The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, and Harry G.Sperling Fund, zooo2000ooo.36Monumental despite its relatively small size,this extraordinarily rich drawing is perhapsthe finest of Gericault's regrettably few watercolorlandscapes. It is a preparatory study forthe painting Morning: Landscape with Fishermen(Neue Pinakothek, Munich) and is thusconnected to the Museum's mural panelEvening: Landscape with an Aqueduct (acc.no. I989g.83), another in the suite of threescenes from I8I8 called The Times of Day.To represent morning Gericault imaginedfishermen at sunrise, hauling in their nets:i35

Caspar David FriedrichGerman, 1774-1840Two Men Contemplating the MoonCa. 1825-30Oil on canvas3 3/4 x 7 '4 in. (4.9 x 43.8 cm)Wrightsman Fund, ooo20002000.5IFriedrich is universally acclaimed as Germany'sgreatest Romantic painter, but his picturesare rarely seen outside his native country.This fine canvas, executed at midcareer, is thefirst of his works to enter the Museum's collection.It is the second of three memorablepaintings that show pensive figures contem-plating the rising moon; the other variantsare at Dresden and Berlin.In this version Friedrich depicted him-self-wearing the old-fashioned garb adoptedby those opposed to Metternich's policieswithhis favorite student, August Heinrich(I794-I822), who had recently died while onhis way to Italy. It is thought that Friedrichpainted this picture in remembrance of theirevening walks together in the mountainsoutside Dresden. In the vast literature onFriedrich, the fir, the gnarled oak, and therising moon have been given numerousinterpretations, rooted in Christianity or,alternatively, in paganism.GT/SR36

Gustave Le GrayFrench, I820-I882Oak and Rocks, Forest of FontainebleauI849-52Salted paper print fom paper negative9Ys x 14 in. (25.2 x 35.7 cm)Purchase, Jennifer and Joseph Duke andLila Acheson Wallace Gifts, 19992000.I3The Forest of Fontainebleau-forty thousandacres crisscrossed by footpaths and dottedwith ancient oaks and anthropomorphicboulders-attracted a new generation ofpainters in the second quarter of the nineteenthcentury. Corot, Daubigny, TheodoreRousseau, and others found in the lightdappledwoods south of Paris both a spiritualantidote for the tensions of modern urbanlife and a perfect subject for exploring thephysical and expressive properties of theirmedium, free of academic strictures. Workingalongside these pre-Impressionist paintersand testing the limits of another medium wasLe Gray, a young artist who had recentlytraded in his paint box and easel for a cameraand tripod.In this early work, a unique print formerlyin the famed Jammes collection, Paris,Le Gray sought to convey the sensuous experienceof the sylvan interior. Rather thanproviding an inventory of precise details, LeGray's waxed paper negative (a process heinvented) translated the observable worldinto a painterly evocation of light, texture,and atmosphere. Here, the lacy network ofbranches, patches of lichen, and sparklingvegetation are woven into a tapestry of alloverpatterning-like a Jackson Pollock painting-whichmerges solid and void, substanceand shadow.MD37

Franz Hubert DoreckGerman (b. Austria), master in 1822-d. ca. i866Cup and Cover with Original LeatherCaseMannheim, ca. 1822-30Gilt silver; tooled, partially gilded leatherH. io Y8 in. (27 cm)Purchase, Friends of European Sculptureand Decorative Arts Gifts, zooo2000. 6ia-dand conveys the elegance of inventions byKarl Friedrich Schinkel (I78I-I84I), the mostinfluential architect and designer in earlynineteenth-centuryGermany. Other features,however, notably the figural applications, thecone finial, and the leaf-frieze decoration,recall the French Empire style.Dominique Antony PorthauxFrench (Paris), ca. I751-I839BassoonCa. 18ioMaple; original case with leather cover andwool liningH. (assembled) 51 in. (129.5 cm)Purchase, Clara Mertens Bequest,in memory of Andre Mertens, I999I999.307a,bIn I787, five years after Porthaux went intobusiness, the composer and renowned bassoonistof his time, Etienne Ozi, furtheredthe maker's career by recommending hisinstruments in an instruction book entitledMethode nouvelle et raisonnee pour le basson.This example features six keys, including aspeaker key, which came into use soon afterI800 to facilitate the "speaking" of the highestnotes. Its bearing arrangement is unusualin that the keys are tucked over an oblongsocket in the wood instead of having metalcapsules. The bassoon was acquired with itsoriginal extra wing joint (for lower pitch) andoriginal bocal (curved metal tube), as well astwo boxes of period reeds. The survival ofsuch a complete set in its original case is rare.Porthaux's bassoon foreshadowed whatlater in the nineteenth century came to becalled the French, as opposed to the German,bassoon, featuring a colorful, slender, andslightly nasal sound; long tenons; characteristickey flaps; and a particular turning profileof the bell section.HHDoreck arrived in Mannheim in 1821 fromBrunn, Austria. A label in the traveling caseof our cup states that he established a workshopas goldsmith and jeweler in the town'scenter, at "No. 5 / in der breiten Strasse."Here, the master took a simple Neoclassicalbarrel form and enlivened it with a playfulcontrast of decorative details and surfaceeffects, such as the light-catching gadroons.The perfectly preserved cup may have been apresent to a physician, as indicated by theapplied reliefs of Hygeia, the Greek goddessof health, and her father, Asclepius, the godof medicine and healing. It is part of a longevolution of presentation cups from ancienttimes to the sport and racing trophies of today.The vessel's outline is distinctly German38

Jean-Louis AntoineFrench (Paris), I788-186IValve HornCa. 1850-55Brass; original wooden case with morocco liningH. (assembled) 163 in. (42.6 cm); diam. (bell)7in. (17.8 cm)Purchase, Clara Mertens Bequest,in memory of Andre Mertens, I999999g.304a-hThis horn is a so-called cor solo, pitched in Gand equipped with internal crooks for thelower keys down to C. As the name indicates,it was designed to play solos. It represents thefirst French version of the valve horn, inventedby Heinrich Stolzel in Germany in I814. In1827 Antoine worked with Pierre-Joseph-Emile Meifred, horn player for the TheatreItalien and the Opera in Paris, to improve theGerman model. None of the early exampleshave survived, but the cor Meifred, as thishorn was also dubbed in France, continuedto be manufactured there as late as the I85os.The horn was executed in "high pitch,"which was just beginning to be superseded bythe "low pitch" standard of 435 hertz-soonuniversal. Thus the instrument was littleplayed and has remained in excellent condition.Antoine, who in I825 had become proprietorof the renowned instrument-makingfirm of Jean Hilaire Halari-Aste, signed thehorn on the bell "HALARI-ANTOINE BREVETERUE MAZARINE A PARIS.Jean-Martin RenaudFrench, 1746-1821Family PortraitCa. I790-1810Wax on slate43/4 x 62 in. (12.1 x 16.5 cm)Signed (lower left): J M RenaudPurchase, Gift of Mrs. Benjamin Moore,by exchange, and Rogers Fund, I999I999.40IRenaud was a prolific modeler of small portraitsand scenes in wax and clay, which heexhibited regularly at the Paris Salon. Here,he vies with his Neoclassical contemporariesin painting by presenting a tender vignette,using hints of costume and posture to definethe generations: the burly man at right, in afashionable high collar, has dismounted, stillwearing his spurs, to be greeted by his wife,their four children, and an older man-hisfather or hers, or perhaps a tutor. Bewiggedand taking a pinch of snuff, the latter adheresto a bygone style of life, which Renaud, a diehardroyalist, surely savored.The modeling of wax in relief on a slateground had been a preliminary techniqueof medalists since the Renaissance, butRenaud used it as an end in itself, confidentthat the pleasing contrasts of color and textureachieved in this miniature would cause itto be framed and treasured as a keepsake.JDD39

Charles Toft (designer and potter)English, 1832-1909Minton and Company (manufacturer)Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, est. 1796PotpourriLead-glazed white earthenwareH. 3 /8 in. (34 cm)Signed: C. Toft; marked: Minton & Co., 1871Purchase, Gifts of Mr. and Mrs. LukeVincent Lockwood, Sidney H. and Helen M.Witty, Mrs. Roger Starr and Julien A.Garbat, Louise Rorimer Dushkin andJames J. Rorimer, by exchange, and fundsfrom various donors, zooo2000.I44a, bIn the mid-Victorian era there was greatinterest in the decorative styles of the sixteenthcentury, which is reflected in manyfields and even in women's fashions. Theleading firm of Mintons made copies of therare sixteenth-century French court ceramicsthen known as "Henri II" ware. Such copieswere first produced by Leon Arnoux, thefactory's French art director. In the late i86osToft, a member of a line of prominentseventeenth-century potters, turned outexact reproductions at Mintons of sixteenthcenturymodels, with dark clay ornamentinlaid on a white body-the equivalent ofniello on silver-and also larger, originalworks. The latter, very much to contemporarytaste in form, utilized a second techniquepracticed at the "Henri II" workshop, nowalmost universally recognized as having beenat Saint-Porchaire, a village in Poitou.This second technique consisted of paintingon the surface of the white body withcolored stains, which were then given brillianceby a clear lead glaze. While the shapeof this potpourri is orientalizing, the symmetricaldecoration is taken with little adaptationfrom Saint-Porchaire originals, including therepeated H around the foot, a reference tothe king found on numerous pieces of theearlier period.JMCNFranqois-Desire Froment-MeuriceFrench, I802-1855Ewer and BasinParis, ca. i85oGilt silverH. (ewer) i5 in. (38.1 cm); 1. (basin) i83/4 in.(47.6 cm)Purchase, Friends of European Sculptureand Decorative Arts Gifts, 19991999.2I7.1, .2Froment-Meurice, among the most renownedsilversmiths of mid-nineteenth-century Paris,was a historicist whose work embracedmedieval, Renaissance, and Islamic styles,which he charged with an abundance ofsculptural ornament. Here, in a radical departureboth from his own manner and fromthe prevailing taste of the period, he let thesuavely curved profilespeak for themselves,emphasizing them through the use of a singleallover trellis and flower-head pattern,adjusted in scale and rhythm to each changeof surface. Combining traditional and newtechniques, Froment-Meurice introducedboth chromatic and textural variety throughchasing, engraving, and electroplated gildingin two colors-yellow and greenish whitegold-on a ground that had been partlypolished and partly acid etched.Froment-Meurice frequently repeatedhis models, and this ensemble is one of threeknown versions. It was perhaps an experimentaldesign made for stock, as the unidentifiedcipher set into the handle is of a different colorgold; this suggests that the cipher was insertedat the time of purchase.TableGerman (Berlin, Royal PorcelainManufactory), 1834Hard-paste porcelain and gilt bronzeH. 35Y in. (89.9 cm)Wrightsman Fund, zooo2000. I89CLCBy about 1832 new production methods and abroad range of new colors enabled Berlin'sporcelain factory to create objects of exceptionalsize and brilliance. Even so, tablesmade entirely of porcelain are rare, and this is40

the only Berlin example known to survive.The monochromatic pedestal, its refined gildingsimulating metalwork, is composed ofporcelain sections slipped over a thin metalrod and provides stately support for the dazzlingpolychromy of the top. Within a centralmedallion Apollo drives his chariot amid theconstellations, a scene framed by signs ofthe zodiac. Encircling this are two luxuriantwreaths, the inner of fruits and vegetablesand the outer of glossy leaves alive with dartinginsects. The entire table may have beendesigned by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (I78I-184I),the versatile architect who created bothfurniture and porcelain for the Berlin factory.The impetus for such virtuoso piecescame from the Prussian king FrederickWilliam III, whose patronage of the royalmanufactory was extensive. We are not certainthat he commissioned this table, but onJune I, I835, it was recorded as a gift fromhim to Grand Duchess Helena Pavlovna ofRussia (I807-I873).CLC4I

Eugene BoudinFrench, I824-1898Princess Pauline Metternich on theBeachCa. 1865-67Oil on cardboard, laid down on panelII 5 x 9X4 in. (29.5 x 23.5 cm)The Walter H. and Leonore AnnenbergCollection, Partial Gift of Walter H. andLeonore Annenberg, 1999I999.288. iPrincess Metternich (Pauline, CountessSandor; I836-I921), the wife of the Austrianambassador to the court of Napoleon III,called herself the "best-dressed monkey inParis." Here, Boudin takes her at her word,devoting a scrap of board to capturing theeffect of her voluminous skirts billowing inthe gusts of the Norman shore.Boudin achieved success with his scenesof fashionably dressed families taking the air atTrouville and other beach resorts, and apartfrom Empress Eugenie, no woman wouldhave aroused more interest on the beach thanPrincess Metternich. A close friend of theempress, she became the face of fashion inSecond Empire Paris. According to the acid-tongued Goncourt brothers, she was ubiquitous:"Her, always her! In the street, at theCasino, at Trouville, at Deauville, on foot, ina carriage, on the beach, at children's parties,at balls for important people, always andeverywhere, this monster ... who has only theelegance that she can buy from the dressmakerfor one hundred thousand francs a year."GTJean-Baptiste-Camille CorotFrench, 1796-I875The Curious Little GirlCa. 1860-64Oil on wood6Y4 x i 4 in. (41.3 X 28.6 cm)The Walter H. and Leonore AnnenbergCollection, Partial Gift of Walter H. andLeonore Annenberg, 19991999.288.2In 188I, six years after Corot's death, Vincentvan Gogh observed: "Corot's figures are notas well known as his landscapes, but it cannotbe denied that he has done them. Besides,Corot modeled every tree trunk with thesame devotion and love as if it were a figure."42

Perhaps it would be better to say that Corotpainted people with the same devotion as hegave to trees, for in his figures one also findsthe quiet absorption and unaffected gracewhatthe French critics called naivete-withwhich he imbued his landscapes. AlthoughCorot had always made figure studies, at theend of his life he painted a large number ofgenre scenes destined for eager collectors.His friends recalled that he looked forwardto them as a refreshing holiday from routine.Here, the girl closely resembles EmmaDobigny, who later became one of hisfavorite models.Like most of Corot's figure paintings, thiswork was not exhibited during his life. Thetitle, which directs our attention to what mightlie beyond the wall, was probably assignedlater, perhaps by the first owner, Corot's studentGeorge Camus. Corot gave the pictureto Camus in February 1864, when Dobignywould have been thirteen years old.Edouard ManetFrench, I832-I883The "Kearsarge" at Boulogne1864Oil on canvas3278 X 39/8 in. (8. 6 x 1oo cm)Partial and Promised Gift of Peter H. B.Frelinghuysen, and Purchase, Mr. andMrs. Richard J. Bernhard Gift, by exchange,Gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Rodgers andJoanne Toor Cummings, by exchange, andDrue Heinz Trust, The Dillon Fund, TheVincent Astor Foundation, Mr. and Mrs.Henry R. Kravis, The Charles EngelhardFoundation, and Florence and HerbertIrving Gifts, I999I999.442One of the most sensational naval battlesof the American Civil War took place offthe coast of France. The Federal corvetteKearsarge sank the Confederate ship Alabamanear Cherbourg on June 19, 1864. Manet, aformer sailor, was captivated by the reports inthe Parisian press and rushed a painting ofthe battle (now in the Philadelphia Museumof Art) to a dealer's window. A few weekslater, during his habitual summer vacation atBoulogne, Manet was keen to see the victoriousship, which was being provisioned andrepaired. He wrote a friend: "The Kearsage[sic] was anchored at Boulogne last Sunday. Iwent to have a look. I had got it about right.So then I painted her as she looked on thewater. Judge for yourself."This picture is the result. It is the first ina series of seascapes that would profoundlyaffect the course of French painting. Here,Manet introduced several pictorial devicesthebird's-eye perspective, the reduction ofsea and sky to flat, flaglike bands of color,and the boats' inky silhouettes-borrowedfrom Japanese woodblock prints, an art formthat had only recently come to his attention.Monet quickly followed suit. Soon Frenchcritics would identify the founding ofImpressionism with the assimilation ofJapanese art into contemporary painting.GT43

Claude MonetFrench, i840-1926Camille Monet in the Garden atArgenteuil.876Oil on canvas32 8 X 23 58 in. (8I.6 x 60 cm)The Walter H. and Leonore AnnenbergCollection, Partial Gift of Walter H. andLeonore Annenberg, zooo2000.93.1Standing before the couple's rented house inArgenteuil, a short distance by train fromParis, Camille Monet (1847-1879) is littlemore than an accessory to a splendid mass ofhollyhocks. Monet's love of gardening, fullyexpressed in. later life at his house and pondsat Giverny, became evident wherever theartist put down his roots. In summer 1874 hehad rented the house shown here before constructionwas completed; hollyhocks plantedat the end of that summer would not bloomin force until June or July 1876. This paintingand related canvases thus commemorate thegarden's first full flowering. Historians havedetermined that in front of his modest house,painted pink with green shutters, Monetinstalled a large central flower bed circledby a path. Gladioli, more hollyhocks, andunderplantings of nasturtiums and geraniumsfilled the interstices of the rectangular plot.This audacious canvas displays theImpressionist technique that Monet had onlyrecently perfected. In contrast to the fluid,Corot-like brushwork of his early picturesmade at Argenteuil, here the paint is appliedin dabs and licks, the entire surface animatedby flickering light and bright local color. Itwas precisely this technique that Seuratsystematized into pointillism.Claude MonetFrench, I840-1926Jean Monet on His Hobby Horse1872Oil on canvas23 4 X 283/4 in. (59. x 73 cm)Gift of Sara Lee Corporation, zooo2000.I95GThisAs a French journalist opined in the i86os,"Everyone in the middle class wants to havelittle house with trees, roses, dahlias,his big or little garden, his rural argenteamediocritas." Previously the middle class hadconsisted of urban apartment dwellers andrural gentry, but the development of railroadsunder Louis-Philippe and their expansionunder Napoleon III made possible a hithertounknown suburban mode. This new phenomenonis perfectly illustrated by the lifeand work of Monet, who adopted bourgeoismanners and aspirations long before he couldafford them.Accordingly, Monet made his life inArgenteuil, an agreeable suburb of Paris, thestuff of his art. In this famous portrait of hisfive-year-old son, Jean (I867-I913), he wassure to display the boy's expensive tricycleand chic clothing, but his primary aim was tocapture a likeness. He painted him with thedeep-set-almost world-weary-eyes that hismother, Camille, also possessed. Here, Monetdid not lavish his usual attention on brush-work, allowing the white canvas primerto show in the highlights, and he used arestrained and sophisticated harmony oftan, green, and red. This may be Monet'smost ingratiating picture, but it is no lessintelligent for all that.GT45

t s ' ,:0 f,, h,Edouard VuillardFrench, I868-I940The Birth ofAnnetteCa. i899Color lithograph on China paper; trialproof ofundescribed early state6I68 x 223 in. (42.9 x 56.8 cm)Purchase, Anonymous Gift, in honor ofJanet Ruttenberg, zooo2000.35Hilaire-Germain-Edgar DegasFrench, 1834-1917Race HorsesCa. i885-88Pastel on woodI 8 X 16 in. (30.2 x 40.6 cm)The Walter H. and Leonore AnnenbergCollection, Partial Gift of Walter H. andLeonore Annenberg, I999I999.288.3Theodore Duret, a clever collector andcritic who championed Manet and theImpressionists, was the first owner of thispicture. Degas was displeased when Duretsold it for a good price at auction in I894.GTIn his multicolored prints of the late I89os,made under the influence of the then-currentwave ofjaponisme, Vuillard compressed threedimensionalspace into sheets of pulsatinghues. For most of his career he was absorbedin the study of cozy interiors and the atmo-sphere exuded by their patterned wallpapers,drapes, and upholstery. Friends and family,who posed passively for the artist, werepictured in equilibrium with their householdfurnishings; bathed in indoor light, theyoften appear to dissolve into the decorativematerials of their rooms.Domestic intimacy thus became a sonoroustheme in Vuillard's art, as it and its converse,domestic estrangement, were in the plays ofIbsen and Strindberg, for which he designedstage sets and playbills. Into his own life,drama arrived in the rosy form of his sister'snewborn baby. Little Annette can be seenhere: the pink spot at the center of a nest ofeiderdown and familial affection.CIDegas remained faithful to racing scenesthroughout his long career, but he steppedup their production in the I88os. As withdancers in his ballet compositions, he manipulateda cast of horses and jockeys from onepicture to the next, enlarging them, reversingthem, or reducing them to fit the background.Indeed, all of the figures in this picture canbe found in earlier works, and some of theposes have pedigrees even more distinguishedthan the horses' own: the prancing mountand rider at the center of the compositionderive from Benozzo Gozzoli's Journey of theMagi (I459), which Degas copied in Florencein I859. But this work is quite unusual in onerespect: Degas made it with pastel on a plain,unvarnished wood panel. With skillful economyof means, he allowed the wood to colorthe sky and distant landscape-the suggestionof a village in Normandy-and to provide awarm undertone for the turf in the foreground..',:.!5 ; '-S-E 'X, ~ , .... .s. ."*-,.11:--,?.A ^, X< t it , !K- .^;I^;*:^%'^ ; ;**, i ^^^y' '^ .s Si,,-i j.,.*/,' S"S'' "'Ht 4= 4 ' ^f V'; 000 j 2; :^ !X;"1: D,^1~~~~~~~~~~:?? --'ciBs\ . tw.'5, IL -.--46

Gustave CourbetFrench, I8I9-1877Young Communards in Prisoni87iBlack chalk, rubbed, on wove papero1 x 7 in. (25.4 x 17.8 cm)Signed (lower left, in pen and ink): G. Courbet;inscribed and dated (top, in pen and ink):Les Federes ala Conciergerie I871Gift of Guy Wildenstein, 19991999.25IThe intensity of Courbet's political viewslanded him in prison in I871. As a leadingdissident of the liberal Paris Commune, hewas held responsible for the destruction ofthe Vendome column and was locked up inthe stables of Versailles. Later, he was sentencedto six months at the prison of Sainte-Pelagie in Paris.To judge from an attached inscription,Courbet must have been at Versailles whenhe made this drawing of fellow jailedCommunards; he sent it to the magazineL 'autographe, where it was published. Theartist evidently wished to emphasize thatamong those held under dreadful, terrifyingconditions were juveniles, some scarcely morethan infants. Courbet's gritty illustrationshows a graffiti-marked prison cell in which aboy, slumped on the stone floor, and a childcrying on a bed direct their hopes toward thebarred window.With so few drawings to his name, Courbetremains an elusive draftsman. Although theMuseum owns twenty-six of his paintings,this is only our second drawing. Very differentin function and appearance from theacademic study of a nude male in the RobertLehman Collection (acc. no. 1975.1.589), thiswork gives vent to the artist's anger and miserywhen he was only months away fromexile in Switzerland.cITaxile Maximin DoatFrench, 1851-1938BottleSevres (Doat atelier), ca. 1902Stoneware and hard-paste porcelainH. 92 in. (24.1 cm)Signed: TDOAT [with interlocking Tand D] SevresBequest of Robert Louis Isaacson, 19981999.179a, bDoat was among the earliest ceramists to usepate-sur-pate, the technique of creatingtranslucent low-relief compositions from layersof porcelain slip. First produced at Sevresin 1849, it became a central feature of Doat'swork, both at the national manufactory,where he was employed from 1877 to 1905,and in his own atelier nearby, the VillaKaolin. Uninterested in the current fashionfor japonisme, Doat chose allegorical orwhimsical subjects, frequently setting them asplaques on a stoneware body, the sheen of theporcelain contrasting effectively with therougher texture of the ground. On this bottletwo oblong plaques depict children pickinggrapes and apples, while a wineglass and ciderjug are seen in medallions below the handles.As if to emphasize the peasant-flask characterof the model, the plaques have been attachedto the body by porcelain thongs.This is one of three known examples ofthe model; one, now in the Musee des ArtsDecoratifs, Paris, was exhibited in 1902 withthe title "Champagne et Normandie."CLC47

NORTH AMERICA 1700 -1900epitomize his talents for the collection. Thefeatures of the subjects are strongly delineated,with large round eyes, slightly curling lips,pale skin tones, and hair rendered in his characteristicallydecorative hatchwork. The artistincluded himself in the composition in a largelocket worn by his wife.CRBPierre HenriFrench, ca. 1760-I822The Artist's FamilyWatercolor on ivoryW (with fame) 38 in. (9.8 cm)Purchase, Martha J. Fleischman Gift,in memory of Keren-Or Bernbaum, 19992000.25Among the most highly skilled of the manyFrench miniaturists in America, the Paris-bornHenri arrived in New York in 1788 and placeda notice in the New York DailyAdvertiser:"A Miniature Painter Lately arrived fromFrance ... draws Likenesses ... at the lowestprice, and engages the painting to be equal toany in Europe." From 1789 to 1820 he tookcommissions in Alexandria and Richmond,Charleston, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore,and New Orleans, painting portraits "from thesize of a small ring to that of the largest locket."Henri's unusual family portrait had longbeen known to the Museum through a reproductionin an early-twentieth-century genealogicalpamphlet about the artist's descendantsand had been singled out as a work that wouldPortrait of Catharine LorillardAmerican (New York City), ca. i8ioOil on silk, with silk and silk-chenilleembroidery2o3 x I8 in. (52.7 x 45.7 cm)Purchase, Friends of the American WingFund, The Masinter Family FoundationGift, and funds from various donors, I999I999.I44Catharine Lorillard was a daughter of NewYork City tobacco magnate Peter A. Lorillard.She was born in I792 and, according to familyhistory, died from cholera while still in herteens. Her expressive portrait, painted withoils on silk and embellished with silk andsilk-chenille threads, is unlike any otherneedlework picture in the collection. Mostearly-nineteenth-century silk embroideriesillustrate scenes from mythology or pastorals,copied from prints. Memorials, usually calledmourning pictures, were also popular andoften included full-length figures standing atgrave sites in landscapes appropriately featur-ing weeping willows. Catharine's portrait isalso a memorial, but in a different, possiblyunique, form. It was almost certainly paintedposthumously: the drape over her head is asymbol of recent death. Her head and neckwere painted by a professional, perhaps aftera portrait from life, while the embroidery wasprobably by one of her female relatives.It is particularly fitting for CatharineLorillard's portrait to be in the collection ofthe Metropolitan. Her niece and namesake,Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, the first womanBenefactor of the Metropolitan, left animportant collection of 143 paintings to theMuseum at her death in 1887.APMarc Schoelcher (manufacturer)French, est. 1798-1834Pair of VasesParis, ca. I815-20PorcelainH. (each) I3/8 in. (4 cm)Marks: SchoelcherPurchase, Thomas Jayne and Peter TerianGifts, and Friends of the American WingFund, by exchange, I999I999.I9I.I, .248The Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org

Attributed to Charles-Honore LannuierFrench, i779-i819Side ChairAmerican (New York City), ca. 181fMahogany, mahogany veneer, maple, gildedgesso, and gilded brass; die-stamped brass borderH. 33%2 in. (85. cm)Purchase, The Sylmaris Collection, Gift ofGeorge Coe Graves, by exchange; andBequest of Flora E. Whiting, Gift of Mr.and Mrs. William A. Moore, and Gift ofMrs. Russell Sage, by exchange, 19961996.366This rare and beautiful version of the NewYork lyre-back chair, part of a large set onceowned by the Baltimore merchant JamesBosley, is firmly attributed to the Frenchbornand -trained cabinetmaker Lannuier,who worked in New York City from I803until I8I9. Compared with examples oftenattributed to the great Scottish master crafts-man Duncan Phyfe, which survive in fargreater number, Lannuier's lyre-back chair ismore richly ornamented in gilded brass andhas a hard-edged rectilinear quality closer toFrench Empire precedents. But it is not aslavish copy of a French design. The chair is afresh and innovative variation on a theme thatmelds Lannuier's highly refined sensibilitieswith the New York vernacular.Throughout his relatively short but brilliantcareer in the city, Lannuier cast himselfas the French alternative to the illustriousPhyfe, who worked more in the EnglishRegency style. This chair was acquired to serveas both a complement and a counterpoint tothe Museum's preeminent collection of NewYork furniture made under Phyfe's influence.PMKBy I800 the French enjoyed a thriving porcelaintrade with the United States, and manyParisian manufacturers provided both formsand decoration to suit American tastes. Duringthe second decade of the nineteenth centuryornamental vases became popular parloraccessories and were often brought back fromtravels abroad. This elaborate pair was originallyowned by Nathan Appleton, a wealthytextile merchant and member of Boston'scultural elite.The vases feature finely painted landscapesand seascapes, probably based on prints. Withtheir lavish gilded decoration, they are amongthe most ornate known from the Federalperiod with a history of American ownership.They display the classical idiom fashionablefor the day in their shape and molded masks atthe handle terminals. They are further distinguishedby tooled gilding on the neck and basein a pattern of palmettes and classical rosettes.The vases are marked by the Parisian firmof Marc Schoelcher, which established animportant presence in America. In I829Schoelcher sent his son Victor to the UnitedStates to market their wares. Appleton'sBeacon Street neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. DavidSears Jr., also acquired a pair of sumptuousvases attributed to Schoelcher.ACF49

James KidderAmerican, I793-1837Interior of a Lottery182IWatercolor and gouache on paper, mounted onstretcherI5 x Iro in. (38. x 27.3 cm)Purchase, Morris K. Jesup Fund, Lois andArthur Stainman Philanthropic Fund andRobert and Bobbie Falk PhilanthropicFund Gifts, 1999I999.35P i?Rembrandt PealeAmerican, I778-1860MichaelAngelo and Emma Clara PealeCa. 1826Oil on canvas3 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63. cm)Purchase, Dodge Fund, Dale T. JohnsonFund, and The Douglass Foundation,The Overbrook Foundation, Mr. andMrs. Max N. Berry, Barbara G. Fleischman,Mrs. Daniel Fraad, Mr. and Mrs. PeterLunder, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Martucci,and Erving and Joyce Wolf Gifts, zooo2000. I5Peale's studies of French Neoclassicalpainting during a sojourn in Paris (80o8-Io)helped free him from the eighteenth-centuryBritish conventions he had learned from hisportraitist father, Charles Willson Peale. InFrance he examined not only the works ofmodern artists but also those by Rubens,Van Dyck, and other Baroque masters. Theresults of this course of study are seen mostvividly in his family portraits of the mid-I82os.In these works-among which the presentpainting is especially successful-Pealeadopted a resplendent palette and demonstratedhis command of the techniques forcapturing warm flesh tones, manipulatinglight, and emphasizing textures.For this picture of his youngest children,Michael Angelo (I814-1833) and Emma Clara(I816-I839), he used as a source an 1824lithograph of a similar composition by theFrench artist Julien de Villeneuve and translatedthat image into his own idiom. Pealeadapted their compelling likenesses for hiscaptivating picture, eschewing all narrativedevice. In lieu of employing a backgroundsetting and specific iconographic props,as appeared in the print and as his father hadrecommended, Peale rather subtly and bril-liantly articulated his composition throughfacial expression and pose.CRBThomas BrooksAmerican, 81o0/-1i887; active 1844-76ArmchairBrooklyn, New York, ca. 1847Rosewood; replacement underupholstery andleather showcover; castersH. 63 in. (160 cm)Gift of Lee B. Anderson, i999I999.46IAlthough not labeled, this imposing GothicRevival armchair is ascribed to the earlycareer of Brooks, an important Brooklyncabinetmaker who supplied the New Yorkmarket throughout the mid-nineteenthcentury. It is related to a documented suiteof furniture made by Brooks in 1847 forThis disquieting interior, executed with adepth of tone and refined technique suggestiveof oil painting, is the masterpiece of thelittle-known Kidder. Born in Boston, theartist specialized in topographical views of hisnative city, which were typically engraved.His digression into interior perspectives ofthis kind was evidently prompted by contemporaneousfascination with Francois-MariusGranet's I8I5 painting The Choir of theCapuchin Church in Rome, a replica of whichwas imported into Boston in I820. (The originalmay be the version in the Metropolitan;acc. no. 80.5.2.) Granet's replica elicited adirect copy by Thomas Sully and inspired atleast two paintings of Boston interiors withfigures. The pictures all share a voyeuristicconceit, of peering into a chamber into whichthe viewer has not been invited. Kidder's maybe the most enigmatic for being deserted andadorned with cobwebs yet offering, in thesigns posted in the window, "High Prizes forsale here."KJA50

Henry C. Bowen of Brooklyn Heights andWoodstock, Connecticut. American GothicRevival furniture of such quality is uncommon,especially in rosewood, and this is thefirst piece by Brooks to enter the collection.The chair is animated by pierce-carved,acorn-studded vines that lead the eye toGothic tracery framed by clustered colonnettes.The tall back culminates in a pointedarch surmounted by a bold crocket. A symmetricalsprig of leaves and acorns stretchesacross the front seat rail, the arms meet theside rails with a foliate flourish, and thehandholds are draped with an unusual motifresembling a thick wilted leaf, a detail that isconsidered a Brooks trademark.CHVAttributed to John H. BelterAmerican (b. Germany), 1804-1863; active inNew York City i833-63SofaNew York City, ca. 1855-60Rosewood; replacement underupholstery andshowcoverL. 66 in. (67.6 cm)Purchase, Friends of the American WingFund and Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1999I999.396This five-legged sofa exemplifies the RococoRevival style, popular in America during theI84os and I85os, which combined curvilinearforms and cabriole legs from eighteenthcenturyFrench sources with the extremelydetailed, naturalistic ornament favored in themid-nineteenth century. A number ofAmerican cabinetmakers produced such furnishingsfor the luxury market, but theGerman-born Belter has long been recognizedfor his extraordinary talent. A prolificmaker with a large factory by I856 on what isnow the Upper East Side, he was particularlyknown for his rosewood drawing-room furnitureand for his thin, laminated constructionand molded forms-as demonstrated herewhichwere achieved by using a patentedmethod of steam and pressure.Although hundreds of American piecesin this genre survive, few are documentedand the best are almost always ascribed toBelter. Few examples are as accomplished orexuberant as this sofa, however, which is distinguishedby a voluptuous serpentine crest:luxuriant bouquets emanating from vasesflanked by paired griffins culminate in acentral floral garland, which issues from cornucopiasand is supported by a Renaissance-style urn and paired dolphins.CHV5I

Lilly Martin SpencerAmerican, 1822-1902Young Husband: First Marketing1854Oil on canvas29/2 x 243 in. (74.9 x 62.9 cm)Promised Gift of Max N. BerryThe only woman painter of note to pursue acareer in America's antebellum period, Spencerused a highly controlled technique to achieveexacting representations of domesticity. Shewas unique among her colleagues in her abilityto offer an insider's view of the woman'ssphere and gifted at portraying precise detailsof family life. Her work found steady patronagein Cincinnati and New York, where shemoved in 1849.Spencer used her husband as a model (asshe often did) for this meticulously composedparody of the Cincinnati tradition of gentlemengoing to market. The painting is carefullymade up of angular movements and suggestivefacial expressions. As is typical of herbest efforts, the iconography is rich withoutbeing highly charged, descriptive rather thanpolitically motivated. She exhibited the workwith its companion, Young Wife: First Stew(unlocated), at the National Academy ofDesign in New York in 1856 to mixed reviewsfrom critics accustomed to her pleasing fam-ily scenes and grinning housewives. Spencerrevealed herself in the present work to be amore talented and insightful artist than hadbeen previously recognized. As her careerevolved, Spencer often lampooned womenat their daily chores, but she never againsubjected a man to her satiric vision.CRBFelix 0. C. DarleyAmerican, I822-i888John Eliot Preaching to the IndiansWatercolor wash, graphite, and gum arabicon wove paperi5Xx I94 in. (38.7x 48.9 cm)Gift of Martha J. Fleischman and BarbaraG. Fleischman, I999I999.368.2Darley was the most accomplished and prolificAmerican illustrator before the centennial,supplying thousands of drawings for engravingspublished in novels, books of poetry,and historical works by the principal authorsof his time. The work for which he made thisfine wash drawing of the Puritan cleric JohnEliot has not been identified. Eliot, imbuedwith the mission to convert the AlgonquinIndians to Christianity, translated the Bibleand other religious texts into their language,Massachuset, in which he became fluent. Here,in a seemingly deliberate attempt to evoke thefigure of John the Baptist from traditionalChristian iconography, Darley representedEliot wearing Indian breeches, standing nearlyat the apex of a conical arrangement of figuresin a wilderness setting. The artist shrewdly contrastedthe aura of sunlight silhouetting thedivine with the deep forest shade cloaking hisrapt yet resistant audience.KJANelson Norris BickfordAmerican, 1846-1943In the Tuileries Garden, Parisi88iOil on board2 x i6 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)Promised Gift of The Honorable MarilynLogsdon Mennello and Michael A.MennelloIn the great park in the heart of Paris a gentlemanpeers through his monocle at a stylishyoung woman, while a girl, perhaps hercharge, digs in the pathway before Auguste-Nicolas Cain's huge bronze group Tiger andCrocodile (ca. I874). Bickford's charming pictureis a rare early example of an Americanartist's portrayal of a public park, an emblematicmodern space and a subject identified withFrench Impressionism. John Singer Sargent52

had painted the Luxembourg Gardens in Parisin I879, and William Merritt Chase wouldbegin a series of Impressionist views of the newparks of New York in I886. In the manner ofcontemporary French painters such as JeanBeaud, Bickford utilized deliberate composition,meticulous detail, and high finish, whichreflected his studies in Paris at the Ecole desBeaux-Arts under Henri Lehmann and at theAcademie Julian. In 1882 Bickford showed thispainting at the National Academy of Designin New York, where he often exhibited. Heworked from 1905 until I93I as a sculpture attendantat the Metropolitan Museum, becameinterested in the medium, and specialized inanimal sculpture in his later years.HBWthe precepts of the Modern Gothic styleespoused by British and American reformersas an antidote to prevailing French taste ininterior decoration. As prescribed, the piece isarchitectonic in character. Mounted on atrestle base with stiff, diagonal front legs andmortise-and-tenon construction, it bearsmedieval-style ornamentation of shallow incising,nickel-plated hardware, carved linen-foldpanels, and chamfered edges. The projectingshelf opens to become the writing surface,which retains its original red baize and goldstampedred leather trim, and the pitchedroof above the projecting central cabinet liftsup to reveal a small storage space. The firmof A. Kimbel and J. Cabus was among thefirst in America to work extensively in theModern Gothic mode, introducing the styleto Americans at the 1876 Philadelphia Cen-tennial Exhibition with furniture shown in aroomlike setting. The following year this deskdesign was illustrated in an advertisementdepicting the company's showrooms at 7 and9 East Twentieth Street in New York. Thesame image documents a hanging key cabinetby the firm, the only known example ofwhich is also in the Museum's collection(acc. no. 1981.211).CHVA. Kimbel and J. Cabus (designer andmanufacturer)American, 1862-82DeskNew York City, ca. i877Oak, nickel-plated brass, and nickel-plated ironH. 558 in. (I40 cm)Purchase, Barrie A. and Deedee WigmoreFoundation Gift, in honor of John Nallyand Marco Polo Stufano, zooo2000.58One of the most memorable designs producedin America during the Aesthetic movementof the I87os and i88os, this desk epitomizes53

TWENTIETHCENTURYto this painting as Le vitrail, and it is oftenlisted as such in early exhibition catalogues.Through the foliage some red-roofedhouses appear in the distance, along with thetower of Collioure's church, Notre-Dame-des-Anges. Dating to the thirteenth century,this tower was built as a lighthouse on a rockthat juts into the sea. It served this functionuntil, at the end of the seventeenth century,it was attached to the church, which waserected right next to it.SRHenri MatisseFrench, 1869-I954Laurette in a Green Robe, BlackBackgroundI916Oil on canvas283/4 21 3 in. (73 x 54.3 cm)Signed and dated (lower right): H-MATISSE I6Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,19981999.363.43Henri MatisseFrench, 1869-1954View of Collioure and the Sea1907Oil on canvasj6'4 x 25 8 in. (92 x 65.7 cm)Signed (lower right): Henri MatisseJacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,19981999.363.4254Between 1905 and 1914 Matisse spent varioussummers and one winter in the small Mediterraneanport of Collioure. From his rentedstudio it was only a seven-minute walk to theRoca-Alta d'en Beille (Catalan for "highrock"), which was surrounded by cork oaksand umbrella pines on a hill just outside thevillage. From a picturesque spot above therock he painted this view. The sinuous blacklines of the trunks and branches of the stylizedumbrella pines enclose flat areas ofgreens, blues, mauves, and earth tones, evokingan Art Nouveau stained-glass window.Not surprisingly, the Matisse family referredMatisse hired Laurette on the recommendationof a friend and fellow painter, GeorgetteSembat, who thought that the Italian modelmight be his "type." She was. BetweenDecember 1916 and the end of 1917, Matissepainted Laurette alone at least twenty-fivetimes, and he made some fifteen additionalpictures of her with her sister and anothermodel named Aicha.For some works Laurette posed wide awake,as in a series of close-up portraits. At othertimes she wore the exotic costume and headdressof an odalisque and lounged languorouslyon a daybed. This work is different. Here,Laurette, in floppy slippers, without decorativeaccessories, and apparently nude under thevoluminous green robe, rests between sittings.With no indications of the room or surroundingspace, the curvilinear shape of the plushSecond Empire armchair resembles a fluffypink cloud on which Laurette, like an earthyMadonna, seems to float through a pitchblackvoid. A tiny version of this workappears as a picture-within-a-picture on aneasel in Matisse's The Painter in His Studio ofI917, now in the collection of the MuseeNational d'Art Moderne, Centre GeorgesPompidou, Paris.SR

Until that summer Matisse had experimentedwith a variety of styles. In I891 hehad set out for Paris from Saint-Quentin inthe north of France, supported by a smallallowance from his reluctant father. Over thenext fourteen years, he had responded moststrongly to Cezanne's simplification of pictorialstructure and space through color alone,as well as to the brilliant hues and flat, decorativepatterns found in Gauguin's work. Matisseintegrated these elements with his own Fauvistdiscoveries in this small still life, painted inCollioure. The pottery is typical of the region,and the vegetables look as if they have justtumbled out of a shopping basket after a tripfrom the local market.SRi 58 x i8'8 in. (38.4 X 46 cm)Signed (lower left): Henri-MatisseJacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,I998I999.363.38Matisse and Andre Derain first introducedunnaturalistic colors and bold brushstrokesinto their paintings during the summer of1905, when they were both working inCollioure (see opposite). In the fall of thatyear, when these pictures were exhibited atthe Salon d'Automne in Paris, the critic iv -Louis Vauxcelles called them fauves (wild ,beasts), a term later applied to the artiststhemselves.a55

Salvador DaliSpanish, I904-1989Accommodations of Desires1929Oil and cut-and-pasted printed paper oncardboard834 x 3 /4 in. (22.2 x 35 cm)Signed and dated (lower left): Salvador Dali 29Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,19981999.363.6Until he fell in love with Gala Eluard in thesummer of I929, Dali had never known awoman's embrace-or so he confessed in his1942 autobiography. The thirty-six-year-oldGala awakened violent desires, as well asfears, in the twenty-five-year-old artist, whowelcomed and cultivated hallucinations andparanoiac visions as subjects for his paintings.Strewn on the Spanish plain of Ampurdan,near Cadaques, the seven magnified pebbleswith shiny white surfaces act as screens forimages that seem to be unrelated episodes inan unknown story. The elements on andamong the pebbles include severalion's heads,a toupee, various vessels (one in the shape of a56woman's head), three figures on a platformtouching their hair and teeth, and a colony ofants. Favorite creatures of Dali's since childhood,ants figured startlingly in his and LuisBufiuel's collaborative film Un chien andalou,also of 1929. If Dali expressed his sexual anxietieshere in Freudian metaphors-as suggestedby the emphasis on hair and teeth-thosemetaphors might also have qualified asvignettes in a children's tale. Gala, just like agood fairy, was to cure his symptoms andremain his muse forever after.Joan MiroSpanish, 1893-I983The PotatoI928Oil on canvas39 34 x 32 8 in. (Iro x 81.7 cm)Initialed (center right): M.Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,1998p999.363.50SRFor two weeks in the spring of I928 Mir6 visitedHolland, where he fell in love with theintimate and minutely rendered realism ofseventeenth-century Dutch genre paintings.He emulated aspects of them in a group ofthree canvases entitled Dutch Interiors I-IIL,which he painted in Paris that summer, usingpostcards of specific pictures as points ofdeparture for a fantastic kind of organic surrealism.This painting, the next in sequence,together with a fifth, relates in style to thisgroup, although it is not based on anyparticular picture.Against a deep blue sky and above a patchof earth-perhaps a potato field-a giganticfemale figure stretches her arms wide. Thebillowing white shape of the figure is attachedto a red bar in the center of the compositionlike a scarecrow on a post. Elfin creatures,some of them winged, flutter in the sky. Mir6endowed his merry "potato-earth-woman"with deft touches: one brown-and-blackbreast, which "squirts" a long, windingthread; a brown banana-shaped nose; whatmight indeed be a potato floating in the"cranium"; and, hovering on a stick at theright, a large flamelike rendering of a vagina.SR

I)ii.:/' * ._qwVg .;t_-iSr r 1: ?ii; i...I??.tnl.3s;i5*CIF;'f.-;-'. ??-;-`:E57

Piet MondrianDutch, I872-I944Composition1921Oil on canvasi9/2 X 19?2 in. (49.5 X 49.5 cm)Initialed and dated (lower left): P M 21Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,19981999.363.57Mondrian grew up in strict Calvinist sur-roundings in the small town of Winterswijk,near the German border, where his father wasa schoolmaster. At the age of nineteen he wasbriefly torn between religion and art as acareer. After that it took some thirty years forhis style to change from somber realism topure abstraction. The style that made himfamous, which is shown in this 1921 painting,had been born in Paris the previous year,when he published a manifesto entitled LeNeo-Plasticisme. Its sole practitioner, Mondrianwent on perfecting it for more than twentyyears, until his death in New York.Composition is one of the artist's earliestNeoplastic works. First he sectioned off thesquare canvas into eleven rectangles. Somehe filled with primary colors-here, red andblue. Other hues he obtained by mixingprimaries with white, which resulted in areastinted light blue and light yellow. The palecolors mark this as a transitional work,because from 1922 on he used pure whiteand primary colors almost exclusively.SR58

Against a stark background of one white andtwo brown vertical bars, Picasso drew, with acontinuous black line, what looks like a misshapenboomerang. He then added elementsthat evoke a ferocious female head seen inprofile: two odd-sized eyes, a set of tiny nos-trils, three long, scrawny hairs, and four nailliketeeth.Between I925 and I932 Picasso's radicalrecomposition of the human figure escalated,focusing mostly on the female head and body.The artist had a large arsenal of sources forthese brutish creatures: among them wereOceanic and Inuit sculptures, interest in whichwas being reawakened by the Surrealists at thistime. Members of the latter group, who sawwomen as either Madonnas or monsters, alsoencouraged the free expression of all thewickedness they perceived within humanity.Similarly, it has been suggested that Picasso'spictorial monsters alluded to personal ones,and more specifically to his wife, Olga, as bythen their marriage was rapidly deteriorating.The Scream was reproduced in the October1927 issue of La revolution surrealiste, at thetime still unsigned.SRPaul KleeGerman (b. Switzerland), I879-1940The One Who UnderstandsI934Oil and gypsum on canvas2I 4 x I6 in. (54 x 40.6 cm)Signed (center left): Klee; dated and numbered(lower left): I934 K 20; titled (lower right):ein VerstandigerJacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,1998I999.363.3IWhen the National Socialists declared his art"degenerate" in 1933, Klee returned to hisnative Bern. He had spent the previous twentysevenyears studying, working, and teaching inGermany. Now in Bern, Klee lived in a smallthree-room apartment on the outskirts oftown. He was internationally known, yet hehad no following in Switzerland. He sold littleand was supported only by a small group offaithful friends.Austere and pensive, The One WhoUnderstands is a fine example of the artist'slater style. That style consists here in theimage's larger scale, simple design, and patchesof white, rust, and beige in the areas ofunprimed canvas that Klee left untouched.The painting belongs to a group of some thirteenworks from 1933-34, mostly drawings,that evoke the schematic diagrams of thehuman cranium found in medical textbooks.Pablo PicassoSpanish, I881-I973The ScreamI927Oil on canvas2 3/4 x I3 V4 in. (55.2 x 33.7 cm)Signed (upper right): PicassoJacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,1998I999.363.66SR59

Francis BaconBritish, I909-I992Three Studies for a Self-Portrait1979Oil on canvasEach I4 3x 12 3 in. (7.5 x 31. 8 cm)Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,1998I999.363.At seventy the artist appears ageless, not aday older than in his first self-portrait,painted in I956. Bacon had begun to makeclose-up portraits in I96I, filling canvasesmeasuring about a square foot with headsslightly smaller than lifesize. After a while hebegan to combine three such canvases, turningthem into triptychs, a format that wascentral to his artistic approach.Bacon disdained what he called "literal"painting. Instead, he offered an abbreviated,but also more intense, perception of themodel. To that end he used distortion, fragmentation,and a fluid and swift stroke thatinvited accidents and chance. In this work hisown face, rather normally proportioned inthe center painting, is flanked by grotesquelydistorted, blurred versions at the sides. Theoverall effect is of the artist's having subjectedhimself to a quick yet probing examination ina mirror, an effect accentuated by the word"studies" in the title.SRJean DubuffetFrench, I90o-I985Jean Paulhan1946Acrylic and oil on Masonite42 7 X34 5/8 in. (o09 x 88 cm)Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,19981999.363.20Between July 1945 and August 1947 Dubuffetdrew and painted about twenty-eight portraitsof his friend Jean Paulhan (1884-I968),a writer and critic. Paulhan edited the Frenchliterary magazine La nouvelle revue franfaisefrom I925 until his death. His collected worksfill five volumes and encompass books onmodern painting; essays on rhetoric, language,logic, and love; and prefaces to erotic literature,including the novels of the marquis deSade and Pauline Reage's Histoire d'O (I954).In 1945 Dubuffet had begun creating whathe referred to as hautes ptes, paintings inwhich a thick paste served as the ground,color was used sparingly, and contours werescratched like graffiti. Consistent with his6o

i4I"anti-art" position, Dubuffet rejected traditionalportraiture, which he regarded as facileimitation. Instead of attempting to convey asitter's likeness or personality, he focused oncertain odd features and exaggerated them. Inthis case, Paulhan's close-set eves, long nose,broad upper lip, prominent front teeth, andthick mane of hair are easily recognizable.si RAlberto GiacomettiSwiss, 1901-1966Woman of Venicei956Painted bronzeH. 47 ~ in. (121.6 cm)Signed and numbered (on the base, at left).Alberto Giacometti I/6Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection,19981999.363.25Early in I956, in preparation for exhibitionsof his work at the Venice Biennale and theKunsthalle in Bern, Giacometti produced alarge group of plaster sculptures of femalefigures. Ten of these were shown in Veniceand five in Bern. Of the fifteen, it appearsthat only nine were later cast in bronze. Theybecame known as the "Women of Venice,"regardless of whether the plaster version hadbeen exhibited in Venice or in Bern. Thethin, gaunt bronzes are all between forty-oneand fifty-two inches high, but they seemmuch taller. Supported on stiltlike legs heldtightly together, the figures stand motionless.All have tiny heads and enormous feet, whichanchor their extremely emaciated, concavebodies on plinths of varying thicknesses. Thefigures look as if they have withstood centuriesof rough weather, which has left theirsurfaces crusty and eroded.This Woman of Venice is the only one ofthe nine bronzes that was painted. It is amatte beige color. The figure's hair, drawnback severely into a bun, renders the sculptureeven more austere, despite the paintedblue eyes and red mouth.SR6i

The experience at Saint-Jacut inspiredVuillard to produce several interior views, aswell as a few sun-filled seascapes and land-scapes, often peopled with his acquaintances.Here, in the rosy darkness of a cloisteredroom, we can make out the shadowy forms offour protagonists-in the doorway, the nattilydressed Alfred Natanson; on the left, hiseight-year-old daughter, Annette; the elegantMme Hessel working at the desk; and herloyal dog Basto sprawled on the floor.LMMLucien GaillardFrench, 1861-1933Moth PendantCa. 900oGold, enamel, citrine, and hornW. 3 5 in. (9.2 cm)Purchase, Dorothy Merksamer Bequest, inhonor of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, 200oo2ooo.i76aEdouard VuillardFrench, 1868-1940Interior at Saint-JacutI909Pastel and distemper on paper, mounted to paper24 4 X 7 4 in. (6i. 6 x 43.8 cm)Signed (lower left): EVuillardGift of David Alien Devrishian, 20002000. 97Vuillard's pastel, like many of his paintings,drawings, and lithographs, offers a glimpseinto the harmonious workings of his socialcircle, which was filled with extended familyand friends. Many friendships dated back tohis days as a Nabi painter and as a graphicartist for such literary publications as La revueblanche, founded by the Natanson brothers.During the summer of I909, when this intimatescene was captured, Vuillard was theguest of Lucy and Jos Hessel at their rentedcountry villa in Saint-Jacut, on the Channelcoast. The couple were important figures inthe artist's life. Jos, his dealer, amassed a largeprivate collection of his work, while Lucyfrequently modeled for him and, after 1900,had become his unofficial social secretaryand confidante.Gaillard was the son and grandson of Parisianjewelers. In 1892 he took over the directorshipof the family firm, shifting the emphasis tolarger-scale metalwork. His designs oftenincorporated inlaid metals, likely inspired byJapanese examples exhibited at Siegfried Bing'sinfluential shop L'Art Nouveau. (Gaillard'sbrother, the noted furniture designer Eugene,was one of the three principal Europeanswhose work was displayed there.)Around the turn of the century, at theencouragement of his friend Rene Lalique,Gaillard turned back to jewelry. His designs,like Lalique's, combined unusual materials,such as horn and ivory, with more conventionalprecious stones, gold, and enamel. Inkeeping with typical avant-garde jewelrydesign of the time, focus was placed on the62

overall artistry, thus downplaying spectacularstones. This masterful pendant imitatesnature with consummate accuracy, both inscale and in visual effect: it depicts two opposingmoths with intertwined gold antennae.The realistic wings were carved from a singlepiece of horn and set with applied brown andiridescent white champleve enamel to simulatenatural markings, while each body wasformed from a cut citrine.JGLike many potteries, Paul Revere started outas part of a vocational workshop, founded asan association known as the Saturday EveningGirls, with the purpose of educating andtraining young immigrant girls of Boston'sNorth End. They began producing pottery,primarily sets of dinnerware, in I907. Individualforms typically featured monochromatic matteglazes in limited colors or a narrow band ofsimple repeated motifs of stylized animals orbirds, often in combination with nurseryrhymes or mottoes.This vase, possibly intended as a lampbase, is impressive in its large size. The complexand striking floral design reflects thehighly developed skills of its decorator, rarelyseen in examples from Paul Revere. Althoughlittle is known of Gainer, who signed thevase, she was clearly one of the pottery's moreambitious artists. Here, she interpretedQueen Anne's lace in a stylized manner witha heavy black outline from several points ofview and at varying stages of bloom. As istypical of Paul Revere pottery, the designappears on a solid matte ground. Broad bandsshift from white through three shades of blueto a grayish yellow-green, which mergeswith the plants' foliage. This effect revealsthe influence of color theories espoused bytonalist artist Arthur Wesley Dow.Marianne BrandtGerman, 1893-1983Tea Infuser and Strainer("Tee-Extraktkannchen )Ca. I924Silver and ebonyH. 2 8 in. (7.3 cm)The Beatrice G. Warren and Leila W.Redstone Fund, zooo2000.63a-cDuring its brief existence (I919-33) theBauhaus produced a group of architects anddesigners whose work profoundly influencedthe visual environment of the twentieth century.These men and women believed thateveryday objects, stripped of ornament, couldachieve beauty simply through form andcolor. Brandt's tea infuser is the quintessentialBauhaus object. Only three inches high,its diminutive size results from its function.Unlike conventional teapots, it is intended todistill a concentrated extract, which, whencombined with hot water in the cup, canproduce tea of any desired strength.While incorporating the usual elementsof a teapot, the designer has reinvented themas abstract geometric forms. The body is ahemisphere cradled on crossbars. The thincircular lid, placed off center to avoid drips (acommon fault of metal teapots with hingedlids), has a tall cylindrical knop. The handle,a D-shaped slice of ebony set high for easeof pouring, provides a strong vertical contrastto the object's predominant horizontality.Although the pot is carefully resolved functionally,its visual impact lies in the uncompromisingsculptural statement it makes.It is defiantly modern.JSJPaul Revere Pottery (manufacturer)American, 1908-42Sara Gainer (decorator)American, 1894-I982VaseBoston, 1915Glazed earthenwareH. i6 in. (40.6 cm)Marks: SEG / SG 6-15Purchase, William Cullen Bryant FellowsGifts, zooo2000. 363

Max BeckmannGerman, 1884-1950Self-Portrait with a Stylus1916DrypointImage i 8 x 9X4 in. (29.5 x 23.5 cm)Purchase, Reba and Dave Williams Gift,19991999.232.6Here, at the age of thirty-two, Beckmannstudies his reflection in a mirror. One handholds a stylus while the other supports themetal plate on which he incises this veryimage. The melancholy eyes in his drawn faceseem at odds with his formal dress of whitewing collar and smoking jacket.Beckmann took up drypoint in 1914,while volunteering as a medical orderlyduring World War I. He served first at theeastern front and later in Belgium but wasreleased from his duties after he suffered anervous breakdown in I915. His choice of thismedium had been determined by his preferencefor the most direct and immediatemeans of expression, and it was his only meansat the time. As in a diary, he recorded his surroundings:views of wounded or dead soldiers,operating rooms, hospitals, and morgues.Nineteen of his drypoints made from 1914to 1918, including this haunting self-portrait,were selected for the portfolio Faces (I919)-now regarded as his most important seriesof prints.SRBerenice AbbottAmerican, 1898-I991JamesJoyce, ParisI926Gelatin silver print9 x 634 in. (23.2 x 7.3 cm)Purchase, Gifts in memory of Harry H.Lunn Jr., and Anonymous Gifts, 1999I999 .4o6When Abbott photographed him in 1926,James Joyce (I882-I941) was one of the mostimportant writers in Paris and the star of theexpatriate literary circle that frequented SylviaBeach's bookshop, Shakespeare and Company.Beach had published Joyce's revolutionarynovel Ulysses in I922 and was doubtlessresponsible for arranging this session with theyoung American photographer. Although64

Abbott had taken up the camera only theprevious year, while working as a darkroomassistant to Man Ray, like him she wasrapidly becoming a favorite photographer ofthe avant-garde set in Paris.At the time of this sitting Joyce wasengaged in his most ambitious undertaking,Finnegans Wake, and was suffering both fromearly criticism that it was unreadable andfrom a painful eye condition that required himto wear an eye patch and kept him home at2square Robiac (where this photograph wasmade). More like a mirror's reflection than aprofessional portrayal, Abbott's perceptiveportrait seems to peer deep into her subject'spsyche, revealing the complex and sympatheticcharacter that writer Djuna Barnes so aptlydescribed as "the Grand Inquisitor come tojudge himself."Walker EvansAmerican, 1903-1975Floyd and Lucille Burroughs, HaleCounty, AlabamaI936Gelatin silver print7 x 9 /8 in. (8.9 x 23.7 cm)Purchase, Marlene Nathan MeyersonFamily Foundation Gift, in memory ofDavid Nathan Meyerson; and Pat andJohn Rosenwald and Lila Acheson WallaceGifts, I9991999.237.4In the middle of the Great Depression,Fortune magazine commissioned Evans andstaff writer James Agee to produce a featureon the plight of tenant farmers in the AmericanSouth. The two New Yorkers spent severalweeks documenting the harsh routine ofthree families who grew cotton on a dry hillsideseventeen miles north of Greensboro,Alabama. The unpublished article eventuallybecame one of the era's literary masterpieces,Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (I94I). Ajourney to the limits of direct observation,the book presents in words and pictures "aportion of unimagined [human] existence,"as Agee wrote in the preface.This portrait of father and daughter, barefootand at ease, is a superb example of thedignity and austere beauty Evans discoveredin the lives of ordinary citizens during hishalf-century photographic career. With seemingtransparency and characteristic graphicequipoise, Evans composed an image asmuch about individual family traditions asabout broader agrarian issues. Strong andlong-limbed like her father, Lucille Burroughsat age ten could pick 50o pounds of cotton aday. She also inherited a less useful legacy:her parents' lifelong debt to a landlord whoowned their cabin, farm, tools, mules, andthe product of all their labor.JLR65

Herman RosseAmerican (b. Netherlands), I887-I965Dining Room1928Painted and chrome-plated metal, steel, Monelmetal, and corduroy upholsteryH. 8fl. 4 in. (2.54 m)Gift of S. Helena Rosse Trust, 2000ooo2000oo.64.I-.44a, bthis dining room made entirely of metal, withthe walls and ceiling enameled a rich dark blueand the floor patterned in matching blue andcream linoleum. The curved walls opened toreveal gleaming metal cabinets displaying vasesand tureens of Monel metal, an alloy of nickeland copper. The furniture was chrome platedand the chairs were upholstered in blue corduroy.In 1930 Rosse installed the dining roomin his own house in New City, New York,where it remained intact until his family donatedit, complete with its original furnishings,to the Metropolitan Museum.JGIn 1928 Rosse-a Dutch-born architect,decorator, theatrical designer, and teacherworking in New York City-became thefounding president of the short-lived butimportant American Designers' Gallery.Members included the best-known architectsand designers of the day: Donald Deskey,Wolfgang Hoffmann, Raymond M. Hood,Ely Jacques Kahn, Ilonka Karasz, HenryVarnum Poor, Ruth Reeves, Winold Reiss,Joseph Urban, and Ralph T. Walker. Theorganization was the first in the country topromote American modernist design, but itdisbanded in 1930 after mounting only twowell-received exhibitions.The inaugural exhibition featured fifteenroom settings and alcoves. Rosse contributed66

Knud Lonberg-HolmAmerican (b. Denmark), I895-p972[Billboards at Night, Detroit]I924Gelatin silver print3/8 4 in. (7.8 x Io cm)Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts,20002000.127When the German architect Erich Mendelsohnreturned from a visit to the United States in1924, he brought with him a portfolio ofremarkable images by Lonberg-Holm, aDanish architect with de Stijl and Constructivistassociations. Lonberg-Holm had movedto the States in I923 and scanned its fabledmodernist cities with a fresh Europeaneye and a 35-millimeter handheld Leica.Mendelsohn published Lonberg-Holm's"worm's-eye," bird's-eye, and neon-lit photographswithout credit in Amerika (1926),his phenomenally successful picture surveyof a country made of steel and concrete,electricity and advertisements.Throughout the I920S Lonberg-Holm'sdazzling "lightscapes" and views of skyscraperscropped up in design and architecture magazinesin Holland, Germany, and Russia; theyalso appeared in two important sourcebooksof the new photography and clearly influencedthe artists Alexander Rodchenko andEl Lissitzky. By the I930s, however, Lonberg-Holm had given up architecture for advertising,and his photographs, never signed ordated, no longer circulated.Happily, a recent study by architecturalhistorian Marc Dessauce clarifies Lonberg-Holm's precocious contribution to the NewVision of the early modern age. The Museumacquired a spectacular night view of NewYork City and this glowing paean to electricadvertising, together with five other images,from the artist's estate.MMHAnselm KieferGerman, b. 1945The Unknown MasterpieceI982Watercolor, gouache, graphite, and cut-andpastedwoodcuts on paper25X8 X I192 in. (63.8 x 49.5 cm)Inscribed (lower left, on pastedpaper): le chefd'oeuvre inconnuGift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, in memoryof her father, Joseph H. Hazen, 2000ooo2000.96.8One of fifty-five works on paper by Kiefer inthe Museum's collection, this watercolortakes as its mise-en-scene the Soldiers' Hall, aplanned but never-built monument of theThird Reich. Designed by Wilhelm Kreis butfirst sketched by Hitler himself in 1936 as partof his scheme to reconstruct central Berlin ona huge scale, the Soldiers' Hall was to be amemorial to war heroes. The vast, barrelvaultedspace would have culminated in anapse containing an oversize statue of a muscular,sword-bearing warrior flanked byenormous eagles. Kiefer has transformed thefunction of the building by covering the apsestatuary with an abstraction: pieces of paperprinted with black ink in the medium ofwoodcut. Kiefer's inscription refers toHonore de Balzac's Le chefd'oeuvre inconnu(I831), the bittersweet story of an aging Baroquepainter named Frenhofer, who works formany years to perfect a woman's portrait,painting layer upon layer, until only a hintof the image remains-an undecipherableabstraction. Among the ironies here isKiefer's use of delicate washes to render thehard-edged masonry of the Nazi building.NR67

Richard HamiltonBritish, b. 1922Swingeing London 671968Etching, aquatint, photoetching, and collage;embossed and die stamped with metallicfoil22 3/ x 28 8 in. (56.8 x 7I.4 cm)Signed and numbered (lower center):R. Hamilton 64/70Purchase, Reba and Dave WilliamsGift, 1999I999.I4On February 12, 1967, British police raided aparty at the home of Keith Richards, guitaristfor the Rolling Stones rock group. Twoguests, the group's lead singer, Mick Jagger,and Hamilton's art dealer, Robert Fraser,were arrested and sentenced to jail for unlawfulpossession of drugs. Hamilton's etching,based on a press photo, shows Fraser andJagger through the window of a police van asthey arrive at the court. They are handcuffedtogether, a detail the artist highlighted withelements of metallic foil. The print is oneof nine works, including seven paintings, thatHamilton made on the subject. As he wrote,they express his "indignation at the insanity oflegal institutions which could jail anyone forthe offense of self-abuse with drugs." The titleof the work puns on the reputation of Londonin the I96os as a "swinging" city and on theBritish expression "swingeing," meaning"whopping" or "capital." The judge presidingover the case reportedly said, "There are timeswhen a swingeing sentence can act as a deterrent."Hamilton's skill and originality atblending photoetching with areas of aquatintand embossing (for the creases in Jagger'swhite shirt) are manifest in the print.NR68Richard PrinceAmerican, b. I949Untitled (Cowboy)I989Chromogenic print50 x 70 in. (127 x I77.8 cm)Purchase, The Horace W. GoldsmithFoundation and Jennifer and Joseph DukeGifts, zooo2000.272In the mid-1970s Prince was an aspiringpainter who earned his living by clippingarticles from magazines for staff writers atTime-Life Inc. What remained at the end ofthe day were the advertisements, featuringgleaming luxury goods and impossibly perfectmodels; both fascinated and repulsed by theseubiquitous images, the artist began rephotographingthem, using a repertoire of strategies(such as blurring, cropping, and enlarging) tointensify their original artifice. In doing so,Prince undermined the seeming naturalnessand inevitability of the images, revealing themas hallucinatory fictions of society's desires.Untitled (Cowboy) is a high point ofthe artist's ongoing deconstruction of anAmerican archetype as old as the first trailblazersand as timely as then-outgoingPresident Ronald Reagan. Prince's picture, ithas been noted, is a copy (the photograph) ofa copy (the advertisement) of a myth (thecowboy). Perpetually disappearing into thesunset, this lone ranger is also a convincingstand-in for the artist himself, endlessly chasingthe meaning behind surfaces. Created inthe fade-out of a decade devoted to materialismand illusion, Untitled (Cowboy) is in itslargest sense a meditation on an entire culture'scontinuing attraction to spectacle overlived experience.DEVija CelminsAmerican (b. Latvia), b. i939Ocean Surface1983DrypointSheet 261s x 208s in. (66.4 x 51.I cm);image 7 58 X 10 in. (20 x 25.4 cm)John B. Turner Fund, 1999I999.293Celmins has worked in a variety of media,including painting and sculpture, but she ismost regarded for the refined draftsmanshipof her drawings and prints. As a printmaker,she relies on traditional intaglio, lithographic,

and relief processes to produce quiet scenesof ocean surfaces, desert floors, and star-fillednight skies that are highly modern in theireschewing of conventional composition.Instead of relating a narrative, Celmins seemsinterested in exploring the details of our naturalenvironment. Elements normally associatedwith a sense of the infinite are presentedin an encapsulated version for the viewer'scareful consideration.Although reminiscent of AbstractExpressionism in its allover composition,Ocean Surface possesses a cool and impersonaltouch more akin to Minimalism. The rhythmicmotion of the water is frozen in time, asif captured by the instantaneous click of acamera's shutter. In far more laborious fashion,however, Celmins manipulated thefeathery line of drypoint, building up cer-tain areas to create subtle contrasts of lightand dark, which provide the illusion ofspatial recession.SJRMichal RovnerIsraeli, b. 1957Border #81998Paint on canvas504 x 6634 in. (128.9 x 169.5 cm)Purchase, The Horace W. GoldsmithFoundation Gift, i9991999.240Over the past decade Rovner, an Israeli-bornartist now based in New York City, has producedan evocative body of work concerningthe intersection of reality, feeling, and memory.This powerful image derives from theprologue of Rovner's video Border (I997),in which she explored the psychologicaland political meanings of geographical andnational borders, using the military accessroad from Israel to Lebanon as a site andherself as a model. Working with a still fromthe video, which she deftly and variouslyenhanced in color, scale, and texture, Rovnergenerated fifteen different computerizedimage files. An outdoor sign company thendigitally airbrushed these images onto canvas,creating fifteen unique, large-scale variationson this brooding landscape, each in a slightlydifferent mood.In order to express the intensity of herpersonal experience adequately, but in termsgeneral enough to apply to the broaderhuman condition, Rovner often marries photography,video, digital art, and painting ina melange that ignores traditional categoriesof medium and process. This technologicalfluency helps her generate pictures of unusualauthority and resonance: fusions of the realand the imaginary as familiar as scenes in ourown dreams, and just as spare, haunting, andultimately elusive.MMH69

numerals and the name Elton in polychromebeads. These appliques may be an homage toLos Angeles designer Nudie Cohn, a.k.a.Nudie the Tailor, who created sparkling,studded suits for countless rhinestone cowboys,cowgirls, and Hollywood stars until hisdeath in I984.Versace enjoyed the camaraderie of manycelebrities in fashion, music, and theater, buthis relationship with Elton John was basedon devoted mutual admiration. Both tookcenter stage, and their muselike influence oneach other is evident in this jacket.MWsubject concerns female sexuality. The workjoins thirty-three intaglio prints and oneIris (ink-jet) print by Smith also in theMuseum's collection.NRYoichi OhiraJapanese, b. 1946'Acqua alta di Venezia" Vase1998GlassH. 43/4 in. (12.1 cm)Gift of the artist, 19991999.292Gianni VersaceItalian, 1946-I997Man's JacketCa. 1997Silk with beadingL. (center back) 34 2 in. (87.6 cm)Gift of Donatella Versace, I9991999.328.1This dynamic single-breasted jacket was createdfor rock star Elton John. Both functionaland flamboyant, it has the bold graphic qualitythat was a Versace signature. The blackand-whitezebra pattern is reminiscent of op artmotifs, and its larger-than-life swirls relate tothe personal energy of both designer and client.The collar is draped high and soft, withnotches near the shoulder line. The placementof the welt pockets emphasizes therefined tailoring and attention to detail.Randomly scattered on the printed silk areKiki SmithAmerican, b. '954Litter999Lithograph, with hand-appliedplatinum leaf22/8 X 29/8 in. (56.2 x 75.9 cm)Signed and dated (lower right): Kiki Smith1999; numbered (lower left): I3/50Purchase, Reba and Dave Williams Gift,20002000.I36This large lithograph was printed in cobaltblueand white ink at Universal Limited ArtEditions in West Islip, Long Island, NewYork. Published to benefit the Pollock-KrasnerHouse and Study Center, the print depicts awhite cat in bird's-eye perspective. She isnursing a litter of four white kittens, whichare nearly obscured by her fur. The mothercat's eyes and nose, two of her paws, and anipple are highlighted with hand-applied platinumleaf. Like many of Smith's sculptures,including the wall-hung bronze Lilith at theMetropolitan (I994; acc. no. I996.27), theAt age twenty-seven Ohira left Japan to studysculpture at Venice's Accademia di Belle Arti.His dissertation on the aesthetics of glass andhis proximity to the glassmaking facilitiesof Murano led him to resume his youthfulexperiments with the medium by collaboratingwith Livio Serena, a master glassblower,on a series of goblets, bowls, vases, andbottles. Many of these early forms, as wellas their colors, referenced classic sixteenthcenturyItalian wares.This recent vase, however, combinesrestrained Japanese elegance and simplicity ofshape with Italian techniques: the fusing oflengths and slices of murrine canes to producepattern and battuto carving, in which theglass appears to have been beaten. The upperbody of the vase, in semitransparent aquablue, is reminiscent of Venetian lagoons andcanals, while the polished white lower portionis opaque but punctuated by translucent"windows" of blue glass-the whole evokingthe phenomenon of acqua alta (high tidesthat cause flooding). A thin red band runningalong the narrow lip adds the only othercolor to the vase.JA70

AFRICA, OCEANIA, AND THE AMERICASPectoralPeru (Chavin), 9th-2nd century B. C.Hammered goldW. 94 in. (23.5 cm)Jan Mitchell and Sons Collection, Gift ofJan Mitchell, 19991999.365The earliest significant works in gold knownfrom Peru are those in Chavin style, which isidentified with the north, primarily theJequetepeque and Lambayeque valleys andadjacent highland Andean areas. Found inthe burials of high-ranking individuals, thegold objects are principally personal orna-ments of types long favored by ancientPeruvian peoples: adornments for the neckand chest, for the center of the forehead, andfor the nose and ears. This pectoral, of generalizedcross shape, was perhaps attached to aleather or textile support through the pair ofholes at the center. At the ends of the twolarger projections are profile bird's heads inmirror image, which meet at the neck. Whenthe pectoral is rotated ninety degrees, how-ever, the two heads become a single image,appearing as the frontal face of a wide-nosedanimal with no lower jaw. Such intricacy ofdesign is characteristic of Chavin art, in whichpatterns intermix and overlap and are meantto be read from multiple viewpoints. Fangedfaces, with either feline or serpent references,are commonly used in these patterns, as arebird elements, particularly those of raptors.JJwith a continuous depiction of large, undulatingfeathered serpents. Between strictly definedoutlines, two serpents unwind with regularity.Profile figures seated before the open jawsof the serpents-symbolic of caves-are anearly version of a depiction widely used inlater Maya times. The bearded and featheredserpent, known by many authorities as theBearded Dragon, is thought to be the personificationof the underworld. An unusualfeature of this bowl is the incised series ofbars and dots on the inside near the rim. Theyappear to be Maya numbers; if a date is indeedmeant, the bowl was inscribed in A.D. 539.JJCarved BowlMexico or Guatemala (Maya), 6th century A.D.CeramicH. 6Y4 in. (17.1 cm)Purchase, Fletcher Fund and Arthur M.Bullowa Bequest, zooo2000.60A well-made, glossy-surfaced blackwareceramic was produced in the Maya lowlandsof southern Mexico and central Guatemaladuring the sixth century. Actually a lustrousbrown-black or red-black color, the ware wasused mainly for important ceramic vessels ofsignificant sculptural shape and for bowlswith meaningful incised or carved imagery.The present example illustrates the lattertype: the wonderfully round shape was carved71The Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org

Double Whistle in Bird FormMexico (Maya), 7th-8th centuryCeramic with polychromyH. 814 in. (20.9 cm)Purchase, Gift of Elizabeth M. Riley, byexchange, zooo2000.44Pre-Hispanic clay whistles frequently imitatethe sounds of the figures they represent. Thisowl-like bird is no exception. The whistlecontains two discrete hollow chambers: therotund body produces a deep, mellow twotonedcall when air is blown into a mouthpiececoncealed in the bird's tail, while thesmaller chamber, in the bird's head, emits ahigher-pitched screech when a small pipelocated on the back of its neck is blown.The Maya sculpted and painted pottery ofgreat variety during this period, and this wellpreservedexample retains much of the blueand yellow pigment applied after firing. It isbelieved that people used vessel flutes like thisto communicate with spirits. The instrument'svisual references to the mythological harpyeagle, its deerlike ears, and the five solar disksin the ruff around its face reflect a complexiconography, the meaning of which remainsspeculative. The blending of three-dimensionalform with multiple sounds illustrates theexceptional creativity and ingenuity ofMaya artists.JKMCylindrical Vessel with Throne SceneGuatemala (Maya), 8th centuryCeramicH. 82 in. (2i.6 cm)Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, i999999-.484.2Maya straight-sided cylinders with palace andmythological scenes on their exterior surfacescarry some of the most illuminating imagerycreated in the ancient Americas. The complicated,and not always understood, renditionsof Maya life and myth detailed on the vesselsallow for a greater perception of the worldthat made them. The scenes provide insightinto the elaborate customs of a powerfulpeople at a high point in their history.Depicted on this vessel is an elegantlydressed young lord-wearing a grand feath-ered headdress and a large collar of beads andpendants-seated on a throne with a jaguarskinbundle behind him. Two men of lesserrank sit before and below him and payhomage. In front of his throne is a vessel, ina shape much like that on which he is shown,which contains a foaming liquid, perhaps aMaya drink made either of honey or of cacao.Another wide-mouthed bowl, possibly filledwith fruit, is below the throne. Althoughthere are references to death elsewhere on thevessel, the luxurious life of a wealthy andpowerful young lord is most assuredly evoked.JJ72

Mukudj MaskGabon (Punu peoples), Igth centuryWood, pigment, and kaolinH. 32 in. (81.3 cm)Purchase, Louis V. Bell Fund, and TheFred and Rita Richman Foundation andJames Ross Gifts, 2000ooo2000.177toweringWhen works from equatorial Africa in thisrefined style began to enter Western consciousnessin the early twentieth century,they were a great enigma to art critics. Manyspeculated about the sources of their exoticaesthetic and even proposed possible Asianinfluence, though the art form was in factindigenous to southern Gabon. Such masksas this are worn by virtuosic male performersof a stilt dance called mukudj, which involvesimpressively while executing com-plex choreography and astonishing feats ofacrobatics.The creator of a mukudj mask attempts tocapture the likeness of the most beautifulwoman in his community. The subject of thisparticular idealized and stylized portrait wasembellished in classic nineteenth-centuryfashion with a coiffure composed of a centrallobe and two lateral tresses and with cicatrizationmotifs on the forehead and temples.Kaolin taken from riverbeds, which was associatedwith healing and with a spiritual,ancestral realm of existence, was applied tothe surface of the face. By using this material,the artist both celebrated the beauty of amortal woman and transformed her into atranscendent being.ALCrucifixAngola or Democratic Republic of the Congo(Kongo peoples), i6th-early i7th centuryBrassH. Io34 in. (27.3 cm)Gift of Ernst Anspach, 1999I999.295.7This work documents the convergence of twodistinctive worldviews. When Christian iconswere first introduced into central Africa by thePortuguese in the late I40os, elements of theirdesign resonated profoundly with local spiritualprecepts. Then, in the early sixteenth century,the king of Kongo was baptized, adoptedCatholicism as the state religion, entered intoexchanges with the king of Portugal and thepope, and emphasized those alliances throughcourtly patronage of Christian artifacts.The Kongo designer of this prestige piecesignificantly transformed the Western prototypethat served as its model. At the centerof a flat cruciform a Christ figure withAfrican features and broad, flattened feet andhands was cast in relief, arms extended. Theabstract modeling of four smaller figureswhose hands are clasped in prayer contrastswith the more expressionistic treatment ofChrist. His torso is given definition by theincised ribs, raised nipples and navel, andwrapper around his pelvis. While the suppliantsdepicted at the apex and base kneel, theother two sit comfortably on the top edge ofeither arm of the cross.AL73

MarionetteNigeria (Ibibio peoples), 20th centuryWoodH. 238 in. (6o cm)Purchase, Discovery Communications Inc.Gift and Rogers Fund, zooo2000.32a,bThis finely rendered Ibibio marionette takesthe relatively naturalistic form of a freestandingmale figure with rounded muscularcontours. The figure's eyes are lidded voids,its hinged jaw is set in a meditative expression,and decorative cicatrization bisects itstorso. Its arms are extended at either sidewith hands held so that each thumb touchesthe tips of the other fingers, a stylized gesturedesigned to accommodate props. To controlits movements, the hollow figure would havehad a rod inserted through its back.Objects such as this belonged to a distinctivedramaturgical tradition in southernNigeria. Ibibio marionette performances wereat once a form of popular cultural expressionand entertainment and an important vehiclefor social commentary. The theatrical presentationsfor which this sculptural accessory wascreated would have been highly topical andwould have sought to influence social attitudes.ALPrestige PanelDemocratic Republic of the Congo (Kubapeoples), i9th-2oth centuryRaffia palm fiberL. 4534 in. (116.2 cm)Gift of William Goldstein M.D., I999I999.522.I5The various stages of textile preparation, production,and adornment engage the collaborativeefforts and skills of all members of Kubasociety. The cultivation of raffia palm andits subsequent weaving on a vertical heddleloom are the responsibility of men. Individualwoven units (mbala) are relatively standardizedpanels that women embroider with dyed raffiato create a plush pile. These cloths are intendedas independent prestige items.The classic techniques have been appliedby female embroiderers over the centurieswith considerable innovation and haveyielded a dazzling spectrum of formal solutions.Distinctive motifs introduced into theKuba repertory are assigned names that oftenacknowledge the ingenuity of individualdesigners. In the complex composition ofthis symmetrical double panel, a centralinterlacing motif appears in the foregroundof a dense arrangement of concentric lozengeforms. Through their combined tonal andtextural articulation, these patterns projectdramatically from the gold field.AL74

ASIANotched Disk (xuanji)Chinese, Neolithic period, Longshan culture(ca. 2400-1900B.C.)Jade (nephrite)W. (maximum) 632 in. (6.5 cm)Purchase, Barbara and William KaratzGift, 19991999.302Neolithic cultures along the east coast ofChina are noted for the large number of jadeartifacts they produced. Many took theshapes of common stone tools such as adzesand knives. Others have forms that suggestno obvious function. Among the latter is thenotched disk, which first appeared in theMiddle Neolithic period (ca. 4000 B.C.) andwas gradually discarded from the jade repertoryduring the first millennium B.C., in theearly Bronze Age. Our recently acquired diskis representative of the type found at sitesof the Late Neolithic Longshan culture inShandong Province. Longshan jades areknown for their fine workmanship and thesheer quality of the stone-as can be seen inthis example.JCYWChen HongshouChinese, I598-I652Chen ZiChinese, i634-I71IFigures, Flowers, and LandscapesLate Ming dynasty (1368-i644) and early Qingdynasty (1644-1911)Album of II paintings; ink and color on silkEach 8Y4 x 858 in. (22.2 x 21.9 cm)Dated on one leaf: 1627Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wan-go H. C. Weng,1999I999-521Despite the grim political atmosphere of thelate Ming world, Chen Hongshou preparedfor a government career before turning topainting. This album, which contains fourleaves by Chen and seven added later by hisson, reflects the artist's mood after a numberof personal tragedies, including the death ofhis first wife in I623. It already exhibits thebroad range of subject matter, vivid color,and psychological edge that became typical ofhis mature work.The bird on a branch of blossoming plummay have been inspired by the intimate, highlydescriptive, and vividly colored views of flowersand birds favored by artists of the SouthernSong (1127-1279) imperial painting academy.But Chen Hongshou gave this conventionalimage a strong formal and expressive twist. Themannered emphasis on the knots of the branchand the disquieting stare of the bird add anunsettling dimension. Chen's accompanyingpoem conjures up a wintry mood appropriateto the season when the plum blooms:When the sky darkens over the loftypaulownia and old cassia,Boiling tea with snow water creates a goodfeeling.I wrote this for a visitor to hang on his wall,Sitting in an empty studio as the snowflies in the cold moonlight.MKH75The Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org

This elegant pair of six-panel folding screensdepict flowers and birds of the four seasons.On the right-hand screen (not shown) bothwhite plum blossoms, the harbingers of spring,and the irises of summer are in bloom; nightingalesand cuckoos celebrate the two seasons.The left-hand screen (shown here) illustratesautumn and winter, represented, respectively,by hibiscus and bamboo dotted with snow, aswell as by a kingfisher and pheasants.Each screen bears two seals of KanoSanboku, a student of Kano Sanraku (1559-I635), leader of the Kano school active inKyoto. This school, known as Kyo Kano(Kyoto Kano), has started to receive attentionfrom scholars only recently. It developeda distinct style of its own, easily discerniblefrom that of the Edo (modern Tokyo) branchof the Kano school, which prospered as theofficial painters to the shoguns.Little is known about the life of Sanboku,Anonymous Artist of the Tosa School Kano Sanboku and only two dated works-from I664 andJapanese Japanese, active late I7th-early I8th century 1706-have come to light. This pair ofActivities of the Twelve Months Flowers and Birds of the Four Seasons screens will help us understand the artisticEdo period (6I&5-i868), late I7th century Edo period (i615-i868) development of Kyo Kano works in theAlbum ofI2 paintings; ink, color, and gold Pair of 6-panelfolding screens; ink, color, and second half of the seventeenth century.on paper gold on paper MMEach 9 /4x 132 in. (23.5 X 34.3 cm) oi Each 4ft. in. x 12ft. /2 in. (I. x 3.67 m)Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, I999 Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, I999I999.6ISince the tenth century in Japan one of themost important subjects in secular paintinghas been the twelve months of the year,depicting the typical or most representativeevents of each. This album from the lateseventeenth century consists of twelve paintingsthat describe festivals or special eventsintegral to the lives of Kyoto citizens.This scene, representing the ninth month,includes court ladies admiring chrysanthemums,the flowers of the season, while indoorsothers enjoy a party in front of a small table setup for the dolls' festival. The event, knowntoday as the girls' festival, has been celebratedon March 3 ever since the date was changedin the early eighteenth century. The autumnalcelebration of the dolls helps to datethis charming album to the late seventeenthcentury. These images serve not only astestimonials to the long-lasting tradition ofgenre painting in Japan but also as valuablehistorical records of Japanese life.MMIP999. 204., .276

Toyohara KunichikaJapanese, 1835-Io00Ichikawa Sadanji in "Keian Taiheiki,"from an album of thirty-two triptychsMeiji period (1868-1912), i883-86Woodblock prints; ink and color on paperOban size; each I4 x 94 in. (36.2 x 23.5 cm)Gift of Eliot C. Nolen, I999I999.457.2This bold composition, spanning threesingle-sheet prints, depicts the Kabuki actorIchikawa Sadanji at the climactic moment ofhis starring role in the play Keian Taiheiki.Infused with the new spirit in actor printsof the Meiji era, the young man's posereflectingnot only his just-completed sound-ing of the depth of the moat by dropping apebble into it but also his discovery by thewatchdog (played by a human actor)-standsout against the vista of the shogun's castleenshrouded in mist.The eight-act play set current social andpolitical events in the guise of two famousrebellions: one in the fourteenth century, astold in the epic Taiheiki, and the other in thefourth year of Keian (I65I) at the outset ofthe Tokugawa regime, in its death throes whenthe play was first performed in March I870.Kawatake Mokuami (1816-1893), the majordramatist of the late Edo and Meiji eras, wroteit to launch the career of the twenty-nineyear-oldSadanji in gratitude to the actor'sadoptive father, Kodanji IV. This triptychcommemorates a production in June 1883. It isone of thirty-two in an album illustrating theleading Kabuki roles for the seasons I883-86.BBF77

Rafter Finial in the Shape of a Dragon'sHead and Wind-Chime BellKorean, late Unified Silla-early Koryb dynasty,ca. late 9th-early loth centuryGilt bronzeH. (finial) iiX3 in. (29.8 cm); h. (bell) i54 in.(38.7 cm)Purchase, The Vincent Astor FoundationGift, 1999 Benefit Fund, and TheRosenkranz Foundation Inc. Gift, 19991999.263a, bThis expertly cast, lavishly gilt bronze finial inthe shape of a dragon's head and the accompanyingbell are among the finest pieces ofmetalwork of the late Unified Silla and earlyKory6 dynasties, when Korean art had digestedChinese influence and developed a maturenative style characterized by refinement andsumptuousness. The imposing dragon's headoriginally graced one of the corne rafters of aBuddhistemple or a royal hall. The bell,which functioned as a wind chime, wouldhave been suspended from the iron loop at thedragon's mouth by an S-shaped iron hook,which is corroded but intact.An auspiciousymbol as well as a decorativemotif, the dragon is one of the mostpopular images in Korean art and culture. Itis viewed as a guardian figure that protectshumans and wards off evil spirits. The dramaticfeatures of this example-large staringeyes, flaring nostrils, wide-open mouth withprotruding sharp fangs, and brawny singlehorn-convey a fierceness and invincibility inkeeping with such apotropaic functions. Thetheme of protectiveness is echoed in the decorationon the bell, which features a svastika, aBuddhist symbol of safety and peace.zjs78

Maharaja Sital Dev ofMankot inDevotionIndian (Punjab hills, Basohli), ca. 690oInk, opaque watercolor, and silver on paper7X x 64 in. (18.4 x 15.9 cm)Purchase, Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, ooo2000.24Although portraits of maharajas were an aboutimportant genre in hill-state painting, thisimage of a blind raja stands apart. Mostdepict rulers in formal poses with servantsproffering intoxicants: either pan (betel nut,lime, and spices) or tobacco smoked in ahookah. Here, the raja is shown unattendedand saying his beads, a private devotional act.There is a rare poignancy in the artist's subtlecharacterization of pose and features.Given the immediacy of the image, it isstartling to learn that Sital Dev ruled fromI630 to i66o, long before this portraitcould possibly have been completed. Its stylerelates to the second phase of late-seventeenthcenturyBasohli painting, when earlier coloristicand decorative exuberance gave way to amore subdued palette and less dramatic juxtapositionsof pattern. A Mankot provenancehas been posited for the portrait, but its morerefined drawing and its palette, particularlythe soft buttery yellow of the background, arecloser to works from the nearby principalityof Basohli.SMK79

sampot, tied at the upper hem and drawnbetween the legs to be fastened at the rear.A sash around the hips helps to secure it.He also wears a decorated diadem andear pendants.This superb sculpture, well proportioned,beautifully modeled, and with precise, clearlyarticulated detailing, is a rare early example inbronze of the classical period of Khmer art.It has a most appealing expression, a commandingpresence, and a fine patina. It is aparticularly significant addition to theMuseum's important collection of Baphuonsculptures of the eleventh century because itis stylistically earlier than any of our others.Dish with Mounted Hunters andAnimalsVietnamese, Cham style, ca. 8th centuryBronzeDiam. sX8 in. (28.i cm)Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, I999I999.26IMLEarly Southeast Asian bronze objects withnarrative scenes are exceptionally rare, andnothing like this fine and fascinating dishhas been recorded in the art-historicaliterature.Depicted in low relief are three armed,mounted hunters with elephants, tigers, anda deer, interspersed among different speciesof trees. The central part of the dish has asmall depressed receptacle surrounded bylotus petals, then a circle of florets followedby a band containing six different animals,including a rhinoceros, enclosed in a bandwith a pattern of double rectangles. Theperimeter has a narrow band of stylizedflorets. The undecorated underside is supportedby a shallow flared foot. The creatorof this dish skillfully depicted the animalsand hunters in a variety of lively postures,manipulated through the shallow space in avery convincing manner. This dish was possiblyintended for secular use but more probablyserved some unknown ritual purpose.Based on cognate representations on stonereliefs, the dish could be dated as early as thelate seventh century or as late as the ninthcentury and must be considered a verysignificant addition to the corpus of earlySoutheast Asian art.MLFour-ArmedAvalokiteshvara, theBodhisattva of Infinite CompassionCambodian, Angkor period, Khmer style of theBaphuon, ca. ist quarter ofiith centuryBronzeH. io 4 in. (26 cm)Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts,Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, and Josephine L.Berger-Nadler and Dr. M. Leon CanickGift, 19991999.262This four-armed male deity standing on apedestal is identifiable as the bodhisattvaAvalokiteshvara, Lord of Infinite Compassion,through the small seated Buddha Amitabhain front of his conical crown and the verticalthird eye on his forehead. After the historicalBuddha, Shakyamuni, he is the most populardeity in Buddhism. Avalokiteshvara wearsa short pleated wraparound garment, the80

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATIONPublication title:THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART BULLETINPublicatio no: 885-660Date offiling: October I, 2000Issuefrequency: QuarterlyNo. ofissuespublishedannually: FourAnnual subscription price: $25.00, or free to Museum MembersComplete mailing address ofknown ofice ofpublication: Iooo Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. oo028-o198Complete mailing address ofheadquarters orgeeml business office ofpublisher:1oo0 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 0028-0198Full names and addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor:Publisher:.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ooo Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10028-o198Editor:Joan Holt, Iooo Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. Iooz8-0o98Managing Editor; NoneOwner The Metropolitan Museum ofArt, Iooo Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10028-0198Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding one percentor more ofthe local amount ofbonds, mortgages, and other securities: NoneTax status: The purpose, finction, and nonprofit stats ofthis organization and the tax exemptstatursfrfederal income tax purposes has not change during the preceding J2 months.Average number of copiesduring preceding it months(Ocr. 99-Sept. oo)Single issues nearestto filing date(uly oo)A. Total copies printed (net press run)B. Paid and/or requested circulation121,127 119,5851. Paid and/or requested outside-countymail subscriptions 72,291 70,8742. Paid in-county subscriptions 33,067 32,49I3. Sales through dealers, carriers, street vendors,counter sales, and other non-USPS None None4. Other classes mailed USPS 8,286 throughC. Total paid and/or requested circulation I13,6447,994I1I,359D. Free distribution by maili. Outside-county None None2. In-county None None3. Other classes mailed through USPS 175 200E. Free distribution outside the mail 6,467 6,o85F Total free distribution (sum ofDi, Dz, D3, and E) 6,642 6,285G. Total distribution (sum of C and F) 120,286 117,644H. Copies not distributed 841 1,941I. Total (sum ofG and H) 121,127 119,585J. Percentage paid and/or requested circulation 94.48% 94.66%The Metropolitan Museum of Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®www.jstor.org