Object Lessons: Art & Its Histories
[Gallery for Early European Art | Exhibition Text]
THE PROJECT
Spanning the history of Western art from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century, the first iteration of Object Lessons: Art & Its Histories embodies the museum’s belief in the power of close looking and affirms our deep commitment to academic engagement and teaching through objects. The exhibition is presented in multiple galleries and organized around the curriculum of Introduction to the Visual Arts, a two-part Stanford survey course led by professors Alexander Nemerov and Bissera V. Pentcheva, who will convene weekly sections in the museum’s galleries. Building on their expertise and teaching priorities, along with those of their colleagues Jody Maxmin, Nancy J. Troy, Richard Vinograd, and Cantor curators, the exhibition’s layout and interpretive texts demonstrate the benefits of bringing together multiple voices and approaches to thinking about art. Object Lessons invites all museum visitors to be part of a great classroom, in which questions and dialogue are welcome and there is freedom to challenge assumptions about the world in which we live.
—Alison Gass
Chief Curator and Senior Director for Exhibitions and Collections
IN THIS GALLERY
This installation represents significant moments of human creativity over more than 3,000 years. This staggering expanse of time encompasses the height and decline of the empires of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome through the rise of the Baroque in modern Europe. A thread running through the gallery is the balance the works strike between aesthetics and utility. Today regarded as fine art, these objects were designed to hold the commodities essential to social rituals, serve as funerary implements, or inspire profound contemplation of beauty, spirituality, and mortality.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Object Lessons is presented in multiple galleries, including the Robert Mondavi Family Gallery and the Marie Stauffer Sigall Gallery.
This exhibition is organized by the Cantor Arts Center and is presented in conjuction with the course Introduction to the Visual Arts. We gratefully acknowledge support from the Theodore and Frances Geballe Pre-19th Century Art Exhibition Fund, the Clumeck Endowment Fund, and the Loughlin Family Exhibition Fund.
ON TEACHING WITH OBJECTS
To see a World in a Grain of Sand . . .
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
As the speed of contemporary life accelerates and our senses are saturated with images, words, and sounds, works of art invite us to slow down, escape the siren song of “the media,” and make contact with other people, places, and times. This is especially important for university students. Pictures projected onto classroom walls enhance students’ understanding of art history; but as Plato’s cave dwellers understood, reflections of reality go only so far. It is through direct contact with antiquities—small perfume and oil flasks, larger vases from which their owners poured and drank wine—that students truly meet and converse with the ordinary Greek men and women who made them, used them, and valued them sufficiently to be buried with them.
— Jody Maxmin
Associate Professor of Art & Art History, Associate Professor of Classics
The ancient and medieval objects on view in this gallery are being displayed together for the first time in many years. Time adheres to the works of art, giving them the aura of distant human experience. Seeing and interacting with them allows us—viewers, students, professors—to connect emotionally and aesthetically to a distant time and recognize our place in this continuum.
—Bissera V. Pentcheva
Associate Professor of Medieval Art, Associate Professor of Classics by courtesy
[Case label]
1. Artist unknown
Boeotia, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Standing female figure, 560–550 BCE
Terra-cotta
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.4706
2. Artist unknown
Greece
Hellenistic period, 323–31 BCE
Horse and rider 1st century BCE
Terra-cotta
Gift of Catherine Harwood Dewey, in memory of Dr. Hazel D. Hansen, 1967.13
3. Artist unknown
Greece
Hellenistic period, 323–31 BCE
Alexander the Great
c. 330–100 BCE
Bronze
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1975.47
4. Artist unknown
Greece
Hellenistic period, 323–31 BCE
Hermes, c. 50 BCE–50 CE
Bronze
Gift of Dr. William Conte, 1992.251
5. Artist unknown
Greece
Hellenistic period, 323–31 BCE
Athis and dog 3rd–2nd century BCE
Terra-cotta
Gift of Alice Matlack, Catherine Mason, Frances Parker, and Sarah Allday, 1978.140
6. Artist unknown
Europe or Eastern Mediterranean
Roman period, 1st century BCE–c. 3rd century CE
after Praxiteles
Greece, active c. 375–340 BCE
Apollo Sauroktonos 1st–2nd century CE
Bronze and silver
Committee for Art Acquisitions Fund, 1988.108
[case label]
1. Artist unknown
Mesopotamia
Male head, n.d.
Stone
Gift of Professor Emerson H. Swift, 1972.72
2. Artist unknown
Assyria
Middle Assyrian period, 1350–1100 BCE
Cylinder seal, 13th century BCE
Steatite
Gift of Mrs. Charles B. Nines, 1972.235.1
3. Artist unknown
Mesopotamia
Neo-Babylonian period, c. 1000–539 BCE
Stone with cuneiform inscription, n.d
Stone
Gift of Professor Emerson H. Swift, 1972.73
4. Artist unknown
Assyria
Middle Assyrian period, 1350–1100 BCE
Cylinder seal, 13th century BCE
Steatite
Gift of Mrs. Charles B. Nines, 1972.235.4
5. Artist unknown
Cyprus
Late Bronze Age, c. 1600–1050 BCE
Female figure, c. 1450–1200 BCE
Terra-cotta
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.475
[case label]
1. Artist unknown
Europe or Eastern Mediterranean
Hellenistic period, 331–64 BCE
Head of a satyr, 2nd century BCE
Marble
Committee for Art Acquisitions Fund, 1960.92
2. Artist unknown
Turkey
Seleucid empire, c. 305–60 BCE
Head of Lysippan Herakles, 2nd–1st century BCE
Clay
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.28192
3. Artist unknown
Greece
Hellenistic period, 323–31 BCE
Male head, 2nd century BCE
Marble
Museum Purchase Fund, 1962.285
[case label]
1. Artist unknown
Greece
Etruscan vase, n.d.
Glass
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.10953
2. Artist unknown
Greece
Architectural fragment, n.d.
Marble
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.17487
3. Artist unknown
Corinth, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Cosmetic box (pyxis), c. 600 BCE Terra-cotta
Museum Purchase Fund, 1961.68
6. Artist unknown
Corinth, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Small perfume or oil flask with two handles (amphoriskos),600–575 BCE Black-figure terra-cotta
Gift of Catherine Harwood Dewey, in memory of
Dr. Hazel D. Hansen, 1967.12
7. Artist unknown
Corinth, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Perfume or oil flask
(aryballos),600–575 BCE
Terra-cotta
Gift of Catherine Harwood Dewey, in memory of
Dr. Hazel D. Hansen, 1967.18
8. Artist unknown
Corinth, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Perfume or oil flask
(aryballos), 600–575 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.17388
9. Artist unknown
Corinth, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Perfume or oil flask (aryballos), 600–575 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Gift of Professor T. B. L. Webster, 1964.1
10. Artist unknown
Corinth, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Fragment of a Corinthian krater, c. 550 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Given in honor of Professor Isabelle Raubitschek by her friends, 1979.90
[case label]
1. Eucharides Painter
Athens, Greece, active c. 500–475 BCE
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Amphora of Panathenaic shape, 480 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1970.11
2. Artist unknown
Athens, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Cassel cup (kylix), c. 530–500 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Gift of Professor T. B. L. Webster, 1983.289
4. Artist unknown
Athens, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Drinking cup (skyphos), c. 500 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Gift of Catherine Harwood Dewey, in memory of Dr. Hazel D. Hansen, 1967.45
6. Workshop of the Antimenes Painter
Athens, Greece, active c. 530–c.510 BCE
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Water jug (hydria), 530–525 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1970.1
[case label]
Harrow Painter
Athens, Greece, active c. 500–475 BCE
Early Classical period, 480–450 BCE
Amphora, 475–470 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1970.2
Polygnotos or his follower
Athens, Greece, active 440–430 BCE
High Classical period, 450–400 BCE
Bell krater, 440–430 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.17411
Phineus Painter
Greece, active c. 540 BCE
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Chalcidian neck amphora, c. 515 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1972.150
Chalcidian vases are named after the town of Chalcis on the island of Euboea, northeast of Athens. They are called Chalcidian because some of them are inscribed in the Euboean alphabet. Since not a single fragment of Chalcidian ware has been found in Euboea or elsewhere in Greece, some scholars believe that it was made in the west by Chalcidian settlers, probably in Reggio, Italy.
—Jody Maxmin
Associate Professor of Art & Art History, Associate Professor of Classics
[case label]
1. Artist unknown
Athens, Greece
Geometric period, 900–700 BCE
Neck amphora, 750–700 BCE
Terra-cotta
Committee for Art Acquisitions Fund, 1978.144
2. Artist unknown Athens, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Siana cup, 575–555 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Lent by Harold C. Hohbach
3. Artist unknown
Athens, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Athenian Little Master Band Cup, c. 550–530 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Gift of Professor T. B. L. Webster, 1969.42
4. Attributed to Lydos
Athens, Greece, active 565–535 BCE
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Siana drinking cup, c. 570–550 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Museum Purchase Fund, 1985.108
5. Castellani Painter
Athens, Greece, active 565–550 BCE
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Tyrrhenian neck amphora, c. 550 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Gift of Benjamin F. Vaughan, III, 1961.66
[Case label]
Attributed to the Workshop of the Darius Painter
Apula, Italy
Classical period, 480–323 BCE
Late Apulian volute krater, 350–325 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.10940
Kleophon Painter
Athens, Greece, active c. 420–390 BCE
High Classical period, 450–400 BCE
Volute krater, c. 430 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1970.12
Artist unknown
Egypt, Copt people
Byzantine Rule, c. 330–641 CE
Textile fragment with fretwork and interlace bands, 5th–6th century CE
Wool and linen
Gift of Timothy Hopkins, JLS.14716
____________________________________________________________________
Artist unknown
Egypt, Copt people
Byzantine Rule, c. 330–641 CE
Square panel with a horseman, 7th century CE
Wool and linen
Gift of Timothy Hopkins, JLS.14702
Artist unknown
Egypt, Copt people
Byzantine Rule, c. 330–641 CE
Textile fragment with red and black geometric designs, 5th–7th century CE
Wool and linen
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles de Young Elkus, 1947.32
Artist unknown
Egypt, Copt people
Byzantine Rule, c. 330–641 CE
Square panel with animals and plants 7th century CE
Wool and linen
Gift of Timothy Hopkins, JLS.14732
Artist unknown
Egypt
Macedonian and Ptolemaic Period, c. 332–30 BCE
Head of a king, c. 100 BCE
Granite
Stanford Family Collections, 1966.372
Artist unknown
Egypt
Late Period, c. 712–332 BCE
Block statue with cartouches of Ramses II c. 712–332 BCE
Granite
Stanford Family Collections, 1966.371
Artist unknown
Egypt
Late Period, c. 712–332 BCE
Mummy mask of a woman, c. 688–525 BCE
Linen, plaster, pigment, and gold
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.21361
Zanobbi Strozzi
Florence, Italy, 1412–1468
King David in Prayer, bound in An Antiphonal
from the first Sunday of Advent to the end of Lent, c. 1430
Leather and wood with tempera colors and gold on parchment
Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke
This complete and entirely hand-drawn manuscript, a choir book from the Florentine parish of Santa Maria sopra Porta, contains illuminated pages painted by Zanobbi Strossi. He was a follower of the Dominican monk and artist Fra Angelico, whose work also features in this gallery. Strossi depicts the kneeling King David speaking to God, who extends his hands down toward David. The figures are framed within (and separated by) the lines of a historiated letter, which is an enlarged initial elaborated with iconography to set off the beginning of a new passage of text.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Phineus Painter
Greece, active c. 540 BCE Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Chalcidian neck amphora, c. 515 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1972.150
Chalcidian vases are named after the town of Chalcis on the island of Euboea, northeast of Athens. They are called Chalcidian because some of them are inscribed in the Euboean alphabet. Since not a single fragment of Chalcidian ware has been found in Euboea or elsewhere in Greece, some scholars believe that it was made in the west by Chalcidian settlers, probably in Reggio, Italy.
—Jody Maxmin
Associate Professor of Art & Art History, Associate Professor of Classics
Polygnotos or his follower
Athens, Greece, active 440–430 BCE
High Classical period, 450–400 BCE
Bell krater, 440–430 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.17411
Harrow Painter
Athens, Greece, active c. 500–475 BCE
Early Classical period, 480–450 BCE
Amphora, 475–470 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1970.2
Kleophon Painter
Athens, Greece, active c. 420–390 BCE
High Classical period, 450–400 BCE
Volute krater, c. 430 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1970.12
Attributed to the Workshop of the Darius Painter
Apula, Italy
Classical period, 480–323 BCE
Late Apulian volute krater, 350–325 BCE
Red-figure terra-cotta
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.10940
left to right:
Artist unknown
Syria
Roman period, 64 BCE–260 CE
Funerary relief of a man, 2nd century CE
Limestone
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.17200
Artist unknown
Syria
Roman period, 64 BCE–260 CE
Funerary relief of a woman, 2nd century CE
Limestone
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.17201
Artist unknown
Syria
Roman period, 64 BCE–260 CE
Funerary relief of a man, 3rd century CE
Limestone
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.17205
Artist unknown
Cyprus
Relief of a banquet, n.d.
Limestone
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.21449
Nardo di Cione
Italy, c. 1320–1365 or 1366
The Annunciate Virgin, 1343–65
Tempera and gold leaf on wood
Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke
Circle of Agnolo Gaddi
Italy, active 1369–1396
Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels, c. 1390
Tempera on panel
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart M. Marshall, 1958.79
Artist unknown
France, active 14th century
Madonna and Child, c. 1360
Ivory
Gift of M. Donald Whyte, 1982.272
Jacopo del Sellaio
Italy, 1441–1493
The Virgin, Child, and Saint John, c. 1480–85
Tempera on panel
Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart M. Marshall, 1970.83
Puligo Domenico
Italy, 1492–1527
Madonna and Child with St. John and Angel, 1518–20
Oil on panel
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart M. Marshall, 1954.250
Artist unknown
Flanders, active 16th century
Virgin and Child, 1500–1600
Oil on panel
Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart M. Marshall, 1970.81
Jakob Jordaens, the elder
Flanders, 1593–1678
Head of an Apostle, 1640–60
Oil on canvas
Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart M. Marshall, 1955.28
Antwerp Mannerist
Belgium, active 16th century
Adoration of the Magi, 1500–1600
Oil on panel
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wiesenberger, 1959.84
Artist unknown
Russia, active 17th–18th century
Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, c. 1600–1799
Tempera on wood (right) and metal
revetment with precious stones (left)
Bequest of Professor Frank A. Golder, JLS.14230
Artist unknown
Italy, active 14th century
Crucifixion, 1350–1400
Tempera on wood
Gift of Mortimer C. Leventritt, 1941.296
Cristoforo Cortese
Veneto, Italy, c. 1399–before 1445
Large historiated initial “V,” c. 1430–40
Tempera and gold on parchment
Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke
Artist unknown
Cordoba, Spain
Stone capital from the palace-city Mad nat al Zahra’, Umayyad Caliphate
late 10th century CE
Limestone
Gift from Mr. and Mrs. Ralph C. Lee, 1956.74
Artist unknown
Roman
Hellenistic period, 300–90 BCE after Polykleitos
Greece, active 450–414 BCE
Doryphorus, 50 BCE
Marble
Lent by Kirk Edward Long
Artist unknown
Europe or Eastern Mediterranean
Roman empire, 27 BCE–192 CE
after Timarchides
Greece, active 2nd–early 1st century BCE
Torso of Dionysos or Apollo, c. 50 CE
Parian marble
Gift of Benjam F. Vaughan III in memory of Hazel Hansen, 1963.60
Artist unknown
Europe
Hellenistic period, 300–90 BCE
Draped figure of a youth (torso), 100 BCE
Marble
Lent by Kirk Edward Long
Artist unknown
Palestinian Territories
Hellenistic period, 331–64 BCE
Maenad (Nysa?), c. 150 BCE
Marble
By exchange with Harvard University Art Museums for gifts from Stanford Family Collections, 1998.2
Artist unknown
Greece
Relief of a warrior, n.d.
Marble
Gift of Esther de Lemos Morton, Margaret de Lemos Lyon, and Marie J. Storm, 1962.26
Master of Saint Francis
Assisi, Italy, 1250–1300
Crucifixion, c. 1260
Tempera and gold on parchment
Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke
Giovanni Decio
Milan, Italy, before 1440–after 1480
Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew, 1480
Tempera and gold on parchment
Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke
Decio’s painting, originally from a choir book dedicated to the feast of St. Andrew, depicts Christ calling fishermen Peter and Andrew to follow him. In brilliant jewel-tone colors set off with gold, Decio rendered a remarkable amount of detail informed by observation. Most impressive are the artist’s use of slender, waving lines to depict the active surface of the water, his naturalistic rendering of the shadow at the bow of the boat, and the delicate articulation of the landscape as it recedes toward the horizon behind Peter and Andrew.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Giovanni Decio
Milan, Italy, before 1440–after 1480
Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew, 1480
Tempera and gold on parchment
Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke
Decio’s painting, originally from a choir book dedicated to the feast of St. Andrew, depicts Christ calling fishermen Peter and Andrew to follow him. In brilliant jewel-tone colors set off with gold, Decio rendered a remarkable amount of detail informed by observation. Most impressive are the artist’s use of slender, waving lines to depict the active surface of the water, his naturalistic rendering of the shadow at the bow of the boat, and the delicate articulation of the landscape as it recedes toward the horizon behind Peter and Andrew.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Master of Saint Francis
Assisi, Italy, 1250–1300
Crucifixion, c. 1260
Tempera and gold on parchment
Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke
Artist unknown
Cyprus
Cypro-Classical to Cypro-Hellenistic period, 480–30 BCE
Female head, 5th–1st century BCE
Limestone
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.415
Artist unknown
Cyprus
Cypro-Hellenistic period, 310–30 BCE
Male head, 3rd century BCE
Terra-cotta
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.408
Circle of Hieronymus Bosch
the Netherlands, active c. 1450–1516
Last Judgment, c. 1510
Oil on panel
Lent by Kirk Edward Long
In the Christian tradition, images of the Last Judgment functioned as didactic tools to encourage the living to consider the lasting consequences of their daily actions. This painting, most likely created by an artist trained in Hieronymus Bosch’s workshop, depicts Christ enthroned and displaying his wounds while souls receive their eternal fates. In the painting’s upper-left corner, the few worthy souls ascend to heaven while the rest are condemned to grotesque and horrific torments inflicted by a legion of Satan’s demons.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Fra Angelico
Italy, c. 1400–1455
St. Anthony Abbott, 1428–48
Tempera and gold leaf on wood
Collection of T. Robert and Katherine States Burke
In 1407 Guido di Pietro entered a Dominican monastery near Florence, where he thrived as a painter who came to be known as Fra Angelico. Over the course of his artistic career, Fra Angelico returned repeatedly to the story of St. Anthony Abbott, the 3rd-century CE founder of the monastic tradition in Christianity. With characteristic softness and radiance, Fra Angelico painted Anthony alone in a barren landscape. The spare setting references the saint’s decision to reject material goods and live as a hermit in the desert of northern Egypt.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Haimon Group
Athens, Greece, active 500–480 BCE Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Oil flask (lekythos), c. 500–479 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Provenance: Lord Byron, 1824; Julius Millingen; given to his son Edwin van Millingen, 1896; Dr. Casey Wood; given to Stanford University Library, transferred to Leland Stanford, Jr. Museum (later Stanford University Museum of Art; then Cantor Arts Center), 1962
Gift of Dr. Casey Wood, 1962.286
This flask and hundreds of others from the Haimon workshop may have been filled
with olive oil and sold at the Panathenaic Games as a keepsake for spectators. This
vase depicts the apobates, an equestrian event descended from Homeric warfare. A charioteer, clad in white, strains to control the galloping horses. A warrior is captured mid-leap, his legs blurring with those of the horses as he prepares to sprint behind the chariot and vault back on board.
Artist unknown
Attica, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Oil flask (lekythos), 5th century BCE
White-ground terra-cotta
Gift of Mrs. Philip N. Lilienthal, Jr., 1960.78
White-ground lekythoi were used primarily for funerals; they stored olive oil used in burial rituals and then left to decorate gravesites. This lekythos depicts a funeral scene with two figures at a gravesite. A seated woman holds up a tray of offerings as a man steps toward her, carefully carrying a lekythos with both hands.
left to right:
Artist unknown
Athens, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Oil flask (lekythos), c. 500 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Gift of Professor Emerson H. Swift, 1972.76
Attributed to the Class of Athens 581 Athens, Greece,
active early 5th century BCE
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Oil flask (lekythos), c. 500 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.17340
Artist unknown
Athens, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Oil flask (lekythos), c. 500 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Gift of Catherine Harwood Dewey, in memory of Dr. Hazel D. Hansen, 1967.11
Circle of Bonifacio Bembo
Italy, active c. 1445–1478, died before 1482
Adoration of the Holy Child, c. 1460
Tempera on panel
Gift of M. Donald Whyte. Conservation supported by the Lois Clumeck Fund, 1987.158
The diminutive scale of this triptych suggests it was commissioned for use in a domestic setting. Its patron’s identity is not known, but the iconography reveals his or her religious affiliation. The central vignette of the left panel depicts Saint Francis, founder of the Franciscan Order, receiving the stigmata; below him is Saint Clara, the founder of the Poor Clares, a Franciscan sisterhood of nuns. The central panel illustrates the Adoration of the Christ child. The right panel’s central frame represents Saint Matthew with the angel who guided him in writing the first of the four Gospels; below him is Saint Bernardino of Siena, a popular Franciscan friar.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Artist unknown
Egypt
Late Period, c. 712–332 BCE
Stela of Djedhoriuefankh worshipping before the god Ra-Horakhty c. 712–664 BCE
Pigment on limestone
Yansouni Family Fund, 2000.79
The god Ra-Horakhty was the powerful composite of two ancient deities: Horus, the falcon-headed sky god, and the sun god Ra, the father of all gods, identifiable by his sun-disk headdress. Ra-Horakhty, seen here standing at left while receiving offerings, retained the physical attributes of both predecessor figures and ruled over the earth and sky.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Artist unknown
Egypt
Macedonian and Ptolemaic Period to Late Empire, c. 322 BCE–476 CE
Stela of Horus, the Younger, or Harpocrates, c. 304 BCE–364 CE
Soapstone
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.22104
Artist unknown
Egypt
New Kingdom, c. 1550–1070 BCE
Fragment of funerary stela of Osiris receiving offerings, c. 1186–1070 BCE
Limestone
Stanford Family Collections, JLS.21872.a
The enthroned Osiris, god of the afterlife, appears at left receiving offerings of flowers, beer, and bread from a woman. One of the most powerful Egyptian gods, Osiris ruled the underworld, controlled human fertility, and presided over the ebb and rise of the life-giving Nile River.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Artist unknown
Thebes, Egypt
Third Intermediate Period, c. 1070–712 BCE
Coffin for female mummy identified as the Chantress of Amen (Amon) c. 1070–945 BCE
Wood with painted gesso relief
Gift of the Cooper Medical College, T.82.2.A-B
Ancient Egyptian coffins sheltered remains and provided a home for the deceased’s life force, the ka, as well as the individual’s personality, or ba. The ka and ba rejoined each day at dawn, when the sun rose and Osiris, the god of the afterlife, was resurrected. The coffin’s interior is adorned with protective spells and figures referencing the gods to ensure safe passage into the afterlife.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
4. Artist unknown
Corinth, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Perfume or oil flask (alabastron), c. 600 BCE
Terra-cotta
Museum Purchase Fund, 1961.67
The alabastron (from the Greek ἀλάβαστρον) was invented in Egypt, where it was made of alabaster. The potters of Corinth translated the shape into clay in the 7th century, when Greek artists took inspiration from imported Egyptian and Near Eastern artifacts. Alabastra were ideally suited to contain oil or perfume and could easily be carried around (or hung on a wall at home) by threading a piece of leather or cord through the hole below the lip.
—Jody Maxmin
Associate Professor of Art & Art History, Associate Professor of Classics
5. Artist unknown
Corinth, Greece
Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Perfume or oil flask (alabastron), 600–575 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Gift of Dr. Casey Wood, 1962.287
Used in Greece, especially by women, alabastra were exported throughout the Mediterranean and eventually copied by Athenian potters and painters in the 6th century BCE. The black-figure sphinx betrays its Egyptian and Near Eastern pedigree, though by the time this vase was painted, such creatures had assimilated into the repertoire of Greek art.
—Jody Maxmin
Associate Professor of Art & Art History, Associate Professor of Classics
3. Leagros Group
Athens, Greece, active 525–500 BCE Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Wine jug (oinochoe), 525–500 BCE
Black-figure terra-cotta
Museum Purchase Fund, 1961.69
The oinochoe shows Herakles wrestling with the Libyan Giant Antaios, son of Poseidon and Ge (Earth). Antaios, a fearsome fighter, was invulnerable so long as he remained in contact with his mother, the earth. Antaios habitually challenged visitors to wrestle with him; with the skulls of his hapless victims he built a shrine to Poseidon. In Herakles he met his match and his demise. Once their contest was under way, Herakles recognized the source of Antaios’s strength, lifted him off the ground and crushed him to death. Here, Herakles wraps his arm around the neck of the doomed giant, whose leg and foot, in touch with ground, are his last hope—but not for long.
—Jody Maxmin
Associate Professor of Art & Art History, Associate Professor of Classics
5. Bowdoin-Eye Painter
Athens, Greece, active 530–500 BCE Archaic period, 1000–480 BCE
Bilingual eye-cup (kylix), c. 520 BCE
Black-figure (interior) and red-figure (exterior)Terra-cotta
Hazel D. Hansen Fund, 1970.10
This kylix belongs to a small but significant body of ceramics created between roughly 525 and 500 BCE that are called “bilingual” because they were painted with both red and black figures. Additionally, the color of the clay is detectable in the unpainted male figure on this cup’s exterior.
—Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell
Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
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