The Art Museum

The Art Museum

Art of the Stone Age 1–3 Ancient Near East 4–14 Ancient Egypt 15–24 Ancient Greece 25–43 Early Italian and Etruscan Art 44–50 Ancient Rome 51–62 Native Cultures of Early Europe 63–65 Central Asia 66–70 China and Korea 71–91 Japan 92-107 Byzantine Art 108–116 Islamic Art 117–130 Medieval Europe 131–155

Italian Renaissance 156–187 Northern Renaissance 188–208 South Asia 209–219 South-East Asia 220–225 Native Cultures of the Americas 226–242 Baroque and Rococo 227–272 Neoclassicism 273–279 Art of the Nineteenth Century 280–308 Africa 309–318 Australasia and Oceania 319–326 Art from 1900 to Mid-Century 327–372 Art Since the Mid-20th Century 373–000

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4–14 15–24

188–208226

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209–219

156–187

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66–70

51–62

71–91

220–225

92–107

108–116

Gallery Number Gallery Number

117–130

131–155

279–279

25–43

280–308 309–318 319–326327

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44–50

Room 51 Ancient Rome

1. Orestes and Electra1st century ad; marble H: 1.5 m / 4 ft 11 in It is uncertain whom these statues represent, but they are frequently identified as the mythological siblings Orestes and Electra, children of

Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. The sculpture is a pastiche of earlier Greek statues and styles, based heavily on fifth- and fourth-century Greek prototypes. The pose and style of the male figure were repeated in several similar

statue groups by the same workshop, while the woman is sculpted in a pose adapted from Classical statue of Aphrodite, but wearing her belt low in a manner typical of the Hellenistic period. The three-quarters lifesize scale of the

group was common for decorative garden statuary.

2. Boethos of KalchedonHerm, 2nd century bc; bronzeH: 1.03 m / 3 ft 3¾ in In Classical Greece, herms – heads, usually of the God

Hermes, placed atop shafts on which the only other feature was an erect phallus – were religious objects used to mark boundaries and sacred sites. In Republican Italy such statues became popular garden decorations, evocative of

Classical Greek tastes. This herm, signed by a second-century bc Greek artist, was found in an early first-century bc shipwreck near Mahdia, Tunisia, along with decorative statuary on its way from Greece to an Italian market.

‘The beginnings of foreign luxuries were introduced to Rome from the army in Asia. For the first time, they imported into Rome bronze couches, costly cloth coverings ... Such things, which were then so conspicuous, were but the seeds of future luxury!’

So lamented the Roman historian Livy (59 bc–ad 17), describing the period in the mid-second century bc when Rome was amassing an empire

that stretched from North Africa to Turkey. Although this image of moral decline was a popular literary theme, there was truth in the idea that the second and first centuries bc marked a turning point in Roman lifestyles and the luxury arts. As armies con-quered more territory around the Mediterranean, pillaged wealth and craftsmen made their way to Rome, and the decoration of private houses grew more elaborate. It was during

this period, with the confluence of artists, wealth and the need to use art for specific social and politcal purposes, that Roman art was born.

Roman patrons were fascinated by regions at the expanding boundaries of their empire. The Nilotic Mosaic (3), for example, presents a fanciful vision of Egypt for its Italian audi-ence, probably drawing on the work of Hellenistic topographers and zo- ologists. The Bacchic initiation scene

from the Villa of the Mysteries (4) depicts rites ‘imported’ from Greece, part of the cult of Dionysos that was temporarily banned by the Roman Senate as a foreign threat to public order and morality. Greek master-pieces were brought to Rome, and new sculptures were created there to meet an increasing demand. The forms and ideas of the Hellenistic Greek world were all readily adopted and adapted for new Roman patrons.

51 Art Before the Empire: Luxury in the Roman Republic

No civilization has had as enduring and powerful an impact on Western art as the Roman Empire. Many of the images created then were part of an art of power, perpetuating a social and political system that set the city of Rome and the imperial family at its centre. Later, from the intellec-tual rediscovery of Classical Rome in the Renaissance to the twentieth century, the forms and styles of the empire became the forms and styles of culture, learning and, perhaps most importantly, authority. Roman art offered many of the models that defined ‘greatness’, both aesthetic and social, in the Western canon.

At its largest extent in the mid-second century ad, Rome’s power stretched from Britain to Syria; roughly a quarter of the world’s population lived under Roman rule, creat-ing one of the most cosmopolitan and multicultural soci-eties the world has ever known. Rome was governed by a republican senate when its military expansion began in the fourth and third centuries bc, but the growth of empire en-couraged the rise of powerful generals in the first centu-ry bc; the first emperor, Augustus, established a system of rule in the first century ad that was to continue for nearly 400 years.

Roman art as a whole is in many ways an amalgamation: local patrons and artists chose the best visual means to express their messages from a range of options and styles. In many cases this meant the visual idioms of the Classi-cal and Hellenistic Greek world. Indeed, it was Rome’s own adulation of the arts of ancient Greece that cemented the important place held by Greek art in Western art history. As a result, perhaps what best defines Roman art, more than any distinct style, are the social uses to which it was put: nearly every sculpted, painted or crafted object was designed to communicate something about its subject’s or owner’s status and position.

It was the imperial system as a whole that allowed the arts to flourish. Peace and relatively uniform governance of the empire encouraged production and trade. This in turn encouraged the circulation of craftsmen, the trade in raw materials, and innovations in crafting techniques. At the same time, the economic boom created reserves of wealth that could be invested in art. For elite Romans across the empire, artworks were a worthwhile investment, for monetary capital could be transformed into items of so-cial prestige that helped to maintain their influential roles in society.

51 Art Before the Empire: Luxury in the Roman Republic52 The Age of Augustus53 Imperial Portraiture: The Face of Empire 54 Historical Relief: The Story of Empire 55 Wall Painting56 Mosaic57 Adorning the Table and the Body58 Funerary Art59 Exhibition: Adaptation and Imitation in Roman Sculpture60 Provincial Roman Art61 The New Order: Imperial Art in Late Antiquity62 Piazza Armerina: Private Art in Late Antiquity

Ancient Rome51–62

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Room 74 China and Korea

and fighting role. The attention to detail even extends to the patterns on the soles of their boots. In this view, lines of armoured infantrymen stand to attention in the foreground; they have thick collars or scarves around their necks. All have their hair tied in a bun, and though the bright colours that once covered the figures have largely gone, differences in facial characteristics suggest that they may have represented actual individ-uals, not all of them young. Chariot

teams comprised four horses, but in the interest of mobility the Qin army made growing use of archers mounted individually on horseback.

An entire terracotta administra-tion and royal household were also intended to accompany the emperor into the next world. In adjoining pits, figures of civilian officials wearing quilted costumes stood ready, musi-cians were on hand to accompany dances that may have involved the bronze cranes and smaller birds found

nearby, and a team of bare-chested wrestlers or weightlifters showed off their powerful physiques.

The terracottas showed, too, how far ceramic and sculptural concepts had advanced through the first millennium bc. The figures were made of clay, using techniques for simple elements such as arms, legs and torsos that would have been familiar to local manufacturers of mass-produced drainpipes; techniques familiar to metallurgists working in the bronze

industry were used for moulded heads and hands. These were then finished individually with wet clay to represent the particular features of their models, and the sections joined together with more clay. Working in teams, the makers stamped their finished figures as a means of identification, and were liable to punishment for inferior work.

For centuries, stories circulated about the megalomaniac First Emperor of Qin, while his huge tomb mound stood sentinel over an impe-rial cemetery outside Xi’an. Beneath the mound, the opulence of his sub-terranean palace – its central tomb chamber defended with rivers of mercury and primed crossbows – was well known in local mythology, even though those who had built the struc-ture and then covered it with earth had been silenced by execution.

The emperor rests in peace to the present day. However, in 1974 some of his subjects began to come to light, not only to put his reign into perspective, but also to bring into focus the monstrous grandeur of this and other ancient burial concepts, and to reveal for the first time the early history of human sculpture in China. The terracotta warriors represent a great advance along the path towards realism and human expression in sculpture, which can be seen further

in works displayed in Rooms 75 and 76.The lifesized terracotta figures

found in four pits around the tomb mound still do their duty, protecting the emperor’s mortal remains, defending his spirit and deflecting the curiosity of archaeologists digesting the implications of what they have found so far. The complete army probably numbered around 7,000 men, together with 130 bronze war chariots and over 100 cavalry horses. The majority were broken, though not

all beyond repair. Blame for the damage has traditionally been ascribed to rebel soldiers entering the pits in 206 bc, though the effects of an earthquake cannot be ruled out.

Officers stand some 20 centime-tres (8 in) taller than conscripted men; soldiers stand and kneel on guard, armed with crossbows, swords, spears and halberds. They are clad in armour representing lacquered leather, with uniforms, headgear, shin guards and footwear appropriate to their rank

74 Exhibition: The Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shi Huangdi

Terracotta Warriorsc.214 bc; terracottaH (average soldier): c.1.8 m / 5 ft 10¾ in

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1. Angel at the Last JudgementMid-14th century; pigments on plaster; dimensions unrecordedThis painting in the narthex of the Metropolis shows the drama and suffering in the Last Judgement. At the entrance to the church, it serves as a reminder to keep to the straight and narrow. The angel

is poised at a lectern on a dolphin-shaped stand, with red-tipped wings, golden curled hair, a blue undergarment and expressively swathed robes.

2. Healing of the ParalyticMid-14th century; pigments on plaster; dimensions unrecordedThe Metropolis cathedral was painted in three phases. This

image, one of four scenes showing Christ’s miracles on the north wall of the western vault, is from the earliest, in which the paintings were done by a variety of artists with differing abilities. The figures appear on a single plane, with Christ under a billowing red canopy speaking to the man he has just healed, who lifts up his pallet.

3. The Nativity14th century; pigments on plaster; W: c.2.3 m / 7 ft 6 inIn this elegant painting from the Peribleptos monastery, the Virgin is wrapped in her blue maphorion (veil), supporting her head on her hand as she rests in the cave where she gave birth. Events occurring at different times are shown

together, with the angels announcing Christ’s birth to the shepherds, Joseph discreetly looking away, the midwives giving the baby his first bath and the magi approaching on horses. The figures are skilfully integrated into the rugged setting and given expressive individualized features.

4. Martyrs14th century; pigments on plaster; W: c.60 cm / 1 ft 10 inThe artist of this funerary chapel in the Aphendiko painted still figures and soft patterns in halos and garments. White highlights impart a sense of limbs beneath the clothes, which are accented by pearls and gold border designs.

Set on a hillside in the central Peloponnese of Greece, a few miles from ancient Sparta, Mystra was in the late Byzantine period (1204–1453) a centre of intellectual, religious and artistic sophistication. In its beauti-fully decorated churches and monas-teries, castle, palace and aristocratic houses, Byzantine culture was pre-served to the mid-fifteenth century. Until it was handed over to Sultan Mohammed II in 1460, seven years after the capture of Constantinople, Mystra maintained close connections with the

capital, and many philosophers, theo-logians and scholars lived or visited there. They commissioned buildings that combined indigenous simplicity with the latest designs and techniques, employing the finest artists to paint complex iconographic programmes.

The Palaiologan period (1261–1453) is named for the imperial dynasty that ruled from Mystra between the recapture of Constantinople from the Latins and it fall to the Ottomans. The art of this time is complex, elegant and highly refined, with confident use of shading and highlighting, particularly in

faces and drapery. Perspective is not accurate, but there is strong evocation of three-dimensional space.

The earliest churches at Mystra, including the Aphendiko, or Hodegetria (4), and the Metropolis cathedral (1 and 2), date to the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century. The Aphendiko is a monastic church dedicated to the Virgin Hodegetria, a famous icon said to have been painted by Saint Luke. The Metropolis, dedicated to Saint Demetrios, was originally basilical in form, with three barrel-vaulted aisles, but was altered

in the fifteenth century so that the upper storey has the more typical Byzantine cross-in-square design with a domed roof. It was decorated piecemeal, with scenes from the life of Demetrios, miracles of Christ (2), and a Last Judgement in the narthex (1).

The Peribleptos is a small monas-tery with complex paintings (3). The Pantanassa monastery (1428) paintings follow the same programme as those in the Aphendiko, with the main events in Christ’s life on the vaults of the arms of the cross, the central architectural form of the church.

110 Mystra: Late Byzantine Wall Painting

1. Virgin and Child with Justinian and Constantine 10th century; mosaic W: c.4.3 m / 14 ft 4¼ in The Mother of God is seated on a throne holding the Christ Child, with an abbreviated form of her name in Greek letters in the roundels above her head. To her left stands the emperor Constantine presenting to her

the city he founded; to her right Justinian gives her the church he built.

2. Constantine IX, Christ and Zoe1028–34 and 1042–55; mosaicW: c.2.9 m / 9 ft 6 in The empress Zoe (c.978–1050) ruled with four emperors, three of whom were her husbands,

and with her sister Theodora. This mosaic records two of the husbands: the face and name of her first husband, Romanos III (r. 1028–34), has been removed and replaced with those of her third, Constantine IX (r. 1042–55); Zoe’s and Christ’s faces have been updated as well. Both donated funds to Hagia Sophia,

indicated in the money bag being presented to Christ.

3. John II, Virgin and Child and Eirene1118–34; mosaic W: c.2.9 m / 9 ft 6 in This mosaic forms a pair with the earlier panel (2). The imperial couple is depicted bestowing money on the

church, with the scroll held by Empress Eirene recording the gift. They wear jewel-encrusted ceremonial clothes and are named with their official titles.

4. Virgin and ChildMid-9th century ad; mosaic H: c.4 m / 13 ft Serene and majestic, the Virgin is positioned high up in the

apse as if surveying and protecting the church. A sermon by the Patriarch Photios in ad 867 refers to a Virgin and her Son created in ‘life-like imitation’, and the text may have been composed to celebrate this mosaic, probably the first figural image of the Virgin to be put in the church after the end of Iconoclasm.

Justinian I’s Great Church was breathtakingly ambitious and inno-vative, not only for its architecture but also for the astonishing decora-tion of its surfaces. Erected in only five years (ad 532–37), it was dedi-cated to Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), an attribute of Christ.

The church was originally entirely decorated with non-figural ornament: marble panels in many shades on the flat walls and geometric and floral mosaics against golden grounds on the curving walls above. Perhaps at this

time the use of figural representations was controversial (it certainly became so later, during Iconoclasm), or the emperor may have thought the size of the building more suited to an overall visual plan; or he may simply have wanted to install the decoration quickly. Some sixth-century ad mosaics remain; others have been plastered over and painted.

Most of the mosaics in the church date from the Middle Byzantine period, between the restoration of images in ad 843, after Iconoclasm, and the fall of Constantinople to the soldiers of the

Fourth Crusade in 1204; all of the figural mosaics exhibited here date to this period, the first probably created in ad 867 (4). The mosaics are predominantly formal portraits of saints and rulers and so, to some extent, represent rather traditional art forms, though they also reveal how styles changed over time. A comparison between portraits of empresses Zoe and Eirene (2 and 3), for example, highlights the more elongated and graceful forms that characterized the twelfth century. The figures do not interact intensely with each other, because the nature

of the compositions requires a formal reticence. In other contexts from the same period, for instance in manu-script decoration or wall paintings, figures can be presented in complex scenes with naturalistic backgrounds and intricate relations. In scenes such as these in Hagia Sophia, and in other mosaics of the period, such as those at Daphni and Hosios Loukas in Greece, Middle Byzantine artists frequently placed the figures against a plain gold ground, which gives an ethereal unworldly appearance but also focuses the eye on the subjects.

109 Hagia Sophia: Middle Byzantine Mosaic

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Room 110 Byzantine ArtRoom 109 Byzantine Art

1. Head of a Womanc.1475; ink and white pigment on paper28.2 x 19.9 cm / 11 x 7¾ in This drawing contains elements typical of Verrocchio, such as the diagonally placed eyes and hair rendered in meticulous detail. It may have been created in the years of Leonardo’s studies, though the attribution and date are disputed.

2. Heads of an Old Man and a Youth1495–1500; red chalk on paper20.8 x 15 cm / 8¼ x 6 in Leonardo considered the portrayal of the intentions of the mind through the body’s gestures and expressions to be the most formidable challenge for a painter. He was also acutely aware of the fleeting beauty of youth and the

deformity of old age. These preoccupations produced many sketches of both idealized and grotesque physiognomies.

3. Self-Portraitc.1512; red chalk on paper33.3 x 21.4 cm / 1 ft 1in x 8½ in A handwritten note dating to the sixteenth century gives this drawing the title ‘Leonardus Vincius self-portrait at an

advanced age’, though scholars debate the attribution.

4. Madonna and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptistc.1499–1500; charcoal with white chalk on paper; 1.42 x 0.99 m / 4 ft 7¾ in x 3 ft 3 in Drawn on eight sheets of paper glued together, this work may have been a study for a

painting, but it was never used for transfer, its outlines being neither pricked nor incised. Subtle highlights lead the eye in a circular rhythm from figure to figure, emphasizing the complex integration of the composition.

5. Lady with an Ermine (Cecilia Gallerani)1489–90; oil on panel54 x 39 cm / 1 ft 9 in x 1 ft 3 in

Cecilia Gallerani was the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, at whose court Leonardo was working at the time. The symbolism of the ermine may reference either Gallerani’s name (galle is Greek for ‘ermine’), or the emblem of her lover. Leonardo’s original blue background was later overpainted in black.

176 Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci was the most imaginative and visionary artist of the Renaissance, though he finished few works. He was the archetypal Renaissance man, renowned in his own lifetime and since as a painter, sculptor, draughtsman, architect, engineer, inventor and botanist.

Trained in the studio of the Florentine artist Andrea del Verrocchio (c.1435–88), Leonardo (1452–1519) learned to model from close observation and

to invent compositions through quick sketches. While still an apprentice he demonstrated a mastery of the new medium of oil painting and the sfumato technique (the use of soft shading instead of line to delineate forms and features).

After leaving Verrocchio’s studio in 1478, Leonardo worked in Florence before seeking employment with the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, in 1482. In a letter, Leonardo outlined his expertise in painting, sculpture and

architecture, and in hydraulic engi-neering, bridge building, fireworks and the construction of war machines. In nearly seventeen years at the Sforza court, he engaged in military and civil engineering projects and composed treatises on the human body and machines, the phenomena of light, shadow and perspective, the move-ment of water, horses and the flight of birds. He worked out his ideas in drawings, hundreds of which survive, as opposed to some fifteen paintings.

On his return to Florence, Leonardo produced the large cartoon Madonna and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist (4). It may be a finished work, perhaps intended as a gift. The illusion of high relief stems from the chiaroscuro technique, with strongly contrasted light and dark shades. In the fiercely topical Renaissance debate, Leonardo placed painting before sculpture as the truest means of representing the natural world.

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Room 176 Italian Renaissance

1. Painted Vesselad 650–775; earthenware with slip; H: 21.5 cm / 8½ inTwo artists work inside a palace-like building, their luxurious clothing suggesting high status and the black background imparting a mythological undertone. The fox-headed personage on the floor paints in a book with jaguar-pelt covers, his half-shell

paint pot set atop the codex. Sitting above him on a bench throne, an artist carves or paints a mask of the Maize god.

2. Painted Vesselad 740–780; earthenware with slip; H: 22.7 cm / 9 inLavish gifts for the guests at royal feasts aided rulers’ efforts to consolidate political relationships and forge new

alliances and webs of obligation; the gift’s artistic quality heightened the prestige of the host. Here, the extraordinary painting and complex pictorial narrative indicate the work of one of the finest painters of the Classic period.

3. Painted Vesselc. ad 755–780; earthenware with slip; H: 22.5 cm / 8¾ in

This vase is among the most superb painted ceramics of the Classic Maya. The unnamed artist masterfully controlled the challenging watercolour-like nature of slip paints, the final effects of which often cannot be seen until the vessel is fired. The painter’s skill can be seen in the reversed chiaroscuro that lends three-dimensionality to the figures.

4. Painted Vesselc. ad 600–750 earthenware with slip; H: 19.8 cm / 7¾ inThe Hero Twins, from the Maya epic Popol Vuh, request the return of the bones of their father the Maize god from Itz’amnaj, a primary lord of the underworld. The bones are wrapped in white cloth and occupy a large basket. The twins are named in the

elaborate glyphs inscribed above their heads.

5. Painted Vesselc. ad 650–750 earthenware with slip; H: 19.8 cm / 7¾ inIn preparation for a dance performance, an attendant paints the body of a Maya lord, while courtly ladies (not visible here) hold his dance mask and ritual staff. The lord peers into

Ostentatious patronage of architec-ture and art proclaimed the power of Classic-period Maya rulers (c. ad 250–850). Ingenious creations fea-tured imagery that asserted the royal patron’s social prestige and divine right to rule, communicated author-ity and affirmed his superiority over the many other dynastic leaders of the myriad states that comprised the Classic Maya political landscape.

The Maya occupied southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador from the third century bc to the sixteenth century, and the Mayan language is still spoken by millions of their descendents. Because each royal Maya house had equal claim to divine ancestry linked to a mythic founder with sacred origins, competition among the polities was fierce. Common measures for social

and political dominance included military campaigns to control land and labour, and interfamily marriages to forge advantageous relations. Magnificent architecture and lavish personal accoutrements were created for these strategic undertakings, with size, technical mastery, aesthetic excellence and the use of precious materials all serving to emphasize the supremacy of a ruler and his state.

Rulers sought out the best artists to create objects whose imagery chronicled their earthly triumphs, spiritual connections and supernatural powers. Artists had to be well versed in Maya history and religious ideology, often interweaving the two. Technical expertise, aesthetic erudition and narrative complexity imbued artworks with heightened prestige that, in turn, accentuated the status of the patron

and receiver of the object as gift or reward for service. The most accom-plished artists were key participants in aristocratic life and enjoyed high status regardless of social origin.

Painters were among the finest artists, their creations adorning walls, pottery and the now-lost screen-fold books. Maya painting was based primarily on outline. Its aesthetic heart was the natural

variation of brushstrokes – the finer the brushwork, the more esteemed the painter. Interestingly, on some carved stone panels, faintly painted brushstrokes remain visible, the stone carvers having carefully mimicked the original calligraphic, brushed outlines. Colour hue, value and saturation, sensitive renderings of the human form and narrative complexity were also esteemed attributes of Maya

paintings, exemplified by the rare and sophisticated eighth-century murals of Bonampak, Mexico.

The principal surviving source of Classic Maya paintings are pictorial ceramics (1–8), decorated with images of rulers and chronicling their accom-plishments and the gods’ sanction of royal authority. These low-fired vessels were used to serve food and as gifts during sumptuous feasts sponsored

by the elite, which were a key vehicle for social advancement. The host proclaimed his power by serving prodigious amounts of excellent food and presenting guests with such exqui-sitely crafted gifts as magnificently painted drinking vessels created by renowned artists.

a mirror cradled by a standing attendant, seemingly to ensure his proper comportment but more likely referring to the vision-quest nature of the performance.

6. Painted Vesselc.680–750 ad; earthenware with slip; H: 16 cm / 6¼ inThe hieroglyphic text decorating this aristocratic drinking vessel

records the names of the legendary rulers of the mythic Snake polity, from which the rulers of the Classic period state of Calakmul (Mexico) took their names. Although royal history is usually carved on stone monuments, this vase is evidence for the painterly basis of Maya hieroglyphic writing.

7. Incense Burner Standc.8th century ad; earthenwareH: 84.5 cm / 2 ft 9¼ in The portrait-like rendering of the human face in this piece from Temple XV-C, Palenque, Mexico, strongly suggests that this censer stand portrays a historical person, perhaps the Palenque ruler Kan B’ahlam. However, the hair is more typical of royal women of eighth-

century ad Palenque. A tiny yet exquisitely realistic noble figure sits atop his/her headdress, clutching an incense bag in his left hand.

8. Figurinec. ad 650–800; earthenware with post-firing paint H: 26.7 cm / 10½ in A nobleman wears a feathered cape and woven loincloth and

overskirt with ornate tie-ends. His fine clothing, upraised head, slightly parted lips and outflung arms suggest a ritual dance or some type of oratorical performance.

9. Royal Portrait Incense Burner Lidc. ad 700–750; earthenware with post-firing paint H: 61 cm / 2 ft

Maya artists excelled at the portrayal of physical likeness as well as traditional depictions that highlight key principles of regal comportment. The artist here faithfully renders Copán’s distinctive royal headdress. Found at the entrance to the tomb of a royal scribe, this lidded censer contained ashes from a dedication ritual held when the tomb was sealed.

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Room 232 Native Cultures of the Americas Room 233 Native Cultures of the Americas

231 Classic Maya Painting and Patronage

1. Dance II1909–10; oil on canvas; 2.6 x 3.9 m / 8 ft 6¼ in x 12 ft 9½ in Intended for the ground floor of Sergei Shchukin’s house in Moscow, Dance II creates a sense of energy through the vivid contrasting colours and the rhythm of the dancers relentlessly pulling each other

round, propelling the spectator upwards. The green foreground echoes the undulating forms of the dancers’ defined muscles and emphasizes their leaping.

2. Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Background1925–26; oil on canvas; 1.3 x 0.98 m / 4 ft 3 in x 3 ft 3½ in

This canvas celebrates the ornamental elements of Arabic culture. The oriental rug, patterned wallpaper, plant pot and mirror are fully integrated with the woman, whose serenity and stillness give the impression that she is another decorative object in the room. Matisse here disrupts a tradition of the

human form as the highest subject by elevating still-life, background and decorative arts to the same level.

3. The Red Room1908; oil on canvas; 1.8 x 2.5 m / 5 ft 10¾ in x 8 ft 2½ inThe figure is Caroline Joblaud, Matisse’s former model and

mistress, and mother of his first child. He painted her here from memory, making her part of the decorative scheme of the room. The patterned tablecloth and wallpaper merge into one, and the composition is flattened out – no directional lighting comes from the window, which might be merely a painting on a wall.

The vibrant red paint was painted over the original blue after framing. The calligraphic forms of the background reflect and harmonize with the curved outlines of the woman; the emphasis is on the relation of the various parts of the canvas to each other, rather than on representing nature.

Henri Matisse pioneered the early twentieth-century revolution in colour and the development of the purely decorative possibilities of art – manipulating nature rather than copying it, simplifying subjects into decoration. His compositions unite ornament and figure in vibrant arrangements of intense colour.

Matisse (1869–1954) trained as a lawyer and only became interested in art at the age of twenty-one. He moved to Paris to study painting and drawing in 1891, and while undergoing

a traditional academic training was simultaneously exposed to a dynamic art scene of numerous diverse styles and movements. A summer spent in Saint-Tropez in 1904 introduced him to a lighter, sunnier palette, and the following year he began to produce the expressionistic works that would inaugurate Fauvism (Room 329), the first avant-garde movement of the new century. In 1906 he visited the oasis town of Biskra in Algeria, which would inspire an new exoticism in his work (2) and indicate the direction his art was to take over the next few decades,

as Matisse not only worked against academic constructs, but also resisted the other dominant movement of the time, Cubism.

The Dance II (1) illustrates Matisse’s development of the decorative possi-bilities of art; as he wrote in 1908, ‘expression and decoration are one and the same thing’. The work was purchased along with Music (1910) by Sergei Shchukin, a Russian collector, to decorate the staircase of his pala-tial house in Moscow, and Matisse created the final works from full-scale maquettes, altering the composition

on the canvas as he went along. The distinction between the ‘decorative arts’ on the one hand, and Matisse’s concept of ‘decoration’ as an aim of painting on the other, is subtle. In the act of designing these paintings as ornamental panels in 1910, he began to dissolve this distinction.

The Red Room (3), also bought by Shchukin, seems neither physically tangible nor entirely abstract. Matisse gave it the alternative title Harmony in Red, linking the expression of colour in painting and that of harmony and dissonance in music.

328 Henri MatisseWhen a group of painters includ-ing Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, André Derain and Kees van Dongen showed their work at the 1905 Autumn Salon in Paris, in a room that also displayed Italianate sculptures by Albert Marque (1872–1947), a critic joked that the he had found ‘Donatello chez les fauves’ – Donatello at home with the wild beasts. The sponteneous brushwork and strident, unnaturalistic colours of these ‘wild beasts’, the Fauves, heralded the first avant-garde move-ment to break with Impressionism.

The Fauves often painted the same subjects as those explored by the Impressionists (Rooms 291–293) and the Post-Impressionists (Room 305), but their imprecise brushstrokes were broader, their forms simpler, though often more defined, their palettes brighter and less naturalistic, with clashing colours.

This younger generation of artists prioritized the expression of the atmosphere or character of the subject, suppressing whatever might detract from the essential elements of a composition. Matisse insisted that the

canvas was a two-dimensional surface to be decorated and defined by blocks and planes of colour, not made to look like a realistic window on to the world; light and colour were dependent not on the dictates of season, science or convention, but on the emotion and free expression of the painter. The ways in which the often deliberately non-naturalistic colours interact on the canvas are more important than their physical reality, because Fauve paintings seek to express the artists’ personal sensations, rather than create an impression of the exterior world.

Indeed, the critic Clement Greenberg would later cite the flatness of their compositions as the beginnings of a Modernist approach to art.

The Fauves are sometimes considered precursors to the German Expressionists (Room 335), and they were inspired by the same late nine-teenth-century sources, in particular the work of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Their desire for psycho-logical authenticity over illusions of visual realism would also become a major concern for the Surrealists (Room 351).

1. André DerainThe Turning Road, L’Estaque, 1906; oil on canvas; 1.30 x 1.95 m / 4 ft 3 in x 6 ft 4¾ in André Derain (1880–1954) spent the summer of 1906 in L’Estaque, a small fishing village near Marseille, where he developed a style firmly rooted in Cézanne’s intense colours

and square brushwork (Room 306), and in Gauguin’s images of Breton peasants (Room 307/1). This intense landscape radiates heat suffused with shadow.

2. Kees van DongenDolly, c.1911; oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm / 1 ft 9¾ in x 1 ft 6¼ in

Kees van Dongen (1877–1968) depicts his young daughter, Dolly, as a fashionable woman, with the bright red lips and defined eyes and brows characteristic of Fauvism.

3. Henri MatisseMadame Matisse (The Green Stripe), 1905; oil and tempera

on canvas; 40.5 x 33.5 cm / 1 ft 4 in x 1 ft ¾ in Henri Matisse (1869–1954) depicts his wife, Amélie Parayre, with a vertical splitting of the face in two contrasting colours, reinforced and reflected by the split background, the warm and cool tones of which complement those of the face.

This reveals the divisionist techniques based on colour contrasts that Matisse learned from the work of Paul Signac (see Room 305).

4. Maurice de VlaminckAndré Derain, 1905; oil on cardboard; 26.4 x 22 cm / 10½ in x 8½ in

Maurice de Vlaminck (1876–1958) presents a spontaneous and personal image of his friend, full of typical Fauve urgency. The close-up composition, the eyelids and spiralling moustache in blue, the patch of green on the nose and the chrome yellow highlights all give a impulsive air to the work.

329 Fauvism

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Room 329 Art from 1900 to Mid-CenturyRoom 328 Art from 1900 to Mid-Century

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Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s instal-lations and site-specific projects transform space with elemental materials: water, light, tempera-ture, gravity. He creates multi-sen-sory experiences that exercise his fascination with human perception and encourage viewers to reflect on their own awareness of themselves.

Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) is interested in phenomenology, a branch of philosophy concerned with human perception and the experience of subjectivity – that is, the sense of self

for each individual. A central concern of phenomenology, and of Eliasson, is our relationship to our environment. The artist refers to this as the ‘fifth dimension’ – a dimension of engage-ment in space and time by the viewer, which follows the fourth dimension of time. For Eliasson, the importance of the fifth dimension cannot be over-stated, for without it the work cannot happen: ‘The user is the source of the artwork, and the psychology – the memories, expectations, moods and emotions – that a person brings to the work is an important part of it.’

The Weather Project transformed the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in London, saturating it with yellow light from an artificial sun made of mono- frequency lamps. The light was diffused by a screen and softened by an artificially produced fog. The sun was actually only a semicircle of lights touching the mirrored ceiling installed above the hall, creating the illusion of a complete circle. The ceiling mirrors doubled the perceived height of the Turbine Hall and allowed viewers to see themselves seeing, bathed in the yellow light and misty atmosphere.

The machinery that created the hazy weather was exposed, for Eliasson’s works are about experiencing the pieces with all the senses and then engaging intellectually with that expe-rience. Some of Eliasson’s projects take place outdoors, but he rejects Land artists’ scepticism of the museum context. For him, the museum is a place to store ‘timeless’ objects but one in which the viewer experiences himself and his surroundings anew.

438 Olafur Eliasson: The Weather Project

1. The Weather Project2003; mixed media; H: c.35 m / 115 ft

1. The Matter of Time1994–97 and 2003–05; weatherproof steel H (each): c.4 m / 14 ft

American sculptor Richard Serra’s enormous abstract forms of weath-erproof steel are streaked and mot-tled with rust in a finish that is almost painterly. They merge the surround-ing space and their own form and weight with the viewer’s reactions.

The title of the seven sculptures exhib-ited here, installed in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, in 2005, evokes the measuring of unfolding action. As with all Serra’s work, the movement of the viewer through and around the sculptures is central to

their meaning, and the fourth dimen-sion – time – is present as well. The milled steel is engineered to tilt and seemingly rotate, the curved walls swelling and retreating in a massive ebb and flow of metal, supported only by their own weight. The viewer walks between walls forming passageways that subtly alter according to the physics of the works’ axes: narrowing, widening, leaning, straightening. The effect of the obscuring steel plates can be frightening – as the art critic Robert Hughes wrote, ‘the fear of being crushed like a bug on an anvil

has always been present’ in Serra’s work. But walk one must, for these works were made to be perceived by movement. As Serra said: ‘Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result from the viewer’s movement. Step by step, the perception not only of the sculpture but of the entire environ-ment changes.’

Created as a site-specific work for the largest gallery in Frank Gehry’s asymmetric museum, The Matter of Time also enters into a dialogue with the unconventional room, accentu-ating the unpredictability of the space

with a tension that evokes complex reactions. The sculptures as exhibited are, from front to back, Torqued Spiral (Closed Open Closed Open Closed), Torqued Ellipse (left) and Double Torqued Ellipse (right), Snake, Torqued Spiral (Right Left), Torqued Spiral (Open Left Closed Right) and, partially visible in the far distance, Between the Torus and the Sphere; beyond, not visible here, stands the eighth work in the installation, Blind Spot Reversed.

439 Richard Serra: The Matter of Time

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Room 438 Art Since the Mid-20th Century Room 439 Art Since the Mid-20th Century

Housing the finest art collection ever assembled, this revised, reformatted edition of The Art Museum offers the museum experience without the boundaries of space and time, taking the reader on a tour around the world and through the ages, presenting the finest examples of visual creativity. Its colour-coded rooms and galleries display some 1600 artworks, selected from the original collection, including paintings, sculpture, photographs, textiles, installations, performances, videos, prints, ceramics, manuscripts, metalwork, and jewel-work.

Twenty-eight curators, critics, art historians, archaeologists and artists contributed their expertise to create this art lover’s ideal museum. Together they offer informative, accessible texts that provide an all-encompassing insight into art history, and detailed descriptions and backstories about each work of art.

‘Why buy a mere art book when you could have a museum of your own? … ranging across continents, periods, and artistic approaches, [The Art Museum] sets out to compile the perfect collection.’ – The Times

Binding: HardbackFormat: 305 × 238 mm / 12 × 9⅜ inExtent: 576 ppNumber of images: c.1600 colourWord count: c.200,000ISBN: 978 0 7148 7502 6

Phaidon Press LimitedRegents WharfAll Saints StreetLondon N1 9PA

Phaidon Press Inc.65 Bleecker Street, 8th FloorNew York NY 10012

© 2017 Phaidon Press Limitedphaidon.com

In the early first millennium bc an empire centred on the river Tigris in northern Iraq came to dominate the whole of the Middle East. Its name was Assyria, and it stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.

The Assyrian capitals of Nineveh, Kalhu and Dur-Sharrukin have revealed spectacular art and architecture and, more particularly, a unique combi-nation of the two. Assyrian stone reliefs are some of the most import-ant sources for understanding the empire, depicting scenes ranging

from court life and religious prac-tice to hunting and war. The designs were cut in low relief before being painted – traces of pigment still sur-vive on some. Their style developed over time, from the large, solid fig-ures of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (r.883–859 bc) to the delicate and naturalistic depictions in the palace of Ashurbanipal (r.669–627 bc).

The palaces were originally exca-vated in the mid-nineteenth century and were almost the first ancient Mesopotamian art to be seen by anyone for two thousand years. In

Europe their discovery caused a sensation: as an important bibli-cal city, the rediscovery of Nineveh attracted enormous attention from press and public. Today the reliefs are important for the light they shed on Assyrian life and views of the world. Their often minutely detailed depic-tion of clothing, for example, is of value because almost no textiles from ancient Mesopotamia have survived.

This relief stood at one end of what may have been a banqueting hall in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Kalhu (modern Nimrud). The king

sits enthroned, surrounded by human and divine attendants. All of the fig-ures are far larger than lifesize, and the workmanship and detail of dec-oration are exceptional, particularly in the depictions of embroidery at the edges of the figures’ robes. The cuneiform inscription, repeated throughout the palace, proclaims the king’s titles, ancestry, military successes and monumental build-ing works.

5 The Royal Art of Assyria

1. King Ashurnasirpal II and Attendants883–859 bc; gypsumc.2.4 x 6 m / 8 x 20 ft (entire relief)

From the time of King Hammurabi (1792–1750 bc) onwards, Babylon was southern Mesopotamia’s reli-gious and cultural centre. During the sixth century bc it became the larg-est city in the world, covering a site on the Euphrates some 85 kilometres (53 miles) south of modern Baghdad.

Following the sacking of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612 bc, Babylon became the capital of the former Assyrian Empire, ruling Mesopotamia, Syria and the Levant (Lebanon, coastal Syria and Israel) until the Persian

conquest in 539 bc. The dynasty is usually known as Neo-Babylonian. Its founder, Nabopolassar (r.625–605 bc), and his son Nebuchadnezzar II (r.605–562 bc) were responsible not only for building a Babylonian empire but also for reshaping the city itself as the grandest of imperial capitals. Nebuchadnezzar was responsible for much of this work, and his name is inscribed everywhere on bricks and buildings. He was Babylon’s most famous king, remembered in the Bible for his sack of Jerusalem and deportation of Judaeans to Babylon,

an act he would have regarded as a normal reaction to provincial dissent.

Chief among the great structures at Babylon was the ziggurat Etemenanki, ‘the Foundation Platform of Heaven and Earth’. This massive temple-tower, already ancient in Nebuchadnezzar’s time, achieved its grandest form under the Neo-Babylonian kings. Nebuchadnezzar also built and expanded palaces, improved Babylon’s defences and constructed a spectac-ular Processional Way into the city.

The Ishtar Gate (shown here as reconstructed) was the northern

entrance to Babylon. The walls of the Processional Way and the surface of the Ishtar Gate were covered in vivid blue glazed bricks, with lions, bulls and dragons moulded in relief. The techniques of relief-moulding and of glazing had been developed earlier, but their combined use to create monumental architecture was a Neo-Babylonian innovation. The relief is very high, the animals’ forms sculpted almost in the round.

6 Babylon

1. Ishtar Gate c.605–539 bc; glazed bricks H: 14 m / 47 ft

Room 6 Ancient Near EastRoom 5 Ancient Near East

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Room 136 Medieval Europe

The Book of KellsLate eighth century ad pigments on vellum 33 x 25.5 cm / 1 ft 1 in x 10 in

1. Symbols of the EvangelistsThis page (fol.129v) has the four symbols of the Evangelists, arranged in the angles of a cross. The symbols are drawn

from the prophecies in Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation. According to Saint Gregory, they were also seen to represent the stages of the life of Christ, who is represented as a man at his birth, a calf in his death, a lion in his resurrection and an eagle ascending to heaven.

2. Arrest of ChristThis full-page scene (fol.114r) contains complex symbolism. The outstretched arms and legs of Christ are symbolic of the Crucifixion that is to come, and the Eucharist is indicated by the vines or olives growing from vessels at Christ’s head; in some

literature Christ was equated with the olive.

3. Opening of St JohnThis carries the text of ‘In principio erat verbum’ (‘In the beginning was the Word’), and the point is emphasized by the figure holding a book at the top left, interpreted as the deacon,

responsible for church furnishings (fol.292r).

4. Saint MatthewSaint Matthew is here holding his Gospel, and is flanked by the symbols of calf (Saint Luke) and eagle (Saint John) that decorate his throne (fol.28v).

5. Opening of St MarkThe words are subordinate to the ornament on this page (fol.130r), which includes snakes with duck heads, a portrait and what appear to be griffins flanking a cross.

6. The Four Evangelist SymbolsThis is one of four such pages (fol.27v) in the Book of Kells. Here, the symbols have haloes. The arrangement is in accordance with the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible prepared principally by Saint Jerome in the late fourth century ad, which orders the

Gospels differently from later versions.

7. Canon TableThe Canon Tables were intended to provide a concordance of verses in the Gospels in which the events in the Life of Christ are alluded to. They took an architectural

form, for they were seen as a doorway into the Gospels. Here (fol.5r), the symbols of the Evangelists appear on the arch above.

8. The Genealogy of ChristThis page comes from the Gospel of Saint Luke (fol.200r). The small figure at the bottom

right is holding a small target-like shield and spear, and wears breeches cut off at the knee like those on the Cross of Muiredach at Monasterboice, County Louth, Ireland. This figure has a penis drawn parallel to the spear and has been seen as symbolic of procreation and death, the

spear being an anticipation of the Crucifixion.

9. Chi Rho PageThis is one of the most symbolically complex pages (fol.34r). The symbols of earth (cats, mice), air (butterfly, angels) and water (otter catching fish) appear as part of

the design, with the head of Christ forming the end of the loop of the Rho. The Chi Rho was the monogram of the first two letters of Christ’s name in Greek, and the page represents Christ as the fountain of life.

The Book of Kells, a codex composed of 680 pages, of which only two are not elaborated with vibrant colour, is the most sumptuous illuminated manuscript to survive from early medieval Europe.

The large volume was intended for display: the Latin text uses Insular majuscule (upper case) script. Although it is associated with the

monastery at Kells in County Meath, Ireland, it was probably taken there by monks from Iona, now in Scotland, in ad 807, when they were fleeing Viking raids. Its production probably does not long predate their flight, and the book may well have been made to mark the enshrinement of Saint Columba’s relics on Iona, between ad 752 and 767, through the patronage of Oengus mac Fergus (r. c. ad 732–761), a Pictish king

then ruling Dál Riada (where Iona was situated). This might explain some of the Pictish elements in the work’s ornament.

At least four separate artists have been distinguished in different parts of the diverse decoration of the Book of Kells. In keeping with many of the Gospel books produced at this period, there are portrait pages representing the Evangelists and, less usually, Christ

(2). The work also includes pages displaying the symbols of the four Evangelists (1, 4 and 6): lion (Saint Mark), calf (Saint Luke), eagle (Saint John) and Vitulus – a man or angel (Saint Matthew). There are also full-page illustrations of the Temptation of Christ, the Virgin and Child, and what has usually been interpreted as the Arrest of Christ (2). Prefacing each of the Gospels are cruciform ‘carpet

pages’ (pages covered with mostly geometric ornamentation, repeated to fill up the space). There are also decorative pages (pages with no text, or a few letters or words only), notably the Christi Autem; folio 34r (9) uses the Greek monogram of Christ as the core of a complex ornamental scheme. Finally, there are canon tables in which a concordance of events in the different Gospels is given (7).

Throughout the work there are figures of both humans and animals, decorative letters and embellish-ments. The ornament in the Book of Kells was not intended, however, simply to provide decoration. It contains very complex symbolism that was meant to lead the reader to consider hidden meanings in the Gospels. The pages have been laid out with compasses and ruler, and are in

accordance with celestial geometry, using number symbolism in intricate ways. The depiction of animals also accords with ideas about the ‘natures’ of different beasts, which conveyed important lessons to the faithful.

The sources that lie behind the ornament in the Book of Kells are diverse, ranging from the tradi-tional types of decoration derived from Roman Britain, stylized animal

ornament that owes something to Anglo-Saxon England, to more exotic models for figural work, which may in some instances have originated in the eastern Mediterranean. The current rebinding of the manuscript in four volumes took place in 1953.

136 Exhibition: The Book of Kells

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Room 128 Islamic Art

1. The Court of Gayumars1525–35 Ink, colour and gold on paper 34.2 x 23.1 cm / 1 ft 1½ in x 9 in This painting comes from the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp. It depicts the mythical Gayumars, first king of Iran, under whose idyllic reign mankind learned to prepare food and wear animal skins. In an image that is considered a zenith of Persian painting, the king sits cross-legged, gazing down at his son

Siyamak, who was destined to die the following year. The king is seated at the top of a descending circle of courtiers and attendants who inhabit a landscape filled with fantastic trees and craggy rocks. Human and non-human forms appear to grow out of the landscape.

2. Riza ‘AbbasiTwo Lovers, 1630; tempera and gilt paint on paper 18.1 x 11.9 cm / 7 x 4¾ in

Riza ‘Abbasi (c.1565–1635), an artist at the court of Shah ‘Abbas, transformed Persian painting, developing an innovative calligraphic drawing technique and experimenting with new colours. In this work the lovers are formed of intertwined volumes, wrapped in a fine web of curving lines. The green and blue of his robe and turban add colour to an otherwise monochromatic palette, in which the startlingly

pale hue of skin is reflected in the carafe of wine at the woman’s feet and the spray of blossom above her head.

3. Habib AllahStallion, late 16th century Ink, opaque colour and gold on paper 20.3 x 30.1 cm / 7¾ x 11¾ in The court artist Habib Allah worked on individual paintings and illustrated books. This study of a stallion combines natural

detail with stylized arabesque patterns, used to accentuate the saddle. Habib Allah was part of the court atelier of Shah ‘Abbas in Isfahan, but this was probably painted in Mashhad.

4. Maqsud of KashanArdabil Carpet, 1539–40 Wool pile on silkL: 10.51 m / 34 ft 6 in The Ardabil carpet is famous for its size and glorious decorative pattern. Scholars generally

agree that this was one of two carpets designed for Shah Tahmasp’s Jannat Sara in Ardabil. The rug has a central medallion (shamsa) resembling a sunburst. Hanging lamps descend from two sides of this medallion, and an inscription from the Persian poet Hafiz reads, ‘I have no refuge in the world other than thy threshold; My head has no resting place other than this doorway.’

The Safavid dynasty (1501–1732) was a Persianate society rich with cul-tural resources, in which the shahs exerted control over the arts, in par-ticular manuscript production. In the aesthetic as well as the political sphere, Safavid greatness was based on a balance between the fervour and energy of their native nomadic Turco-Mongol traditions and the refinements of a long-established Persian court administration. With the help of Turkish groups known as Qizilbash, or ‘red heads’ – fanatically

zealous tribes loyal to the twelve Shi‘ite imams – Isma’il (r. 1501–24), the first Safavid shah (a Persian title for the monarch), was able to conquer most of Iran. Many of the finest examples of Safavid art were produced under his son, Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524–76), including the Jannat Sara enclosure in Ardabil, built as part of the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din. The building was furnished with two of the most glorious carpets in the Islamic world (4). The arts of the book were also highly developed by the Safavids. Shah Tahmasp brought the Persian artist Bihzad (Room 130/1)

to his kitabkhana (atelier) in Tabriz. This shah’s royal Shahnama (1) well displays the virtuosity and creativity of his court artists.

A new phase in Safavid power was marked by the reign of Shah ‘Abbas I (1588–1629), who came to the throne determined to limit the power of the Qizilbash and strengthen the role of the shah. After moving the capital from Ardabil to Isfahan, he constructed a new maidan or square, eight hectares (20 acres) in extent. Surrounded by two mosques, a palace and two-storey arcades of shops, the Isfahan maidan

is a statement of Shah ‘Abbas’s centralizing commercial policies. New types of silk carpets made during his reign represent some of the greatest achievements of Safavid textile art, and he brought a number of well-known artists and calligraphers to his new capital to produce ever more outstanding books and illuminations. Riza ‘Abbasi (2) and Habib Allah (3) worked with other court artists in the production of illustrated manuscripts, and individually to produce single- page works.

128 The Safavids of Persia

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Room 277 Neoclassicism Room 278 Neoclassicism

1. Trajan’s Columnc.1748-61; etching 56 x 80.5 cm / 22 x 31¾ in The plates of the Vedute di Roma (‘Views of Rome’, c.1748–78) were printed and sold as individual sheets, and published together in ever larger sets as Piranesi’s output increased. This view, with its detailed depiction of

the sculptural decoration of Trajan’s column, combines archaeological and topographical documentation, including a superb rendering of the church of SS Nome di Maria.

2. Temple of Giove Tonante (Jove the Thunderer)c.1748-61; etching 15.4 x 28.7 cm / 6 x 11¼ in

Published in Vedute di Roma, this view of the ruined temple of the emperor Vespasian documents the ground level in the eighteenth century and the mixture of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance buildings. At first glance a picturesque scene, the figures at bottom are clothed in rags.

3. View of the Pantheon of Agrippac.1748-61; etching; 47.4 x 69.6 cm / 1 ft 6½ in x 2 ft 3½ inThe Pantheon is uniquely well preserved because it was converted to the church of Santa Maria and the Martyrs in the seventh century ad. This plate, from the Vedute di Roma, features Piranesi’s detailed

labelling of the elements of the ancient temple, including some dimensions. Tiny figures climb the domed roof.

4. Frontispiece to Prima Parte di Architettura e Prospettive1743; etching; 35.5 x 25 cm / 1 ft 2 in x 9¾ in The plates in this earliest of Piranesi’s publications depict

mostly antique ruins or architectural fantasies influenced by theatre design. The frontispiece, here shown in its first state, reads: Part One of Architecture and Perspectives: Imagined and Etched by Gio. Batt.a Piranesi, Venetian Architect: dedicated to Nicola Giobbe.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi – architect, draughtsman, designer, archaeolo-gist, antiquities restorer, polemicist – was first an engraver of topographical views. His imaginative interpretations of ancient Rome are valuable docu-mentary evidence for the appear-ance of the eighteenth-century city.

Piranesi (1720–78) was born near Mestre, opposite Venice. He trained as an architect and stage designer before travelling to Rome in 1740, where he studied engraving and began to produce souvenir views of the city.

His first independent publication was the Prima parte di architetture e prospettive (4), comprising twelve etched plates the elements of which define his work: eccentric compo-sitions of Classical motifs, diagonal perspectives, a superhuman scale and accomplished lighting effects.

Piranesi returned to Venice in 1744 before moving permanently to Rome the next year. The influence of the fantasy landscapes of Tiepolo (capricci; see Room 270) can be seen in his Grotteschi (‘Grotesques’, c.1747) and the Invenzioni capric di carceri

(‘Imaginary Prisons’, 1749–50). During the 1750s he published views of Rome and architectural studies of ancient remains, becoming the city’s leading producer of vedute. Archaeology was important to him, and his four-volume Le antichità romane (‘Roman Antiquities’, 1756) earned him an international reputation. He became involved in the scholarly controversy over the relative merits of Greek and Roman architecture as a defender of Roman design, championing its crea-tive originality and influencing such architects as Robert Adam (Room 274).

Piranesi had an inventive imagina-tion, but he never allowed his topo-graphical or archaeological works to drift into the picturesque. His views are neither bucolic nor idyllic, but rooted in the reality of contemporary urban life and an understanding of ancient structures. His etching technique combined the subtleties of Rococo fantasy with the linearity and rich tones of Classicism. He was known for his lack of preparatory drawings and his ability to improvise on the plate; his approach was essentially painterly, and has been compared to that of Rembrandt.

277 Giovanni Battista Piranesi

1. Antonio CanovaThe Three Graces, 1813–16 Marble; H: 1.82 m / 5 ft 11¾ inCanova (1757–1822) represents here the daughters of Zeus: Euphrosyne (Mirth), Aglaia (Elegance) and Thalia (Youth and Beauty). They embrace next to a sacrificial altar, their nudity, touching heads and enfolding hands deliberately erotic.

2. Jean-Claude Thomas Chambellan Duplessis and Jean-Jacques LagrenéeVase à Bandeau Duplessis, c.1780; porcelain with gilt bronze; H: 45 cm / 1 ft 5 in Vases à bandeau Duplessis were designed around 1780 by Duplessis (1730–83), a bronzemaker for the Sèvres Manufacture. The antique scene

that decorates this vase, one of sacrifice and a warrior’s procession, was probably painted by Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (1739–1821), a history painter and engraver who also worked for Sèvres.

3. Digby Scott, John Flaxman and othersTrafalgar Vase, 1805-06; silver

H: 43 cm / 1 ft 5 in This vase was used to reward the British officers who served under Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. It is inspired by a Greek urn dating to 320 bc. On one side Herakles slays the serpent Hydra, and on the other (shown here) is Britannia as Athena. The lion on the lid symbolizes England.

Scott (1763–1816) and Benjamin Smith (1764–1823) made the vase, designed by Flaxman (1755–1826) and John Shaw (1776–1832).

4. Josiah WedgwoodApotheosis of Homer Vase, 1786; jasperware H: 46.4 cm / 1 ft 6¼ in Despite its eighteenth-century

interpretation as the deification of Homer, it is now agreed that the scene on this vase shows a kithara player, probably the winner of a musical contest, on a platform watched by Victory, a judge and onlookers. The Medusa heads at the base of the handles were taken by Flaxman from an engraving of an antique sandal.

Neoclassicism transformed sculpture and design in the same way that it changed painting and architecture. The excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii in the mid-eighteenth cen-tury uncovered a vast range of arte-facts, and vases in particular became the definitive symbol of the ancient world, inspiring the new style.

Like other Neoclassical artists, makers of decorative arts eschewed direct imitation in favour of new creations inspired by actual or idealized ancient remains. Vases could be commemor-

ative, like the Trafalgar Vase (3), or celebrate idealism, like the Apotheosis of Homer Vase (4), or simply represent scenes from antiquity.

In 1768 the English ceramic manu-facturer Josiah Wedgwood (1730–95) established a pottery called Etruria, which produced ornamental pieces in the Neoclassical style – a witness to the demand for such vases. In 1775 Wedgwood perfected a kind of hard, fine-grained, slightly translucent stoneware that he called jasperware, after jasper, a gemstone favoured in antiquity for seals and vases. It was

immensely successful, and soon Wedgwood was employing artists such as George Stubbs and John Flaxman to design bas-reliefs for his vases. Flaxman was the finest British sculptor of his day and enjoyed international acclaim for his spare interpretations of Homer, Aeschylus and Dante.

Wedgwood’s ceramics influenced designers across Europe, including those of the Sèvres factory in France. The Sèvres Manufacture was estab-lished in 1738 and bought by Louis XV (r. 1715–74) at the urging of his mistress Madame de Pompadour in 1759. Until

the Revolution the vases produced there were extremely varied, but this changed when private enterprises in Limoges and Paris began to produce hard-paste porcelain, and most of the patrons of the Sèvres factory moved their custom. Under Napoleon, a new style of vase appeared – simpler, more egg-shaped, decorated with paintings in the manner of cameos.

The Italian Antonio Canova was the most famous Neoclassical sculptor. His most famous work, The Three Graces (1), was described by contemporaries as ‘more beautiful than Beauty itself’.

278 Decorative Arts and Sculpture

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Room 394 Art Since the Mid-20th CenturyRoom 393 Art Since the Mid-20th Century

1. Electric Chair1963; screenprint and acrylic on canvas; 56 x 71 cm / 1 ft 10 in x 2 ft 4 in One of a range of works with sombre themes that Warhol called the Death and Disaster series, this piece focuses on capital punishment. The photograph shows an electric

chair in New York state’s Sing Sing prison, where the device was retired in 1963.

2. Four Mona Lisas1963; silkscreen ink and polymer paint on canvas; 1.12 x 0.74 m / 3 ft 8 in x 2 ft 5 in Famous paintings by Old Masters were part of the

cultural imagery used by Warhol. That earlier artists, such as Duchamp in 1919, had also used Leonardo’s painting as a point of departure was an added attraction, and grounds for artistic dialogue about appropriation and the cultural milieu.

3. Gold Marilyn Monroe 1962; silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas; 2.11 x 1.45 m / 6 ft 11¼ in x 4 ft 9 in Warhol used a publicity still from Monroe’s 1953 film Niagara for an image he would explore in numerous iterations. Here, it is surrounded by a gold

field redolent of a Byzantine icon.

4. Campbell’s Soup Cans1962; synthetic polymer paint on canvas; 51 x 41 cm / 1 ft 8 in x 1 ft 4 in (each canvas) Andy Warhol claimed as subject matter the ‘harsh impersonal products and brash materialistic

objects on which America is built today’. The thirty-two canvases that comprise this work reference the thirty-two varieties of Campbell’s soup then being manufactured. He displayed the canvases in his first one-man show in a Los Angeles gallery, aligning them in a single strip along the walls.

1. Dan FlavinThe Nominal Three (To William of Ockham), 1963; daylight fluorescent light H: 1.83 m / 6 ft The title of this work by Dan Flavin (1933–96) is a paean to the fourteenth-century philosopher William of Ockham, whose principle of

simplification, ‘Ockham’s Razor’ – the simplest of any competing ideas is preferred – carries broad meaning for Minimalists.

2. Carl AndreEquivalent V, 1966; firebricksL: 1.37 m / 4 ft 6 in Using standard, pre-existing units, Andre (b.1935) arranged

eight different permutations of 120 bricks, based on numerical sequencing. The configuration exhibited here comprises five rows of twelve bricks, in two layers. All the permutations of 120 bricks occupy the same amount of space in cubic centimetres, and therefore have visual equivalence.

3. Donald JuddUntitled, 1965 galvanized iron and lacquerL: 2.03 m / 6 ft 8 in From 1964 onwards Judd created ‘progressions’ based on mathematical formulae. Here, lacquered in ‘Harley Davidson Hi-Fi Red’, the pieces of galvanized iron increase

while the spaces between decrease, making this a construction that is impossible to continue forever.

4. Donald Judd Untitled, 1969; copper; L (each unit): 1.02 m / 3 ft 4 in There is an internal logic to both solid and void in this work,

and the arrangement of the units in the stack includes the spaces between each vertically aligned element. By repeating ‘one thing after another’, Judd (1928–94) avoided ‘relational’ compositional harmony and was able to create singular works that would be perceived as whole entities.

Resolutely abstract, reduced to its essentials, minimalist art is con-crete and insistently real: things in the world, not illusions of the world.

To achieve this, artists developed strategies about form and material based on logic and systemic planning. Minimalists believed strongly in an object’s power to activate its environ-ment, and in the viewer’s engagement with the art as a crucial element of that activation. To create an art without metaphorical or emotional references, artists turned primarily to sculpture,

favouring strict geometrical form. Repudiating the creator’s touch and other personal hallmarks, they grav-itated to non-traditional materials and industrial production methods. Donald Judd (3, 4) found industrial fabricators who could produce works to his specifications, creating the pristine surfaces his vision required. Dan Flavin’s surprisingly evocative art (1) comprises commercial fluorescent light bulbs of standard size.

Judd and artists like him were committed to making singular works in which all ‘compositional effects’

were eliminated. Disavowing tradi-tional creative strategies, many artists conceived sculptural form according to predetermined systems or math-ematical formulae, as the basis for single works or serially. Principles of ordering discrete perfabricated units provided both method and substance, and informed the work of Judd and Carl Andre (2).

Formal and intellectual unity – the assertion of a work’s material quality – required a new approach to its instal-lation as well as its creation. Unlike a figural sculpture on which the viewer

focuses to the exclusion of the room or niche in which it stands, minimalist art becomes one with its space, which in turn becomes part of the art. Andre’s floor-bound art not only eliminates traditional sculpture’s plinth, but the viewer may even walk on it. Yet mini-malist sculpture is far from vacant or inert. This pristine, geometrical art may not be conventionally expressive, but it places the viewer in an extraordinarily active relationship with it.

394 Minimalism‘I want to be a machine’, said Andy Warhol. So he painted the interior of his studio silver, covered it with alu-minium foil and called it The Factory. He surrounded himself with per-formers, socialites, followers and delinquents and im passively allowed the scene around him to unfold. He created ‘no comment’ art, in which the icons, commodities and events of the day were his subject matter, and his methods largely mechanical. In a stance purposefully resistant to self-revelation, moralizing or emotion-

alism, Warhol (1928–87) nevertheless mirrored the images of contemporary mass culture. Simultaneously banal and shocking, vapid and disturbing, obscuring and disclosing, his imagery of modern America records a culture driven by consumerism and obsession with celebrity. It also documents pivotal events and some of the most emotionally charged, raw flashpoints of the period: war, assassination, race relations, capital punishment and nuclear holocaust. Newspapers, magazines and pulp tabloids are the conduit for these obsessions,

furnishing images of glamour as well violence and disaster. Warhol said: ‘I’m not a social critic. I just paint those objects I know best. I’m not trying to criticize the US in any way, not trying to show up any ugliness at all.’

Warhol started as a commercial illustrator and understood the power of advertising and mass media. By 1961 he was painting images based on comic strips, soft-drink bottles and other icons of everyday American life, and by 1962 he had embraced mechanical means of production, though he also continued to paint by hand. Rubber

stamps, stencils, hand-cut silkscreen and ultimately photomechanical silkscreen were his means, and these techniques meshed perfectly with the artist’s predilections for repetition and flat, pristine surfaces. An ideal pairing of style and mode, Warhol’s mechanical means of production contributed to his desire for distancing and detach-ment, subverting expectations for originality and invention in art: ‘If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and my films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it.’

393 Andy Warhol

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Room 452 Art Since the Mid-20th Century

1–4. The Four Seasons1993–94; synthetic polymer paint, oil, house paint, pencil and crayon on four canvases

1. Spring: 3.12 x 1.9 m / 10 ft 3 in x 6 ft 3 in 2. Summer: 3.1 x 2.01 m / 10 ft 3¾ in x 6 ft 7 in

3. Autumn: 3.14 x 1.9 m / 10 ft 3½ in x 6 ft 3 in4. Winter: 3.13 x 1.9 m / 10 ft 3¼ in x 6 ft 3 in

‘For myself the past is the source (for all art is vitally contemporary). I’m drawn to the primitive, the ritual and fetish elements, to the symmet-rical plastic order (peculiarly basic to both primitive and classic concepts).’

Thus does Cy Twombly (1928–2011)place his paintings within the art of the past 30,000 years, with humans more invested than ever in this prim-itive enterprise of grinding stones to make pigments in order ritually to mark our symbolic forms on perma-nent surfaces.

These paintings comprise one of two cycles that Twombly created on the theme of the four seasons. They begin with the vitality of Spring (1), where a red boat comes to land on the shore at the bottom of the com-position, flanked by exuberant flow-er-like forms bursting with colour. The warm, rich shades of Summer (2) are nearly eclipsed by the luminosity of the white paint, suggesting the bril-liant white light of the Mediterranean sun and the heat and stillness of midday. Autumn (3) is turbulent, cir-cling forms like falling leaves become

anxious, and dark, bold colours contrast with bright reds. Finally, Winter (4) is a sombre panel in which the boat, now black, appears smaller and smaller as it ascends into the distance.

Twombly pencilled on the canvases the names of the seasons and excerpts from poems. The poem for winter, which begins ‘But in this sleep a dream into a nightmare’, reinforces the meta-phor of winter as the final rest. Some words are illegible or covered by paint, suggesting that even these memorials will one day pass away.

In The Four Seasons can be seen the continuation of many of the ideas explored elsewhere in this museum. Twombly’s scribbled texts and gestures recall the Surrealists’ embrace of childlike wonder (Room 356). Looking further back, his work is heir to the loose mark-making and independent spirit of nineteenth-cen-tury Romanticism (Rooms 285–293), and his theme – a cycle of the seasons – has traditions in Renaissance and Baroque art, in works by Nicolas Poussin, Pieter Bruegel the Elder or the Limbourg brothers (see Room 193).

452 Cy Twombly: The Four SeasonsMoreover, Twombly’s work bears

witness to more than just the tradi-tions of modern Europe. In Spring (1) and Winter (4), red and black arcs suggest boats floating across the canvases. This motif recalls ancient understanding, such as the Egyptian worship of the life-giving Nile, and myths about the afterlife, as in the ancient Greek interpretation of death as a crossing of the River Styx.

Twombly’s interest in the seasons and the passage of time resonates with an even older period, before history had yet to be written. Man’s

earliest rituals were organized around the cycles of the cosmos, the seasons and the natural rhythms of animal and human life. From the sighting of winter and summer solstices at Stonehenge and other ancient astro-nomical monuments, to the earliest paintings on the walls of caves such as Lascaux and Chauvet (Rooms 1 and 2), art has played a fundamental role in our comprehension of ourselves and the world around us. Twombly’s canvases are witness to the cycle of life and death that has occupied human consciousness for millennia.

One aim of any museum is to preserve the traces of our human history, but a museum does not simply entomb artworks. As viewers, we bring with us our own histories, and so we add new meaning to the art of the past as it, in turn, reaches into the future. Returning now to the images at Lascaux after having viewed Twombly’s Four Seasons, do we not see them in a new way? The artists painting those first contours on cave walls could not possibly have imagined us the way we imagine them, and our values would be unintelligible

within their worldview; but their art has informed ours, just as its signif-icance for us has been informed by the art of our time. By making the audience an active participant in their works, today’s artists have only made explicit what has always been the case: we, the viewers, complete an artwork when we engage with it. As we encounter a painting or sculpture or watch a performance or video it comes alive in new ways; far from having been completed when the artist added his or her signature, the work is just now beginning.

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