Day 53 - Rock crystal beads


June 8, 2018

This enormous study gallery (171), which has 60 display cases, is a testament to the size and richness of the Met's classical collection. It has everything from Neolithic terracottas to Greek vases to Etruscan bronze statuettes to Roman glass to carved gems from many different cultures, and much, much more. If I were curator, I would have a hard time deciding what to show in the main galleries and what to relegate to this study gallery, since so many of the gallery's holdings are so fine. The objects aren't labeled; instead, there are computerized displays that allow you to search relatively easily for specific items, and I do a lot of scurrying between the cases and the displays to learn more about particular objects. While it would be nice to have descriptions inside or beside the cases, I realize this is impractical, and the museum has done a very nice job of providing some information on each of what are literally thousands of objects.

 Today's object is a set of glass and rock crystal beads (a necklace? a headband?), perhaps 14 inches long or so when fully extended, from the 1st century and found in the eastern Mediterranean. The round glass beads, which have grounds of red, gold, green, and white, are separated from each other by faceted beads of rock crystal. But what's remarkable is that almost all the colored beads, which appear to be only about 3/4" in diameter,  are themselves decorated  (painted?) with  tiny heads and an occasional floral motif, often set against a black band to make them "pop."  The whole thing is delicate and lively and just  plain fun. I'd love to wear it.

 But the title of the display case is "Amulets and Implements." I realize that the display case titles aren't completely adequate. (One case, for example, contains vases with images of horses and is labeled as such, but many other vases not in that case also show horses.) Still.... This set of beads clearly isn't an implement, but did it have some magical or ritual, rosary-like purpose? Or was it simply an object for the adornment of some lucky woman?

Comments

  1. Jennie TonicJune 29, 2018 at 7:02 PM

    Love this piece, thank you. Iy reminds me of ancient Peruvian textiles.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 349 - Charles Ray horse

Image
June 19, 2923  Gallery 917 holds the Philip Guston painting I wrote about earlier (day 341).  Gallery 918 is home to just one work: a huge (perhaps   16 feet long and   10 feet high) granite bas-relief by a contemporary American sculptor, Charles Ray, who was born in 1953. The bas-relief, sculpted in 2019, is entitled “Two Horses,” which are seen in full-body profile. But you have to look closely to see the second horse, whose head and neck are in much lower relief than the horse in the foreground, and whose torso is almost completely obscured. The main giveaway that more than one horse is depicted are the six hooves at the bottom of the image. The striations in the granite at the bottom of the relief suggest that the horses are fording a stream, with water  covering their lower legs. The sculptor has done a remarkable job of capturing the front horse’s bony legs, the musculature of its shoulder, the sinews of its neck, the feathery texture of its mane.   The caption notes that horses
Read more

Day 360 - The Wentworth room

Image
 May 18, 2024 When I enter this room (gallery 711), which was taken from a house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that was built in 1695-1700 for John Wentworth and his wife, I'm immediately struck by how much grander it seems than the Ipswich room, in spirit if not in scale. (The Wentworth room appears to me to measure about 35 feet long and 20 feet wide.)  For one thing, the fireplace, set against the long wall, is framed by beautiful dark wood paneling. (Such paneling may have lined the other walls as well, but if so, it has disappeared.) The single placard presents only very basic information about the room, but it includes  a QR code, which I dutifully scan, and to my surprise, once I've joined the Met's wifi, the website opens and contains much more detail.   I have to remind myself that, as with other period rooms, the furnishings in this room didn't come from the Wentworth home. Instead, they reflect  Met curators' knowledge about furniture styles and the curato
Read more

Day 356 - Medieval sculpture

Image
 May 7, 2024 Gallery 520 is at the area behind the large choir screen in the Medieval Art galleries. (At Christmas, the front of that screen is the site of the "angel tree" and the Neapolitan creche, where I make an annual pilgrimage; the figures of peasants tending their flocks and coming to adore the Christ child never fail  to move me.)  The gallery contains tapesetries, a large coffer, and a 14th-century Italian column head showing Saint Veronica holding up her veil on which a rather ugly head of Christ appears. A display case holds a parchment from 1466-67, during the War of the Roses, that charts the genealogy of the kings of England.  Edward IV's claim to the throne is substantiated by the inclusion among his forebears of King David, Alexander the Great, King Arthur, and William the Conqueror.   Most of the gallery, however, is devoted to sculpture.  Dating from about 1325 to 1550, the statuary comes from all over Western Europe (France, Germany, the Low Countries,
Read more