Day 127 - Painted comb
February 18, 2019
My jaw drops when I enter gallery 307, the last of the Medieval galleries, because the first thing I see is so unexpected: a large display case of ceramics, some simply painted, others more ornate, including some spectacular lusterware. Are they Spanish, I wonder? Or Italian? Both, the caption tells me.
The gallery is largely given over to objects made between 1300 and 1600 that are utilitaian but often elaborately decorated, including glass beakers, ivory chessmen, earthenware jugs, a wrought iron pothook and andiron, and bone boxes meant to contain game pieces.There's also a humorous15th century large brass plate from the Netherlands that depicts a wife straddling her kneeling husband and beating his bare butt. It's hard to guess whether some of the objects -- copper gilt spurs, for instance, and a pair of serving knives inlaid with mother-of-pear-- were actually used much or were just for show. But impress they must have.
The gallery is largely given over to objects made between 1300 and 1600 that are utilitaian but often elaborately decorated, including glass beakers, ivory chessmen, earthenware jugs, a wrought iron pothook and andiron, and bone boxes meant to contain game pieces.There's also a humorous15th century large brass plate from the Netherlands that depicts a wife straddling her kneeling husband and beating his bare butt. It's hard to guess whether some of the objects -- copper gilt spurs, for instance, and a pair of serving knives inlaid with mother-of-pear-- were actually used much or were just for show. But impress they must have.
Today's object is on that I can imagine having been used: a two-sided comb, perhaps 6 inches long and 4 inches wide, made of bone in France or Italy during the 16th century and given to the museum by J. Pierpont Morgan. The comb's upper teeth are relatively thick and widely spaced and remind me of the combs I use on my own hair. The lower teeth, by contrast, are thin and closely spaced; there might be a hundred of them. In the central register separating the rows of teeth, four lively animals --a rabbit, a stag, and two others that are less immediately identifiable but might be a lion aand a dog -- are shown in profile, separated by stems of flowers. In the middle is a heart-shaped form -- a piece of fruit, perhaps, or maybe an actual heart, although it looks kind of erotic to me.
A museum visitor standing beside me tells her daughter that when the comb was made, people didn't wash their hair as often as we do now, so combs were important for getting out snarls. Would this comb have been used by a man or a woman, I wonder? If the latter, did she actually use it to comb her hair, or did it serve as an ornament in a chignon? Was she a blonde, a brunette, or a redhead?
A museum visitor standing beside me tells her daughter that when the comb was made, people didn't wash their hair as often as we do now, so combs were important for getting out snarls. Would this comb have been used by a man or a woman, I wonder? If the latter, did she actually use it to comb her hair, or did it serve as an ornament in a chignon? Was she a blonde, a brunette, or a redhead?
Comments
Post a Comment