SKY VIEWS

One of the disadvantages of living in the city is that it's more difficult to see the stars, sunsets, and the like.  Over the years, I've had the opportunity to be in a few places where observing the sky was the greatest of blessings.  Here are a few images to help you envision what God surrounds you with every day:

This strange reflection in the cloud is caused by ice crystals.  In the back, right portion of this picture, you can see the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant between Granbury and Glen Rose, Texas.  No, the glow is not coming from the plant.

A typical TEXAS sunset between Granbury and Glen Rose.

What a clear evening with the first star beginning to show itself.

The sun begins to set around Farmington, New Mexico, which is in the Four Corners area.

This was a huge, anvil-shaped cloud over north TEXAS.

This is a small section of some very dangerous looking storm clouds.

                                                             Circular cloud motion overhead.

    May 20, 2013, Fort Worth, Texas (IH 20 & Granbury Road)

Thunderhead forming over Granbury, Texas.

Sunset behind Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Granbury, Texas.

Large groups of Canadian Geese flying between Granbury and Glen Rose, Texas.

Sunset from my front porch between Glen Rose & Granbury, Texas.

West Texas blows through the Glen Rose/ Granbury, Texas area in early afternoon.

Sunset between Granbury and Glen Rose, Texas.

Glimpses of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas

STROLLING THROUGH THE KIMBELL

I love to stroll through museums, take pictures when permitted, and enjoy them whenever I want to on my computer at home.  I know I could just look at the museum's website to view the collection, but when I view the actual object through the lens of my camera, I focus more intently on what I'm seeing.  Some of the pictures turned out fairly well, so I think I'll occasionally share a few simply for your enjoyment.  I'm not going to post all of the information on the information plaques because I want you to try to go to the museum and see the objects in person for they are real treasures.  I hope you enjoy the journey through art and history:

THE PROPER WAY TO ENTER THE KIMBELL:
(prior to 2013)

We found out that the proper way to enter the museum is not through the back door by the "Woman Addressing the Public" statue, but to walk from that point to the left side of the museum.  This takes you on a journey through the rustling leaves of trees, the variety of nature's colors and textures, the sounds of running water, a couple of outdoor sculptures, then into the front entrance after going through a final grove of trees to finish the calming of your spirit so that you can enter the museum at peace and ready to experience all the treasures within.  Below is a sequence of pictures showing the most enjoyable way to enter the museum:

# 1 - Back entrance.  As you go left  by the museum wall...

# 2 -  Enter a tree grove

       

# 3 - As you walk, look right and see...

# 4 -  nature's beauty & texture

                           

# 5 - SW corner, now walking north to main door.

# 6 - See sculptures on the way...

                               

* 8 -  The Running Flower
(La Fleur qui marche)
by Fernand Leger, French, 1881 - 1955
1952 - Ceramic, from the edition of three.
The Burnett Foundation, Fort Worth

# 7 - Figure in a Shelter

                                                 

# 9 - The calming effect of water as you approach.,,

# 10 - the final grove of trees and main entrance.

                                   

# 11 - You stand, amazed at the architecture...

# 12 

                               

# 13 - and anticipate the mysteries that lie beyond the final grove.

# 14 - Main entrance looking toward courtyard.

# 15 - Courtyard on upper level (Cafe inside to the right).

# 16 - Courtyard from inside main hall of museum.

# 18 - Cafe (view is N to S)

# 17 - Cafe Entrance (view is SW to NE)

# 19 - Main Hall (view is N to S). Gift Shop on left.

               

# 20 - Bookstore on upper level; staircase to lower level.

         

# 21 - Lower level of museum
Back entrance door shown on left.

TREASURES OF THE KIMBELL:

Africa, southwestern Nigeria, Ife culture
Head, possibly a king

12th - 14th century
Terra-cotta with residue of red pigment and traces of mica.

This piece was acquired in 1994.

Fra Angelico (Fra Giovanni Da Fiesole)

Italian, c. 1305/ 1400 - 1455

The Apostle Saint James the Greater 

Freeing the Magician Hermogenes

c. 1429 - 30

Tempera and gold on panel

Acquired in 1986

The subject of the picture is taken from the 13th century Golden Legend, which relates how Saint James the Greater ordered the Christian convert Philetus to free the repentant magician Hermogenes, who had been bound by the very devils he sent to vanquish Saint James.  A haloed Saint James taps Philetus with his staff, empowering him to unloose the cords of Hermogenes, metaphorically absolving his sins.

South Karnak, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep II, c. 1427 - 1400 B.C., and 19th Dynasty reign of Ramesses II, c. 1279 - 1213 B.C.

Portrait Statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep II

c. 1400 B.C., re-carved for Ramesses II (the Great), c. 1250 B.C.

Rose granite

Acquired in 1983

This regal figure of Amenhotep II shows him holding the traditional insignia of kingship against his chest - the scepter in the form of a crook in his left hand and the flail or whip in his right.  He wears Upper (i.e., Southern) Egypt's distinctive crown, embellished by the uraeus cryptogram, or royal cobra, and a braod collar composed of five bands.  His body is enveloped in the jubilee robe - worn by kings at festivals, particularly the Sed - Festival - in which he was physically and spiritually rejuvenated.  Usually the Sed festival was observed after a reign of 30 years.  Since most Pharaohs never reached their 30th year, however, some celebrated it prematurely, including Amenhotep II.  This sculpture was originally part of a larger figure seated on a throne, which was excavated in 1896 at the Temple of Mut at South Karnak.  Fragments of the throne that are now lost bore inscriptions of Ramesses II (the Great), who lived more than a century after Amenhotep II.  Ramesses usurped this and many other sculptures of his predecessors and converted them into images of himself.  In this case, Amenhotep's eyebrows were erased and his eyes, nose, and mouth slightly reshaped to make them resemble those of Ramesses.  

Roman, after Skopas (Greek, c. 370 - 330 BC)

Head of Meleager

50 BC - AD 100

Marble

Acquired in 1967

This head is from a Roman copy of a full-length statue by the famed 4th century BC Greek sculptor Skopas.  It showed the mythological hero Meleager with a hunting dog and the head of the Kalydonian boar.  According to Homer, the Kalydonian boar was sent by Artemis to ravage the countryside after Oeneus, king of Kalydon and Meleager's father, failed to sacrifice to the goddess.  Meleager then led the hunt to kill the boar, but in its aftermath, quarried with his mother's two brothers and killed them.  Learning of this, his mother, Althaea, set in motion the dire prophecy that the Fates had decreed soon after Meleagers birth - that he would die when a brand, then on the fire, had burned out.  Althaea now took out the brand, which she had hidden for years in a chest, and brought about her son's death.  4rh century artists favored narratives such as this, which humanized the gods and involved mythic heroes in the suffering and imperfections of man.

Southwestern French or northern Spanish (?)

The Barnabas Altarpiece

c. 1275 - 1350

Tempera, oil, and gold on panel

Acquired in 1969

The origin and original function of this piece are unknown.  It's named after the inscriptions on the lower border.  This piece consists of three separate panels and is a fragment of a once - larger work.  The central panel is dominated by the enthroned Virgin as Queen of Heaven, nursing the infant Christ child.  The nursing Virgin, an image of Mary's mercy and intercession on behalf of humankind, is flanked by Saints Peter and Paul, founders of the Church, bearing their traditional attributes, the keys and sword of martyrdom.  The child and saints also clasp holy books - the Word of God made tangible.

Caravaggio, (Michelangelo Merisi),

Italian, 1571 - 1610

The Cardsharps

c. 1594

oil on canvas

Acquired in 1987

Apprenticed in Milan in 1584, Caravaggio came to Rome in the early 1590s.  This is where  influential Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte purchased the painting and where Caravaggio was introduced  to the elite Roman ecclesiastical society who gave him his first opportunity to work on a large scale and in a public forum.  In this painting, the players are engaged in a game of primero, a forerunner of poker.  Engrossed in his cards at left is the dupe, unaware that the older cardsharp signals his accomplice with a raised, gloved hand (the fingertips exposed, better to feel the marked cards).  At right, the young cheat looks expectantly toward the boy and reaches behind his back to pull a hidden card from his breeches.  The Cardsharps spawned countless paintings on related themes throughout Europe.  The Cardsharps was stamped on the back with the seal of Cardinal del Monte and inventoried among his possessions after his death in 1627.  It's location had been unknown for some 90 years when it was rediscovered in 1987 in an European private collection.

The Torment of Saint Anthony by Michelangelo Buonarroti

c. 1487 - 1488

Tempera and oil on panel

This is Michelangelo's first known painting, believed to be painted when he was 12-13 years old.  This is a painted copy of the engraving "Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons" by the 15th century German Master Martin Schongauer.  It shows how the Egyptian hermit-saint had a vision that he levitated into the air and was attacked by demons, whose torments he withstood.  To give the demonic creatures veracity, he studied the colorful scales and  other parts of specimens from the fish market.  Michelangelo made subtle changes to the original, including making the monsters look more animal-like and including a landscape that resembles the Arno River Valley around Florence, Italy.  This work is one of only four easel paintings generally regarded as having come from Michelangelo's hand and the first painting by Michelangelo to enter an American collection.

Woman Addressing the Public: Project for a Monument, 1981

             by Joan Miro, Spanish, 1893 - 1983


This sculpture relates to one of the oldest themes in the history of art - the earth goddess.  It is cast in bronze in an edition of four in the Bonvicini Foundry in Verona, beginning in 1981.  Miro hoped that his finished monument would be installed in a public place.  During the 1970's, Miro turned his attention increasingly to large-scale outdoor sculptures as a means to end the unhealthy division of art and daily life.  One of Miro's early drawings of this sculpture bears the title Woman Before The Crowds suggesting the importance of the figure's relationship to a public setting.

(This sculpture is located outside the back entrance to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas).

Roman, Syria

Bearded Man

c. A.D. 400; Mosaic

Acquired in 1972

The identity of this man is unknown.  His iconic frontal pose and serene expressioin perhaps indicate that he is meant to represent a biblical figure, though not all church decoration at this time was overtlyChristian in iconography.

WINE FLASK

Japan, Momoyama period, 1573 - 1615

Early 17th century

Wood with black and red lacquer (Negoro ware).

Acquired in 1981

Negoro lacquerware constitute a special group of simple food-serving utensils that are disctinctive for their solid, cinnabar ref finish and austere, functional forms.  The wares are especially admired when the plain and surface becomes almost translucent with age and is gently abraded from handling, allowing the black lacquer undercoat to show through.  The term Negoro comes from the name of the Negoro-dora temple in Wakayama prefecture.

The Kimbell's wine flask is a fine example of the simple, conservative yet striking forms distinctive of Negoro lacquers.  The broad, softly rounded shoulders curve to a sharp edge that sets off the extreme slope of the body to the narrow waist and broad, flat foot.  The shape, called heishi in Japanese derives from a Chinese pottery - vessel type of the Tang period (AD 618 - 907) called meiping.  Heishi is the term for a bottle used for offering sacred sake (Japanese rice wine) at the altar of a Buddhist temple.  Sake was rarely  poured in lacquered wooden bottles like this one, however, since they were intended mainly as ornaments.

VIRGIN AND CHILD (The Borromeo Madonna)

Attributed to Donatello (Donato Di Niccolo Di Betto Bardi), Italian 1386/87 - 1466

c. 1450

Terracotta

Acquired in 2006

Donatello was the preeminent Italian sculptor of the 15th century.  Madonna reliefs were common during this time and Donatello's were remarkable and were copied frequently.  These devotional works were displayed in family chapels, bedrooms, and the public areas of residences.  Madonna reliefs sculpted by the master himself are rare.

Until 1902 the Borromeo Madonna was in the church of San Giovanni Battista in Lissaro di Mestrino, a village near Padua.  In the 15th century the church was under the exclusive patronage of the prominent Borromeo family, who were bankers and merchants in Milan, Padua, and Venice.  Antonio Borromeo and his son were on the board of the basilica of Sant' Antonio in Padua (the Santo), which commissioned Donatello's masterwork, a complex bronze altarpiece completed by 1450.  A member of the Borromeo family probably acquired the Kimbell's Madonna relief around this time, although it's not documented at Lissaro di Mestrino until about 1500.

Over time the original painted and guilded surface of the relief was disfigured by layers of stucco and overpaint.  A recent cleaning that removed these later accretions, leaving only the few surviving traces of original color has revealed the quality of modeling.  The sense of intimate and intense emotion is characteristic of Donatello.  Christ trains his eyes on his mother, whose gaze is wistful and diverted in prescience of his future sacrifice on the cross.

Christ the Redeemer

Attributed to TULLIO LOMBARDO, Italian, c. 1455 - 1532

c. 1500 - 1520

Marble

Acquired in 2005

This marble relief has recently been attributed to the Venetian sculptor Tullio Lombardo.  Tullio was well versed in both ancient art and the work of contemporary artists outside Venice, such as Mantegna and Leonardo da Vinci.  As the prime Venetian sculptor of the High Renaissance, he received the lion's share of monumnetal commissions of the day, including the tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, and the Cappella dell'Arca di Sant' Antonio in the basilica (the Santo) of Padua.  Beyond the Veneto region his work is rare.  The figure of Adam from the Vendramin tomb (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) is his only securely documented work in America.

Christ the Redeemer is sculpted in mezzo rilievo (literally "half-relief").  The virtuosity of carving is especially apparent in the deeply undercut, twisting tendrils, and the crisp patterns of Christ's beard set against the smooth surface of his skin.  The profile view of Christ has been traditionally associated with an emerald cameo engraved with the vera effigies ("true image") of Christ said to have been given to Pope Innocent VIII by the Sultan Bajazer II.  Variants of this profile image circulated in medals, prints, and other media.  Tullio adapted the prototype to his own classical tendencies: Christ's archaic profile and blank eyes imbue him with an ideal beauty, which would have been understood to represent the Redeemer's divine nature.

The relatively small size of the work suggests that it was a meditational object for a household altar or small chapel.  It may originally have been polychrome.

The Flight into Egypt

ADAM ELSHEIMER, German, 1578 - 1610

c. 1605

Oil on silvered copper

Acquired in 1994

Elsheimer's directness of vision placed him, along with Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci, in the vanguard of reforming artists working in Rome in the first decade of the 17th century.  A pioneer in the development of naturalistic landscape, his influence extended to Claude and Rembrandt.  Here he portrays the Hold Family taking an arduous path through rocky terrain.  Devotional literature interpreted their dangerous journey to Egypt as a pilgrimage of life toward salvation, necessary to redeem humankind.  This message is reinforced in the details of Elsheimer's miniature panel.  The broad-brimmed hats that ward off the searing sun are the traditional attributes of pilgrims.  The carpenter's tools, water gourd, and cup, and the rustic harness and saddle, show the humility and poverty of the family.  Singled out by a divine light, the mighty oak suggests the Tree of Life - from whose wood the cross of Christ was made - which bestowed immortality on earthly sinners.

Elsheimer left his native Frankfurt for Venice at the age of twenty.  In 1600 he arrived in Rome, where he remained until his premature death ten years later.  A member of the Academy of Saint Luke, he was part of a circle of northerners in Rome that also included Rubens.

According to contemporary accounts, Elsheimer worked slowly and thoughtfully, producing a relatively small number of finished works.  He died in poverty, although his works were coveted; according to his contemporary Giulio Mancini, they were "in the hands of princes and those persons who, in order that they should not be taken from them, keep them hidden."  No more than thirty finished paintings on copper, all diminutive in size, have survived.

Vessel with Ceremonial Scene

c. A.D. 690 - 750

Carved ceramic with traces of pigment

Acquired in 1974

Campeche, reputedly from Jaina Island, Mexico, Maya culture, Chochola' style,

 Late Classic period, A.D. 600 - 900.

     The scene of this vessel appears to depict a ritual that is being enacted in a sumptuous palace interior, indicated by the swagged curtain framing the top of the scene.  A lord seated on a mat-topped throne hands over a fringed object, which may be a decorated mirror, to a kneeling attendant who is holding a bowl or basket.  The lord wears an elaborate bird headdress that is pierced through the nostril with a sting-ray spine, the ancient instrument of ritual bloodletting.  The boldly incised text on the reverse of the vessel is a Primary Standard Sequence, describing this as a vase for a certain kind of chocolate drink, and ending with the patron's name, which includes the hieroglyph muyal, "cloud."

     Chochola' style vessels take their name from one of several sites in the northern Yucatan that have yielded these distinctively carved vessels.  Many bear imagery carved in a single scene on one side only, with text on the other side.  Vessels in this style have been recovered from as far as Jaina Island, but most have been manufactured in the Chochola' area.

Portrait of May Sartoris

by Frederic Leighton

British, 1830 - 1896

c. 1860

Oil on canvas

Acquired in 1964

One of the leading artists of the tendency in British art known as the Aesthetic Movement, Frederic Leighton trained in the continental academic tradition in Germany, Italy, and France and insisted upon beauty and form as the artist's primary concerns.  He was elected president of the Royal Academy in 1878 and elevated to the peerage in 1896.

     In 1853, the young Leighton met Adelaide Sartoris, a former opera singer and celebrated hostess whose friendship provided him with an entree into artistic and fashionable society.  He seems to have painted this celebrated portrait of Adelaide's daughter, Mary Theodosia (May), around 1860, the year after he settled in London.  She is aged about fifteen and depicted in the setting of the family's country residence  in Hampshire. The fallen tree suggests the passage of time and mortality, accentuating her fragile beauty.

     A descendant of the Kemble family - one of the most distinguished English theatrical dynasties - May was a talented amateur actress and singer.  She married Henry Evans Gordon in 1871, and Leighton painted two further portraits of her in the succeeding years. 

Ideal Head of a Woman

by Antonio Canova

Italian, 1757 - 1822

c. 1817

Marble

Acquired in 1981

The Venetian artist Antonio Canova was the leading sculptor of the Neoclassical movement.  Traveling to Rome in late 1779, his virtuosity and stylistic innovation soon won him papal commissions and acclaim.  Along with his contemporary Jacques-Louis David, Canova set the standard for a new aesthetic based on the noble simplicity, grandeur, and idealized beauty of ancient art.  With its elegant profile, smooth skin, and elaborate chignon, this "ideal head" exemplifies Canova's Neoclassicism and his stunning technical virtuosity as a carver.

     After the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815, the celebrated Canova was appointed by Pope Pius VII to negotiate the restitution of the famous paintings and antique statues that had been looted from Italy by Napoleon.  At the Allied Conference in Paris that year, Canova was aided by several British diplomats.  They included Charles Long, on whose advice the Prince Regent made a substantial contribution toward the cost of transporting the stolen treasures back to Rome.  Canova gave the present sculpture to Long in gratitude for his help.

Nao Bell

China, possibly Hunan province,

Western Zhou dynasty, c. 1100 - 771 B.C.

c. 10th century B.C.

Bronze

Acquired in 1995

This impressive, heavily cast nao bell is ornamented on each side with eighteen conical studs arranged in three rows, separated by bands of scrolling-thunder pattern (leiwen) decoration, and surrounded by borders of fine thread-relief.  The flat underside is embellished with deeply cast scrolling volutes.  The tubular shank bears a raised collar decorated with two highly stylized animal masks (taotie), constituted by large, rounded "eyes" amid a scroll pattern.

     During their brief period of manufacture in the second and first millennium B.C., ritual chime bells bore a political and intellectual significance hardly suggested by their function as musical instruments, and embodied some of the highest technical skills of Chinese civilization.  The nao bell is the earliest form of chime bell from any culture in the ancient world.  It has no clapper and would produce sound by being mounted on a wooden stand with its mouth pointing upwards, and then being struck on the outside with a T-shaped wooden mallet.  Each bell had two points of contact that would produce different tones.

     This nao bell is an exceptionally fine example of the southern type.  While northern nao bells were produced in sets of three and formed part of a ritual orchestra, nao bells of the southern type are all single specimens and never form part of a chimed set.  The southern nao may have functioned more like Buddhist temple bells or later European church bells.

The Molo, Venice

by Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canale)

Italian, 1697 - 1768

c. 1735

Oil on canvas

Acquired in 1969

Trained by his father as a painter of theatrical scenery, Canaletto gained international renown painting scenes of his native Venice.  These vivid and compelling cityscapes were much sought after by British aristocrats who traveled to Italy on the Grand Tour.  In this painting from the collection of the Earl of Rosebery, Mentmore, Canaletto depicts one of his most popular views of Venice - the Molo, a wharf just west of the Doge's Palace.  At the far right is the column of Saint Theodore, set before the ornate library, which is next to the Zecca (the mint where the Republic's gold ducats, or zecchini, were coined) and the terracotta-colored public granaries.  Across the water at the far left, marking the opening of the Grand Canal, is the church of Santa Maria della Salute.  Canaletto imposes order and balance on the busy scene, observed from an ideally high viewpoint, omitting or adjusting architectural motifs and bringing them into alignment.

The description of the same painting in the Kimball Art Museum: Guide to the Collection in 1981is as follows:

"This view records the busy commercial life of the Molo, the wharf of Venice.  The artist creates a pageantry of costumed figures and swaying boats on a sun-drenched day, against a pristine architectural background.  The atmospheric richness of color and light emerges from a peculiarly Venetician tradition that extends back to the earliest works of Bellini and his school.  He primed the canvas with a ground of pale Venetian red, imbuing the wharf, buildings, and thinly painted sky with an underlying, almost palpable warmth.  A painter particularly esteemed by English travelers, Canaletto later spent ten years in England, painting similar views of London and Thames River scenes".

Presentation of Captives to a Maya Ruler

Mexico, Usumacinta River Valley, Maya culture,

Late Classic period, A.D. 600 - 900

c. A.D. 785

Limestone with traces of paint

Acquired in 1971

This carved relief probably served as a wall panel inside a Maya building or as a lintel over an entrance.  It depicts the presentation of captives in a palace throne room, indicated by swag curtains at the top of the panel.  The five figures are the Yaxchilan king, seated at top left, his sahal (a military chief) on the right, and three bound captives in the lower left.  The glyphic text, which gives a date of 23 August 783, records the capture of a lord and a sacrificial bloodletting three days later under the auspices of the king.  The three prisoners may be scribes: the one in front holds a "stick-bundle" associated with Maya scribes, and all three wear headdresses with hun (book) knots.  All figures but the leftmost captive are identified by name.  The inscription on the throne front, of special interest, is carved with the king's name and titles: the glyphs are inscribed in reverse order, from right to left.

     The name of the artist responsible for sculpting the relief appears on the vertical panel of four glyphs under the sahal's out-stretched arm.  Signed works of Maya are are rare, and the signature on this relief suggests that it was considered of great value in its time.

Peasant Interior with an Old Flute Player
by Louis (?) Le Nain, French, 1600/ 1610 - 1648

c. 1642

Oil on canvas

Acquired in 1984

The Nain brothers - Antoine, Louis, and Mathieu - were born in Laon and settled in the artist's community of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, in Paris, by 1629.  The brothers were founding members of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648.  Antoine and Louis died that same year, presumably of the plague.  The Le Nain studio produced portraits and religious works as well as mythological and genre scenes.  A group of peasant scenes characterized by their sensitive, subdued palette and emotional solemnity has traditionally been assigned to Louis, who has been regarded as the genius of the family.

     In the Peasant Interior with an Old Flute Player, an air of serenity surrounds the dignified group, still and silent but for the sound of the flute.  Despite the artist's clear sympathy with humble values, however, the scene is an idealized portrayal of peasant life.  Wine in a crystal glass was not peasant fare.  Together with the bread placed on the white tablecloth, the wine evidently alludes to the Eucharistic meal and Christian charity, exemplified by this humble household.
     Much remains to be learned about the Le Nains' patrons, who may have included members of pious religious groups in Paris and the outlying regions.  The reforming clergy encouraged the devout to emulate the virtues of the idealized poor, such as simplicity, humility, and patience.

KAIKEI
Japanese, active c. 1185 - 1225

Standing Shaka Buddha

c. 1210
Gilt and lacquered wood
Acquired in 1984

Kaikei, the great master sculptor of the Kamakura period (1185 - 1333), established the primary school of sculpture that produced statuary for the major temples in Nara and Kyoto.  Especially important among Kaikei sculptures is a distinctive style of Buddha image that is refined and graceful, and clothed in deeply folded and decoratively draped robes.
     The Kimbell's sculpture is a rare image of the historical Buddha, Shaka (Shakyamuni), who is identified by the abhayamudra (gesture of reassurance) of the right hand.  His left foot advancing, the Buddha appears to move forward to greet the devotee with an expression of gentle and profound compassion.  The beautifully proportioned figure is wrapped in an elegant robe that covers the body in rhythmical folds, rippling across the stomach and cascading over the arms.  Entirely covered with gold lacquer, the robe is further embellished with a floral and geometric pattern of fine-cut gold leaf.
     The Kamakura period saw a revival of the historical Buddha in a new type of image - as a divine savior who descends from heaven to meet the faithful.  This image, called "Shaka raigo", is documented in paintings of the early thirteenth century; the Kimbell statue is a rare example of this type in three-dimensional form, and one of only two known images of Shaka created by Kaikei.

Egypt, Roman period

Mummy Mask

c. A.D. 160
Stucco
Acquired in 1970

The most distinctive aspect of ancient  Egyptian funerary practice was the ritual preservation of the body through mummification.  For most of their history, the Egyptians also made likenesses of the deceased individual as a cover for the face, so that if the mummy should deteriorate or become damaged, the spirit - after its nightly wanderings - would recognize it and return.  In the Middle Kingdom, shaped masks of plaster and linen were gessoed and painted with relatively realistic portraits.  These were called in ancient Egyptian swht, meaning "eggshell".  The most famous mummy mask of all is the elaborate, gold-and-inlay mask of Tutankhamun.
     During the Roman occupation of Egypt, this ancient practice continued but with a distinctly Italic accent.  The Kimbell mask shows the melding of the two cultures.  The materials are traditionally Egyptian: gesso, paint, gold leaf, and glass.  Patches of gilding are still visible on the beard and hair, and there is reddish paint on the lips.  The eyes are inlaid in green, black, and cream glass.  The facial structure and fashion on the face, however, are not at all Egyptian or North African, but Roman.  The hair and beard styles are typical of second-century Rome, where they were made fashionable by the emperor Hadrian.

PAUL CEZANNE
French, 1839 - 1906

Man in  a Blue Smock

c. 1896 - 97
Oil on canvas
Acquired in 1980

Acquired in memory of Richard F. Brown, the Kimball Art Museum's first director, by the Kimball Board of Trustees, assisted by the gifts of many friends.

Starting around 1887, using his wife and son as models, Cezanne began to paint single figures with the same gravity he had developed in his landscapes and still lifes.  Around 1890 he extended his options by enlisting workers from his family's estate in the south of France.  The worker who posed for Man in a Blue Smock also posed for the famous paintings of Cardplayers of the early 1890s. For the remainder of his career, Cezanne maintained his interest in making portraits of rural workers - if the term "portrait" can be applied to images of anonymous models posted as themselves in the studio.
     In the background of Man in a Blue Smock, Cezanne represented the right-hand section of a folding screen that was his very first work of art (around 1859, Musee Granet, Aix-en-Provence).  Featuring elegant figures such as the woman with a parasol, this was a scene of leisure rendered in the pastoral spirit of an eighteenth-century tapestry.  Juxtaposed in an ambiguous way next to the worker in the Kimbell portrait, this faceless woman perhaps suggests some mute dialogue between opposite sexes, differing social classes, or even between the artist's earliest and most fully evolved efforts as a painter.
     Not counting his classical nudes in landscape settings, Cezanne had mostly abandoned figure painting after his portrait of the painter Achille Emperaire (Musee d'Orsay, Paris) was refused by the jury of the Salon of 1870.  Left on deposit at the shop of the art-supply dealer Julien Tanguy, the Emperaire portrait was a revelation around 1887 to young Post-Impressioinist painters, including Vincent van Gogh.  The enthusiasm of these younger artists may have helped rekindle Cezanne's lapsed interest in portraiture.

Roman, based on a Greek original of c. 3rd - 2nd century B.C., Late Republican - Early Imperial period.

Crouching Aphrodite

c. 50 B.C. - A.D. 140
Marble
Acquired in 1967

According to the primal Greek myth recounted in Hesiod's Theogamy (genealogy of the gods), Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was born of the aphros, the foam created when Kronos threw the genitals of his father, Uranos (Heaven), into the sea.  The impregnated foam floated first to Kythera, then across the Mediterranean to Cypress, where the goddess was born as she stepped ashore fully grown.  Reflecting this aqueous origin, Aphrodite is frequently depicted in relation to water - bathing or drying herself after her bath, sometimes accompanied by a seashell or dolphin.
     Aphrodite was a highly popular subject in Greek art.  The most famous sculptural representation - by Praxiteles in the fourth century B.C., showing the goddess unrobing to bathe - established the first ideal of nude female beauty that could stand alongside the canon of the athletic male.  The theme of Aphrodite crouching in her bath also enjoyed great popularity and was the subject of numerous sculptures known from ancient authors and Roman copies.  The Kimbell version, one of many variations on a famous Hellenistic original, embodies the qualities of beauty and voluptous sensuality that characterize the goddess of love.  She was shown crouching to bathe, her head turned sharply to the right, her left arm brought across the body to touch the right thigh, her right arm held up to near the left breast and shoulder.  The somewhat spiral effect of her stance appealed to the Hellenistic taste for animated poses that embrace and engage with the space around them.

                                                                  Christ Blessing
                                   by Giovanni Bellini (Italian, c. 1438 - 1516)


c. 1500
Tempera, oil and gold on panel
Acquired in 1967

Bellini's Christ Blessing vividly portrays the central mystery of the Christian faith: the incarnation, when Christ - fully human and fully divine - was sent to earth to redeem humankind.  For greater immediacy, the devotional image is brought close to the picture plane as the Resurrected Savior faces the worshipper with a level gaze.  He raises his right hand in blessing, and with his left grips the bright red staff of the banner of the Resurrection (the white flag with a red cross, denoting his triumph over death, is out of view).  Golden rays of light emanate from the top and sides of his head, signaling his divinity.  The message of Christian compassion is conveyed by his wounds of suffering, which are lightly visible on his hand and chest, while the shadow cast by his raised arm serves to confirm the reality of the Resurrection.
     Various motifs in the distant landscape allude to the Resurrection theme.  On the left side of the panel, the withered tree with the solitary bird probably stands for the Old Covenant, out of which the New Covenant would grow.  The pair of rabbits signify regeneration, while the shepherd tending his flock is a reminder that Christ, himself, is the Good Shepherd (John 10:14).  The three robed figures at the right edge of the picture are undoubtedly the three Marys, who are hurrying to tell the disciples of the empty tomb.  Above them the distant bell tower denotes that salvation is found through Christ's sacrifice and the Church.

The following description of the same painting is taken from the 1981 Kimbell Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection.  It is interesting to compare the two descriptions:

"When this panel was painted, Bellini had long been regarded as the preeminent artist of Venice, commanding a large workshop and creating a coloristic style of painting that gave birth to a flourishing 'school' in the 16th century.  This truly glorious image fuses the worldly with the divine in a magnificent orchestration of rich colors and glowing lights.  The risen Christ is silhouetted against an atmospheric landscape softly lighted by the sun.  The theme of the Resurrection is poetically enhanced by symbolic figures: the three women who found Christ's tomb empty; two rabbits, symbols of love; and the bird perched on a withered tree, symbolizing life everlasting.  This impressive painting, replete with all the artist's skill and understanding, was Bellini's gift to his parish church of Santo Stefano".

Seated Nyoirin Kannon

Japan, Kamakura Period (1385 - 1333)

c. 1230 - 50
Wood with traces of gilt and pigment.
Acquired in 1985.

Kannon is the Japanese name for the Indian Buddhist deity Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.  Because of the boundless love he offered to all beings, this was the most popular of all the Buddhist deities throughout Asia.  The Nyoirin Kannon, one of the six "changed forms" of the bodhisattva Kannon, is a prominent deity in the Japanese Esoteric Buddhist pantheon.  He is especially associated with the granting of desires.  The word nyo-i refers to the cintamani, the wish-granting jewel; the term rin, which means "wheel", refers to the turning of the wheel of the law.  The Nyoirin Kannon was widely worshipped by those who hoped to gain riches and see their requests fulfilled.

This gracious image shows the deity seated in a pose of royal ease.  Although drawings frequently depict this god as a bodhisattva with two arms, the six-armed form was also popular in Japan.  As in this sculpture, one hand is often shown touching the cheek, with a left arm braced against the lotus pedestal (now missing).  Of the other four arms, one of the right hands holds the jewel, and one on the left hands holds a lotus.  The raised left arm would originally have had a wheel balanced on the upright finger, and the lowered right arm would have held a rosary.

Portrait of Charles Carpeaux, the Sculptor's Brother

by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, 1827 - 1875)

1874
Terracotta
Acquired in 1984

Among the preeminent French sculptors of his day, Carpeaux remains best known for his sculpture of nude allegorical figures for the facade of the Paris Opera House (The Dance, now Musee d'Orsay, Paris), which was condemned as indecent and even vandalized shortly after completion in 1869.  He was also active as a portraitist, and this posthumous portrait of his older brother, Charles - a musician, who died in 1870 after long suffering - is among his finest busts.  Carpeaux made an initial, rapid sketch of his brother in plaster (Musee du Petit Palais, Paris), which the sculptor's earliest biographers claimed was made entirely for himself as his brother lay ill.  The Kimball's terracotta, cast from the plaster, and remodeled with additional clay, preserves a sense of the artist's physical involvement in the material through the sketchy handling, especially in the texture of the coat and the hair.  The back and side of the coat show the traces of the artist's fingers while the lines along the sleeves, apparently made with a stylus, are comparable to chisel marks still visible on a marble work in process.  These textures, indications that the work is not "finished" by conventional standards, are richly suggestive, perhaps drawing upon the expressive power of the unfinished sculptures of Carpeaux's hero, Michelangelo.  The hand and tool marks provide a sense of intimacy, suggesting that the viewer is watching over the shoulder of the sculptor at work in his studio.

Makonde tribe: Kneeling Mother and Child

From Tanzania-Mozambique border area.

Late 19th century.  Wood.

36.8 cm. high (14 1/2 inches).

One of the few East African people who make sculptures in any quantity, the Makonde produce unusually naturalistic figures.  Most African mother-and-child sculptures are intended to ensure fertility, but this piece indicates the high status of the female in that matriarchal society.  It is thought to represent the primeval matriarch who founded the Makonde tribe.  Details of the vigorously carved sculpture are wonderfully articulated, including the mother's hooded eyes and her fingers holding the sling in which the baby straddles her back, tiny feet and hands extended.  There are also such typical Makonde signs of feminine beauty as the facial scarification, prominent breasts and upper lip distended by a lip plug.

Standing Female Deity

Indian, Medieval Period 600-1200
10th or 11th Century, from Rajasthan.  Pinkish-tan sandstone. 143.8 cm. high (56 1/2").

Voluptuous goddesses are significant in Indian art from earliest times, personifying fertility, maternity, and Indian ideals of feminine beauty.  These goddesses became very important in later Hinduism where they began to express different aspects of the female character, triumphant and fierce as well as passive and dependent.  This figure's large size and attendants attest to her importance, her halo with its projecting sword to her power.  since two of the original four arms and all the attributes they held are missing, her identity remains a mystery until the sculpture's original temple site is determined.  Her delicate and precisely carved jewelry and girdle subtly constrast with the supple contours of her torso and swaying hips.