Showing posts with label gilding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gilding. Show all posts

Friday, July 10, 2026

Bronzes

Ancient Greek Culture
Hydria
5th century BC
bronze
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Etruscan Culture
The Goddess Lasa
3rd-2nd century BC
bronze statuette
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Roman Empire
Bust of Plato
1st century AD
bronze relief appliqué
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Roman Empire
Mars
1st century AD
bronze statuette
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Roman Empire
Bust of Youth
1st-2nd century AD
bronze relief appliqué
(furniture ornament)
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Francesco di Giorgio Martini
St Anthony Abbot
ca. 1470-80
bronze plaquette
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Antico (Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi)
Bust of Emperor Marcus Aurelius
ca. 1500
gilt bronze
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Caradosso Foppa
Silenus and Maenads
1500
bronze plaquette
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Andrea Mantegna
St Sebastian
ca. 1500
gilt-bronze statuette
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Pietro Tacca
Tarquin and Lucretia
ca. 1630
bronze
Bode Museum, Berlin

Massimiliano Soldani after Gianlorenzo Bernini
Damned Soul
ca. 1705-1707
bronze
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Anton Mathias Joseph Domanöck
Venus at the Forge of Vulcan
1753
bronze relief
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Maenad
ca. 1865
bronze
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Pablo Picasso
Jester
1905
bronze
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Einar Utzon-Frank
Head of Aphrodite
1915
bronze
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Anonymous Artist
 Young Hercules
20th century
bronze
(forgery of Greek antiquity)
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

All this while the Athenians at Pylus besieged the Lacedaemonians in the island, and the army of the Peloponnesians in the continent remained still upon the place.  This keeping of watch was exceedingly painful to the Athenians in respect of the want they had both of corn and water, for there was no well but one and that was in the fort itself of Pylus and no great one.  And the greatest number turned up the gravel and drank such water as they were like to find there.  They were also scanted of room for their camp and their galleys not having place to ride in, they were forced by turns some to stay ashore and others to take their victual and lie off at anchor.  But their greatest discouragement was the time which they had stayed there longer than they had thought to have done, for they thought to have famished them out in a few days, being in a desert island and having nothing to drink but salt water.  The cause hereof were the Lacedaemonians, who had proclaimed that any man that would should carry in meal, wine, cheese, and all other esculents necessary for a siege into the island, appointing for the same a great reward of silver; and if any Helot should carry in any thing, they promised him liberty.  Hereupon divers with much danger imported victual, but especially the Helotes, who, putting off from all parts of Peloponnesus, wheresoever they chanced to be, came in at the parts of the island that lay to the wide sea.  But they had a care above all to take such a time as to be brought in with the wind.  For when it blew from the sea, they could escape the watch of the galleys easily; for they could not then lie round about the island at anchor.  And the Helotes were nothing tender in putting ashore, for they ran their galleys on ground, valued at a price in money; and the men of arms also watched at all the landing places of the island.  But as many as made attempt when the weather was calm were intercepted.  There were also such as could dive, that swam over into the island through the haven, drawing after them in a string bottles filled with poppy tempered with honey, and pounded linseed; whereof some at the first passed unseen, but were afterwards watched.  So that on either part they used all possible art, one side to send over food, the other to apprehend those that carried it.  

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)

Thursday, April 16, 2026

Solids

Ancient Greek Culture in Attica
Amphora with Foot Race
540 BC
glazed terracotta
Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund


Francisco Niculoso
Virgin and Child
ca. 1520-30
glazed ceramic tile
Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla

Anonymous Italian Potters
Plate with Winged Putto riding Sea Serpent
16th century
tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Anonymous Italian Potters
Dish with Bust of Warrior
16th century
tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Tadolini Petronio
Allegorical Figure of Prudence
1767
painted terracotta
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

Clodion
Young Woman carrying a Child
ca. 1790-1800
terracotta
Harvard Art Museums

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse
Bust of a Nymph
ca, 1865-70
terracotta
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Watcombe Pottery (Torquay)
Japonesque Pitcher
ca. 1880
partly-glazed terracotta
Newport Mansions Preservation Society, Rhode Island

William De Morgan
Vase with Mythical Beast
ca. 1882-88
glazed earthenware
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat
Inkwell
ca. 1890-1900
glazed stoneware in bronze mount
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Agathon Léonard
Ewer
1898
glazed earthenware with gilt-bronze mounts
Art Institute of Chicago

Van Briggle Pottery Company (Colorado Springs)
Vase
ca. 1920-40
glazed earthenware
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Vanessa Bell
Cup and Saucer
ca. 1932
glazed earthenware
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Paul Schreckengost for Gem Clay Forming Company (Ohio)
Teapot
1938
glazed earthenware body with platinum fittings
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Klytie Pate
High Diving
ca. 1950
glazed earthenware
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Errol Barnes (pottery) and Joe Furlonger (painting)
Bowl
1995
earthenware
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow come in for the fair,
    There's men from the barn and the forge and the mill and the fold,
The lads for the girls and the lads for the liquor are there,
    And there with the rest are the lads that will never be old.

There's chaps from the town and the field and the till and the cart,
    And many to count are the stalwart and many the brave,
And many the handsome of face and the handsome of heart,
    And few that will carry their looks or their truth to the grave.

I wish one could know them, I wish there were tokens to tell
    The fortunate fellows that now you can never discern;
And then one could talk with them friendly and wish them farewell
    And watch them depart on the way that they will not return.

But now you may stare as you like and there's nothing to scan;
    And brushing your elbow unguessed at and not be told
They carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of man,
    The lads that will die in their glory and never be old. 

– A.E. Housman (1896)

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Gilt

Francesco Mochi
Defeated Heretic
ca. 1625
gilt bronze
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia


Francesco Mochi
Defeated Heretic
ca. 1625
gilt bronze
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Hans Ludwig Kienle
Horse and Rider
1630
silver and silver gilt
Art Institute of Chicago

Anonymous French Makers
Keyhole Escutcheon
ca. 1740
gilt bronze
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Keyhole Escutcheon with Griffins
ca. 1800-1810
gilt bronze
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Goddess pouring from Ewer
ca. 1805
gilt bronze furniture mount
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Antique Figure walking into Wind
ca. 1810
gilt bronze furniture mount
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Winged Goddess
ca. 1810
gilt bronze furniture mount
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Charioteer
ca. 1815
gilt bronze furniture mount
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paul Storr
Ceremonial Cup with Cover
1834
silver gilt
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Jean-Léon Gérôme
Napoleon entering Cairo
ca. 1900
gilt bronze and wood statuette
Art Institute of Chicago

Raymond Duchamp-Villon
Very Small Horse
1914
gilt bronze
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Paul Manship
Actaeon
1925
gilt bronze
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paul Manship
Eurydice
ca. 1930
gilt bronze on lapis lazuli base
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Marcel Bouraine
Lamp with Undersea Motif
ca. 1930
gilt bronze and onyx
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Alberto Giacometti
Small Standing Woman
ca. 1945
gilt bronze
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas

Louise Bourgeois
Untitled (Fingers)
1986
bronze (partly gilt)
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

The Oracles

'Tis mute, the word they went to hear on high Dodona mountain
    When winds were in the oakenshaws and all the cauldrons tolled,
And mute's the midland navel-stone beside the singing fountain,
    And echoes list to silence now where gods told lies of old.

I took my question to the shrine that has not ceased from speaking,
    The heart within, that tells the truth and tells it twice as plain;
And from the cave of oracles I heard the priestess shrieking
    That she and I should surely die and never live again.

Oh priestess, what you cry is clear, and sound good sense I think it;
    But let the screaming echoes rest, and froth your mouth no more.
'Tis true there's better booze than brine, but he that drowns must drink it;
    And oh, my lass, the news is news that men have heard before.

The King with half the East at heel is marched from lands of morning;
    Their fighters drink the rivers up, their shafts benight the air.
And he that stands will die for nought, and home there's no returning.
    The Spartans on the sea-wet rock sat down and combed their hair.

– A.E. Housman (1922)

Monday, March 23, 2026

Lyric

Gwen John
Girl in a Hat
ca. 1918-19
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford


Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti)
Sacrifice of Isaac
ca. 1620-25
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Pegasus
ca. 1500-1550
bronze
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Études pour l'Apothéose d'Homère
1826-27
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Gwen John
Study of a Girl
ca. 1920
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti)
St Francis in Prayer
1599
oil on canvas
Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Horse
ca. 1490
bronze
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Études pour l'Apothéose d'Homère (les pieds d'Homère)
1826-27
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Augustus John
Studies of a Child
ca. 1910
drawing
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York

Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti)
Drunkenness of Noah
ca. 1620-25
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Satyr
ca. 1520
bronze
Musée du Louvre

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Portrait of comte Mathieu-Louis Molé
1834
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Augustus John
Study of Standing Woman
ca. 1912
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti)
Honesty of St Eligius
1614
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Satyr
ca. 1550-1600
gilt-bronze furniture component
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Portrait of Edme Bochet
1811
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Augustus John
Study for a Lyric Composition
ca. 1925
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Set foot once beyond Nilotic
        Meroë: Love
will snatch me there on wings. Journey
        into the dawn
that glows no rosier than yourself,
        and I, step
by step, will follow. Accept, lady,
        this pearl, prize
from the still sea. She of the Foam,
        the Sea-born,
sends it, token of her defeat:
        she has despaired,
glimpsing you, of her ancient, bold,
        limpid splendour.

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by Andrew Miller