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Indian Art
In a Nutshell: Sculpted Stones
Fashionable women from the Renaissance onward were keen on collecting the carved gems known as cameos, which were commonly worn on jewelry as a symbol of elegance and high status. Queen Elizabeth I introduced the concept of using these carved gems—worn on brooches or pendants—as payment for a service or favor. At one time, Catherine the Great of Russia had more than 400 in her personal collection. And Napoleon’s first wife, Josephine, is believed to have broken up some of the family’s jewelry in order to create perfectly coordinated suites.
Collecting: Story Boards
Without documentation of such a popular pastime as the ancient Japanese hunting sport of inuoumono, which literally means “dog chasing,” its history would be as lost as the pursuit itself. Developed during the 12th century and reaching the height of its popularity in the 17th, inuoumono tested a samurai’s archery and riding skills. Contestants would mount their horses, with bows and padded arrows in hand, and compete to earn points by targeting dogs on their sides.
Figments of Pigment
Most artists would be livid if six of the seven works that they had loaned to an exhibition returned damaged, but not Eric Conklin. He was flattered. Conklin, 58, practices a type of still life painting known as trompe l’oeil—French for “deceives the eye.” Conklin strives to do just that with his paintings, to persuade people that they are looking at genuine coins, chalkboards, photographs and other carefully chosen objects.
Market: A Sculptor's Selection
By: Sheila Gibson Stoodley It’s a good time to be a collector of tribal art. Just six months after major pieces from the late Frieda and Milton Rosenthal’s collection fetched $10.8 million at Sotheby’s New York, the auction house is preparing for another promising sale drawn from the holdings of the Renee and Chaim Gross…
Market: Art at the Mart
By: Sheila Gibson Stoodley and John Dorfman Chicago celebrates bigness, and its famous Merchandise Mart is a massive structure, but Art Chicago, which will be held there May 1–4, is going to be smaller this year. The fair was huge in 2008, with 181 participants; in fact, some of the galleries thought it was too…
Market: Midwinter Nights' Dream
By: Sallie Brady It was the sale of the young century, and a powerful reminder that there is still a great deal of ready money in the international art and antiques market. When the final hammer fell on lot number 733, well after 11 p.m. on Feb. 25 in Paris’ Grand Palais, the collection of…
Exhibitions: Going for Baroque
By: Jenna Curry One evening in 1655, the powerful Barberini family of Rome presented an elaborate theatrical performance for an audience of 3,000. The show concluded with a parade of actors fighting in a mock battle against a fiery dragon. Such ornate productions were not created merely for entertainment purposes; they were also a means to…
Essay: Tales of the City
By: Lance Esplund Dutch weather, much like that of Seattle, is temperamental: A storm is always coming, going or both. And because Holland’s sky—blue, gray, golden, mauve—is so fluid and sweeping, as well as seemingly pressed down to the ground, its architecture and inhabitants appear smaller and more incidental than they actually are. It is not…
Sketches of the Past
Born in Jamaica in 1794 into a well-to-do Sephardic-Jewish merchant family, Belisario spent part of his life in England and died in London in 1849. His major work is Sketches of Character, In Illustration of the Habits, Occupation and Costume of the Negro Population, in the Island of Jamaica, a series of lithographs of Jamaican slaves dressed up for a popular music-and-dance celebration, which the artist, who was based in Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, issued to subscribers in 1837 and 1838.
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