20 février 2016

Bowl Emulating Chinese Stoneware, 9th century, Iraq, probably Basra. Earthenware; painted in blue on opaque white glaze. H. 2 3/8 in. (6 cm). Diam. 8 in. (20.3 cm). Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1963. Accession Number: 63.159.4 © 2000–2016 The Metropolitan Museum of Art Ceramics such as this bowl are among the first examples to incorporate calligraphy as the main element of decoration. The Iraqi potters of the ninth century attempted to emulate the luminous quality and hard body of Chinese... [Lire la suite]

Plate, second half of 16th century, Iznik, Turkey. Fritware, polychrome-painted under transparent glaze.  This type of polychrome underglaze-painted pottery, often referred to as the "Rhodian type," was produced in Iznik (the Byzantine city of Nicea). This small town in northwestern Turkey was the chief center for the production of ceramic vessels and tiles in the Ottoman empire. Ceramics of the Rhodian type constitute the third and final phase of Iznik ceramics, lasting from ca. 1570 to 1700. They are characterized by the use... [Lire la suite]

Plate, ca. 1580, Iznik, Turkey. Fritware, polychrome painted under a transparent glaze. This dyamically decorated sixteenth-century dish in cobalt blue was produced at the famous kilns at Iznik, in western Anatolia. Stylized variations of lotus petals, ultimately of Chinese inspiration but geometrically patterned into a radiating sunburst of powerful Islamic design, bear witness to one of the most fruitful cultural exchanges in history: the mutual influences flourishing for centuries between the artists, especially potters, of... [Lire la suite]

Mosque lamp, 1525–40, Ottoman Turkey, Iznik. Stonepaste; painted in blue under transparent glaze. H. 6 11/16 in. (17 cm). Max. diam. 5 13/16 in. (14.8 cm). Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1959. Accession Number: 59.69.3. © 2000–2016 The Metropolitan Museum of Art Earthenware ceramics were made in Iznik as early as the second half of the fourteenth century, but it was not until about one hundred years later that this center began to manufacture pottery in stonepaste. The earliest stonepaste ware made in... [Lire la suite]

Tile with arabesque decoration, early 15th century, Ottoman Anatolia (Bursa). Carved, glaze-painted, and gilded earthenware.  This tile matches a border frieze adorning the portal of the tomb of Sultan Mehmed I (r. 1403–21) in Bursa, where monuments were badly damaged in an 1855 earthquake. It has a deeply carved pattern of lattices formed by pairs of undulating vine scrolls that meet at regular intervals along the centerline. The interlacing of the arabesque lattices is complex, but clarity is achieved through the use of... [Lire la suite]

Chrysolina fastuosa Chrysolina perforata perforata   Chrysolina exanthematica Chrysolina nikolskyi   Chrysolina soiota Chrysolina carnifex

Bartholomeus van der Helst and Johannes Lingelbach, Portrait of Princess Royal Mary Stuart (1631-1661), detail, 1652. Oil on canvas, 199,5 × 170 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Bartholomeus van der Helst, Dutch (1613 - 1670), Portrait of a girl (detail), 1645, oil on canvas, 75,4 × 65,3 cm. National Gallery, London.

Bartholomeus van der Helst & Ludolf Bakhuysen, Portrait of Geertruida den Dubbelde (detail), 1668, oil on canvas, 139 x 125 cm, SK-A-141. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Bartholomeus van der Helst (Haarlem 1613-1670 Amsterdam), "Portrait of Maria van Arckel, before a balustrade with a view out to sea beyond" (detail), 1655, signed and dated 'B. vander.helst /1655' (on the stone balustrade, lower left), oil on canvas, 44 x 37 7/8 in. (111.7 x 96.2 cm.) © Otto Naumann Ltd