Misplaced Pages

#108891

99-617: The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a public art gallery in Oshawa , Ontario , Canada. It is the largest public art gallery in the Regional Municipality of Durham , of which Oshawa is a part. The gallery houses a significant collection of Canadian contemporary and modern artwork. Housed in a building designed by noted Canadian architect Arthur Erickson , the collection focuses on works by Painters Eleven , who were founded in

198-685: A jewellery context will almost always mean carved gems; when referring to monumental sculpture , the term counter-relief , meaning the same as intaglio , is more likely to be used. Vessels like the Cup of the Ptolemies and heads or figures carved in the round are also known as hardstone carvings . Glyptics or glyptic art covers the field of small carved stones, including cylinder seals and inscriptions, especially in an archaeological context. Though they were keenly collected in antiquity, most carved gems originally functioned as seals , often mounted in

297-449: A collaboration of museums and galleries that are more interested with the categorization of art. They are interested in the potential use of folksonomy within museums and the requirements for post-processing of terms that have been gathered, both to test their utility and to deploy them in useful ways. The steve.museum is one example of a site that is experimenting with this collaborative philosophy. The participating institutions include

396-423: A double-sided cameo gem with portraits of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his wife and son. The Scot James Tassie (1735–1799), and his nephew William (1777–1860) developed methods for taking hard impressions from old gems, and also for casting new designs from carved wax in enamel , enabling a huge production of what are really imitation engraved gems. The fullest catalogue of his impressions ("Tassie gems")

495-407: A drill, which does not allow fine detail. There is no evidence that magnifying lenses were used by gem cutters in antiquity. A medieval guide to gem-carving techniques survives from Theophilus Presbyter . Byzantine cutters used a flat-edged wheel on a drill for intaglio work, while Carolingian ones used round-tipped drills; it is unclear where they learnt this technique from. In intaglio gems at least,

594-487: A favourite topic for antiquaries from the Renaissance onwards, culminating in the work of Philipp von Stosch, described above. Major progress in understanding Greek gems was made in the work of Adolf Furtwängler (1853–1907, father of the conductor, Wilhelm ). Among recent scholars Sir John Boardman (b. 1927) has made a special contribution, again concentrating on Greek gems. Gertrud Seidmann (1919–2013) moved into

693-477: A flattish faced stone that might fit into a ring. Seal engraving covers the inscription that is printed by stamping, which nearly always only contains script rather than images. Other decoration of the seal itself was not intended to be reproduced. The iconography of gems is similar to that of coins, though more varied. Early gems mostly show animals. Gods, satyrs , and mythological scenes were common, and famous statues often represented – much modern knowledge of

792-433: A major factor in social mobility (for example, getting a higher-paid, higher-status job). The argument states that certain art museums are aimed at perpetuating aristocratic and upper class ideals of taste and excludes segments of society without the social opportunities to develop such interest. The fine arts thus perpetuate social inequality by creating divisions between different social groups. This argument also ties in with

891-517: A number of gems owned by St Albans Abbey , including one large Late Roman imperial cameo (now lost) called Kaadmau which was used to induce overdue childbirths – it was slowly lowered, with a prayer to St Alban, on its chain down the woman's cleavage, as it was believed that the infant would flee downwards to escape it, a belief in accordance with the views of the "father of mineralogy", Georgius Agricola (1494–1555) on jasper . Some gems were engraved, mostly with religious scenes in intaglio, during

990-402: A number of online art catalogues and galleries that have been developed independently of the support of any individual museum. Many of these, like American Art Gallery, are attempts to develop galleries of artwork that are encyclopedic or historical in focus, while others are commercial efforts to sell the work of contemporary artists. A limited number of such sites have independent importance in

1089-650: A public gallery for the city. The gallery was incorporated with the name of Ewart's grandfather, Robert McLaughlin , founder of the McLaughlin Carriage Company . The Robert McLaughlin Gallery's Permanent Collection numbers over 4,500 works. Dedicated to the collection, preservation, and exhibition of the best in Canada's art heritage, the gallery possesses an extensive selection of Canadian paintings, sculptures, and prints. The gallery also holds significant archives related to Painters Eleven , alongside

SECTION 10

#1732772356109

1188-580: A related development in Minoan seals , which are often very fine. The Greek tradition emerged in Ancient Greek art under Minoan influence on mainland Helladic culture, and reached an apogee of subtlety and refinement in the Hellenistic period . Pre- Hellenic Ancient Egyptian seals tend to have inscriptions in hieroglyphs rather than images. The biblical Book of Exodus describes the form of

1287-631: A relief image is more impressive than an intaglio one; in the earlier form the recipient of a document saw this in the impressed sealing wax, while in the later reliefs it was the owner of the seal who kept it for himself, probably marking the emergence of gems meant to be collected or worn as jewellery pendants in necklaces and the like, rather than used as seals – later ones are sometimes rather large to use to seal letters. However inscriptions are usually still in reverse ("mirror-writing") so they only read correctly on impressions (or by viewing from behind with transparent stones). This aspect also partly explains

1386-526: A ring; intaglio designs register most clearly when viewed by the recipient of a letter as an impression in hardened wax. A finely carved seal was practical, as it made forgery more difficult – the distinctive personal signature did not really exist in antiquity. Gems were mostly cut by using abrasive powder from harder stones in conjunction with a hand-drill, probably often set in a lathe . Emery has been mined for abrasive powder on Naxos since antiquity. Some early types of seal were cut by hand, rather than

1485-402: A sad confession for any art-historian." Other Renaissance gems reveal their date by showing mythological scenes derived from literature that were not part of the visual repertoire in classical times, or borrowing compositions from Renaissance paintings, and using "compositions with rather more figures than any ancient engraver would have tolerated or attempted". Among artists, the wealthy Rubens

1584-520: A section of the public. In classical times , religious institutions began to function as an early form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects, such as Julius Caesar , often donated their collections to temples. It is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. In Europe, from the Late Medieval period onwards, areas in royal palaces, castles , and large country houses of

1683-612: A series of rooms dedicated to specific historic periods (e.g. Ancient Egypt ) or other significant themed groupings of works (e.g. the gypsotheque or collection of plaster casts as in the Ashmolean Museum ) within a museum with a more varied collection are referred to as specific galleries, e.g. Egyptian Gallery or Cast Gallery . Works on paper, such as drawings , pastels , watercolors , prints , and photographs are typically not permanently displayed for reasons of conservation . Instead, public access to these materials

1782-531: A spy for England in Italy". Among his contemporaries, Stosch made his lasting impression with Gemmæ Antiquæ Cælatæ ( Pierres antiques graveés ) (1724), in which Bernard Picart 's engravings reproduced seventy antique carved hardstones like onyx, jasper and carnelian from European collections. He also encouraged Johann Lorenz Natter (1705–1763) whom Stosch set to copying ancient carved gems in Florence. Frederick

1881-418: A venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities, such as lectures, jewelry, performance arts , music concerts, or poetry readings. Art museums also frequently host themed temporary exhibitions, which often include items on loan from other collections. An institution dedicated to the display of art can be called an art museum or an art gallery, and the two terms may be used interchangeably. This

1980-416: Is also sometimes used to describe businesses which display art for sale, but these are not art museums. Throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions or political leaders and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces . Although these collections of art were not open to the general public, they were often made available for viewing for

2079-819: Is in the Treasury of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice . Many of these retain the medieval mounts which adapted them for liturgical use. Like the Coupe des Ptolémées , most objects in European museums lost these when they became objects of classicist interest from the Renaissance onwards, or when the mounts were removed for the value of the materials, as happened to many in the French Revolution . The collection of 827 engraved gems of Pope Paul II , which included

SECTION 20

#1732772356109

2178-559: Is provided by a dedicated print room located within the museum. Murals or mosaics often remain where they have been created ( in situ ), although many have also been removed to galleries. Various forms of 20th-century art, such as land art and performance art , also usually exist outside a gallery. Photographic records of these kinds of art are often shown in galleries, however. Most museums and large art galleries own more works than they have room to display. The rest are held in reserve collections , on or off-site. A sculpture garden

2277-870: Is reflected in the names of institutions around the world, some of which are considered art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin , and some of which are considered museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo . The phrase "art gallery"

2376-627: Is represented in all or most early cultures from the area, and the Indus Valley civilization . The cylinder seal , whose design appears only when it is rolled over damp clay, from which the flat ring type developed, was the usual form in Mesopotamia , Assyria and other cultures, and spread to the Aegean and Minoan world , including parts of Greece and Cyprus . These were made in various types of stone, not all hardstone, and gold rings were

2475-522: Is shown, including the eyelashes on one male head, perhaps a portrait. Four gems signed by Dexamenos of Chios are the finest of the period, two showing herons . Relief carving became common in 5th century BC Greece, and gradually most of the spectacular carved gems in the Western tradition were in relief, although the Sassanian and other traditions remained faithful to the intaglio form. Generally

2574-557: Is similar to an art gallery, presenting sculpture in an outdoor space. Sculpture has grown in popularity with sculptures installed in open spaces on both a permanent and temporary basis. Most larger paintings from about 1530 onwards were designed to be seen either in churches or palaces, and many buildings built as palaces now function successfully as art museums. By the 18th century additions to palaces and country houses were sometimes intended specifically as galleries for viewing art, and designed with that in mind. The architectural form of

2673-502: Is to shape identity and memory, cultural heritage, distilled narratives and treasured stories. Many art museums throughout history have been designed with a cultural purpose or been subject to political intervention. In particular, national art galleries have been thought to incite feelings of nationalism . This has occurred in both democratic and non-democratic countries, although authoritarian regimes have historically exercised more control over administration of art museums. Ludwig Justi

2772-566: The Natural History of Pliny the Elder give a summary art history of the Greek and Roman tradition, and of Roman collecting. According to Pliny Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (praetor 56 BC) was the first Roman collector. As in later periods objects carved in the round from semi-precious stone were regarded as a similar category of object; these are also known as hardstone carvings . One of

2871-677: The British Museum was established and the Old Royal Library collection of manuscripts was donated to it for public viewing. In 1777, a proposal to the British government was put forward by MP John Wilkes to buy the art collection of the late Sir Robert Walpole , who had amassed one of the greatest such collections in Europe , and house it in a specially built wing of the British Museum for public viewing. After much debate,

2970-491: The Gonzagas of Mantua (later owned by Lord Arundel), the 2nd Earl of Bessborough , and the brother of Lord Chesterfield , who himself warned his son in one of his Letters against "days lost in poring upon imperceptible intaglios and cameos". The collection, including its single most famous cameo, the " Marlborough gem " depicting an initiation of Cupid and Psyche, was dispersed after a sale in 1899, fortunately timed for

3069-772: The Guggenheim Museum in New York City by Frank Lloyd Wright , the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry , Centre Pompidou-Metz by Shigeru Ban , and the redesign of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Mario Botta . Some critics argue these galleries defeat their purposes because their dramatic interior spaces distract the eye from the paintings they are supposed to exhibit. Museums are more than just mere 'fixed structures designed to house collections.' Their purpose

Robert McLaughlin Gallery - Misplaced Pages Continue

3168-572: The Guggenheim Museum , the Cleveland Museum of Art , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . There are relatively few local/regional/national organizations dedicated specifically to art museums. Most art museums are associated with local/regional/national organizations for the arts , humanities or museums in general. Many of these organizations are listed as follows: Engraved gem Strictly speaking, engraving means carving in intaglio (with

3267-631: The Musée du Louvre during the French Revolution in 1793 as a public museum for much of the former French royal collection marked an important stage in the development of public access to art by transferring the ownership to a republican state; but it was a continuation of trends already well established. The building now occupied by the Prado in Madrid was built before the French Revolution for

3366-720: The Portland Vase , as a cheaper material for cameos, and one that allowed consistent and predictable layers on even round objects. During the European Middle Ages antique engraved gems were one classical art form which was always highly valued, and a large but unknown number of ancient gems have (unlike most surviving classical works of art) never been buried and then excavated. Gems were used to decorate elaborate pieces of goldsmith work such as votive crowns , book-covers and crosses, sometimes very inappropriately given their subject matter. Matthew Paris illustrated

3465-648: The Renwick Gallery , built in 1859. Now a part of the Smithsonian Institution , the Renwick housed William Wilson Corcoran 's collection of American and European art. The building was designed by James Renwick Jr. and finally completed in 1874. It is located at 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Renwick designed it after the Louvre's Tuileries addition. At the time of its construction, it

3564-610: The Royal Collection . The collections of Charles Towneley , Richard Payne Knight and Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode were bought by or bequeathed to the British Museum , founding their very important collection. But the most famous English collection was that formed by the 4th Duke of Marlborough (1739–1817), "which the Duke kept in his bedroom and resorted to as a relief from his ambitious wife, his busy sister and his many children". This included collections formerly owned by

3663-535: The Susanna Crystal , to be viewed through the gem from the unengraved side, so their inscriptions were reversed like the seals. In wills and inventories, engraved gems were often given pride of place at the head of a list of treasures. Some gems in a remarkably effective evocation of classical style were made in Southern Italy for the court of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in the first half of

3762-461: The hoshen , a ceremonial breastplate worn by the high priest, bearing twelve gems engraved with the names of the Twelve tribes of Israel . Round or oval Greek gems (along with similar objects in bone and ivory) are found from the 8th and 7th centuries BC, usually with animals in energetic geometric poses, often with a border marked by dots or a rim. Early examples are mostly in softer stones. Gems of

3861-515: The menorah . Many gems are inscribed in the Islamic world, typically with verses from the Koran , and sometimes gems in the Western tradition just contain inscriptions. Many Asian and Middle Eastern cultures have their own traditions, although for example the important Chinese tradition of carved gemstones and hardstones, especially jade carving , is broader than the European one of concentration on

3960-553: The mystification of fine arts . Research suggests that the context in which an artwork is being presented has significant influence on its reception by the audience, and viewers shown artworks in a museum rated them more highly than when displayed in a "laboratory" setting Most art museums have only limited online collections, but a few museums, as well as some libraries and government agencies, have developed substantial online catalogues. Museums, libraries, and government agencies with substantial online collections include: There are

4059-592: The "Felix gem" of Diomedes with the Palladium , was acquired by Lorenzo il Magnifico ; the Medici collection included many other gems and was legendary, valued in inventories much higher than his Botticellis . Somewhat like Chinese collectors, Lorenzo had all his gems inscribed with his name. The Gonzaga Cameo passed through a series of famous collections before coming to rest in the Hermitage . First known in

Robert McLaughlin Gallery - Misplaced Pages Continue

4158-526: The 13th century, several in the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris. Meanwhile, the church led the development of large, often double-sided, metal seal matrices for wax seals that were left permanently attached to charters and similar legal documents, dangling by a cord, though smaller ring seals that were broken when a letter was opened remained in use. It is not clear to what extent this also continued practices in

4257-544: The 17th century onwards, often based around a collection of the cabinet of curiosities type. The first such museum was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , opened in 1683 to house and display the artefacts of Elias Ashmole that were given to Oxford University in a bequest. The Kunstmuseum Basel , through its lineage which extends back to the Amerbach Cabinet , which included a collection of works by Hans Holbein

4356-633: The 18th century. In Italy, the art tourism of the Grand Tour became a major industry from the 18th century onwards, and cities made efforts to make their key works accessible. The Capitoline Museums began in 1471 with a donation of classical sculpture to the city of Rome by the Papacy , while the Vatican Museums , whose collections are still owned by the Pope, trace their foundation to 1506, when

4455-401: The 1970s, a number of political theorists and social commentators have pointed to the political implications of art museums and social relations. Pierre Bourdieu , for instance, argued that in spite the apparent freedom of choice in the arts, people's artistic preferences (such as classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly tie in with their social position. So called cultural capital is

4554-420: The 6th century are more often oval, with a scarab back (in the past this type was called a "scarabaeus"), and human or divine figures as well as animals; the scarab form was apparently adopted from Phoenicia . The forms are sophisticated for the period, despite the usually small size of the gems. In the 5th century gems became somewhat larger, but still only 2-3 centimetres tall. Despite this, very fine detail

4653-473: The British aristocrats he tutored in connoisseurship; his own collection was described in A.F. Gori , Le gemme antiche di Anton Maria Zanetti (Venice, 1750), illustrated with eighty plates of engravings from his own drawings. Baron Philipp von Stosch (1691–1757), a Prussian who lived in Rome and then Florence, was a major collector, as well as a dealer in engraved gems: "busy, unscrupulous, and in his spare time

4752-483: The Great had opened up new trade routes to the Greek world and increased the range of gemstones available. Roman gems generally continued Hellenistic styles, and can be hard to date, until their quality sharply declines at the end of the 2nd century AD. Philosophers are sometimes shown; Cicero refers to people having portraits of their favourite on their cups and rings. The Romans invented cameo glass , best known from

4851-631: The Great of Prussia bought Stosch's collection in 1765 and built the Antique Temple in the park of the Sanssouci Palace to house his collections of ancient sculpture, coins and over 4,000 gems – the two were naturally often grouped together. The gems are now in the Antikensammlung Berlin . The collection of Joseph Smith , British consul in Venice was bought by King George III of Great Britain and remains in

4950-731: The Great 's collection is in the Hermitage Museum ; one large collection she had bought was the gems from the Orléans Collection . Louis XV of France hired Dominique Vivant to assemble a collection for Madame de Pompadour . In the eighteenth century British aristocrats were able to outcompete even the agents for royal and princely collectors on the Continent, aided by connoisseur-dealers like Count Antonio Maria Zanetti and Philipp von Stosch . Zanetti travelled Europe in pursuit of gems hidden in private collections for

5049-687: The Hellenistic repertoire of subjects, though portraits in contemporary styles were also produced. Famous collectors begin with King Mithridates VI of Pontus (d. 63 BC), whose collection was part of the booty of Pompey the Great , who donated it to the Temple of Jupiter in Rome. Julius Caesar was determined to excel Pompey in this as in other areas, and later gave six collections to his own Temple of Venus Genetrix ; according to Suetonius gems were among his varied collecting passions. Many later emperors also collected gems. Chapters 4-6 of Book 37 of

SECTION 50

#1732772356109

5148-529: The King of Prussia which now form the Daktyliothek Poniatowski in Berlin , where they were recognised as modern in 1832, mainly because the signatures of ancient artists from very different times were found on gems in too consistent a style. As in other fields, not many ancient artists' names are known from literary sources, although some gems are signed. According to Pliny, Pyrgoteles was

5247-618: The Marxist theory of mystification and elite culture . Furthermore, certain art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris are situated in buildings of considerable emotional impact. The Louvre in Paris is for instance located in the former Royal Castle of the ancient regime , and is thus clearly designed with a political agenda. It has been argued that such buildings create feelings of subjugation and adds to

5346-459: The Oshawa studio of Painters Eleven member Alexandra Luke . Oshawa designer William Caldwell organized a group of artists to establish a commercial gallery space on Simcoe Street North, in Oshawa. Shortly thereafter, Ewart McLaughlin and his wife (known as Alexandra Luke , a member of Painters Eleven ) offered financial support and a significant collection of works to help create the foundation of

5445-544: The Portland Vase and the Marlborough gem , a famous head of Antinous , and interpreted in jasperware casts from antique gems by James Tassie. John Flaxman 's neoclassical designs for jasperware were carried out in the extremely low relief typical of cameo production. Some other porcelain imitated three-layer cameos purely by paint, even in implausible objects like a flat Sèvres tea-tray of 1840. Gems were

5544-509: The Roman statues and sarcophagi being newly excavated, antique gems were prime sources for artists eager to regain a classical figurative vocabulary. Cast bronze copies of gems were made, which circulated around Italy, and later Europe. Among very many examples of borrowings that can be traced confidently, the Felix or Diomedes gem owned by Lorenzo de' Medici (see below), with an unusual pose,

5643-536: The Younger and purchased by the city of Basel in 1661, is considered to be the first museum of art open to the public in the world. In the second half of the 18th century, many private collections of art were opened to the public, and during and after the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars , many royal collections were nationalized, even where the monarchy remained in place, as in Spain and Bavaria . In 1753,

5742-433: The active lending-out of a museum's collected objects in order to enhance education at schools and to aid in the cultural development of individual members of the community. Finally, Dana saw branch museums throughout a city as a good method of making sure that every citizen has access to its benefits. Dana's view of the ideal museum sought to invest a wider variety of people in it, and was self-consciously not elitist. Since

5841-559: The advice of Francesco Maria Zanetti and Francesco Ficoroni ; 170 of the Carlisle gems, both Classical and post-Classical, were purchased in 1890 for the British Museum . By the mid-eighteenth century prices had reached such a level that major collections could only be formed by the very wealthy; lesser collectors had to make do with collecting plaster casts , which was also very popular, or buying one of many sumptuously illustrated catalogues of collections that were published. Catherine

5940-576: The ancient world. The late medieval French and Burgundian courts collected and commissioned gems, and began to use them for portraits. The British Museum has what is probably a seated portrait of John, Duke of Berry in intaglio on a sapphire , and the Hermitage has a cameo head of Charles VII of France . Interest had also revived in Early Renaissance Italy, where Venice soon became a particular centre of production. Along with

6039-418: The art world. The large auction houses, such as Sotheby's , Bonhams , and Christie's , maintain large online databases of art which they have auctioned or are auctioning. Bridgeman Art Library serves as a central source of reproductions of artwork, with access limited to museums, art dealers , and other professionals or professional organizations. There are also online galleries that have been developed by

SECTION 60

#1732772356109

6138-429: The cabinet of the Flemish antiquary Abraham Gorlaeus in 1609, and engraved gems featured among the antiquities assembled by Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel . Later in the century William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire , formed a collection of gems that is still conserved at Chatsworth . In the eighteenth century a more discerning cabinet of gems was assembled by Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle , acting upon

6237-515: The cameo is Alexandrian work of the 3rd century BC, or a Julio-Claudian imitation of the style from the 1st century AD. Three of the largest cameo gems from antiquity were created for members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and seem to have survived above ground since antiquity. The large Gemma Augustea appeared in 1246 in the treasury of the Basilique St-Sernin, Toulouse . In 1533, King François I appropriated it and moved it to Paris, where it soon disappeared around 1590. Not long thereafter it

6336-480: The collecting of impressions in plaster or wax from gems, which may be easier to appreciate than the original. The cameo, which is rare in intaglio form, seems to have reached Greece around the 3rd century; the Farnese Tazza is the only major surviving Hellenistic example (depending on the date assigned to the Gonzaga Cameo – see below), but other glass-paste imitations with portraits suggest that gem-type cameos were made in this period. The conquests of Alexander

6435-407: The collection of Isabella d'Este , it passed to the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua , Emperor Rudolf II , Queen Christina of Sweden , Cardinal Decio Azzolini , Livio Odescalchi , Duke of Bracciano , and Pope Pius VI before Napoleon carried it off to Paris, where his Empress Joséphine gave it to Alexander I of Russia after Napoleon's downfall, as a token of goodwill. It remains disputed whether

6534-420: The design cut into the flat background of the stone), but relief carvings (with the design projecting out of the background as in nearly all cameos ) are also covered by the term. This article uses cameo in its strict sense, to denote a carving exploiting layers of differently coloured stone. The activity is also called gem carving and the artists gem-cutters . References to antique gems and intaglios in

6633-489: The distinction of being the first Canadian exhibition of abstract painting to be assembled in Canada on a national scale and devoted exclusively to this art form. Art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art , usually from the museum 's own collection . It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although primarily concerned with visual art , art museums are often used as

6732-438: The engraved gem. Another offshoot of the mania for engraved gems is the fine-grained slightly translucent stoneware called jasperware that was developed by Josiah Wedgwood and perfected in 1775. Though white-on-blue matte jasperware is the most familiar Wedgwood ceramic line, still in production today and widely imitated since the mid-19th century, white-on-black was also produced. Wedgwood made notable jasperware copies of

6831-576: The entire building solely intended to be an art gallery was arguably established by Sir John Soane with his design for the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1817. This established the gallery as a series of interconnected rooms with largely uninterrupted wall spaces for hanging pictures and indirect lighting from skylights or roof lanterns . The late 19th century saw a boom in the building of public art galleries in Europe and America, becoming an essential cultural feature of larger cities. More art galleries rose up alongside museums and public libraries as part of

6930-429: The founder of the Newark Museum , saw the traditional art museum as a useless public institution, one that focused more on fashion and conformity rather than education and uplift. Indeed, Dana's ideal museum would be one best suited for active and vigorous use by the average citizen, located near the center of their daily movement. In addition, Dana's conception of the perfect museum included a wider variety of objects than

7029-430: The grander English country houses could be toured by the respectable for a tip to the housekeeper, during the long periods when the family were not in residence. Special arrangements were made to allow the public to see many royal or private collections placed in galleries, as with most of the paintings of the Orleans Collection , which were housed in a wing of the Palais-Royal in Paris and could be visited for most of

7128-747: The idea was eventually abandoned due to the great expense, and twenty years later, the collection was bought by Tsaritsa Catherine the Great of Russia and housed in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . The Bavarian royal collection (now in the Alte Pinakothek , Munich) was opened to the public in 1779 and the Medici collection in Florence around 1789 (as the Uffizi Gallery). The opening of

7227-468: The largest category of art museums in the country. While the first of these collections can be traced to learning collections developed in art academies in Western Europe, they are now associated with and housed in centers of higher education of all types. The word gallery being originally an architectural term, the display rooms in museums are often called public galleries . Also frequently,

7326-728: The largest collection of works by Painters Eleven in Canada. The gallery's dedication to abstract art can be connected to Alexandra Luke of Oshawa, Ontario, an artist who had studied with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown , Mass. Luke was an exponent of abstract art, and she organized a show of all abstract Canadian art in Ontario through the South Ontario Art Gallery Circuit. This exhibition opened in Oshawa at Adelaide House in October 1952. The collection had

7425-566: The largest, the Coupe des Ptolémées was probably donated to the Basilica of Saint-Denis , near Paris, by Charles the Bald , as the inscription on its former gem-studded gold Carolingian mounting stated; it may have belonged to Charlemagne . One of the best collections of such vessels, though mostly plain without carved decoration, was looted from Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade , and

7524-545: The later Archaic period. Portraits of monarchs are found from the Hellenistic period onwards, although as they do not usually have identifying inscriptions, many fine ones cannot be identified with a subject. In the Roman Imperial period, portraits of the imperial family were often produced for the court circle, and many of these have survived, especially a number of spectacular cameos from the time of Augustus . As private objects, produced no doubt by artists trained in

7623-523: The municipal drive for literacy and public education. Over the middle and late twentieth century, earlier architectural styles employed for art museums (such as the Beaux-Arts style of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or the Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum) succumbed to modern styles , such as Deconstructivism . Examples of this trend include

7722-619: The new American museums and provided the core of the collection of the Metropolitan in New York and elsewhere, with the largest group still together being about 100 in the Walters Art Museum , Baltimore. Prince Stanisław Poniatowski (1754–1833) "commissioned about 2500 gems and encouraged the belief that they were, in fact, ancient." He presented a set of 419 plaster impressions of his collection of Poniatowski gems to

7821-496: The number of gems that were not what they seemed to be scared collectors. Among the last practitioners was James Robertson , who sensibly moved into the new art of photography . Perhaps the best known gem engraver of the 20th century, working in a contemporary idiom, is the British artist Ronald Pennell , whose work is held in the British Crafts Council Collection among many others. Cameo glass

7920-550: The only artist allowed to carve gems for the seal rings of Alexander the Great . Most of the most famous Roman artists were Greeks, like Dioskurides, who is thought to have produced the Gemma Augustea, and is recorded as the artist of the matching signet rings of Augustus – very carefully controlled, they allowed orders to be issued in his name by his most trusted associates. Other works survive signed by him (rather more than are all likely to be genuine), and his son Hyllos

8019-616: The period both in Byzantium and Europe. In the West production revived from the Carolingian period , when rock crystal was the commonest material. The Lothair Crystal (or Suzanna Crystal , British Museum , 11.5 cm diameter), clearly not designed for use as a seal, is the best known of 20 surviving Carolingian large intaglio gems with complex figural scenes, although most were used for seals. Several crystals were designed, like

8118-445: The poses of lost Greek cult statues such as Athena Promachos comes from the study of gems, which often have clearer images than coins. A 6th(?) century BC Greek gem already shows Ajax committing suicide, with his name inscribed. The story of Heracles was, as in other arts, the most common source of narrative subjects. A scene may be intended as the subject of an early Archaic gem, and certainly appears on 6th century examples from

8217-584: The public a decade later in 1824. Similarly, the National Gallery in Prague was not formed by opening an existing royal or princely art collection to the public, but was created from scratch as a joint project of some Czech aristocrats in 1796. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. is generally considered to have been the first art museum in the United States. It was originally housed in

8316-537: The public display of parts of the royal art collection, and similar royal galleries were opened to the public in Vienna , Munich and other capitals. In Great Britain, however, the corresponding Royal Collection remained in the private hands of the monarch, and the first purpose-built national art galleries were the Dulwich Picture Gallery , founded in 1814 and the National Gallery, London opened to

8415-581: The recently discovered Laocoön and His Sons was put on public display. A series of museums on different subjects were opened over subsequent centuries, and many of the buildings of the Vatican were purpose-built as galleries. An early royal treasury opened to the public was the Green Vault of the Kingdom of Saxony in the 1720s. Privately funded museums open to the public began to be established from

8514-469: The recessed cut surface is usually very well preserved, and microscopic examination is revealing of the technique used. The colour of several gemstones can be enhanced by a number of artificial methods, using heat, sugar and dyes. Many of these can be shown to have been used since antiquity – since the 7th millennium BC in the case of heating. The technique has an ancient tradition in the Near East , and

8613-417: The same types of sardonyx and other hardstones and using virtually the same techniques, produced classicizing works of glyptic art, often intended as forgeries, in such quantity that they compromised the market for them, as Gisela Richter observed in 1922. Even today, Sir John Boardman admits that "We are sometimes at a loss to know whether what we are looking at belongs to the 1st or the 15th century AD,

8712-563: The social elite were often made partially accessible to sections of the public, where art collections could be viewed. At the Palace of Versailles , entrance was restricted to people of certain social classes who were required to wear the proper apparel, which typically included the appropriate accessories, silver shoe buckles and a sword , could be hired from shops outside. The treasuries of cathedrals and large churches, or parts of them, were often set out for public display and veneration. Many of

8811-589: The tradition of Hellenistic monarchies, their iconography is less inhibited than the public state art of the period about showing divine attributes as well as sexual matters. The identity and interpretation of figures in the Gemma Augustea remains unclear. A number of gems from the same period contain scenes apparently from the lost epic on the Sack of Troy , of which the finest is by Dioskurides ( Chatsworth House ). Renaissance and later gems remain dominated by

8910-399: The traditional art museum, including industrial tools and handicrafts that encourage imagination in areas traditionally considered mundane. This view of the art museum envisions it as one well-suited to an industrial world, indeed enhancing it. Dana viewed paintings and sculptures as much less useful than industrial products, comparing the museum to a department store. In addition, he encouraged

9009-566: Was a notable collector. Engraved gems occur in the Bible , especially when the hoshen and ephod worn by the High Priest are described; though these were inscribed with the names of the tribes of Israel in letters, rather than any images. A few identifiably Jewish gems survive from the classical world, including Persia, mostly with the owner's name in Hebrew, but some with symbols such as

9108-800: Was also a gem engraver. The Anichini family were leading artists in Venice and elsewhere in the 15th and 16th centuries. Many Renaissance artists no doubt kept their activities quiet, as they were passing their products off as antique. Other specialist carvers included Giovanni Bernardi (1494–1553), Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (c. 1500–1565), Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli (1662–1719), the German-Italian Anton Pichler (1697–1779) and his sons Giovanni and Luigi , Charles Christian Reisen (Anglo-Norwegian, 1680–1725). Other sculptors also carved gems, or had someone in their workshop who did. Leone Leoni said he personally spent two months on

9207-542: Was copied by Leonardo da Vinci and may well have provided the "starting point" for one of Michelangelo 's ignudi on the Sistine Chapel ceiling . Another of Lorenzo's gems supplied, probably via a drawing by Perugino , a pose used by Raphael . By the 16th century carved and engraved gems were keenly collected across Europe for dedicated sections of a cabinet of curiosities , and their production revived, in classical styles; 16th-century gem-cutters working with

9306-615: Was fenced for 12,000 gold pieces to Emperor Rudolph II; it remains in Vienna , alongside the Gemma Claudia . The largest flat engraved gem known from antiquity is the Great Cameo of France , which entered (or re-entered) the French royal collection in 1791 from the treasury of Sainte-Chapelle , where it had been since at least 1291. In England, a false dawn of gem collecting was represented by Henry, Prince of Wales ' purchase of

9405-563: Was for example dismissed as director of the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) in Berlin in 1933 by the new Nazi authorities for not being politically suitable. The question of the place of the art museum in its community has long been under debate. Some see art museums as fundamentally elitist institutions, while others see them as institutions with the potential for societal education and uplift. John Cotton Dana , an American librarian and museum director, as well as

9504-561: Was invented by the Romans in about 30BC to imitate engraved hardstone cameos, with the advantage that consistent layering could be achieved even on round vessels – impossible with natural gemstones. It was however very difficult to manufacture and surviving pieces, most famously the Portland Vase , are actually much rarer than Roman gemstone cameos. The technique was revived in the 18th and especially 19th centuries in England and elsewhere, and

9603-578: Was known as "the American Louvre". University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in the West and East, making it a global practice. Although easily overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in the US alone. This number, compared to other kinds of art museums, makes university art museums perhaps

9702-507: Was most effectively used in French Art Nouveau glass that made no attempt to follow classical styles. The Middle Ages, which lived by charters and other sealed documents, were at least as keen on using seals as the ancient world, now creating them for towns and church institutions, but they normally used metal matrices and signet rings . However some objects, like a 13th-century Venetian Seven Sleepers of Ephesus , mimicked

9801-526: Was published in 1791, with 15,800 items. There are complete sets of the impressions in the Hermitage, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and in Edinburgh. Other types of imitation became fashionable for ladies' brooches , such as ceramic cameos by Josiah Wedgwood in jasperware . The engraved gem fell permanently out of fashion from about the 1860s, perhaps partly as a growing realization of

#108891