Rhyton An ancient drinking vessel with a cone shape, sometimes with a human or animal design.
Golden rhyton from Iran's Achaemenid period, c. 550-300 BCE, excavated at Ecbatana, National Museum of Iran, Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Tag Archives: sculpture
Golden rhyton from Iran's Achaemenid period, c. 550-300 BCE, excavated at Ecbatana, National Museum of Iran, Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Marisol, Self-Portrait Looking at the Last Supper, 1982-4, Wood, plywood, stone, plaster, aluminum, dye, charcoal, 121 ½” x 358” x 61”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Photo via the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
RIP Marisol
One of the most unique modern artists, Maria Sol Escobar, otherwise simply known as Marisol, died on April 30, 2016 at the age of 85. The French-born, Venezuelan artist first caused a sensation in the New York art world in … Continue reading
Stonehenge, bluestone, c. 3100 BCE – 1600 BCE, Amesbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Stonehenge: The Cosmic Cemetery
Scholars are closer to unlocking the mystery of the ancient monument, Stonehenge. This month, Michael Parker-Pearson at University College London published an article in Antiquity supporting the “graveyard theory,” which is the idea that the site was used as a … Continue reading
Nike of Samothrace, c. 200-190 BCE, Parian Marble, 96
Take a Minute: Nike of Samothrace
Thank you to everyone who responded to the survey last week. Results are in and they are crystal clear. The vast majority of you enjoy the bread and butter of The Art Minute, the short posts about an artist or … Continue reading
Donatello, St. George and the Dragon , c. 1416, marble, 15.25
Just a Second: Schiacciato
Schiacciato is the Italian word for “flattened.” In the history of art, it describes a very low relief sculpture, for example those created by the Italian Renaissance sculptor, Donatello.
Eva Hesse, Repetition Nineteen III, 1968, fiberglass and polyester resin, nineteen units, Each 19 to 20 1/4
Eva Hesse Moved On
Eva Hesse, the German-born American artist, had only a ten-year career before her death of a brain tumor at age 34 in 1970, but she made an indelible mark in the art world as a Postminimalist. The artist cut her … Continue reading
German Aquamanile in the Form of a Dragon, c. 1200, copper alloy, 8 3/8 x 4 3/8 x 7 3/16 in., The Cloisters Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Photo via The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Just a Second: Aquamanile
An aquamanile is a vessel that holds water used for washing hands in both religious and secular contexts. Typically, the vessel is animal-shaped and has religious symbolism. During the Middle Ages, priests often used them to wash their hands before Mass. This aquamanile … Continue reading
Peplos Kore, c. 530 BCE, marble, 48
In Their Own Words: Hippocrates
“Life is short, the art long.” Hippocrates (460-370 BCE)
Sarcophagus Lid, Pakal Transitioning from Life to Death, c. 675 BCE, Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque, Chiapas, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Pakal: The Original Starman
Beneath the stepped pyramid of the Temple of Inscriptions, down a steep stairway and in a small chamber, rests the tomb of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal. The ancient Mayan king Pakal, part political leader and part living god, ascended to the … Continue reading
Roman copy of the Apoxyomenos by Lysippos, original c. 330 BCE, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican City, Rome, Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen via Wikimedia Commons.
Getting Slick with the Apoxyomenos
The Apoxyomenos, or the “Scraper,” is a popular subject in ancient Greek art that depicts athletes cleaning themselves by rubbing olive oil on their bodies and then scraping it off with a curved metal scraper, called a strigil. This particular … Continue reading
Kara Walker, A Subtlety: The Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World, 2014, Domino sugar refinery, Brooklyn, Photo by Inhabitat Blog via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License.
Make the Time: Kara Walker’s Sugar Sculpture in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Kara Walker, the world-renowned African-American visual artist and recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 1997, has created a sugar sculpture, entitled A Subtlety, which is on view in the former Domino sugar factory storage shed in Brooklyn through … Continue reading
Michelangelo, David, 1501-1504, Carrara marble, 17’, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Photo by Rico Heil via Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License.
Michelangelo’s “David” on the Verge
This week, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that Michelangelo’s 17-foot tall, marble sculpture of the Old Testament figure David has weak ankles and is on the verge of collapsing. The National Research Council found cracks in the marble on the … Continue reading