Displaying items by tag: enamel

Nicolas M. Salgo (1914-2005), a Hungarian native and former United States ambassador to Budapest, was fascinated by the art of the goldsmith in Hungarian culture and formed his own “treasury” by collecting pieces that are individual and unique. "Hungarian Treasure: Silver from the Nicolas M. Salgo Collection" will celebrate the gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art of the major part of the silver collection assembled by this focused collector over three decades.

This large collection of silver—about 120 pieces, most dating from the 15th to the late 18th century—comprises a variety of types with especially refined appearance and high levels of craftsmanship, representing Hungarian silver at its best. The earliest works in the Salgo collection are medieval: seven objects, including two rare chalices with mastered filigree enameling.

Al Farrow’s meticulously crafted sculptures are both haunting and mesmerizing. Using materials such as deconstructed guns, bullets, bone, glass, and steel, Farrow creates ornate religious structures, ritual objects, and reliquaries that are visually striking and emotionally confounding. Through these shockingly beautiful sculptures, Farrow examines the abiding relationships between religion and violence, peace and brutality, the sacred and the unholy.

This unique exploration began after a trip to Italy when Farrow was confronted with a reliquary containing the remains of an ancient Saint. Reliquaries, which are containers that store and display precious relics, were often crafted of or enrobed in opulent materials such as  gold, silver, ivory, enamel, and gems.

Visit InCollect.com to read more about "Al Farrow: Wrath and Reverence," now on view at Forum Gallery in New York.

The Lady Lever Art Gallery’s world renowned Wedgwood collection has gone on display in Moscow, attracting more than 10,000 visitors in just four weeks. It is the first time that the unrivalled collection has ever traveled abroad, with 140 items traveling to the Russian capital. The collection is on show at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art as part of the UK-Russia Year of Culture 2014.

Objects from the world’s finest group of Wedgwood jasperware are on display, including a rare copy of the celebrated Portland Vase and the largest jasperware panel ever produced. Two rare enamel plaques painted by artist George Stubbs also feature.

A Renaissance silver-gilt and enamel salt cellar, bequeathed by collector Michael Wellby to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, has been identified as Nazi loot. It will thus be returned to the descendants of its pre-WWII owner.

The intricate piece is one of the 500 silverware items—believed to be worth in excess of £10 million—donated to the museum in 2012 by Wellby, a former friend of Professor Timothy Wilson, the museum's Keeper of Western Art.

Germany’s Hildesheim Cathedral, which was designated a UNESCO world cultural heritage site in 1985, houses one of the most comprehensive surviving collections of ecclesiastical furnishings and medieval masterpieces in Europe. Built between 1010 and 1020, the church is undergoing major renovations, which has allowed for the exhibition Medieval Treasures from Hildesheim to go on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The show presents 50 medieval treasures – many of which have never been viewed outside Europe – and explores the Hildesheim’s legacy. The first portion of the exhibition focuses on Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim (960-1022), one of leading patrons of the arts during the Middle Ages. The Bishop commissioned many treasures during his time including monumental bronze works, the Golden Madonna, elaborate silver candlesticks and illuminated manuscripts. The life-size woodcarving known as the Ringelheim crucifix, which he commissioned, is one of the earliest surviving three-dimensional sculptures of the Middle Age.

Medieval Treasures from Hildesheim goes on to explore the continuing artistic production of Hildesheim in the high Middle Ages. Works from this period that will be on view at the Met include jeweled crosses, altars adorned with enamel and ivory and gilt-bronze liturgical fans. In the early 13^th century Hildesheim became a major center for bronze casting. A monumental bronze baptismal font from this period will be display at the Met; it is one of the most important works to survive from the Middle Ages.  

Medieval Treasures from Hildesheim will be on view at the Met through January 5, 2014.

The Cleveland Museum of Art acquired a rare enamel-on-copper copy of Titian’s (1485-1576) iconic 16^th century masterpiece Bacchus and Ariadne by the English enamel painter Henry Bone (1755-1834). The museum purchased the 19^th century work at Christie’s London on July 4, 2013 for $478,346. Curator John Seydl made the winning bid over the telephone from a London hotel in an effort to disguise the museum’s interest from other bidders.

The enamel measures 16 inches by 18 inches, which is exceptionally large for the medium typically used to execute portrait miniatures. The work includes an ornate gilt-wood and gesso frame and serves as a prime example of Bone’s innovative and widely admired enamel technique.

After being shipping to Cleveland, the Titian copy is expected to hang in the museum’s early 19^th century gallery, which features French and English art.