Student Activities Archives - Page 12 of 25

Byzantine Girdle

February 18, 2022

by admin Art Byzantine Art Jewelry Student Activities Worksheets

**Marriage Belt,** 6^th-7^th century, Gold, 4.8×75.5 cm, Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington DC, USA
https://www.doaks.org/resources/bliss-tyler-correspondence/art/bz/BZ.1937.33.jpg/view

That which her slender waist confin’d, / Shall now my joyful temples bind; / No monarch but would give his crown, / His arms might do what this has done. / It was my heaven’s extremest sphere, / The pale which held that lovely deer, / My joy, my grief, my hope, my love, / Did all within this circle move. / A narrow compass, and yet there / Dwelt all that’s good, and all that’s fair; / Give me but what this ribbon bound, / Take all the rest the sun goes round… wrote Edmund Waller, back in the 17^th century… and I imagine another slender waist confin’d by a Byzantine Girdle, masterfully created back in the 6^th or the 7^th century… https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45437/on-a-girdle

The Gold Byzantine Marriage Belt at Dumbarton Oaks is small, but lo and behold, it’s luxurious and precious, unique, and ever so beautiful! It combines Christian and pagan iconography… two large medallions depicting Jesus uniting a young couple as they clasp each other’s right hand, in a gesture, known as the dextrarum iunctio, that had been part of the Roman marriage rite, and twenty-one small medallions that contain busts of pagan figures: all men, some draped, several bearded, others with leaves in their hair, a few holding the thyrsos—a staff associated with Dionysos—and some a caduceus, the rod of the god Hermes/Mercury. Framing the central, Marriage scene, is the inscription, “From God, concord, grace, health.” http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/27445

**Marriage Belt (detail),** 6^th-7^th century, Gold, 4.8×75.5 cm, Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington DC, USA
http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/27445

The fascinating aspect of the Dumbarton Oaks marriage belt is how the artist combined the “sacred with the profane…” Jesus blessing the young couple, with Dionysus and his male entourage. The combination of Pagan and Christian traditions in early Byzantine marriage art is captivating. The presence of Christ uniting the young couple in the larger, central two disks was apparently a popular practice in wedding belts and marriage rings. There is a similar second belt at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, and numerous variations on marriage rings to testify to the fact. What the Dumbarton Oaks experts find challenging is the integration of non-Christian figures with the Christian scenes. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010256506 and http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/27445

It is also interesting to read the actual Epithalamic Poem by Dioscorus of Aphrodito dedicated to Count Callinicus… τον περίβλεπτον κόμετα Καλλίνικον… Bridegroom, may your wedding be filled with the dancing of the Graces; may it ever seek the help of Wisdom after Beauty. You are marrying a bride who is an enviable Ariadne, silver-sandaled Theophile wreathed in gold. (May your marriage) have the scent at once of love and of wisdom. Gold has embraced gold, and silver has found silver. You raise up the honey-sweet grape cluster, in its bloom of youth; Dionysus attends the summer of your wedding, bearing wine, love’s adornment, with plenty for all, and blonde Demeter brings the flower of the field. . . . They have woven holy wreaths round your rose-filled bedroom. Like splendid Menelaus, but more tawny colored, follow your Helen, a wife who will not leave you. And afterwards you shall see dear children on your lap, like both your excellence and your wife’s to look upon. I wish a famous painter would accurately depict your lifelike image, with his craft to work your beloved likeness, whose bright beams flash with joy like the moon. Your young body has surpassed prize-winning Bellerophon, and your beauty is that of measureless excellence. To judge impartially, you have outdone Achilles and Diomedes, and easily outstripped Ares and brave Herakles. Be gracious to me in my awe of you, so I may sing your song: I came sailing on my voyage, inspired by your measureless excellence. Not in a worldly sense . . . https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft0m3nb0cs;chunk.id=d0e3949;doc.view=print -88-

If you are interested in discovering how the Dumbarton Oaks Marriage Belt ended in the renowned Washington DC Museum, please click HERE! and read the correspondence between Mildred and Robert Bliss and Royall Tyler between September 1937 and August 1938. It is a fascinating story… https://www.doaks.org/resources/bliss-tyler-correspondence/letters#b_start=0&c1=Marriage+Belt

The astonishing Tapestry of Dionysus at Abegg-Stiftung

February 11, 2022

by admin Art Byzantine Art Byzantium Early Christian Art Museums Mythology Student Activities Textiles Worksheets

**Dionysos and his entourage standing underneath arcades lavishly decked out in climbing foliage and braided ornaments,** Egypt, 4th century, wool tapestry on a linen ground, h. 210 cm, w. ca. 700 cm, Abegg-Stiftung, Canton Bern , Switzerland
https://twitter.com/Pythika/status/1141411261286146048/photo/1
https://abegg-stiftung.ch/en/
https://twitter.com/caitlinrgreen/status/616963854870970368?lang=el

[1] I begin to sing of ivy-crowned Dionysus, the loud-crying god, splendid son of Zeus and glorious Semele. The rich-haired Nymphs received him in their bosoms from the lord his father and fostered and nurtured him carefully [5] in the dells of Nysa, where by the will of his father he grew up in a sweet-smelling cave, being reckoned among the immortals. But when the goddesses had brought him up, a god oft hymned, then began he to wander continually through the woody coombes, thickly wreathed with ivy and laurel. And the Nymphs followed in his train [10] with him for their leader; and the boundless forest was filled with their outcry. / And so hail to you, Dionysus, god of abundant clusters! Grant that we may come again rejoicing to this season, and from that season onwards for many a year. The Homeric Hymns 26 on Dionysus is, I believe, a wonderful introduction to The astonishing Tapestry of Dionysus at Abegg-Stiftung, my new BLOG POST… Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA, 1914, Harvard University Press, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D26

Regretfully, I never visited the Abegg-Stiftung, this amazing “cultural” center where the collection, conservation and study of historical textiles take place. Abegg-Stiftung is based just outside the village of Riggisberg in the foothills of the Bernese Alps, which is where the museum of textiles and applied art, the research library and the Villa Abegg, the Abeggs’ former home that is now a museum, are situated. The studio for textile conservation and restoration is also a training centre for budding young conservators. The Abegg-Stiftung publishes books and papers in which it shares its research findings with fellow historians and conservators as well as a lay readership. Year after year, its annual exhibitions shed new light on a material that has served humanity for thousands of years, whether made up into objects of everyday use or in the form of exquisite works of art. What an amazing place to visit and learn! https://abegg-stiftung.ch/en/

**Dionysus and his entourage standing underneath arcades lavishly decked out in climbing foliage and braided ornaments (Museum Room View),** Egypt, 4th century, wool tapestry on a linen ground, h. 210 cm, w. ca. 700 cm, Abegg-Stiftung, Canton Bern , Switzerland
file:///C:/Users/aspil/Downloads/ulfl202121_tm_Anexo%20(4).pdf

Among their rich collection of textiles from Late Antiquity, the visitor is astounded by grand and small examples showing figures from Graeco-Roman mythology and scenes from the Old Testament. What really fascinates me is the “Dionysus Hanging,” a monumental tapestry originally that served as a wall hanging in a Roman private home or cult building. The tapestry’s programme shows Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy, and his entourage standing underneath arcades lavishly decked out in climbing foliage and braided ornaments. The cult of Dionysos was widespread in Late Antiquity. It promised its adherents life after death and was an articulation of the desire for a life of happiness and superfluity. https://abegg-stiftung.ch/en/collection/late-antiquity/

**Dionysos and his entourage standing underneath arcades lavishly decked out in climbing foliage and braided ornaments (Detail),** Egypt, 4th century, wool tapestry on a linen ground, h. 210 cm, w. ca. 700 cm, Abegg-Stiftung, Canton Bern , Switzerland
https://abegg-stiftung.ch/en/

An Abegg-Stiftung much-appreciated traditionis its dedication in publishing books and papers in which their experts share their research findings with fellow historians and conservators as well as a lay readership. Among the Museum’s rich List of Publications (for German readers) is a book titled Der Dionysosbehang der Abegg-Stiftung by Dietrich Willers und Bettina Niekamp, Riggisberger Berichte 20 | 272 S., 200 Abb., 32 Tafeln, 1 Falttafel, brosch., 23 x 31 cm, 2015, ISBN 978-3-905014-53-2 https://abegg-stiftung.ch/en/publication-category/riggisberger-berichte-en/

I was able to download Dietrich Willers’s Zur Begegnung von Heidentum und Christentum im spätantiken Ägypten – Der Dionysosbehang der AbeggStiftung (Schweiz) and read in Google translation… http://kgkw.de/Vortrags-Skripte/Willers/KGKW%20Willers.pdf

Preparing for this BLOG POST I reread pp. 35-38 of Textiles of Late Antiquity, a 1995 Metropolitan Museum of Art Publication, and Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt, an Exhibition Catalogue of 2020, organized by the George Washington University Museum, The Textile Museum, and Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. https://museum.gwu.edu/woven-interiors-furnishing-early-medieval-egypt

For a Student Activity on The astonishing Tapestry of Dionysus at Abegg-Stiftung, please… Check HERE!

The Etruscan Bronze Chandelier of Cortona

February 4, 2022

by admin Art Etruscan Art Student Activities Worksheets

**Cortona Chandelier (Museum View),** mid 4^th century BC, Bronze, Diameter of 60 cm, Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca e della Città di Cortona, Italy
https://www.toscanaovunquebella.it/en/cortona

Traveller, thou art approaching Cortona! Dost thou reverence age – that fulness of years which, as Pliny says, “in men is venerable, in cities sacred? This is that which demands thy reverence. Here is that, which when the Druidical marvels of thine own land were newly raise, was of hoary antiquity – that, compared to which Rome is but of yesterday – to which most other cities of ancient renown are fresh and green. Thou mayst have wandered far and wide through Italy – nothing hast thou seen more venerable than Cortona. Ere the days of Hector and Achilles, ere Troy itself arose – Cortona was. On that bare and lofty height, whose towered crest holds communion with the cloud, dwelt the heaven-born Dardanus, ere he left Italy to found the Trojan race; and on that mount reigned his father Corythus, and there he was laid in the tomb. Such is the ancient legend, wherefore gainsay it? Away with doubts – pay thy full tribute of homage – acceptam parce movere fidem! Hast thou respect to fallen greatness? – Yon solemn city was once the proudest and the mightiest in the land, the metropolis of Etruria, and now – but enter its gates and look around… writes in 1845 the British scholar and diplomat George Dennis and I think I couldn’t find a better introduction for my new BLOG POST The Etruscan Bronze Chandelier of Cortona. George Dennis, The Cities, and Cemeteries of Etruria, Volume II, pages 432-435 https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/dennis1848bd2/0030/scroll

The city of Cortona, the metropolis of Etruria, a proud and mighty citadel… has a lot of secret beauties for the Traveler to come upon! Amongst them, its Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca e della Città di Cortona or as it is popularly known THE MAEC OF CORTONA. Established in 2005, the MAEC is a museum, according to its official site, that brings together the ancient eighteenth-century collections of the Etruscan Academy such as the Etruscan Chandelier, the Egyptian section, the historical library, and the works of Gino Severini with the most recent archaeological finds that illustrate the history of Cortona. Among these, the “Tabula Cortonensis” and the grave goods of the Sodo circles stand out. The MAEC is also the point of synthesis to understand the realities of the city’s Archaeological Park. https://cortonamaec.org/it/

**Cortona Chandelier,** mid 4^th century BC, Bronze, Diameter of 60 cm, Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca e della Città di Cortona, Italy
https://cortonamaec.org/it/le-opere/

In the splendid new round room of the MAEC, the Cortona visitor can properly admire the Museum’s crown jewel, the Etruscan Bronze Chandelier, hanging from the ceiling, as it was meant to be seen, along with a gypsum cast exhibited in a niche at eye-level for all to marvel at its “frightening” decoration! The famous Chandelier was accidentally found in 1840 by peasants working in a field called Il Bisciaio, just 2,8 km west of Cortona.

The shape of the Chandelier reminds me of a large, circular, shallow bowl. Looking up at the center of the Chandelier’s underside section, the head of Gorgo encircled by snakes, dominates the overall composition. Moving outwards, an innermost ring illustrates four groups of animals fighting, followed by yet another ring of waves running from right to left. The external ring shows a complex scene of eight crouching, ithyphallic Sileni alternating with eight dressed, and bejeweled Sirens. In an alternating scheme four Sileni blow the double aulos, and the other four a syrinx, with seven canes of the same length. Under the hooves of the Sileni, the artist presented eight swimming dolphins. The Bronze Cortona Chandelier is an elaborate antique oil lamp with sixteen oval nozzles. Between the nozzles, sixteen three-dimensional heads of the river-god Acheloos look outward, in a horizontal direction, forming the outermost ring of this amazing creation. What a remarkable composition with such complex imagery! https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298407240_The_Etruscan_Bronze_Lamp_of_Cortona_its_Cosmic_Program_and_its_Attached_Inscription

**Cortona Chandelier (details),** mid 4^th century BC, Bronze, Diameter of 60 cm, Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca e della Città di Cortona, Italy
https://cortonamaec.org/it/le-opere/

The iconographic program of the Etruscan Bronze Lamp of Cortona most probably has a cosmic meaning referring to the Underworld, Ocean, and Heaven (Sky)… according to Bouke Van der Meer. His article The Etruscan Bronze Lamp of Cortona, its Cosmic Program and its Attached Inscription, (June 2014 Latomus 73(2):289-302), is most interesting to read… https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298407240_The_Etruscan_Bronze_Lamp_of_Cortona_its_Cosmic_Program_and_its_Attached_Inscription

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

**Cortona Chandelier (detail),** mid 4^th century BC, Bronze, Diameter of 60 cm, Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca e della Città di Cortona, Italy
https://europeupclose.com/article/cortona/

Simon Bening’s February

January 31, 2022

by admin Art Renaissance Student Activities Worksheets

**Simon Bening** (d. 1561) and his workshop
**Book of Hours, known as the *Golf Book,* February (f. 19v),**c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

Simon Bening’s February scene is a feast for the eyes! Under an impressive green canopy, and in front of a blazing fire the lord and the lady of the Manor House are ready for an evening of festivities and fine dining. Seated on a high-backed chair, a symbol of her social rank, and attended by her handmaiden, the lady of the manor is portrayed spirited, and enthusiastic, chatting with her husband who seems interested, like-minded, and responding. He is lavishly clothed in a tunic with a sable collar holding a bowl of liquid. Like most of the men in the room except the servants, musicians and the dancer, the lord wears a small, soft cap with a slightly raised crown and very narrow rim. The shirt collar, of German origin, is quite high and trimmed by a narrow, gathered edge. Bening presents them in a richly-appointed room, behind an opulent dining table laden with two candlesticks each with a lit candle, a platter of meat, loaves of bread, a metal container possibly for drinks, and a glass goblet which reveals the high social standing of the figures. The large proportions of the room and compositional depth are enhanced by the presence of two doors, on either side of the fireplace. A group of crammed, curiously-looking men is depicted through the left door, and a serious servant carrying a bowl of food emerges through the right door. We are witnesses of a true Renaissance feast in the making! https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/157 and https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

For Simon Bening, presenting a scene of feasting is not enough! I sense anticipation rising high… I imagine the hosts, the servants, and the guests eager for the entertainment to begin! A troop of musicians… accompanied by a rather mischievous-looking jester, are ready! To the left of the composition, two servants holding torches, just like Renaissance spotlights, illuminate the scene. On the opposite side, a group of musicians playing a melody on a flute to the sound of a drum set the tone for merriment! Beside them is a jester or fool in the typical horned cap with bells and mock scepter. He looks utterly mischievous… Is he about to make some impudent, risqué comment? Is the young, a fashionably dressed couple in the center, the target of his bold wit? https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/157 and https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

Simon Bening takes time and effort to present us with a powerful couple of impeccable tastes… stylish, and trendy! They are about to start dancing, and he is the protagonist of the scene… wearing a doublet with gusseted sleeves and full-length hose with a ribbon tied around each leg. He differs from the others, present in the composition, by his loose, decorative, slit sleeves hanging from the forearm… the golden dagger tied to his waist… his narrow, closed footwear, of the duck’s beak type that appeared around 1530. What an amazing presentation! We can only speculate which winter feast is celebrated on Bening’s February page. Perhaps a feast related to Carnival, as suggested by the image of another small jester painted in cameo fashion in a niche on the left of the border around the painting. Perhaps not… https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/157

For a PowerPoint on the Golf Book, please… Check HERE!

For a Student Activity on Simon Bening’s February page, please… Check HERE!

**Simon Bening** (d. 1561) and his workshop
**Book of Hours, known as the *Golf Book,* February (f. 20r),**c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/

Theotokos ton Blachernon in Constantinople

January 14, 2022

by admin Byzantium Student Activities Worksheets

**The Ride of Emperor Theophilos to the Church of Theotokos ton Blachernon**
**Madrid Skylitzes Illuminated Manuscript**, 12th to the 13^th centuries, Manuscript on Parchment, 36 x 27 cm, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Spain
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Emperor_Theophilus_visits_St_Mary_of_Blachernae.jpg

According to John Skylitzes, the 11th-century historian, the Byzantine Emperor Theophilos (r. 829–42)… ἀπῄειἑκάστης ἑβδομάδος ἔφιππος διὰ τῆς λεωφόρου ἐπὶ τὸν ἐν Βλαχέρναις τῆς θεομήτορος θεῖον ναόν, ὑπὸ τῶν δορυφόρων παραπεμπόμενος… each week would ride out on horseback together with his bodyguard along the thoroughfare leading to the sacred Church Theotokos ton Blachernon in Constantinople… the most important Pilgrimage Complex in the Βασιλεύουσα dedicated to the Mother of God. https://byzantium.gr/keimena/skylitzes.php and https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/john-skylitzes-a-synopsis-of-byzantine-history-8111057/michael-iii-the-son-of-theophilos-842867-and-his-mother-theodora-842862/CF57964EF1A48FA4EBDD26D8CF54FE3E

**Blachernae Palace Area, Constantinople**
1. Basilica Church of Theotokos ton Blachernon, 2. Hagia Soros Chapel, 3. Danubios Hall, 4. Okeanos Hall, 5. Anastasiakos Hall, named after Emperor Anastasius I (r. 491–518) who built it, 6.Alexiakos Hall, 7. So-called Anemas Dungeons, 8. Palace bath recently found, 9. Palace of Manuel Comnenus, 10. Chapel, 11.Palace of Empress Bertha, 12.Tower of Isaac Angelus
http://www.byzantium1200.com/blachernae.html

At the breezy and woody suburb of Blachernai, on the shores of Golden Horn, just outside the Theodosian city walls, the Byzantine Pilgrimage Complex of Blachernae comprised of the Basilica Church of Theotokos ton Blacernon, the Hagia Soros Chapel, where the Maphorion (the holy veil) of the Virgin was kept, and the Lousma, an Edifice built over a natural spring of mineral water, which was used for Baths, to which healing qualities were attributed at some point by the 5th century. It is traditionally believed that Pulcheria and Emperor Maurice were the founders of the Vlachernai complex, but according to Procopius and recent research (C. Mango), the theory that the Basilica Church was erected by Emperor Justin I (518-527) was brought forward. http://constantinople.ehw.gr/forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11778

Procopius in his De Aedificiis, I.3.3-5, describes the Basilica Church as… τὸν μὲν οὖν ἕνα τῆς θεοτόκου νεὼν ᾠκοδομήσατο πρὸ τοῦ περιβόλου ἐν χώρῳ καλουμένῳ Βλαχέρναις· αὐτῷ γὰρ λογιστέον καὶ τὰ Ἰουστίνῳ εἰργασμένα τῷ θείῳ, ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτοῦ τὴν βασιλείαν κατ’ ἐξουσίαν αὐτὸς διῳκεῖτο, ἐπιθαλάσσιος δὲ ὁ νεώς ἐστιν, ἱερώτατός τε καὶ σεμνὸς ἄγαν, ἐπιμήκης μέν, κατὰ λόγον δὲ περιβεβλημένος τῷ μήκει τὸ εὖρος, τά τε ἄνω καὶ τὰ κάτω ἄλλῳ οὐδενὶ ἀνεχόμενος ὅτι μὴ τμήμασι λίθου Παρίου ἐν κιόνων λόγῳ ἐνταῦθα ἑστῶσι… (This church is on the sea, a most holy and very stately church, of unusual length and yet of a breadth well proportioned to its length, both its upper and its lower parts being supported by nothing but sections of Parian stone which stand there to serve as columns. And in all the other parts of the church these columns are set in straight lines, except at the centre, where they recede. Anyone upon entering this church would marvel particularly at the greatness of the mass which is held in place without instability, and at the magnificence which is free from bad taste.) https://archive.org/details/procopius00proc_0/page/38/mode/2up pages 38-41

The Basilica Church of Theotokos ton Blacernon, still outside the city walls in 626, at the time of the Avar siege, was spared destruction, because of a miraculous intervention of the Theotokos who spared her own church as a sign of her power and grace. During the following centuries, the Virgin Vlachernitissa came to be considered as the city’s divine protector par excellence. George Pisides, the 7th-century poet describes Blachernae beautifully… If you seek the dread throne of God on the earth, marvel as you look at the house of the Virgin; for she who carries God in her arms carries him to the majesty of this place. Here those appointed to rule the earth believe that their scepters are made victorious; here the vigilant patriarch averts many catastrophes in the world. The barbarians, attacking the city, on seeing her alone at the head of the army, at once bent their unbending necks.’ http://constantinople.ehw.gr/forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11778 and https://figshare.com/articles/online_resource/E00568_Two_Greek_epigrams_by_George_Pisides_in_the_shrine_of_the_Blachernae_at_Constantinople_celebrating_the_miraculous_raising_of_the_626_siege_of_Constantinople_with_the_help_of_Mary_Mother_of_Christ_S00033_Recorded_in_the_10th_c_Greek_A/13800251/1

**Basilica Church of Theotokos ton Blachernon,** original construction5^th century, Istanbul, Turkey
**Theotokos ton Blachernon,** drawing of 1877, from A.G. Paspates’ Byzantine Topographical Studies
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Church_of_St._Mary_of_Blachernae_(Istanbul)#/media/File:Saint_Mary_of_Blachernae_8940.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Church_of_St._Mary_of_Blachernae_(Istanbul)#/media/File:Saint_Mary_of_Blachernae_8938.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St._Mary_of_Blachernae_(Istanbul)#/media/File:To_agiasma_ton_vlahernon.JPG

Unfortunately, the church was entirely destroyed by a fire in 1070, rebuilt by 1077, and destroyed once more by fire, in 1434 when the damaged portico of the Church was hit by lightning in a great storm. The fire was seen all over the city and was one of the last great disasters to strike Christian Constantinople… a huge blow to the morale of the city and the Imperial family who could not afford to spend money on reconstructions, but on cleaning and repairing the City Moat and Walls. http://constantinople.ehw.gr/forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11778 and https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/church-of-mary-of-the-blachernae.html

The existing Church of Theotokos ton Blachernon is dated to the mid-19th century. The istorikon of the modern Church starts in 1867 when the guild of Orthodox Greek furriers bought land in Istanbul, including the lot with the Hagiasma/Holy Water Shrine of the original Blachernae Complex. A hundred and fifty years later, with the care of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, a small Church was “rebuilt” on the site of what was once the most important pilgrimage shrine of Theotokos at Constantinople… the site where the “Akathistos Hymnos” was first sung… http://constantinople.ehw.gr/forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11778

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

Villa Arianna’s Dionysus and Ariadne Fresco

January 7, 2022

by admin Art Roman Art Roman Frecoes Student Activities Worksheets

**Ariadne on Naxos, 4^th Pompeian Style Fresco, Villa Arianna grand Triclinium, (fresco and Room No. 3),** 1^st century AD, Stabiae, Italy
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triclinio_3_di_Villa_Arianna#/media/File:Affresco_particolare_23.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triclinio_3_di_Villa_Arianna#/media/File:Mito_ri_Arianna.jpg

Lying in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius… Stabiae is home to a group of enormous, sea-edge, Villae Marittimae, which are set on a cliff above the modern town of Castellammare di Stabia. We know of at least six of these villas, built directly next to one another—a sort of Roman high-rent resort district next to the small town of Stabiae. They were beautifully preserved by the eruption of 79 A.D., with standing walls, some of the highest quality frescoes surviving from antiquity, and some of the most innovative garden architecture in the Roman world. On the 13^th of October I presented you with information on Villa Arianna, today, on the 11^th of December… let’s discuss Villa Arianna’s Dionysus and Ariadne Fresco. https://www.baslibrary.org/archaeology-odyssey/8/1/5

**Ariadne on Naxos, 4^th Pompeian Style Fresco, Villa Arianna grand Triclinium, Room No. 3,** 1^st century AD, Stabiae, Italy
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triclinio_3_di_Villa_Arianna#/media/File:Mito_ri_Arianna.jpg

**Villa Arianna Areal View**
https://www.stabiaholidayhouse.it/en/visit-to-the-ancient-stabiae/
**Villa Arianna Plan,** Stabiae (after Kockel 1985 with corrections by Allroggen-Bedel A. and De Vos M.) https://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/VF/Villa_102%20Stabiae%20Villa%20Arianna%20plan.htm

Villa Arianna was lavishly decorated with frescoes and portable furnishings, an undisputed testimony of the expensive lifestyle the owners enjoyed, and evidence of their refined taste and style. One such high-quality fresco, drawing inspiration from the myth of Dionysus and Ariadne, gave the Villa its modern name.

Ιmagine the scene… Theseus and Ariadne flee Crete in a hurry. With the help of Ariadne, Theseus had just killed the horrible Minotaur in the depths of Knossos’s palace maze. Their first stop to rest on their way to Athens is the island of Naxos… where the story unfolds dramatically and excitingly. God Dionysus, in love with Ariadne, appears to Theseus in his sleep and convinces him to abandon Ariadne at Naxos and continue his trip alone. Ariadne, unaware of divine intervention disembarks at Naxos enchanted by the beauty of the island, happily explores it, and tired falls asleep on the beautiful islet of Palatia. When she wakes up… god Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Dione, looks at her adoringly and a new love affair is in the making. A glorious wedding follows and an eternal gift is still with us to admire… the constellation known as Corona Borealis is said to be Dionysus’s wedding gift to Ariadne, a special ornament to adorn her beautiful head.

Please take the time to look at the Villa’s Plan, locate Room 3, and imagine a December Symposium night two thousand years ago…

Villa Arianna’s Dionysus and Ariadne Fresco is a small part of Villa’s grand Triclinium decoration. Room 3 is decorated in the 4th Pompeian Style, elaborate and complex as it can be, combining large-scale Narrative Painting, small Panoramic Vistas, and Still Lifes, within an architectural fantasy of pedestals, aediculae, columns, entablatures, and… theatrical masks! The Villa’s grand Triclinium decoration doesn’t resemble any believable space but instead consists of a variety of architectural elements arranged in an unrealistic manner with an unrealistic perspective, set against a flat background. The three large mythological scenes framed in blue on a yellow and red ground above a lower red and black decorative frieze are the room’s main artistic attraction. A panel presenting the myth of Dionysus and Ariadne decorates the South Wall, a rare scene of Lycurgus and Ambrosia is presented on the West Wall, and on the East Wall, the unknown master painter of the grand Triclinium presented the myth of Zeus and Ganymede. https://depts.washington.edu/hrome/Authors/ninamil7/TheFourStylesofRomanWallPaintings/pub_zbarticle_view_printable.html

Room number 3 was Villa Arianna’s grand Triclinium… the main dining room of a luxurious Roman residence, so-called because of the three banqueting couches (klinai) arranged around the walls. All you have to do is… imagine a warm summer night, overlooking the Bay of Naples, in the company of good friends, bathed in the flickering light, and content with scrumptious food… If you were the owner of Villa Arianna, life was good!

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

**Ariadne on Naxos, 4^th Pompeian Style Fresco, Villa Arianna grand Triclinium – South Wall, (Room No. 3 on the Villa Plan),** 1^st century AD, Stabiae, Italy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabiae#/media/File:Villa_Arianna_(Stabia)_WLM_099.JPG

**Ariadne on Naxos (detail – Mask and Landscape scene), 4^th Pompeian Style Fresco, Villa Arianna grand Triclinium – South Wall, ( (Room No. 3 on the Villa Plan),** 1^st century AD, Stabiae, Italy
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triclinio_3_di_Villa_Arianna#/media/File:Affresco_particolare_7.jpg

Suzanne Valadon

January 4, 2022

by admin 20th century Art Art Post-Impressionism Student Activities Worksheets

**Suzanne Valadon (Marie-Clémentine Valadon),** 1865-1938
**Self Portrait with Family (**Suzanne Valadon is in the center, flanked by André Utter and her mother, with her son at the foreground), 1912, oil on canvas, 97 x 73 cm, Le Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/cyjjkkA#&gid=viewer-lightbox&pid=0

The French artist Suzanne Valadon is the protagonist of a unique Exhibition at the Barnes, in the heart of Philadelphia, that introduces to the general public a late 19^th – early 20th-century Woman of extraordinary qualities. The Exhibition will be open to the public until the 9^th of January, 2021, and so far, the Artist and the Exhibition have been described as… A thrilling tour of [her] portraits, nudes, still lifes, and drawings by The New York Times, or… A brilliant artist making breathtaking paintings that have the flat, colorful solidity of Gauguin, but a piercing intelligence and emotional insight by The Washington Post, or… She is a maverick artist, who often drew from her own life to create a body of work that envisions the 20th-century woman by WHYY, and Breathing new life into rebellious early 20th-century art by the Broad Street Review. https://www.barnesfoundation.org/whats-on/exhibitions/suzanne-valadon?gclid=CjwKCAjwzaSLBhBJEiwAJSRokgRhEY928WI-tXfLFrUON5esRwP3uD8RRKR9pNAu2rdgIPlxP88W8hoCkC4QAvD_BwE

**Maurice Utrillo and his mother Suzanne Valadon**, c. 1890 by an unknown photographer
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M_Utrillo_et_sa_m%C3%A8re_S_Valadon_vers_1890.jpg

Born Marie-Clémentine, Suzanne Valadon, was born into poverty, as the daughter of an unmarried domestic worker. She grew up in Montmartre, the bohemian quarter of Paris, supporting herself from the age of ten with odd jobs: waitress, nanny, and circus performer. A fall from a trapeze led her in a new direction…that of modeling for some of the most important artists of her time. She was more than a model… she became the muse and the friend of artists like Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Amedeo Modigliani, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Miguel Utrillo, who agreed to give Maurice, Valadon’s son, born out of wedlock, his last name and legally recognize him as his son. Suzanne was artistic. She loved to draw while in the company of her artists/friends, practice her skills by observing them paint, and with the encouragement and tutelage of her mentor Edgar Degas, learn how to master the art of drawing and etching techniques. Valadon soon transitioned from an artist’s model into a successful artist with …a complicated personal life. She was a free spirit and a bohemian in every sense of the word… Suzanne Valadon, her second husband André Utter, and her son Maurice Utrillo were known as the trinité maudite (cursed trinity) because the family environment was characterized by violent outbursts, reconciliations, and alcoholism. https://nmwa.org/art/artists/suzanne-valadon/ and https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/10/15/renoirs-art-model-was-the-greatest-painter-you-never-heard-of/?fbclid=IwAR33WEcmDTxJ4n84O07M7RIJ1rv5WaCZb8Xtc8auSwKRndJhQPfTpaliFZI and https://www.arts-spectacles.com/Valadon-Utrillo-et-Utter-la-trinite-maudite-entre-Paris-et-Saint-Bernard-1909-1939-du-16-octobre-au-12-fevrier-2012_a6460.html

**Suzanne Valadon (Marie-Clémentine Valadon),** 1865-1938
**Self-Portrait,** 1898, Oil on Canvas, 40×26.7 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suzanne_Valadon_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

The artist is famous for her unapologetic female and male nudes… bold, controversial, and provocative! My favourite Valadon painting is her 1912 Self Portrait with Family…odd, disturbing, and unconventional. https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/cyjjkkA#&gid=viewer-lightbox&pid=0

The Centre Pompidou painting shows Suzanne Valadon in the center, flanked by André Utter, her second husband, her mother Magdeleine Valadon, and her son in the foreground, Maurice Utrillo. Suzanne Valadon is the only one directly facing the viewer, but she does so tentatively, with her hand on her chest… Utter and Madame Valadon are gazing to their right, each foreseeing a different future: the young man looks confident and rather content, while the woman – all wrinkled and slightly hunchbacked, with the corners of her mouth turned downwards – appears resigned. Maurice Utrillo’s depiction earns the most sympathy, for he seems to be the most miserable and out of place, gazing melancholically with his head leaning on his hand, as if he simply cannot muster the energy to stand or sit upright… What an unusual family portrait! https://artschaft.com/2018/05/23/suzanne-valadon-family-portrait-1912/

For a Student Activity inspired by the Exhibition at the Barnes, in Philadelphia, please… Check HERE!

**Suzanne Valadon (Marie-Clémentine Valadon),** 1865-1938
**Portrait of the painter Maurice Utrillo,** 1921, Collection of the City of Sannois, Val d’Oise, France, on temporary loan to the Musée de Montmartre, Paris
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maurice_Utrillo,_par_Suzanne_Valadon.jpg

Simon Bening’s January

January 1, 2022

by admin Art Powerpoints Renaissance Student Activities Worksheets

**Simon Bening** (d. 1561) and his workshop
**Book of Hours, known as the *Golf Book,* January (f. 18v),**c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/01/a-calendar-page-for-january-2013.html

It’s the 1^st of January 2022… It is time to start a new Calendar Presentation… and Wish you ALL a Happy New Year, Health, Love, and Prosperity!!! Let’s start the Year with Simon Bening’s January, our new BLOG POST.

My search for the perfect Calendar for the new year is a long process, and starts during summer! I want each “Calendar under Focus” to embrace and present every month in a comprehensive way… to make me wonder how effectual it can be. I search for information on the artist who created it and the patron who commissioned it. I want to explore and present you with Calendars of different mediums… For example, the 2000 Calendar presentation was on the Maestro Venceslao Fresco Calendar in Torre Aquila, Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, Italy. In 2021 I focused on a Venetian Set of Doors presenting the Twelve Months created by an anonymous Venetian artist in the National Gallery in London. This year it is time to turn to an Illuminated Manuscript, a medium I love, and present you a 16^th century famous Book of Hours with an interesting name… the Golf Book! https://www.teachercurator.com/art/the-month-of-january/ and https://www.teachercurator.com/art/the-labours-of-the-months-february/ and http://searcharchives.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?docId=IAMS032-002031376&fn=permalink&vid=IAMS_VU2

Some of the greatest paintings and drawings of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, according to Wendy A. Stein, are not displayed on church and museum walls; instead, they shine forth from the pages… of very special illuminated manuscripts known as Books of Hours. Thousands of Books of Hours made between 1250 and 1700 survive today in libraries and museums, a testament to their popularity in their heyday, especially in northern Europe. They were functional prayer books made for the nonordained, and the paintings in them were intended to foster reflection and devotion. Each Book of Hours was unique, serving the spiritual needs of its patron. Book of Hours were devotional books containing prayers to be recited at set times of the day. By the 15th century, the norm was to contain the Hours of the Virgin, a Calendar, a set of Gospel lessons, Hours focusing on the Cross, a group of Psalms, and prayers to saints called Suffrages. It is interesting how most Books of Hours begin with a Calendar, to help the owner keep track of saints’ days and other feasts. Each month gets a page with listed days, holy days are often written in red (the origin of the term “red letter day”), and significant feast days are written in gold letters. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hour/hd_hour.htm

**Simon Bening** (d. 1561) and his workshop
**Book of Hours, known as the *Golf Book,* January (f. 18v – f. 19f ),**c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/01/a-calendar-page-for-january-2013.html

The 16^th century Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, is a very unique and special manuscript in the Collection of the British Library. Unfortunately, the Golf Book is not, in its present state, a complete manuscript as most of the text is now missing. Thirty parchment leaves, however, remain, twenty-one pages of which, are full-page miniatures, in colours and gold, surrounded by a historiated border (12 pages are part of the Calendar section). The remaining forty pages feature historiated borders as well, that incorporate medallions, architectonic decoration, and cameos in grisaille and semi-grisaille. The text pages present large and small initials and line-fillers, in colours and gold. Simon Bening (d. 1561), with the assistance of his workshop, was the artist from Bruges responsible for this amazing manuscript. Bening’s accomplishments will feature in the Month of February Presentation. http://searcharchives.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?docId=IAMS032-002031376&fn=permalink&vid=IAMS_VU2

**Simon Bening** (d. 1561) and his workshop
**Book of Hours, known as the *Golf Book,* January (details of f. 18v),**c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/01/a-calendar-page-for-january-2013.html

The miniatures for the Month of January (ff. 18v-19r) cover two pages facing each other. Folio18v is a full-page miniature of a winter landscape with peasants busy with their chores or simply relaxing, and enjoying the pleasures of a cold, snowy day. The protagonists of the composition are the couple in the foreground chopping and collecting wood. Next comes the couple inside the house behind them – one wall of which is conveniently missing to show the indoor scene. The room, showing signs of certain wealth, is warm and cozy with a linen-covered table, set with food and drink – the fruits of their hard work. The Lady of the house is breastfeeding her baby in front of a raging fire, the Lord of the house is relaxing… talking to her, I want to imagine, planning their family future! A busy landscape completes the composition… a windmill on a promontory with a peasant carrying his load towards it, a church with a person coming out of it, and other people talking or simply strolling about wrapped up in capes or warm clothes to protect themselves from the cold. Several bare trees with snow-lined branches, birds resting on the roof-top, a smoking chimney, and a clear, blue sky, complete the full-page composition. The historiated borders of both folios presenting to the Month of January (ff 18v and 19r) include depictions, in cameo fashion, of children or youths pulling sleds. What an amazing scene Simon Bening’s January is! https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/156

For a PowerPoint on the Golf Book, please… Check HERE!

For a Student Activity on Simon Bening’s January page, please… Check HERE!

Apolausis the personification of Enjoyment

December 30, 2021

by admin Art Byzantium Early Christian Art Student Activities Worksheets

**Floor Mosaic with Bust of Apolausis/Enjoyment** (Baths of Apolausis, Pool Room West of the Frigidarium), late 4th century-early 5th century, Mosaic on Mortar, 98×266 cm, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, USA
http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%222606%22&sort=0&page=2

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described… said Jean Jacques Rousseau… but at the vestibule of the Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Enjoyment has a face… the Floor Mosaic with Apolausis the personification of Enjoyment welcomes visitors since its doors opened to the public in 1941and I can not think of a better way to welcome you to the New Year! May 2022 be a Year of pure Enjoyment! https://www.stresslesscountry.com/enjoyment-quotes/

Antioch on the Orontes, the modern-day city of Antakya in Turkey, was founded near the end of the fourth century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great’s generals and successors to his Empire. It flourished and prospered, rivaling even the city of Alexandria in Egypt, as the capital of the Seleucid Empire until 63 BC, when the Romans took control in Syria. Called the cradle of Christianity, Antioch, a great military, and economic metropolis with a population of about 250,000 people became the hub of both Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. The city’s decline started during the Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628 and continued during the Umayyad period as Antioch found itself on the frontline of the conflicts between two hostile empires, the Byzantine, and the rising realm of the Arabs. In 1268 the Baibars (Mamluks of Egypt), besieged Antioch, capturing the city on May 18, marking, thus, the end of its history. https://vrc.princeton.edu/archives/collections/show/7 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioch

Between 1932 and 1939, archaeological excavations of Antioch, its wealthy suburb Daphne, and the port city of Seleucia Pieria, were undertaken under the direction of the “Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and Its Vicinity”, which was made up of representatives from Princeton University, the National Museums of France, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum, and later (1936), Mr. and Mrs. Bliss, founders of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Archaeologists unearthed magnificent public and private buildings, and …over three hundred mosaic pavements. The Syrian Government agreed that in return for their contributions, the institutions and the donors to the excavation project would receive archaeological finds like the Apolausis Floor Mosaic. https://vrc.princeton.edu/archives/collections/show/7 and https://www.getty.edu/publications/romanmosaics/catalogue/excavations-antioch/ and http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%222606%22&sort=0&page=2

**Excavation Photo showing the Mosaic of Apolausis,** Bath of Apolausis – Pool Room West of the Frigidarium, Antioch, Syria, 1938 Antioch Expedition Archives, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University No. 4082
**Plan of the Bath of Apolausis,** based on an original excavation drawing (Stillwell, 1941, plan 5)
https://www.getty.edu/publications/romanmosaics/catalogue/excavations-antioch/#&gid=1&pid=4
https://www.getty.edu/publications/romanmosaics/catalogue/excavations-antioch/#&gid=1&pid=2

The Bath of Apolausis, a small public building that originally served an agricultural complex or group of country villas on the eastern side of the plain of Antioch, at the foot of Mount Silpios was richly decorated with floor mosaics and wall frescoes. Today, the mosaics discovered in this small Bath-House are shared between the Getty Museum (Mosaic Floor with Animals), the Hatay Museum (Sotiria/Salvation Floor Mosaic), and the Dumbarton Oaks (Apolausis/Enjoyment Floor Mosaic). https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/103452/unknown-maker-panel-from-a-mosaic-floor-from-antioch-central-panel-part-of-70ah96-roman-syrian-about-ad-400/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spir8xGciQo and http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%222606%22&sort=0&page=2

The personification of Apolausis/Enjoyment, after which the bath was named, decorated the bottom of a large pool with an apsidal end accessed through a doorway on the west side of the octagonal Hall/Frigidarium. As Dr. Will Wootton noted during a 2016 lecture… water would have run over the surface of the Apolausis floor Mosaic… showing that the water was so clear and pure that you could see the mosaic perfectly beneath it. http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%222606%22&sort=0&page=2 and https://www.doaks.org/newsletter/how-mosaics-were-made-and-made-known

To Celebrate the New Year with your Kindergarten – Early Elementary School students… do a HAND-FAN Activity. Create simple, paper HAND-FANS and decorate them with Synonyms to ENJOYMENT! Add a beautiful coloured ribbon and… Voila!!!

For the Student Activity Worksheet, please Check HERE!

Five O’Clock Tea with Mary Stevenson Cassatt

December 14, 2021

by admin 19th century Art American Art Art Impressionism Student Activities Worksheets

**Mary Stevenson Cassatt,** 1844-1926
**Five O’Clock Tea,** 1880, Oil on Canvas, 64.7×92 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Cassatt_-_The_Tea_-_MFA_Boston_42.178.jpg

I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o’clock… Oscar Wilde humorously wrote in Act 1 of his famous play The Importance of Being Earnest… Five O’Clock Tea with Mary Stevenson Cassatt is how an American painter portrayed, in all seriousness, the same customary ritual with paints. https://www.shmoop.com/importance-of-being-earnest/act-i-full-text-2.html

**Cassatt seated in a chair with an umbrella. Verso reads “The only photograph for which she ever posed. Courtesy of Durand-Ruel.”,** 1913
Source: http://digitalcollections.frick.org/digico/#/archive/Archives/Images%20of%20Artists%20
Images of Artists Collection. The Frick Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Cassatt_photograph_1913.jpg

Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844 – 1926) was a fortunate lady! Born into a prosperous family in Pennsylvania who believed it was important for women to receive an education, she grew up attending school in Philadelphia and traveling to Europe where …Art kept changing. Reaching adulthood, she persuaded her parents that her life’s destination was to be in Europe, and painting professionally was to become her life’s pursuit! It was not easy for her father to accept Mary’s artistic ambition, but after serious deliberation, he came around and… in 1866, with her mother and family friends acting as chaperones, she settled in Paris and was accepted to study Art in the private studios of Jean-Léon Gérôme, Charles Joshua Chaplin and Thomas Couture. She expanded her training with daily copying in the Louvre and trips to the French countryside where she drew from life. Two years later, in 1868, her painting A Mandoline Player, was accepted for exhibition in the Paris Salon. She was noticed as a professional painter, but she was not fully content!

Everything changed in 1877 when she submitted paintings to enter the year’s Salon and was rejected by the committee. When she met Edgar Degas, an artist she greatly admired, Cassatt was disillusioned with academic painting and eager to experiment. The French artist invited her to collaborate with the Impressionists and exhibit with them in 1879, during the 4th Impressionist Exhibition… I accepted with joy, she later recalled as I hated conventional art. She was one of just a few women, and the only American, to exhibit with the group. She was finally happy in an artistic environment that suited her needs… Plein Air painting, vibrant, metallic in some cases, color, in short, dancing brushstrokes, flat space, the discovery of Japanism… and scenes of everyday modern life in Paris – her family, friends, and their children. https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/Education/learning-resources/an-eye-for-art/AnEyeforArt-MaryCassatt.pdf and https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32829/the-tea;jsessionid=20E4DE2A8A06D4816FA7D20AFF171D7C?ctx=884b7166-374f-468a-8909-136f2658e914&idx=7

**Mary Stevenson Cassatt,** 1844-1926
**Five O’Clock Tea (Details – 2 women),** 1880, Oil on Canvas, 64.7×92 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
https://atsunnyside.blog/2018/08/31/tea-by-mary-cassatt-1880/

In 1880 Mary Cassatt painted Five O’Clock Tea documenting the trendy social ritual of well-to-do women like herself. Paintings of women taking afternoon tea became a popular theme for Cassatt in the late 1870s and early 1880s, and in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Mary Cassatt aficionados can admire three fine examples of this trend, two paintings in oil and a print. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cast/hd_cast.htm

**Mary Stevenson Cassatt,** 1844-1926
**The Cup of Tea,** ca. 1880–81, Oil on Canvas, 92.4 x 65.4 cm, the MET, NY, USA
**Afternoon Tea Party,** 1890–91, Drypoint and aquatint, printed in color from three plates, Plate: 34.6 x 26.7 cm, the MET, NY, USA
**Lady at the Tea Table,** 1883–85, Oil on Canvas, 73.7 x 61 cm, the MET, NY, USA
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/The_Cup_of_Tea_MET_DT88.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Afternoon_Tea_Party_MET_DP819587.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Lady_at_the_Tea_Table_MET_DT516.jpg

The MFA Five O’Clock Tea, modern, intimate, and informal, is my favourite. It displays a contemporary drawing room, sometimes described as Cassatt’s own. The fine striped wallpaper and carved marble fireplace, ornamented with an elaborately framed painting and a porcelain jar, are typical of an upper-middle class Parisian interior, and the antique Silver Tea Service on the foreground table implies a distinguished family history. The truth is that the depicted Tea Service was part of a family Tea Set made in Philadelphia about 1813, of which six pieces (but not the tray) are now in the MFA’s collection. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32829/the-tea;jsessionid=20E4DE2A8A06D4816FA7D20AFF171D7C?ctx=884b7166-374f-468a-8909-136f2658e914&idx=7 and https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7f/ef/3d/7fef3d6daead8cc0cbed4636a232971f.jpg

**Mary Stevenson Cassatt,** 1844-1926
**Five O’Clock Tea (Detail Tea Set),** 1880, Oil on Canvas, 64.7×92 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
https://atsunnyside.blog/2018/08/31/tea-by-mary-cassatt-1880/

Mary Cassatt’s Five O’Clock Tea is a testimony to modernity by rejecting several traditional artistic conventions. For example, the artist denies the human form its usual compositional primacy as the tea service seems larger in scale than the women themselves. Taking further steps towards novelty in art, Mary Cassattt renders the depicted guest in the transitory act of drinking. By selecting the only point in the action when her subject’s face is almost completely hidden by the teacup, Cassatt reiterates her modernist creed that her painting is not only about representing likeness, but also about design and color. Furthermore, she uses the oval shapes of cups and saucers, trays, hats, and faces as repetitive patterns, offsetting the strict graphic geometry of the gray and rose striped wallpaper. I am not surprised that J.-K. Huysmans wrote that the Five O’Clock Tea was an excellent canvas. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32829/the-tea;jsessionid=20E4DE2A8A06D4816FA7D20AFF171D7C?ctx=884b7166-374f-468a-8909-136f2658e914&idx=7

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

Teacher Curator

Posts in category: Student Activities

Byzantine Girdle

The astonishing Tapestry of Dionysus at Abegg-Stiftung

The Etruscan Bronze Chandelier of Cortona

Simon Bening’s February

Theotokos ton Blachernon in Constantinople

Villa Arianna’s Dionysus and Ariadne Fresco

Suzanne Valadon

Simon Bening’s January

Apolausis the personification of Enjoyment

Five O’Clock Tea with Mary Stevenson Cassatt