Walters Art Museum 2024

We made another visit to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (see our previous visit here and here).

Our first stop was the temporary exhibit (i.e. on display until September 8, 2024) Reflect & Remix: Art Inspiring Artists. The idea is to link works of art that are similar mediums or styles across art history, where subsequent art has been influence by the work of previous generations. The first example is stained glass, with a window called Saint Andrew and a Donor from sixteenth century Belgium. Saint Amelie by Kehinde Wiley shows a resident of Brooklyn posed as a figure from a stained glass window in the twentieth century.  

Saint Andrew and a Donor

Saint Amelie

Gilden enamel graces Book Plaque with Christ in Majesty from around 1200. The same graces a cover for Binding for a Book of Hours crafted in 1878 by binders Gruel and Englemann with jeweler Alexis Falize for the Paris Exposition Universelle in the same year. It's a display piece because there is no actual book inside the cover!

Christ in Majesty and Liturgy of the Hours covers

The top Shallow Bowl with Deer Against Foliated Background dates from the late 1200s (also no artist identified) in Iran (or Persia, as they called it back then). The bottom Large Dish with Deer Motif was designed by Leonardus Johannes Senf for De Porceleyne Fles, one of the many Delft manufacturers. 

Two similar bowls

The printing block below is a recreation of a Japanese single-color block used for the print above it. I think it is funny that the print has a "do not touch" sign while the block has a sign asking visitors to touch it and see if they can feel the image.

Japanese printing block

The 1400s Florentine work The Ideal City was copied by a local middle school art class and given their own interpretation and enhancement.

Two Utopias?

We also looked at works displayed in the regular collection. We went to the top floor and worked our way down. The top exhibits (at least, geographical top!) are from the Asian and Islamic collection. The display below with Chinese funerary items dates from third millennium BC to seventh and eighth century AD. Some objects represented servants or items people wanted in the afterlife, presuming there was one. Over four thousand years, popular opinion varied about what happens after death.

Funerary objects

The Lidded Jar with Carp in Lotus Pond dates from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), having been crafted in the mid-1500s. Fish are a popular motif since the Chinese word for fish, yu, is similar to the word for "abundance" and "plentiful." This exquisitely painted jar is one of only nine known similar jars in the world.

Lidded Jar with Carp in Lotus Pond

Nearby is a suit of armor from Japan. The helmet dates from the sixteenth century while the rest of the suit comes from eighteenth and nineteenth century craftsmen. The character on the breastplate and helmet is Buddhist deity Fudo Myoo, also known as "the immovable one." The suit was probably ceremonial or for display since the Edo period (1615-1868) was more or less peaceful. 

Suit of Armor

Close-up of the helmet and Fudo Myoo

The Seated Buddha dates from Myanmar's eighteenth or nineteenth century. It is set up like it would have been in a temple with other statues flanking it and an area for offerings to the Buddha.

Seated Buddha

The Jeweled Gun Set of Mahmud I (reigned from 1730-1754) had many artists work on it. The gun barrel has the mark of Isma'il, the gunsmith, along with the date 1732 and ma sha'a Allah or "What God has willed." The gun has secret compartments for a dagger and some equipment for using the gun. It is decorated with over three thousand gemstones.

Jeweled Gun Set of Mahmud I

This set of Islamic arms date from the 1500s to the 1800s. In addition to rulers showing off, arms were also displayed in the Ottoman Empire's museums in the 1800s as a sign of their proud military history.

Islamic arms and armor

This tile with a map of Mecca was made by an unidentified artist in the seventeenth century. The cobalt blue is very striking.

Tile with Map of Mecca

The next floor down has a lot of Western Medieval art. This Virgin and Child statue is from sixth or seventh century Egypt. The unusual size and shape are because it was carved from an elephant's tusk. This is an example of Byzantine Eleousa, or the "Virgin of tenderness." The large eyes are also typical of Egyptian art from the period.

Virgin and Child

Adoration of the Kings by William Stetter in 1526 has the typical milieu of a Renaissance version of the scene. The Holy Family has taken refuge in some ruins. The wise men or kings are different ages. The youngest is in contemporary German clothing. Their retinue is visible in the back of the painting and seems to stretch on and on.

Adoration of the Kings

This unusual Annunciation by Jean Bellegambe is taken from an altar piece in Brussels. The center of the altar piece was in full color but the high wings used grisaille or shades of gray to suggest stone statues in niches rather than paintings. Thus the pale clothing and the realistic shadows give it an unusual appearance. Also, the two images would have been further apart.

The Annunciation

I was fascinated by this next ivory statue from the 1200s. It is Vierge Ouvrante de Boubon, a Marian statue that opens up to reveal a scene inside. This one shows scenes from Christ's Passion in a triptych style. When closed, Mary and the Christ Child are enthroned. The work is in a glass case, so I couldn't shut it. No other statues like this exist in the world!

Vierge Ouvrante

The back and front in one picture!

David and Bathsheba by Paris Bordone in the mid-1500s shows the famous scene of David looking from his roof on the bathing Bathsheba. The amazing columns and architecture are a bit distracting from what's really going on.

David and Bathsheba

This Portrait of Pope Pius V from 1566 was painted by Bartolomeo Passerotti. The small coat of arms is from his family the Ghislieri. The papal tiara and keys of Peter are an added touch on top of the coat of arms.

Portrait of Pope Pius V

A View of the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine is a bit of geographic reconstruction by Giovanni Paolo Panini from 1747. The best angles of the two monuments (which are not nearly that close together) are on display and the Colosseum is in better shape than it was in the 1700s. Perhaps this was painted as a souvenir postcard for the rich and famous before there was mass production of souvenir postcards. 

A View of the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine

This Annunciation from 1430 was primarily painted by Bicci di Lorenzo. The narrative panel at the bottom was added by Stefano di Antonio, a collaborator with Lorenzo. The majestic angel with rainbow-colored wings is quite striking. Like in many other Annuciations, there is a separation between Gabriel and Mary, who is holding a book. God the Father hovers overhead, sending the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove to Mary.

The Annunciation

Back in the pagan culture, this Prometheus Vase from Minton and Company in 1873 shows the mythic Greek figure who stole fire from Heaven suffering his punishment of having an eagle eat out his liver. Other sufferers flank him, suggesting a twist on the Calvary scene of Jesus's crucifixion. 

Prometheus Vase

Standing Warrior Holding a Sword is a bit of a mystery for the museum. It is thought to be from Iran in the 1100s (so from Persia) but its purpose and exact origin is unclear. To me, he looks as bewildered as his new owners.

Standing Warrior Holding a Sword

Part of the museum is the Hackerman House on West Mount Vernon Place. The cupola has a window from Tiffany and Company at the top. 

My house doesn't have a ceiling like this

The window

Just outside the house, the Baltimore Washington Monument is visible with Lafayette on a horse in front and the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in the background.

More sights to see some other time