Metropolitan Museum of Art – Greek and Roman Art (New York City, New York, U.S.A.)

Posted on 25 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 3 Comments ↓

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of Greek and Roman art, comprising more than 30,000 works, ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine‘s conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312, naturally concentrates on items from the historical regions of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

Marble Statue of the Three Graces (Roman Imperial Period)

In 2007, the Greek and Roman galleries were expanded to approximately 6,000 m²(60,000 sq. ft.), allowing the majority of the collection to be on permanent display.

Marble Statue of Aphrodite Anadyomene

It represents a wide range of cultures and artistic styles, from classic Greek black-figure and red-figure vases to carved Roman tunic pins. Dating back to the founding of the museum, the museum collection’s first accessioned object was, in fact, a Roman sarcophagus that is still currently on display.

Marble Statue of Athena Parthenos

The collection, among the most comprehensive in North America, includes the monumental Amathus sarcophagus; the “Monteleone chariot” (a magnificently detailed Etruscan chariot); several large classical wall paintings and reliefs from different periods (including an entire reconstructed bedroom from a noble villa in Boscoreale, excavated after its entombment by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79); as well as many pieces from far earlier than the Greek or Roman empires(among the most remarkable are an abstract; seemingly almost modern collection of early Cycladic sculptures from the mid-third millennium BC).

Terracotta pointed neck amphora with stand (470 BC)

The collection of Greek and Roman art, representing the geographic regions of Greece (though not as delimited by modern political frontiers) and Italy (its geographical limits coinciding with the expansion of the Roman Empire), includes the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) ) as well as art from the Greek colonies (established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea) and the increasingly Hellenized Cyprus; and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples (notably the Etruscans).

Marble Head of a Young Woman From a Funerary Statue

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s extensive collection of ancient Greek art, preeminent in the Western Hemisphere and among the finest in the world, feature masterpieces from the Archaic and Classical periods (sixth through fourth centuries B.C.). They are presented in seven large galleries, named after distinguished American collectors and philanthropists such as Mary and Michael Jaharis, Judy and Michael Steinhardt, Joyce and Dietrich von Bothmer and Malcolm Wiener, all refurbished to their original Neo-Classical grandeur.

Marble Statue o a Wounded Amazon (Roman, 1st – 2nd century AD)

All are arranged in a contextual display that combines works of many media. Objects in the New Greek Galleries embrace such themes as religion, funerary customs, civic life, and athletics.

Greek Art of the Sixth through Fourth Centuries B.C.

The grand, barrel-vaulted Mary and Michael Jaharis Gallery (Greek Art of the Sixth through Fourth Centuries B.C.), formerly used for the display of Cypriot and Roman art, is a soaring, 140-ft.-long space flanked, on each side, by three galleries that present a chronological progression of works in all media of large-scale sculpture and other monumental works of the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries B.C..

It extends south from The Robert and Renée Belfer Court for Early Greek Art all the way to the Sardis column.

The Museum’s distinguished collection of works of the sixth century, presented more or less chronologically and in close relationship to the art shown in the adjacent galleries, include large-scale sculpture, Panathenaic amphorae, large vases of conventional shape and decoration (once filled with olive oil and presented as prizes to victors in contests held during the Panathenaic festival, which honored Athena, patron goddess of Athens).

Marble Sphinx on a Cavetto Capital

The large-scale marble copies, at the central section of the gallery, are among the finest sculptures that dominate this space. Made during the Roman period, these over-life-sized bronze statues, created in Greece during the fifth and fourth centuries (but lost or melted down over time), include a wounded Amazon and a statue of the Greek hero Protesilaus (the first Greek to set foot on the shore of Troy during the Trojan War).

Towering above two original, fourth century B.C. marble statues of draped women as well as an over-life-sized head of a youthful goddess, in an area devoted to the works of the fourth century B.C., are large marble foliate sculptures that once crowned tall Athenian grave monuments.

The Judy and Michael H. Steinhardt Gallery (Greek Art of the Sixth Century B.C.), three galleries on the east side of the Mary and Michael Jaharis Gallery, is unique in the Western Hemisphere in its display of the three major types of Greek freestanding marble sculpture of the sixth century B.C. – the kouros and kore, which served as funerary monuments or dedications, and the pillar-like grave stele.

6th Century Greek Art

The gallery is devoted primarily to original marble sculpture of the Archaic and Classical periods when Athens supplanted Corinth as the center of pottery production. It is exemplified by several works attributed to the Amasis Painter, one of the most skillful and innovative of the black-figure artists. The gallery opens this sequence with the museum’s outstanding collection of Athenian funerary monuments of the sixth century B.C.

The New York Kouros, a marble statue of a nude youth (kouros) standing in the center of the room, once marked the grave of a young member of a wealthy landowning family and is one of the earliest monumental kouroi to have survived complete.

Other grave markers, displayed nearby, include rectangular shafts decorated with finely carved and painted reliefs of the deceased. One of the best preserved archaic Attic Greek stelai in existence, standing over 13 ft. high, bears traces of most of its original painted decoration.

Free-standing and relief sculptures, monuments demonstrating the rapid development in naturalistic representation, includes one in particularly good state of preservation, complete with the crowning member in the form of a sphinx.

Also displayed throughout the room are vases, small bronzes and other objects of this period, are all grouped in a way that elucidates important customs and beliefs concerning death, warfare and drinking parties (known as symposia) which were current in Athens throughout the Archaic period.

The Bothmer Gallery I (Greek Art of the Sixth Century B.C.), through the museum’s exceptional collection of painted terracotta vases, provides an insight into the lives of Athenians of this time. The pieces in this gallery are arranged in a roughly chronological order – from ca. 600 B.C. to 525 B.C., covering the mature Archaic style in Athens and ending with a major historical development – the initial westward push of the Persian Empire (which ultimately was defeated by the Greeks in the Persian Wars).

Some vase painters were known from their signatures (such as Nearchos, Lydos, Exekias, among others) while others remain anonymous and are given modern names of convenience (such as the Affecter or Amasis Painter) which may stem from the name of a collaborator that is known (such as a potter); a significant location; a particular collector in modern times; or a feature of the artist’s style.

Whether their ancient names are known or not, the potters and painters revealed distinctive artistic personalities and a singular capacity to depict a story. Decoration included all manner of scenes from daily life as well as from the colorful and complex world of mythology.
In the black-figure technique, practiced from about 600 to 530 B.C., glazed portions of a work were black and the remaining surface was the deep orange color of the clay. Exekias, among the known leading artistic personalities represented in this gallery, was the consummate master of this technique. During the time of the initial westward push of the Persian Empire, the red-figure technique in vase painting was invented and, gradually, began to replace the earlier black-figure technique.

Prehistoric and Early Greek Art

The Robert and Renée Belfer Court (Prehistoric and Early Greek Art), next to the Great Hall on the first floor, provides the introduction to all the galleries of ancient Greek and Roman art and includes a map of the ancient world.

Prehistoric and Early Greek Art

It displays prehistoric and early Greek art as well as, from time to time, rotating major artworks on loan of varying periods.

Prehistoric and Early Greek Art

The Bothmer Gallery II (Greek Art of the Fifth Century B.C.), providing examples of Athenian vase painting between about 530 and 400 B.C. (when the flexibility of the newly developed red-figure technique permitted artists to draw freely over the convex and concave surfaces of vases), displays vases (a high proportion were made for containing, pouring, and drinking wine), bronzes, terracottas, and gems of this period. Original works of art from a time when the great creations of bronze and marble sculpture are, in large part, lost or preserved only in later copies of the Roman period, these are particularly important.

Greek Art of the Fifth Century B.C.

Coinage on display here, significant not only for its historical and commercial aspects but also for its iconographical and aesthetic qualities, represents specific cities (the head of Athena for Athens or Pegasus, the flying horse, for Corinth, etc.) and is also recurrent motifs in other media. In this gallery, the museum’s collections of coins were supplemented by a loan, from the American Numismatic Society, of approximately 75 significant coins.

Figuring prominently in this gallery are an extraordinary group of Greek potters and vase painters active in Athens who mastered, during the first half of the fifth century, the organic representation of the human body.

They include Euphronios and Euthymides (innovators who exploited the expressive possibilities of the red-figure technique at the end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth century B.C.) as well as their successors (who often specialized in specific vessel shapes) Brygos Painter, Douris and Makron, who devoted themselves to the embellishment of drinking cups, and Kleophrades Painter, the Berlin Painter, Myson, and others who devoted themselves to larger pots. For the first time in many years, the current reinstallation makes it possible to see the major works of the foremost painters grouped together.

During this time, white-ground vases found particular favor. The most popular vases in the collection are superlative examples by the Achilles Painter as well as a toilet box (pyxis), decorated with the Judgment of Paris, and a bobbin (yo yo), that was made as a dedication, both attributed to the Penthesilea Painter.

The Carolyn, Kate, Elizabeth, Thomas, and Jonathan Wiener Gallery (Greek Art of the Fifth Century B.C.) presents a collection of some of the museum’s finest marble grave markers from Athens dating from the mid-fifth century B.C. through the early fourth century B.C.

5th Century BC Greek Art

There are also cases with clay and bronze vases, small bronze statuettes, glass vessels, gold jewelry, and terracotta figurines, all arranged to provide an overview of Athenian society.

Beautifully carved funerary reliefs include the well-known relief of a girl with doves (conveying some of the ideal beauty and sweetness of expression that is found in figures on the great architectural frieze that embellished the upper walls of the Parthenon in Athens); that of a young woman and her servant, and another of an entire family group, all giving a sense of the unprecedented flowering of art and culture that took place during the fifth century in Athens.

Greek Art of the 5th and Early 4th Century

The Stavros and Danaë Costopoulos Gallery (Greek Art of the Fifth and Early Fourth Centuries B.C.), presenting the art of Athens during the second half of the fifth century B.C. (the time in which the Parthenon was being erected between 447 and 432 B.C. on the Athenian Acropolis and when vase painting attained its most serene and classical expression), prominent displays funerary vases covered with a white slip (known as white ground) and decorated in a range of colors not previously used in Greek ceramics.

The Museum’s collections represent the major artists and, most importantly, convey the innovations that they brought to traditional subjects such as warfare, the life of women, and mythology.

The Achilles Painter, the great master and innovator trained in the red-figure technique by the Berlin Painter whose greatest innovations can be seen in the funerary lekythoi (oil flasks) that were covered with a white slip (permitting the use of polychromy), is represented by an important krater as well as by a variety of smaller vases.

The Spyros and Eurydice Costopoulos Gallery (Greek Art of the Fourth Century B.C.) includes Athenian funerary monuments (including large-scale marble vases that were used as grave markers) of this period (when Athens was still a center of artistic excellence) that became more and more elaborate over the years.

4th Century BC Greek Art

The graceful charm of the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles (famous throughout antiquity for having carved the first nude statue of Aphrodite) can be seen in one pair of fully three-dimensional figures of young girls that stood over a tomb. Four colossal, three-dimensional stone funerary monuments, in the form of marble vessels decorated with low reliefs and commonly used to hold oil or water during funerary rites, stand at the center of the gallery.

Terracotta statuettes in several cases, known today as “Tanagra figurines” (since great numbers were found during the late 19th century at the site of the ancient city of Tanagra in Boeotia, north of Attica), were first made in Athens (during the second half of the fourth century B.C.) and represent fashionable women or girls. These terracottas are still prized today for their naturalness, vitality and charm.

Also on display in this gallery are large bronze vases decorated with reliefs; elaborate bronze mirrors; silver and glass vessels; and gold jewelry of a type found in the rich Macedonian tombs. An exceptional pair of earrings, a superb set of jewelry found in Macedonia, has tiny figures of Zeus in the form of an eagle abducting the young Trojan prince, Ganymede, and carrying him through the air to Mount Olympus (home of the gods).

Leon Levy and Shelby White Court for Hellenistic and Roman Art

The spectacular Leon Levy and Shelby White Court for Hellenistic and Roman art, created by the renowned architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White between 1912 and 1926, has an atrium which evokes the ambulatory garden of a large private Roman villa, with a glass roof allowing the objects below to be viewed in natural daylight.

The Met’s representative collection of Roman portrait busts, depicting emperors, other members of the imperial family, and private individuals, is displayed, in chronological order, along the perimeter of the court while on display at the center of the court are nearly 20 Roman sculptures created between the first century B.C. and the third century A.D. Some of the Roman art on display include:

The Old Market Woman (Roman, Julio-Claudian, A.D. 14-68)
The life-size bronze Portrait Statue of an Aristocratic Boy (Roman, Augustan, 27 B.C.-A.D. 14)
Two larger-than-life-size statues of Hercules facing one another from either side of the court (both Roman, Flavian, A.D. 69-98) -both works were part of the Giustiniani Collection in Rome, first published in 1631
A marble portrait head of the Emperor Augustus (Roman, Julio-Claudian, ca. A.D. 14-37)
A fine marble bust of Caligula (Roman, Julio-Claudian, A.D. 37-41)
A marble portrait of Antoninus Pius (Roman, Antonine, A.D. 138-161)
The Marble Garland Sarcophagus (Roman, Severan, ca. A.D. 200-225) – found at Tarsus (southern Turkey) in 1863, it entered the Metropolitan in 1870 as the first object offered to and accepted by the museum.
The marble statue of Hope Dionysos (Roman, Augustan or Julio-Claudian, 27 B.C.-A.D. 68) – named after the prominent collector Thomas Hope (who acquired it in 1796, it is an adaptation of a Greek statue of the fourth century B.C.
A decorative support for a basin (Roman, Mid-Imperial, second century A.D.) – formed part of the collection of William Waldorf Astor (later Baron Astor of Hever) who assembled his collection of antiquities between 1890 and 1905.
Architectural fragments from the Emperor Domitian‘s palace on the Palatine in Rome (Roman, ca. A.D. 90-92)
The Badminton Sarcophagus (Roman, Late Imperial, A.D. 260-70) – carved in high relief from a single block of marble, it came from the collection of the dukes of Beaufort and was formerly displayed in their country seat, Badminton Hall in Gloucestershire, England.

Adjoining the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court are galleries designated for the presentation of South Italian art (fourth-first century B.C.); Hellenistic art and architecture, the Hellenistic treasury, and Hellenistic art and the Hellenistic tradition (third-first century B.C.); and the art of Augustan Rome (first century A.D.), Roman imperial art (second century A.D.), and the art of the later Roman empire (third century A.D.).

Highlights of these galleries are two actual rooms from Roman villas – with their stunning wall paintings – that were buried nearly two thousand years ago by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

South Italian Art Fourth–First Century BC (Gallery 161)

South Italian Art (Fourth-First century B.C.) – One of the principal features of culture in South Italy, known since antiquity as “Magna Graecia” (“Greater Greece”), is its interest in Greek drama, often reflected in works of art. On display here are a number of kraters (bowls for mixing wine and water):

A red-figure calyx-krater (ca. 400-390 B.C., Greek, South Italian, Apulian, Late Classical) – vase painting attributed to the Tarporley Painter.
A terracotta column-krater (ca. 360-350 B.C., Greek, South Italian, Apulian, Late Classical). – at the entrance to the gallery.

Leon Levy and Shelby White Gallery for Helenistic Art and Architecture

Prominently displayed within the Leon Levy and Shelby White Gallery for Hellenistic Art and Architecture is the newly conserved, nearly 12 ft. high, fluted marble Sardis Column (Greek, Hellenistic, ca. 300 B.C.) – part of the shaft of a column, from the Temple of Artemis (one of the largest temples ever built in antiquity) at Sardis, that once stood some 58 feet high (from its scale-patterned base to its finely crafted Ionic capital) in its original setting.

It was excavated at Sardis (the ancient capital of Lydia, in western Turkey) early in the 20th century.

Marble column (Temple of Artemis, Sardis)

Also on display is a noble, radiant and monumental marble Head of a Ptolemaic Queen (Greek, Ptolemaic, ca. 270-250 B.C.). Highly idealized in a pure Greek style and retaining its original polish, it ranks with the finest Ptolemaic royal portraits.

The Hellenistic Treasury is an intimate showplace for outstanding examples of luxury goods, primarily made of precious metals, gemstones or glass as well as coins (important loans from the American Numismatic Society) and refined small-scale objects having a private or religious use. Among those on display here are a pair of spectacular gold serpentine armbands (Greek, Hellenistic, ca. 200 B.C.) and a small bronze statue of a veiled and masked dancer (Greek, third-second century B.C.).

John Georgias Family Gallery for Hellenistic Art and Hellenistic Tradition

The John Georgas Family Gallery for Hellenistic Art and the Hellenistic Tradition (Third – First Century B.C.) displays a collection of bronze sculptures including a statue of Eros sleeping (Greek or Roman, Hellenistic or Augustan, third century B.C.-early first century A.D.), one of the few bronze statues that have survived from antiquity.

Wall painting (P. Fannius Synistor Villa, Boscoreale)

At its reception hall are several fresco panels, the largest of which is a grouping of three frescoes, from Boscoreale (located near Pompeii, it was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79), the sumptuous villa of the wealthy Roman patron P. Fannius Synistor (Roman, Late Republican, ca. 50-40 B.C.), with figures that are generally agreed to be copies of a cycle of royal paintings created for one of the Macedonian courts of the Hellenistic period. They probably celebrate a dynastic marriage.

Wall painting (P. Fannius Synistor Villa, Boscoreale)

The Black Room (Gallery 165, Roman, Augustan, last decade of first century B.C.), a reconstruction of a room from the imperial villa (partially excavated between 1903 and 1905 after its accidental discovery during work on a railway) of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase, incorporates surviving panels from the original walls. The wall panels, set against a flat, monochrome surface, features Egyptianizing motifs and medallions with portraits of members of the imperial family.

The Black Room Late First Century BC (Gallery 167)

The Sylvia Josephs Berger and Joyce Berger Cowin Gallery for the Art of Augustan Rome (First Century A.D.) contains many exquisite examples of Roman imperial art.

Art of Augustan Rome Late First Century B.C.–First Century AD

They include:

A sardonyx cameo (Roman, Claudian, A.D. 41-54) – a masterpiece in miniature carving, it was part of the celebrated 17th-century collection of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel.
A beautiful cast glass bowl (Roman, Augustan, late first century B.C.)
A glass jug (Roman, Julio-Claudian, first half of first century A.D.) – signed by Ennion (from the eastern Mediterranean coastal city of Sidon in modern Lebanon), the most famous and gifted of the known makers of Roman mold-blown glass.

Art of Imperial Rome Second Century A.D.

Roman Imperial Art (Second Century A.D.) focuses on the arts of Rome during the peaceful and prosperous second century A.D. It includes a recently acquired marble cinerary urn or container for the ashes of a cremated body (Roman, Julio-Claudian, first half of the first century A.D.), a singular example of Roman funerary art.

The John A. and Carole O. Moran Gallery for the Art of the Later Roman Empire (Third Century A.D.) prominently displays a collection of Roman sarcophagi figures including:

A fine strigillated sarcophagus (a type that was very popular in Rome and Italy), although the marble from which it was made comes from northwest Asia Minor (Turkey).
The bronze statue of Trebonianus Gallus (Roman, Late Imperial, A.D. 251-53)
The monumental marble head of Constantine the Great (Roman, Late Imperial, ca. A.D. 325-70).

Also on display are gold, silver, and bronze coins that were minted primarily to supply money for state expenditure and to facilitate the collection of taxes. Additional galleries and a study collection are located on the mezzanine level.

The dramatic Leon Levy and Shelby White Gallery for Etruscan Art (Ninth-Second Century B.C.), located at the Mezzanine Level, overlooking the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court to the north and Central Park to the south, is devoted to the art of the Etruscans, from their earliest creations to the time of Roman rule.

Its centerpiece is the newly restored, world-famous Etruscan chariot (second quarter of the sixth century B.C.), one of the great works in the museum’s collection and one of very few complete chariots to survive from antiquity. Made with bronze mounted on a wooden substructure, it is inlaid with precious elephant and hippopotamus ivory and richly decorated with scenes from the life of the Greek hero Achilles. It was probably used solely for ceremonial purposes before being buried in a tomb.

Displayed nearby is a rich array of smaller bronze and terracotta objects found in the same tomb as well as the Bolsena tomb-group, which includes works that were part of the burial of a woman.

Also on view are the following:

A small, charming Etruscan vase (which may originally have contained ink) in the shape of a cockerel (ca. 630-620 B.C.), inscribed with the 26 letters of the Etruscan alphabet.
A small bronze statuette of a young, elaborately dressed Etruscan woman (Archaic, late sixth century B.C.), most likely used as a religious offering in a sanctuary.
The so-called “Morgan amber” (Etruscan, Late Archaic, ca. 500 B.C.) – the most complex and most important carved amber surviving from ancient Italy, it shows a couple reclining on a couch. It came to the museum with the bequest of the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan.
A set of jewelry found in a tomb (late archaic Etruscan, early fifth century B.C.) – the richest and most impressive set of Etruscan jewelry ever found, it comprises a splendid gold and glass pendant necklace, a pair of gold and rock-crystal disk earrings, a gold fibula decorated with a sphinx, a pair of plain gold fibulae, a gold dress pin, and five finger ring. Two of the rings have engraved scarabs. One is decorated with embossed satyr heads while the other two have decorated gold bezels.
A group of Etruscan and Italic armor
Elaborately carved cinerary urns
14 beautifully engraved Etruscan mirrors.

Leon Levy And Shelby White Gallery For The Greek And Roman Study Collection (Prehistoric Greek-Late Roman), located at the Mezzanine Level, features a large display of study material, comprising more than 3,400 works in all media and covering the entire cultural and chronological span of the department’s collection, from the art of prehistoric Greece through late Roman art. Among its noteworthy works are:

A collection of prehistoric Greek vases – given to the Metropolitan Museum in 1927 by the Greek government
A Roman transport amphora – given by the noted underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau.
Several hundred examples of Roman glass in fantastic shapes and colors, ranging from clear colorless to darkest blue, and from greenish yellow to deep amber.

In lieu of traditional labels inside the display cases, an interactive system, developed specifically for the Metropolitan, allows the information to be kept up-to-date with the latest scholarship on each object. Six wall-mounted computer touch screens, located throughout the study collection, allow visitors to access information about each object on view.

An additional gallery, also on the mezzanine level, is devoted to the display of special exhibitions.

Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, USA. Tel: (212) 535-7710 and (212) 570-3951. Fax: (212) 472-2764. E-mail: communications@metmuseum.org. Website: www.metmuseum.org. Open 10 AM – 9 PM. Admission: US$25/adult, children below 12 years old is free.

Metropolitan Museum of Art – Arms and Armor (New York City, New York, U.S.A.)

Posted on 25 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

The Department of Arms and Armor, one of the Met’s most popular collections, was organized in 1975 with the help of the Russian immigrant and arms and armors’ scholar, Leonid Tarassuk (1925–90). This department focuses on “outstanding craftsmanship and decoration,” including pieces intended solely for display.

Metropolitan Museum of Art – Arms and Armor

The 14,000 objects in the collection, spanning more geographic regions than almost any other department, consists of late medieval European pieces; Japanese pieces from the 5th through the 19th centuries; weapons and armor from dynastic Egypt, ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the ancient Near East, Americas, Africa and Oceania; and American firearms (especially Colt firearms) from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The first thing you would notice, upon entering this department, is one of the most recognizable images of the museum – the Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Arms and Armor Court (European Armor for Field and Tournament).

The most extensive selection in the United States of rare and finely made sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European armor for men and horses, created for kings and noblemen to use on the battlefield and in tournaments, it features a distinctive “parade” of installed figures on horseback, dressed in elaborately decorated Greenwich armors, from the English Royal workshops founded by King Henry VIII of England, as well as one of Henry’s personal armors, made in Italy and worn by the king in his last campaign against the French at Calais in 1544. Other pieces made for and used by kings and princes includes armor belonging to Ferdinand I of Germany.

The Bashford Dean Gallery (European Arms and Armor, Late Medieval to Renaissance), spanning the development of the art of the armorer from the fourteenth century through the early sixteenth century in Italy, Germany, and other parts of Europe, displays rare and distinctive examples of early field and tournament armor, swords, shields and crossbows.

The Ronald S. Lauder Gallery (European Ceremonial Armor), with works exemplifying artistic styles from the High Renaissance through Mannerism in exuberant etching, embossing, and gold and silver ornament, focuses on lavishly decorated ceremonial armor, shields, and weapons of the sixteenth century from Germany, Italy, and France. Highlights include an ornate armor made for King Henry II of France (embodying the king both as a warrior and a patron of the arts) and a helmet superbly sculpted, in the antique style, by Filippo Negroli.

The Russell B. Aitken Gallery of Firearms (European Hunting and Sporting Weapons), devoted to hunting and sporting weapons as intricate and evocative works of art, highlights the art of the gun maker from the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Neo-Classical periods. It features richly decorated European firearms, crossbows and accessories from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century including weapons that belonged to Emperor Charles V and King Louis XIII of France.

The Russell B. Aitken Gallery of European Edged Weapons (European Swords), offering an unparalleled display of finely decorated European swords dating from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century, includes rapiers, hunting weapons, ceremonial swords and presentation swords made of delicate and precious materials. It also features the last royal armor made in Europe, created in 1712 for Luis, prince of Asturias, the five-year-old heir to the Spanish throne.

The Robert M. Lee Gallery (American Swords and Firearms), representing outstanding examples of American silver- and goldsmiths’ work, products of the Industrial Revolution, and American folk art, features American swords and firearms from the Colonial Period through the late nineteenth century. They include silver-hilted swords from the time of the American Revolution; an extensive series of Colt revolvers; firearms lavishly decorated by Tiffany & Company; Kentucky rifles; and engraved Colonial-era powder horns.

The Arms and Armor of Islamic Cultures, representing a wide spectrum of Islamic cultures from India, the Middle East, Turkey, and the Caucasus from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, features rare and beautifully decorated armor and weapons.

The Samurai Swords and Daggers Gallery, showing masterpieces in steel, lacquer, and gold that represent some of the highest achievements of the arts of the Samurai, features a changing selection of Japanese sword and dagger blades; mountings; and fittings from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Japanese Arms and Armor Gallery

The Japanese Arms and Armor Gallery includes the finest display, outside of Japan, of Samurai armor, edged weapons, equestrian equipment, and accessories from the Kofun Period in the fifth century to the end of the Edo Period in the late nineteenth century. Its centerpiece is the armor of Ashikaga Takauji, Shogun of Japan in the early fourteenth century.

Japanese Arms and Armor

The Arms and Armor from the Stone Age to the Iron Age explores the function, technology, circulation and meanings of arms (to hunt animals, to defend their lives and goods, and to fight enemies), from the Stone Age through the Iron Age, and the particular significance of these tools during their working lives and beyond.

Castle Clinton National Monument (New York City, U.S.A.)

Posted on 25 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Castle Clinton National Monument

The 0.4-hectare (1 acre), Medieval-looking Castle Clinton (or Fort Clinton), a circular sandstone fort previously originally known as West Battery and sometimes as Southwest Battery and Castle Garden, was the first American immigration station (predating Ellis Island), where approximately 7.7 million people arrived in the United States from 1855 to 1890. Lying near the northwestern corner of Battery Park, it serves as the park’s main attraction.

Some of the few noteworthy immigrants who passed through here include:

Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary) – the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of a typhoid fever pathogen
Nikola Tesla – a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system
Harry Houdini – Hungarian-born American escape artist, illusionist, stunt performer and mysteriarch, noted for his escape acts.
Emma Goldman – anarchist political activist and writer who played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
Joseph Pulitzer – Hungarian-born American newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World.
Friedrich Trumpf – German–American barber, businessman, and patriarch of the Trump family. He is the grandfather of Donald Trump.

Check out “Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration”

Built from 1808 to 1811, it has, over its active life, functioned as an administrative headquarters, a paymaster’s quarters and storage area for the United States Army (until 1821), a beer garden, exhibition hall, theater, and public aquarium. Castle Clinton stood slightly two blocks west of where Fort Amsterdam was built in 1626 (when New York City was known by the Dutch name New Amsterdam). By 1790, after the American Revolutionary War, Fort Amsterdam was demolished.

Castle Clinton National Monument plaque

Here is the historical timeline of Castle Clinton:

In 1807, a group of three commissioners, including Lt.-Col. Jonathan Williams (a grandnephew of Benjamin Franklin) of the United States Army Engineers, submitted a report that recommended the construction of fortifications in New York Harbor.
In 1808, construction of the fort began on a small artificial island just off shore which was connected to Battery Park by a 200-ft. long wood causeway and drawbridge.
In 1811, the fort was completed although modifications continued through the 1820s.
In 1817, West battery was renamed Castle Clinton, its current official name, in honor of New York City Mayor De Witt Clinton (who eventually became Governor of New York).
In March 1822, it was ceded to the city by an act of Congress.
In June 1824, the fort was leased to New York City as a place of public entertainment.
On July 3, 1824, it opened as Castle Garden (a name by which it was popularly known for most of its existence), an open-air structure serving, in turn, as a promenade, beer garden/restaurant, exhibition hall (new inventions such as the telegraph, Colt revolving rifles, steam-powered fire engines, and underwater electronic explosives were demonstrated there), opera house and theater.
That same year, it celebrated the arrival of Gen. Lafayette at the beginning of his year-long triumphal tour of America.
In 1844, a domed roof was placed to accommodate a 6,000-seat theater.
In 1850, to initiate her American tour, Swedish soprano Jenny Lind (the “Swedish Nightingale”), brought to America by by P.T. Barnum (famous for his American Museum full of “freaks” and, later, the famous circus which bears his name), gave two concerts for charity at the castle.
In 1851, European dancing star Lola Montez performed her notorious “tarantula dance” in Castle Garden.
In 1853–54, Louis-Antoine Jullien, the eccentric French conductor and composer of light music, gave dozens of very successful concerts mixing Classical and light music.
On June 17, 1851, the Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company notably staged the New York premiere of Gaetano Donizetti‘s Marino Faliero.
On July 20, 1854, the Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company also staged the New York premiere of Giuseppe Verdi‘s Luisa Miller at Castle Garden.
During the 1860s, landfill was used to expand Battery Park at which point the island containing the fort was incorporated into the rest of Manhattan Island.
In the first half of the 19th century, most immigrants arriving in New York City landed at docks on the east side of the tip of Manhattan, around South Street.
On August 1, 1855, Castle Clinton became the Emigrant Landing Depot, functioning as the New York State immigrant registration center (the nation’s first such entity).
On April 18, 1890, the S. government assumed control of immigration processing from the state government.
On January 2, 1892, after many unnecessary deaths and scandals over immigration workers cheating and stealing from immigrants, the immigration control was taken over by the federal government and the immigrant registration center was moved to the larger, more isolated Ellis Island
On June 15, 1897, a fire consumed the first structures on Ellis Island, destroying most of Castle Clinton’s original immigrant passenger records (it is generally accepted that approximately 7.7 million immigrants and, perhaps, as many as 10 million were processed during its operation).
On December 10, 1896, Castle Garden was opened as the site of the New York City Aquarium (designed by McKim, Mead & White) which, for many years, was the city’s most popular attraction, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to see its Beluga whale, sea lions and exotic fish. The structure was extensively altered and roofed over to a height of several stories, though the original masonry fort remained.
In 1941, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Commissioner Robert Moses wanted to tear the structure down completely, claiming that this was necessary to build the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel.
In September 1941, to expedite construction of the tunnel, the city closed the New York Aquarium and moved its fish to other aquariums. The aquarium was not replaced until Moses opened a new facility on Coney Island in 1957.
On August 12, 1946, President Harry S. Truman signed the legislation making the castle a U.S. National Monument.
In July 1947, the New York City Board of Estimate voted to demolish Castle Garden. However, the Board delayed the demolition for another year to allow the federal government to review the decision.
In May 1948, the Board voted to demolish the castle for the sixth time in as many years.
After another year of discussion, the New York State Assembly reversed its decision to allow the castle to be demolished.
On July 18, 1950, the federal government finally obtained the property after the city deeded the land and castle to the federal government.
In 1956, after funding had been secured, a project to renovate Castle Clinton was announced.
On October 15, 1966, Castle Clinton National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In the 1970s, a major rehabilitation took place, largely restoring it to its original appearance.
In 1975, Castle Clinton was reopened.

Designed by John McComb Jr. and Jonathan Williams, West Battery had a red brick facade, 8-ft. thick walls and was roughly circular in shape, with a radius of approximately 28 m. (92 ft.).

The ticket office

About one-eighth of the circle was left “unfinished,” with a straight wall constructed between the “unfinished” segments.

Intended to complement the three-tiered Castle Williams (the East Battery, on Governors Island, named after Jonathan Williams) with crosshair fire so that the channel between them could be closed, West Battery was armed with 28 cannons, in casemated gun positions, which could fire a 32 pound cannonball a distance of 1.5 miles into the harbor. Although garrisoned in 1812, the fort never saw action in any war.

Currently administered by the National Park Service and now part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, Castle Clinton is now a departure point for visitors to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, housing an information center and ticket booths for the ferries.

Castle Clinton Museum

In 2009, it recorded nearly 4.08 million visitors. In addition, the fort contains a small history exhibit and occasionally hosts concerts.

Check out “Statue of Liberty National Monument”

Castle Clinton National Monument: Battery Park, 26 Wall St., Manhattan, New York City 10005. Tel: (212) 344-7220.

Museum of Modern Art (New York City, U.S.A.)

Posted on 23 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Museum of Modern Art

The first place we visited, upon arrival in New York City, was the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan. One of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world. MoMA’s admission cost of US$25 makes it one of the most expensive museums in the city.

The crowd that day inside the museum

However, it has free entry on Fridays, sponsored by clothing company Uniqlo, after 4PM and this we availed of. As such, the museum was more crowded (including the inevitable Oriental selfie snappers) than I would have liked and it was hard to move around but who can complain?

Photography (minus the camera flash) was allowed here, though my pictures didn’t capture the impact of the in-real-life viewing. There are 5 floors of artwork to admire and the huge galleries, whose overall chronological flow presents a perspective of stylistic progression and place in time, were well laid out. I allow a minimum of two hours to explore the museum.

The author besides Joan Miro’s The Hunter – Catalan Landscape (1923-24, Oil on Canvas)

MoMA has been important in developing and collecting Modernist art and its collection offers an overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of sculpture, architecture and design, drawing, painting, photography, prints, illustrated books and artist’s books, film and electronic media.

A private non-profit organization, MoMA is the seventh-largest U.S. museum by budget (its annual revenue is about US$145 million, none of which is profit).

Andre Derain (Bathers, 1907, Oil on Canvas)

Vasily Kandinsky (Picture with an Archer, 1909, Oil on Canvas)

Rene Magritte (The Lovers, 1928, Oil on Canvas)

MOMA is considered, by many, to have the best collection of modern Western masterpieces in the world. Its holdings include more than 150,000 individual pieces in addition to approximately 22,000 films and 4 million film stills (access to the collection ended in 2002 and the collection is mothballed in a vault in Hamlin, Pennsylvania).

Claude Monet (Agapanthus, Oil on Canvas, 1914-26)

Andrea Bowers (A Menace to Liberty, 2012)

All the classics were here and it was moving, inspiring, immersive and absorbing but also a bit overwhelming. The nicely curated collection at the fifth floor houses such important and familiar works as the following:

Francis Bacon, Painting (1946)
Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises
Paul Cézanne, The Bather
Marc Chagall, I and the Village
Giorgio de Chirico, The Song of Love
Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory
Max Ernst, Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale
Paul Gauguin, Te aa no areois (The Seed of the Areoi)
Albert Gleizes, Portrait of Igor Stravinsky, 1914
Jasper Johns, Flag
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair
Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl
René Magritte, The Empire of Lights
Henri Matisse, The Dance
Jean Metzinger, Landscape, 1912–14
Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie-Woogie
Barnett Newman, Broken Obelisk
Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis(Man, Heroic and Sublime)
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Jackson Pollock, One: Number 31, 1950
Henri Rousseau, The Dream, 1910
Henri Rousseau, The Sleeping Gypsy
Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World

Claude Monet (The Japanese Footbridge)

Jackson Pollock (One Number 31, 1950)

It also holds works by a wide range of influential European and American artists including Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp, Walker Evans, Helen Frankenthaler, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Hans Hofmann, Edward Hopper, Paul Klee, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Dorothea Lange, Fernand Léger, Roy Lichtenstein, Morris Louis, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Kenneth Noland, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Auguste Rodin, Mark Rothko, David Smith, Frank Stella, and hundreds of others.

Fernand Leger (The Mirror, 1925, Oil on Canvas)

Fernand Leger (Woman with a Book, 1923, Oil on Canvas) (1)

Many of the paintings have an audio option which is great for some background information.

Vincent Van Gogh (The Starry Night, 1889, Oil on Canvas)

Seeing the original painting of Vincent van Gogh’s famous The Starry Night was certainly a moving experience that I shall not soon forget. I could actually see the layers and layers of paint, the small brush strokes and all of the colors of paint that are far more vivid on canvas.

Claude Monet (Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond)

Claude Monet’s Water Lilies triptych, breathtaking to see in person, was also a big highlight worth seeing. The Picasso’s were also stunning, It was also great to see the full set of Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans.

Any Warhol (Campbell’s soup cans, 1962)

An acquired taste is required for the temporary exhibits at the 3rd and the 4th floors which were very contemporary and not to my liking. The perplexing abstract pieces, using garage components such as snow shovels and car tires hammered (which begs the question “what was that supposed to be?”), didn’t excited me but they were still worth seeing how imaginative (and indulgent) modern artists have become.

Check out “Unfinished Conversations: New Work From the Collection,” “Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends” and “Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction”

Shirana Shahbazi (Composition 40 2011)

Certain pieces here challenged my preconceived ideas, making me scratch your head and ask the question “Is that’s art?” upon seeing 7 boards of wood painted white being called art.

Frank Lloyd Wright at 150

However, being an architect, the very informative Frank Lloyd-Wright exhibit, with its original drawings (painstakingly rendered the old fashion way), blueprints, sketches and models for many of his projects (both completed and proposed); was very interesting.

Check out “Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive”

Frank Lloyd Wright

Articles about the the myth of the great American architect provide interesting insights into his thinking and inspirations, portraying how advanced his ideas were in many ways.

Henri Matisse – Music (Sketch, 1907, Oil and Charcoal on Canvas)

Henri Matisse (Periwinkles-Morrocan Garden, Oil, Pencil and Charcoal on Canvas, 1912)

Henri Matisse (Still Life with Aubergines, Oil on Canvas, 1911)

Henri Matisse (The Rose Marble Table, Oil on Canvas, 1917)

MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design, was founded in 1932, is the first museum department in the world dedicated to the intersection of architecture and design. Philip Johnson, the department’s first director, served as curator between 1932–34 and 1946–54.

Henri Matisse (La Serpentine, Bronze, 1909)

Henri Matisse (Dance-1, 1909, Oil on Canvas)

Henri Matisse (The Morrocans, Oil on Canvas, 1915-16)

The collection consists of 28,000 works including architectural models, drawings and photographs and one of its highlights is the Mies van der Rohe Archive. It also includes works of legendary architects and designers Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul László, the Eameses, Isamu Noguchi, and George Nelson.

Pablo Picasso (Les Demoiselle d’Avignon, Oil on Canvas, 1907)

Pablo Picasso (Woman with Pears, 1909, Oil on Canvas)

Pablo Picasso (The Studio, Oil on Canvas, 1927-28)

The Design Collection contains many industrial and manufactured pieces, ranging from a self-aligning ball bearing to an entire Bell 47D1 helicopter.

Bell 47D1 helicopter

In 2012, the department acquired a selection of 14 video games, the basis of an intended collection of 40 which is to range from Pac-Man (1980) to Minecraft (2011). The world-renowned Art Photography Collection, founded by Beaumont Newhall in 1940, includes photos by Todd Webb.

Pablo Picasso (Nude with Joined Hands, Oil on Canvas, 1906)

Pablo Picasso (Two Nudes, 1906, Oil on Canvas)

Pablo Picasso (Ma Jolie, 1911)

Pablo Picasso (Bather, Oil on Canvas, 1908-09)

The building also features an entrance for school groups, a 125-seat auditorium, an orientation center, workshop space for teacher training programs, study centers, and a large lobby with double-height views into the beautiful outdoor Sculpture Garden, at the mile of the museum, which features Aristide Maillol’s The River, a great statue of a woman diva laying on her back above the water.

Aristide Maillol (The River)

Alexander Calder (Sandy’s Butterfly, 1964)

From about 1.5 million a year, MoMA has seen its average number of visitors rise to 2.5 million after its new granite and glass renovation. In 2009, the museum reported 119,000 members and 2.8 million visitors over the previous fiscal year.

Paul Cezanne (Still Life with Apples, 1895-98, Oil on Canvas)

Paul Cezanne (L’Estaque, 1879-83, Oil on Canvas)

Paul Cezanne – Château Noir 1904-06, Oil on canvas, 73.6 x 93.2 cm.)

During its 2010 fiscal year, it attracted its highest-ever number of visitors of 3.09 million. However, in 2011, attendance dropped 11% to 2.8 million.

Paul Cezanne (The Bather, 1885, Oil on Canvas)

Paul Cezanne (Pines and Rocks – Fountainbleau)

Since its founding in 1929, the museum was open every day until 1975, when it closed one day a week (originally Wednesdays) to reduce operating expenses. In 2012, it again opened every day, including Tuesday, the one day it has traditionally been closed.

Henry Rosseau (The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897, Oil on Canvas)

Henri Rosseau (The Dream, 1910, Oil on Canvas)

The museum’s awesome gift shop had a lovely selection of gifts such as magnets, prints and more unique items like socks and scarves with art on them as well that summed up all of the amazing art throughout the museum.

Vasudeo S. Gaitonde (Painting No. 4, 1962)

Mademoiselle Pogany (Constantin Brancusi)

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): 11 West 53rd St. (between Fifth and Sixth Ave.) , New York City, NY 10019, USA. Open 10:30 AM – 5:30 PM (8 PM on Fridays). Admission: US$25/adult, children below 12 years old is free.

How to Get There:

Bus: Any line to 53rd Street

Metro: Any line to Fifth Avenue or 53rd Street

Bonifacio Trial Museum (Maragondon, Cavite)

Posted on 14 April, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

After our visit to the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady in Maragondon, Jandy and I drove about 500 m. to the nearby Bonifacio Trial Museum. As it was Holy Week, the museum was closed. On the facade are two historical markers.

Bonifacio Trial Museum

The first marker, in English, was installed in 1948 by the Philippines Historical Committee (PHC) and the second, in Filipino, was installed in 2000 by the National Historical Institute (NHI), the later predecessor of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

This two-storey bahay-na-bato (stone house) was the site where brothers Andres Bonifacio and Procopio Bonifacio were court martialed by a military court presided by Gen. Mariano Noriel from May 5 to 6, 1897. The court found the two accused guilty of treason and recommended execution.

Check out “VIsita Iglesia 2017” and “Church of the Assumption of Our Lady”

The house has capiz sliding windows, ventanillas and calado woodwork on the eaves

Built by Teodorico Reyes in 1889, this house was formerly known as the Roderico Reyes House (which was the name of the former owner). The house now belongs to Mr. Jose Angeles. On June 4, 1997, the house was designated as a National Historical Landmark by the National Historical Institute and, in 1999, it was fully restored and declared as a National Heritage Site.

National Historical Institute (NHI) Plaque

Today, this stone, brick and wood ancestral house has been converted into a museum called the Museo ng Paglilitis ni Andres Bonifacio or Bonifacio Trial Museum. It was formally inaugurated on November 28, 2014.

Philippine Historical Committee (PHC) Plaque

Bonifacio Trial Museum: Col. Crisostomo Riel St., Brgy. Poblacion 1-A, Maragondon, Cavite. Mobile number: (0917) 553-7375 (Mr. Melanio Guevarra – museum curator). E-mail: bonifaciotrialmuseum@gmail.com. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays, 8 AM – 5 PM. Admission is free.

Royal Regalia Museum (Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei)

Posted on 11 September, 2016 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

Royal Regalia Museum

After our visit to the Jame’asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, we proceeded to the Royal Regalia Museum (Malay: Bangunan Alat-Alat Kebesaran Diraja), built on the site of the Winston Churchill Memorial Museum (perhaps the only such memorial to Churchill in this part of the world), constructed in 1971.

The domed ceiling

A fire destroyed the previous roof and the domed roof was built by a Japanese company. The builing was modernized and considerably extended and, on September 30, 1992, was opened as the Royal Regalia Museum which has a profusion of exhibits related to the commemoration of the 25 years of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah‘s rule of Brunei.

The Royal Regalia Exhibition Hall

This large gold-domed, semicircular structure is fitted with specially-designed mosaics. Gleaming marble has been used extensively in its interior. The floor is covered with plush carpets and the spectacular, beautifully-lit circular gallery is topped with a mosaic-tiled dome sitting on the cup of the original crescent-shaped building.

The gold-leafed Royal Chariot

Prior to entering, we all removed our shoes. On display at the entrance hall is the huge, stunning Royal Chariot, a winged chariot covered in gold leaf, surrounded by regalia from the royal crowning ceremony, that was used for the parade carrying the Sultan through the streets of the city on the occasion of his 1992 silver jubilee celebration of his coronation in 1968. In front of the chariot are a bevy of headless mannequins dressed in traditional attire.

The “pedang dan perisai” are 16 swords, with gold, silver and brass bands on the hilt, and 16 shields that were carried by 16 “awang-awang” (aristocrats)

At the reception desk, we were required to sign our names and nationality in the guest book and then deposit our bags, cameras and mobile phones (photography is only allowed in the lobby) in plastic bins before proceeding on our guided tour. Lockers are also provided free of charge, and you keep the key yourself. A historical review of the present Sultan’s life was then narrated by our guide Mohammad through the Sultan’s family pictures with detailed narrative texts (one particular photograph of interest shows the Sultan smiling at his circumcision ceremony), many of his portraits and a hologram.

The “payung berwarna” are 40 (8 yellow, 8 green, 8 red, 8 white and 8 black) multi-colored umbrellas with golden tops borne by 40 “awang-awang” (aristocrats) who stand on either side of the area below the “peningkah lapau”

40 “payung kawan” (yellow and red umbrellas) are carried by 40 “orang muda-muda” (the young) who stand at both sides at the area below the “peningkah lapau”

8 “payung dadu” (umbrellas with gold tips) were carried by “awang-awan” (aristocrats) who stand on both sides of the area below the “peningkah lapau”

It recreates his early childhood, chronicling his schooling in Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and finally in Britain at the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. Other historic pictures cover independence, the Sultan meeting his people afterwards in the mosque and in the districts; and his return from the Hajj.

The 6 special “lembing” (royal spears) and “taming” (shields), with golden tips, are borne by 6 “beduanda kecil” (pages)

Film footage of the magnificent ceremony is screened in a small theater. A small room also houses the many military honors and decorations to his military service from well over twenty different countries.

The 16 “tumbak benderangan” (royal ceremonial spears), plated in gold and silver, are borne by 16 “awang-awang” (aristocrats) decked in ceremonial attire

Artifacts that were used for royal ceremonies coronation in the country were also exhibited. They included gold and silver ceremonial weaponry; ornate gold crown embedded with jewels; ceremonial costumes; the symbolic Golden Cats; the silver kris; the Sultan’s costume; a solid golden forearm with upturned palm (which are depicted on the Royal state crest) that the Sultan used as a prop for his chin at his coronation; and orchestral instruments used during the ceremony.

The 4 octagonal “puan kerajaan”” (royal betel boxes), made with silver, are used for keeping flowers and are usually borne by the 4 sons of the “cheterias” (common nobles), in ceremonial attire, on both sides o the “petarana” (throne)

A large side room on the ground floor depicts the 1968 coronation scene at the Lapau using models, pictures, words and exhibits. Inside is an enormous, house-like and more modern (the Sultan’s tiger-skin throne was airconditioned) second chariot, equipped with an engine, which was used in the coronation of the sultan.

40 “sinipit” (spears) decorated with red “bendera pisang-pisang” at each tip, an 40 “taming” (shields) are carried by 40 warriors in red suits an “dastar”

Rows of life-size mannequin figures, clad in black and red military uniforms, stand proudly in front and behind the chariot. On the outskirts of the room are life-size photographs of adoring onlookers, probably people who were actually in the crowd that day.

The Chanang is a gong used in the MajlisBerjaga Jaga (before the proclamation and coronation), Gendang Jaga Jaga and other royal ceremonies

There is a scaled replica of the entrance gates of Istana Nurul Iman, the world’s largest residential palace (incidentally designed by my uncle, the late National Artist Arch. Leandro V. Locsin). Also of interest are the costumes worn by the Sultan and his two consorts during the Silver Jubilee. Queen Saleha’s costume is decorated with gold and diamonds while that of Pengiran Isteri Hajah Mariam, the Sultan’s then second wife, is decorated with gold and pearls.

The 8 readily lit Dian Alam Bernaga (candles) are placed before the Petarana (throne), at the time when the Sultan sits on the throne. During the procession, they are borne by 8 Pengarah (overseers).

Also on display are gifts from heads of state to the Sultan. They include gold-plated as well as sparkling glass miniatures of world-famous national landmarks; diamond encrusted vases; delicate porcelain tea sets; ceremonial daggers; stunning wooden carvings;, eye-catching paintings; jewel-encrusted ornaments; commemorative plates with inscribed messages and blessings; objects made from shining silver; ornate coffee tables; decorative glassware; intricate hand-made textiles; and more.

Gendang Labik (cylindrical drum)

To the left of the main entrance is the Constitutional History Gallery. Set up in 1984 as part of the country’s independence celebrations, it traces the history and development of the constitution – from 1847 when the first Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was signed with Britain, to the proclamation of the 1959 constitution.

The author at the Royal Regalia Exhibition Hall

Jandy in front of the Royal Chariot

Inside is the signed APAC plaque from the time Brunei held the conference (November 15–16, 2000.) The plaque contains signatures of the APAC members leaders including then US President William “”Bill” Clinton’s.

Members of B.E.A.T. in front of the Royal RegaliaMuseum

Royal Regalia Museum: Jln Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien, Bandar Seri Begawan, BS8611, Brunei. Tel: +673 224 4545 extension 201. Admission is free. Open 9 AM – 5 PM, Sundays – Thursdays, 9-11:30 AM and 2.30 – 5 PM, Fridays (closed 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM for Friday prayer), and 9:45 AM – 5 PM, Saturdays. Last entry at 4.30 PM. You can only take photographs in the lobby and visitors are required to remove their shoes before entering the building.

Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa (Venice, Italy)

Posted on 31 May, 2016 by Benjie Layug — 4 Comments ↓

Courtyard o the palazzo

The Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa, originally the ancient casa da stazio, an L-shaped building located at the intersection of the rios of San

Bronze bust of Antonio Grimani (Andrea Briosco)

Severo and Santa Maria Formosa, was the residence of the Venetian doge Antonio Grimani. It was substantially altered in 1532-1569 by his grandsons Vittore, procuratore generale of the city, and Giovanni Grimani, cardinal and Patriarch of Aquileia, giving it a classical stamp.

Giovanni allegedly collaborated with celebrated architects such as Jacopo Sansovino, Sebastiano Serlio and Andrea Palladio.

Two new wings, doubling the size of the building, were added. A vast Roman-style inner courtyard, with loggias of marble colonnades (unusual in sixteenth-century Venice) and asymmetrical porticoes, was laden with artfully arranged sculptures, reliefs and inscriptions.The palace was completed in 1575 by Giovanni Rusconi while Alessandro Vittoria was responsible for the ornamentation of the doorway.

The palace is composed of three parts with a small backyard. The façade, sporting

Bronze bust of Hadrian (Ludovico Lombardo)

characteristically massive windows arches, is decorated with polychrome marble.

The most striking feature of the interior is the Sala di Psiche (c. 1540), with frescoes by Mannerist artists such as Francesco Menzocchi, Camillo Mantovano and Francesco Salviati.

Other artists who worked to the palace’s decoration include Taddeo Zuccari and Giovanni da Udine.

Bust of Antinoüs, favorite of Hadrian

The palazzo once held the archaeological collections (one of the finest of the time), strikingly displayed on shelves, mantelpieces and plinths in settings of the high ceiling, specially designed Tribuna and the courtyard, amassed by Cardinal Domenico Grimani and Giovanni Grimani, and donated to the Republic.

Palazzo Grimani, internationally important for its architectural originality, the quality of its decoration and the history of its development, was purchased by the State in 1981 and, in 2001, a decree of the Ministry of the Cultural Heritage gave responsibility for its management to the Superintendency of State Museums in Venice. On December 20, 2015, it was reopened as a museum.

An especially valuable addition to its museum circuit, the palace displays a few Hi eronymus Bosch paintings from the Grimani collection: depicting the dream-like Visione dell’Aldilà, l’Ascesa all’Empireo, and la Caduta dei dannati e l’Inferno; and the Triptych of Santa Liberata, and the Triptych of the eremiti (Sant’Antonio, San Girolamo and Sant’Egidio).

The Sculpture Gallery with “The Rape of Ganymede (Reinhard Gomer)” hanging on the ceiling

The extraordinarily high quality decoration of the rooms includes outstanding stucco work and frescoes, reflecting the confidently unconventional taste of the Grimanis.

Palazzo Grimani, unique in Venetian history and architecture, is a fascinating treasure house of cultural, artistic and historical riches.

Statue of Laocoon and his sons

Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa: Ramo Grimani, 4858, 30122 Venice, Italy. Tel: +39 041 241 1507 and +39 041 5200345. E-mail: info@palazzogrimani.org and sspsae-ve.grimani@beniculturali.it. Website: www.palazzogrimani.org. Open 8:15 AM – 7:15 PM. Admission: € 4.00 + € 1,50 reservation fee.

Gallerie dell’Accademia (Venice, Italy)

Posted on 31 May, 2016 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

Gallerie dell’Accademia

The Gallerie dell’Accademia (Accademia Gallery of Venice), on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro, is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy.

The author in front of the museum

Housed in the Palladian complex of the Scuola della Carità (the oldest of the six Scuole Grandi (though the building dates back to 1343, the scuola was formed in 1260), it was originally the gallery of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia (founded on September 24, 1750, it was one of the first institutions to study art restoration starting in 1777 with Pietro Edwards, and formalized by 1819 as a course), the art academy of Venice (from which it became independent in 1879) which remained in the same building until 2004, when the art school moved to the Ospedale degli Incurabili.

Church of Santa Maria della Carita

The museum courtyard

The Ponte dell’Accademia (Academy Bridge, where the museum is literally in front of) and the Accademia boat landing station (where our vaporetto water bus docked) are named after it. Like other state museums in Italy, it falls under the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, the Italian ministry of culture and heritage.

Jandy (foreground) in one of the galleries

The absolutely stunning Gallerie dell’Accademia, the picture gallery of the art academy and one of the great museums of the world, owns the most important collection worldwide of more than 800 Venetian paintings, from the Gothic until the Rococo.

Genres covered include Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. Over time, the collection has increased, thanks to private donations and acquisitions.

Ornate ceiling in Room 1

The museum contains masterpieces of Venetian painting from the 12th through 18th centuries, more or less generally arranged chronologically (since art in the academy has long been taught in chronological order) in 24 rooms, though some thematic displays are evident.

Jandy and Kyle in front of the painting Fisherman Presenting a Ring to the Doge Granedigo (Paris Bordone, 1534, oil on canvas)

The museum, bringing together, under one roof, all the works of art that were scattered throughout Venice, is housed in three buildings – the Scuola della Carità, the Convento dei Canonici Lateranensi (started in 1561 by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, it was never fully completed) and the now deconsecrated Church of Santa Maria della Carità (its facade was completed in 1441 by Bartolomeo Bon).

Angel of the Annunciation and Virgin Annunciate (Giovanni Bellini)

Washing of the Feet (Giovanni Agostino da Lodi, 1500, oil on board)

The former Santa Maria della Carità convent complex maintained its serene composure for centuries until 1807 when Napoleon installed his haul of Venetian art trophies here. The interior of the building is as beautiful as the art it houses.

Archangel Gabriel (Giambattista Cima da Conegliano)

Supper in Emmaus (Marco Marziale, 1506)

The giants of Venetian painting, from the 13th to the 18th centuries, whose wonderful collection of art are represented here include the 1600’s Canaletto Vedutisti, Francesco Guardi, Bernardo Bellotto and Pietro Longhi, down to Renaissance artists such as Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian (or Tiziano), Veronese (Paolo Caliari), Tintoretto and and the Baroque master of the swirling-heavenly-clouds ceiling fresco Gianbattista Tiepolo (who became the second director, after Rococo painter Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, of the academy after his return from Würzburg).

Chess Players (Pittore Caravaggesco)

Holy Family with St. Catherine and John the Baptist (Palma il Vecchio)

Other artists include Antonello da Messina, Lazzaro Bastiani, Pacino di Bonaguida, Giulio Carpioni, Rosalba Carriera, Cima da Conegliano, Fetti, Pietro Gaspari, Michele Giambono, Luca Giordano, Johann Liss, Charles Le Brun, Lorenzo Lotto, Mantegna, Rocco Marconi, Michele Marieschi, Piazzetta, Giambattista Pittoni, Preti, Vasari, Leonardo da Vinci (Drawing of Vitruvian Man), Alvise Vivarini and Giuseppe Zais. All these artists influenced the history of European painting.

Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto (Paolo Veronese, ca. 1573, oil on canvas)

Crucifixion (Pittore Veneziano-Padovano, ca. 1460)

An essential visit for painting enthusiasts, it is the most important museum that one can visit during a stay in Venice. The route around the galleries does not really flow in one direction. In many cases, we had to go down long corridors to view work, only to return along the same corridors, allowing us to revisit work as we walked about.

Mary with the Child of artist Francesco Morone (Francesco Morone)

Madonna of the Small Trees (Giovanni Bellini, 1487)

Our visit to the galleries started off in the 14th century (Paolo Veneziano’s Coronation of the Virgin altarpiece, etc.), continues through Giorgione’s weirdly lit The Tempest and Giovanni Bellini’s many Madonna and Childs, and ends with Carpaccio’s intricate Cycle of St. Ursula and Titian’s late Pietà.

Madonna and Child with St. Simeon and St. Jerome (Giovanni Agostino da Lodi)

Funeral of St Jerome (Lazzaro Bastiani)

The rooms we explored all showed Venice’s precocious flair for color and drama. The massive Tintoretto paintings, from the Scuola Grande di San Marco, can’t be seen from a reasonable viewing distance as they are hung along the sides of corridors which are only about 12 ft. wide.

Triptych of the Martyrdom of St. Liberata (Hiermonymus Bosch, 1500, oil on panel)

Ceres Renders Homage to Venice (Paolo Veronese, 1575)

Room 1 is where you can find Jacobello Alberegno’s Apocalypse which shows the whore of Babylon, with babbling rivers of blood from her mouth, riding a hydra, and Paolo Veneziano’s Coronation of Mary, at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, where Jesus bestows the crown on his mother with a gentle pat on the head to the tune of an angelic orchestra).

Crucifixion (Andrea Previtali)

The Miracle of St. Mark Freeing the Slave (Jacopo Tintoretto, 15,48, oil on canvas)

Room 2 is where the eerie, glowing skies of Vittore Carpaccio’s lively Crucifixion and Glorification of the Ten Thousand Martyrs of Mount Ararat seem to make UFO arrivals imminent.

The Crucifixion and the Glorification the Ten Thousand Martyrs on Mt. Ararat (Vittore Carpaccio, 1515, oil on canvas)

Room 4 is where you can find Giovanni Bellini’s quietly elegant Madonna and Child between St Catherine and Mary Magdalene).

Virgin and Child between St. Catherine and Mary Magdalene (Giovanni Bellini, ca. 1500)

Room 10 features paintings by Tintoretto, Titian and Paolo Veronese. The latter’s monumental Feast in the House of Levi (1573), originally called The Lord’s Last Supper, is shocking, not only for its size (at 42 ft. long, it is one of the largest canvases of the 16th century), but also for its rather racy depiction of the Lord’s holiest of moments. Here, the artist portrayed the Savior and his Apostles cavorting with drunkards, dwarves, Muslims and Reformation-minded Germans in a rousing, drunken banquet that resembled paintings of Roman orgies.

Feast in the House of Levi (Paolo Veronese, 1573, oil on canvas)

The Inquisition leaders, with their rising Puritanism, promptly condemned Veronese, charging the painter with irreverence and threatened to indict him on the very serious charge of heresy. Veronese quickly re-titled the work, still with Jesus in it but now surrounded by secular guests who were free to engage in acts of gluttony. The mollified censors let it pass.

Stealing of the Body of St. Mark (Jacopo Tintoretto)

Jacopo Tintoretto’s The Stealing of the Body of St. Mark commemorates the Venetian merchants who, in 828, spirited the body of the famed saint and Evangelist away from Alexandria. During that era, Italy’s hyper-competitive maritime capitals competed to see who could steal the best saint and then build a cathedral around his bones. Acquiring bona fide saints was, thus, de rigueur for relic hunters. The painting is, obviously, a bit fanciful as it depicts the now long-dead saint, borne in the arms of the Venetian thieves, as a fresh, rather muscular corpse.

Procession in St. Mark’s Square (Gentile Bellini, 1496, tempera on canvas)

Room 12 is where you’ll find Giambattista Piazzetta’s saucy, fate-tempting socialite in Fortune Teller. In Room 20, you’ll find works by Carpaccio and Gentile Bellini’s Procession in St Mark’s Square, which offers an intriguing view of Venice’s iconic piazza before its 16th-century makeover.

Departure of the English Ambassadors (Vittore Carpaccio, 1497-98)

The Ambassadors Return to the English Court (Vittore Carpaccio, 1495, oil on canvas)

Room 21 is home to Vittore Carpaccio’s St. Ursula Cycle, a series of 9 paintings documenting the saint’s ill-fated life. In Room 17, you’ll find works of Canaletto, Guardi and Pietro Longhi. Everything is clearly marked and explained. Rooms 12 to 19 are occasionally used for temporary exhibitions.

The Concert (Pietro Longhi, 1741, oil on canvas)

Pieta (Girolamo Romani)

Room 23, a serene showstopper fronted by a Bellini altarpiece, is the original convent chapel where tou can find Giorgione’s highly charged La Tempesta (The Storm) featuring a mysterious nursing mother and a passing soldier with a bolt of summer lightning, its meaning still debated by art historians – is this an expulsion from Eden, an allegory for alchemy, or a reference to Venice conquering Padua in the War of Cambria?

Ornate ceiling of Sala dell’Albergo

Ornamental splendor is found at the newly restored Sala dell’Albergo, Scuola della Carità’s boardroom (Room 24), which has a lavishly carved ceiling. It faces Antonio Vivarini’s wrap-around masterpiece The Virgin Enthroned with Saints Jerome, Gregory, Ambrose and Augustine (1446 (oil on canvas), filled with fluffy-bearded saints. closes with The touching 1534–39 Presentation of the Virgin, of Titian, features a young, tiny Madonna trudging up an intimidating staircase. A distinctly Venetian crowd of onlookers points to her example yet few of the velvet and pearl-clad merchants offer alms to the destitute mother or even feed the begging dog.

Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (Titian, 1534)

Gallerie dell’Accademia: Campo della Carita, Dorsoduro 1050, 30123 Venice, Italy. Tel: +39 041 522 2247. Admission: €15 (entry to the museum is free on the first Sunday of every month). Open Mondays, 8:15 AM to 2 PM, Tuesdays to Sundays, 8:15 AM to 7:15 PM (last entrance at 6:15 PM). When you buy your ticket you will be asked to place backpacks and additional bags bigger than 20 x 30 x 15 cms. inside lockers (€1), but you will get you money back when you retrieve your belongings. There is an audio guide (for an extra €6). Photography is allowed as long as you do not use your flash. During the busy season, queues can be long after 10 AM. Admissions are restricted to 400 people at the same time.

How to Get There: the museum is about a 15-20 min walk from St Marks and is easy to find as it is well signposted in the Dorsoduro district.

Murano Glass Museum (Venice, Italy)

Posted on 30 May, 2016 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Murano Glass Museum (Museo del Vetro)

The Murano Glass Museum (Italian: Museo del Vetro), a museum on the millennial history of glass, including local Murano glass, is housed in the Vescovi Palace, the former residence of the bishops of Torcello. Originally built in the Gothic style, this patrician’s palace became the residence of Bishop Marco Giustinian in 1659. He later bought it and donated it to the Torcello diocese.

Jandy, Cheska, Grace and Kyle at the museum garden

This Glass Museum, founded in 1861 by Abbot Zanetti, became part of the Venetian Civic Museums in 1923, following the fusion of Murano with Venice. In 1932, its collections were put in order under the guidance of Giulio Lorenzetti and Nino Barbantini who adopted more modern criteria regarding display techniques.

Museum exhibit

The museum’s collection, further expanded by the addition of the Correr, Cicogna and Molin Collections, includes, among other things, the most beautiful Renaissance pieces in the museum. Except for occasional purchases, the museum’s contemporary collection are enriched by donations made by the island’s glassworks. It is run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (MUVE).

A collection of glass beads

Paintings of famous glassmakers

The museum is divided into the following sections:

Archaeological Section (Ground floor) – its most outstanding exhibits come from the necropolises of Enona (Zara), noteworthy Roman works dating from the 1st to the 3rd century A.D. including objects with depictions of animals and plants, glass murrini and examples of applications and decorations used in ancient times.
Murano Glass in the 15th Century – the evolution, from ‘crystal clear’ glass, to the pure and transparent glass that, during the next century, leads to the development of new decorative techniques.
Murano Glass in the 16th Century – the century in which the precious Murano glass goes beyond national borders to spread throughout Europe, on display are lattimo glass; white opaque glass like porcelain; glass used in filigree or decorated with enamels; and ice glass with a typical cracked outer surface.
Murano Glass in the 17th Century – considered to be the century of the so-called glass à la façon de Venise, the most prestigious Murano glass, the 17th century is also the beginning of the decline because of the massive exodus of Murano glassmakers abroad. Towards the end of the century the market began to prefer Bohemian glass.

Murano Glass in the 13th – 17th Century

Murano Glass in the 18th Century – Murano Glass acquired new life thanks to Joseph Briati. Examples of his vast output on display include chiocche (crystal chandeliers decorated with multiple arms); deseri (table triumphs), famous for their ornamental richness and variety of the subjects represented; and beautiful mirrors.

Murano Glass in the 18th Century

Murano Glass in the 19th Century – production of Murano Glass art goes through a period of technique and aesthetics decline. From the second half of the 19th century, blown glass by Antonio Salviati and reproduction of Roman mosaic glass by Vincenzo Moretti offered new ideas to the glassmaking industry.
Murano Glass in the 20th Century – the traditional techniques of glass working began to be used for more modern creations at the beginning of this century– as demonstrated in the ‘Peacock murrina‘ and Vittorio Zecchin’s Plate. After the First World War, many artists began working closely with the furnaces on the island. Umberto Bellotto, with the cooperation of the Barovier artists and fantastic glassy fabrics created by Carlo Scarpa for Venini, designed daring combinations of glass and wrought iron. After World War II, Murano develops an interest in the chromatic effects of the glass as can be seen in the works of Ercole Barovier, the noteworthy sculptures of Alfredo Barbini and the creations of watermarks by Archimede Seguso.

Murano Glass in the 20th Century

The upper floor houses a collection of glass from the 15th to the 20th century (one of the most complete in the world), including world famous realizations by the famous Barovier & Toso glass company and glass textiles designed by Carlo Scarpa in the late 1930s.

Chiocche (crystal chandeliers)

The exhibit, interspersed throughout with innumerable glass objects reflective of the era covered and the specific techniques of production for each century, took us through the history of glass making solely on Murano, starting with the 14th -17th century apogee of the art and, continuing into modern times, in more detail with the 18th and 19th century of jousting of Murano with Bohemia as the world’s leader in this art form. Then, it continues with its downturn, after Napoleon, and revival in the late 19th century (thanks to enterprising locals of the industry). Modern day art ended our tour.

Miniature garden made entirely of Murano glass

Also on display are a fine collection of beads and an equally splendid exhibition of classic table ware. At a small hall just by the entrance, we watched a cool video presentation on glassware making.

The Minimalist displays, in 6 big, easy to navigate and wheelchair-friendly rooms, were.impressive and occasionally stunning to the eye and our 2-hour visit here was educational and worthwhile.

Murano Glass Museum: Fondamenta Giustinian 8, 30121 Murano, Venice, Italy. Tel: +39 041 739586. Website: www.museiciviciveneziani.it. Open from April 1 to November 1, 10 AM – 6 PM (ticket office: 10 AM – 5 PM); from November 2 to March 31, 10 AM – 5 PM (ticket office: 10 AM – 4 PM); closed on December 25 and January 1. Admission: €4.00 (reductions for pensioners and students), €6.50 for a ticket which usually combines entrance to the Glass Museum and the Lace Museum on Burano.

How to Get There: From the Piazzale Roma or Ferrovia (the bus and railroad station), boarded the Line 3 “Diretto Murano” vaporetto (water taxi) and drop off at the “Museo” vaporetto water bus stop. The museum is a short walk along the Fondamenta to your left as you get off the water bus.

Palazzo Pitti – Porcelain Museum (Florence, Italy)

Posted on 29 May, 2016 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Porcelain Museum

First opened in October 1973, the Porcelain Museum (Museo delle Porcellane), a section of the Silver Museum, is an internationally acclaimed institution in the field of ceramics and among the hundred most visited art museums in the world.

The Knight’s Building (right) beside the Giardino del Cavaliere

It is housed in the Knight’s Building (Palazzina del Cavaliere) situated on the eponymous rampart (Bastione del Cavaliere) overlooking the Boboli Gardens. Originally constructed between 1527 and 1530, the current Neo-Classical building was built at the end of the 17th century by Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici for his second-born son Giangastone.

Check out “Palazzo Pitti – Boboli Gardens“

If you love porcelain, then you will be impressed by its extensive collection of mainly continental porcelain, encompassing almost every famous maker. The labels were predominantly in Italian. As it is located on one of the highest points of the Boboli Gardens, you have a gorgeous panoramic view of the city of Florence from the terrace.

The over 2,000-piece, homogeneous collection comprises mainly porcelain tableware, from many of the most notable European porcelain factories, belonging to the royal families that ruled Tuscany and have followed one another at Pitti Palace, starting from the period of the Medici family, to the Lorraines (including the Parma-Bourbon dynasty), to the Savoys up to the unification of Italy. One of the most important historical collections of its kind in Europe, the oldest pieces are those that once belonged to Gian Gaston de Medici (the last Medici Grand Duke, 1671-1737) produced in the Manufactory of Meissen.

Among the well represented manufacturers of origin on display are the Royal Factory of Naples (Capodimonte); the Tuscan Carlo Ginori from Sesto Fiorentino; French manufacturers Vincennes (founded in 1740 and transferred to Sèvres in 1756 under the direct ownership of King Louis XV) in Paris; Viennese porcelain, largely collected by Ferdinand III of Tuscany; the German porcelain factory of Meissen, near Dresden.

Many items in the collection, divided into three sections by periods, nations (Austria, Germany and France) and manufacturers, were specially commissioned by the Grand Ducal court, clearly reflecting their tastes, with several outstanding examples of Italian porcelain objects produced in Doccia (near Florence, founded by the Ginori family in 1737) and at the Royal Manufactory of Naples. These were especially used by the Grand ducal family for large services of daily use. All are very detailed, elegant and fine works of arts.

Meissen (1800-1850)

Others were gifts to the Florentine rulers from other European sovereigns. They include fine table sets from Vienna and from the German Manufactory of Meisse. There were also French several large porcelain dinner services from the Vincennes (later renamed Sèvres) factory, brought to the Pitti Palace by the Savoy House from the Royal Palace of Parma.

1750 Porcelain (Sevres)

Table services, for daily use, constantly supplied to the Grand Dukes of Lorraine, from Doccia Manifacture, include a flowered porcelain with bouquet or tulip motifs, taken from the so-called “famille rose” Chinese porcelain; and lovely coffee cups with view of Florentine piazzas, from the 1800’s, made using lithographs by the Frenchman Philippe Benoist as models.

Naples Royal Factory (1785)

Some typical examples of French porcelain, characterized by various pastel-colored shades, includes some flower vases with scenes taken from Francois Boucher as well as 4 oysters stands from Parma, singular and unique of their kind, made up of 18 shell-shaped bowls and belonging to Louise Elisabeth de Bourbon, the Grand Duchess of Parma, who was, in fact, the daughter of Louis XV, king of France. Sèvres table services for the light first course and dessert, in two central display cases, were gifts to Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi (Grand Duchess of Tuscany, 1809-1814) from her august brother Emperor Napoleon I.

In the first room is a collection from the Real Fabbrica of Naples. They include, of particular note, a series of small biscuit figurines depicting personages from Classical antiquity; reproductions from the excavations in Herculaneum; 18 figurines reproducing ‘garments’ from the Kingdom of Naples, two dejeuner services (one decorated with Egyptian motifs and the other with Etruscan motifs).

Biscuit figurines

A rich assembly of Viennese porcelains, in the second room, were brought to Pitti Palace by two Lorraine grand dukes – Peter Leopold (who maintained a constant rapport with the Vienna) and Ferdinand III of Lorraine (an impassioned collector of porcelains and, particularly, of ‘solitaire’ services). Cups and trays, decorated with views of Vienna, and a coffee service, with a trompe l’oeil feigned wood decoration, stand out.

A series of small porcelain statues taken from the Commedia dell’Arte

Porcelains from Meissen and from other German manufacturers are in the third room. In the display case, towards the window, are 2 turtle-shaped butter dishes, a teapot in the shape of a rooster and a broth cup with scene inspired by a play by Molière, probably belonging to the collection of Gian Gastone de Medici.

Sèvres porcelain of Elisa Baciocchi (1809–1810)

Early pieces, from the Meissen factory, such as a splendid vase, are decorated with Chinese motifs such as gilded grape leaves and vines in relief. The Harlequin, a series of small porcelain statues taken from the Commedia dell’Arte, representing people in costume (ladies, musicians, putti, gardeners, etc.), was a source of inspiration for the Capodimonte porcelain manufacture in Naples.

Turtle-shaped butter dishes

Porcelain Museum: Palazzo Pitti, Piazza de’ Pitti, Florence, Italy. Tel: +39 055 238 8709

This travel blog, a diary of the author’s local and international travels, aims to provide the reader with news and information on people, places and events that would interest the avid traveler and tourist. But, it also aims to be much more, providing insights on the wonders of this beautiful country, as well as the world, beyond the strict confines of the city. Have a BLAST seeing old churches, exotic temples, educational museums as well as palm-fringed islands; white sand beaches; thundering waterfalls; placid lakes; fiery sunsets; turquoise seas; cathedral-like caves; swirling rivers; majestic mountains; stupendous, amphitheater-like rice terraces; awesome volcanoes and the like. Get to know the movers and shakers in the tourism industry; find out where to titillate the palate; rejuvenate your body; feed your adrenalin, unwind and relax; satisfy your craving for history and culture; and find out what's being celebrated and where.

BENJAMIN “BENJIE” LAYUG, an architect by profession (he finished his B. S. Architecture degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1982), is also a copy editor for two publishing houses; travel writer; blogger; architectural historian; author; concert. movie and musical reviewer (for www.pep.ph); and a motivational speaker.

As a free-lance travel writer, he has, in the past, contributed articles to Travel Update, Philippine Daily Inquirer, COLORS, TODAY, 7107 Islands Magazine, Business Day and Bluprint. He currently writes for Artplus Magazine and the Business Mirror.

He is also the author of the following travel books:

A Philippine Odyssey (New Day Publishers, 2005)
Pathfinder’s Travel Guide: Boracay (Great Books Trading, 2006)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Churches (New Day Publishers, 2007)
A Tourist to Notable Philippine Historical Landmarks, Monuments and Shrines (New Day Publishers, 2010)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Museums (New Day Publishers, 2012)

Some of his books now appear in the local library shelves of the National Library of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University, University of Sto. Tomas, U.P. Diliman, Centro Escolar University, San Sebastian College, Miriam College, Silliman University, to name a few, as well as internationally at the National Library of Australia and the University of California Berkeley Library.

Now a senior citizen, he is probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, active travel blogger in the country today. He also has a lifestyle blog called F.Y.I.:Firing Your Imagination (www.firingyourimagination.blogspot.com). Benjie has traveled to two-thirds (53) of the country’s 81 provinces and over 20 countries in 4 continents.