Just a quick FYI, I’m still working on getting full-length blog posts published on here (a combination of updating and transferring material from old sites and working on writing new stuff), but you can check out the social media feeds on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Mastodon, and BlueSky for up-to-date daily…
Bonus: Exhibit A, spotted on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2020: This three-quarter view of John Bee Holmes (1760-1827) against a curtain backdrop was painted when the sitter was about six years old. He is shown looking at the viewer with a slight smile, his body turned…
Translation of caption: “In many Indigenous myths and legends, the tlacuache [opossum] has a special place. He is cunning and stands up to power to bring fire to men. Being a central figure in the mythology of pre-Hispanic peoples, he was represented in ceremonial dishes, such as this one found…
After a long period of relatively little activity outside of posting info about events, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art’s social media has had a busy August sharing more images from its collection, including no less than a half dozen animal art-themed works! I have been sharing these on the…
Festival Kimono, Akita Prefecture, Tōhoku region, Honshū. Late 19th-early 20th century. Cotton; shibori (shape resist) 51 × 50 inches (129.6 × 127 cm) “The motif on the back of the garment is known as koi no takinobori (“carp ascending a waterfall”), which was an immensely popular design. It references a…
It’s #WorldLionDay! So, which medieval lion are you today? (I think I’m #8) Ok, but which medieval embroidered lion are you today? (#8 for me again) As noted on the lion’s page on the Medieval Bestiary website, the lion was the king of the beasts and thus was usually the…
This fabulous frog racking up likes and retweets on Twitter can be found amongst the over 100 species of flora and 50 species of fauna in a huge scroll painting by Ito Jakuchu called “Saichufu” (also known in English as “Compendium of Vegetables and Insects”). Here is a detail of the…
The Walters Art Museum just announced a virtual event scheduled for Thursday 4 August from 6pm-7pm (Eastern U.S. time), tied into their current Majolica Mania exhibition, and specifically, its star attraction: The star of the Majolica Mania exhibition is a five-foot-tall ceramic peacock nicknamed Percy. This impressive sculpture celebrates the…
