Autumn in New York - Part Ten

Let's end our trip to New York with a potpourri of handsome and wonderful items—all from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.

Shown above, an impressive young man who looks none of his 1,800 years old.  He was carved of Schist in (what is now) Pakistan in the Third Century AD. He is called "The Buddha of the Future." I'm sure he would turn-heads walking down the street today.

Here we have a Late Renaissance Roman bronze sculpture—a double-tailed Siren—created in the last decades of the Sixteenth Century.  She probably once stood outdoors and up-high—perhaps on a fountain or over a gate—on the estate of the powerful Colonna family of Rome.

Here we see Herakles the Archer, a monumental French bronze sculpture by Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (created in 1909).  There are many aesthetic influences at work here.  Heroic Classicism, seen in the pose and in the literary subject matter.  We see the rough-hewn Art Nouveau influences of the time (not unlike Rodin's Impressionist sculpted renderings).  And we can perceive a foretaste of the Art Deco period to come.

The Greek literary hero, Herakles (called Hercules by the Romans), was assigned twelve major challenges ("Labors") as atonement for having killed his wife and children—though, in his defense, Herakles had been induced into madness by the jealous and vengeful goddess, Hera (known as Juno by the Romans).  Hera hatred Herakles because he had been fathered by her own husband, Zeus, who had stepped-out with a human woman.  Hera tormented Herkles throughout his life.

In the Bourdelle sculpture, shown here, Herakles is undertaking his Sixth Labor: to kill the man-eating Stymphalian birds (with their vicious bronze beaks and talons).

This sensational malachite vase (with gilded bronze mounts) has a storied past.  The Russian malachite was mined in the Ural Mountains, in (or near) the copper mines on the property of the aristocratic Demidoff family.  The piece was created for Villa San Donato, the Florentine palazzo built by the Russian industrialist, Count Nicholas Demidoff, ambassador to the court of Tuscany. The malachite body was fashioned in Russia.  The gilded bronze mounts were executed by Pierre Philippe Thomire in Paris in 1819.  The handles are formed by "Winged Figures of Fame," about to blow their curving trumpets.  With its stand, the piece stands nine feet tall.

Vanderbilt's 1884 inventory of decorative objets refers to this vase as "one of a pair"—with its mate purported to be in the home of the Tsar of Russia.  The vase also has been described as having been exhibited at the Industrial Exposition of 1819 at the Louvre in Paris (perhaps as a pair?).

This handsome work decorated the Villa San Donato until 1880, at which point it was purchased by William H. Vanderbilt (when the contents of the estate were liquidated).  The next year, the vase was moved to the newly-built Vanderbilt "Triple Mansion" at 640 Fifth Avenue (spanning the block from 51st to 52nd Streets).  The vase was certainly a "statement piece" in the home (which was demolished in 1945-46).  In 1944, a donor purchased the piece for the Museum from Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt.

This stunning Roman copper ewer (c. 200-400 AD) is covered in gorgeous (and well-preserved) champlevé enameling.  Champlevé enameling is the technique whereby a piece of metal is created with little depressions—individual "fields"—into which the glass enameling is pooled.  These individual "troughs" can be carved-out, die-stamped, removed with acid etching, or cast into the metal surface when the object is being formed.  The other most common type of enameling is cloisonné, in which metal wires (or strips) are soldered to the metal surface to create the individual cells.

Once the metal object is created, finessed and cleaned (to remove any impurities), a mixture of glass powder (called frit) is mixed with a little methyl cellulose (a binder) and the resultant paste is packed-into the individual fields (according to the designer's plan).  The piece is then fired in the kiln, during which time the frit mixture vitrifies—that is, it liquifies under heat and hardens into glass during cooling.  The rough surfaces of the enameling are then sanded-down and polished, resulting in a smooth and glassy surface.