A trip to the Walters Art Museum.
Dragon. China, 4-5th Century. Earthenware ceramic, paint
This painted sculpture of a dragon most likely came from a tomb, and suggests the dragon's importance in 4th century funerary beliefs as a creature capable of traversing between worlds and transporting souls into a glorious afterlife. The draon was also capable of numerous physical transformations.
Brush rest in the shape of a praying mantis.
Murata Seimin (1761-1837)
Japan (Tokyo), ca. 1800. Copper Alloy
The artist Murata Seimin closely studied his animal subjects, which lends realism to the details of this praying mantis. The insect is also positioned in a pose that easily provides support for a writing brush to rest upon.
Model of a Pagoda with Famous Scenes from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco.
Komai Workship (est. ca. 1841-1941)
Japan (Kyoto), ca. 1915. Steel, silver, copper, copper alloy, gold, gilding, enamel, lacquer
Pagodas are tall multi-roofed buildings that originally housed relics of the Buddha or another venerated person. The stunning model of one, however, is far removed from this sacred function and made solely as a showcase of craftmanship. Every wall of the structure is decorated with scenes of famous places in Japan, including Mount Fuji and the Koyomiza Template, while the roofs are embellished with figures of butterflies and birds in flight. The design is created using a textured inlay technique called nunome-zogan (cloth inlay), for which the Komai Workshop is renowned. The technique involves hammering gold, silver and copper sheets and wires onto a roughened steel surface, covering the compositions with successive thin coats of opaque black lacquer, and polishing the lacquer to expose the raised metal beneath.
Many other things..
Jane spoke to a conservator about a piece she liked, and about stained glass.
The George Peabody library was closed for an event but Demetrius let us in for some photos. He’s an ex-fireman, and a super nice guy. The library, as you can see, is astonishing - though it’s too big to really do it justice with a photo. (The library contains 300,000 volumes, mainly from the 19th century, with strengths in religion, British art, architecture, topography and history; American history, biography, and literature; Romance languages and literature; history of science; and geography, exploration, and travel.)
Outside was the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church (1843) and the Washington Monument (older than the Washington Monument in DC.)
The Washington Monument is the centerpiece of intersecting Mount Vernon Place and Washington Place, an urban square in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood north of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first major monument begun to honor George Washington. — Wikipedia
Francis Scott Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner died on the site of the church. (Pleurisy, aged 63 in 1843.) The church was completed in 1872.
Into Delaware where we bought some beer from the Wilmington Breworks, had a nice pizza at their pizza place next door, La Pizzeria Metro.
It’s been a day of three states. We woke in Maryland, popped into Pennsylvania and ended the day in Delaware. We will be going to Pennsylvania properly tomorrow.