January
Miya, from series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Reisho)
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Object of The Month: January
Miya, from series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Reisho)
Hiroshige is considered the last great artist of the Ukiyo-e tradition of Japanese printmaking. His work focused of everyday life and landscape in Edo-period Japan. In Hiroshige’s groundbreaking series of woodblock prints, The 53 Stations of the Tokaido, he captured the beauty of legendary meisho (famous places) along the Tokaido road, the highway connecting
Edo to Kyoto, the imperial capital.
This print can be seen in The Floating World of Okiyo-e, on exhibition in the Daura Museum of Art from Jan. 23 – April 7, 2023.
December
Nativity (to Martha)
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Object of The Month: December
Nativity (to Martha)
Images of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child are one of the most popular in Christian art. These images have no direct scriptural basis, but bodily postures, gestures, and the symbolism of objects in the scene provide clues to the devotional or theological message.
November
Zuni Pueblo Olla
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Object of The Month: November
Zuni Pueblo Olla
The Zuni Pueblos of New Mexico produce a unique style of pottery that can be easily distinguished from other Pueblo types based on form, design, and materials. The Zuni use a white-to-gray clay for their pottery with crushed rock for temper, and paint their pots with a bright white slip and a dark brown-to-black mineral paint that is often accented by a dark red mineral paint. Zuni pottery has many design styles but three in particular seemed to have been favored during the end of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, these include: the geometric abstract rain bird motif; the heart-line deer with rosettes design; and a curvilinear abstracted rain bird motif. The Zuni also made their pottery in a variety of forms, including: owls, deer, human figures, handled kiva bowls, as well as canteens, ollas, and dough bowls.
Ollas are made and used by Zuni women, who traditionally craft these vessels to collect water from nearby springs. These vessels are now typically associated with a dance performed by Zuni women which is passed down from daughter to daughter. These Zuni Olla Maidens emerged after a group of Zuni women, wanting to show their handcrafted pottery and their ability to walk with these pots balanced on their heads, began performing at parades and other community events. In their initial performance, these women simply walked with the ollas balanced above head and later incorporated dancing and singing. The underbody of most ollas are thus concave to make them easier to carry.
This nineteenth century vessel has many typical Zuni design elements. The base is slipped in brown, with distinctive flexure at the uppermost edge of the underbody, as well as a black-slipped, unpolished neck interior and rim top. The white slip is stone-polished with mineral-paint designs. The uppermost framing line is worked in black, overlaying the geometric/spiral volute fine-line elements worked in black and red. The heartline deer motif, an innovation of the 1860-1870 time period, is also prominent on this vessel. It was previously referred to as an antelope, the meaning of which was provided by John G. Bourke in 1881:
The line running down from the animal’s mouth and terminating at its heart may be described as a “prayer.” It is a pictographic invocation to the “spirit of the antelope” to incline the hearts of the antelope on earth to put themselves in the way of the Zunis that they may kill them for food. I made careful inquiries upon this point and know that I have obtained the correct explanation.
Sources
Historic Southwest Pottery Zuni Pueblo 16208 – Adobe Gallery, Santa Fe
Zuni Olla Maidens – The New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program