What are the spikes on the H?
Hildegarde of Bingen was a Benedictine abbess and mystic whose visions and advice were consulted by bishops and the Pope at a time when women were given little respect by members of the Catholic Church.
The forms on the letter H are done in stitching techniques that imitate embroidery used in medieval church textiles. They echo the forms on the back of the runner, where we see Hildegarde’s visionary drawing of the universe!
What is this scene? It’s beautiful!
Hutchinson was a charismatic Puritan woman who spread her own interpretations of the Bible in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the earlier 1600s.
Hutchinson's place setting is based on eighteenth-century mourning imagery, showing women grieving at a tomb.
Ahh
The willow tree under the plate is also a traditional English symbol of mourning that was brought to the United States.
Tell me more.
You're looking at a celebratory Fisherman's Robe called a Maiwai! This robe would have been made to celebrate a great catch, the kind of catch that would set the fisherman up for years!
This type of garment is most associated with the Boso peninsula east of Tokyo.
You can see a crane, an auspicious symbol, at the top of the maiwai, with writing that probably references celebration and the fisherman's company affiliation.
Oh I love it! It has such a fun name to match the feeling of wearing it. Maiwai!
Yes! In fact, maiwai means "ten thousand blessings" and actually referred to the celebrations these would be worn at before it became synonymous with the garments themselves!
What a positive piece!
Is this from the artist's imagination?
It is! It's an invented scene. The artist, de Balincourt, was inspired by the Hudson River School, a loosely organized 19th century group of painters that depicted the American landscape. However, he veers away from the Hudson River School model by painting a non specific landscape, rather than specific locations with clear references. He has said of his work, "It's funny, no matter how much I try to experiment or or into other directions, these little populations, or communities of people congregating always seem to reappear. After so many years of painting, I've given up the fight of the desire to change this about by work and am interested in these spaces and places that teeter between utopian Eden and the post-apocalyptic."
Who is Lady Mi and why is she an important Egyptian royal? Is it only women who are depicted as be human and aging?
According to the inscription, Lady Mi was not royalty herself, but likely lived in the palace and was instrumental in elite rituals.
Rather than a gendered difference, I believe, this was more of a shift from dynasty to dynasty, ruler to ruler. There are also depictions of male rulers and elites as "mature individuals," depending on the era. This stautette, dates to the same time at the nearby wooden statue of Amunhotep III who is also depicted as aging.
Oh, I was not aware of any acknowledgement of human aging in Egyptian art before tonight!
What was so “heretical” about Akhenaten and Nefertiti?
King Akhenaten was considered heretical because he elevated the cult of the Aten within the Egyptian pantheon while closing the temples of other traditional gods and restricting worship to the Aten and the royal family.
Question on this table: is the wear from use or did it come out of the workshop like this?
Probably a little bit of both. The knots and bumps you see would have been natural for the wood, which is mahogany.
Thanks!
In The Dinner Party installation, there is a place setting for Judith - is that the same Biblical character that Artemisia Gentileschi painted?
Yes! This is the Judith of "Judith and Holofernes" fame!
In fact, the dark colors and high contrast of the plate are a reference to Gentileschi's painting of Judith slaying Holofernes. Plus, Gentileschi is also represented at the table, so we know Chicago admired her!
How cool!
I think so, too!
If you look at the fabric runner under the plate...the styling of the runner is based on the garments of Middle Eastern brides. On either side of the plate, there is a Hebrew inscription reading: “Judith, heroine to her people.”
Thank you.
Tell me more/
This is a portrait of Han Ik-mo, a late Joseon official who served as prime minister in 1772. He wears a samo, the black silk hat of a high-ranking court official.
It's painted in ink on silk and it dates to the second half of the 1700s.
We were very curious about the weight of this gold wreath - wouldn't it be too heavy to wear on one's head?
I don’t have the exact weight in my notes, but this wreath is actually relatively light. First, the gold is pounded very thin. You can see how delicate the whole wreath is. So that would make it lighter.
Also, look at all the empty space around the leaves. It is not very solid. It is also worth mentioning that a wreath like this would only have been worn for special occasions, perhaps only even burial.
