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  Mies van der Rohe Chair

  RISD Museum and Dietrich Neumann

  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe succeeded Walter Gropius as director of the Bauhaus school in 1930, after Mies had become a pioneer of Modernist metal furniture. The Bauhaus became the seat of the Modernist movement through its efforts to reconcile principles of design with the latest materials in order to mass-produce objects that were handsome, inexpensive, and easy to care for. This MR model chair, designed in 1927, is one of the 20th century’s most influential creations. The bent-steel frame was made to look like one continuous loop of metal tubing, elegantly referring to its manufacture. While Mies van der Rohe was not the first to make a cantilevered chair—meaning one without back legs—he is known for exploiting the qualities of bent metal that give a springy comfort. By mixing woven cane with metal tubing, his design takes on a complexity in which the texture of natural material contrasts markedly with the machined steel frame. 1927

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  Model of a Funerary Boat

  RISD Museum, Peter Dean, and Peter Johnson

  During the funeral, the deceased took a last earthly journey, traveling by boat to the cemetaries on the west bank of the Nile. The next voyage then began: a spiritual pilgrimmage to Abydos, the religious center and burial place of the god Osiris. For this reason, wooden model boats were often placed within tombs as substitutes for large-scale vessels in the afterlife. This model boat mimicked papyrus funerary barks. The wedjat-eyes painted on the hull were meant to guide the vessel safely through the perilous journey to the afterlife. 2100-1900 BCE

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  Nō Theater Costume (Karaori)

  RISD Museum, Anais Missakian, and Michelle Liu Carriger

  18th - 19th Century

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  Palanquin (norimono) with Tokugawa and Ichijo Crests

  RISD Museum and Melissa Carr

  This elaborate palanquin, or onna norimono (“ride for a woman”), transported a bride of high social standing to the groom’s residence on their wedding day. The exterior is constructed in wood and embellished with black lacquer, gold paint, and metal fittings. Two repeated crests serve as decoration and signify that the groom descended from Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), the first military ruler, or shogun, of the Edo Period. The compact interior is embellished with an armrest and scenes from The Tale of Genji, an 11th-century masterpiece of Japanese literature, written by a noblewoman about court life. On the back wall is a celebratory depiction of a pine tree, crane, tortoise, and bamboo, all of which are auspicious symbols related to Hōraisan, the island of immortality. The wisteria crest of the Ichijō family, of which the bride was a member, appears on the coffered ceiling, alternating with the three-lobed crest of the Tokugawa family. The slatted windows, covered with silk gauze, allowed the bride to look out without being seen. The long pole threaded through the top brasses was she means by which two or more strong men lifted and carried the palanquin. One of only a few palanquins in the United States, this example was perhaps the first to enter the country. In 1878 it was presented to Brown University’s museum of natural history by Philadelphia minister Elias R. Beadle. When Brown dissolved the museum in 1915, the university lent the palanquin to the RISD Museum, eventually gifting it in 2004. The interior paintings as well as the exterior lacquer and brasses were conserved by a team of specialists in 2010 with the assistance of the Sumitomo Foundation of Japan. ca. 18th-19th Century

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  Pin (Fibula)

  RISD Museum, Boris Bally, and Jonathan Migliori

  This fibula (pin), used for closing or securing garments, is a masterpiece of ancient gold-working. Tiny animals and figures, mythical and real, cover the pin. They were formed using tiny beads of gold (a process called granulation) fashioned in a fluid, curving style reminiscent of pottery of the seventh century BCE, when the Etruscans reached the height of their technical virtuosity in granulation. In the center of the decoration is a figure common in Etruscan art: the ‘master of the beasts,’ a winged man with two faces. The figure originated in the Near East and became especially prominent in Etruscan art during this period. 7th century BCE

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  Portrait of Agrippina the Younger

  RISD Museum, Natalie Kampen, and Lisa Anderson

  Agrippina (15–59 CE), the subject of this portrait, was related to four different Roman emperors: she was granddaughter to Augustus, sister to Caligula, mother to Nero, and niece and later wife to Claudius. It is therefore not surprising that many portraits of her survive. They invariably depict her with a broad forehead, a square jaw, large eyes, thin lips, and a sharp chin, all features shared by many members of the imperial family. Ancient pieces were sometimes combined with other sculptural elements to create “new” composite sculptures. This ancient portrait head was inserted into a bust composed of different-colored marble in the 18th century. ca. 40 CE

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  Portrait of Antoine-Georges-Francois de Chabaud-Latour and His Family

  RISD Museum and Robert Babigian

  This handsome portrait was subtitled “filial piety” when it was exhibited at the 1806 Paris Salon. Set in the gentle landscape of the département of Gard, in the south of France, it depicts Antoine-Georges-François de Chabaud-La Tour who is seated on a marble bench with his daughter Rosina perched on one knee and his son James-Hippolyte posed on the other. His wife, Juliette Verdier de la Coste, stands at their side holding her infant son François-Ernest-Henri to her breast. Their attention is directed to a herm bearing a bust of the children’s grandfather, Antoine Chabaud, a distinguished military man who died in 1791. His epitaph declares: “he lived and died without reproach” (Il Vécut Il Mourût / Sans Reproche). Both the painter and his sitter were born in 1769 in Nîmes and became partisans of the French Revolution. After entering Jacques-Louis David’s studio in Paris, Barbier took leave to pursue a military career. He served as a lieutenant in the French army’s Fifth Hussar Regiment, and in 1794 he fulfilled an assignment to plunder the art treasures of Belgium, resulting in the transfer of works of Peter-Paul Rubens and others to the national collections of France. He later resumed his artistic career and eventually won commissions for military portraits that graced Emperor Napoléon I’s Salle des Maréchaux in the Tuileries Palace. Although he lived until the age of ninety, only a small number of surviving paintings represent this highly skilled neo-classical figure painter. 1806

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  Portrait of Hadrian

  RISD Museum and Stephen Shaheen

  Hadrian was emperor at the very height of the Imperial Period (117–138 CE). He was selected to rule the Roman Empire because of his personal skills rather than his ancestry. One of the most well-traveled and cosmopolitan Roman emperors, he made two journeys around the empire during his reign. He is remembered for his love of the Greek world, particularly its arts and architecture. Portraits of reigning emperors ensured that Roman citizens knew what their ruler looked like, and were widely distributed throughout the empire. This portrait of Hadrian would have been inserted into a carved bust and prominently displayed. The beard Hadrian wore (allegedly to conceal blemishes), started a trend among emperors that endured up to the 3rd century CE. This head was damaged and has not been repaired. Although it was once fashionable to replace all the “missing” parts of statues, we cannot be sure these later additions give an accurate idea of how the sculpture originally appeared. It is now considered best practice to leave fragments as they were found. ca. 130 CE

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  Rain on the River

  RISD Museum and Fritz Drury

  George Bellows was critically acclaimed for the frank, even brutal manner of the urban landscapes he painted in the early years of the twentieth century. His view from a rockly ledge above Riverside Park surveys a freight train making its way along the New York Central’s famous Water Level Route. The string of railcars echoes the rushing diagonal that marks the near bank of the Hudson River. Aggressive brushstrokes indicate reflective surfaces that are animated by graphic observations: a lone pedestrian scurries acros a rain-slicked path, and a horse-drawn cart awaits a delivery of scavenged coal. Bellows called Rain on the River “one of my most beautiful things” in a letter he wrote to RISD president Eliza Radeke during 1915, the year the painting was acquired for the Museum’s collection. 1908

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  Rock Head

  RISD Museum and James Montford

  One of contemporary art’s most compelling and elusive figures, David Hammons draws upon his identity as an African American for his sculptures, performances, and installations. He was also inspired by the 1960s Italian Arte Povera (Poor Art) movement with its use of everyday materials to create metaphorical imagery. Rock Head embodies a strikingly elegant human form with remarkable simplicity, roughness, and asymmetry. Reminiscent of both archeological remains and Brancusi’s Modernist ovoid heads, the smooth boulder is thatched with hair swept up from the floor of a Harlem barbershop. Hammons began using human hair from barbershops in the 1970s for installations in Harlem lots. In these sculptures it was important to Hammons that the African American viewer found a reflection of him- or herself in the artwork 2000

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  Saint George

  RISD Museum and Sheila Bonde

  Saint George was a soldier of the Roman Emperor Diocletian who accepted martyrdom rather than denounce his Christian faith. This carved and painted sculpture was likely to have been pulled or carried outdoors in religious processions commemorating his feast day, now celebrated on April 23. He was frequently depicted astride a horse, holding a shield and an upraised sword, symbols of both protection and sacrifice. During the Middle Ages, Saint George was the subject of widespread devotion, from Russia and Greece in the east to as far west as the British Isles. Perceived as defender of the Crusades and the patron saint of armies, he was invoked by soldiers who prayed to him for courage and for safety in battle. 15th century

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  Saucer

  RISD Museum and Andrew Raftery

  ca. 1840

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  Self-Portrait

  RISD Museum and Fritz Drury

  This representation of an elegantly dressed lute-player is an intriguing variant on an artist’s self-portrait. It identifies the subject as the painter, seated before his own easel and palette, and expands on his cultural achievements by emphasizing his musical abilities. Although unsigned, this portrait has been attributed to Paul Bril (1553/4-1626), a Flemish artist who forged a highly successful career in Rome. The scene tacked to the easel is typical of Bril’s early compositions which were distinguished by small figures, deep, shaded foregrounds, and masses of silvery foliage, attributes that he shared with other Flemish painters. Bril’s Netherlandish roots helped to launch his career as a landscape painter of scenes based not so much on naturalism as on a well-ordered view of the remote countryside, full of close observation of detail. The sitter’s confident gaze, elegant apparel, and comfortable strum of the instrument all seek to convince the viewer of the excellence and success of his method ca. 1595-1600

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  Still Life with Lemons (whose forms correspond to a drawing of a black vase upon the wall)

  RISD Museum and Ellen McBreen

  Matisse used solid, vivid colors to render the simple forms and geometric background segments of this still life. Roughly outlined and intentionally flattened, each element shows evidence of the artist’s brushstrokes and his manipulation of pigment. An extended title, Still life with lemons whose forms correspond to a drawing of a black vase upon the wall, points to intentional relationships between shapes. The ovoid form of the pitcher echoes the curves of the plump lemons below; those of its neck and base are repeated in the foot of the blue glass compote at lower left. A book entitled “Tapis” (Carpet) lies neatly aligned with the brilliant red wedge beneath the single lemon. The familiar forms seem to float on the surface, unburdened by mass or by placement in space, but joyfully interrelated through color and shape. 1914

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  Sugar Bowl

  RISD Museum and Caroline Frank

  ca. 1800

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  The Creation of Tate Modern has been as Important to British Life as the National Health Service

  RISD Museum and Bob + Roberta Smith

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  The Crucified Christ

  RISD Museum and Susan Ashbrook Harvey

  This figure of the crucified Christ was originally attached to a cross and suspended above a church altar where it was visible to all during the celebration of Mass. In this version, Christ’s body appears upright with arms outstretched, as if in resurrection, in contrast to representations that depict him sagging from suspended weight. Instead of conveying suffering, his gaze expresses acceptance. The carved sculpture was originally painted in lifelike colors, traces of which remain in the wound below Christ’s ribs. Other details are more abstract, such as the patterns of parallel incisions that define his hair and beard, and the rhythmic folds of the knotted loincloth that is wrapped around his lower torso. ca. 1150-1200

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  The Hand of God

  Stephen Shaheen

  Rodin’s The Hand of God has been viewed not only as a metaphorical representation of the creation of man but also as a commentary on the sculptor’s role as creator. The emblematic hand that emerges from a block of roughly hewn marble represents the Divine Creator forming the bodies of Adam and Eve interlocked in a primal embrace. In contrast to the figures’ slender, attenuated limbs, the sinewy hand was perceived by critics as that of a working man. Together, the well-defined hand and the ephemeral figures bridge Rodin’s interests in both realist and symbolist art. One of three known marble versions of The Hand of God, RISD’s sculpture was purchased directly from Rodin by Samuel P. Colt (1852-1921) of Rhode Island. The Museum acquired it after Colt’s death. 1898-1917

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  The Supper at Emmaus

  RISD Museum, Butch Rovan, and Horace Ballard

  In this biblical scene Christ breaks bread to bless it and give it to his dining partners at Emmaus on the third day after his Resurrection. Jan Cossiers depicted the two companions of Christ at the moment when Christ’s divinity is revealed to them. The man at the far right throws up his hands in surprise, while the man in the center points in a gesture of identification. The cockle shells, crossed staffs, medal, and tall hat of the man at right designate him as a pilgrim to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela, the most important and popular pilgrimage site in Europe from the 9th to the 17th centuries. The anachronistic inclusion of a pilgrim in a biblical scene suggests that Cossiers made the painting for a particular patron, such as a church or confraternity associated with the saint. Cossiers was a follower of the Antwerp painter Pieter Paul Rubens, and the monumental sculptural figures and warm coloring of this scene reveal his influence. Here Cossiers contrasted the ruddy, dirtied hands and faces of the diners and serving woman with Christ’s untouched complexion. ca. 1650

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  Untitled Film Still

  RISD Museum and A. Will Brown

  When making his prints, animations, and light boxes, Ezawa looks for source images on the Internet, manipulates them, and distills them to their essentials. Untitled Film Still belongs to a series of works for which Ezawa appropriated several famous photographs in order to deal with the questions of why some images become icons and how one looks at and interprets imagery. It is a playful appropriation of Cindy Sherman’s photograph with the same title from 1978. Sherman’s seminal Untitled Film Still series was in fact single photographs in which a female character (always played by Sherman herself) is trapped in the image without any explanation of the scenery or narrative action. Sherman’s characters represent post-World War II mass-media feminine stereotypes, which are, despite their falseness, still largely present in the collective consciousness. Ezawa’s version underscores the artificial nature of the image and allows it to be read in new ways. 2005

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  Utopia

  RISD Museum and Neal Overstrom

  A provocative artist associated with the YBAs (Young British Artists), Damien Hirst often employs unexpected materials that conflate art, science, and popular culture. The hundreds of butterflies mounted in paint in Utopia—with their intense colors and symmetrical, geometric composition—recall a mandala or kaleidoscope image. Butterflies are among Hirst’s most frequent motifs. With their delicacy and short life cycles, they are a metaphor for the fragility of existence that reflects the artist’s interest in fundamental questions about mortality. 2008

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  Valentine Portable Typewriter and Case

  RISD Museum, Perry A. King, Khipra Nichols, and Kate Schapira

  Introduced on Valentine’s Day with a flurry of advertising, the Olivetti Company’s bright-red portable typewriter was an instant sensation of the Pop Art movement. Ettore Sottsass and Perry King designed valentine to be the “anti-machine machine,” meaning that it functioned as a typewriter but also had a humanized quality lacking in most office equipment. Sottsass noted that his seductive red typewriter was for use “in any place except an office … rather to keep amateur poets company on quiet Sundays.” To further differentiate valentine from workaday equipment, Sottsass’s early designs lacked both uppercase type and the bell signaling the end of a typewritten line. Understandably, Olivetti manufactured the typewriter with these necessary features, but the lowercase “v” in the logo above the keyboard recalls the designer’s original intention. 1969