Antique European Furniture, Secular and Church Silver, Ivory and Wood Carvings, Rare Mohammedan Pottery, European Porcelains, Oriental Bronzes


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Excerpt from Antique European Furniture, Secular and Church Silver, Ivory and Wood Carvings, Rare Mohammedan Pottery, European Porcelains, Oriental Bronzes: Sold by Order of the Trustees Under these circumstances the only open question was how to dispose of such material to the best interest of the Museum and the public. Several methods of disposal were considered. One was for the Museum to present these objects to other American art museums for which they undoubtedly have value. To have adopted this method, however, would inevitably have involved questions of favoritism or discrimination. Moreover, it would have involved delay and would not have cleared our storerooms promptly and thus given us the storage space which we immediately need. For other museums, to which we would naturally have offered them, would not have accepted them until after examination and determination of their usefulness, based upon the present development of each. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.










Antique European Furniture


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Luxury Arts of the Renaissance


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Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.