The ivory mirror : the art of mortality in Renaissance Europe / Stephen Perkinson ; with contributions by Naomi Speakman, Katherine Baker, Elizabeth Morrison, Emma Maggie Solberg.
Publisher:
Bowdoin College Museum of Art,
Copyright Date:
2017
Description:
279 pages, 61 pages of color plates : illustrations (some color) ; 27 cm
"This book is published in conjunction with the exhibition The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe, presented at Bowdoin College Museum of Art from June 24 to November 26, 2017."--page following page 279. Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-264) and index.
Contents:
The Ivory Mirror / Stephen Perkinson -- The Light at the End of the Tunnel : Manuscript Illumination and the Concept of Death / Elizabeth Morrison -- Chicart Bailly and the Specter of Death : Memento Mori in a Sixteenth-Century Estate Inventory / Katherine Baker -- Plates -- List of Plates -- Memento mori Beads : Collecting Histories and Contexts / Naomi Speakman -- The Poetry of Death / Emma Maggie Solberg.
Summary:
"We often imagine the Renaissance as an age of exceptional human progress and artistic achievement. But, intriguingly, macabre images proliferated in precisely this period: unsettling depictions of Death personified, of decaying bodies, of young lovers struck down in their prime. These morbid themes run riot in the remarkable array of artworks featured in The Ivory Mirror. Nearly 200 illustrated artworks--from ivory prayer beads to gem-encrusted jewelry to exquisitely carved small sculptures--present us with an aspect of this era that is at once darker and more familiar than we might have expected"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.