Commoner's firefighting jacket (hikeshibanten) Japan, 19th c. Cotton cloth with indigo dye (sashiko & tsutsugaki), 38 1/2 x 50 in. (97.79 x 127 cm) Seattle Art Museum 2001.414 "The oversized spider hovering over the go board alludes to Tsuchigumo ('Earth Spider'), the Noh drama that tells the story of the warrior Minamoto Yorimitsu fighting off the monstrous earth spider, who is disguised as a monk."
Read more about the history and iconography of this cool coat here:
Corona delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne: Libro I-IV, p.116r Published by Cesare Vecellio (Italian, 1521–1601), Venice, 1601 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 18.67.2(118)
"[Woodcut] design composed of 4 rows of an alternating pattern of circles & squares. Each shape frames a different creature."
#TilesOnTuesday:
Tile with Image of Phoenix Iran, probably Takht-i Sulaymän, late 13th c. Stonepaste; modeled, underglaze painted in blue & turquoise, luster-painted on opaque white ground H 14 3/4 in (37.5 cm) x W 14 1/4 in (36.2 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art New York 12.49.4 "After the Mongol conquest of Persia in the thirteenth century, an extensive trade network opened from China to the Mediterranean, allowing goods to move more freely than in prior centuries. As the objects in this case demonstrate, Ilkhanid period artists readily adopted imagery from Chinese iconography, including lotus flowers, deer, dragons and other mythical creatures. This image of a soaring phoenix with crested head and elaborate trailing plumage exemplifies the adaptation of Chinese imagery by Persian artists."
#FantasyFriday anyone? Check out this amazing 17th c. Mughal miniature painting!
A floral fantasy of animals & birds (Waq-waq) early 1600s India, Mughal Gum tempera & gold on paper 37.6 x 26.6 cm (14 13/16 x 10 1/2 in.) Cleveland Museum of Art
"Derived ultimately from a conflation of medieval Persian and Qur'anic sources, including descriptions of the mythical island of Waq-waq inhabited by half-plant/half-animal creatures, this extraordinary painting depicts a plant that brings forth animal life in multiple forms. Playfully rendered with animals both real and mythic and birds that seem to effervesce away as they break free of the stems, this brilliant rendition of a life-giving plant maintains its compositional integrity, even as it sprawls across the page. This painting was made to beguile courtly connoisseurs who would gather to admire the wondrous images in an imperial album."
Happy #NationalUnicornDay!
De Monocerote (The Unicorn), from Conrad Gessner's Historiae animalium, 1551.
For #MosaicMonday: tiger-lion fusions & mythical huma birds on the spandrels of two 17th c. madrasas in Uzbekistan:
