Reality Fragments

and-thou-said:

Oh these are cool.

(via fired-earth)

ceramics

hearts-need-art:

greenflower by ~RAMlL

(via fired-earth)

ceramics

omgthatartifact:

Figure

Maya, 600-900 AD

The Brooklyn Museum

“Images of human beings emerging from flowers represent a special class of Maya figurines found primarily on Jaina Island, just off Mexico’s Campeche coast, a place that may have functioned as a major funerary center. Jaina figurines are among the most intricate and detailed ceramic works produced in pre-Columbian America. In this exquisite example, a slender, youthful male rises in an attitude of calm authority from a water-lily pod. Because the water lily is associated with the underworld in Maya cosmology, this figurine may have been intended to symbolize the renewal of life after death.”

ceramics

I spent a week at La Perdrix in the Dordogne last week with others from my course. We were creating ceramic pinhole cameras. It was great playing around in a darkroom again, I missed it (considering trying out my bathroom as one but not sure about it yet). We fired mine in the raku kiln raw but we weren’t having good luck that day and it blew up a little. It’s still intact enough to tell what it is though. We had a shared exhibition opening with a painter and a good few people turned up.

http://www.laperdrix.net/

DogBoy. Terracotta. Some people thought he looked like a monkey, sadface.

mudbath:

John Albert Murphy.

American Museum of Ceramic Art.

(via fired-earth)

ceramics

omgthatartifact:

Teapot

Japan

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Creator:

Guido Mazzoni (d. 1518) (sculptor)

Creation Date:

c. 1498

Materials:

Painted and gilded terracotta

Dimensions:

31.8 x 34.3 x 15.2 cm

RCIN

73197

Reference(s):
XQG 1964 Italian 53
XQG 1988 121
XQG 2002 59

Acquirer:

Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547)

Provenance:

Perhaps commissioned by or presented to Henry VII

Description:

This fragile bust seems to have remained in the Royal Collection since it was made. It is probably identifiable with the ‘Head of a laughing boy’ noted at Whitehall Palace in the reign of James II and in the Store Room at Whitehall Palace in an inventory made for William III; also with the ‘Cast of a Chinese boy - laughing countenance’ that was sent to Brighton Pavilion on 4 September 1815. It has subsequently been described as a laughing girl, a German dwarf, and as a portrait of Henry VIII (1491-1547) as a 7-year-old boy.

In 1925 Lionel Cust, Surveyor of the King’s Pictures and Works of Art, attributed the bust to the Modenese sculptor Guido Mazzoni, also known as Paganino. Mazzoni’s surviving work consists almost entirely of life-size painted terracottas of the same strikingly realistic character, forming groups of the Nativity and Lamentation. A second, equally consistent mark of his work is a very high degree of technical proficiency, which is fully evident here. The bust was formed of clay pressed into a mould to a maximum thickness of 5 millimetres, and the boy’s open mouth, ears and nostrils served to allow steam to escape during firing. Paint analysis was carried out in 1964 and in 1985-8, when the bust was cleaned, and nineteenth-century overpaint was removed from the child’s tunic, revealing the original scheme - a green glaze over an incised layer of tin foil, perhaps intended to imitate cloth of gold.

When Mazzoni was working on the tomb of the French King Charles VIII in Paris in the late 1490s, he submitted designs and an estimate for the tomb of Henry VII for Westminster Abbey, which were later rejected in favour of those by Pietro Torrigiano. The estimate does not indicate whether Mazzoni (who is called ‘Master Pageny’ in the English accounts) ever came to London, and no commission for the bust has come to light. Its identification as Prince Henry remains conjectural, supported only by its royal provenance and by the child’s apparent age.

Catalogue entry from Royal Treasures, A Golden Jubilee Celebration, London 2002

(via Henry VIII (1491-1547) when a young boy (?) | The Royal Collection)

thingsthatruleanddontsuck:

http://www.artdirk.com/

ceramics

CLASSIC VERACRUZ
Mexico
Ballplayer
600–900
Ceramic

21 1/4 x 21 1/2 x 20 inches

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

A ballgame similar to soccer was important in Pre-Columbian cultures of ancient Mexico and neighboring areas. Large playing fields have been discovered in ceremonial centers. The winner was predetermined: Rulers emerged victorious, and the captive enemies lost both the game and their lives as an offering to the gods.

Depictions of ballgames appear on painted ceramics and architectural stele, or carved monuments. Players and objects related to the ballgame were carved from stone and molded in clay. Life-size ceramic ballplayers like this one are extremely rare. He sits cross-legged with his hands resting on his knees, arms fully extended, and wearing what would have been a leather helmet secured by a band and strap. Heavy fringe to deflect bright sunlight extends over the helmet’s rim. His ears are pierced for ornaments, probably of perishable material. The ballplayer wears large, elaborate wrist bands, possibly for protection, and a protective yoke around his waist.

The entire figure is exceptional for its elegance with smooth skin, almond eyes, high cheekbones, and full mouth. The limbs are graceful with elongated fingers and toes and deeply incised nails. When painted, this ballplayer must have been astonishingly realistic. Traces of paint remain.