This sculpture depicts  Le Triomphe de Silene, or “The Tripumph of Silenus,” by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887). Silenus  was the companion and tutor of the wine god Dionysus, who had the gift of prophecy. He is depicted as an old man “lolling drunkenly” on an donkey, leading the triumphal procession of Dionysos.  Silenus is sometimes flanked by an entourage of satyrs.  However, in the case of the present sculpture his retinue is comprised of nymphs and drunken putti.

  Carrier-Belleuse was one of the most versatile and prolific 19th century French sculptors, his body of work encompassing portrait busts, decorative wares and public monuments. His oeuvre represents a great example of the stylistic diversity of the 19th century in that it ‘incorporated a variety of styles and influences including naturalism, Realism, neo-Baroque, and Rococo’.

Carrier began his career working for such French firms as Denière and Paillard creating models based on historical and mythological subjects. Between 1850-1855 he was in England where he worked largely for Minton China Works, creating Parian models with faint Rococo influences. Back in Paris, Carrier established his own workshop in Paris which, by the mid 1860s, had expanded significantly. It was during this time he took on August Rodin as his chief assistant. Many of Carrier-Belleuse’s terracotta sculptures were done in multiple versions and in different media. Unlike working in bronze, terracotta provides the sculptor the opportunity to make last minute alterations to the piece. His formative years working in ceramic manufactories gave Carrier particular insight into the casting, modeling and firing methods, and allowed him “to introduce innovations in designs and process.” His sculptures both reflect his understanding of the technical and aesthetic aims of his 18th century predecessors, and contain a 19th century naturalistic quality in the rendering of his subjects and “a more painterly approach to sculpture” that departed from the sober neoclassical style.

Today Carrier’s works are represented in the world’s leading museums including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Musee du Louvre, the Art institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Australia, to name but a few. A closely related version of the present sculpture, circa 1870s, can be found in the High Museum, Atlanta, where it is given the title “The Drunkenness of Bacchus.”

Possibly Brazilian School. First half of the eighteenth century. Oil on canvas.

Height: 41″ (104 cm); Width: 32 1/2″ (81.5 cm). 9897 The painting belongs to a small, but increasingly examined, body of works in which black subjects are depicted in all manner of roles, from subservient to scholarly. While the representation of blacks following intellectual pursuits is rare, it is not unheard of, as seen in the portrait Francis Williams, the Negro Scholar of Jamaica circa 1740, in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The son of wealthy former slaves, Williams enjoyed a European lifestyle and the opportunity to pursue poetry and mathematics. In his portrait, Williams is depicted in his study with the Jamaican city of Spanish Town in the distance. While the subject of the present painting also appears to enjoy some level of luxury, the context is more ambiguous. Although the figure of this black artist appears to be wearing a dress, it is likely to be a male figure. As the scholar Sheldon Cheek explains, the artist wears an earring and a silver collar, both common articles worn by black male servants/slaves in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, the collar traditionally indicating slave status. Women rarely, if ever, wore the silver collar. The artist also appears to be wearing a silver “shackle” on the arm. An argument in favor of the slave/servant status of this black figure would be the style of dress. The cut-work shoulders and other features of the clothing do not seem typical of the 18th century, and could reflect the often fanciful kinds of costumes worn by slaves of the wealthy during this period. Usually, black male figures appear in portraits of this period in attendance to their masters, serving as status symbols. The figures are usually engaged in established, common activities such as holding a bowl of fruit or some article of the sitter’s clothing. In the case of this painting, however, this relationship is indicated in a unique and far less subservient manner. The origin of the painting is as yet uncertain, however, strong clues exist as witnessed in the urban landscape seen through the window in the painting. According to the scholar Bentley Angliss, tiled roofs of this lively and distinctive reddish-pink color are specific to Portugal and colonial Brazil, which was under Portuguese rule until 1822. The architecture is  reminiscent of that found in the Brazilian northeastern coastal city of Ceará, settled as a fief of the Portuguese crown whose economy in the 18th century centered on sugar plantations worked by black slaves, and the mining towns of Minas Gerais, such as Ouro Preto, where slave labor was employed during the gold rush and whose magnificent Baroque architecture is well-preserved even today. The slave population in Brazil was the largest in the world, spanning four centuries. In the 1600s, when native Americans were no longer considered a viable labor force due to large numbers of deaths from abuse and disease, the Portuguese began importing black Africans to support their mining and sugarcane ventures, and to work on their large estates. Slaves were owned by the upper and middle classes, however they were also owned by the poor as well as other slaves. Although abolished in Portugal in 1761, it was not until 1881 that Brazil enacted it’s final abolition, the last country in the Western World to do so. Despite this prolonged injustice, slaves in Brazil experienced a less severe lifestyle than those in other parts of the world. Religion played a large role in the treatment of slaves there. Christianization was required and groups of slaves were baptized en masse, and slaves that worked on plantations owned by religious orders were given unusually fair treatment. Working conditions and hours do not appear to have been as harsh for the Brazilian slave, who was often given a portion of the day to tend to his own land. In addition, along with Sundays and Christmas, Brazilian slaves were given approximately thirty additional holidays throughout the year.

With so many art museums to choose from, it can often be hard to decide on just one.  Thanks to Google Art Project, you no longer have to.  In fact, you can choose between 17 different art museums around the world to explore on your very own computer with Google Street View technology.  Of course, its not the same as actually being there, but it is a great way to entertain yourself at home.  You can even create your own collection by saving images of your favorite works and sharing it with your friends and family.   On top of that, you might discover a particular museum or piece of artwork you really like and become enthused to see it in person.  The best part is that it’s completely free!

To begin exploring, visit http://www.googleartproject.com!

This sculpture is presented as a Grecian herm or boundary-marker. The original Greek herms were depicted exclusively as Hermes, the god of traffic, roads and boundaries. They were dedicated to him for protection and erected as markers in the countryside and in the streets and squares of towns. Herms began as simple quadrangular pillars topped with the head of the god, but evolved to represent a greater number of deities in the pantheon, and to incorporate more elaborate carving (figure 1). The Romans subsequently adopted this form of statue as decorative sculpture for gardens and villas.

Figure 1

The bronze head of this herm represents the god of wine and revelry, Dyonisus/Bacchus, crowned with a wreath of ivy leaves, a plant much esteemed by the ancients. Binding the brow with ivy was thought to prevent intoxication, as was boiling the plant with wine and drinking it. Ivy is also commonly depicted entwined around the thrysic wand, another of Dyonisus’ attributes. Rouge et gris marble drapery wraps his truncated shoulders and tapered marble pillar support, while the bronze stepped plinth is wreathed by laurels and a ‘Venus’ pearl-string, which evoke the triumph of lyric poetry. The prototype of the present example exists in the magnificent Villa Borghese Rome, where it occupies a prominent position in the main hall (figure 2). The Borghese herm, of alabastro a rosa, was commissioned in the early 1770s for the Villa by Don Camillo, Prince Marcantonio Borghese (d.1800) and executed by the Rome-based silversmith and bronze-founder, Luigi Valadier. Valadier began working for the Borghese in 1759, when he took over the workshop of his father, Andrea. He worked in gold, silver, bronze and precious stones and marbles, producing both religious works at the patronage of the Pope Pius VI and the Vatican, and secular pieces for Italy’s noble families.

Figure 2

The present herm, although executed in a different marble, is made of almost identical, extremely fine bronze elements. The right shoulder bears a plaque, inscribed: G. Nisini – Roma, signifying the work of the Giovanni Nisini bronze foundry of Rome.  Nisini, whose showroom stood at 63 via del Babuino, won gold medals at the 1894 Antwerp Exhibition and the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. The firm’s work included lost wax casts of sculptures from the ancient world, as well as important works from artists of the 18th through the 20th centuries.

The marble that forms the body of the herm is noteworthy in possessing unusual coloration and grain pattern. According to eminent British geologist Robin Sanderson, it is a reef limestone from the Devonian epoch, circa 380 million years ago, and was probably quarried in Wallonia, Belgium. Its structure is formed of fossil debris and remains of cementing calcareous algae. The deep blood red color attests to its high ferrous content. Considering the availability of rare decorative marbles in Italy in the 19th century, Nissini must have thought highly of this stone to have it transported from far away Belgium.

This herm formerly belonged to the collection at Rosenholm Castle in Jutland (figure 3), built in the Italian Renaissance style for Vice Chancellor Joergen Rosenkrantz and completed in 1570. In the 1740s the interior was remodeled in the Baroque style. The castle remains in the private ownership of the Rosenkrantz family and is acknowledged as one of the most beautiful and best preserved Renaissance castles in Europe. Figure 3

Millions of people enter the world’s museums each year. Some leave only with a map and visitors button, some leave with souvenirs from the gift shops, but some, on occasion, manage to slip out with priceless masterpieces.

“The Art Thief” by Brian Romero.

Art theft has occurred for hundreds of years but increased considerably in the 20th century. Approximately 50,000 art thefts are reported world wide each year with an estimated value of $6 to 8 billion, although the number of undiscovered or unreported art crimes makes this a low estimate.1 However, art is not exactly the smartest thing to steal. “The most valuable examples, usually paintings, are also the most highly recognizable and therefore almost impossible to resell or to display anywhere. When thieves try they are often caught.”2 Two of the most famous paintings to be stolen and later recovered are Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, taken from the Louvre in 1911 (returned in 1913) and two versions of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, one of which was stolen in 1994 from the National Gallery in Oslo and returned the same year ,and  the other taken from the Munch Museum in Oslo in 2006 and recovered in 2008.

To cope with these international crimes, various organizations and specialist teams have been created to report and investigate instances of art trafficking. The FBI has a dedicated Art Crime Team comprised of special agents whose job it is to address recover stolen ‘art and cultural property,’ and prosecute the responsible parties. The Smithsonian National Conference on Cultural Property Protection was organized in 1977 to help improve security measures in museums, libraries, galleries and cultural centers.

The Art Loss Register is the world’s largest private database of lost and stolen art, where you can register a possession, check to see if an item has been declared missing, and report a missing object. They also issue bulletins altering the art community about stolen works so that they can be watched for in the market. The Association for Research into Crimes against Art is a non-profit organization that consults with museums, public institutions, places of worship and international police and governments on art protection and art recovery. It’s members include top officials at art institutions around the globe and it provides comprehensive information and research on art crimes.

The “largest art heist in modern history” took place in 1990 at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. Thirteen pieces were taken, including Vermeer’s “The Concert” ( the most valuable stolen painting in the world), two Rembrandt paintings and a drawing, and five drawings by Edgar Degas. The event is examined in the 2009 award-winning documentary STOLEN. The works have yet to be recovered.

Although art thievery is no laughing matter, the 2009 film The Maiden Heist tells the lighthearted and fictitious story of a museum robbery. Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman and William H. Macy star as three museum security guards who conspire to steal artworks with which they have fallen in love and are being transferred to a museum in Denmark. The characters are endearing in their amateur caper, but, as the saying goes: “Do not try this at home.”

Further Reading: Art Theft Stories from Luxist.com

Greatest Heists in Art History The Black Market – The Other Business of Art Art theft’s less than glamorous reality Great Art Thefts Of The 20th Century Footnotes: 1. Association for Research into Crimes Against Art. Media Pack. ARCA. Web. 26 July 2010. . 2. Kennedy, Randy. “Art Theft’s Less than Glamorous Reality.” The New York Times. 17 Feb. 2008. Web. 26 July 2010.

Artists and craftsmen have been producing masterpieces for centuries and it is from contemporaneous writings, describing both the works and the artists responsible, that we get a more complete picture of the periods and people in the history of art. Art historians analyze not only individual objects, but the social, political, economic, religious and philosophical contexts in which they were created. One of the most interesting things about the discipline is that it comprises, to some extent, a variety of humanities and sciences as a means to an end. You are being educated on far more than an object when you study the history of art. Information about art historians, past and present, can be hard to find. However, databases, such as the Dictionary of Art Historians, are a great resource when it comes to historiography (the study of historical writing). The Dictionary provides an introduction to the methodology, scholarship, and background of major art historians of western art history. Below, we’ve highlighted four individuals whose writings have made a huge impact in the study of the history of art: “True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it.” -Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – 79 AD), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman military commander, natural historian and encyclopedist. His greatest body of work, the Naturalis Historia, is one of the largest single collections to survive from the Roman Empire, and covers all aspects of knowledge. Pliny purportedly consulted roughly one hundred authors when covering the nearly twenty thousand subjects he claims to elucidate in his 37-volume collection. Naturalis Historia covers the sciences of the natural world- geography, biology, physiology, minerology, etc.- however, he also devoted portions to the study of religion and literature as well as fine arts, painting and sculpture.  His writings became an important source for information on society and art in ancient Greek and Rome. “Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least, for they are thinking out inventions and forming in their minds the perfect idea that they subsequently express with their hands.” -Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was an Italian painter, architect and historian. In Florence, his contemporaries included artists such as Adrea del Sarto, Jacopo Pontormo and his friend Michelangelo Buonarroti. His architectural projects may be viewed as more successful than his painting, and he is responsible for the renovations of both Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce in Florence, as well as the loggia of the Uffizi Palace. He enjoyed the constant patronage from the Medici family and one of his architectural projects was the Vasari Corridor, an elevated passageway that connects the Uffizi Palace with the Pitti Palace, commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1564. Vasari’s most notable written work is his Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori (Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects), most often referred to as The Lives of the Artists. The second edition, published in 1568 is the version for which Vasari achieved fame. This chronological encyclopedia of Renaissance artist biographies, peppered with anecdotes and bias, nevertheless has become one of the definitive collections of biography and analysis in art, that has appealed to enthusiasts for generations. “Grace can never properly be said to exist without beauty; for it is only in the elegant proportions of beautiful forms that can be found that harmonious variety of line and motion which is the essence and charm of grace.” -Johann Joachim Winckelmann

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) is often labeled the “father” of modern day art history. He was born in Germany, the son of a poor cobbler, and pursued studies at the University of Halle. Although he had intentions of being a physician, his love of Greek literature and art lead him in a different direction. His appointment circa 1748 as librarian for Count Heinrich von Bünau exposed him to the great classical written works, as well as sculpture. He later became librarian and prefect of antiquities at the Vatican. After years of study, Winckelmann’s masterpiece, History of the Art of Antiquity, was published in 1764 and positioned him as the foremost scholar of the ancient Egyptians, Etruscans, Romans and, predominantly, the Greeks.   The text gave momentum to the neoclassical movement and served as a foundation for the study of art and archaeology as a modern academic discipline. “The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.” -Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717-1797), was an English politician, intellectual, author and art historian. He was born the son of British Prime Minister Robert Walpole, and after attending Eton and Cambridge, embarked on his Grand Tour. Like his father, Walpole went into politics, serving as a Member of Parliament from 1741-1768. He was a poet and novelist, and had his own printing press at Strawberry Hill, a “little Gothic castle” in Twickenham which he renovated for more than 30 years and, as a chronic collector, filled it with antiquities, fine art and furniture. Apart from his works of fiction, Walpole published collections of observations, memoirs and letters. These included Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors of England (1758), Anecdotes of Painting in England, and A Catalogue of Engravers (1762-1771). The correspondence contained in The Letters of Horace Walpole, although amateur and superficial, have been described by biographer J. H. Plumb as “one of the most precious works of reference for eighteenth-century British history,” giving us insight into the political, social and domestic climate of the time. His accounts of the architecture and furnishings of important homes give us indispensable descriptions of their interiors and paint vivid portraits of their residents.

John Hogan (1800-1858) was one of Ireland’s greatest sculptors. He was born the son of a carpenter at Tallow, Co. Waterford, and by 1816 was apprenticed to Thomas Deane, a builder and architect for whom he worked as a carpenter and woodcarver. In 1823, he attracted the attention of the Irish engraver W.P. Carey, who recognized his talent and helped him  to study in Rome. Portrait of John Hogan. Cork City Libraries.

Hogan set out for Italy and soon made a name for himself, remaining there except for a number of return visits to Ireland, until 1848.  Famed neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorwaldsen is supposed to have said, “My son you are the best sculptor I leave after me in Rome.”  In 1840, Hogan was elected a member of the society of “Virtuosi al Pantheon”, the first British subject to be so honored since its foundation in 1500. Hogan died in Dublin on 27 March 1858, ten years after he finally left Italy.  Whilst in Rome he had sent much of his work home and subsequently today most of his sculpture is in Ireland. Hogan frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, as well as at the National Exhibition of 1852 in Cork and the Paris International exhibition.  He was quick to take up the neoclassicism of Canova and Thorwaldsen when he arrived in Rome, and his seemingly effortless talent produced a body of work which was much admired, from his religious and funerary monuments to his large scale commissioned work and intimate portraits. Marble portrait bust of James Murphy by Hogan.

The present bust depicts James Murphy (1768-1855) of Ringmahon Castle, Blackrock, Co. Cork. James was a magistrate and a brewer who, along with his brothers, founded James Murphy and Company, Distillers in 1825. The Murphy family was also known for having several of its members in the clergy, including James’ brother, Bishop Murphy, who Hogan had also portrayed. The curly hair is heavily drilled and his eyelids sharply incised; this together with the strong modeling of the face produce a keenly observed and exquisitely sculpted portrait. The relief on the base (left) shows Mercury flying with cadacus and trumpet; the relief (right) shows Hibernia seated on a bale with cornucopia and a barrel.  Both reliefs are emblematic of commerce. Signed and dated on the reverse Hogan Fecit 1834.

This alchemical painting of an open hand dates back to 1633 according to one of the many inscriptions on the canvas.  Measuring 49 inches high, 28 inches wide, this intriguing painting containings multiple cryptic Latin phrases and is of uncertain origin. According to Dr. George Szabo, former director of the Lehman collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,  the painting is probably a unique example of an instructive work of art that may have adorned the study of a Late Renaissance patron with a strong bent to the philosophic or scientific. The lettering and numerals, being highly accomplished ,leads one to believe that it probably was painted in one of the leading Italian centers with a strong tradition of calligraphy. The hand is pictured with a cuff at the wrist, meaning it is most likely secular, as the hand of God would not be clothed. The Latin phrase positioned at the bottom of the piece: “Omnia in mensum numo et ponderi disposuisti Sap. Cap 11.” is a quote from Wisdom 11: “You  arranged them all according to their weight and number”, which was famously to be taken up as a motto by Sir Isaac Newton. Also noted is the deliberate punning found within the language which was a didactic device used at the time.  The Latin phrase “Ancipit. a .B. anna 1633.” translates; “this painting was begun in ‘B’ in 1633″ lending the extraordinary image an even greater sense of mystery. The image of the hand formed part of the complex symbolic vocabulary of seventeenth century alchemical illustration. The true meanings of such “Hermetick Emblems” were known only to the initiated. Though it resembles various images of hands from the same period, such as those in Kircher’s Musurgia Universalis and in Agrippa von Nettesheim’s De occulta philosophia, such hands usually bear planetary symbols. We are still looking into what the word and number combinations on our painting mean, and would love you hear your ideas! A special thanks to Dr. George Szabo and Clare Gibson for their input.

The production of painted tiles in Valencia has continued in one form or another since the Middle Ages.  The first known Valencian factory devoted solely to tilemaking opened in 1568.  Full polychrome designs introduced by Castille artisans had revolutionized the Spanish tilemaking industry and inspired new subject matter and more elaborate compositions.  Increased demand led several Valencian craftsmen to open tile factories, which at first were small, cramped workshops with a single kiln and a limited yield.  However, by the middle of the eighteenth-century, at the height of the Spanish Rococo period, the city’s tile factories had become the foremost in Spain, and were receiving commissions ranging from kitchen panels in the homes of the wealthy nobility to interior decorations in the Royal Palace in Madrid. A rare tile picture attributed to Vicente Navarro, c. 1770, Carlton Hobbs LLC. By the mid-1700s, the most important tile factory in Valencia was that of Vicente Navarro, located on Calle de la Corona.  Navarro is named in a mural in the convent of Santo Domingo de Orihuela in the town of Vernos that depicts the history of the tile industry in the 1700s.  In one scene, which shows bundles of merchandise marked with their makers’ names, one bundle reads: “Luís Domingo drew it… Vicente Navarro made it”.  Luís Domingo was one of the painters of the Academia, and his name being here linked with Navarro’s indicates that Navarro may have had collaborated with some of the most highly respected Baroque artists. One of the best-preserved examples of Navarro’s style of Rococo kitchen tile paintings can be found in the Casa del Marqués de Benicarló, in Benicarló, Spain.  The exterior walls of the house, built in 1776 for the rich merchant Joaquín Miquel, were once covered with Rococo frescoes; and elaborately designed tile paintings were installed throughout the building.  The richest tile paintings were saved for the more private areas of the house, and the grand kitchen became home to the most impressive of all (figure 1).

Fig. 1:  Navarro tile paintings in the Casa del Marqués de Benicarló, Spain.

The scenes in the grand kitchen of the Marques of Benicarló are so remarkably similar to the present piece as to allow a confident attribution to the Navarro workshop. One scene located to the right of the kitchen entrance is particularly similar, in which two male servants carry trays of food toward the door.  The men are dressed in the height of contemporary fashion, which strictly followed the French couture during the first Regency of Louis XVI (1774-1779). They stand in three-quarter or profile stances, holding trays with expensive food ready to be carried out to the dining room. In each of the paintings, the figures, furniture, and household animals are all confined to a narrow strip less than two meters deep.  In order to fit everything into this limited field, certain liberties are taken with regards to perspective. Another fine example of Rococo kitchen tile paintings, also attributed to Vicente Navarro and dated circa 1775,  is currently in the National Tile Museum in Lisbon (figure 2). Here again, two fashionably-dressed figures (this time, one is female) carry platters with delicacies: the man with cups of chocolate that are virtually identical to the ones shown in the Marques’ kitchen; and the woman with bars of nougat, a local Christmas tradition.

Fig. 2: Rococo kitchen tile paintings attributed to Navarro, c. 1775, National Tile Museum in Lisbon.

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world, securely and privately show content to your friends and family, or blog the photos and videos you take with a cameraphone.

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world, securely and privately show content to your friends and family, or blog the photos and videos you take with a cameraphone.

Carlton Hobbs heard the doves cry and saved the doves.

German Secretaire à Abattant, circa 1780, has a cork façade decorated as a ruin which opens mechanically to reveal mahogany interior and a top that raises to revealing a hidden compartments. The Secretary is literally hidden inside a column.

Carlton Hobbs to Exhibit at American International Fine Art Fair, Palm Beach, February 4-8 2009

New York's design editor scouts the streets looking for the best in design.