I spoke to him quietly: “I’m not here to hurt you, my friend. I just want to take your picture to share with the world how beautiful you are.” More»
Most dogs are impeccably well behaved—in art, anyway. They sit quietly on laps, raise a paw for their beloved master, or contort themselves into perfect S curves. The king of Old Master dogs is Guercino’s heroic mastiff, who looks like… More»
One of my favorite acquisitions of the past five years in the Getty’s manuscript collection is the Northumberland Bestiary (Ms. 100), featured currently in the Gothic Grandeur exhibition. A bestiary is a kind of medieval encyclopedia of animals. In addition… More»
In George Stubbs’s Brood Mares and Foals, which arrived at the Museum in October as a temporary anonymous loan, horses are sympathetically portrayed within the bucolic landscape of the English countryside. The overriding mood is idyllic, as a small coterie… More»
Parisian dealers purchased imported Chinese porcelain from the Dutch East Indies Company in Amsterdam, the main European importer for many years.
How much porcelain was really shipped?
In 1752, a sunken European ship lost 223,303 pieces of porcelain. Oops.