1 février 2011

Panel (hanging). From Yanghe Jingshe Cloisonné and zitan, 57 ¼ x 29 ¾ inches (145.5 x 75.5 cm). NEW YORK (REUTERS).- Objects and artwork from the Forbidden City's hidden inner sanctum, a sealed off compound built in high luxury for the Chinese emperor's retirement, will be unveiled in New York on Tuesday. "The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City" opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on February 1 and runs until May 1. The show features 90 objects from the 27-building garden sanctuary,... [Lire la suite]

Matthias Steinl (1643/44–1727), Allegory of the Elements of Water and Air, ca. 1688. Walrus tooth, height 43,4 cm, depth 6,6–9,7 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien FRANKFURT AM MAIN.- Ivory has been one of the most popular materials since ancient times. Its origins in unknown faraway lands and its rarity account for its costliness. It was particularly the Baroque era that had an extraordinarily high demand for ivory. In the seventeenth century, ivory work reached its culmination in Vienna in the days of Prince Karl Eusebius of... [Lire la suite]