anthropomorphic

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Image features a ceramic vase with a slender neck and bulbous base. The neck is smooth and gilded. The base has a prickly, fur-like texture and is light pink. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Surreal Provocateurs
In celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, June Object of the Week posts highlight LGBTQ+ designers and design in the collection.  Nature has a way of informing us—however we engage, we learn from its resilient processes. Nature also has a way of amusing, perplexing and delighting us with its complex and idiosyncratic forms. This edifying and...
View across a meadow toward a grotto in the Boboli Gardens which features a fountain. The central portal is flanked by sculptures. At left a wall and the corridor leading to the Uffizi. Beneath it, a tree and bench with a figure. At right, a wall with a view of houses in the distance. A group of figures approaches at extreme right.
Grotto-esque
In the eighteenth century, many Italian artists produced views of popular tourist destinations to sell as souvenirs to travelers on the Grand Tour. This drawing by an unknown artist shows the Grotta Grande in the Boboli Gardens of Florence. Visible within the grotto’s chambers are Paris and Helena, sculpted in 1560 by Vincenzo di Rafaello...
Tzute (man's Head Cloth) (Guatemala), 1960s
Transcendent Tzute
You wouldn’t know this is a ceremonial Tzute or headpiece by just looking at it. Utilitarian indeed, one gets lost in its rainbow colors and loom-weaved energy. The anthropomorphic animal imagery shows chickens, peacocks and two horses standing erect, surrounded by more avian shapes and (alas!) a human figure in bird transcendence. Illuminated, obsessed, invoking...