: In India, almost every piece of pre-Nineteenth Century silver was
later melted down to make something else.
"Almost" is the key word.
What pre-Nineteenth Century silver that does remain today offers
a rare and remarkable look at the techniques, ornaments and
shapes employed by silversmiths and who worked for India's great
royal houses during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
With its purchase recently of 21 such works, the Virginia Museum
of Fine Arts collection of early Indian silver has been
catapulted into the top position in North America.
The objects range from a whimsical yet elegant container for
rose-scented water to be sprinkled on guests after an elaborate
meal and a spectacular scabbard for a dagger, to two opulent
flywhisks emblematic of monarchical authority and striking
examples of court jewelry worn to indicate status.
The objects were purchased by the board of trustees through the
museum's Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund.
The trustees also approved the purchase of a 1938 painting,
"Spring Song," by American artist Paul Sample (1896-1974) - "a
Depression-era allegory of the senses," according to Michael
Brand, director of VMFA.
Sample, who was a member of the American scene movement, used his
friend, Boston Herald columnist Bill Cunningham, as the
model for the pianist in the oil on canvas, which depicts him and
a bartender in the intensely masculine setting of a small-town
bar.
The museum's trustees accepted a significant collection of Asian
art, including Chinese jades, as a gift from longtime supporters
John C. Maxwell, Jr, and Adrienne L. Maxwell of Richmond. The 31
jades cover a historical period reaching as far back as five
millennia.
One of the earliest is a Neolithic nephrite carving, known as a
bi, that would have been used in burials and may date to
3300-2250 BC. Also in the Maxwell collection are a small,
delicate ceremonial blade from the Shang dynasty, circa 1500-1050
BC and an ornament depicting a bird reminiscent of Chinese
patterns found in the Western Zhou era (circa 1100-770 BC). Two
later stone carvings from the Song dynasty (960-1279), fragments
of Buddhist sculpture, depict the heads of monks and a tradition
of idealized portraiture is reflected in a small silver burial
mask from the Liao dynasty (916-1125). Rounding out the gift are
a variety of implements used in the raising of fighting crickets,
all from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).
Using funds bequeathed by Kathleen Leigh Williams Harwell of
Danville, the trustees purchased five Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Century prints - two by Theodore Gericault (French, 1791-1824)
and one each by Giovanni Antonio Canal (called Canaletto)
(Italian, 1697-1768), Eugene Delacroix (French, 1798-1863) and
Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916).
Three black and white photographs by social welfare photographer
Lewis Hine (American, 1874-1940) were accepted as gifts from
Betty Stuart Goldsmith Halberstadt and Jon Halberstadt of
Christiansburg. Hine was known for his dignified and respectful
portraits of newly arrived immigrants at Ellis Island, for his
seminal work in documenting injustices of child labor practices
in the early Twentieth Century and for documenting the
construction of the Empire State Building.
"Vegetables," a 1938 hand colored lithograph by American scene
artist Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942), was accepted as a gift
from Virginia Brown of Waynesboro in memory of her husband,
Charles L. Brown, Jr.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is at 2800 Grove Avenue. For
information, 804-204-2700 or vmfa.state.va.us.
