Virginia Museum Acquires Rare Chinese Funerary Couch

RICHMOND, VA.

:A rare Chinese funerary couch, a variety of African works, a bronze by Antoine-Louis Barye, a watercolor from India, a Nineteenth Century French painting and an Art Deco vase are among works added recently to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection.

The Chinese funerary couch "is one of the earliest and most complete surviving funerary couches and is of extraordinary art-historical importance," said Dr Michael Brand, VMFA's director.

Dating from the early Sixth Century during the Northern Wei dynasty, the couch is made of limestone with mineral pigments and gold and silver leaf. It is nearly 7 feet long and is "exquisitely crafted," according to Dr Shawn Eichman, VMFA's E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of East Asian Art.

"Many of the scenes on the couch include detailed depictions of architecture, thereby increasing the value of the couch as documentation of vanished early Chinese architectural forms," Eichman said.

"A further major addition is a rare figure from the Jukun culture of eastern Nigeria," Woodward says. Made of wood, the figure stands 24½ inches tall. "With this work, VMFA will have one of only a few African collections in America with a major work from the Jukun culture."

Brand informed the trustees of his purchase of a sand-cast bronze sculpture, "Stag Brought Down by Two Grey-hounds," 1832, by French art-ist Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875). It stands 14¼ inches tall and depicts a stag caught in its death agony, head thrown back. Commissioned by Ferdinand-Philippe, the duke of Orleans, it is the only known cast in its configuration.

The sculpture "adds immeasurably to the museum's substantial and growing collection of Barye bronze by virtue of its intrinsic quality, its large scale and its early date," said Dr Mitchell Merling, VMFA's Paul Mellon curator and head of the department of European art.

With funds contributed by the Friends of Indian art, VMFA has purchased its first mid-Eighteenth Century miniature from the kingdom of Mewar in Rajasthan, India. The 1761 opaque watercolor is also the first image of a grand royal procession to enter the museum's Indian art collection. Measuring 20¾ by 18½ inches and executed on gold paper, the watercolor depicts the king of Mewar, Maharana Ari Singh, who ruled from 1761 to 1773, riding a white stallion and wearing a pink robe, gold sash and red turban in a procession towards a Hindu temple.

An 1824 oil on canvas once owned by King Louis-Philippe of France has also entered the VMFA collection. "The Three Sisters: Finette, Babillarde and Nonchalante" by French artist Jean-Antoine Laurent (1763-1832) was given to the museum.

The painting was shown at the 1824 Salon of the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture. "It is VMFA's sole example of the genre of neo-gothic 'Troubadour' painting and is a major addition to the collection," Merling said.

The museum's trustees also approved additions to its internationally acclaimed collection of Art Nouveau jewelry through gifts and a purchase from Dr and Mrs Karl Kreuzer of Munich, Germany, who have collected Art Nouveau belt buckles and decorative arts for more than 20 years.

The director purchased a silver and agate buckle designed by German artist Patriz Huber (1878-1902) from the Kreuzers. The buckle was crafted by Theodora Fahrner (1859-1919) of Germany in 1901 and is one of only two Huber buckles known to exist. VMFA consulting curator Frederick R. Brandt says it is one of the most important buckles in the museum's Kreuzer collection.

VMFA is at 200 N. Boulevard.

For information, 804-204-2704 or vmfa.state.va.us.