In the news: Pharaoh Ramesses III was murdered (3,200 years ago)

Nina de Garis Davies | Ramesses III and Prince Amenherkhepeshef before Hathor, Tomb of Amenherkhepeshef | Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

A mystery from nearly 3,200 years ago has been solved: Conspirators murdered Egyptian king Ramesses III by cutting his throat, according to a recent study in the British Medical Journal. Furthermore, the investigation suggests that one of his sons was involved in the murder.

The fate of the second Pharaoh of the 20th dynasty was long the subject of debate among historians after the discovery of papyrus trial documents revealed that members of his harem had made an attempt on his life as part of a palace coup in 1155 BC.

Read Full Post »

In the news: Countdown for the “Mayan apocalypse”

Mesoamerican | Polychrome vase | Kerr Archive; mayavase.com

As you’ve probably heard, people across the world have been worrying that the world will end on December 21, 2012, influenced by some recent interpretations of Popol Vuh, a 16th-century narrative about the origins, traditions, and history of the Maya nation. Thankfully, NASA scientists recently debunked this and other apocalyptic predictions.

But don’t let the fact that the world is not about to end damper your interest in Mayan artifacts! The ARTstor Digital Library features more  than 500 fascinating photographs of Pre-Columbian artifacts from Justin Kerr and Barbara Kerr that shouldn’t be missed. The collection consists of still and rollout photographs of vases, plates, and bowls from the various cultures of Mesoamerica. The rollouts—which show the entire surface of an object in a single frame—were made by photographer Justin Kerr with a camera he designed and built. The objects in the collection depict a variety of everyday Mayan activities and religious concepts, and stem from archaeological sites, museums, and collections throughout Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, the United States, Canada, and Europe. View the collection here.

Read Full Post »

Now available: Pre-Columbian Artifacts (Justin Kerr and Barbara Kerr)

Mesoamerican | Polychrome vase | Duke University Museum of Art | Kerr Archive

ARTstor has collaborated with Justin Kerr and Barbara Kerr to share more than 500 photographs of Pre-Columbian artifacts in the Digital Library. The collection consists of still and rollout photographs of vases, plates, and bowls from the various cultures of Mesoamerica. The rollouts—which show the entire surface of an object in a single frame—were made by photographer Justin Kerr with a camera he designed and built. The objects in the collection depict a variety of everyday Mayan activities and religious concepts, and stem from archaeological sites, museums, and collections throughout Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Read Full Post »

Now available: Images from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (Harvard University)

Navajo | Pin, round silver base set with 52 turquoise stones in 3 rows around a center stone | Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

ARTstor Digital Library has collaborated with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University to share nearly 25,000 additional images of Pre-Columbian, African, Native North American, and Oceanic objects. This brings the current available total to more than 28,000 of a projected 154,000 images from the Museum’s collection.

Read Full Post »

In the news: Roman mosaics help an endangered species

Marine Fauna | Roman copy of Hellenistic original | Museo nazionale di Napoli | Image and original data provided by SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y., artres.com, scalarchives.com | (c) 2006, SCALA, Florence / ART RESOURCE, N.Y.

The dusky grouper (Epinephelus marginatus) is reputedly the best-tasting of all Mediterranean fish, so it comes as no surprise that they find themselves endangered. Efforts are underway throughout the Mediterranean to help the species recover, and, according to an article in this month’s Scientific American, ancient art is playing a part.

To determine just how far recovery efforts had to go, scientists wanted to get a sense of how the grouper has changed in the past thousands of years. University of Salento biologist Paolo Guidetti remembered having once seen an image of a Roman mosaic depicting an enormous grouper swallowing a man. Guidetti was struck by the image; while dusky groupers today can grow to be more than four feet long and a weigh around 100 pounds, most are much smaller, and generally live in waters too deep to be able to leap out and swallow a whole Roman fisherman, even a tiny one.

Read Full Post »

Now available: Additional images from the permanent collections of French museums from the Réunion des Musées Nationaux

Édouard Manet | The fifer, 1866 | Musée d’Orsay | Image and original data provided by Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, N.Y. , http://www.artres.com

Through a collaboration with the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN) and Art Resource, a further 4,000 images of works in the permanent collections of French national and regional museums are now available in the ARTstor Digital Library. This release includes nearly 1,400 images of works at the Louvre, more than 400 images at the Musée d’Orsay, and more than 250 images of works at Versailles. Artists represented include Delacroix, Fragonard, Gauguin, Géricault, Alberto Giacometti, Goya, Hokusai, Ingres, Charles Le Brun, Léger, Manet, Andrea Mantegna, Michelangelo, Modigliani, Monet, Gustave Moreau, Berthe Morisot, Parmigianino, Camille Pisarro, Poussin, and hundreds more. This release brings the current number of available images to 7,695 of a projected total of 12,000.

Read Full Post »

New agreement: Additional images from the Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives

The Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives and ARTstor are collaborating to share more than 300 additional images of art and architecture from Russian museums and of prehistoric sites in Europe in the Digital Library.

Since 2006, ARTstor has collaborated with the Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives and Art Resource to make available approximately 14,000 high-quality images of world art and architecture, which have been digitized from large-format color transparencies that photographer Erich Lessing produced over the course of a distinguished career spanning several decades of photographic campaigns around the world.

For more detailed information about this collection, see the Art, Archaeology and Architecture (Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives) page.

Related collections:

• Asian Art Photographic Distribution (AAPD) (University of Michigan)
• Huntington Archive of Asian Art
• Islamic Art and Architecture Collection (Sheila Blair, Jonathan Bloom, Walter Denny)
• Art History Survey Collection
• Italian and other European Art (Scala Archives)
• Réunion des Musées Nationaux

Read Full Post »

New agreement: Additional images from Allan Langdale

ARTstor is collaborating with Allan Langdale to share 500 additional images of the historical architecture and landscape of Cyprus and more than 3,000 images of world art and architecture.

The images capture sites in Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Croatia, Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Montenegro, and will join the 3,350 images of architecture and archaeological sites of northern Cyprus currently available in the Digital Library.

Allan Langdale is an art historian, photographer, and filmmaker whose current research interests are in Cyprus, where he has done work on the medieval and Venetian monuments of Famagusta. He also has interests in the theory and methodology of art history and film theory.

For more detailed information about this collection, visit the Allan Langdale page.

Related collections:

• Art, Archaeology and Architecture (Canyonlights World Art Image Bank)
• Sites and Photos
• Columbia University: QTVR Panoramas of World Architecture
• SAHARA
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Plans of Ancient and Medieval Buildings and Archaeological Sites (Bryn Mawr College)

Read Full Post »

Additional images from the Saint Louis Art Museum now available in ARTstor

Chinese | Covered Box with Design of Scholar and Attendant in a Landscape, late 16th-early 17th century | Image and original data provided by Saint Louis Art Museum, slam.org/

ARTstor and the Saint Louis Art Museum are pleased to announce that an additional 236 images of works from the museum’s permanent collection are now available in the Digital Library. The collection in ARTstor represents highlights from the museum’s permanent collection of more than 30,000 objects. Encyclopedic in scope, the museum’s holdings encompass works from all cultures and across all time periods, with particular strengths in a number of areas, including Oceanic art, Pre-Columbian art, ancient Chinese bronzes, and European and American art from the late 19^th and 20^th centuries, especially 20^th century German art.

View the collection: http://library.artstor.org/library/collection/stlouis

For more detailed information about this collection, visit the Saint Louis Art Museum collection page.

Read Full Post »

On this day: The birth of Howard Carter, discoverer of Tutankhamun’s tomb

Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun, 1333-1323 BCE | Tomb of Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings, Thebes| Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt | Image and original data provided by SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y. artres.com scalarchives.com

On May 9, 1874, future archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter was born in London, England. Carter would find fame in 1922 upon discovering the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. Search the ARTstor Digital Library for Tutankhamun to find images of many of the breath-taking treasures found in the tomb, including this funerary mask from Italian and other European Art (Scala Archives). Don’t miss H. Parkinson’s drawing of the contents of the tomb, from Plans of Ancient and Medieval Buildings and Archaeological Sites (Bryn Mawr College). When you’re done, check out Wikipedia’s eerie entry on the so-called “curse of the pharaohs.”

[Note: this post erroneously said today was the anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb; it has now been corrected.]

Read Full Post »