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ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEWI

ROYAL
ONI

UNIVERSITY of
100

QUEEN

BULLETTT

P.S.
Ro
656
no 25

OF THE DIVISION OF
ART & ARCHAEOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

JUNE 1952

NO. 25

THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

Harold M. Turner, Esq., Chairman, Museum Board
Sigmund Samuel, Esq., LL.D., F.R.Hist.S., Honorary Chairman, Museum Board
T. A. Heinrich, B.A.(Cal.

),

M.Litt., Ph.D. (Cantab.), Director

Mrs. Helen M. Downie, Executive Secretary

DIVISION OF ART
Head-DR.

A. D.

AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Tushingham, B.A.(Tor.), B.D., Ph.D. (Chicago)

Curator of the Far Eastern Department Miss H. E. Fernald, A.B.(Mt. Holyoke)

Curator of the Department of Ethnology K. E. Kidd, MA.
Curator of the Near Eastern Department Miss W. Needler, B.A.

Curator of the Greek and

Ph.D.(J.H.IL)

Roman DepartmentProfessor

J.

W. Graham, MA.

(Ac.),

Curator of the Modern European DepartmentG. Brett, M.C., M.A.(Oxon.)

Curator of the Textile Department Mrs. K. B. Brett
Curator of the Canadian Collection F. St.G. Spendlove

PATRON
title of Patron is bestowed by the Museum Board on those who have given
exceptional service, either by time and effort expended on behalf of the Museum,
or by gifts of money or objects to it.

The honorary

MEMBERSHIP
Fees

Annual
Annual Provincial (outside Toronto)
Life

Benefactor

Endowment

Some

10.00
5.00
100.00
500.00
5,000.00

Privileges of Membership

Free entry to "Open Nights"

Invitations to preview openings of special exhibitions
Free admission during Museum hours
Educational services. Guided tours for groups of ten or more
arrangement
Special reduction on Museum Extension courses
Two copies of the Calendar of Events distributed annually

members

(by

ADMISSION
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. CLOSED
Adults 25 cents Wednesday and Friday. Children and Students free.
Sigmund Samuel Canadiana Gallery, 14 Queen's Park West. Hours same as main
building. No admission charge.

Tuesday

to

MONDAY.

CONTENTS
In Memoriam: Charles Trick Currelly. By A. D. Tushingham,
B.A.(Tor), B.D., Ph.D. (Chicago), Head of the Division of
2

Art and Archaeology

Greek Bronze Mirror. By Neda Leipen, Dipl.Phil.,

Greek and Roman Department

Assistant,

Four Near Eastern Antiquities Lent by Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn.

By Winifred Needler, B.A., Curator of the Near Eastern
Department
Objects Lent by Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn to the Greek and

Roman

Department. By Neda Leipen

Scythes Reunited.

By

J.

13

W. Graham, M.A.(Ac),
Roman Department

Ph.D.(J.H.IL),

By Barrara Stephen,

B.A., Assistant,

Curator of the Greek and

Gift of Japanese Lacquer.

14

Far Eastern Department

English Glasses.

By Ann

17

Gill, B.A., Assistant,

Modern European

Department

19

French Faience Plates. By Gerard Brett, M.C., M.A.(Oxon),

Curator of the Modern European Department

20

A Romanesque

21

An

Bronze.

By Gerard Brett

Italian Writing Cabinet.

Two Costume
Textile

By Gerard Brett

Projects, 1956-57.

Department

By

22

K. B. Brett, Curator of the

23

In

Memoriam

CHARLES TRICK CURRELLY

1876-1957

With

the death of Dr. Currelly ends one chapter in the history of the great

institution

known as
Museum.

he founded, nurtured, and brought to vigorous maturity, now

the Division of Art and Archaeology of the Royal Ontario

His autobiography, published last autumn under the title I Brought the
Ages Home, recounts with delightful candidness and good humour his early
years and training which so unexpectedly, yet somehow inevitably, drew
him to the career he followed so successfully. Pure chance led him to Sir
Flinders Petrie, and so to excavations in Egypt and Palestine and an
intimate acquaintance with the work being done in Crete, Greece, Italy,
and Britain. He travelled widely, year after year, and met the art collectors,
dealers, savants, and artistic personalities of his day. His interests were
oecumenical, and he learned from all who could provide him with the
information he sought. He purchased wisely often with his own money
and returned home to raise the money from friends and patrons to pay for
the burgeoning collections. He worked hard and long, with others of like
interest, to persuade the government of the day to build a home for them.
A brief generationthe forty years before his retirement in 1946saw his
dream come true. The Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology was known
far and wide as one of the great museums of the world an astounding
miracle in such a short span. Its collections bear the stamp of Dr. Currelly 's
genius and humane interest. The Division of Art and Archaeology is not an
art museum, although it has many art treasures. Through objects it attempts
to document the life of man in all climes and in all ages his daily life of
toil and ingenuity, his aspirations both religious and aesthetic, his attempts
in the context of tribe, family, nation, and empire to discover and live the
good life.
Dr. Currelly the man is gone from among us, but the institution which
was his child will always bear his likeness. Like a child it will grow and
change; it will have new experiences and try new things; it will meet new
demands; it will add new honours to old. But its character and genius will
remain as a heritage from its creator. It will continue to respect and display
the achievements of man, that the men of today and tomorrow may see
themselves in true perspective, satisfy their natural curiosity about their
origins,

and be stimulated by man's ancient accomplishments

to create

anew.

CHARLES TRICK CURRELLY

MA.

LL.D., F.S.A., F.R.S.C, F.R.G.S., O.Medj.

Born January
First Director,

11, 1876.

Died April

The Royal Ontario Museum

10,

of

1957

Archaeology

Professor Emeritus of Archaeology, University of Toronto

Bulletin of the Division of Art

heavy responsibility

heritage of his

lies

dreams, his

upon Dr.
faith,

his

and Archaeology

Currelly's successors, but, with the

courage, his

enterprise,

and

his

accomplishments, they will carry forward the great design which he so

imaginatively limned and so effectively achieved.
A. D. Tushingham, Head
Division of Art and Archaeology

EDITORIAL NOTE
This number of the Bulletin is devoted to a series of illustrated articles
which publish Recent Acquisitions of this Division of the Museum. All the

departments of the Division have received additions to their collections.

Only a small proportion in respect both of number and importance of the
objects acquired during the last year or so have been included, and not all
the departments are represented in this number.

A GREEK BRONZE MIRROR

Whenever

a Greek lady of 2500 years ago wished to see herself in a mirror

in order to

make up her

face

as she certainly did!

comb

or to

her hair,

she would use a highly polished bronze disc mounted on a handle which
she could hold in her hand or hang on a wall.

The favourite type of mirror,

time was one which could also be set upright on the
dressing-table since its handle served likewise as a stand, being provided
with a base.
however,

at this

harmony and beauty could not let an object as

and just as its polished
surface reflected a face, the mirror itself reflects the imagination and the
skill of the Greek artist. The stand-handles especially lend themselves to
decoration, and they are worked either as a simple column or in the form
of a human figure: a nude dancing girl, a girl athlete, a youth, or a bearded

The Greek

feeling for

luxurious and as delicate as a mirror go undecorated,

man. After 500 b.c. a draped female figure, often intended to represent the
goddess Aphrodite, is the most popular decoration for the stand.
A mirror of this type ( Plate I ) has recently been acquired for the collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 1 The figure of a girl stands on a
typical base provided with three lion-feet, and supports the disc above her
head. According to the fashion of the time, she is dressed in a heavy woollen
garment, the Doric chiton, falling in numerous folds in front and back. She
lifts one of the folds with her left hand, and in her outstretched right holds
a bird, probably a duck. 2 Her hair is parted in the middle, and wound round
a band forming a chignon in the back.
In many examples the circumference of the disc also was decorated with
different motives, such as flower ornaments or running animals. On our
mirror, as on several others, a siren with outspread wings, stands on the
top of the disc. Such mythological creatures, sirens, sphinxes, griffins, were
a favoured theme with the Greeks, and in art, especially of the earlier
period, they are often used as decorative elements. 3 To the back of the
siren on our mirror a wire hook is attached: it was probably intended to
enable the mirror to be hung on the wall, when so desired, so that it might
both serve for the lady to see herself from a standing position and as
decoration for the wall of her room, for we know from vase paintings that
the Greeks were in the habit of decorating their walls with objects of daily
use, such as plates, pitchers, or the like. 4 The slightly convex disc has a
beaded border, inside which runs a dainty incised guilloche of which the
double row of punctated centres clearly remains though some details of the
pattern are

now indistinct.

Above the head

of the figure there

is

a transitional

member which

Bulletin of the Division of Art

actually supports the disc:

it

palmettes, and half-palmettes.

is

and Archaeology

decorated with incised motives, volutes,

The attachment

of the disc

was reinforced

by a triangular piece of bronze riveted to the back of the supporting member and extending towards the centre of the disc. To judge from similar
it, too, was probably treated decoratively, as a palmette or an ivybut only a small fragment remains on the back of the supporting

mirrors,
leaf,

member, and a faint outline on the reverse of the disc. 5

The surface of the disc is somewhat corroded, but generally the object
is in very good condition. The statuette is covered with a green patina, and
the disc with a brownish one; the difference in colour is probably due, as
Miss Richter suggests, to the use of a special alloy for the reflecting surface,

from that used in the rest of the mirror. This is known to have
been done in some other cases. 6 The disc is soldered on to the supporting
member, and the statuette has been reattached to its base by means of
modern bolts through each foot. The mirror is carefully finished with much
attention to detail: each strand of the girl's hair is finely tooled, and so is
the hair even of the siren. The bird in the girl's hand is beautifully worked,
with incised lines to indicate feathers. The double guilloche pattern inside
the beaded edge of the disc must also have been very effective. Indeed, the
design and workmanship of this mirror make it the finest example of Greek
metal-work in our collection.
Unfortunately we have no information as to where the mirror was found.
Its possible place of manufacture we can only try to determine by analysing
its style. The statuette compares very closely with the one from Elis in the
different

National

The

Museum

in Athens, classified

by Langlotz

facial features are strongly modelled,

as of Corinthian origin. 7

and

especially the lips, eyes,

eyebrows, a characteristic, according to Langlotz, of the Corinthian school,

which produced large numbers of this type of mirror. The hair, wound

round a

fillet

reflecting the fashion of the time

is

also

regarded as very

typical of the Corinthian sculpture of this period. Another close parallel

is

a mirror in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, 8 also considered

as Corinthian.

We may

suppose, therefore,

by Langlotz
that the mirror was made in

Corinth, one of the chief centres of the bronze industry in the North-East

Peloponnesos after 500

B.C.

closer inspection of the statuette helps us also to date the mirror

more

precisely within the period of the greatest popularity of this type,

i.e.

The sharply cut folds of the drapery fall vertically, hiding the
contours of the body beneath them, but the rigidity and strict frontality of
the earlier archaic period have given way to a somewhat freer attitude: the
right leg is slightly bent and placed somewhat to the side, the right hand is
outstretched, and there is a more relaxed air about the whole figure. The

500-450

mirror

B.C.

is,

therefore, clearly a product of the transitional period

dated to about 470

B.C.

At

this

and can be
time the harmonious balance between the

Royal Ontario

6
three

main parts

Museum

of the mirror, the figure, the supporting

member, and the

disc still visible in our mirror has not yet been disturbed. But this harmony
decreases after the first third of the fifth century through the steady enlarge-

member. 9 By the
middle of the century the type of mirror with stand had become so cumbrous
as to lose its appeal and to be replaced by other types.

ment and ever greater elaboration

of the transitional

Neda Leipen

NOTES
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.
7.

8.
9.

Ht, 11" (28 cm.); ht. of the figure, 3%" (9.5 cm.); diam. of the disc, 4J4" (10.5 cm.).
956.156.
In some similar examples the bird is clearly a dove (cf. Babelon and Blanchet,
Catalogue des bronzes antiques de la Bibliotheque Nationals, 1895, Nos. 200,
201), but our bird, with its head resting on its backward-folded neck, compares
much more closely with the terracotta duck in Berlin published by Payne,
Protokorinthische Vasenmalerei, PI. 25, 5.
Cf. H. B. Walters, Catalogue of the Bronzes in the British Museum, No. 243, PI. VI;
A. De Ridder, Les Bronzes antiques du Louvre, 1913, figs. 17, 18.
De Ridder maintains that the ring on the top of the mirror was not used for suspending it, but merely as a means of moving the mirror from place to place (cf.
Daremberg-Saglio, IV, p. 1425, s.v. SPECULUM). This may be true when the
handle is large and strong as it is on the mirror in Cleveland (cf. Bulletin of the
Cleveland Museum of Art, January 1951), but the wire hook on our mirror
is so small as to be difficult to get hold of, and too fragile to be used for lifting
and carrying such a comparatively heavy object.
For some of the preserved analogous pieces cf. Langlotz, Fruehgriechische Bildhauerschulen II, PI. 15, c, d; PL 33 c; PI. 54 b.
Cf. Richter, A]A, 46 ( 1942), p. 323.
Langlotz, op. cit. I, p. 83, II, PI. 40 b.
& Blanchet, op. cit., pp. 90, 91.
Langlotz, op. cit. I, p. 36.

Babelon

FOUR NEAR EASTERN ANTIQUITIES LENT BY

MR. JOSEPH H. HIRSHHORN
Four objects made

Near East by ancient artist-craftsmen are briefly

Museum by Mr. Joseph H.

in the

described below. All were generously lent to the

Hirshhorn, and are on display in the Gallery of Ancient

10,

West Asia

Gallery

Second Floor).

(1) Head from a limestone statuette of a lady. Sumerian, Early

Dynastic Period, about 2500 b.c. 1 (Plate 2 A, B). Amusement and curiosity
were certainly not inspired by this statuette in its original environment, for
it served a solemn purpose and its style was familiar in the Mesopotamia of
its

day.

feelings

The average modern observer cannot easily imagine the ancient

evoked by a work so foreign to his own experience, no more than

he can recognize its peculiar brand of academicism. Nevertheless, the

strange and abstract plasticity of the head still commands immediate attention.

The round, vapid

face

dominated by monstrous wide eyes, which were

and lapis lazuli or black limestone

is

originally inlaid with shell for the eyeballs

for the pupils.

falling

The

hair

from a centre

long plaited

is

carved in detail to show tightly curled locks

and framing the face closely.

be arranged at the top of the head over a

back and finally wound around the
the locks fall evenly around the neck to the level of the

that seems to

coil,

switch or comb,

is

part, hiding the ears,

drawn down

head. Below the coil

at the

shoulders, with a separate smaller

The head must have belonged

row

of curls at the back. 2

to a standing figure representing a

female

most probably comes from Khafajah, on the Diyala River, a

tributary of the Tigris not far from Baghdad. Many statuettes of its type
have been found there, particularly by the expedition of the Oriental
worshipper.

It

Institute, University of

Chicago,

who

excavated the

between 1930 and

site

The

peculiar arrangement of the lady's hair seems to have been

typical of Khafajah. Moreover, feminine hairdressing of the period, as known
1937.

from the sculpture, shows considerable variety, which

local differences.

large

number

is

partly explained

of closely similar statuettes

the temple of the goddess Nintu, "Lady of Births," at this

to the second phase of the Early Dynastic period. 3

site,

by

came from

and are dated

The statuette was expressly intended to be placed in a temple so that it

might represent its owner in the presence of the deity, and intercede for
her with perpetual prayer and supplication. If, as it is tempting to believe,
this head came from the temple of Nintu at Khafajah, it doubtless expressed a prayer for

fertility or for protection in childbirth. The simple

magico-religious purpose helps to explain the direct appeal of the sculpture,

Royal Ontario

which seems

strikingly real

and

Museum

self-contained, in spite of

its

crude im-

personality.
( 2 ) Bronze figure from a foundation deposit, rearing an inscription of
Rim-Sin (1758-1698 b.c), king of the Lower Mesopotamian city of Larsa 4
(Plate 2 C, D). From about 2000 r.c. until the time of Rim-Sin royal ceremonies inaugurating important building projects included the deposit of
conventional bronze figures that represented a human being carrying a
basket. A tablet in the form of a building-brick was placed with the figure,
and the deposit was contained within a rectangular box of stamped baked
bricks, which was protected on the inside with bitumen and matting. Both
the figure and the tablet were generally inscribed with a dedication and
prayer. 5 The figure probably represents the king himself, carrying on his
head a basket of clay to mould the first brick for the building. This interpretation is supported by a picture of the king performing the ceremony,
carved on a foundation tablet of a much earlier period. 6 In its peg-like lower
end the figure simultaneously recalls a different symbolism. Long before the
basket-carrier type was known, foundation figures had ended in a peg or
spike, and had been deposited in direct contact with the ground. About
2000 B.C. some were in the form of a kneeling god holding a conical peg,
probably to be driven into the earth as a protection against hostile demons. 7
In one example of the basket-carrier type the figure is clearly seen to be
standing on such a peg. 8
Mr. Hirshhorn's basket-carrier has a full face and exceptionally wellmodelled features. The plump body is bare above the waist, and like a few
others of its type, it might be taken for a woman. But most known specimens
seem quite as masculine as this is feminine. Even without acceptance of the
usual interpretation that the king is represented, the close-shaven head
would indicate a man, and the rounded breasts might signify maturity and
affluence rather than femininity, if indeed this trait is significant. The
basket is cushioned on the head with a ringpad made of twisted cloth. The
long skirt, or shaft of the peg, is entirely covered with a cuneiform inscription, which begins and ends at the left side of the figure.
This inscription is a dedication and prayer to Inanna, goddess of love
and war, in the name of Rim-Sin, 9 who calls himself "the exalted prince of
Nippur, nourisher of Ur, king of Larsa, king of Sumer and Akkad." It is
also in the name of his father, the Elamite prince Kudur-Mabuk, who ruled
the border country of Emutbal, east of the Tigris. Of the temple to be built

it is

In

summit they made high, they raised up like a mountain.

may Inanna, lady of heaven and earth, take her pleasure!"

written, "Its

its

precincts

In return, a prayer

is

offered that "their

firmly established reign, country-wide

among

the great gods." 10

life

of exalted days, long years, a

fame be extended

as a reign forever

Bulletin of the Division of Art

and Archaeology

Rim-Sin did not mention here the location of the temple. The

9
full extent

unknown, and the recent history of the basketcarrier is obscure. We have no clue, therefore, to the figure's city of origin.
But the object should be of great interest to museum visitors, not only for
its form and symbolism but also because it is a document of Rim-Sin, a great
ruler and conqueror, who was himself overthrown by the still greater
of his building activities

Hammurabi

is

of Babylon.

(3) Lower part of a thin sheet of gold, worked in repousse and

FINISHED WITH CHASING. LATE 8tH TO 7TH CENTURY R.C., FROM ZAWIYEH IN

Kurdistan, Northwest Iran 11 (Plate 3 A). The now famous objects of

ancient art from Zawiyeh, in gold, silver, and ivory, were first discovered
accidentally in 1947 by natives of the district. A quantity of their plunder,
which was cached in a bronze coffin, or bath, contemporary with the
treasure, was retrieved by the Iranian Department of Antiquities. Similar
objects, undoubtedly from the same source, soon began to appear on the
international antiquities market. Although there has since been some controlled excavation at the site, the identification of the treasure has had to
depend to a great extent on the internal evidence of form, style, and iconography. On account of the complexity of most of the design, which has
yielded a wealth of information, it has not been difficult to show that the
objects belong to the period of the Assyrian empire.

They

are related to the

neighbouring hill-country to the south, and

some
purely
Assyrian motifs are associated with
fact
that
in
pieces
the
the
style
of
the
Scythian
elements in
nomads suggests that they cannot be
much earlier than the 7th century r.c. The district was then the land of the

contemporary

art of Luristan, a

Mannaeans, a hill-people on the

outskirts of civilization,

and Zawiyeh

is

with Zibia, a Mannaean fortress seized by the Assyrian king

Sargonll (721-705 b.c.). 12

itself identified

Mr. Hirshhorn's

known

fine piece

shows two rows of fantastic creatures well

but having some local varia-

in the eclectic art of the Assyrian world,

The

tions in detail.

made by

distinctive, decorative style suggests that the object

was

perhaps in the employ of Assyrian overlords. The

griffin-sphinxes, wearing the "Phoenician apron," and

local craftsmen,

creatures are

above )

human-headed winged bulls, and (below) griffin-demons, carrying holywater sprinklers, and horned winged lions with scorpion tails. In rigidly
symmetrical arrangement they face a tree of life occupying the centre of
each row. On these trees hang pomegranates, pinecones, and lotuses.
The object is the lower part of a sheet which was originally 10/i inches

wide at the top, and 5% inches wide at the bottom, the

upper edge being slightly convex and the other edges approximately
high, 11 J* inches

straight. It

is

evident that there were originally two sheets having identical

proportions and an identical decorative scheme.

Each sheet probably had

Royal Ontario

10
six horizontal registers

Museum

carrying fantastic animals flanking trees. 13

containing the intact upper three registers of one of these two sheets
the Metropolitan

Museum, New

three registers of the other

upper

is

piece
is

in

York, and about a third of the upper

Museum. 14 Each of these

four. Most of the lower two

in the Cincinnati Art

registers carries six animals instead of

sheets, with a small section of the right end of the

Teheran Museum. 15 In the permanent collections of
the Royal Ontario Museum is a smaller fragment (unpublished) which

registers of

one of the

third register,

is

in the

completes the lowest register of the Cincinnati piece.

It has been thought unlikely that these twin sheets of fine goldsmith's

work covered wooden

furniture because there are holes for attachment

only at the four corners of the sheet, instead of the usual small holes regu-

spaced along the edges. (There is a bare possibility that the register
missing in both sheets may have been perforated in some way.) The suggestion that the sheets might have been fastened to a shroud is also improbable, for they are not designed on a true centre axis. The registers of Mr.
Hirshhorn's piece slope definitely down to the left, and there is an exactly
corresponding slope to the right in its counterpart in Teheran. The axis
through the centre of the trees in the Metropolitan Museum's piece leans
larly

slightly to the left. Its counterpart in Cincinnati leans correspondingly to the

seems also to be the case with Mr. Hirshhorn's. The left edge of the
Hirshhorn piece is straight, while its right edge is very slightly concave.
The reverse is true of the Metropolitan Museum's specimen, but the Cincinnati specimen's left and only surviving edge is straight. These deviations
from the centre axis which are certainly not accidental indicate that the

right, as

Cincinnati and Hirshhorn pieces formed a single sheet. In the position for
which they were designed the two sheets may have been either flat or
curved, for the gold is pliable. Their form seems to offer a hidden clue, but
the object or objects that they decorated and their original location remain

a mystery.
16
(4) Bronze figure of a mountain sheep, of unknown date, from Iran
(Plate 3 B). The three objects described above have been identified with

some degree

of exactitude in spite of the fact that the circumstances of their

discovery are unknown. Such identification usually involves not only careful
analysis but patient search

once

among

exasperation and

the relevant archaeological literature; and

fascination that each ancient object of

an unsuspected fund of information when once
it is carefully studied. Evidence must be collected and weighed even when
a clear verdict is impossible. This remarkable bronze animal is not yet ready
for a definitive judgment about its date and origin. Subtleties of form and
surface create a strong impression that it is ancient, but we cannot even
suggest for the animal a probable date based on sound arguments of style
it is

at

its

art or craftsmanship yields

its

Bulletin of the Division of Art

and Archaeology

11

development. It is published here, prematurely, as a puzzle which may elicit

information from specialists, and which may interest and delight a wider
public.

One would

guess Iran to be the country of

information that
Its

it

was bought

there, for this

wide-spreading spiral horns,

well as

its

its

its

is

chest ruff,

origin,

even without the

mountain sheep.

certainly a

and

its

fat tail identify

cleverly rendered figure, poised for action,

and

its

it,

as

blunt face,

which has a curious V-shaped tuft, consisting of four blobs, at the base of
is one of the most familiar animals in mountainous Iran, and
one that was always a favourite subject for ancient Iranian craftsmen,
from the fourth millennium B.C. until the Islamic periods. With highly
decorative treatment it appears, for example, in early painted pottery and
jewellery, in die Luristan bronzes, and in the rich metalwork of the Achaemenian empire. A remarkably spirited picture of it forms part of the incised
decoration of the receptacle in which the Zawiyeh treasure was hidden. It
is naturalistically rendered in a silver wine-bowl that belonged to a Sasthe horns. This

sanian king.

The most extraordinary feature of this object remains to be mentioned.

Under the body is a rectangular opening 1% inches long by li inch wide,

On the back of the neck is a

long and % inch wide. Both openings were cast with the object,
and strongly suggest that the sheep was intended as a money-bank. If this
rather clumsily closed with a hinged plate.

slot 1/4 inches

indeed the case the sheep cannot be older than the 5th century B.C., for
was no coinage in Iran before the Achaemenian period. We know of
no money-banks in the forms of animals in ancient times, but slotted
children's banks of pottery, and sometimes wood or ivory, were made during
the Roman period in the Mediterranean world. 17
Mountain sheep seem to have enjoyed none of their former popularity
during the times of the animal-loving artists of Islamic Iran, or their patrons;
but it cannot yet be proved that this object is pre-Islamic in date. It only
seems clear that, whatever its age, it belongs to the same tradition as the
Luristan animal bronzes of about 700 B.C., 18 a tradition that is known to
have lived on for many centuries.
is

there

Winifred Needler

NOTES
1.

2.

3.

Height of fragment 3% in. (9.5 cm.). Distance between base of chin and top of
eyebrows 2 in. (5.2 cm.). The fracture is roughly horizontal at the base of the
neck. The nose and the front of the hair are slightly damaged by abrasion, and
there is a surface crack down the left side of the face and neck. The piece is in
quite good condition, in spite of the extreme softness of the stone. L956.21.2
For an account of women's hairdress in the Early Dynastic period, see Frankfort,
Sculp, of the Third Mill, from Tell Asmar and Khafajah (1939), 50, 51. Plates
74, 83, 86, 88 show close parallels to this head.
Frankfort, More Sculp, from the Diyala Reg. ( 1943), 6, and Plate 12.

Royal Ontario

12
4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

Museum

Total height 10 in. (25.5 cm.). Solid cast, in two moulds, one for the front and
one for the back. The lower end is unfinished, its irregular surface indicating
the opening where the molten metal was poured in. The inscription seems to
have been engraved on the cold metal, as well as some details of the figure such
as the lines separating the fingers and bordering the basket. The condition is
good in spite of some surface oxidization. The object has been partially cleaned.

L956.15.3
convenient account of the foundation figures from Gudea to Rim-Sin is given
in Van Buren, Foundation Figurines and Offerings, Chaps. 4 to 6.
Stele of Ur-Nanshe, c. 2500 b.c. (Enc. Phot, de VArt, Musee du Louvre, I, 181).
For a good example of the type, and for a related type representing a sacred bull
recumbent on a spike-head, see Enc. Phot, de VArt, Musee du Louvre, I, 242
and 245 ( both Neo-Sumerian period )
Van Buren, op. cit., Fig. 14 (Yale Babylonian Coll.). For the development and
significance of the basket-carrier type, see Frankfort, Art and Arch, of the Anc. Or.
(1954), 50, and Schaefer u. Andrae, Kunst des alt. Or. (1942), 501 (notes).
Many basket-carriers inscribed with the name of Rim-Sin are known. See Van Buren,
op. cit., Chap. 6 and Figs. 23, 24, 26, 27, for examples.
There is an identical inscription on a bronze basket-carrier in the Louvre Museum,
bought in 1859, and said to come from Afad, near Baghdad. A translation is
published in Barton, Royal Inscriptions of Sumer and Akkad, 331. The object is
illustrated in Johns, Ur-Engur, Plate lib. For the translation on the Hirshhorn
figure, and for this reference, the Museum is indebted to Mr. W. G. Lambert,

of University College, University of Toronto.

Greatest width (at top) 7 in. (17.8 cm.). Width at bottom 5% in. (14.3 cm.).
Present height 3% in. (8.8 cm.). The sheet is less than % mm. in thickness. All
edges are original except the top. There is no trace of adhesive on the back.

L956.21.3
For the Zawiyeh treasure and

its cultural relations see Godard, Le Tresor de Ziwiye

(1950); Wilkinson, in Bull. MM. A. 13 (1955), 213-219; Frankfort, Art and
Arch, of the Anc. Or. ( 1954), 205.
13. Wilkinson, loc. cit., where the Metropolitan Museum's piece is illustrated on p. 217.
14. Cincinnati Art Museum, Guide to the Collections ( 1956), 20.
15. Godard, op. cit., Fig. 25.
16. Height (to top of horns) l)k in. (18.5 cm.). Horizontal length (from nose to tail)
6% in. (16.8 cm.). The animal is cast hollow, probably by the lost-wax process,
with transverse straps c. %6 in. thick (.5 cm.) connecting the feet. The copper
pins that were stuck through the mould to keep the core in place during casting
can be detected at several points on the well finished surface, and on the interior;
they are cut from sheet metal in strips about %e in. wide (.4 cm.). The object
is in good condition. It has been partially cleaned, and waxed. The original pins
of the hinge and fastening on the opening are missing. L956.15.4
17. H. N. Couch, The Treasuries of the Greeks and Romans (1929), 99-102. This work
was brought to my attention by Dr. J. W. Graham.
18. See, for example, the sheep in Surv. Pers. Art, IV, 36D, 47C, etc., and the ibex
figure in the round, in Ghirshman, Iran (Penguin Books, 1954), Plate 4(a).

12.

PLATE

Late Archaic Creek bronze mirror. Height 11

in.

(956.156),

PLATE

A, B (top). Head from a limestone statuette of a lady, Sumerian

Early Dynastic Period, about 2500 b.c. Height of fragment
3% in. Lent by Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn. (L956.21.2).
(bottom). Bronze foundation-figure, with an inscription
C,
of Rim-Sin, Mesopotamia, 1758-1698 B.C. Height 10 in.
(L956.15.3). Lent by Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn.

PLATE

A (top). Fragment of gold overlay, from Zawiyeh, Northwest Iran, late 8th to 7th
century B.C. Greatest width (at top) 7 in. (L956.21.3). Lent by Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn.
B {bottom). Bronze mountain sheep, from Iran, date unknown. Height 7M in.
(L956.15.4). Lent by Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn.

PLATE

Bronze figure of a youth,

( left )
Etruscan, early 5th century B.C. Height
11 in. (L956.34). Lent by Mr. Joseph
H. Hirshhorn.
.

B (above). Bronze

horse bit, Early

Etruscan. Maximum length 7/2 in.,
length of horse 4% in., height of horse
3% in. (L956.21.1). Lent by Mr.
Joseph H. Hirshhorn.

PLATE

(rigJit).

Terracotta

head.

Height 12 in. (L956.15.2). Lent

by Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn.

nHP

(left). Terracotta

head. Height
(L956.15.1). Lent by Mr.
Joseph H. Hirshhorn.
12

in.

PLATE

JS

S
s

en

'

2
o -?

^ i

0)

2
o

S3

(Li

3
O ^

>

d -2
>

*-

<

ffl

CD

^
U

.2

s=

pc;

-a

u Q

PLATE

55

-t->

o=
o
- u
c
o _c

<

<d

c
3

s
N-^

PLATE

3P
"53

0)

CD

-t-J

^ 4syP
3'
Si

n 2
2 a

X
'53

cu

C
O

<#

*8

PLATE

Sh
<d

O
a

^WJfi*
o

PLATE

10

A,

(right), about 1735, Newcastle type; height

C,

name

(top). English drinking glasses:

(left),

8%

about 1690; height 10

in.

in.

(956.164.1);

(956.164.2).

(bottom). Faience plates, French, Saint Amand: C (left), a.d. 1725-41; diameter
(957.57.11); D (right), a.d. 1760-75; diameter 9 i. (957.57.10). Given in the
of General Charles Hamilton Mitchell, C.B., C.M.G. D.S.O., LL.D.

PLATE

{top). Bronze figure, North

in. (955.2).

German, perhaps Helmarshausen,

a.d.

1100-20.

Height 5%

B (bottom). Upper

part of a writing cabinet, North

about 1575. Height 30 in. (956.36). Civen by Mr.
his son Lieut. Douglas Schuyler Snively.

Italian,
S.

probably Florence,
in honour of

C. Snivels

11

PLATE

12

05

^-5

CD

^3

so

la a
Si

03

Si

ROMAN DEPARTMENT
COLLECTION
HIRSHHORN
THE
FROM

OBJECTS ON LOAN TO THE GREEK AND

Etruscan bronze figure of a youth. L956.34. Ht. II". Early 5th century
B.C. Said to have been found near Piombino. The figure is one of the finest
Etruscan bronzes in existence. A detailed study of it is in preparation and
will be published soon.

Etruscan bronze horse

bit. L956.21.1.

Max. length, 7W; length of horse,

4%"; height of horse, 3%". Early Etruscan.

Two

life-size terracotta heads. Said to have been found in Rome, near

San Paolo fuori le mura. Ht. the same for both: 12". They were published by
Langlotz in the Festschrift zum 60. Geburstag von Bernhard Schweitzer,
Stuttgart (1954), pp. 311-318, pis. 65-67. To judge from their identical size,
from the same colour and the quality of the clay, the similar state of preservation, and above all from their typological likeness, it is most probable
that they both come from the same site, which could have been as Langlotz
suggests a sanctuary of Aphrodite or Artemis. He further conjectures
that the heads might have been votive offerings, rendered probably in the
tradition of some famous cult statue of the goddess. He considers them both
as late Hellenistic, but finds that, while one of them (L956.15.1) with its
soft-swept Hellenistic head-dress and fine features is very typical of that
period, the other is of a more harsh character showing less of the Greek
and more of the awakening Italian influences (L956.15.2). The latter he
ascribes more precisely to the years 70-60 B.C., basing his dating mainly
on the development and style of the portraits on Roman republican coins.
There is no known parallel to our heads which Langlotz assumes are the
work of a Greek artist from South Italy at a time when various regional
styles were beginning to fuse into what was to become Roman art. Our
knowledge however of Roman sculpture of the 1st century b.c. is still too
inadequate and the number of known monuments too small to enable us at
the present time to give any more definite explanation regarding the purpose
and origin of the Hirshhorn heads.

Neda Leipen

13

SCYTHES REUNITED

A few months ago

Greek

Sir

John Beazley, the greatest

living authority

on ancient

pottery, requested photographs of the rather sketchy scenes decor-

ating a cover which had once formed part of a clay pyxis or toilet-box owned
by some Greek lady of the fourth century before Christ. 1 He also suggested,
in the interests of a better photograph, that we remove the false knob-handle
of the cover. For the rightful handle had evidently been lost and to replace
it, and so get a better price for the cover, some resourceful restorer had in
recent times availed himself of the pedestalled foot broken from a very
different kind of vase, a Greek cylix or drinking-cup ( see fig. 1 ) 2
.

Fig. 1. Profile of a Greek cylix by Scythes. The

shaded portion represents the Toronto fragment.

Upon removing

this false

knob-handle,

we

discovered to our surprise that

the top surf ace of the one-time cylix-foot retained part of the circular picture

on the bottom of the interior of the original

had merely trimmed off, Procrustean-fashion,
the fragments of the broken cylix close to the circumference of the upper end
of the foot, 3 allowed what was left of the scene to remain, and glued it in the
(Plate 6 A) painted, as so often,

cup! Obviously the restorer

centre of the pyxis cover.

Enough was

show that it had formed

toward the left with the folds
of a loose garment hanging down before and behind him, and carrying a
knotted stick or cane. It was also clear that it had been drawn by some
early but very capable vase-painter around 500 B.C. Eventually it was
possible to pin-point the "hand" as that of a certain Scythes, since some
details, such as the knotted stick, the drapery with double-lined edge and
decoration of scattered spots, and the odd little "hook" at the hip, closely
resemble other cups painted and signed by him: "Skythes egrapsen," that
left of

part of a nearly

is,

the picture thus recovered to

nude male

figure striding

"Scythes painted [me]." 4

Scythes, to judge from his name,

was a foreigner (a "barbarian" the

14

Bulletin of the Division of Art

and Archaeology

15

Greeks would have called him) from Scythia perhaps brought to Athens
as a slave. Here he learned a trade and eventually became one of the most
skilful decorators of his day of the Athenian pottery which in the late sixth
century had become the finest table-ware produced anywhere, and which

was being eagerly bought by the well-to-do

many

in

parts of the ancient

world. 5

This particular cup must have been sold to the Etruscans, a prosperous

people

who had

earlier

and

migrated, probably from Asia Minor, a couple of centuries

settled in Italy just north of the Tiber

the small city of

Rome was

just at this

modern Tuscany ) Indeed,

time throwing

off

the yoke of

Etruscan rule which had oppressed it for over a century, a revolt which
was sparked so runs the Roman story familiar from Shakespeare by the
rape of a Roman matron, Lucrece, by Sextus, the son of the last Etruscan
king of Rome, Tarquin the Proud.
Now the Etruscans bought thousands of the finest vases produced by the
Athenian potters, and large numbers of them, found in their tombs where
they had been placed as prized possessions, are today displayed in many
museums in Italy and throughout the world. The reason for our belief that
it was in one of these Etruscan tombs that our cylix-foot was found is
perhaps the most remarkable part of the story to one unacquainted with the
phenomenal visual memory and the prodigious knowledge of Greek pottery
acquired by Sir John Beazley in a long lifetime of study, and which
indeed have won him his knighthood. For, on seeing a photo of the newly
discovered piece in Toronto, he at once remembered some fragments in a
similar style which he had seen years before in the storage-rooms of the
Villa-Giulia museum in Rome, where quantities of broken pottery from
Etruscan tombs had been put away. Indeed, he saw that these fragments,
those in Rome and the one in Toronto, had originally formed part of one and
the same cup! 6
The accuracy of his observation was put beyond all doubt by placing
photos of the Toronto and Villa-Giulia fragments together at the same scale
( Plate 6 C ) a kind of jigsaw puzzle twenty-five hundred years old and with
many pieces missing! After succeeding in arranging them in their correct
relative positions our museum artist, Sylvia Harm, filled in the gaps left
where the ragged edges had been trimmed away by the restorer, and nicely
imitating the style of the original drawing she recovered a gay reveller
( Plate 6 B )
A suitable scene this, for a cup that was intended for use at a
drinking-party, and a favourite subject with the painter Scythes for it is
found on no less than three other of his known vases. 7
The lively design, so well suited to the round central "tondo" of the cup,
of a figure moving in one direction while looking back over his shoulder in
the other such violent twists are not uncommon in archaic Greek art was
.

Royal Ontario

16

Museum

an amusing picture on a cylix in the Louvre ( Plate

Greek soldier, with helmet (clutched in one hand),
spear (in reverse), and shield (emblazoned with a jaunty cock), advancing
at his best speed backward! 8
also used

D)

by Scythes

in

to represent a

J.

W. Graham

NOTES
1.

Robinson-Harcum-Iliffe, A Catalogue of the Greek Vases in the Royal Ontario

Museum of Archaeology, I, pp. 223f., no. 451 (C 697); II, pi. 83. Beazley is
making a study of the painter of this cover, and he and others have attributed

some two dozen

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

to

him

or in his manner.

This substitution was not noticed by the publishers of the catalogue who say that
"the top of the handle is worn and chipped" (p. 224). Ht. of the foot as
preserved 3.4 cm., max. diam. 8.1 cm., diam. at top of stem 3.5 cm. Museum
no. 923.13.11.
In the process of trimming, a considerable chip was broken away from one edge,
carrying with it part of the stick and part of the lower abdomen.
Especially three cylices in Paris: CVA, Louvre 10 III 1 b, pi. 13: 3, 5, 6; ARV, p. 74,
nos. 4, 7, 10, respectively.
Attic Red-figured Vases

( 1946 )
p. 165, note 8. An interesting study of
the activities of the Greek potter is presented in Potter and Painter in Ancient
Athens ( 1946) by J. D. Beazley.
ARV, p. 74, no. 6. Sir John generously sent me a photo, taken by Lady Beazley, of
the interior of the cylix as represented by the Villa-Giulia fragments.
On a cylix in the Villa Giulia and on two in the Louvre: ARV, pp. 74f., nos. 12,
13, 19. The form of the foot of the cylix represented by the Toronto fragment
is similar to that of the cylix from Caere illustrated by Rizzo, Mon. Piot, 20
(1913), pp. 103f., figs. If.; note the moulded ring with thinned glaze and
narrow reserved line above and below.
ARV, p. 74, no. 10; Mon. Piot, 20 (1913), pi. 7: 2. Note the similarities in drawing
between the soldier and the reveller: the dotted garments, the shape of the nose,
and the representation of the hair, especially the little tuft, so characteristic of
Scythes, above the forehead. For the position cf. also the dancing-girl on a cylixtondo by the Pedieus Painter, perhaps actually a late work of Scythes, ARV,

Cf Richter,
.

p. 76, no. 2.

A GIFT OF JAPANESE LACQUER

In the last four years, three beautiful small objects by the Japanese
lacquer artist Shibata Zeshin have been presented to the Museum by Edgar
Stone, in memory of his father Charles Edgar Stone. The donor is a
J.

Toronto collector with a fondness for exquisite things, and it is easy to see
of Zeshin have attracted him.
Shibata Zeshin lived from 1807 to 1891 and therefore postdated the greater
periods of Japanese art history. By the middle of the nineteenth century
Japanese art had run itself out of inspiration, and stimuli in the form of
outside influences had been deliberately excluded by an isolation policy for
over two hundred years. When the country was finally persuaded to lower
its artificial barriers in the mid-1850's, and to assume a role on the world
stage, Japan was suddenly opened wide to the impact of assertive western

why the works

Most artists were affected by the new attitudes, new technology,

and new demands set before them, but Zeshin seems to have remained
culture.

oblivious to the chaos of the changing order.

He

continued along his

own

making beauty in the old way for an appreciative audience still

fortunately large enough to give him support. His was a talent special
enough to survive in this difficult time, and even to improvise on the old
themes, just as if disturbing ideas from the rest of the world were not
assaulting his eyes and ears from every direction. His work betrays a tender
old-fashioned feeling for the unchanging small things of nature at a time of
unrest and general artistic turmoil.
He was apprenticed at the age of about ten to the lacquer master Koma
Kwansai, and he appears to have thought all the rest of his creative life
in lacquer terms. Although he also received training in several schools of
painting, his fondness for lacquer carried over there too, for he is said

path,

have originated the improbable technique of painting with lacquer. The

way is so difficult that it has never gained popularity.
It is a tour de force of the sort that only a master of the medium could
achieve successfully; it is a good indication of the degree of Zeshin's own

to

use of lacquer in this

technical ability.

Two

tiny trays, Plate 7 A, B,

could use lacquer.

He

show the

virtuosity with

which Zeshin

has gone to endless trouble with his fluid

medium

pretend that the dishes are really made of old metal. Their surfaces have
the roughness of time-worn iron. The sensitive floral sprays have a metallic
to

and the only suggestion of the non-metallic is a hint of naturalism

few specks of greenish shell on one or two leaves.
The second half of the Stone memorial is a small album containing six
paintings executed in colored lacquer on paper, Plates 8 A, B and 9 A, B.

precision,

in the restrained inlay of a

Royal Ontario

18

An

Museum

on the first endfold indicates that the album was given by

August of 1883. Tosan heads his dedication with a word
of praise for the artist: "Nature has gifted this man with marvellous technical
ability." The little paintings look artless enough and their subjects are simple
glimpses of nature, so that one almost overlooks the technical hardships
which faced Zeshin in making them. He has developed a wonderful
versatility with his medium and can suggest many textures. In some places
the lacquer is applied thickly and is almost modelled, creating a glossy,
three-dimensional quality. In others, his brush is so dry it scarcely stains
inscription

Tosan

to a friend in

the paper.

There was really no one to come after Zeshin. He left no school and
no important trends. Modern artists have broken with the tradition
he represented and are going in new directions. The technique he possessed
started

so naturally

is

a matter for reverence

Living so recently, he
a long

way

still

among

the present hurried generation.

signifies a past that is

gone, for Japan has

come

in the last sixty years.

Barbara. Stephen

ENGLISH GLASSES
The Modern European Department
months two

has acquired during the past

English glasses of considerable merit,

if

six

not at great price in

the present market. Their addition to the already existing collection of glass,
largely the gift of Mrs. R. Y. Eaton, is important to us in that they are repre-

two types previously not included in the Museum's collection.

is their size, 10" and 8J", which is not unusual in

sentative of

An

additional feature

glasses of this period.

The

larger

and

two (No.

earlier of the

956.164.1, Plate 10

A)

is

a late

seventeenth-century type of English goblet of the usual proportions. In this

type the bowl

is

as tall,

if

not taller than the stem; the foot large and

flat.

This particular example has an ovoid bowl, slightly narrower in diameter

than some, and an inverted baluster stem with a large pear-shaped tear in
the centre. The edges of the foot are folded and the metal itself is of a

decided greenish yellow tinge. These factors taken together would indicate
that this is an early example, probably dating from about 1690. The very
is unusual and would seem to be an earlier
Other examples of the heavy baluster type ( 1690-1720 ) are
or with slight variations of bowl, stem, or foot; engraving is some-

squat and bulbous knop

characteristic.
similar,

times found.

The second

glass (No. 956.164.2, Plate 10

glasses usually associated with Newcastle.

B) belongs

to a later

They form a

group of

particular division

of the "light baluster" type, being of larger capacity than the average

and particularly tall and slender

the Museum's example, consists of a
glass,

in their proportions.
series of knops,

The

wine

stem, as in

sometimes, but not

always, containing clusters of air bubbles. It

is solid while the foot is plain,

another characteristic of the group. The colour of the metal is obviously
whiter than that of the earlier piece, although still greyish in tint, and with

The majority of these glasses are

Dutch engraving. This example is quite

the oily brilliance of early lead glass.

decorated, often with very fine

typical, except for its plainness;

bowl, regular knops, and high

it is

beautifully proportioned, with

domed

foot.

its

ovoid

In date, glasses of this group are

than the normal balustroid group, about 1730-1770; the date

to be about 1735. A similar, if not the same glass,
illustrated in E. Barrington Haynes's Glass, pi. 45d.

slightly later

of this glass
is

would appear

Ann Gill

19

FRENCH FAIENCE PLATES

The Museum's collection

European tin-enamel pottery

of

is

a varied

group. Hispano-Moresque ware, Italian majolica, Dutch, and English delft

are all well represented; the largest gap not a complete one has up till now
been in the field of French faience. This has now been filled by twelve
examples given in the name of General Charles Hamilton Mitchell, c.b.,
c.m.g., d.s.o., ll.d. There are pieces from many of the French faience
factories, two of which from Saint- Amand-les-Eaux are chosen for mention

here as representative.

Saint-Amand

lies in

the Department of Nord, not far from Douai to the

west and the Belgian border to the east. A faience factory was founded here
in 1718 by Pierre Joseph Fauquez, a branch of his factory at Tournai which
it

supplanted in 1725. The Fauquez family owned the factory until the
it passed into other hands and

Revolution; early in the nineteenth century

was

finally closed in 1882.

The

first

of the

Museum's plates (No. 957.57.11;

mark of Pierre Joseph

C)
9/s". It
Fauquez himself a design of loops not unlike interlocked "L"s. It is painted
on the white tin-enamel ground with sprays of various flowers in natural
colours of red, pale yellow, and blue with dark green leaves; the red is a
rather dark and almost brownish shade. All the flowers and leaves are outlined and shaded in black. The plate probably dates between 1725 and
Fauquez' death in 1741. As with the great majority of remaining faience
plates and dishes of all periods, small sections of the tin-enamel glaze have
has a diameter of

Plate 10

chipped

From

bears the

off.

the early 1760's the factory at Saint-Amand began to develop

away

from the influences, first of Rouen and then of Strasbourg, seen at many of
the French factories at this period. Its own style is shown on the second
Museum plate (No. 957.57.10; Plate 10 D) which measures 9".
In between the coloured floral sprays of the border there is painting in
white on the tin-enamel ground, here a dull grey. This is the technique
known as blanc fixe and is not unlike the English bianco sopra bianco
typical of contemporary work at Bristol (also represented in the Museum
collection). The other floral sprays are in natural colours, a deep red,
yellow, blue, and green. They have a familar character which shows the
influence of

German

porcelain very clearly.

The

plate

is

probably to be

dated in the third quarter of the eighteenth century.

Gerard Brett

20

A ROMANESQUE BRONZE
The

little

added

Romanesque bronze of Christ on the Cross has recently been

Modern European Department (No. 955.2; Plate 11 A). It

to the

measures 5%" in height and 5%" from hand to hand, and shows the figure
with bent head, outstretched arms, and wearing a perizonium or long loincloth.

on a

From

the position of the feet

it is

clear that in the original they stood

There are nail holes through each of the hands. There is a small
indentation on the upper surface of each foot; one nail underneath attached
them to the Cross. Head, arms, and legs have been cast in solid bronze; the
body of the figure from the neck to the bottom of the perizonium is hollow.
After the casting the surface was chased to give details.
The Crucifixion does not appear in Christian art before the seventh
century. The Triumph Iconography of the preceding period would have
made the idea of showing Christ as a suffering figure akin to blasphemy.
This attitude remained strong until a.d. 1200 or later. Romanesque figures
generally show the head bent forward towards the kneeling individual
below, as this one does. There is no sign of suffering; the figure was a symbol
first and foremost. The change which led to the intentionally horrifying
figures of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had not then begun.
Throughout the Romanesque period (approximately a.d. 1000 to a.d.
1200) there were two great centres of bronze casting in Northern Europe.
One was in the Meuse Valley with its greatest focal point at Dinant and
Huy. The other lay east of the Rhine in Northwestern Germany, with its
focal point at Helmarshausen, mid-way between the two important towns
of Cologne and Hildesheim. It was an artistic centre of considerable importance, especially in bronze casting and manuscript illumination. The
small figure acquired by the Museum seems to reflect on a miniature scale
the life-size figures made by the bronze casters of Helmarshausen, especially
the crucifix figures at Werden (about a.d. 1080) and Minden (a.d. 1100 to
1120). Its relation to the Minden figure is in some ways remarkably close,
especially in the treatment of hair and face. It is likely that it, too, is to be
dated between a.d. 1100 and 1120.
Gerard Brett
rest.

21

AN ITALIAN WRITING CABINET

Plate 11 B shows a North Italian Writing Cabinet (No. 956.36), of carved
walnut with drawer fronts of pale yellow wood. The top row of busts
conceals two drawers; behind the figure in the niche on the right are three
drawers; above and below the central locking door there is one drawer.
Behind this central door and behind the figure in the niche on the left are
plain compartments.

cabinet as a whole

is

The

total number of drawers is therefore twelve.

30" in height and 35" in width across the top.

The

this once formed the top came

middle of the sixteenth century.
This upper part sometimes rested on a larger lower section carved and
ornamented en suite. Between the two, there is often a flat shelf, sometimes
forming a fall-front cover to the upper part, on which letters were written.
The height of this shelf allows us to conclude that writers generally stood.
It frequently happens, however, that the lower section either has not been
preserved or never existed. In this case the upper section rests on a table
or another cabinet, generally about 3' 6" high. The type seems to have come
into fashion first in Florence, and many of the best examples are associated
with one or other of the Tuscan towns.

The upright Writing Cabinet

of

which

into fashion in northern Italy about the

tire Museum by Mr. S. C. Snively in

Douglas Schuyler Snively. Family tradition
associates it with Genoa and it is possible that it represents a Ligurian
example of the Tuscan type. Its date is about 1575.
This form of carving in very high relief or in the round, with busts,
caryatid figures, and other ornaments of this kind is interesting though not
always attractive and important is the last style of carved ornament on
Italian furniture. Inlay, both in woods other than walnut (the invariable
carcase wood) and in other materials such as metal and shell was already
becoming popular at this period, and replaces carving in the next century.
It was first made at Florence, but the most important centre of production
was Paris, and the name always attached to it is that of the French seventeenth-century cabinet maker, Andre Charles Boulle.
Gerard Brett

This cabinet was presented to

honour of

his

son,

Lieut.

22

TWO COSTUME
Two

PROJECTS;

1956-57

projects were undertaken during the 1956-57 season, with results of

great importance to the study of fashion history in this

Museum. They

touched on two of the Textile Department's main functions; the building

of the collections and the use of the collections by students.
For a long time the Department has been aware of certain serious gaps
in the costume collection. One of these has been the lack of dresses and
other garments created by the great fashion designers of this century, the
century in which the designer has become the all-important person in the

up

field of fashion.

Museum a group of fashion-name

was undertaken by the newly formed Toronto Branch of the Fashion
Group Inc. Through the generosity of a number of Toronto women the
Fashion Group acquired a most interesting collection of dresses and
accessories for the Museum. These were exhibited in the Special Exhibition
Gallery during March 1957. The opening included a fashion show in which
dresses from 1957 back to 1907 were worn.
Among the well-known designers represented in the collection are Jeanne
Lanvin, Molyneux, Schiaparelli, Robert Piguet, Jean Desses, and Castillo.
Hats by Laddy Northridge, Sally Victor, Hubert de Givenchy, Emme,
Hattie Carnegie, John Frederick, and Christian Dior are among the
This year a project to acquire for the

dresses

costume accessories.

The

three dresses which are illustrated are typical of their periods.

earliest, Plate

The

12 A, designed by Jeanne Lanvin and stamped "ete 1923"

The

is

and loose pointed panels at the sides and

back are finished with flower sprays embroidered in fine tambour work with
coloured silks. The back is finished with a large bright blue taffeta bow with
of soft black

ends that

silk.

fall to

sleeve caps

the ground.

The afternoon dress, Plate 12 B, designed by Robert Piguet in 1930, is of

black and magenta silk jersey. The black back and side sections button
across the magenta front panel with round covered buttons. The broad
shoulder line has been emphasized by the use of horizontal gauging in the
upper sleeve where it joins the armhole.
The slim evening dress with bolero jacket, Plate 12 C, is characteristic of
Schiaparelli's designs of 1933. It
at the hemline.

The

jacket

is

is

of blue satin

of shirred corded

and cut with a

slight flare

with raglan sleeves and

influencing fashion design

silk,

It is this period which is

today and designers look back to it for inspiration.

gathered neckline.

This year the students of the Ryerson Institute School of Fashion turned
to the

Museum's

collections for inspiration in dress designing. In previous

23

Royal Ontario

24
years classes have

come

to the Textile

Museum
Study

Room

for a series of

twenty

whenever possible by the

Museum's collections. This year the students who had taken the costume
history course in 1955-56 undertook to design a woman's wardrobe of
twelve garments, each inspired by a Museum object. The garments were as
follows: a formal evening dress with matching coat, a daytime dress, a coat
with matching skirt, a suit, a cocktail dress, a printed cotton dress, a shirtwaist dress, a two-piece separate dress, a pleated nylon night dress and
negligee, and a bathing suit. The wardrobe made in half size 12 with
sketches and pattern drafts was to be a gift to the Museum.
Inspiration varied from adaptation of a whole garment as was done with
a Chinese woman's coat and skirt, to the application of detail trimming
found in costumes in the Museum's collections. In no instance was the
fashion of today lost sight of, thus avoiding the individualistic and the
eccentric. It is a typical wardrobe of 1957.
An exhibition of the students' work was considered from the first and this
the Fashion Group undertook to sponsor. It was displayed in the Special
Exhibition Gallery with the fashion-name dresses so that each complemented
the other. Every effort was made to secure suitable fabrics. Hats, furs,
purses, costume jewellery, and other accessories were made to scale. 1 In
many instances manufacturers donated fabrics and made the accessories.
It was a most successful undertaking and the Museum now has in its
collections a very complete record of what a smart woman wore in 1957.
to twenty-five talks

on fashion history

illustrated

K. B. Brett
1.

Shoes and gloves are not represented in the collection.

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS

Spindles and Spinning Wheels, by Dorothy K. Macdonald
1944), price 50 cents.
Outline Guide to the East Asiatic Section (1950), price 15 cents.
Fibres,

(Mimeographed,

Chinese Court Costumes, by Helen E. Fernald (1946), price $1.10.

Outline Guide to the Royal Ontario Museum (1951; Section III deals with the Division
of Art and Archaeology), price 50 cents.
Excavating Ontario History, by Margaret M. Thomson (published by the Division of
Education, 1947), price 15 cents.
Palestine, Ancient

and Modern, a Guide

to the Palestinian Collection (1949), price $1.50

(by post $2.00).

Chinese Pottery Figurines; Egyptian Mummies; Black-figure and Redfigure Greek Pottery (all 1950), 50 cents each.
Books of the Middle Ages (1950), price 35 cents.
Greek Coins in the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology (mimeographed, 1951),

Picture Books:

price 10 cents.

Suggestions for Excavating Indian Sites (mimeographed, 1951), price 10 cents.

The Chair in China, by Louise Hawley Stone (1952), price $2.00.

Chinese Frescoes from the Royal Ontario Museum (Museum Bulletins Nos. 12, 13, and
14 bound together), price 75 cents.
Bulletins of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Nos. 17, 18, 22, 23, price 60
cents; special

numbers

19, 20, 21, price

Bulletins of the Royal Ontario

15 cents each.

Handwoven

Ontario

Bouquets in

Textiles,

Textiles,

by K.

Museum

75 cents each.

of Archaeology, Nos. 7, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, price

by K. B. Brett (1956), price $1.00.

B. Brett (1955), price 75 cents.

"Sweet Water": The Discovery and Mapping of the Great Lakes, 1522-1703, price
50 cents.
"Over the Rockies": The Discovery and Mapping of the Canadian West, 1700-1886,
price 50 cents.

The Art

of

Fine Printing: The Bible in Print (1956), price 50 cents.

OFFPRINTS
Historical Identification of a Huron Ossuary," by Kenneth E. Kidd.
Reprinted for the Royal Ontario Museum from American Antiquity, Vol. 18,
No. 4, April 1953, price 35 cents; heavy cover 45 cents.

"The Excavating and

"Archaeology and the Canadian," by A. D.

Tushingham. Reprinted from Queens

Quarterly, Kingston, Winter 1956, price 30 cents.

Summer 1955,, Vol. 8, No. 2, price 25 cents.

"A Reredos from the Workshop of Jan Borman at the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto," by Gerard Brett. Reprinted from the Gazette des Beaux Arts,
Summer, 1954. Price 50 cents.
Archaeology,

"Chinese Mortuary Pillows in the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology," by Helen E.

Fernald. Reprinted from the Far Eastern Ceramic Bulletin, Volume 4, No. 1,

March 1952, price 75 cents.

"The Canadian Watercolours of James Pattison Cockburn, 1779P-1847," by
Spendlove. Reprinted from the Connoisseur, May 1954, price 25 cents.
"Niagara Falls Pictured," by F.

St.

F. St. G.

G. Spendlove. Reprinted from Antiques Magazine,

April 1956, price 25 cents.

"The Furniture

of French Canada," by F. St. G.

Connoisseur Year Book, 1954, price 50 cents.

Spendlove.

Reprinted from the

B*

*fflBI