Fogg Museum Research Articles

Reconsidering Enslaved People in Ancient Greek Art at the Harvard Art Museums

ABSTRACT In response to the Harvard Art Museums’ ReFrame Initiative and the publication of the “Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery” report, the author reevaluates the display and discussion of images of enslaved people in ancient Greek art in the museum gallery. Ancient Greece relied heavily on the labor and crafts produced by enslaved people, and while enslaved people are common subjects of ancient art, a critical analysis of their representations and interpretations is not standard in art historical or museum discourse. This paper proposes a reading of these images that prioritizes the voice of the enslaved person and proposes strategies to foster dialogue about this topic in the art museum. In particular, the author recommends avoiding euphemisms in nomenclature and in annotated “chat” labels and invites alternative readings of images that take the embodied experiences of enslaved people in the ancient world into consideration.

Between Death and Rebirth: Visual and Religious Intermediates in Chinese Ten Kings of Hell Paintings

In some schools of Chinese Buddhism, it was believed that after death, the deceased passed through the courts of the Ten Kings of Hell before being reborn. Paintings depicting this theme act as manifestations of the kings’ courts, instilling fear in the viewer through their vivid depictions of the king as a judge overseeing the torture of the deceased. Existing scholarship on the Ten Kings focuses on the iconography and style of Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasty examples, emphasizing a compositional evolution from the iconographic and narrative, scripture-based modes, to the hanging scroll format, where each king is represented in his own court. However, limited surviving paintings from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) leave a gap in the understanding of the Ten Kings and Buddhist hell during this time period.
 Using a five Ming dynasty Ten Kings of Hell scrolls at the Harvard Art Museums, I argue that religious contexts, visual characteristics, and intermedial references within these paintings embody the notion of the intermediate. Hell in Chinese Buddhism is a state of intermediate existence; I first discuss the ritual contexts and religious iconographies of these paintings as visualizing the passage between death and rebirth. Next, I analyze the visual and stylistic characteristics of the Harvard set, assessing how pictorial motifs are arranged and recycled throughout the set in a formula that allows the paintings to convey the notion of a liminal, intermediate space. Finally, I discuss how the pigments in the Harvard set perform reference textiles and decorative arts of the Ming dynasty; these period-specific references mediate the experience of the viewer by creating a convincing and comprehensible vision of hell.

Conservation as Cultural Practice: The Portrait Collection of Indigenous Delegates by Henry Inman

ABSTRACT This article explores the complex material history of the portrait collection of Indigenous delegates by Henry Inman (1801–1846), and the ethical dilemmas raised during the last conservation campaign. The so-called ‘Indian Gallery,’ painted by Charles Bird King and copied by Henry Inman in the late 1830s, offers a study case on how conservation can contribute to the visibility of this unique series of 27 Indigenous delegates portraits. Originally commissioned for Thomas L. McKenney as first Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the meaning of Henry Inman’s copies shifted when they entered the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology in 1882. Turned into ‘docile objects’ their new display had them fit a different ethnographic discourse. Recently transferred to the Harvard Art Museums (2023), the last conservation campaign challenged this discourse and proposed new ways to look at the collection offering a new interpretation through material analysis.

Lead Transfer Risk from Handling Ceramics with Deteriorated Lead Glazes

ABSTRACT The risks of lead transferring to gloves while handling lead-glazed ceramics was evaluated with simple empirical tests using Plumbtesmo test strips. Five lead-glazed ceramics from the Harvard Art Museums, three with deteriorated glazes and two with glazes in good condition, were evaluated along with three controls. The objects and controls were handled using three interaction types (touch and hold, tapping, and rubbing); the presence of lead on gloves was then evaluated using Plumbtesmo test strips. The experiment demonstrated that ceramics with deteriorated lead glazes have the potential to transfer lead to gloves during handling. Collections care staff working with lead glazed ceramics are advised to take precautions during handling and uphold best practices for hygiene to minimize lead exposure.

An Achaemenid God in Color

A limestone relief fragment with a figure in a winged disk from the fifth-century BCE Hall of 100 Columns at Persepolis in southwestern Iran that entered the Harvard Art Museums’ collections in 1943 preserves significant traces of its original coloration and has played a key role in the rediscovery of polychromy at the Achaemenid Persian capital. After tracing the fragment’s journey to Cambridge, MA, this article presents the results of recent technical studies of its pigment remains, including visible light-induced infrared luminescence (VIL) imaging, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, and the analysis of micro samples by Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and polarizing light microscopy (PLM). The new scientific data is compared to the findings of ongoing investigations of polychromies at Persepolis and other Achaemenid Persian sites and evaluated for the information it can and cannot provide on the original appearance of the figure in the winged disk, likely the Zoroastrian god Ahuramazda. The article reviews past attempts at reconstructing the relief’s coloration and the assumptions that guided them, recounts the experience of creating a tangible three-dimensional color reconstruction for an exhibition, and concludes with some general thoughts on the valuation of colorfulness.

Inner Visions: Art Practice and Sufi Devotion in Morocco at the Turn of the Fourteenth/Twentieth Century

Abstract This article examines a large calligraphic panel from Morocco preserved in the Harvard Art Museums (2016.206). The artwork features stylized representations of Mecca and Medina alongside Prophet Muhammad’s sandals and a selection of religious texts praising the prophet. This composition is characteristic of Islamic devotional imagery, highlighting artistic transfer from Moroccan illustrated copies of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt by the ninth/fifteenth-century Sufi mystic al-Ǧazūlī. This article aims to contextualize the production of this specific panel artwork within the Wazzāniyya Sufi Brotherhood in Morocco. It also presents how the expression of religious devotion through symbolic images reflects a mediation between the believer and Islamic holy sites and relics of the prophet.

Artistic, Commercial, and Confessional Exchanges between Venetian Crete and Western Europe: The Multiple Lives of an Icon of the Virgin and Child from Harvard Art Museums

In the collections of the Harvard Art Museums there is an icon of the Virgin and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Roch. Although a typical product of Cretan icon painting of the turn of the sixteenth century, the icon stands out from similar contemporary artworks due to its unusual subject matter and materiality. The iconographic analysis of the icon places it at the intersection of the Latin and Byzantine traditions and suggests that it was intended as a votive offering against the plague, featuring one of the earliest depictions of the anti-plague saint, Roch of Montpellier in Eastern Orthodox art. Examination of the verso of the icon further underscores the Western European associations of the panel. The presence of an elaborate incised design on the back side of the icon suggests that the wooden panel originated from a reused piece of furniture, in all probability, a fifteenth-century Italian chest. With this case study as a point of reference, this article discusses the commercial, artistic, and cross-confessional exchanges that took place in the ethnically and culturally pluralistic societies of Venice and its Mediterranean colonies, including the trans-confessional spread of cults, the dissemination of artistic trends, as well as the mutual transfer of artworks and objects of prestige, such as icons and chests.

Forensic examination of a fragmentary funerary portrait in the collection of the Harvard art museums

The Harvard Art Museums’ collection includes six Egyptian funerary portraits of the Roman period. These portraits are all that remains of the funerary equipment of individuals whose bodies were carefully prepared for burial and the afterlife. One example, depicting a man, is particularly complicated, broken into multiple fragments which have been glued down onto a board. The in-depth study of the portrait used a combination of non-invasive techniques, including X-radiography, infrared-, ultraviolet- and visible-induced luminescence imaging, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to identify and locate particular pigments, binders and other artist materials, without needing to take a sample. Targeted sampling, informed by the imaging process, was then undertaken for additional analysis through the use of cross-sections, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, radiocarbon dating, and lead isotope ratio analysis. This study identified a core group of three fragments in the center of the portrait that comprise much of the face and neck, tunic, and part of the hair. The remaining 15 fragments contain most of the background, parts of the hair, and the proper left eye and tunic, and are distinct from the central group of fragments. Analysis suggests these fragments were reused from other ancient funerary portraits, and whilst it was not possible to connect any of these added fragments to one another, a potential workshop connection between the central fragments and three added fragments can be suggested based on a study of the composition of the lead white pigment, and similarities in painting technique.

Surprise machines

Abstract Surprise Machines is a project of experimental museology that sets out to visualize the entire image collection of the Harvard Art Museums, with a view to opening up unexpected vistas on more than 200,000 objects usually inaccessible to visitors. The project is part of the exhibition organized by metaLAB (at) Harvard entitled Curatorial A(i)gents and explores the limits of artificial intelligence to display a large set of images and create surprise among visitors. To achieve this feeling of surprise, a choreographic interface was designed to connect the audience’s movement with several unique views of the collection.

Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard ed. by Laura Muir

Reviewed by: Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard ed. by Laura Muir Kathleen James-Chakraborty Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard. Edited by Laura Muir. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Art Museums. Pp. 287. Cloth $45.00. ISBN 9780300254167. The centennial of the Bauhaus in 2019 was marked by a wide-ranging array of events that circled the globe and considered the experimental school of art, architecture, and design from almost every conceivable angle. Not surprisingly, Harvard University hosted an exhibition and related events, including tours and workshops, that introduced the Bauhaus and its premises to a new generation of Harvard students. In part because key figures associated with the Bauhaus, including its founding director Walter Gropius, eventually taught and also built at Harvard, the collections of its Busch-Riesinger Museum include the most impressive holdings of Bauhaus-related material located outside of Germany. The continued strength of Harvard as a center of Bauhaus-related research is on impressive display in Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard, which also documents many of the Bauhaus-related activities staged at the university across 2019. Art history and university publicity increasingly dovetail in inward-facing celebrations of the contribution a particular institution has made to an important historical [End Page 388] phenomenon, but Harvard can certainly be excused for gathering together its faculty, the staff of its museums, and those who have been affiliated with one or the other as doctoral students or curatorial fellows. This lavishly produced volume is much more than a tastefully designed object. In addition to the color plates documenting the extent of the 2019 programming as well as the breadth of the Busch-Reisinger Museum's holdings, thirteen essays explore those collections and the pedagogic uses to which current Harvard faculty put them in the anniversary year. The scholarly accounts reflect upon the role that the Bauhaus has played at Harvard, detail the conservation of the university's Bauhaus heritage, and reassess objects that are part of that heritage. An added plus is the recreation of the brochure published by the Harvard Society of Contemporary Art to accompany the Bauhaus exhibition it opened in December 1930, three years before the school closed and seven before Gropius accepted an appointment to teach at Harvard. In her opening essay, Laura Muir recounts Harvard's history of displaying and collecting Bauhaus material since this early and auspicious beginning. The challenges posed by aspects of that heritage are described by Robert Wiesenberger, Kate Smith, and Teri Tensick in essays that focus on Herbert Bayer's murals, which eventually had to be removed from the daily lives of the students living and eating in the Graduate Center, in order to conserve a rather unwieldy work of art. Unfortunately, the student dining hall turned out not to be the most appropriate setting for a major work of modern art! Harvard's formidable reputation as the incubator of some of the best current thinking about the Bauhaus is on display with thoughtful essays by Robin Schuldenfrei, Annie Bourneuf, Jordan Troeller, and Jeffrey Saletnik focusing on works with which they probably first became familiar as students. That three of these essays address the work of women—Lucia Moholy (wife of faculty member László Moholy-Nagy), Otti Berger (a Bauhaus student), and Ruth Asawa (a student of Josef Albers, who studied and taught at the Bauhaus)—demonstrates how far scholarship in the field has moved from its original focus on the school's masters. Nor are these the only contributions that, like much of the best recent Bauhaus-related scholarship, focus on women. The standout essay of the volume, by Kristie La, currently a doctoral student at Harvard, provides a thoughtful comparison of the way in which Hannah Höch, who did not study at the Bauhaus, and Marianne Brandt, who did, made use of African, Asian, and other "exotic" imagery in their photomontages. In a finely nuanced evaluation that also reminds us that the school was not consistently the most progressive locus of the German art world at the time, she argues "that Höch's and Brandt's montages diverge in their mobilization of popular photographic representations of women and the Other, and, as a result...

Using Digital Arts Engagement to Combat Loneliness Amongst Older Adults Living in Long-Term Care

<h3>Introduction</h3> Around 43% of Americans aged 60 and older, report experiencing loneliness on a regular basis. The prevalence of loneliness is even higher amongst those living in long term care facilities, with approximately 61% of residents experiencing loneliness regularly. Loneliness is associated with an increased risk for developing a variety of physical and mental illnesses. Prior research has found that older adults who engage with receptive arts, such as museum trips, more frequently are less likely to report feelings of loneliness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, typical in-person art activities with long-term care residents, such as field trips to museums or visits from community members, could not take place. Therefore, the student-run Harvard ARTZ (HARTZ) organization developed the Interactive Virtual Museum (IVM), which is a diverse collection of online art exhibits curated for older adults, as an innovative method to meaningfully connect residents with community members and to combat loneliness digitally, through art. The goal of the IVM is to reduce feelings of loneliness in older residents by engaging them with art and facilitating conversations about the exhibits in a way that does not put them at risk during the ongoing pandemic. <h3>Methods</h3> The IVM was created in collaboration with the Harvard Art Museums between September and December of 2020. HARTZ volunteers worked with the Harvard Art Museums staff members to curate an online exhibit of art pieces from their digital collection. Each exhibit was also paired with a prompt to encourage discussion about the artwork. From January 2021 to November 2021, the IVM was piloted in two long term care facilities in the Greater Boston Area. For the pilot, student volunteers from the HARTZ organization would schedule virtual trips to the IVM with the residents, which consisted of an hour-long phone or video call where volunteers and residents could go through the IVM together and discuss the different exhibits. Six student volunteers and 47 residents participated in the pilot. The residents included 35 females and 12 males, all between the ages of 62 and 91. In order to participate, residents needed a device with internet access, a device to call or video chat, and the ability to operate the devices independently or with assistance from someone else. For residents unable to access the IVM on their own, volunteers could instead use screen share to show the residents the IVM and navigate it on the resident's behalf. Residents and volunteers used the artwork and prompts in the exhibits as starting points for conversation. At the conclusion of the trip, all 47 residents were asked how they liked the virtual trip to the IVM and how they would compare this trip to a traditional in-person art museum trip. Feedback was voluntary and informal. Volunteers recorded and anonymized the responses. <h3>Results</h3> All 47 residents who participated in the IVM pilot provided feedback. Four main recurring themes were identified from these reflections. First, 39 residents said the trip to the IVM was an engaging social activity and that they enjoyed spending time with the volunteer. Second, 32 residents reported a more immersive art viewing experience, because the digital format allowed them to manipulate and ‘touch' the art on their screens, which is not possible in a traditional museum. Third, 27 residents experienced a greater sense of agency over their IVM experience than a traditional art museum trip. Specifically, residents mentioned that the IVM reduced viewing restrictions and enabled them to conveniently revisit and zoom into pieces at will. Finally, conversing about the pieces in the IVM encouraged the recall of personal memories. <h3>Conclusions</h3> The IVM is an effective way to harness the benefits of in-person art activities in a virtual format during this ongoing pandemic. The IVM is also a more accessible art space for residents who have physical and other health limitations that prevent them from travelling to museums. Additionally, the IVM could play a role in reminiscence therapy since the IVM encouraged the recall of personal memories. The virtual format also opens the possibility for forging meaningful connections between community members and residents in difficult to reach regions (e.g., rural areas) to help reduce potential feelings of loneliness. Future studies should expand the IVM to long term care residents and community-dwelling older adults who live in rural regions or are unable to leave their home due to medical reasons. Also, since the pilot trips found the IVM to be a feasible activity with positive feedback overall, future studies should directly study the impact of the IVM on loneliness by administering more structured surveys which assess loneliness and mood after participating in the IVM. With internet usage amongst older adults steadily increasing, the IVM is a promising avenue for utilizing the digital world to combat loneliness amongst older adults. <h3>Secondary Rationale</h3> Not applicable. <h3>This research was funded by</h3> Not applicable.

From the Editor

From the Editor

Exhibition Review: Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970

Exhibition Review: <i>Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970</i>

Preventive Conservation, Treatment, and Technical Study of Plasticized Poly(vinyl chloride) Multiples by Joseph Beuys

ABSTRACT Works of art made of plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) present unique and pressing conservation challenges. Due to inherently unstable formulations, PVC can deteriorate rapidly, producing dramatic alterations that were unanticipated by artists and collectors. This is the case for three works by Joseph Beuys with PVC components in the Harvard Art Museums’ collection: Phosphorus-Cross Sled, Postcards 1968–1974, and Stamp Sculpture. Over the course of the last two decades, exudation of liquid plasticizer and progressive discoloration of the PVC was observed and appeared to be worsening with time. This paper presents the results of research undertaken since 2012 to develop storage and display guidelines that will slow the deterioration and improve the accessibility of these works. The three objects under study are all multiples, meaning that they were released in editions, which are now dispersed across numerous museums and private collections. Analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS, with and without pyrolysis) and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) spectroscopy has identified variability in the PVC formulation and exudate across different multiples, suggesting that they may derive from different manufacturing batches. Experimental testing of PVC material from Beuys’s studio has shown that sealed Mylar enclosures and storage at temperatures between 4.4 and 12.8 °C are effective in slowing the migration of plasticizer to the surface. After implementing these changes to the housing and storage of the PVC postcard from Postcards 1968–1974, reabsorption of plasticizer exudate was observed, demonstrating that reversal of the plasticizer migration is possible under these conditions.

Theodore E. Stebbins Jr., Curator of American Art, Emeritus, Harvard Art Museums

Theodore E. Stebbins Jr., Curator of American Art, Emeritus, Harvard Art Museums

Application of Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) in spectral imaging of artworks

This study assesses the potential of Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) as an alternative tool to t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) for the reduction and visualization of visible spectral images of works of art. We investigate the influence of UMAP parameters—such as, correlation distance, minimum embedding distance, as well as number of embedding neighbors— on the reduction and visualization of spectral images collected from Poèmes Barbares (1896), a major work by the French artist Paul Gauguin in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. The use of a cosine distance metric and number of neighbors equal to 10 preserves both the local and global structure of the Gauguin dataset in a reduced two-dimensional embedding space thus yielding simple and clear groupings of the pigments used by the artist. The centroids of these groups were identified by locating the densest regions within the UMAP embedding through a 2D histogram peak finding algorithm. These centroids were subsequently fit to the dataset by non-negative least square thus forming maps of pigments distributed across the work of art studied. All findings were correlated to macro XRF imaging analyses carried out on the same painting. The described procedure for reduction and visualization of spectral images of a work of art is quick, easy to implement, and the software is opensource thus promising an improved strategy for interrogating reflectance images from complex works of art.

This is not an apple! Benefits and challenges of applying computer vision to museum collections

ABSTRACT The application of computer vision on museum collection data is at an experimental stage with predictions that it will grow in significance and use in the coming years. This research, based on the analysis of five case studies and semi-structured interviews with museum professionals, examined the opportunities and challenges of these technologies, the resources and funding required, and the ethical implications that arise during these initiatives. The case studies examined in this paper are drawn from: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA), Princeton University Art Museum (USA), Museum of Modern Art (USA), Harvard Art Museums (USA), Science Museum Group (UK). The research findings highlight the possibilities of computer vision to offer new ways to analyze, describe and present museum collections. However, their actual implementation on digital products is currently very limited due to the lack of resources and the inaccuracies created by algorithms. This research adds to the rapidly evolving field of computer vision within the museum sector and provides recommendations to operationalize the usage of these technologies, increase the transparency on their application, create ethics playbooks to manage potential bias and collaborate across the museum sector.

Inscription, Iconography, and the Individual: A Late Antique Textile from the Harvard Art Museums in Context

A small but distinct group of early Byzantine textiles from Egypt (dating between the fourth and sixth centuries) uses woven words and textual symbols for their primary decoration. Ornamented with bold letterforms created in brilliant colors, these objects are all inscribed with personal names—the names of individual men and women for whose lives we possess no other certain evidence. Far from simple labels indicating ownership, these names are integral parts of the textiles’ design and function both as text and as image. Investigating the epigraphic nuances, iconography, styles, and formats of these textiles will allow us to make some inferences about the identities and roles of these people in Late Antique Egyptian society. It will also shed light on some of their hopes and beliefs, for the inscriptions and iconography of these textiles can be interpreted as woven wishes for blessings and protection. This paper will consider this group of textiles as part of the tradition of protective inscriptions widespread in the ancient and Byzantine worlds but known primarily from more durable materials such as jewelry, carved inscriptions, and metalwork

Géricault’s Lion Devouring a Horse Stone Paper Matrix: Technical Study

ABSTRACTThéodore Géricault (1791–1824), one of the early proponents of lithography, experimented with the use of stone paper, a hand-coated paper that was formulated specifically for lithographic printing. Géricault’s Lion Devouring a Horse stone paper matrix is in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums and is the focus of this study. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of the stone paper coating revealed the presence of lead and the absence of calcium, whereas previously published stone paper recipes all included calcium. Small samples were taken for analysis which confirmed that the material was dominated by lead white (basic lead carbonate) combined with a drying oil binder, casein and gum. Stone paper mockups revealed that the addition of casein was crucial to forming a resistant, stable coating for printing, but it also formed a brittle film, and casein was likely a contributing factor to the development of losses in the image during printing. Etch tests carried out on mockups showed that stone paper reacts more like a metal plate than a limestone, and that etching with tannic acid was most effective at stabilizing the matrix. Analysis of Géricault’s stone paper in combination with the preparation of mockups revealed qualities of the process that help to understand the use and subsequent abandonment of the stone paper process.

Re-Discovering a Roman Wall Painting at Harvard: New Research on a Fragment from the Villa at Boscotrecase

ABSTRACT This article presents historical and scientific analysis, as well as the conservation treatment of a newly rediscovered Roman wall painting fragment, now in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. Although the piece has not previously been published, it was among a group of fragments removed from a Roman villa near Boscotrecase in southern Italy, an area that has been key to the study of Roman wall painting and other decoration. Technical imaging confirms the use of painting techniques consistent with other high-quality paintings in the area. Materials analysis revealed a palette consistent with published findings of Roman wall paintings, including abundant use of Egyptian blue and green earth. Of interest was the use of Egyptian blue as an optical brightener in select white passages. Despite the high quality of the painting, no cinnabar was present, and all red passages were achieved using hematite. Multiple different white minerals were identified including calcite, aragonite, and gypsum. The widespread presence of gypsum is unusual and may point to alteration.