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http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/456/sword_in_chicago.jpg
8751541ff0056b79f4f6507baf64ca1a
Dublin Core
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Title
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Sword in Chicago
Identifier
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sword-chicago
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Title
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Graduate Student Residents 2021
Identifier
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graduate-student-residents-2021
Text
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National Humanities Center
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Contributor
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Thomas Morin, 32, Historian
Date
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2012
Source
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A visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Description
An account of the resource
It was not my first time in The City, but it was my first time visiting the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's reputation stretched out wide before it for a young man from the West Coast. I had long been interested in art, and I knew that the Met had one of the best collections in the world. I had missed a previous opportunity to go a few years back, and I wasn't going to do so again. My sister, a friend, and I took a train up to Fifth Avenue, and soon were outside the museum's broad, colonnaded entrance.
My interest in the medieval period had only recently begun at that point. When I saw in the catalogue that the museum had an extensive collection of European arms and armor, I couldn't resist. We walked through the classical Egyptian section, admiring the tiny-carved Lapis lazuli figures. We paused for pictures amid the ruins of the Temple of Dendur, which stood in the middle of a small reflecting pool. Beyond that, we finally entered the arms and armor section.
Amid all the impressive examples of late medieval and early-modern craftsmanship, one piece in particular stood out to me. It was a large sword with a broad, angular blade (see attached picture of the same sword in the Art Institute of Chicago, where it was on loan in early 2020). The surface, while pitted slightly, was remarkably unmarred and smooth other than an inscription near the hilt written in Arabic. The sword as a whole had a simple elegance. Though the crossguard had little horn-like curls at the ends, it was otherwise unadorned. It had the appearance of a practical tool, precise and deliberate. It looked heavy but somehow also quick.
I was intrigued. I began asking all sorts of questions about the sword: Where had it come from? Who made it? Why was there an Arabic inscription on what was clearly a western European sword? Searching for those answers gave me my first taste of the interconnected Mediterranean world which would later become my obsession. The sword is thought to have been made in Italy, either in Brescia or Milan. From there, it was taken to the isle of Cyprus, at the time ruled by the Lusignan Kings, successors to the long-lost Crusader States. Then, sometime around 1419, it was presented as part of a diplomatic gift from Cyprus (along with many other weapons) to Sultan Shaykh al-Mahmudi, whose name is contained in the inscription. The sword, and many others like it, are one of many pieces of physical evidence for the extensive networks of connection which joined the various corners of the Mediterranean together in the medieval and early-modern world.
Though I have never handled the original (or its twin, rediscovered in Texas in 2014 by Sotheby's), I have had the opportunity to handle a modern reproduction which was made based on detailed measurements and mimics the sword almost exactly. It is a marvel of engineering. The sword's geometry and design makes it wonderfully balanced, so that, though it weighs almost 4 lbs (which is very heavy for a sword of this type), it feels light enough to wield in one hand. The tremendous skill which would have gone into the design and fabrication of that weapon made me question my received wisdom about the superiority of the modern world, and eventually to question the very meaning of "modern" at all.
The questions that this sword inspired have had long-lasting effects on the course of my continuing academic study and interest in the middle ages, and it is still an inspiration to me today.
Title
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A Sword From Italy by Way of Alexandria
Identifier
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sword-from-italy
Armed Forces
Cultural Exchange
Cultural History
History
Italy
Material Culture
Medieval History
Metropolitan Museum of Art
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http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/141/cat-statuette-1320x811.jpg
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Dublin Core
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Egyptian cat statuette at Metropolitan Museum of Art
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<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/263566905" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
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“You don’t just run, you run to some place wonderful.”
Description
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<em>From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler</em> turned Deborah Ross’s world upside down. Kongisberg’s book, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary, chronicles the adventures of Claudia and her brother, who run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The book kindled Ross’s imagination so much that when she visited the museum with her parents, she retraced the protagonist’s steps in search of the Egyptian cat, the fountain, and Michelangelo’s sculpture.
Contributor
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Deborah Ross, U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 2nd District
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deborah-ross-someplace-wonderful
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<em>From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler</em> by E.L. Konigsburg
Art Museums
Books & Reading
Children's Literature
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Konigsburg, E.L.
Lawyers
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museums
New York, New York
Politicians
Runaway Children
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http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/8/93/From_the_Mixed-Up_Files_of_Mrs._Basil_E._Frankweiler.jpg
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From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
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National Humanities Center Fellows
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Any contributions from current or past fellows at the National Humanities Center
Description
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This collection includes contributions from current or past fellows at the National Humanities Center
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
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Visiting the Art Museum
Description
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My family always visited art museums when I was a child. I’m not quite sure why, as we never talked about the art, and I wondered, in secret, what exactly we were supposed to be doing there. When I was about eight years old, I read a book that answered that question: <em>From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler</em> by E. L. Konigsburg. It is the story of two children—a brother and a sister—who run away from home to solve the mystery of a sculpture: was it a long-lost work by Michelangelo? They hide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, borrowing coins from the fountain to buy food, sleeping in a magnificent bed in a period room, and blending in with school groups. More importantly, the sister Claudia is entranced by the Renaissance sculpture of an angel then on display at the museum, and she is determined to get to the bottom of the question of authorship: is it really a Michelangelo? And, if so, how did it end up in the museum?<br /><br />On a school trip from suburban New Jersey when I was in second grade, I could take on the role of Claudia, admiring the works of art on display but also wondering: who made this? Why? How did it come to be here? These questions helped me realize from a young age the enormous potential of the experience of a work of art—to fascinate personally but also to open up a window onto the past. All of this activated by the curiosity to know more about what is staring you in the face.
Subject
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On a school trip from suburban New Jersey when I was in second grade, I could take on the role of Claudia, admiring the works of art on display but also wondering: who made this? Why? How did it come to be here? These questions helped me realize from a young age the enormous potential of the experience of a work of art—to fascinate personally but also to open up a window onto the past. All of this activated by the curiosity to know more about what is staring you in the face.
Source
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<em>From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler</em> by E. L. Konigsburg
Creator
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E. L. Konigsburg
Date
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1984
Contributor
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<a href="https://mornaoneill.wordpress.com/">Morna O’Neill</a>, age 41, art history professor
Identifier
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visiting-the-art-museum
Art Museums
Books & Reading
Children's Literature
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Konigsburg, E.L.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museums
New York, New York
Professors
Sculpture
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http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/21/Wheatfield_with_Crows.Vincent_Van_Gogh.jpg
c8d7bec60881ca1c6d140eb96c11b6da
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Vincent van Gogh, "Wheatfield with Crows"
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<iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/262252307" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Dublin Core
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“I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to a van Gogh exhibition”
Subject
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I get chills thinking about it even now, because to have this extraordinary storyteller explaining to you what was going on at that point in van Gogh’s life—what this meant to him, what it should mean to us—but still leaving the whole painting open to individual interpretation, it was really something that, to me, was quite profound.
Description
An account of the resource
In what I believe was the latter part of the 1980s, I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to a van Gogh exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum. And for the first time in my life, I wore one of those machines around my neck, where you listen to headphones and you hear somebody describe what it is you’re going to see. It was a brand-new experience.
The narrator was the then-director of the Metropolitan Museum, Philippe de Montebello, and at the introductory part of the exhibit, I was really struck by the quality of what he was saying. It was so well written that it really bordered on being fine literature.... As we went from room to room, his storytelling, and the visual impact of my seeing these extraordinary paintings by this extraordinary, troubled person, made an impact on me that I still think about, probably, every month.
There was a new richness in what I saw, but also a level of insight into what van Gogh had done that magnified to a great degree the impact that it had on me. Looking back on it, coming at a part of my life where I had been underground for a long time, as a law student, and then as a young lawyer, it pulled me back into the knowledge that there was this greater, more interesting world out there; one to which I owed a lot more attention. From then on, I dedicated myself to making sure that I was going to live a life that was more rich.
I get chills thinking about it even now, because to have this extraordinary storyteller explaining to you what was going on at that point in van Gogh’s life—what this meant to him, what it should mean to us—but still leaving the whole painting open to individual interpretation, it was really something that, to me, was quite profound.
Creator
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Vincent van Gogh
Contributor
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C. Allen Parker, General Counsel, Wells Fargo & Company
Identifier
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allen-parker-van-gogh
Source
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An exhibit of Vincent van Gogh's paintings
Art
Art Exhibitions
Art Museums
Business Leaders
de Montebello, Philippe
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum Curatorship
New York, New York
Paintings
Post-Impressionism (Art)
Storytelling
van Gogh, Vincent