Today is National Sewing Machine Day! This photograph shows a Singer sewing machine salesman demonstrating how the machine works. The Singer treadle sewing machine had a cast iron base and treadle. The machine also folded down into a cabinet.

Stephen Dingilian (left), a Singer sewing machine salesman. Sirvi-HIssar. photographs c. 1899 Armenian Repository: Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States HOLLIS number: 8000903763

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images (link in bio).

To Northwestern: @northwestern @northwezt @harvard @harvardbusinessschool @harvardseas @harvardfineartslib @harvard-art-museums-prints

My cousin James Mahoney was headhunted by US army Berets because my father was in charge of psych department and my families homes were since robbed in WW3. My father says I'm greatest psychologist he's ever met. James is an alcoholic like his atty dad. So add that filter to equation! It's a severe case of anti-jihad. Jame's mother has always been really jealous of my famous Persian princess mom who looks like Cher. I never had a mental health problem nor anyone in my family. Please stop spreading slander. James was headhunted by match.com hooker Cathy Goodwin. Militia from US Army have raped my kids. We want to move to Italy and open a museum to honor my grandfather work. I have an art degree and studied with him since I was a child. My art collection he left me was stolen by Shane Stewart of Idyllwild Realty. It needs to be returned.

Grandpa went to Harvard as did my doppelganger Natalie Portman- her family is also attacked by hookers.

James step son Decklan was pimped to Army schools and he's sold as a rockstar gigolo. It's really gross Army hires our own families to sabbotage us in name of 9/11 Jihad BS.

My brother is digitally printing Rockets for Mars and my son is greatest genius of our era. Why do men rob & rape moms? Still need to turn in Shane Stewart so I can go home. How many moms murdered there? Not one covid death was true.

Could you please help us square up with military rapists so we can move on? We feel James is sold out to military and no one else in my family would take a contract like that. Our cousin Cameron Travelli was suicided off Golden Gate Bridge too in 2007 because his dad is most famous nuclear Physicist Armondo Travelli. Lmk what you can do to defend our family from military rape. 36 times cops violated kids and I. We're From Iowa amd are concerned Trump just spread syphalis there.

Thanks for your kind response despite my court contentious family. Mahoneys are generic products of divorce. They don't know anything better than selling out celebrities in their own family. It's gross. My dad even married James there at Northwestern but he has no respect for family. His military wife is lazy and the kids are drugged comatose malnourished. She's aggressively terrorised me as a Goodwin and sent a Goodwin Marine hooker from Texas with disease. It's not syphalis- but similar covid strain. Anyways- thanks for being kind and adding my father's name to the records- since he's the greatest John Joseph Davigo Atillo Huntley on planet. I love him and am concerned he and my mom are tortured in 6 year estrangement. Lmk if you can help get my father some respect. He's had Army shots terrorising him his whole life and we don't take any benefits. We were very disappointed James took a contract to hurt tm.org where my parents have been enlightening Chicago from for 50+ years. Really maybe you could give my parents an award for the thousands we taught in Midwest? Thanks again! I love that college! Lmk if you need help with the George Huntley Estate. My Aunt's have many etruscan vases and artifacts that should be stored appropriately in my new museum. Do you want me to build one there too? My best friend Diana Danneman Cohen is a famous rockstar from Northwestern and is now Dean of students at University of Arizona. I'll see if she can offer an Italian art collection in my grandfather's name too. The Cohens opened a Waldorf school inspired by my kids villagefarmschool.org we built. (:

All Blessings & love,

Encinitasbeachhome.com

Nitya Nella Davigo Azam Moezzi Huntley Rawal

Happy International Bat Appreciation Day!

Did you know that bats are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight? Their hand-like wings are formed from four elongated “fingers” covered by a cutaneous membrane. Pretty amazing!

Image: Bat with Young, 1881. Kyōsai Kawanabe (1831 – 1889) Plate from the illustrated book Kyōsai rankuga (Kyōsai’s Drawings for Pleasure)

Kyōsai's animal circus : from the Israel Goldman Collection Sadamura, Koto, 1982- [author] London : Royal Academy of Arts, 2022. English 河鍋暁斎, -- 1831-1889 -- Exhibitions. Kawanabe, Kyōsai, 1831-1889 -- Exhibitions HOLLIS number: 99156378937403941

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

2023 is the Year of the Rabbit, an animal that symbolizes longevity, positivity, auspiciousness, wittiness, cautiousness, cleverness, and deftness. We wish you a peaceful and restful year ahead.

Parasol tree and two rabbits Transliterated (Pinyin) Title: Wu tong shuang tu Alternate Title: Rabbit pair beside paulownia tree Leng Mei, 1st half of 18th cent., Chinese [artist] Materials/Techniques: silk, color 176.2 x 95 cm. Chinese Style / period Qing 18th century Repository: Palace Museum, Beijing, Beijing Shi, China HOLLIS number: olvwork380658

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

Happy Birthday to Anni Albers who was born on this day in 1899. Anni Albers (1899-1994) was a textile artist, designer, printmaker, and educator known for her pioneering graphic wall hangings and weavings.

Beginning in 1970, Anni Albers filled her graph-paper notebook regularly until 1980. This publication is a facsimile of her only known notebook which shows her working process.

The notebook follows Albers's deliberations and progression as a draftsman in their original form. It reveals the way she went about making complex patterns, exploring them piece by piece, line by line, in a visually dramatic and mysteriously beautiful series of geometric arrangements.

Anni Albers : Notebook 1970-1980 Editor, Lucas Zwirner ; afterword, Brenda Danilowitz. New York, NY : David Zwirner Books, [2017] HOLLIS number: 990152251350203941

This week is National Wildflower Week.

Gloriosa superba is a plant grown as an ornamental in warm climates the world over, but in India and parts of Africa it occurs as a wildflower. It is a species of flowering plant in the family Colchicaceae. Common names include flame lily, climbing lily, creeping lily, glory lily, gloriosa lily, tiger claw, agnishikha and fire lily.

In Zimbabwe, it is their national flower, and it is the state flower of Tamil Nadu state in India.

The plant is toxic, but also medicinal, and has been used to treat many ailments. Be alert, however. Every part of the plant is poisonous, especially the tuberous rhizomes. It is toxic enough to cause human and animal fatalities!

It is best to enjoy the flowers with your eyes only.

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

Gloriosa superba (Maharaja Serfoji's Sarasvati Mahal Library, Thanjavur) circ. 1802 Place of production: Thanjavur, Tamil Nādu, India Watercolor on paper Indian/South Indian Repository: Sarasvati Mahal Library, Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu, India) (inhabited place) HOLLIS Number : 8001550122

#Womenshistorymonth

Image 1: Front cover Image 2: Maria Geertruida Barbiers (1773 – 1838), Dutch “Tulipa,” cropped, Watercolor on paper, c. 1800s

Women artists Hart, Andrea London : Natural History Museum, [2014] 110 pages : color illustrations ; 26 cm Images of nature (Natural History Museum (London, England))

This collection celebrates the work and lives of women artists spanning the last three centuries and is illustrated with a selection of exquisite artworks from the unrivalled collections held in the Library of the Natural History Museum.

English HOLLIS number: 990140497620203941

Having a field day or a terrible horrible bad day? That depends on if you’re a cat or rat in this woodblock print!

Kyōsai was one of the most celebrated painters of late nineteenth-century Japan. He was keen to reverse power relationships in his animal themed work, often giving smaller animals a chance to get their revenge on their predators, as we see in this humorous woodblock print.

Image: Kyōsai Kawanabe, “Rat’s Revenge”, 1871-89, Color-woodblock print, 24x25cm

Kyōsai's animal circus : from the Israel Goldman CollectionSadamura, Koto, 1982- [author] London : Royal Academy of Arts, 2022. English 河鍋暁斎, -- 1831-1889 -- Exhibitions. Kawanabe, Kyōsai, 1831-1889 -- Exhibitions HOLLIS number: 99156378937403941

Happy International Women’s Day!

Today, we are celebrating the achievements of women artists. Here are a few examples of great women artists who fought to be painters in their male-dominated worlds. In her Introduction to the publication entitled “Great Women Painters,” Alison M. Gingeras wrote:

“How can the lives of women be known if men write all the books? This is the central question asked by the medieval writer Christine de Pizan (1364 – c. 1430) – the first woman to earn a living as a professional writer.”

These women painters couldn’t let men make all the paintings either. They picked up brushes and achieved artistic excellence, making their lives and talents known to the world.

Sofonisba Anguissola (1532 – 1625), Italian “Self-Portrait at the Easel,” 1556, Oil on canvas

Clara Peeters (c.1594 – 1659), Belgian “Still life with flowers, a silver-gilt goblet, dried fruit, sweetmeats, bread sticks, wine and a pewter pitcher,” 1611, Oil on panel

Josefa de Óbidos (c.1630 – 1684), Spanish-born Portuguese “Menino Jesus Salvador,” 1673, Oil on canvas

Mary Beale (1633 – 1699), British Mary Beale, c.1666, Oil on canvas

Great women painters London : Phaidon Press Limited ; New York, NY : Phaidon Press Inc., 2022 English Gingeras, Alison M. [writer of introduction] 2022 HOLLIS number: 99156563377503941

Happy Valentine’s Day! And early birthday wishes for Martiros Sarian (1880 – 1972) who was born on February 16, (February 28, New style) 1880.

Educated in Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Martiros Sarian was one of the most widely known Armenian painters.. French poet Louis Aragon once called Sarian “a painter of happiness” (“Soviet Art” Magazine, 1960, No 3, pp 7).

Sarian painted blurred and ghost-like forms, creating dream-like works depicting the poetic nature of the scenes. As seen in this work entitled “Love, Fairy Tale,” the figures are also a blur of ages, genders, and races.

In Armenian culture, the gazelle (or sometimes Caspian red deer, also called “maral”) stands for beauty. “Gazel, derived from the Arabic ‘ghazăl,’ is an image most commonly used in Arabic literature through its association with female beauty. Especially in Arabic love poetry, it is frequently compared to the beloved. Both the gazelle and the maral are often used in manuscripts and poetic literature as symbols of a lover or beloved.” (Google Arts & Culture: East in Fairy Tales and Dreams: The Magical and Dreamy Caucasus by Martiros Sarian)

Love, fairy tale Alternate Title: Amour, conte de fées Sarian, Martiros, 1880-1972, Armenian [artist] Watercolor on paper 24 x 17 cm. Culture: Armenian 1906 Repository: Martiros Sarian Museum, Yerevan, Armenia HOLLIS number: olvwork301573

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

In honor of National Tile Day, we want to show you forbidden symmetries in tile patterns.

Here are photograph of tile panels from Ulugh Beg Madrasa in Uzbekistan. Peter Lu has been researching on medieval Islamic architecture for more than a decade. He comes from a scientific background as a physicist who became interested in forbidden symmetries in Islamic architecture, i.e., five-fold and ten-fold symmetries.

What does that mean? Lu explains as follows; “If I want to tile a floor with just one shape, I can ask: what are the symmetries that are possible? In the case of an ordinary bathroom floor, I might tile it with squares. Just like a checkerboard, I can cover the entire floor, at any size, with one square tile, and leave no gaps. Now, I can ask: what symmetry would such a pattern have? I can rotate the entire pattern 90-degrees, and get the same thing, since that is the symmetry of the square. Because I can do so four times before getting back to the original position, we call that “four-fold symmetry”. Now, I can also tile the floor with rectangles, which would give a two-fold symmetry; triangles, giving 3-fold; and hexagons, which gives a six-fold symmetry, as you know from looking at a honeycomb. But you can’t use a single pentagon to tile a floor, so the five-fold symmetry is forbidden for repeating a single unit, something that was understood by Johannes Kepler in the 1600s. It turns out that you can use two special shapes to tile a floor with five-fold symmetry, which was first worked out by a mathematician and physicist named Roger Penrose, but not until the 1970s.”

Now you know what forbidden symmetries are!

Tile panels and frames, side wall at entrance, Ulugh Beg Madrasa HOLLIS number: olvwork740233

Detail of interior tile panel, Ulugh Beg Madrasa HOLLIS number: olvwork740236 Both works by Peter Lu Repository: Harvard Fine Arts Library, Digital Images & Slides Collection

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

The first full week of June is National Gardening Week, and today is also National Gardening Exercise Day! All the gardening activities—digging, planting, mowing, raking and weeding burn calories, and make your muscles work!

Spring gardening Goncharova, Nataliia Sergeevna, 1881-1962, Russian, Russian [artist] 40 1/2 x 48 1/2" Russian paintings ca.1908-09 Repository” Tate Gallery, London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom HOLLIS number: olvwork231090

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

It’s the season for decorating! If you are looking for something different or need inspiration, why not study The Grammar of Ornament from 1865? Harvard’s Mirador viewer lets you view the entire book! https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:425343599$1i (Link also available in our bio.)

The Fine Arts Library owns an original folio edition of Owen Jones’s (1809–1874)work, The Grammar of Ornament, one of the most influential color plate books on decorative design and ornament of the nineteenth century.

In the opening chapter, Jones wrote that one of the universal qualities among humankind is the desire to make beautiful things. Jones, an architect by training, assembled more than one hundred plates illustrating patterns and ornament from around the world and over different periods of time. Many of his illustrations were based on what he saw in museums and private collections in England at that time and in the Universal Exhibitions held in London in 1851 and 1855, as well as from his personal travels in Europe and parts of the Middle East.

The Grammar of Ornament employed the latest and most sophisticated printmaking innovations. The readers at that time must have noticed the wide range of colors in Jones’ lithographs. In color lithography, each color is printed from a separate lithographic stone, and the time, commercial lithographic printing usually included a set of only three or four colors. Knowing that color played a crucial role in ornament, Jones employed assistants and set out to create lithograph prints that required as many as twenty lithographic stones. The result was this beautiful publication.

Image 1: Egyptian No.1

Image 2: Egyptian No. 4

Image 3: Nineveh 7 Persia No. 1

Image 4: Greek No. 7

Image 5: Arabian No. 4

Image 6: Detail from Arabian No. 4

The grammar of ornament By Owen Jones ; illustrated by examples from various styles of ornament ; one hundred and twelve plates. Jones, Owen, 1809-1874 [author] London : Published by Day and Son, Limited, [1865] 157 pages, 100, that is, 111 leaves of plates : illustrations (some colored) ; 35 cm English HOLLIS number: 990050472950203941

Color illustration of Nineveh & Persian design showing several different patterns

Color illustration of Greek design showing several bold patterns inspired by plants and flower, mostly against dark background.

Color illustration of Arabian design showing several intricate Islamic mosaic patterns.

Detail from the previous image.

Here’s our second post from Owen Jones’ (1809–1874)seminal work, The Grammar of Ornament, one of the most influential color plate books on decorative design and ornament of the nineteenth century. Today, we’ll focus on some close-up shots. Can you guess where these patterns originated?

Image 1: Close-up image from Turkish design

Image 2: Close-up image from Moresque (Moorish) design

Image 3: Close-up image from Moresque (Moorish) design

The grammar of ornament By Owen Jones ; illustrated by examples from various styles of ornament ; one hundred and twelve plates. Jones, Owen, 1809-1874 [author] London : Published by Day and Son, Limited, [1865] 157 pages, 100, that is, 111 leaves of plates : illustrations (some colored) ; 35 cm English HOLLIS number: 990050472950203941

Time for medieval monsters! Demons and dragons, fanciful centaurs and unicorns - monsters played a central role in medieval societies, with many appearing on the pages of illuminated manuscripts. Check out the dragons and sea creatures in the Prayer Book of Charles the Bold.

Prayer book of Charles the Bold is a small book, measuring 12.4 × 9.2 cm (4 7/8 × 3 5/8 in.) The miniatures are incredibly detailed and require close looking. The. In the Fine Arts Library’s Special Collections, we have a facsimile of the original illuminated manuscript, which is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA.

Das Gebetbuch Karls des Kühnen = The prayer book of Charles the Bold = Le livre de prières de Charles Téméraire Variant title Prayer book of Charles the Bold Livre de prières de Charles Téméraire Luzern : Faksimile Verlag, c2007. 1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 14 cm. + 1 commentary (310 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.), Facsimile Summary Small, elegant, prayer book commissioned by Charles the Bold in the 15th century contains 159 folios with 47 color miniatures which is the work of Flemish painter Lievin van Lathem and scribe Nicolas Spierinck. Language: Latin Author / Creator Schryver, Antoine de. Lathem, Lievin van, active 1454-1493. Spierinck, Nicolas, active 1455-1499. J. Paul Getty Museum. Department of Manuscripts. c2007 HOLLIS number: 990101673590203941

Wendy Red Star is an Apsáalooke artist born in Billings, Montana, and based in Portland, Oregon. Red Star mines archival materials from photographs, maps, legal documents, recordings, artworks, to sacred objects that speak to the multivalence of Apsáalooke experience. Using a wide range of mediums and strategies from photography to installation, Red Star challenges existing histories of Native Americans, particularly related to her Crow heritage and from a distinctly feminist Indigenous perspective. (Summarized from Forward.)

Wendy Red Star : delegation is one of our newest acquisitions. We’re honoring Native American Heritage Month this month!

Image 1: “Fall” from Four Seasons, 2006

Image 2, 3 & 4: Detail from “Um-basax-bilua (W here They Make The Noise)”, 2017

Image 5: Book cover including the image from “Her Dreams Are True (Julia Bad Boy)”, 2021

Wendy Red Star : delegation Featuring contributions by Jordan Amirkhani, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Josh T. Franco, Annika K. Johnson, Layli Long Soldier, Tiffany Midge. New York, NY : Aperture ; Dallas, TX : Documentary Arts, 2022. 270 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 27 cm English 2022 HOLLIS number: 99156378795603941