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Special
Projects
These special projects will make it possible to advance learning
and scholarship by employing the technology uniquely associated
with web-based initiatives. Through the development of unique,
interactive projects, the site will present new research and
scholarship on the museum’s permanent collection and
special exhibitions, while also testing the boundaries of
interactive web-based learning. These initiatives will ultimately
explore the medium as an independent art form, providing an
additional resource for the interpretation and presentation
of contemporary art.
Sorcerers of the Fifth Heaven
A large Postclassic Nahua ceramic effigy censer preserved in the Princeton University Art Museum is an extraordinary representation of abstract human form, and because it was produced just prior to European incursion, the ritual purposes for which it was intended became the subject of intense scrutiny by Franciscan and Dominican friars. Remarkably, many of these practices continue to the present day, despite concerted efforts to eradicate them over the last five centuries, first by fervent evangelization and later by national health and education programs. These circumstances present an unparalleled study opportunity with respect to the interpretation of the function of the censer and by extension comparable forms of ancient Mexican art.
Asian Art Collection
Selections
from Princeton University Art Museum's collection of over six
thousand works of Asian art are presented as ongoing
curatorial and scholarly research. The arts of Asia are
examined in a cultural and historical context, and they
are integrated with an online
education center designed
for visitors of all ages.
Recarving China's Past: Art, Archaeology, and Architecture
of the "Wu Family Shrines"
For more than a thousand years, the burial site known
as the Wu Family Shrines in the Shandong Province of northeastern
China has served as a benchmark for the study of the Han
Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220)—one of the defining periods in Chinese history that helped shape the artistic, cultural, intellectual, political, religious, and social foundations for Chinese civilization. Specifically, the inscriptions and pictorial carvings covering the stone slabs from this family cemetery complex have been the basis for much of what is now known about critical dates concerning artistic, literary, cultural, and architectural developments from one of ancient China’s richest cultural eras, including aspects of “Confucian” intellectual
thought, which originated in this part of ancient China.
Music from the
Land of the Jaguar
“Music from the Land of the Jaguar” an
exhibition of musical instruments from the
major cultures of the ancient Americas that
flourished from 1000 B.C. to the beginning
of the Spanish conquest in A.D. 1519, opened
in the museum's pre-Columbian galleries
on April 17, 2004. Drawn primarily from
the permanent collection, the exhibition
unites musical instruments of extraordinary
rarity with their depictions in different
mediums, and explores the connections between
musical and ritual iconography in ancient
Mexican, Central, and South American art.
The Art of Structural
Design: A Swiss Legacy
“The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy” is
a landmark project produced through the collaboration of
the Princeton University Art Museum and the Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering. The exhibition, book,
and website bring together for the first time six Swiss engineers
who
form the most impressive group of structural artists in the
twentieth century: Robert Maillart, Othmar H. Ammann, Heinz
Isler, and Christian Menn; and the two teachers who influenced
them, Wilhelm Ritter and Pierre Lardy. “The Art of Structural
Design” developed out of Professor David P. Billington’s
course “CEE 262: Structures and the Urban Environment,” which
examines the technology, art, and social factors that are
involved in the planning, design, and construction of large-scale
buildings and bridges. This popular class introduces students
from all disciplines to these structures, which are essential
to the public life of modern industrial urbanized society.
The exhibition includes an important pedagogical component
as well. Four students, Liz Grau, Josh White, Maria Janaro,
and Courtney Clark, created the eight scale models that form
a crucial aspect of the show with the invaluable design and
construction partnership of Lab Manager Joe Vocaturo, and
the support of several university departments, faculty,
and staff.
Recapturing
the Image
This project focuses on the steps followed by Andrea
di Bartolo, a Sienese late fourteenth century artist, in the
construction of the Madonna and Child in the museum.
Achilles Fragment
In this project, the viewer is able to clarify the fragmentary
composition by selectively clicking on individual figures
or objects, highlighting them in contrast to their surroundings.
The fragment from an ancient clay pot was made in Athens
about 515–510 B.C. Attributed to the vase-painter Euphronios,
it derives from a calyx-crater, a vessel for mixing wine
and water. The subject is an episode from the Trojan War.
The Greek warrior Ajax, whose head is missing, braces himself
on a pair of spears as he stoops to retrieve the helmet
of the dead Achilles, whose body hangs limply over his shoulder.
The legs of a third Greek and of a fallen Trojan are visible
in the background, beyond the shield on Ajax’s left
arm. The ankle of a fifth figure is preserved in the lower
left corner.
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