| This summer the museum unveils The Traveler Left for Dead from The Story of the Good Samaritan by Sebastien Bourdon (1616-1671), the first major Old Master French landscape to enter the print collection. Bourdon was an influential seventeenth-century French Protestant painter and engraver who studied in Rome and was influenced by the classicism of his renowned French contemporary, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), to whom he was related. Bourdon’s style was fluid and eclectic, reflecting his interest in the paintings of the Flemish artist, Peter Paul Rubens, and his seventeenth-century Dutch peers, which makes this new acquisition a fine, conversant companion for the museum’s landscape prints after Rubens by the Dutch artist Schelte Adams Bolswert (1586-1659). The narrative subject of the Bourdon print is one of a series of compositions the artist engraved to illustrate the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan—a particularly fitting tribute to the enduring generosity and support given to the museum by the late Helmut Erhard, in whose honor it was purchased upon his retirement from Lehigh Cement Company. Lavender and Old Lace, a sampling of three centuries of lovely laces on view in the SOTA Foyer showcase through July 27, will be replaced on August 1 with Color Constructions: Molas of the Kuna Indians. Molas are brightly hued cloth panels that form part of the traditional costume of the Kuna Indian women of Panama’s San Blas Islands. Their intricate and appealing designs are created through a complex process of layering, cutting and stitching of fabrics in a rainbow array of colors. These delightful eye-dazzlers will be on view through October 26, 2008. Two fine floral examples of the elaborate needlework that was an important component of a young woman’s education in the nineteenth century have been installed in the Butz Gallery near the Frank Lloyd Wright library. One is an embroidered confection of roses, pansies, morning glories, carnations, blue bells, lilies of the valley, peonies and orange blossoms. It was created by Sarah Ann Robeson (1789-1862), who learned her needle skills at the Quaker sponsored Westtown School. The other, made by an unknown student, represents a technique known as crepe work (also called ribbon work), which used silk chiffon, ribbon, chenille and silk threads to create elaborate three-dimensional pictures. This technique was a Moravian specialty, taught at the Moravian seminaries for young ladies in Bethlehem and Lititz, Pennsylvania, beginning in the 1820s. |
Moravian Female
Seminary Student,
American |
|
Allentown Art Museum • 31 N. 5th Street • Allentown, PA 18101 610.432.4333 • | ||
