American Rococo 1750-1775 - Elegance in Ornament

The rococo style was among the primary artistic contributions of the eighteenth century. Its manifestations throughout Europe have been comprehensively acknowledged and chronicled, but its influence in America, where it was probably the century's crowning design achievement (commonly referred to as the Chippendale style), had never been thoroughly examined. It was a lavish taste that found surprisingly fertile ground in the colonies, where affluent members of society, rejoicing in their hard-won prosperity, strove to adopt London fashions. The exhibition, "American Rococo, 1750–1775: Elegance in Ornament" was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the latter's motivations emanating from the desire to bring an exhibition of American Chippendale furniture to a city where such objects have always been in short supply.

The book includes chapters on European origins and the American manifestations of the rococo, a brief discussion of firearms, and architecture, and medium-based explorations of objects made of paper, silver, wood, iron, glass, and ceramic.

The Robert Lehman Collection Vol 10 Italian Majolica

Robert Lehman assembled the finest and most comprehensive private collection of Italian Renaissance majolica in the United States. In this volume the distinguished scholar Jörg Rasmussen catalogues the 157 majolica objects which since 1975 have been housed, along with more than 2,000 other works of art acquired by Robert Lehman and his father, Philip Lehman, in the Robert Lehman Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The brilliantly colored jars, jugs, and dishes collected by Robert Lehman document the history of Italian majolica from the beginning of the fifteenth century to the 1600s. The collection is most renowned for a magnificent group of pieces produced in the main Italian pottery centers during the High Renaissance, the golden age of majolica. The precious lusterware that was the specialty of Deruta and Gubbio, in central Italy, accounts for more than a third of the collection. Also splendidly represented are the neighboring towns of Castel Durante and Urbino, whose wares perhaps best exemplify the beauty and diversity of majolica of the early sixteenth century. One of the most extraordinary of these pieces from the Duchy of Urbino is the bowl presented to Pope Julius II in 1508, which Rasmussen calls "one of the most beautiful pieces of majolica ever made." Other istoriato, or "story-painted," wares were part of large ensembles commissioned by illustrious patrons: three plates belong to the famous Pucci service painted by Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo; two others, by the master majolica painter Nicolo da Urbino, are from the set owned by Isabella d'Este, marchesa of Mantua; and there are pieces bearing the arms of the Orsini of Rome, the Salviati of Florence, and Constable Anne de Montmorency.
The late Jörg Rasmussen was curator at the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg until 1979, when he was named second director of the Zentralinstitut in Munich. His complete catalogue of the Italian majolica in the Hamburg museum appeared in 1984, and he published widely on majolica as well as on sculpture and the applied arts. His text not only analyzes and classifies the majolica in the Robert Lehman Collection, providing provenances, bibliographies, and exhibition histories, but also offers glimpses of the intellectual and cultural world to which it belonged.

Raqqa Revisited Ceramics of Ayyubid Syria

Raqqa, in Syria, had its first Islamic flowering in the late 8th century, when it was the residence of the legendary Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. It experienced a resurgence during the late 12th and early 13th centuries under the Zangids and Ayyubids.  Interest in the city was kindled in the West in the late 19th century, by, among other things, the publication of the Arabic literary classic The Thousand and One Nights, in which Harun al-Rashid was a central character. At the same time, ceramics purportedly connected to the legendary caliph were excavated in Raqqa.  Speculation about the site and the objects unearthed there has abounded for more than a century.
In this important volume, Marilyn Jenkins-Madina describes the dramatic journey these ceramics took from discovery in Raqqa to the emporiums of Paris and New York, the drawing rooms of great collectors, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Using art historical detective work, archival documents, and scientific data, the author convincingly establishes provenance and dating, placing these beautiful wares in a clear historical context for the first time.

Japanese Art from the Gerry Collection • MET

A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics

Italian Ceramics • The J. Paul Getty Museum / pdf