In View

Persian Splendors - "The art of Persian book-making unites, in a subtle alchemy, calligraphy, illumination, painting and binding, in the service of the manuscript text. In the beginning of 1998, the Persian Splendours exhibition brought together the most beautiful Persian manuscripts of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (French National Library)".

Medieval Gastronomy - Commencer le jeu ---La cuisine, Les repas, Ateliers, Feuilletoirs, Festins et banquets, Aliments et Médecine . . . . et plus! Much to explore.

Craft Calendar by State (American Craft Council) - 'Ottoman Treasures: Rugs and Ceramics' at the Birmingham Museum of Art (AL), 'The Art of Gold' in Anchorage (AK), 'Growing up in Indiana' at Ft. Wayne (IN), A collection of Artist Books at the Wichita Art Museum (KS), Contemporary Maine Fiber Art at the Farnsworth Museum and Wyeth Center (ME), Gifts from the Pueblos in Taos (NM), Wood-fired Clay in Asheville (NC), Creative Bucks County - 'The Artists among Us' in New Hope (PA), 'Ornament Extravaganza' in Dallas (TX), 'A Handmade Season' in Waynesboro (VA)

Treasures to go - 'Lure of the West', 'Contemporary Folk Art', 'Arte Latino', and more - "From January 2000 to May 2003, the Smithsonian American Art Museum organized one of the most extensive art tours in history. More than 500 of its finest treasures traveled across the country to more than 70 museums. 'Treasures to Go' was organized as eight thematic exhibitions of paintings and sculptures. While the shows are no longer on tour, we invite you to visit these exhibitions online."

Renwick@25 - "'Craft' refers to works of art --often one-of-a-kind pieces --created from materials associated with traditional trades and industries, in particular clay, glass, wood, metal, and fiber. . . . The Renwick at 25 presents just over one hundred works of art by ninety-two craft artists in celebration of the silver anniversary of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum."

Glass - "The Egyptians shaped their hollow vessels round cores of sand . . . . It is probable that the Chinese acquired their knowledge of glass making and the pottery glaze first used during the Han dynasty [206 B.C.-A.D. 220] from the Romans . . . . England assumed the lead in domestic glassware in the late 17th century . . . . . ." (Glossary for Glass)

NOTE: - "Yo-Yo Ma refers to the Silk Road as the 'internet of antiquity' . . . . learn about the cultural collaborations inspired by the trading of goods and ideas . . . . Not a highway in the modern sense, the Silk Road was instead a loose network of trails connecting China, India, and the Mediterranean via the mountains and deserts of Central Asia. Traveled for millennia by merchants, monks, and the adventurers, these routes and their scattered oasis settlements played a crucial role in both the dispersal of goods and the spread and exchange of religious ideas and cultures across the continents.""

Celebate the Silk Road

THE WORK FEATURED ABOVE: Detail from 'Horsemen and Herdsmen with Cattle', 1655/1660 by Aelbert Cuyp, Dutch, 1620 - 1691 - Oil on canvas, 120 x 171.5 cm (47 3/8 x 67 1/2 in.) - Widener Collection 1942.9.16 at the (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) "Aelbert Cuyp was born in Dordrecht in October of 1620. His father, Jan Gerritsz. Cuyp (1594-c. 1650) was a successful portrait painter in the city, and from him Aelbert received his earliest training as a painter, assisting his father by supplying landscape backgrounds for portrait commissions" . . . . . . . MUSIC: - 'The Baltimore Todolo' by Eubie Blake. Stride, Swing from John Roache's Ragtime MIDI Library