The Muse A Mark of Distinction
The quarterly newsletter of the Slater Memorial Museum
by Vivian F. Zoë Today when we contemplate a “seal,” we are usually contemplating a maddening plastic or foil top intended to protect us and to communicate to us that a product is pure. For millennia, used to close something like a paper envelope with wax, seals were known as proof of authenticity or ownership. A seal is made of a hard or hardened substance like metal or stone and is used to make an impression in a soft substance like melted wax or wet clay or plaster. The image in the seal is typically in negative relief so that the image it leaves behind is in positive, low relief and reversed. This process is aided by the intaglio cut of the seal-making tool. In this case, the negative relief is created by either cutting away material below the surface or by casting it using a positive mold. Recently, a magnificent gift was made to the Slater Memorial Museum of a Slater Family Crest signet ring, which surely functioned as a seal. More importantly, donated by William Albert Slater IV, the ring is depicted on the proper left hand of William Albert Slater, Sr. (1857-1919), in the portrait by Benjamin Constant hanging in the main entry hallway of the museum and donated in 1923 by Ellen Peck Slater. The Slater ring uses (Continued on page 3)
Spring, 2016
At left, detail from the portrait of Willliam Albert Slater wearing the Slater Family signet ring. Above and at right: engraved bloodstone and gold signet ring of the Slater Family. Note reversed “S.”
A Message from the Director
Photographers: Leigh Thomas, Vivian Zoë, Barry Wilson The president of the Friends of the Slater Memorial Museum: Tricia Staley The Norwich Free Academy Board of Trustees: Diana L. Boisclair Allyn L. Brown, III Keith G. Fontaine Lee-Ann Gomes, Treasurer Thomas M. Griffin, Secretary Thomas Hammond DeVol Joyner Denise Lindell Theodore N. Phillips, Chair Todd C. Postler William Warzecha Sarette Williams, Vice Chair The Norwich Free Academy does not discriminate in its educational programs, services or employment on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, color, handicapping condition, age, marital status or sexual orientation. This is in accordance with Title VI, Title VII, Title IX and other civil rights or discrimination issues; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991.
Rebirth and refreshment … With spring upon us, we reflect on our winter days spent productively wrapping up fall projects, hosting the Annual Connecticut Artists Juried Exhibition and planning a terrific summer exhibition to open June 12, entitled Meadow Life. Its goal is to draw our thoughts, through art, to the value and fragility of open space in Connecticut. Accompanying the exhibition will be outdoor and indoor activities of a scientific and artistic nature… stay tuned. We are delighted to report that recently, the Connecticut League of History Organizations (CLHO) has presented its 2016 Award of Merit to The Slater Memorial Museum for its temporary exhibition John Meyer of Norwich: An American Original. The CLHO presents Awards of Merit to institutions and individuals who exhibit the highest of professional standards, and who enhance and further the knowledge and understanding of Connecticut history. We are humbly gratified to the CLHO and our fabulous volunteers who helped make the exhibition a reality! The John Meyer of Norwich exhibition is also travelling in part to the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center this summer at the invitation of the Greater Hartford Jewish Historical Society. Stay tuned for more information on that.
Photo: Harrison Judd
The Muse is published up to four times yearly for the members of The Friends of the Slater Memorial Museum. The museum is located at 108 Crescent Street, Norwich, CT 06360. It is part of The Norwich Free Academy, 305 Broadway, Norwich, CT 06360. Museum main telephone number: (860) 887-2506. Visit us on the web at www.slatermuseum.org. Museum Director – Vivian F. Zoë Newsletter editor – Geoff Serra Contributing authors: Vivian Zoë, Leigh Thomas
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS, PROGRAMS AND EVENTS Friday, March 18 5:00-7:00 pm
Happy Hour Drink & Draw Join us for an evening of fine art and fine wine! Spend the evening sketching in our galleries and sampling an array of spirits and light bites to refresh your palate and loosen your creativity! See page 6. Thanks to Towne Liquor Store for sponsoring this event.
Sunday, April 3 1:00 - 3:00 pm
opening reception: 122nd Morning Childrens’ Exhibiton.
Friday, April 29 5:00 - 7:00 pm
friends of slater annual meeting: This program is free to all current members, including those who join at the event. More information on page 6.
Friday May 6 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Opening Reception: The 126th Norwich Art School Student Exhibition.
September 22 October 1, 2016
Greece Adventure! Join us for this unique travel opportunity! More details on page 5. 2
Saturday
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Images: Tibetan Reliquary, guardian deities trampling a dragon on obverse (left), impressed seal on reverse (center), copper, 18th century; Babylonian Seal (right), scorpion carved in a carnelian, excavated at the ruins of Nineveh, ca. 2150 BCE
an engraved blood stone, carved in relief, called a cameo, to create the seal “matrix.” Signet rings were often used to authenticate a document, a folded letter or envelope, or the cover of a container holding valuables.
A distinctive written signature in script not yet developed, signet rings gained popularity in ancient Egypt. Signet rings are also used as souvenir or membership attribute as an alternative to one with a stone. Since at least the 16th century there have also been pseudo-signet rings where the engraving is not reversed (mirror image), as it should be if the impression is to read correctly. In the case of the Slater ring, the “S” is reversed, indicating its authenticity.
The 18 karat gold heraldic intaglio-carved bloodstone signet ring belonged at one time to John Fox Slater. Dating from the early 1800’s, it may have been passed down by John Slater, Samuel’s brother and part owner of the first waterpowered textile mill in the country. Carved with the Slater family crest in the stone and lions on the “shoulders,” it was passed down in the family to William A. Slater IV. The gold reliefs are rampant lions and the bloodstone intaglio is a gauntlet-sheathed forearm grasping a broadsword, mounted on a pedestal, surmounting a Gothic letter “S.” According to the American College of Heraldry, these symbols reflect, in the case of the Gauntlet, that the wearer is armed for the performance of martial enterprise. Again, the sword signifies Justice and military honor, the Lions, dauntless courage, bravery, strength, ferocity, and valor. Signet rings have been known for millennia with extant ancient Egyptian examples. They typically have a flat bezel, usually wider than the rest of the hoop, which is decorated, normally in intaglio, so that it will leave a raised impression of the design. As is the case with the Slater Crest ring, the design is generally an heraldic crest, made by engraving, either in metal or gems. The most common semi-precious stones used are agate, carnelian and sardonyx (essentially sard and onyx) another form of agate. All are in the chalcedony family, including the blood stone.
In a recent visit to the Slater Museum by Matthew von Schlippe, grandson of Alexey von Schlippe, an artist who taught at NFA and later at UConn, his family crest signet ring was noticed. Discussion surrounding the ring revealed a multitude of symbols embedded into the intaglio carving of the stone. Sodium thioantimoniate, also known as Schlippe’s salt, was used as an “amplifier” in silverbased photography, in matches as a flammable component, and for vulcanizing rubber. This sulfosalt is named after Karl F. von Schlippe (1798– 1867) and because of his discovery, Czar Nicholas I awarded Karl F. von Schlippe (1798–1867)
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him a title. Although Russian in ethnicity, the von Schlippe family has had a long history with Germanic language and countries. The von Schlippe Family crest includes three pyramids, emblematic of the three uses of the sodium compound. In addition, one can see with magnification, a series of ripples in the crest, according to Matthew, signifying a stream, an early Saxon translation of Schlippe. The crown in the image represents the Czar. In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, seals in wax might be two-sided, sandwiched around a cord or ribbon which was used to tie a document, indicating, again, the authenticity of its origins. The smaller of the two is sometimes referred to as a counter seal, and appears on the reverse of the principal impression. Some pendant seals were double-sided, with clear differences between the obverse and reverse. The impression was formed using a device that held the two reliefs squarely against one another. Some early devices were so complex that they created a three-dimensional seal in miniature high relief.
Babylonian Cylinder Seal, intaglio engraving on stone, ca 2000 BCE (above) with clay tablet depicting design: 3 figures with panel of cuneiform writing (below)
leave impressions used to identify and authenticate trade goods. They are usually hollow, like a tube, and may have been worn on a string or thong around the neck. They may have finely carved images and writing.
A principal seal and counter seal might be kept by two different individuals to ensure an even greater level of authentication. For example, a principal official seal might be kept by appointed officials and counter-sealed by a superior authority such as a monarch or the highest elected official. The smaller signet rings were often used as counter seals in these cases.
Another cylinder seal in the Slater Museum’s collection shows an intaglio engraving of a design with three figures and a panel of cuneiform writing, Babylonian, c. 2000 BCE The panel reveals the impression created by the seal.
In the Slater Museum’s collection, a sacred tree with animal (Ibex) is inscribed on a cylinder seal. This form is also known as a Saidyeh V Cylinder Seal. This particular example was auctioned at one time by Gimbel Brothers, Broadway at 33rd St. New York, as Lot 640 and described as a “large odd white Babylonian tree and animal decoration.”
Saidyeh V Cylinder Seal, Babylonian, sacred tree with Ibex
From as early as 3000 BCE into the Middle Ages, seals were made in Greece and the Aegean islands, first from soft stone and ivory. Later, the Bronze Age allowed hard stone to be carved in more intricate designs and techniques including the seal or signet ring. Engraved precious and semi-precious stones were carved in the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods. The pictorial gems were a highly desirable luxury art form collected by royalty. Engraved gems continued to be produced and collected until the 19th century.
In ancient Mesopotamia, carved or engraved cylinder seals in stone or other materials were used as seals. Mesopotamia is the mountainous region spanning from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, now roughly overlapping Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Ancient Babylon was a part of this region. Babylonian cylinder seals were rolled in soft clay to
Since the second century BCE, seals have been used in the Far East, China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam to authenticate documents and fine art. Wood cuts, watercolors and ink drawings are frequently marked with more than one stamp from a seal indicating the artist’s name, publisher’s authentication, identifying poems or mottoes, and even the owner or purchaser of the work. East Asian seals are carved from a variety of hard materials including wood, soapstone, sea glass and jade. They were traditionally used with a red oil-based paste of finely ground cinnabar, which contrasts with the black ink traditionally used for
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An Odyssey of Greek Discovery
September 22 - October 2, 2016 A trip offered by the Slater Memorial Museum and the Hellenic Society Paideia Join the Slater Memorial Museum and the Hellenic Society Paideia for an unforgettable journey through Central Greece and the Peloponnese this Fall! This small group travel experience has been designed to highlight the connections between the collection of Slater Museum and Greek sites and museums. The tour will be led by UCONN professor Ilias Tomazos, former Norwich Free Academy Classics Program Head Nina Barclay and Slater Museum Director Vivian Zoë, combining curatorial experience with ancient and modern Greek scholarship. More than just a vacation, our itinerary focus on educational and enriching activities will allow you to experience history, art and culture - it is certain to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Trip Summary: Total cost estimate: $2850 per person, double occupancy. Cost includes: • All ground, air and water transportation, including a private chartered bus from Norwich to Logan International Airport in Boston. • Local transportation in Greece on a comfortable, fully-equipped charter bus, including tips. • Group entrance to all museums on our itinerary. • Daily breakfasts and dinners are also included (11 Breakfasts, 10 Dinners) Limited space is still available! Please call (860) 425-5563 to indicate your interest.
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Happy Hour Drink & Draw at the Slater Museum Friday, March 18, 2016 5:00 - 7:00 pm Please join us for an evening of fine art and fine wine! Spend the evening sketching in our galleries and sampling an array of spirits and light bites to refresh your palate and loosen your creativity! We provide the paper, pencils and sketchboards, or bring your own. Refreshments are included in your admission fee. No artistic experience necessary, but ID is required!
$25 General admission / $20 Member admission Register and pay by March 16 and receive a $5 discount! Thanks to Towne Liquor Store for sponsoring this event
Charcoal drawing by Ted Genard of the Slater’s cast of the Farnese Hera (October 29th, 2015).
Friends of Slater Museum Annual Meeting Friday, April 29, 5:00-7:00 pm Open to the public. Brief reports followed by a presentation by NFA alumnus (1998) Brenton M. Easter. Mr. Easter is a Special Agent with the Homeland Security Department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, who investigates international art and antiquity theft. He will talk about his work in the Middle East and in Egypt. As a member of the Cultural Property Group, Mr. Easter has spent almost a decade working on hundreds of cultural property investigations spanning all over the globe. His ground-breaking investigations have changed HSI’s tactics in combatting the illicit trafficking of cultural property. These investigations, which aim to dismantle transnational criminal organizations, have resulted in the recovery of record-breaking numbers of antiquities in both volume and value, totaling in thousands and worth approximately a quarter of a billion dollars. This program is free to all current members, including those who join at the event. To reserve your seat, please call 860-425-5563.
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the ink brush. Red chemical inks are more commonly used today, partly because cinnabar, a mercury sulfide mineral, is considered toxic. Seal engraving is considered a form of calligraphy in East Asia, like inkbrush calligraphy. There are several styles of engraving, some so highly stylized that the characters represented on the seal are difficult for untrained readers to identify. Noted calligraphers became famous as engravers and their seals have become valuable as historical works of art.
Using wax to seal documents expanded to more plebian leaders and, eventually, to governments, churches, landowners and businesses. Today we use mass-produced, pre-gummed paper seals that can be affixed directly to documents or rubber stamps to authenticate them. Applied seals also came to be used on legal instruments applied directly to the face of the document so that there was no need to break them, and this use continues. In addition, a resurgence in the use of custom seals and sealing wax has emerged in the last decade, where artisans and those who still write letters are creating and using traditional and contemporary devices. Some of these seals are available in the museum’s gift shop!
Most Western seals were circular in design, although ovals, triangles, shield-shapes and other patterns are also known. The design usually included an icon representing a family or entity surrounded by text. This circling text is called a legend, often consisting of the words “The seal or ‘S.’ of [the name of the owner]”, in Latin or in the local vernacular language. The letter “s.” represents “sigillum,” Latin for seal.
Since soft, melted or wet compositions like wax and plaster are the best recipients of stamped seals, it is no surprise that the Ateliers de Moulages, or casting studios of the 19th century, made sure their work was marked with a seal. Indeed many of the casts within the Slater’s collection are marked with the seals of the studios in which they were made. The seal of studio Brucciani, a 19th century London-based cast-maker, takes the shape of a rectangle, sometimes with a border. From about 1822, there were several plaster figure makers listed in London named Brucciani, all with ties to Lucca and Braga, the traditional plaster casting region of Italy. Even today, the familiar and popular religious figures for home use are made there. Domenico Giovanni Brucciani (1815-1880) was a plaster figure maker who went to England with his father. He established a Gallery of Casts in Covent Garden and became the leading plaster-cast maker in London when copies were in great demand. Brucciani worked with Giovanni Graziani until 1857 and then established his own studio, the Galleria delle Belle Arti. He worked for the South Kensington Museum (now
In Middle Age Europe, seals of women and clerics were often shaped as pointed ovals. Images of the seal’s owner, his or her occupation or a saint were frequently included. Seals for preventing the unauthorized opening of official documents were most often made of combined melted beeswax and tree resin. Sealing wax was naturally yellowish or pale brownish in tone, but could also be artificially colored red or green. Wax colors became significant in their own right and might indicate different purposes of the sealed document. In the Middle Ages, sometimes melted soft metals like lead or even gold were used to authenticate and keep closed documents from, for example, political, military and religious leaders. Because of their normally organic material, actual seals are rare and no longer extant earlier than the 7th century. The earliest are usually metal. The matrices, the carved stone or hard metal tools used to impress the relief and close the document, are much more likely to survive. These early seals were often used by royalty and clerical leaders which, in many cases, also functioned as arbiters of comportment and morality. When leadership of the highest level died or were killed or deposed, often their seal would be ritualistically destroyed to ensure it was not used in an unauthorized manner or counterfeited. In such cases, a new seal was created for the successor.
The studio seal of Brucciani & Co., from the SMM’s cast of a Fragment from the Balustrade of the Temple of Athena Nike
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Brucciani’s most important commission for the South Kensington Museum, according to the Victoria and Albert Museum website, was the casting of the 12th-century Portico de la Gloria, a twenty-foot wide section of the façade of the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, cast in 1866. At the Slater Museum, the iconic Wrestlers, the original attributed by scholars to Myron, Cephisodotus the Younger or Heliodorus, is a Brucciani/Victoria & Albert Museum cast, c. 1888. The Brucciani/Victoria & Albert studio also performed conservation on casts, working for the National Portrait Gallery, 1912-26, mainly on plaster busts, for example, cleaning and coloring plaster casts.
“...such a (cast) museum is as necessary a supplement to archaeological lectures, as a laboratory is to lectures on physics or chemistry.” - Renowned German archaeologist Adolf Michaelis, 1884
the Victoria and Albert Museum), the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, making molds and casts of objects in their collections and of monuments from the archaeological sites and museums in Rome.
Beginning in the late 17th century, through the reign of Napoleon I, into the late 18th century, the Louvre in Paris has had one of the most prolific European casting studios. Now, under the Reunion Musees Nationaux (RMN), established 2011, the Louvre’s cast studio, or Atelier de Moulages, one can still (or again) obtain casts of iconic sculpture, some included the Slater’s collection. The RMN asserts (translated) that:
After Domenico Brucciani’s death in 1880, his business was advertised for sale and may have been purchased by Joseph L. Caproni (1846-1900), who continued trading as D. Brucciani & Co. There were subsequent close connections between the Caproni and Brucciani families, as is apparent from the record of the birth in 1926 of Enrico Brucciani to a mother by the maiden name of Caproni.
“Statuary molding is the art of reproducing sculpture by making impressions from original works. Obtained by different techniques, the negative impression is called a mold from which are “extracted” reproductions.
According to Robert Shure, the proprietor of Skylight Studios and owner of Caproni Brothers of Boston’s 19th and early 20th century molds and casts, it is possible Joseph Caproni may have been related in some way to Pietro Caproni, the principal of Caproni studio. Joseph was from Lucca and the Boston Caproni studio family was from Barga, which is a town in the province of Lucca. Pietro was born in 1862, so Joseph (if related) could have been an uncle. It is believed that Pietro Caproni came from a long line of plaster casters and stone masons, so Joseph was likely related in some way. Pietro had ten siblings and half-siblings. Emilio was the brother who, with Pietro, established the Caproni studio. During their many moldmaking and cast-purchasing trips to Europe, the Capronis acquired Brucciani casts.
From his earliest origins, man has used the functioning of the negative and positive of the form to achieve a multitude of objects - utensils, weapons, jewellery necessary for everyday life. Later molding techniques allowed knowledge and the transmission of our artistic past. Thus, ancient Rome propagated the masterpieces of Greek sculpture by molded bronze copies and Renaissance scholars disseminated Antique sculptures found during excavations. Ancient Egyptian sculptors used light and shadow in their reliefs to emphasize volume and magnitude. This ‘contrast effect’ has been used by sculptors to the present
Beginning in the 1910’s, the demand for plaster casts was declining, and Brucciani began to flounder. A private businessman supplied funds for the studio to continue until 1921, when the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Board of Education took control of the studio. The V&A began to operate the studio as a museum service, renaming it the Department for the Sale of Casts, until 1951, when it, too, could no longer afford to sustain it. More recently, the function of cast making and cast conservation has been revived at the V&A, along with an international resurgence in interest in casts.
Seal from the Musees Nationaux, found on the SMM’s cast of Silenos
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day. Statuary casting studios have been and remain the most faithful and close collaborators of artists in three dimensions.” Most of the Slater Museum’s casts whose originals are from the Cortile (Courtyard) del Belvedere in Rome were made by Formatore Malpieri (Alessandro and Leopoldo Malpieri). The stamp is clearly visible on these, but virtually no history of the studio can be found.
Seal from the Malpieri casting studio in Rome, found on the SMM’s cast of Menander.
We know from our archives that we have casts from the Florentine-based plaster cast manufacturer, Oronzio Lelli, but either its stamps are obscured by plaster skim-coating or otherwise hidden from view. The company was based in 95 Corso de’ Tintori, 95, Florence. Later the company was headed by Giuseppe Lelli, probably the son of Oronzio.
Brun as the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture; the title was changed in 1793, when it merged with the Académie d’Architecture, founded in 1671 by Jean Baptiste Colbert. Besides its extensive collection of plaster casts of antiquities, the École is known for its superb collection of old-master drawings and for its exhibitions. Unfortunately, here again we have no visible stamps from the École.
The museum’s casts of the Parthenon Frieze, which ring the mezzanine, are partially from the Italian studio of Martinelli. From the museum’s archives, where we have the treasure of our cast collection designer, Edward Robinson of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, we know that a dispute arose. It seemed to stem from the lack of a shipment of part of the Frieze, so apparently the missing sections came from Brucciani in London, where the English company had no problem understanding the language of the American customer.
Thanks to our colleagues in the study of casts and their place in museums, Birgitte Vase Agersnap, Curator at Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen; Annetta Alexandridis, Associate Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornell University; Dr. Astrid Scherp-Langen, Conservator, Bavarian National Museum and Robert Shure, Skylight Studios and Caproni Gallery and Slater Cast Conservator, we have been able to at least partly piece together the history of the last and most mysterious visible seal on the Slater’s casts. Our four figures from the western pediment of Temple of Athena, Aphaea, Aigina
Some of the Slater’s casts came from École des BeauxArts, the French national school of fine arts, on the Quai Malaquais, Paris. It was founded in 1648 by Charles Le
Casts of the Parthenon Frieze frame the interior Cast Gallery of the Slater Museum.
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each has its own stamp impressed on the horizontal surface at their feet and the assemblage has one, impressed in the front vertical surface of the plinth. These are very difficult to see readily because they are deeply recessed and throw considerable shadow upon themselves. With the assistance of Barry Wilson, who crawled around on the floor into tight spots with a camera and used our bright photo lights, we were able to acquire images and share them with our colleagues. As we knew from the start and according to Dr. Agersnap, Karl Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen, the Danish sculptor involved with the discovery of the Temple of Athena, Aphaea, used casts in his work with the restoration of the Aigina-sculptures. However, apparently Thorvaldsen or his studio did not make casts. Instead, the casts were most likely made in Germany (or in situ in Greece and quickly brought to Germany) and then to Rome and Thorvaldsen’s studio. The originals and Thorvaldsen’s restorations are at the Altes Museum in Munich. Thorvaldsen worked on the sculptures from 1816-1817. The restorations were much disputed and in the 1960’s the Director of the Museum, Dieter Ohly, decided to remove Thorvaldsen’s restorations (1963-1965).
Seal from the studio where the SMM’s figures from the Temple of Athena at Aphaia were cast.
them. None of the molds of the casts made in Rome for Thorvaldsen has survived because Ludwig I wanted molds that would serve for no more than 5-6 casts, and then be destroyed, so that no further high quality copies could be made. This raises the question of whether Slater’s casts of these four figures (erroneously arranged when compared to the originals) actually came from first generation molds or whether from molds made from copies. The stamp has been determined by our colleagues to be the mark of the Königliche Bayerische Technische Hochschule zu München, Sammlung für Skulptur; or Royal Bavarian Technical High School (College), Munich, Collection for Sculpture (or the Plastic Arts.)
When casts of assemblages like the figures from the Temple of Athena at Aphaia were made, multiple figures were impressed with numerous stamps. This appears to have been done to ensure that even were the exhibitor to purchase only one of a set, the label would be visible. The Slater Museum’s collection includes four central figures from the western pediment, copies of work that was restored by Thorvaldsen but may have been cast in Munich.
Founded in 1868 by King Ludwig II (and possibly, it is his coat of arms and not the one of Ludwig I who acquired the Aegina figures), this is today the TU (Technische Hochschule) München, or Technical College, Munich, with its main building situated right behind the Glyptothek (Cast Museum). It houses several collections such as architectural models in cork or plaster casts. Many, many thanks to the small, but close World of colleagues in cast collections!
Although some of the molds and casts were made after the figures were brought to Munich, casts of some of the figures from Aegina had already been made by Louis François Sebastian Fauvel in Athens 1811/12. After having seen them in December, 1812, Wagner, adviser/ agent of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, recommended that the King purchase
Casts in Thorvaldsen’s collection were probably made in Rome, or possibly Greece, in connection with his restoration work. Depicted here: artistic rendering of the restoration of the figures from the Temple of Athena at Aphaia.
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72nd Annual CT Artists Juried Show Opens
The Slater Museum’s 72nd Annual Connecticut Artists Juried Exhibition opened February 7 between two snow storms (as has become de rigueur) with much fanfare and a block-buster attendance number. This year’s juror was D. Samuel Quigley, Director of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum. The 2016 winners are, First Prize - Diane Cadrain, West Hartford, for Coastal Heath (Fiber); Second Prize - Ashby Carlisle, Old Lyme, for Where Worlds Connect (Paper, metal, clay); Third Prize - Susan LaGrow, Dayville, for Floating (Photography); Honorable Mention - Teresa Hnat, Colchester, for Alone (Photography); Honorable Mention Scott Rhoades, Storrs, for Birch Tree (Acrylic on board); Honorable Mention - Nan Runde, Hartford, for My Name is James (Colored pencil); Katherine Forest Craft Foundation Prize for Excellence in Fine Craft - Clement B. Watson, Lebanon, for Windows in the Pitcher (Segmented wood turning). There’s still time to see the show, which closes March 18 with our now annual Drink & Draw event.
Coastal Heath by Diana Cadrain, West Hartford, fiber art, First Prize winner of the 2016 Connecticut Artists Juried Exhibition.
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THE 122nd SATURDAY MORNING ART CLASS EXHIBTION April 3 - April 27, 2016 Opening Reception: April 3, 1 - 3 p.m. THE 126th NORWICH ART SCHOOL STUDENT EXHIBITION May 6 - 30, 2016 Opening Reception: May 6, 7 - 9 p.m. Two successive exhibitions will feature art work by NFA and elementary students who participated in the various art courses offered during the academic year. Paintings, drawings, prints and mixed media pieces, photography and graphic designs, sculpture, clay objects, metal and jewelry creations, and wood working projects will be displayed. Save the date for the opening of our Summer exhibition, Meadow Life, coming June 12, 2016!
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