Tsuba with a Hawk, Sparrows and Chrysanthemums

Pair of Sword-Grip Ornaments (Menuki)

Sword Guard (Tsuba) Depicting Eagle Preying on Monkey (猿捕食猛禽図鐔)

Sword Guard (Tsuba)

Tsuka with Horse, Gourd and Rooster

Tsuba with One Hundred Monkeys

Tsuba with Deer Caught in a Storm

Created by Reina Gattuso. 
For more than a thousand years, Japanese sword makers crafted a rich vocabulary of practical and decorative elements. Swordsmiths outfitted samurai, feudal Japan’s elite fighting and administrative class. Master swordsmiths, often presiding over esteemed workshops, fashioned the sword blades. Then, they commissioned other craftspeople to create the sword’s additional elements. Two of these elements are menuki and tsuba. Menuki are pairs of ornaments, resembling brooches, that help the user grip the sword. Sword makers originally developed menuki to cover the nails (mekugi) on a sword’s hilt (tsuka). Tsuba are guards that separate the hilt of the sword from the blade. Tsuba originated as early as the third century CE as simple iron rings that kept the user’s hand from slipping. Eventually, sword makers began crafting ornamental tsuba and menuki made of gold, silver, copper, and other precious metals. Their details are meticulous and playful, depicting nature scenes, popular stories, and abstract designs.
Today, museums often collect menuki and tsuba as standalone objects, separate from their original blades. This collection features tsuba and menuki from the 1600s–1900s. It highlights the delightful, often comical use of animal imagery in these small masterpieces. Japanese myth is full of animals, each with their own symbolic meaning. This meaning was often a reflection of their place in the zodiac. The lively, strikingly detailed animals portrayed on swords also reflect the long tradition of Japanese artists drawing on the natural world. Sometimes fierce, sometimes funny, the querulous monkeys, beneficent elephants, and mighty crustaceans that scamper across these objects likely accompanied warriors into battle—and lived to tell the tale.

The Playful Menageries of Menuki and Tsuba

Gourd-Shaped Snuff Bottle with a Butterfly, Trailing Tendrils, and Fruit Branches

Carved white jade leaf cluster ornament

Snuff Bottle in the Shape of an Eggplant

Two Monkeys on Two Peaches

Lotus-Leaf Dish

Carved white jade leaf for bowl and stand

Carved white jade flower form bowl and cover with stand

Bottle in the shape of a gourd

Vase

Created by Reina Gattuso. 
Ancient Chinese people believed jade could confer immortality. They obtained nephrite, one of the two minerals geologists call jade, from Turkestan and Siberia. In modern times, they also obtained jadeite from southeast Asia. Chinese scholars associated jade with courtly virtues including integrity, persistence, and moral purity.1 

In the Qing Dynasty, when most of the jade objects in this collection were made, artists carved particularly elaborate jade forms. They employed tools and abrasives to impart ornate designs on the extremely hard stone.2 Depictions of fruit, flowers, and vegetables were popular. 

Plant varieties hold spiritual meanings within Daoism and Buddhism. The lotus symbolizes spiritual growth from the mud of worldliness to the blossom of enlightenment.3 The peach symbolizes immortality.4 The gourd represents a wish for numerous offspring.5
 
Jade ranges in color from brilliant apple green to subtle grayish blue to pure white. Artists took advantage of this natural tonal variation to create startlingly lifelike vegetation. Their seemingly miraculous skill transformed an unyielding material into juicy lettuce leaves, plump peaches, and translucent lotus blossoms.

 
CITATIONS 


1 Lyons, Elizabeth. “Chinese Jades.” Penn Museum, 1978, https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/chinese-jades/. Accessed 16 April 2022. 
 
2 “Chinese Jades.” 
 
3 “Lotus.” Philadelphia Museum of Art, https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/318939. Accessed 26 April 2022. 

4 Sun, Jason. “Chinese Hardstone Carvings.” The Met, June 2016, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hard/hd_hard.htm. Accessed 16 April 2022. 

5 Howard, Samantha, “Myth and Magic in the East Asian Ivory and Jade Collections.” Text modified by Glenn Roadley. The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, 2 May 2021, https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/myth-and-magic-in-the-east-asian-ivory-and-jade-collections/. Accessed 16 April 2022.

Fruit, Flowers, and Vegetables in Chinese Jade

Convent of St. Saba

Temple Banner with Pilgrimage Sites and Scenes from the Svayambhu-purana (Ancient Text of the Primordial Buddha)

Monastery of Mega Spileon, Greece

Monastery of San Francesco di Civitella in the Sabine Mountains

Fushan Monastery

The Monastery of San Pedro (Our Lady of the Snows)

Looking for a Monastery in the Misty Mountains

Ru-Shan Monastery

Created by Noa Rui-Piin Weiss.
 
Monasteries are meant to be retreats: buildings separated from everyday society for monks, nuns, or other people of faith to commit themselves to a life immersed in religion. Across cultures, monasteries have been built in ways that communicate seclusion, both through their location and their architectural choices. However, the function of monasteries also depends on their accessibility. They are sites of pilgrimage and places for lay people to participate in religious life alongside the cloistered. This collection of works highlights the balance between openness and isolation in representations of monastic life. Some depictions show figures making their way to monasteries, while others focus on the surrounding natural environment that encloses these remote buildings.

Monastic Isolation

Fragment of Mawa' or Ma'a (Sacred Heirloom Textile)

Painted Textile Depicting Celestial Musicians

Long Cloth

Patolu with Elephant Design

Palampore

Quilt or Carpet

Created by Reina Gattuso. The oldest archaeological evidence of dyed fabrics in India dates back to 2500 BCE.1 In Southeast Asia, traders along the Maritime Silk Road exchanged Indian textiles for precious spices.2 Indonesians particularly treasured Indian textiles, passing them down as family heirlooms imbued with spiritual meaning.
 
Before the 1500s, Europeans largely relied on Persian and Arab intermediaries for luxury goods from Asia. In the 1490s, the Portuguese sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to establish the first direct sea route between Europe and Asia. Dutch traders quickly followed. The Dutch government chartered the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) in 1602. For almost two centuries, the VOC traded, massacred, and plundered its way to dominance of the global spice trade.
 

This collection includes a sample of Indian fabrics from the 14th to the 18th century. The oldest, a piece of dyed 14th- or 15th-century Gujarati cotton fabric found in Indonesia, predates Dutch colonialism. Others were commissioned or traded by the VOC. 
 

The collection includes examples of kalamkari and patolu techniques, as well as lightweight cotton chintz. The textiles display a combination of Indian, Indonesian, and European designs meant for various external markets, reflecting the trade influences of the era. 
 

CITATIONS 
1 The Victoria and Albert Museum. “Indian Textiles: Nature &amp; Making.” Google Arts and Culture, artsandculture.google.com/story/indian-textiles-nature-making-victoria-and-albert-museum/YAUROUQuPAXOJw?hl=en. Accessed 21 March 2022.
 

2 “Maritime Silk Road.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Feb. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_Silk_Road. Accessed 21 March 2022.

Indian Textiles on the Maritime Silk Road

Pair of Akuaba Figures Seated on a Stool

Pair of Akuaba Figures

Fertility Doll  (Akuaba)

Fertility Doll (Akuaba)

Female Figure (akua'ba)

Created by Reina Gattuso. 
The Akan peoples, including the Asante, Fante, and other groups in current-day Ghana, are matrilineal. Akan people share a powerful legend about fertility. A woman named Akua wanted to conceive a daughter, but was not able to. She approached a diviner, a spiritual practitioner, for help. The diviner told her to have a carver make her a wooden figure, and to care for this carving as though it was a real child. Soon after, Akua conceived and then gave birth to a baby girl. 

Thereafter, Akan women began to commission wooden akua ba—literally “child of Akua”—figures as fertility aids. Akua ba have breasts and other features representing idealized young women’s beauty. Their high, oval foreheads indicate the practice of cranial shaping of newborns. The rings of fat around the necks signify prosperity and fertility.1 The figures are female, reflecting the Akua myth and Akan matrilineal culture.2

The figures are flat to enable women to carry them on their backs like infants. Women who commission akua ba figures offer them symbolic food and honor them at the family altar. If women conceive, they offer the akua ba figure to a nearby shrine to honor the spirits who aided them, or give them to a family member also trying to have a baby.3

Since the early 20th century, the form of akua ba has changed as they became increasingly prized on the tourist market. Artists began to make more naturalistic figures, carving distinct legs where they would previously have included only pedestals. As tourist souvenirs, akua ba are divorced from their original context. Many Westerners have come to see them as generalized symbols of Africa rather than the spiritually powerful and emotionally charged objects they are.4 Some 21st century Akan women continue to use akua ba as fertility aids, but the practice is slowly disappearing.5

This collection includes examples of akua ba from Fante and Asante makers. They date from the 19th and 20th centuries.

 
CITATIONS 



1 “Female Fertility Figurine (akuaba).” The Met, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/312279. Accessed 18 March 2022. 

2 Klemm, Peri. “Akua’ba Female Figure (Akan peoples).” Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/west-africa/ghana/a/akuaba-female-figure-akan-peoples. Accessed 18 March 2022. 

3 “Female Figure (akua’ba).” The Cleveland Museum of Art, www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.158. Accessed 18 March 2022. 

4 Klemm. 

5 Kushiator, G., Rahman, A., and Ofori, D.H. “The Influence of Western Culture on Traditional Art Forms and Cultural Practices: ‘Akuaba’ Doll Among Akan Women in Africa.” Adrri Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, vol. 17 no. 6, July 2020, https://journals.adrri.org/index.php/adrrijass/article/download/543/518. Accessed 20 April 2022.

Akua ba Fertility Dolls from Akan Ghana 

Pharmacy Jar (albarello)

Pharmacy jar (albarello)

Albarello, veelkleurig beschilderd met bloemranken en ovaal wapenschild

"Albarello" with a Shepherdess Lifting Her Skirt

Apothecary jar (albarello)

Albarello

Created by Reina Gattuso. 
For pre-modern Europeans, magic, medicine, and cooking existed on a continuum. Spices often served all three functions.1 Europeans have craved Asian incense and spices since the ancient Greek era, and obtained them largely through Arab and Persian traders on the westernmost edge of the Silk Road. 

Ideas, technologies, and art also traveled along the Silk Road. Albarellos are one such artistic form. Artisans made albarellos of majolica, or tin-glazed earthenware. 
Artisans first started making these spice and medicine jars in the Middle East and Central Asia. The oldest example in this collection dates to Samarkand in the 10th century. The jars likely entered Europe through Al-Andalus, in modern-day Spain,2 and became common in medieval and renaissance Spain and Italy. The tin-glazing technique, which originated in 9th century Iraq, traveled with albarellos.3 
 

This collection of albarellos, dating from the 9th to the 16th century, demonstrates the strong North African influence in Spanish and Italian art. Muslim rulers controlled both the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily for much of the medieval era. Artisans decorated one 14th century albarello, from the Kingdom of Granada, with pseudo-Arabic letters. Meanwhile, a few Italian examples feature “Moro” motifs, North African Moorish-inspired figures in turbans. Moro designs remain popular in Sicilian art. 

CITATIONS 

1 Mitchell, Laura. “Magic or Medicine? Healing Charms in Fifteenth-Century English Recipe Collections.” The Recipes Project, 12 Sept. 2012, recipes.hypotheses.org/149. Accessed 21 March 2022. 


2 “‘Albarello’ With a Shepherdess Lifting Her Skirt.” The Walters, art.thewalters.org/detail/32876/albarello-with-a-shepherdess-lifting-her-skirt/. Accessed 21 March 2022. 


3 “Tin-glazed Pottery.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-glazed_pottery. Accessed 15 April 2022.

Albarello Jars from the Medieval Apothecary

Allegorie op de V.O.C.

Allegorie op de Oost-Indische Compagnie

Apotheosis of the Dutch East India Company (Allegory of the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce of the VOC)

Plate with an allegory on the Dutch East India Company

Created by Reina Gattuso. 
From 1602 to 1799, the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) dominated the Asian spice trade.1 The Dutch were a major colonial power in East and Southeast Asia. They <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dark-history-of-slavery-and-racism-in-indonesia-during-the-dutch-colonial-period-141457">occupied Indonesia</a> until the 1940s.
 
This is a collection of 18th-century Dutch <a href="https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-allegory">allegorical</a> artworks representing the VOC. In most of these depictions, the VOC is represented by a pale-skinned maiden or goddess. Several of the images include figures representing Asia, Africa, and the Americas laying incense and jewels at the Company’s feet. 
 
This imagery was propaganda for the European colonial worldview. It falsely characterizes Asian, African, and Indigenous American people as racialized caricatures whose sole purpose is to supply Europe with resources and labor. The VOC was the first modern corporation. At its peak, the VOC’s total stocks were more valuable than any other company in world history.2 By representing the VOC as a goddess, the Dutch literally deified capitalism. 

 
CITATIONS 


1 “Dutch East India Company.” Wikipedia, 18 March 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company. Accessed 21 March 2022. . 
 
2 Planes, Alex. “A History of Ridiculously Big Companies.” The Motley Fool, 1 Oct. 2018, https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/08/22/a-history-of-ridiculously-big-companies.aspx. Accessed 9 May 2022.

Colonial Allegories of The Dutch East India Company 

Maize Deity

Head of Xilonen, the Goddess of Young Maize

Cup with Profile Head of the Maize God

Life-Death Figure

Ceremonial Metate

Ceremonial Grinding Table (Metate) in the Form of a Feline

Vessel, Hand with Kero

Young Corn Deity

Mask

Celt with Incised Profile

Created by Reina Gattuso. 
Ancient Mesoamerican people were the first to domesticate maize.1 Maize cultivation spread throughout North and South America. Many peoples of Mesoamerica, such as the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec, worshiped powerful maize gods and spirits. These deities maintained the agricultural cycles of germination, maturity, death, and rebirth.2 The objects in this collection either depict maize deities or are spiritually associated with corn. 

Maize gods embodied diverse aspects of corn. The Aztec had several maize deities representing different stages in corn’s life cycle. These include Xilonen, the beautiful goddess of young maize, and Chicomecoatl, the god of mature, ripened maize. An artist carved an image of the Olmec corn god on a 10th-century jade ax, which itself represented a new shoot of corn. A Mayan sculpture from the 8th century depicts the maize god living inside an ear of maize. 

Corn-related ceremonies continue to mark yearly cycles of fertility for many people of this region.3 However, in the modern era, maize has become a commodified crop. Corporations increasingly claim new maize varieties as intellectual property. They deny Indigenous people sovereignty over their traditional food source.4 In contrast, images of Mesoamerican maize gods remind modern readers of the profound spiritual connection between people and the crops they cultivated—and which shaped them through centuries of sustenance. 


 
CITATIONS 


1 “New Research Reveals the Earliest Evidence for Corn in the New World.” Smithsonian, 23 March 2009, www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/new-research-reveals-earliest-evidence-corn-new-world. Accessed 18 March 2022. 

2 “Maize God.” Dallas Museum of Art, collections.dma.org/essay/elO012om. Accessed 18 March 2022. 

3 “Corn and Calendar Traditions.” Living Maya Time, https://maya.nmai.si.edu/corn-and-maya-time/corn-and-calendar-traditions. Accessed 22 October 2022. 

4 Pskowski, Martha. Yale Environment 360, 16 July 2019, e360.yale.edu/features/indigenous-maize-who-owns-the-rights-to-mexicos-wonder-plant. Accessed 18 March 2022.

Maize Gods and Fertility Spirits

Young Worker Vol. 3 No. 2

Placard stating "I AM A MAN" carried by Arthur J. Schmidt in 1968 Memphis March

Flyer advertising student strike against the Vietnam War

Flyer advertising a donation drive to support African Freedom Fighters

Old Jim Crow Has Got to Go!

Pinback Button Worn By Ethel L. Payne

Broadsheet relating to a worker's strike in Orizaba, workers holding up the Mexican flag, flanked by soldiers

Curated by Blake Palmer. Workers’ movements and labor unions have played a critical role in many political and social justice efforts. Fights to improve labor conditions, combat fascism and imperialism, and achieve racial and gender equity have all been shaped by the words and actions of laborers. Posters, flyers, and pamphlets have been an important part of how labor movements communicate: rallying workers to strike, agitating for political resistance, publicizing their demands, and educating other working-class people. These works from post-industrial revolution workers’ groups in Europe and North America show the shared commitment to justice that connects diverse labor movements.

When Workers Speak: Labor Posters and Pamphlets

Cat Coffin

Cat Coffin with Mummy

Sarcophagus and Cat Mummy

Cat Mummy in Cartonnage

Cat Mummy

Sacred animal mummy of a cat

Cat with kittens on damaged box for animal mummy

Cat Statuette intended to contain a mummified cat

Two cats surmounting a box for an animal mummy

Box for animal mummy surmounted by a cat, inscribed

Created by Reina Gattuso.
 
In ancient Egypt, cats represented the goddess Bastet. Bastet was a cat deity of childbirth and the sun. Ancient Egyptians mummified cats to honor her.
 
Ancient Egyptians revered certain animals as embodiments of deities. They honored cats as living avatars of the goddess <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bastet">Bastet</a>, who was associated with the sun, childbirth, and fertility.1 Bastet originated as a fierce lioness goddess in Lower Egypt. Eventually, worshipers came to regard Bastet as a friendly deity. Ancient Egyptians depicted Bastet as either a cat or as a woman with the head of a cat.
 
Ancient Egyptians created millions of animal mummies.2 Some of these, including cats, dogs, gazelles, and monkeys, were beloved pets mummified along with an owner so they could stay together in the afterlife.3 Others were mummified as spiritual offerings. 
 
Cat mummies were particularly popular because of their association with Bastet.4 Some religious compounds kept cats for the purpose of sacrifice and mummification. Worshipers could pay to have a cat mummified as a way of gaining spiritual favor. When archeologists excavated Bastet’s main temple at Bubastis (modern-day Zagazig), they uncovered over 300,000 mummified cats.5 
 
Cat mummification became a profitable business for temples.6 Archeologists have used x-rays to discover that some mummies that appeared to be cats were actually filled with stones, dirt, or spare bones. This either represented a lucrative temple scam played on worshipers or a symbolic mummification that offered devotees a bargain option to make an offering. 
 
This collection contains mummified cats, cat coffins, and at least one cat-shaped mummy filled with nothing at all.
 
 
CITATIONS
 
[1] “Bastet.” Wikipedia, 11 March 2022, ​​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastet. Accessed 31 March 2022. 

[2] “Sarcophagus and Cat Mummy.” Brooklyn Museum, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4184. Accessed 31 March 2022. 

[3] “Animal Mummy.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_mummy. Accessed 31 March 2022. 

[4] “Mummified Cat.” The Walters, https://art.thewalters.org/detail/38882/cat-mummy-2/. Accessed 31 March 2022. 

[5] “Bastet.” 

[6] “Mummified Cat.” The Walters, https://art.thewalters.org/detail/21582/cat-mummy/. Accessed 31 March 2022.

Mummified Cats

Marriage Pendant (Thali)

Amulet Carved in Intaglio (Incised)

Single-Strand Necklace with Taweret Amulets

Fibula

Cowrie Shell Girdle of Sithathoryunet

Ornament

Created by Reina Gattuso. 
From a wedding ring to a hamsa necklace, much of the jewelry we wear holds symbolic or spiritual meanings. Across cultures and eras, humans believed jewelry could protect us from evil and attract desired outcomes. 
 
The objects in this collection are all intended to be worn. They contain symbols representing fertility. These images symbolize agricultural abundance as well as human love, eroticism, pregnancy, and childbirth. Some of these objects are amulets and talismans, meaning their wearers believed them to have the power to actually promote fertility. An amulet wards off evil, while a talisman summons a desired outcome. 
 
The Coptic Amulet, for example, depicts a biblical woman whom Jesus cured of a hemorrhage (possibly related to menstruation). It is made of hematite, which the Byzantines believed could stop bleeding. A woman would have likely worn the amulet to cure menstrual issues. 1 
 
Meanwhile, a bride would have worn the marriage pendant for protection and to promote conception. The pendant, made between the 17th to 19th century in Madras (current-day Chennai), is made of gold. Users believed gold to have protective properties. The pendant has a phallic shape, which users believed could ward off evil and welcome conception. 
 
Look at these and other objects and ask yourself: Which might have been believed to possess magical powers? Which were merely symbolic or decorative? The line between magic and style may be more fluid than you think.


 
CITATIONS 


1 Ryder, Edmund C. “Popular Religion: Magical Uses of Imagery in Byzantine Art.” The Met, September 2008, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/popu/hd_popu.htm. Accessed 28 February 2022.

Dressed for Abundance: Fertility Ornaments and Talismans

Betel or Paan Box with Inscription and Floral Scrolls

Box for Betel Leaves

Betel Nut Cutter

Lime Spatula

Bidri Box for Holding Pan

Pan Box in the Shape of a Duck

Anthropomorphic Lime Container

Betel Nut Box

Created by Reina Gattuso. 
Ancient Austronesian people were likely the first to chew a mixture of betel leaf, areca nut, and slaked lime as a digestif and mild intoxicant. This practice, called paan or “betel nut” chewing, became a social ritual and a way of entertaining guests, and remains very popular across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.1 
 
As Austronesians traveled, the practice of betel leaf and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areca_nut">areca nut</a>
 (also called betel nut) usage traveled with them. Ancient Austronesian people played a large role in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_Silk_Road">Maritime Silk Road</a>. These precolonial ocean trade networks linked the spice islands of Southeast Asia with mainland Asia. Traders then traveled overland to Europe. 

Following the dissemination of tobacco into Asia from the Americas, many people added chewing tobacco to the paan mixture.2 Some European traders and colonists used paan and tried to import the practice into Europe, but it never caught on.3
 
This collection includes objects associated with paan usage from current-day India, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, New Guinea, and Thailand, dating to the 6th century BCE through the 20th century. Most of the objects in this collection are ornate paandans, or paan boxes, in which users carried the ingredients for paan. The collection includes other accoutrements, like an areca nut cracker and a paan spatula.
 
CITATIONS 

1 “Paan.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paan. Accessed 21 March 2022. 

2 “Paan.” 

3 “Betel-Nut Cutter.” The Walters, https://art.thewalters.org/detail/10779/betel-nut-cutter/. Accessed 22 March 2022.

Paan Culture on the Maritime Silk Road

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