Collections
By Ka Bo Tsang, Assistant Curator – Chinese Paintings & Textiles
Most people think of Chinese painting as artwork created by artists using special brushes in combination with ink and colour pigments to give shape to ideas on paper or silk through the adroit manipulation of lines, dots, and spots. While this general impression is true, there are exceptions.
When ROM Ichthyologist Dr. Hernan Lopez-Fernandez was unable to attend a 2011 expedition to the Cuyuni River in Guyana, he found other creative ways to collaborate with fellow scientists. Dr. Lopez-Fernandez enabled Devin Bloom, a U of T graduate student with extensive experience in Guyana through previous joint expeditions, to attend in his place and share the specimen collections and tissue samples with the ROM.
By Ka Bo Tsang, ROM Assistant Curator, Chinese Pictorial Arts
Wu Huizhang wrote Tang-dynasty poems onto this folding fan, showing exceptional levels of concentration, writing skill, and compositional skill.
Collector's ring with a large convex amethyst gem engraved with an image of Nike. Height: 2.2 cm Accession number: 925.83.6
Great Collections Make Great Museums – An ongoing blog describing recent acquisitions added to the Greek, Etruscan, Roman or Byzantine Collections.
While to the casual observer, this is an example of fine made jewellery that sits in the Gem and Gold Gallery, Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth Treasures with other fine made jewellery pieces. As is reflected in the layered design of the brooch, this piece has layers of information and history as well.
This week I am in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Harvard Art Museums here are rebuilding, and planning new galleries, and have also acquired a new collection of pottery from the Middle East. So they have flown me down here for the week on an all-expenses-paid visit, to look at their Islamic pottery (AD 700-1700) and tell them if it is good (not fake), where it is from, and when it was made.
This coming weekend at the ROM (June 9-10) we will have Ancient Rome and Greece Weekend! There will be re-enactors demonstrating and displaying arms and armour, ROM experts and objects, an archery range with more re-enactors, and a myriad of activities including make a lucky “bulla”, creating your own mosaic masterpiece and learning the game of “knucklebones”.
By Brendt C. Hyde and Ian Nicklin
Figure 1: Meteorite showing ‘thumbprint’ features referred to as regmaglypts.
