Introduction
Clay is fundamental to creation stories across the globe: Khnum, the ancient Egyptian deity, was said to mold children from clay and place them in their mother’s womb; in Greek legend Prometheus made the first humans from clay and animated them with fire stolen from the gods; in Jewish tradition a golem fashioned from clay can be animated by written spells. Similar stories exist in African and indigenous American culture, in the Qur’an, the Hebrew Old Testament, and Hindu mythology. In each case clay represents a pre-existing chaos out of which the bodies of humans are formed by an inspired or divine potter. Clay therefore has a fundamental place in global culture, and ceramics are the original material of creative expression.
Notes
Important Gathering of Curators of Art of the Americas Convened at The Walters in May 2019
Ellen Hoobler
“Meek and Sitting upon an Ass”: A Newly Acquired Medieval Palmesel
Christine Sciacca and Angela Elliott
The Allusive Power of the Holy Kinship in an Enamel Portrait of Marguerite de Navarre
Hannah Prescott
Reading and Displaying Monograms on Byzantine Signet Rings
Brad Hostetler
The Art of Knowing When (Not) to Wet Your Whistle: Multidisciplinary Research into the Use of a Sicán Whistling Vessel in the Museum Context
Ellen Hoobler and Sonia Matheus
Remarkable Design and Restoration: Investigations into a Pair of Sèvres Elephant-Head Vases
Angela Elliott
A Chinese Porcelain Ewer with Jeweled Ottoman Mounts
Gregory Bailey
