I don't know what other people do on a lazy Christmas afternoon, but I like to visit my Pinterest and track down the many unidentified or misidentified objects I find there. Above is one that had no ID, which I correctly guessed was a modern Inuit work; turned out to be "Shaman with Wings" by Lucy Tikiq Tunguak, Canadian artist born 1939.
This delightful deer is a terra cotta work from Kashir in India, 4th century AD, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. I would have guessed medieval Turkey or central Asia.
This mysterious pewter object has been identified by self-proclaimed online experts as a Renaissance amulet, a classical Roman amulet, a recent
metal detector find by a guy named Dave Caplan, and a work by a contemporary artist named Dave Caplan. I checked all the artists I could find named Dave/David Caplan and could not find any work that looked remotely like this. So, still a mystery. Pewter decays faster than any other metal I know of, so if this really is classical piece it must have been deposited in weird circumstance.
Carolingian stone cross from western France, appeared in a travelling exhibit of Carolingian art in 2014.
This one intrigued me because it looks medieval, but on the other hand it is just the kind of medieval design contemporary artisans would enjoy re-using or modifying. Somebody on Facebook identified this as "Plate of the western golden gates of the Nativity Cathedral in Suzdal, 13th century." Suzdal Cathedral is a famous Russian monument constructed in the 12th century, and it seems to have a lot of gilded metal inside, so that fits.
Obviously steppes; turned out to be a Scythian work now in the Hermitage Museum.
Knotwork from Iona Abbey, photo by
Martin Burns, 2005. Memo to the person who posted this on Pinterest: this is not a "spiral." Not all Celtic art is "spirals."
This one is "St. Francis by a Polish artist named Antoni Rzasa (1919-1980), dated 1960-61.
Made no headway on this one. Medieval slavic?
2 comments:
This mysterious pewter object has been identified by self-proclaimed online experts as a Renaissance amulet, a classical Roman amulet, a recent metal detector find by a guy named Dave Caplan, and a work by a contemporary artist named Dave Caplan. I checked all the artists I could find named Dave/David Caplan and could not find any work that looked remotely like this. So, still a mystery. Pewter decays faster than any other metal I know of, so if this really is classical piece it must have been deposited in weird circumstance.
What leaps out to my eye is the presence of both a cross on one side, and what looks like thor's hammer on the other?
Based just on that, I could see an argument for some the above proposals. It might be "Roman", or rather I would guess Byzantine Varangian. It could also be later, from a time of "Christianization" further north in the 'Rus or Baltics or something. It could also be a modern neo-pagan revivalist fusion thing, made by some present day guy who is a little too into Vikings and Renaissance faires, which would fit with the lack of degradation.
The one other observation I'll make is that the "loops" on the bottom of the side with the cross made me think of the Finnish / Baltic "wind knots" - old stories attest that sailors would hire Finns / Baltics to provide them with magic lengths of rope, specially knotted (usually with three knots), which could (properly invoked) be untied to summon wind when needed (with, of course, various magical limitations attached).
Oh! And looking again, what I assumed was a "sunburst" pattern on the side with the thor's hammer may in fact be another cross.
Made no headway on this one. Medieval slavic?
That's all I've got as well.
The bottom clearly says "IC XC NIKA", a lot of the rest I can't make out at this resolution (maybe if I sat and pored over it for an hour, might try later).
So pretty clearly Eastern, but could be Orthodox, could be Catholic, both us that phrase.
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