Easter Chelmsford MA

Times: 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM

Address:
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston MA

Description:
Art & Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum includes the most powerful and moving of these reliefs. Military dress and equipment and horse trappings and harnesses illustrate life in the army. Carved ivories, furniture fittings, and metal vessels showcase the luxurious, cosmopolitan lifestyle enjoyed by the king and his court. An array of three-dimensional objectsfigures of deities, clay tablets, clay seals and sealingsaddress the administration of the empire, trade, legal and social issues, and interrelationships between religion, magic, and medicine. Exorcisms, omen texts, mathematical texts, and literary compositions from the royal library (where the king sought to gather together all the worlds learning in one place) enshrine the wisdom of ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of western civilization.

Times: 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM

Address:
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston MA

Description:
At the heart of the second floor of the Evans Wing, at the top of the great staircase that opens from the new State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance, enjoy a special installation of some of the MFA's greatest European portraits. Paintings and sculpture span the Renaissance to the twentieth century, including canvases by Moroni and Gainsborough, by Degas and van Gogh, and by Matisse and Beckmannas well as marble busts by Canova and Thorvaldsen. Sitters, some unknown, include the poet Lord Byron, Degas's younger sister, and van Gogh's great friend Augustine Roulin.

Times: 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM

Address:
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston MA

Description:
This exhibition includes about 120 works by the leading designers and fabricators of late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Art Nouveau jewelry. Although many of these artists acquired their skills in traditional, high-style jewelry houses, they found inspiration in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites, the philosophy of John Ruskin (18191900), the paintings and poetry of the symbolists, and the arts of Japan. For motifs, they looked to the flora (orchids, lilies) and fauna (dragonflies, butterflies) of the natural world and the sensuality of the female form. This new aesthetic was, in large measure, a reaction against nineteenth century historicism, industrialization, and the tyranny of the diamond, and these Art Nouveau artists chose to interpret nature rather than imitate it.

Times: 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM

Address:
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston MA

Description:
This exhibition explores the eminent photographers celebrated work alongside his lesser-known images. Included are photographs from his early years as he was developing his photographic style as well as work made, after he became widely known, on assignment in the 1950sviews of Canada for Macleans magazine, images of industry for Ford of Canada and Atlas Steel. Archival material revealing Karshs personality, his approach to his work, and the friendships he forged with sitters also is included, as well as his large format camera.

Times: 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM

Address:
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston MA

Description:
All the objects in this exhibition feature an angular style of Arabic calligraphy dubbed Kufic, considered to have originated from Kufa, a city in modern Iraq. Today the term Kufic is used by calligraphers and scholars alike to describe a wide range of angular Arabic script. Early Kufic Koran manuscripts, enhanced by gold and silver illumination, were commissioned by powerful Muslim rulers and large mosques. This angular and horizontal style also lent itself well to architectural inscriptions on monuments. Later, the angular style of script would be revived by calligraphers and artisans looking back to the austerity of the past and exploring Kufics potential to become more ornamental and abstract. Even in the 21st century, international corporations and local businesses in the Islamic world often utilize Kufic for their designs.