Workshop of Orazio and Flaminio Fontana

Basin

about 1565–75
Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

This richly decorated basin is a tour de force of ceramic art, made for display and occasional use at a table as a luxurious finger bowl, with water filling the lobes. Three pairs of swans set against a wavy blue ground imitating water decorate the basin's underside (fig. 1), playing on themes of art and nature and hinting at its function. The airy elegant motifs on the front (fig. 2), known as grotteschi, derive from early 16th-century fresco paintings by Raphael in the Vatican palace, in turn inspired by ancient Roman frescoes. The basin is the MFA’s first example of this type of maiolica decoration, the specialty of the Fontana workshop in Urbino, a major production center in Renaissance Italy.

Dr. Henry A. E. Roman and Irene Roman Fund.

Charles Wilbert White

Pope X

1972
Etching

Meticulously rendered, Pope X is one of Charles Wilbert White’s most powerful images. White depicted people engaged in religious practice throughout his career, but Pope X responds to a specific moment, when many speculated that a Black cardinal would be elected to succeed Pope Paul VI. Made in the aftermath of the politically and socially turbulent 1960s and toward the end of the Vietnam War, Pope X illustrates White’s lifelong dedication to fighting racial injustice through his art. The enigmatic figure at its center has been described as “a preacher for his time.”

Lee M. Friedman Fund and The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection.

© 2022 The Charles White Archives.

Salomon van Ruysdael

River Landscape with a Ferry

1649
Oil on panel

Ferries are an important mode of transportation in any country crossed by rivers and estuaries. Salomon van Ruysdael, uncle of the better-known Jacob van Ruisdael, made a specialty of river subjects within an oeuvre of tranquil pictures of the Dutch countryside. In this gentle waterscape, a small ferry carries peasants, nobles, and cattle alike on a short trip. The scene is so peaceful that the brown cow rubs its neck against the side of the boat while the black one takes a drink. This painting, very large for Ruysdael, captures perfectly the clarity and calm for which he was renowned.

Gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art.

Unidentified Italian artist (Rome)

Eight Scenes from the Life of Christ

1280s
Tempera and gold on panel

This panel showing key episodes from the life of Christ was once part of a dossal, a horizontal painting hung in front of or behind an altar in an Italian church. Against a gold background with looming buildings and rocky outcrops, the artist has placed small figures in bold poses, pushing the narrative forward from left to right and over to each successive compartment. Everything, from the gestures to folds in the drapery, pulses with energy. The artist took pains to coordinate the figures and settings; note how the clusters of people seem to correspond in shape to the buildings or mountains behind them. With this acquisition, the MFA has a significant work from an important period in late 13th-century European painting, preceding by several decades our early 14th-century triptych by Duccio.

Charles Potter Kling Fund.

Unidentified Indigenous artist (Great Lakes/Menominee)

Black-dyed “roll up” bag

about 1800–25
Buckskin (deer hide), dye, porcupine quills, thread, and sinew

This work bag, or wall pocket, made by an unidentified Menominee artist, is a rare and outstanding example of early quillwork that survives in extraordinarily intact condition. The Menominee (Omaeqnomenew-ahkew) are located in the Great Lakes Region, which includes Wisconsin and parts of Michigan and Illinois. This piece may have once held tools and materials for the production of quillwork, including needles, sinew, thread, and quills. The decoration combines Indigenous designs and techniques with Anglo/European influences. It is made from deer hide, likely dyed with iron and tannin to create the black-brown surface that provided a strong color contrast with the dyed porcupine quills adorning its surface. The top of the pouch depicts a European American soldier wearing a bicorn military hat, which scholars associate with the War of 1812.

Museum purchase with funds from the Frank B. Bemis Fund, the Peterson Family in honor of Ethan Lasser, the William Francis Warden Fund, and the Hilsinger Janson Fund for Native American Art.

Silas Hoadley

Tall-case clock

1814–about 1830
Painted and smoke-decorated pine, clock works

The mesmerizing decoration on this clock case, created with the simple materials of paint and fire, represents the height of experimental decorative design in the 19th century. Light-gray paint was applied over a dry base layer of soft white; then a smoking tallow candle was passed by the wet surface, creating a random translucent pattern with subtle tonal shifts. This decorating technique, along with other embellishments, was a popular element of “Fancy,” a visually exuberant artistic style embraced by the rising US middle class in the early 19th century. The dazzling case houses a clock mechanism created in Plymouth, Connecticut, by Silas Hoadley, a pioneer in mass production.

Gift of Joyce Linde.

Tōmatsu Shōmei

Untitled [Yokosuka]

Chewing Gum and Chocolate

Japanese, Shōwa era, 1969
Gelatin silver print

Tōmatsu Shōmei created his Chewing Gum and Chocolate series to express anxiety over the US Occupation of Japan following the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but he also captured the alienation of the young American soldiers stationed far from home. Taken in the midst of the nearby Vietnam War, this iconic photo from the series shows two Black sailors in the city of Yokosuka. Tōmatsu later described their predicament: “the stupidity of fighting a war ‘for the sake of freedom,’” while back home they enjoyed few rights.

Sophie M. Friedman Fund.

© Shomei Tomatsu - INTERFACE.

Dana Chandler Jr.

Fred Hampton’s Door 2

1974
Acrylic paint on wood

Dana Chandler created Fred Hampton’s Door 2 following the theft of his earlier painting, Fred Hampton’s Door. Both works commemorate the charismatic 21-year-old Illinois chairman of the Black Panther Party and protest his murder at the hands of Chicago police. Chandler used an actual door for the second version to ensure it could not be as easily stolen. The original painting was exhibited at the MFA in 1970, but it was not until 50 years later, in December 2020, that Fred Hampton’s Door 2 finally entered the Museum’s collection.

William Francis Warden Fund, The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection, and Gallery Instructor 50th Anniversary Fund.

© Dana C. Chandler Jr.

Marguerite Zorach

Summer Cabin in Maine

1925–28
Plain weave linen, polychrome wool embroidery (chainstitch)

Made of linen plain weave embroidered with polychrome wool in a range of stitches, this embroidery is a section of one the most ambitious works created by American artist Marguerite Zorach. Zorach experimented with Fauvist colors and Cubist forms in both paint and thread, and this work—depicting stylized figures, flora, fauna, and buildings reminiscent of her family’s summers in Provincetown and Maine—reflects her wide-ranging interests. It is the foot panel of a larger bedcover, the other sections of which entered the MFA’s collection in the early 1990s.

Gift of Pamela Canfield Grossman.

Reproduced with permission.

Elimelekh Tzoref

Torah shield

1781–82 (Hebrew year 5542)
Silver and parcel gilt, with enamel, niello, and stones

Torah shields are ornamental silver plates hung in front of a Torah scroll. This example is one of the finest such objects in existence, as well as the first major work of historic Judaica by a Jewish silversmith in the MFA’s collection. It is decorated both on the front (fig. 1), with reliefs of Moses, Aaron, and Tablets of the Law; and on the reverse (fig. 2), with scenes from the life of Isaac. Below the latter is a rare Hebrew inscription with the date and artist’s signature. For more than 130 years, the shield was in the collection of the Sassoon family, known as the “Rothschilds of the East.”

Museum purchase with funds donated by the Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Charitable Trust, Jacques Aaron Preis, Trustee.