Posts tagged arts
Salvador Dali’s Stairway to Heaven

When you think of Dali, what comes to mind? Do you think of his subconscious scenarios that explore the psychedelic? Do you envision Clocks? Or simply the artist’s notorious moustache? While these common portrayals defined Dali as a Surrealist, did you know he rejected the artistic style that made him internationally influential once he became a born-again Catholic in 1950?

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The Legacy of Robert and Rena Lewin

In the exhibition, Classical and Medieval Numismatology, patrons will experience a survey of antiquarian coinage. As the Museum collaborated with the University of Evansville and the University of Southern Indiana on this installation, the Vyvoda family was pivotal in creating this exhibition because they lent most of the coinage on display. Originally owned by Robert and Rena Lewin, these coins were gifted to their nephew, Mark Vyvoda.

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Objects and Spells: The Book of the Dead

If one should mention The Book of the Dead, what comes to mind? If you are like me, the first initial thought is the 1999 movie, The Mummy, in which the Book of the Dead is used to unleash a 3,000-year-old Egyptian priest who wreaks havoc on the living world. While a famous quote from the film “one mustn’t read from the book!” I assure you; it is certainly safe -and encouraged- to do so.

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Eleanora di Toledo

When the picture was first examined by the Curator of Art in 2019, the picture was to be included in the 2020 exhibition, A Celebration of Women: Selected Works from the Permanent Collection. According to the picture’s museum record, the piece was titled Leonora di Toledo by Bronzino. The picture measures 25 x 33 inches and is believed to be in its original frame. Once on display, the Curator of Art sent images of the picture to a colleague, Dr. Chrystine Keener, Assistant Professor of Art History at Ringling College of Art + Design, Sarasota, Florida. Dr. Keener messaged Curator of Art indicating that the picture is not in the likeness of Leonora and asks Curator of Art if she can forward images of the picture to Pontormo and Bronzino world expert, Dr. Elizabeth Pilliod, Associate Professor of Art History at Rutgers-Camden University, Camden, New Jersey. Dr. Pilliod confirms Dr. Keener’s claim and further notes that the picture is not Bronzino. Instead, the picture is an “attribution of” or “School of Bronzino” picture.

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