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Silvia Weidenbach's Jewelry on Display at the Victoria and Albert In an Exhibit Titled Visual Feast
Housed in a suite of galleries in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection includes masterpieces from four areas of European and British decorative arts: silver and gold, enamel portrait miniatures, micromosaics and gold boxes. Weidenbach consciously engages with the extravagance of these objects: her box is encrusted with the same abundance of diamonds and mother-of-pearl as their historic counterparts, posing questions of how this aesthetic functions today. more »
The Making of Masterpiece Theater's The Miniaturist and Petronella Oortman’s Dolls' House in Amsterdam's Rijksmusum
Author Jesse Burton’s inspiration for The Miniaturist was a dollhouse that the author saw on display in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum* when she was on vacation. Made in 1689 for the real Petronella Oortman, the dollhouse was a detailed, elaborate, and precise replica of the Dutch woman’s own home. Fascinated by the exquisite furnishings for a doll’s house cost as much as the home in which it was displayed, Burton couldn’t help but wonder “Why?” That answer and her research led to The Miniaturist. more »
Rose Madeline Mula: Color Me Overwhelmed; Every Aspect of Life is Characterized by Multiple Choice, Even Kindergartners Must Choose Which Action Hero or Disney Princess Should Decorate Their Backpacks
Rose Madeline Mula writes: Every aspect of life today is characterized by multiple choice. The Bachelor and Bachelorette must decide which of twenty-five suitors would be the best mate. Kindergartners must choose which action hero or Disney princess should decorate their backpacks. Women have to determine which of dozens of costly wrinkle creams will live up to their hype. A far cry from the only skincare choice I had in my youth — Pond's Cold Cream at 25 cents a jar. Unfortunately, I’m a stress eater; so all of the decision-making I face in my day-to-day life inevitably leads me to ice cream — which only compounds the problem. Do you know how many flavors Baskin-Robbins offers these days?! more »
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth at the Famed Bodleian Libraries
The items exploring the vast spectrum of Tolkien's creative and scholarly output range from his early abstract paintings in The Book of Ishness to the tales he wrote for his children. Original manuscripts of his popular classics sit alongside lesser-known and posthumous works and materials, some of which will be on public display for the very first time. The range of objects on display includes Tolkien's creation of language, his childhood and student days, his career as a scholar of literature, and his family life as a husband and father.
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