What's your feedback?

The next time you visit the Museum, we hope you will notice a new feature in the Higgins Education Wing. The Feedback Wall is exactly what it sounds like. We've added this interactive space as a way to continually solicit feedback on current and upcoming projects and exhibitions, programs and museum materials. This space is different from the iPad surveys in our museum galleries because we will be asking you for your feedback on specific exhibitions, programs, tours and more. Additionally, you will be able to see what others have written about their experiences and respond.

This feedback will be used to help us continually learn about the work that is happening at the museum.

 Right now, the Feedback Wall is asking the following questions about the #Meow project:
• Why does Meow matter to you?
• What conversations grew out of your visit to Meow?
• Tell us about your cat.

If you would prefer to email your responses to these questions (or any other thoughts about Meow), please email us at meow@worcesterart.org. Additionally, you can always give us your general thoughts about the institution through our online survey. If you haven't already done so, we'd appreciate you taking the time to leave your responses.

- Adam Rozan, Director of Audience Engagement

Study of a Female Figure

The Worcester Art Museum’s ink drawing, Study of a Female Figure (1992.55), shown above-left, was offered to the Worcester Art Museum in 1992 as a gift by David Richardson. Originally attributed to Giovanni Battista Castello (Il Bergamasco), the drawing in fact appears to be by Luca Cambiaso (Moneglia 1527 – 1585 Spain). Exemplifying Cambiaso’s distinct style, the work includes his signature use of curvilinear lines accented with wash, heavy ink application, mannerist poses, and abstraction of form. Further research indicates that the drawing served as study for a female figure in the central ceiling fresco at the Palazzo della Meridiana in Genoa (image above-right). Cambiaso’s study for the Return of Ulysses—the central fresco in the Reception Room—would be contemporary with the present study, accurately dating the drawing to circa 1560-1565.

In the mid-16th century, Admiral and Statesman Andrea Doria stabilized Genoa under his political leadership, allowing it to emerge as a major artistic center in Italy. Early transplants—including painters Perino del Vaga, Domenico Beccaufumi, and Giovanni Antonio de Pordenone—particularly influenced artists of the emerging Genoese school, of which Luca Cambiaso became the first great artist. He was a draughtsman and painter born in Moneglia, then part of the Republic of Genoa and the son of a painter and teacher, Giovanni Cambiaso. Considered the father of the Genoese school, Luca Cambiaso’s bold, unique style significantly influenced those in his circle. Cambiaso adopted the evident mannerist style of Perino del Vaga and combined it with the bold and dramatic line work of Pordenone.

The present drawing has been discussed with a number of scholars in the field, including foremost Cambiaso expert and director at the National Gallery, Jonathan Bober, and Old Master Italian drawing specialist Linda Wolk-Simon, formerly of the Morgan Library, who have both kindly confirmed the re-attribution to Cambiaso. This re-attribution to Cambiaso is significant as he is considered the founding artist of the Genoese school, which has gained increasing collector and academic interest over the last decade. Additionally, this study is a relatively rare instance of a true preparatory sketch for a single figure amidst countless drawings by the master himself and workshop pieces that served as autonomous works. As such, this piece is a real highlight of the museum’s collection.

- Oliver Joseph, MD, Curatorial Volunteer Researcher, Old Master Drawings

Pokémon GO to Worcester Art Museum!

Unless you were living under a rock (and maybe even then, too), you have heard of an incredibly popular phenomenon sweeping the gaming world this week, called Pokémon GO.

If this all seems a little confusing, a week ago I was in the same boat; luckily, it doesn’t take long to get caught up to understand and play this popular and fun game. Pokémon GO is an AR gaming interface for your phone, which means “augmented reality.” The idea is to get gamers off of the couch and send them out into real world locations to find and catch virtual Pokémon, which can be found at actual historical or landmark sites all across the globe. Moving throughout the map contained in the game, you find locations of Pokémon via the camera on your phone. Pokéstops, virtual outposts for Pokémon GO players, are found all over the place… even right here at the Worcester Art Museum. These stops help players to gain Poké Balls and other materials needed to play the game. We’re pleased as can be that the Worcester Art Museum has not only one, but TWO Pokéstops in the facility. Additionally, it is a huge benefit for Pokémon GO players that we have free Wi-Fi throughout the entire WAM building. Since the app requires either streaming data or Wi-Fi for the map aspect to function, this takes a load off of a potential surprise data suck... and cell phone bill. Here’s an insider tip, too: admission to the Worcester Art Museum will be FREE during the entire month of August, so it will be a great time to not only check out our extensive, beautiful galleries, but to capture some new Pokémon as well. Also happening in August, it was announced that players will be able to purchase a Bluetooth device (Pokémon GO Plus) that will alert them when a Pokémon is nearby, so they can quickly pull out their phones and catch it. Until then, remember that admission for WAM members and institutional members is free, so it is a good time as ever to join or use your membership.

Tips for a successful Pokémon GO visit to WAM:
• Be careful seeking Pokémon in Museum galleries. From the Pokémon GO website: “If you see a Pokémon someplace where it might not be safe to capture it (like in a construction site or on private property that you can't get to from the street), don't do it. There will always be another chance to catch that Pokémon later on!” This applies around our delicate works of art as well!
• Walking while staring at my phone is something I found myself doing while playing the game, which also can be dangerous around WAM’s works of art, staircases, and other museum guests. Be vigilant of your surroundings at all times while walking.

Pokémon Go is a free app downloadable for your Apple or Android device. If you’re sharing images of your Pokémon sightings on social media, be sure to tag your Worcester Art Museum Pokémon with #WorcesterArtMuseum!

- Katrina Stacy, Associate Curator of Education

On View: God Rested on the Seventh Day

If you have been in the early Renaissance painting gallery (Gallery 212) in the last week, you may have noticed a new guest from the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts, one of the great repositories of Russian religious art outside of Russia itself.

The work is an icon, a religious object of critical importance in Orthodox Christianity. Rather than simply representing spiritual subjects, as Christian paintings do, icons are considered direct portals to the divine. Icons capture the essence of the figure represented and they serve as a direct intercessor for the worshipper. In other words, they are instruments for establishing contact with God and remain a central element of worship in the Orthodox church.

Most icons in common use depict well-known saints, Christ, or the Virgin Mary. The work on loan, in contrast, is a rare and unusual subject: God Rested on the Seventh Day, painted in Moscow around 1550. Because the subject is unconventional, the owner was probably a priest or a highly educated lay person who used the icon for private devotion, rather than an icon used in a more public church setting. It represents the Old Testament book of Genesis 2:3: “And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”

We’re very grateful to the Museum of Russian Icons for sharing this work – and by extension the icon tradition – with our visitors, letting us tell a much more complete story about painting in Europe during the Renaissance.

God Rested on the Seventh Day, 1550s (restored 1700s)

Egg tempera on panel

Russia, Moscow

Lent by the Museum of Russian Icons, R2013.80

- Jon L. Seydl, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of European Art

Accessibility matters…one door at a time.

The grand re-opening of the Worcester Art Museum’s Salisbury Access Bridge made a huge impact on accessibility at the institution; however, another entryway recently and quietly received an important upgrade as well. A new push button door opener at the Stoddard Courtyard entrance (reached via the Tuckerman Street Parking lot) makes it much easier for guests to enter the building at that location – whether they have mobility challenges, are pushing a stroller, or carrying art supplies. With this welcoming feature, this entrance is now fully accessible.

We will continue to find ways to keep improving accessibility across the Museum campus.

Thank you,

Adam Rozan, Director of Audience Engagement

#accessforall

How To: Cat Armor!

	This is Leah the Fierce. She wanted an armor to wear for the Meow opening and asked if I could help. I had never made an armor for a leopard before, but I decided to give it a try.
	The first thing I had to do was get some measurements. I did this by making paper templates and test-fitting them on Leah. By doing this, I not only knew that the parts would fit, but I would also have a template for cutting out the foam I would use to build the armor.

Research Sheds New Light on WAM’s Stained Glass Collection

Recently, a group of specialists revealed compelling new information about the Worcester Art Museum’s stained glass. This April, I had the good fortune to watch as several members of the survey, Corpus Vitrearum, inspected the WAM’s collection of stained glass. Since the 1940s, the international publication has undertaken to catalogue and study all extant stained glass from the Middle Ages. And as the Museum’s glass is currently de-installed while the medieval galleries undergo a major renovation, three members of the American committee took the opportunity to examine the panels more closely than they have been studied in decades.

After inspecting the pitted, undulating surfaces of several works of medieval glass, we came to a panel that looked slightly different from the others. The window of The Story of Potiphar’s Wife shows the Biblical story of the Egyptian official Potiphar and his adulterous wife. In this image, Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses Joseph, a slave, of making advances on her by presenting his purple robe to her husband.

Lightly touching the glass surfaces, the group observed that, although the border of leaves and flowers added to the panel in 1934 was consistently worn and pitted, the central pieces were thinner and flatter than the typical surface of blown medieval glass. Prompted to look more closely at the composition, the group observed that the painted faces of Potiphar and his wife were more nineteenth-century than medieval in style. Drawing from these clues, the group concluded that the work was likely a forgery created to be sold as a work of medieval art.