Tag: bronze

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Daily Art Moment: Constantin Brancusi

Image description: Muse, Constantin Brancusi, bronze on limestone base, 19 1/2 x 10 x 5 inches. A smooth, bronze, stylized bust of a woman’s head, elongated neck and shoulder. Front view: The woman’s egg-shaped head is smooth except for a raised V shape in the center representing the brow and finishing in a delicate nose. A small mouth is the only other feature on the face. Hair is suggested with rough, textured lines incised into the crown of the head. This texture appears darker than the glossy golden bronze face. A long neck extends from the head at left and is attached to a sloping shoulder. At right, the head seems to rest on a hand and forearm that extends to join the shoulder. The bottom edge of the sculpture has a rough and unfinished appearance. The bust rests on a gray cube of limestone that is juts a bit wider than the sculpture and about half as high. Left profile view: A smooth egg-shaped head smooth except for a small nose at the lower third of the profile. An simple C shaped ear is positioned below the textured hair. A gracefully shaped neck extends forward from a wedge-shaped shoulder. The bronze material folds back on itself, exposing rough edges, to rest on the base. Rear view: The textured hair appears to lengthen past the shoulder area ending in a blunt point. The sculpture’s shoulders fan out into a cone like structure that opens at an angle to expose the unpolished bronze inside. Right profile view: The hand and forearm shapes are visible from this view represented by simple elongated oval shape, a crease at the wrist giving definition to the two parts.

Constantin Brancusi’s polished bronze A Muse is one of the anchors of the Museum’s collection of European modern art. The sculpture is a refined distillation of a woman’s facial features. A muse is a person, or a personified force, that inspires artistic creation. Brancusi depicted this subject several times, making versions in marble, plaster, and…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Marie Louise Feldenheimer

Image description: “Rhododendrons.” Marie Louise Feldenheimer. 1933. Bronze. 19 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 6 inches. A rectangular, monochromatic, bronze plaque with four rhododendron flowers in relief. A tight bud appears in the upper left corner, fringed with leaves and pointing toward the corner. Two, fully open flower clusters form a diagonal from the lower left corner to the upper right corner, each framed by large, smooth leaves. In the lower right corner, a partially open flower is seen from the side, facing toward the edge, the edges of its leaves curve gently. Strong sunlight on the relief creates deep shadows and glossy areas, suggesting the shine of actual rhododendron leaves.
Marie Louise Feldenheimer (American, 1894-1993), Rhodedendrons, 1933, bronze, 19 1/2 in x 15 1/2 in x 6, Museum Purchase: Helen Thurston Ayer Fund. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 45.11

This sculpture by Marie Louise Feldenheimer, mounted in the Museum’s outdoor sculpture court, captures the beauty of the rhododendrons native to the Pacific Northwest. It also offers an opportunity to reflect on all that this piece sees as it rests in downtown Portland. We invite you to take some time today writing about this piece’s…  Read more

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Art and Writing During the Pandemic: Celebrating the Write Around Portland Partnership

It has been more than one year since Write Around Portland and the Portland Art Museum began collaborating on weekly, art-inspired writing prompts to sustain our souls and our sense of connection during the pandemic. Write Around Portland staff and writing workshop facilitators have created over 60 writing prompts inspired by works in the Portland…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Roman Saucepan

Saucepan, unknown Roman artist, 4 7/8 x 13 ¾ x 7 3/8 inches, bronze. A time worn pot with a rough, mottled, gray-green and bronze surface with a long, flat handle. The body of the flat-bottomed saucepan bows out slightly from its base and has a shallow lip that curves outward from the pot’s body. It has rough, crusty, gray-green corrosion on its surface with bits of smooth brownish bronze underneath showing through. A set of three very thin parallel grooves are incised around the pan’s top, just below the lip and more on the lip itself. More thin lines are seen on the interior of the saucepan. A flat handle protrudes from the left side of the pot. It narrows in the middle then widens into a rounded end with a circular cutout of its middle. More incised grooves form two circles around the cutout.

As county risk levels shift and vaccinations increase, we may start to venture out of our households more often. We likely have spent more time isolated this last year—and more time with the everyday objects around us–than we ever could have anticipated when the shutdown began. Writing allows us the opportunity to pause and reflect…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Auguste Rodin

A photograph of a bronze sculpture showing two figures: the feminine presenting Spirit of Liberty and a masculine presenting combatant. The Liberty figure is positioned over the combatant. She is bare breasted with muscular arms raised in a V and fists tightly clenched. Her mouth is open wide as if shouting. She has a large pair of wings that rise behind her echoing the V of the arms. One wing is visibly broken and bent back on itself. The combatant is posed just beneath Liberty, and he looks up to her as if responding to her call. His nude body is set at a diagonal to Liberty’s with his head thrown back to the right, and his torso, hips and legs crossing diagonally to the left of Liberty. The leg at right is bent at the knee creating another angle. The arm at left lies across his body with his hand resting at right. His other arm is extended downward and he holds a sword that is inserted in the rocky base. He uses the sword to support his weak body as he tries to rise up toward Liberty. The sculpture is highly varied in its textured, displaying muscles, feathers, smooth skin and rock. The bronze is dark, almost black in some places with brownish highlights.

“In honor of #BastilleDay, I offer you one of the greatest French objects in the Museum’s collection. Rodin conceived and modelled it in 1879 for a public monument to commemorate the defense of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). It depicts the battered Spirit of Liberty shrieking a call to arms above the body of…  Read more