Bronzed baby shoes? On exhibit? At the august Walters Art Gallery?
Yes. A pair of bronzed baby shoes at the entrance to the exhibit "The Allure of Bronze" announces that this isn't your usual art exhibit. Curator Joaneath Spicer affirms that right away.
"I wanted a different perspective from exhibitions of the past," she says. "I'm interested in focusing on issues for people who are not specialists. The baby shoes are telling people, 'Maybe you've commissioned something in bronze,' as introduction to showing that bronze has been much a part of the intimate life of the past."
Spicer has indeed created a different kind of exhibition. It has its share of rare and beautiful works from the Walters' collections -- from an ax head of 2500 B.C. to small sculptures by the baroque master Bernini to a 19th century French bust of an African ruler.
But Spicer, the Walters curator of Renaissance and baroque art, has not confined herself to the masterpieces-on-pedestals approach. Instead, she has mixed high art with low, century with century, works from all over the world, and bronze with other media, to focus on aspects of the subject that relate it to viewers -- to us.
The first major section is on bronze as an object of everyday use.
"One of its enduring qualities is that while it's excellent for use in daily life, it can be enhanced, and made very beautiful," says Spicer. Thus there is an Egyptian bronze ax head from about 2500 B.C., a simple and utilitarian object but with harmonious proportions and decorated with engraved hieroglyphics.
On the debit side, bronze is softer than iron and steel, which is why it was eventually replaced by them in weaponry. A Persian bronze sword of the ninth or eighth century B.C. is bent out of shape. "It's been in battle," says Spicer. She points to a Greek bronze helmet, handsomely shaped, but looking somewhat thin and vulnerable. "Would you rather have a clunky steel helmet on or this?" Spicer asks. If you're going into battle, you go with clunky steel, every time.
Turning to the subject of why bronze is chosen for sculpture, Spicer offers a chair in front of a case containing a half-dozen small sculptures in bronze, marble, ivory, wood and porcelain. After sitting awhile, and really looking at these things, one begins to see that different materials yield different effects.
"Bronze is wonderful for hard, glistening muscle," Spicer says. "Ivory has a very soft, tactile quality. It's difficult for bronze to be lighthearted, and it's difficult for porcelain to say something truly serious."
Sitting down again, on a bench in front of a partial re-creation of an Italian scholar's 17th century study, we face a chair pulled up to a table on which stand several small sculptures. The sculptures are both ancient and Renaissance, such as a collector of the period might have kept close to him: a Greek "Aphrodite Removing Her Sandal" (first century B.C.), a French "Bather" (1590s), an Italian "Celestial Love" (1520-1522).
"I was hoping to evoke the contemplative joys of having the objects right on your desk," Spicer says. "To re-create the environment, I wanted to have them out, without a vitrine, and to introduce other objects as well -- a book with brass fittings, a Renaissance inkstand."
In the section on portraiture, Spicer pauses before an extraordinarily lifelike bust of a Sudanese ruler, Said Abdullah, by the 19th century French sculptor Charles Cordier.
"What makes this piece so striking is that when bronze is used to convey the likeness of someone of color it takes on an intensity that is simply not possible with a white person," she says. "The actuality of the person begins to inform the piece, and you almost look for it to breathe."
The portrait of Said Abdullah occupies a case with a 19th century head of an oba, or king, from Benin, which is a much more generalized depiction. "The juxtaposition reveals societal differences," Spicer says. "The European sculpture emphasizes individual traits, whereas the African one reflects the societal qualities of kingship."
There's a lot more to this exhibit, including animals in bronze and bronze religious sculptures; in each case Spicer relates the subject to us. Animals have often been used to symbolize human emotions and qualities, such as nobility and fear.
At the end, she sends us out into the world with a reminder of bronze in the everyday life of Baltimore, with a big photo of the bronze seated lion by Antione-Louis Barye that decorates Mount Vernon Place. Even if we never gave much thought to bronze before, we may regard it as something like an old friend by the time we leave this exhibit.
'ALLURE OF BRONZE'
Where: The Walters Art Gallery, 600 N. Charles St.
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays; through April 16
Admission: $4 adults, $3 seniors, free to students and those 18 and under
Call: (410) 547-9000