A Paper I Wrote (Accidentally) Last Minute

I wrote this paper last minute after a series of terrible prioritization. The subject is a miniature, displayed currently in the show Shrunken Treasures at the Walter's Museum in Baltimore, MD. I found it quite difficult to focus on a specific piece for the assigned amount of two pages, but very easy to comment on the curatorial choices and the difficulty or ease in engaging in the work.

Max Guy
9/12/2009
Intro to Art Criticism
Description of a Miniature

What happens when art sacrifices monumentality for portability, personalization, functionality or affordability? How does a religious work shift in scale and still maintain that same quality of the fantastic or magnificent. Shrunken Treasures, the current exhibition in the Manuscripts Gallery at the Walters museum offers a collection of works spanning the 12th to 19th centuries exploring the pros, cons and functions of miniatures. 

Upon entering the Manuscripts Gallery the soft lighting and walls—painted a color somewhere between maroon and eggplant— set up the viewer for about an hour of quiet inspection. Miniatures are dispersed throughout the gallery, in vitrines that cover the perimeter and center of the gallery. A prayer book of Marie de Medici created in 12th Century Italy, is but one of many prayer books exhibited, but stands alone as the highlight of the exhibition in its own vitrine, open to an example of custom lace patterning that occupies the entire book. Although there are plaques describing functions and qualities of the miniatures they do not appear to be organized in any specific fashion. Each item is given a generous amount of space (perhaps as far as 1½ feet in diameter) leaving a very underwhelming feeling on the viewer. This is a possible a drawback for the exhibition, but it also invites viewers to choose an individual piece for further inspection. 

 

Prayer books and Bibles dominate the collection, and the viewer may become desensitized to them because they do not vary enough superficially behind the glare of the vitrines. I was immediately attracted to the less-traditional book forms, including an octagonal Koran but mainly the Diptych Icon With Feast Cycle made in 18th Century Greece. What is initially intriguing about the piece is the difficulty there is for the viewer to see anything that it depicts. Two wood panels are connected by hinging and even from a meter away, the small wooden carvings seem to blend together from the monotone of their terra cotta coloring. Upon closer inspection there are 18 scenes divided into three by three grids on the paneling, depicting major feast days of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The panels are gilded with silver, scale-like beads and the border of the booklet is adorned with small pearls about 3mm in depth.

The object is unimposing, and to open it and pay close attention to each carving would pull the viewer into a microcosm, rather than overwhelm him or her as would a church or fresco of the same religious context. Carefully organized within the panels, there is a meditative, internal quality to the icon made possible by the need to inspect closely and distinguish each specific holiday. The images are intricately carved, demanding recognition of their value. A piece so small can only personalize its owner’s relationship with god.

Like many pieces in the show the Diptych Icon commands the viewer to appreciate the personal nature of the miniature artwork. However, the pattern like quality of the silver beads, and the seeming repetition of forms within the grid invite the viewer in for a second look, in which they begin to appreciate each moment within the icon and one’s mind begins to explore the multitude of things in this world so small we can’t see them.

I likened this piece to the Mighty Max toy series from the early 90s-- in which a large skull or form was crafted which children could open up as though it were a book. The inside contained some elaborate landscape or situation in which the child was then allowed to move around a miniature action figure through a maze of objects. It left very much for the imagination as did its female counterpart Polly Pocket. I would have prefered that there were no toys in the exhibition as most toys tend to be small however it made for a good variety.