The Walters Art Museum Search

object

Writing Box with Zigzag bridge over pond

1 pp 1 img

Varous techniques

#17692

object

Writing Box with weaving maiden at her loom on clouds

5 pp 5 img

The mythological figure Orihime, the daughter of the Sky King, is known in Japan as the Weaving Maiden. According to legend, the king selected a herdsman, Kengyu, to marry Orihime. On her wedding day, the bride indulged in such frivolity that her father regretted his choice. He exiled Kengyu to the other side of the Milky Way, and Orihime was forced to spend her life weaving at her loom. The lovers were permitted to meet only once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month when the Milky Way is spanned by a bridge of magpies. Their union is celebrated on July 7 at the festival of Tanabata.

#4686

object

Writing Box, Bridge/cherry blossoms/ 5 mitsuaoi=crest

1 pp 1 img

Various techniques

#37638

object

Writing Box, Overlapping fans decorated w.flowers etc

1 pp 1 img

Various techniques

#30214

object

Writing Box, Winding stream with chrysanthemums etc

3 pp 3 img

Various techniques

#23979

object

Writing Box; Pattern of overlapping rosettes

1 pp 1 img

Various techniques

#16179

object

Writing Box; Rockery/ferns near a windng stream

1 pp 1 img

Various techniques

#30042

object

Writing Cabinet

2 pp 2 img

Writing Cabinet with Reliefs of God the Father and the Annunciation of the Sheperds, 16th century style. enamel plaques may be ok.

#20535

object

Writing Case

4 pp 4 img

The cover of this miniature writing case depicts a nymph robbing Cupid, the god of love, of his weapons, rendered in gold relief against a background of ruby-colored enamel. The case's exterior is covered with panels of tortoiseshell in gold mounts. The interior is fitted with a glass ink pot and sand bottle, both with gold covers, as well as a mirror and a pen that can be screwed together in sections. Delicate and portable, this type of small writing case was meant to be privately treasured and shown off to intimate friends.

#30182

object

Writing Table (Bundai) with a Brook and Flowers

5 pp 5 img

A scholar or calligrapher would arrange their writing tools on this writing table (bundai). The table surface is decorated with a golden mountain landscape scene with a brook and flowers. The bunches of flowers that dominate the foreground and flank the stream are chrysanthemums. This imagery in Japan is an ancient and common reference to the legend of Kikujidō, Chrysanthemum Boy, who was the subject of a well-known Chinese tale that became the subject of a Japanese Nō play. Chrysanthemum Boy is famed for unknowingly drinking an elixir of immorality from a dewy chrysanthemum leaf on which he had previously written some Buddhist text and then thrown into the nearby stream.The artist built up the landscape scene using maki-e, a technique in which different sizes and shapes of gold leaf and different colors of gold powder are sprinkled on wet lacquer.

#24799

object

Writing Tablet and Lid

8 pp 8 img

During the Middle Ages, paper and parchment were expensive, and many people took advantage of less permanent forms of written communication. One side of an ivory tablet was coated with wax; then a message was incised in the wax with a stylus (which looks like a large pin) and protected by an ivory lid. The little box would be sent to the recipient, who smoothed the wax and responded.The sliding cover depicts three ladies in the town, looking over its walls at two embracing couples seen to the left. The bottom of the box shows the same town at greater distance, a tent with two more lovers, a hawking expedition, and a hermit reading outside his rustic cell. Several writing boxes are known from the same, otherwise unidentified workshop.

#9704

object

Writing Tablet with Scenes from the Lives of Virgil and Aristotle

2 pp 2 img

This writing tablet has a depression for wax on the underside, but the lid that protected the wax is missing. Legends about wily women making fools of intelligent men from classical times were very popular in the late Middle Ages. The relief on this writing tablet contains two such episodes. In the upper register, the Roman writer Virgil, who thought that he was being drawn up in a basket for a secret rendezvous with a beautiful woman, was left suspended in midair for all to laugh at. Below, on the left, Alexander asks his lover Campaspe (also known as Phyllis) to ensnare the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Her success is depicted on the right.

#26467

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Writing Box with Zigzag bridge over pond

Writing Box with weaving maiden at her loom on clouds

Writing Box, Bridge/cherry blossoms/ 5 mitsuaoi=crest

Writing Box, Overlapping fans decorated w.flowers etc

Writing Box, Winding stream with chrysanthemums etc

Writing Box; Pattern of overlapping rosettes

Writing Box; Rockery/ferns near a windng stream

Writing Cabinet

Writing Case

Writing Table (Bundai) with a Brook and Flowers

Writing Tablet and Lid

Writing Tablet with Scenes from the Lives of Virgil and Aristotle