The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18162446821)

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo16amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



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This beautiful kimono from Korea is a very iiue example of brocade, Lhe decoratiou being woven into the fabric while on the loom. The bold and spirited dragon design, with water and cloud motives, is characteristic. Old gold, greens, blues, and a beautiful shade of red, form the coloring on a dark blue field. This is a marvelous example of skillful weaving, and is besides in the best spirit of Korean art weft. The embroidery stitch here passes completely around the threads making the sides of these minute squares, and would therefore be practically even. When the embroidery threads are taken out, they have a resemblance to cork- screws. The pottery, as well as the woven fabrics from Nazca and lea, shows a remarkable love of color and indicates knowledge of chromatic harmony. Per- haps the art of these people was too greatly influenced by their superstition, for they have a greater leaning toward animalistic forms than is found in the Tiahuanaco area, where the culture was more highly developed; but in colors they were supreme and these shawl-like garments are the finest examples of their art. Some time ago, a distinguished expert on Oriental rugs, Mr. John Kiml^erly Mumford, was looking at this American Museum collection. He had brought 426 me some small fragments of wonderful Oriental rugs, that I might analyze them for their construction. These fragments had come from some of the finest carpets in America, and represented perhaps the highest type of coloring in textiles from Asia. The beauty of this art has been described so often and is so much a mat- ter of popular knowledge that to cjuestion the supremacy of the rugs of Herat or Ispahan may sound like artistic heresy. Certainly that would have been my judgment until the comparison was made; but it was made by Mr. Mumford himself, who placed the fragments on one of the shawls which we had unrolled for his inspection. He frankly admitted that the work of the Peruvian artists was superior. There can be no doubt that these shawls represent the highest develop- ment in color as applied to textiles. They are unsurpassed masterpieces and their addition to the Museum's collec-