Wednesday: Not Just For Bananas

Lavinia Fontana - Portrait d'Antonietta Gonsalvus

With a poster like this, how could one not be intrigued by the special exhibition, Beautés monstres, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy? I saw the ad sometime in the fall and have had the exhibition on my list of things to see in the area since that time. With it closing next week, I knew I had to get my act together, profite from my free Wednesday (and the free-for-students Wednesday at the Museum!) and jump on a train to Nancy.

The Monstrous Beauties exhibit was, no pun intended, fantastic! Arranged in five main parts (Decorative Monsters, Symbolic and Allegorical Monsters, The Battle Against Monsters, Marvels and Fantastical Animals, and Strange Races and Human Monsters), the prints, paintings, illustrations and sculptures displayed all showed the many, changing aspects of the very definition of "monster" since the early Renaissance. The images displayed ranged from whimsical to curious to strange to downright scary.

Martin Schongauer - La Tentation de Saint-Antoine

The majority of the pieces were prints from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, including the one above by (my good friend) Martin Schongauer (who we saw a lot of in Colmar 2 years ago during the medieval studies summer reseach program). There were also lots of 17th and 18th century "bestiaries" of sorts, masquerading as "scientific records" listing and describing a whole menagerie of fanciful creatures (like sea rhinoceroses, animal/human combinations, and just about any animal imaginable but "giant").

What particularly interests the medievalist in me is how so many of these creatures - even in the oh-so-modern 19th century - persist in more than just legend, and are often depicted just like they are in medieval manuscripts. Not so much changes... and that in-and-of-itself is an entire dissertation when it comes to the historical evolution of monsters and monstrosity - don't get me started!

Daum - collection of glassware

In the basement of the Musée des Beaux-Arts is a large collection of Daum glassware, manufactured in Nancy from the end of the 19th century through WWII. The story of how Jean Daum got into the glassmaking business is rather quirky: when Prussia (Germany) annexed Alsace and Moselle in Lorraine in 1871, Daum moved from Moselle to Nancy. With utterly no knowledge of the craft, he bought a glassworks company that made "ordinary" goblets. By hiring skilled craftsmen, Daum created a company that became renowned for its Art Nouveau glassware. A basic characteristic/principle of art nouveau work is that ordinary objects can also be pieces of art. This is particularly well illustrated with the many vases, lamps and bowls of all sizes on display in the dimly lit room. The many colors of the pieces light the space in a particularly beautiful way.

More next time on the city of Nancy!