Word: swarzenski
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...world's great repositories of Oriental art, given it distinction in many another field. But no benefactor happened to hit on medieval art. Last spring the museum drew polite attention to this deficiency by adding to its staff white-haired, pink-cheeked, enthusiastic Dr. Georg Swarzenski, Nazi refugee and a top-notch authority on the Middle Ages. Last week Bostonians who floundered through Fenway snowdrifts to the museum found there the finest loan exhibition of medieval art ever assembled...
World War II stopped projected borrowings from abroad. But Dr. Swarzenski effectively panhandled U. S. museums, dealers and collectors, even persuaded such a confirmed non-lender as J. P. Morgan to ship some treasures temporarily to Boston...
Humor and fantasy are as characteristic of medieval art as piety and sound workmanship. All four merge in the series of aquamaniles which Dr. Swarzenski calls his zoo. Once used for ceremonial washing, these bronze ewers include centaurs, lions, horses, unicorns. One gryphon holds a small human figure in his mouth as faucet. Even George Apley would have collected them out of predilection rather than duty...
| 1 |