The Metropolitan Museum Journal publishes original research on a variety of artistic practices from antiquity to the present day. With hundreds of articles published since the periodical’s founding in the late 1960s, the Journal truly has something for every interest. As the Museum prepares the publication’s fifty-seventh volume, the editorial board reflects on a few of their favorite articles from the last fifty years.
Not finding yourself in the list below? There are more than six hundred articles from 1968 through 2021 to explore on MetPublications, with more published every year.
For the Music Buff
Left: Spinet, 1540. Wood, parchment, ivory and paint, 6 1/4 × 55 × 18 1/4 in. (15.9 × 139.7 × 46.4 cm). Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1953 (53.6a,b). Right: Matteo (Mathias) Sprenger (German) and Franz Fiala (German, ca. 1800–1900). Tastengitarre (Keyed Guitar), 1843. Ebony, metal, strings, and varnish, 946 mm long. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889 (89.4.3145)
“A Spinettina for the Duchess of Urbino” (from v. 1, 1968) by Emanuel Winternitz
“The Met’s German Keyed Guitar” (from v. 55, 2020) by Daniel Wheeldon
If you’re always in charge of the party’s playlist, augment your knowledge of all things audio with these two Journal articles on musical instruments. Published fifty-two years apart, both of these texts celebrate keyed musical instruments in The Met collection. Emanuel Winternitz discusses an ornate spinet (a small harpsichord) created for an Italian Renaissance duchess, while Wheeldon explores an obscurely designed, unembellished guitar from the nineteenth century. Want to take a listen before you dive in? Watch Wheeldon play a replica of the object featured in his article.
For the Detective
Left: Attributed to the workshop of Ferdinand Eusebio Miseroni (Italian). Ewer, ca. 1680 and early 18th century. Smoky rock crystal, enamel, gold, diamonds. Height: 9 7/8 in. (25.1 cm). The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982 (1982.60.138). Right: Nina de Garis Davies (1881–1965). Thutmose I and His Mother Seniseneb, A.D. 1925 facsimile of ca. 1479–1458 B.C. original. Tempera on paper. Height: 81.5 cm (32 1/16 in.); W. 71 cm (27 15/16 in.) scale 1:1. Rogers Fund, 1930 (30.4.137)
“A Noble Imposture: The Fonthill Ewer and Early-Nineteenth-Century Fakery” (from v. 32, 1997) by Richard E. Stone
“Facsimiles, Artworks, and Real Things” (from v. 56, 2021) by Rebecca Capua
Satisfy your inner Sherlock Holmes with these texts by Museum conservators exploring the facts behind facsimiles and fakes. Copies and forgeries can actually teach us a lot about the objects they imitate and about the objects that were valued by the people who imitated them. Rebecca Capua traces the history of paper-based copies used to preserve the original appearance of fragile works of art, enabling them to be seen by the public. Richard Stone explores the less savory side of copying. His article unravels the fabrication of a bejeweled ewer once attributed to sixteenth-century Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini but proven a forgery when it was closely examined after entering the Museum’s collection in 1982.
For the Photographer
Left: Julia Margaret Cameron (British, 1815–1879). Beatrice, 1866. Albumen silver print from glass negative, 14 ½ × 11 7/16 in (36.8 × 29 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1969 (69.607.9). Middle: infrared reflectogram (IRR). Right: transmitted infrared photograph.
“A Hidden Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron” (from v. 53, 2018) by Nora W. Kennedy, Louisa Smieska, Silvia A. Centeno, and Marina Ruiz Molina
Whether you’re capturing the perfect phone photograph for Instagram or developing negatives the old-fashioned way, you’ll surely appreciate these two texts on photographic research. Nora W. Kennedy, Louisa Smieska, Silvia A. Centeno, and Marina Ruiz Molina share the technical analysis that led them to the discovery of a hidden portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron underneath her work Beatrice (1866).
Left: Lorna Simpson (American, b. 1960). 9 Props, 1995. Waterless lithograph on wool felt panel, edition 3/30, fitted box (with two printed sheets pasted inside): 15 3/4 × 11 3/8 × 2 3/4 in. (40 × 28.9 × 7 cm) 9 panels, each: 14 1/4 × 10 1/4 in. (36.2 × 26 cm). Gift of the Peter Norton Family Foundation, 1998 (1998.456.5a-j). © Lorna Simpson. Right: James Van Der Zee (American, 1886–1983). [Nude Draped with Cloth Surrounded by Flowers], 1920s–40s. Gelatin silver print with applied color. Image: 7 in. × 8 15/16 in. (17.8 × 22.7 cm) Mount: 8 1/4 in. × 10 3/8 in. (21 × 26.4 cm). Gift of James Van Der Zee Institute, 1970. (1970.539.30). © James Van Der Zee Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
“An Ode to James Van Der Zee: Lorna Simpson’s 9 Props” (from v. 55, 2020) by Emilie Boone
While Kennedy et al. explore the actual layers in Cameron’s work, Boone looks at the conceptual layers of Lorna Simpson’s 9 Props (1995), which recasts the studio props of American photographer James Van Der Zee, best known for his photographs of Black New Yorkers.
For the Feminist
Left: Jean Jacques François Le Barbier (French, 1738–1826). America from a set of The Four Continents, designed ca. 1786, woven 1790–91. Wool, silk. 12 × 15 ft. (365.8 × 457.2 cm). Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Claus von Bülow Gift, 1978 (1978.404.4). Right: Photograph of Edith Standen, Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section of the Office of Military Government, United States, 1946. From The Spoils of War by Elizabeth Simpson via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain).
Left: Attributed to Robert Joseph Auguste (French, 1723–1805). Children with dead game, ca. 1756. Terracotta. Height: 6 in. (15.2 cm). Purchase, Gift of The Heart Foundation by exchange; Gift in memory of Frederick P. Victoria; The Metropolitan Museum of Art Volunteer Anniversary Gift; Ralph and Frances DeJur Foundation Gift 1993 (1993.334.1). Right: Eileen Travell, photograph of Clare Le Corbellier, from “Thoughts of Clare Le Corbeiller”: Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 37 (2002)
“Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier and Two Revolutions” (from v. 24, 1989) by Edith Standen
“Robert-Joseph Auguste, Silversmith—and Sculptor?” (from v. 31, 1996) by Clare Le Corbeiller
For those who want to break the glass ceiling while protecting fragile works of art, these articles written by exceptional Met curators Clare Le Corbeiller and Edith Standen exemplify the role of women in the research around eighteenth-century French decorative art. Le Corbeiller contemplates the maker of the terracotta sculptures used as models for silversmith Robert-Joseph Auguste’s ornate tureens. Standen investigates tapestries by French artist Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier that were inspired by the American Revolution. Revolution may have been an appealing subject for Standen, a real-life hero who enlisted in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II. As a member of the “Monuments Men and Women,” she helped to save many of the art treasures confiscated by Nazis and ensured their restitution, before joining The Met as a curator of textiles in 1949.
For the Book Lover
![Composite image, right: parchment, ink, and wood illustration of abba Giyorgis [of Sägla] in yellow, orange, and black tones, left: watercolor of people sitting in front of colorful building of purple, pink, and green](/-/media/images/perspectives/2022/8/met-journal/book.jpg?sc_lang=en&hash=DA9B02D4F253AE4B3BCEDE4F5C684D5F)
Left: Attributed to Basəlyos (scribe) and the Night Heron Master (illuminator). Prayer Book: Ärganonä Maryam (The Organ of Mary), late 17th century. Ethiopia, Lasta region. Parchment, pigment ink, wood, leather, fiber, 61/2 × 61/8 in. (16.5 × 15.5 cm). Louis V. Bell Fund, 2006 (2006.99). Right: Author: Abu’l Qasim Firdausi (Iranian, ca. 940/41–1020), painting attributed to ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (active first half 16th century). “Manuchicr Welcomes Sam but Orders War upon Mihrab,” Folio 80v from Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp (detail), ca. 1525. Opaque watercolor, ink, silver, and gold on paper. Painting: Height: 11 1/16 in. (28.1 cm) W. 7 1/4 in. (18.4 cm). Entire Page: Height: 18 9/16 in. (47.1 cm) W. 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm). Gift of Arthur A. Houghton Jr., 1970 (1970.301.9)
“Inscriptions on Architecture in Early Safavid Paintings” (from v. 53, 2018) by Barry Wood
“Talismanic Imagery in an Ethiopian Christian Manuscript Illuminated by the Night Heron Master” (from v. 56, 2021) by Kristen Windmuller-Luna
For those who delight in books not only for their contents but also for their construction, illustration, and cultural impact, Barry Wood’s and Kristen Windmuller-Luna’s articles are for you. Both authors keenly examine topics related to the arts of the book in global cultures. Wood investigates early Safavid Iranian manuscripts and the inscriptions that the artists depicted on the buildings they illustrated. He argues that these inscriptions are not mere surface decoration but often include valuable information about the painter or poetic verses with encoded meanings directed at their readers. While Wood focuses on literary illustrated manuscripts produced in a royal context, Windmuller-Luna focuses on a religious text produced in the horn of Africa. Her essay focuses on how Ethiopian artists used illustrated manuscripts’ talismanic imagery to amplify their prayers.
Interested in adding to this impressive roster? More information on how to submit an article for consideration in the Metropolitan Museum Journal is available here.
