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Attributed to Studio of unknown French (illuminator), Possibly Style of unknown Flemish (illuminator). c.1470 (creation date). Book of Hours (Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis in Usum Ecclesiae Romanae cum Calendario), Folio 86v: Hours of the Virgin: Compline: Entombment, overall, left, with Folio 87r at right. Illumination, Leaf (component), Manuscript. Place: Trinity College, Watkinson Library (Hartford, Connecticut, USA).

Books of hours are devotional texts that contain a personalized selection of prayers, hymns, psalms, and New Testament excerpts chosen specifically for their owner. Popular in the Middle Ages, the most expensive of these books could be highly decorated, but the more affordable versions usually only showed minimal decoration, usually of the first letter of a page. They had, in fact, become so popular by the 16th century that they were often owned by people from all walks of society; servants even had their own copies—there is a court case from 1500 where a pauper woman was accused of stealing a servant’s book of hours. 

Summer solstice brings us the longest, sunniest days of the year. The season also sparkles with starry nights, and getaways in July and August provide an escape from the urban glare, enhancing our appreciation of stellar skies. In homage to the stars, we have mined the resources of Artstor to present some outstanding celestial subjects across the ages.

Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. 1889. Image and data provided by the Museum of Modern Art.

Starry Night, 1889, by Vincent van Gogh, exemplifies the genre of the nocturne. The artist’s unique style might lead one to believe that the entire scene is imaginary, but researchers have identified many of the planets depicted; to name one, Venus shines white above the horizon at left. Nonetheless, the painter took liberties with the moon, rendering it as a crescent when in fact it would have been a fuller waning gibbous on that night, June 18. In a letter to his sister written the previous year, van Gogh articulated his observation of star fields: “certain stars are citron-yellow, others have a pink glow, or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance… putting little white dots on a blue-black surface is not enough.” [1]

From our friends at JSTOR Daily

Bag (reticule). British. First quarter 19th century. Image and data courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The purse has always been political, a reflection of changing economic realities and gender roles. Blame the Balenciaga IKEA bag. When the $2,145 luxury lambskin version of the familiar blue plastic shopping bag appeared on the runway in June 2016, it was the beginning of the end of a glorious era of capacious hobo bags, boat totes, and bucket bags. The upscale counterfeit triggered a backlash against fashion’s flirtation with so-called poverty chic, but also against gigantic bags in general. From a 19-gallon capacity, there was nowhere to go but down.

Read more on JSTOR Daily

Dr. Kelli Morgan, Associate Curator of American Art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) at Newfields introduces us to some of the American gems in the IMA’s collection.

The American collection at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields (IMA) is an encyclopedic group of brilliant objects that span US history from the Colonial period to the 1970s. The collection is well known for its American Impressionism, modernist painting and sculpture, and of course Indiana’s own Hoosier School. Yet, IMA’s American collection is comprised of such a diverse array of objects that it offers an alternative look at the American canon.

Edward Moran, The Valley in the Sea, 1862. Image and original data provided by the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields

Robert Scott Duncanson, Loch Long, 1867. Image and original data provided by the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields

Peruvian. Bridge-Spout Vessel. 100-300 C.E. Image and data provided by Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Public domain.

Japanese? Landscape on Fire. 1866-1932. Image and data provided by Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Public domain.

Antonio Lazari. Medal, Laura Maria Caterina Bassi, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bologna, recto. 1732. Gilding, bronze. Image and data provided by Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Public domain.

What’s new in JSTOR?
Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Contributor:
Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Content:
The Museum has contributed 2,000 additional images of its historic teaching collection of world art, bringing the total in Artstor to nearly 6,000.* Highlights include varied antiquities, European paintings and works on paper, American colonial painting, the arts of Asia and a notable collection of medals and plaquettes from the Renaissance to the 20th century.

Relevance:
Art, culture, and history from around the globe, notably America, Asia, and Europe

*Totals may vary depending on domestic or international release.

JSTOR is replete with images from nature: arks of animals, a plethora of plants, and the dazzling spectacles of the earth. Meticulous renderings of animal and botanical species from classical times through the onset of photography may be studied alongside striking contemporary photographs. Illustrations of animal, plant and mineral specimens are also available as well as records of scientific fieldwork, and larger ecosystems.

Johann Georg Adam Forster. Serval, Leptailurus (genus); serval (species), Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. 1775. Image and data provided by the Natural History Museum, London

Stanley N. Botwinik. Leopard portrait. 1970. Tanzania, Serengeti. Image and data provided by Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University)

Chris de Bode. A dwarf mouse lemur. 2006. West Madagascar, Africa. Image and data provided by © Chris de Bode/Panos Pictures

Ami Vitale. Elephants in Kaziranga National Park. 2003. Photograph. Image and data provided by © Ami Vitale/Panos Pictures

Asterope sapphira (nymphalid butterfly). Collected January, 1936. Image and data provided by Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University)

Fyodor Tolstoy. Butterfly. 1821. Image and data provided by SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.

Utagawa Hiroshige. Matsuchiyama, San'ya Moat, Night Scene. 1857. Image and data provided by the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.

Ejagham people. Janus-faced helmet mask with four superstructure figures. 1930-70. Image and data provided by the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.

Willem Kalf. Still Life with a Chinese Porcelain Jar. 1669. Image and data provided by the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.

What’s new in JSTOR?

Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields

Contributor:

Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields

Content:

The Museum has contributed 4,254 additional images of its encyclopedic collection, bringing the total in Artstor to nearly 6,400.* 5,000 years of global history illustrated by works of art, design, and ritual objects, as well as views from the Newfields campus: gardens, landmarks, and contemporary installations.

Relevance:

Art, culture, and history from around the globe, notably Africa, America, Asia, and Europe

*Totals may vary depending on domestic or international release.

Frank Cancian. Shooting back, Juan Vásquez (Pig) family (Another Place). 1971. Black-and-white photograph. © Frank Cancian. Image and data provided by University of California Irvine Libraries.

Photographer and anthropologist Frank Cancian has been documenting international communities for more than fifty years. His recent contribution to JSTOR in collaboration with University of California Irvine Libraries, traces his fieldwork from the Italian hill town of Lacedonia during the 1950s to the Maya of Zinacantán, Chiapas during the ’60s and ’70s, and to domestic workers in Orange County, California from 2000 to 2002.

Frank Cancian. In the piazza 3 (Lacedonia Photos). 1957. Black-and-white photograph. © 2001 Frank Cancian. Image and data provided by University of California Irvine Libraries.

Frank Cancian. Shooting back, Juan Vásquez (Pig) family (Another Place). 1971. Black-and-white photograph. © Frank Cancian. Image and data provided by University of California Irvine Libraries.

Frank Cancian. Victoria Rua (Orange County Housecleaners). 2001. Black-and-white photograph. © 2001 Frank Cancian. Image and data provided by University of California Irvine Libraries.

What’s new in the Artstor Digital Library?

Collection:
Frank Cancian Documentary Photograph Archive

Contributor:
University of California Irvine Libraries, Photographer/anthropologist Frank Cancian, Professor Emeritus, UC Irvine

Content:
Approximately 175 photographs spanning Cancian’s career:
The work documents communities in California, Mexico, and Italy, including house cleaners in Orange County (2001-2002); the Maya of Zinacantán, Chiapas (1960-1971), and the townspeople of Lacedonia, a hill town in Avellino (1957).

Relevance:
Economic Anthropology and Social History, Immigration and Human Geography, Photography

*Image totals may vary from country to country, reflecting Artstor’s obligation to address the specifics of international copyright.

Attributed to Jean de Touyl. Reliquary Shrine from the convent of the Poor Clares at Buda. ca. 1325-50. Image and data courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Cloisters Collection.

Relics—bits of bone, clothing, shoes or dust—from Christian martyrs became popular in Western Christianity in the Middle Ages. The cult of relics dates back to the second and third centuries, when martyrs were persecuted and often killed in ways that fragmented the body, which was taboo in Roman society. The intention was to desecrate the body through execution and burning. But, Caroline Walker Bynum and Paula Gerson state that by the “late third to early fourth centuries the fragments of the martyrs had come to be revered as loci of power and special access to the divine” and, by the Second Council of Nicea in 787, relics were required for the consecration of altars.