#smarthistory

[magicmooshka]

If you’re interested in getting better at art I cannot stress enough how beneficial it is to read up on global art history… the lessons that honestly impacted my art the most were from my art history classes rather than technical drawing classes.

Even though the digital age has expanded the reach of small independent artists, we still only see online a vary narrow fraction of the type of art that exists. Studying global art history allows you to draw inspiration from a wider breadth of art from different cultures and time periods.

Art history helped improve my technique, but it also expanded the way I think about art’s place in the wider world. Why do we prefer certain art styles and mediums over others? Is it purely personal preference? How has accessibility, or lack thereof, shaped the way we think about art, and the kind of art we see? Who gets to make art? Who gets to see it?

I highly recommend checking out SmartHistory: they’re an art history org partnered with Khan Academy. They have a playlist where they run through the basics of the AP Art History curriculum in 2-5 min videos and mini articles. If you watch one or two a day while doing dishes or cooking you can cover a lot of ground in only a little time. It’s a great, super accessible beginner’s overview! (I swear this isn’t sponsored I just adore them)

[panicinthestudio]

A bronze Buddha’s journey, May 9,2025

Examine this bronze statue of the Buddha with us, from its green patina to its fine details. We consider how its design indicates its origins in the Khmer Empire, the journey it took across current day Thailand to Vietnam, and why it was buried. Speakers: Dr. Emma Natalya Stein, Associate Curator of Southeast Asian and South Asian Art, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, and Dr. Beth Harris, Smarthistory Seated Buddha, Cambodia, 12th century, bronze, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Purchase–Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1937.29a–d. More information about this object: https://asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/collections/search/edanmdm:fsg_F1937.29a-d/

Seated Buddha, 12th century

Angkor period, Northern Thailand

Bronze

H x W: 13.2 x 30 cm (5 3/16 x 11 13/16 in)

As early as 1898, found and excavated by an unidentified French official near Biên Hòa, Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam

With a straight spine and wide shoulders, the Buddha sits in meditation on a lobed lotus pedestal, beneath the canopy of a separately cast Bodhi tree. A flat back plate surrounds him with radiating flames and naga finials. Rows of miniature Buddhas encircle the square base. The surface is covered with a lustrous green patina flecked with blue. This sculpture was discovered along with six other Khmer bronze images that were excavated from a site in Vietnam in 1919. The group includes Buddhist and Hindu deities and ritual objects, all of which are small in scale. At less than a foot high, the Freer bronze is the largest. After a French forest ranger discovered them, the bronzes made their way into American museums in Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit, Kansas City, and Washington, DC. Little research has been done on the origins of the group--where the sculptures were made, how they were used, and why or how they traveled remains unknown. For centuries, portable bronze figures were instrumental in the spread of Indian traditions across Asia. The small stature of these bronzes suggests several possible purposes. Some of them may have been battle standards carried in royal or ritual processions, as relief carvings from temples in the Angkor area show such objects. The seemingly deliberate burial suggests that the group was a consecration deposit or sacred offering for a temple.

#national museum of asian art#smithsonian#buddhism#angkor empire#Thailand#Vietnam#Buddha#bronze#sculpture#religion#smarthistory#colonialism#imperialism#archaeology#art#art history#figure#YoutubeBlaze

[charmingpplincardigans]

The ladies are waiting, with bells on their gowns, for the shields to finish their arc, arrested movements across a cold marble room, caught in nets of brambles, their flight like the swish of skirts follow the dance of the year, reaching for the summer light, retreating from the winter, ladies and knights would sway to this music, gentle and sure rose hips rising to greet their lady's blush, would quicken their feet, their kisses would not sit stagnant on her cheeks,

Gentle flush caught mid-titter, the sound that could have been, once pretty blush now rigor pool of pink, laugh left in her throat, upon which she will choke until that time when it would be dislodged by her truest love’s kiss, but there is no truer love than that of a young woman and the companions whose hands fit precisely in hers, and if the fairy had known how soft a princess’s heart became in those hands, which have held half-finished

Crosses stitched in red and gold, blood roses, for decades, she would have set her fury to a different tune for the dance, she would have blessed these girls with thorns of their own, set their love to movements of anger, the knights’ shields to quicker, more gracious arcs beheld by flesh and air and marble, the occupants of the castle would have crowns made of flowers and rotting fruit, and here, a girl sleeping in retribution for a crime she did not commit, would be rosy cheeked still,

Would be warm to the touch, would not forget touch her body would never lie alone, her limbs in sleep would find their way home, to the place they truly fit until one more knight came to the parapet climbing up thick vines, making all manner of common sound, his labored breath a blast of fire and pitch poured onto the tangled lovers’ bed, to burn away the gentleness of youth, snatch away the laugh left in her throat

LE, PAD April 23

Last night I watched this video on the Briar Rose series of paintings by Edward Burne-Jones and I was struck by the way one of the narrators describes the bells adorning the cloth on the princess’s bed in the painting as having “the sense of sounds that could be made”. That thought of Sleeping Beauty without the kiss and the sound that might have been lodged itself into my brain and I woke up in the middle of the night to plan a story about it. This isn’t that story, but it informs that story. It wonders at it, and most importantly it fills my personal poem-a-day quota.

[godlovesdykes]

i know beth harris and steven zucker’s voices and mannerisms so well now i can make them do podcasts on any subject in my head at will

#justaparthistorythings:)

[panicinthestudio]

Oracle Bone, Shang Dynasty, October 8, 2016

Oracle Bone, Shang Dynasty, Reign of Zu Geng, c. 1191-1181 B.C.E. (Shanghai Museum, China) Speakers: Dr. Kristen Chiem and Dr. Beth Harris.

Smarthistory

[panicinthestudio]

Saint Patrick's Bell and Shrine, December 17, 2022

Bell: 8th–9th century C.E., iron

Shrine: c. 1100 C.E., copper-alloy box, silver gilt, gold, silver, gilt-copper, rock crystal, colored stones

26.7 x 15.5 cm (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin)

Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker

Smarthistory

[panicinthestudio]

Status Embroidered in Late Imperial China, March 31, 2026

Examine three embroidered badges from China’s Qing dynasty (1644–1912) with us. We go over what various details symbolize, from the wearer’s rank to references to cosmic order. Plus, we get up close to admire the detailed stitching techniques and unique materials, such as threads with gold foil and peacock feather filaments.

Pair of Leopard Rank Badges for Third-rank Military Official (for front and back of coat), late 17th–early 18th century (Qing dynasty, China), silk, gold, peacock feather, 27.9 x 29.8 cm (gift of Shirley Z. Johnson, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., F2022.1.11.1-2) and Crane Badge for First-rank Civil Official, c. 1680 (Qing dynasty, China), silk, gold, peacock feathers, 34.9 x 31.1 cm (gift of Shirley Z. Johnson, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., F2022.1.21). Speakers: Jan Stuart, Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, and Beth Harris, Smarthistory

[panicinthestudio]

The Black Obelisk, January 23, 2025

The Black Obelisk, 825 B.C.E. (Neo-Assyrian), black limestone, 197.48 x 45.08 x 60.96 cm (The British Museum, London) Speakers: Dr. Senta German and Dr. Beth Harris Smarthistory