Leave it to the quirky and creative Eric Hanson, our current author/illustrator-in-residence in the MIA’s Art Research and Reference Library thanks to Coffee House Press, to combine two fine examples of 3-D statuary into one intriguing 2-D conglomerate. Here’s his latest dispatch from the stacks. Follow all of Eric’s musings here on MIA Stories or over at CHP In the Stacks.
In the Stacks with Eric Hanson: The Same Unusual Smile
One of my favorites from what I’ve drawn so far. One of the smiling angels on Reims Cathedral, France, surmounted by the bust of some Italian aristocrat that’s in the MIA collection. They both have the same unusual smile. The metaphor here might be the superiority of Renaissance thinking over medieval superstition…
Inspiration drawn from the following:
Portrait of Luca Salvioni c. 1536, Agostino Zoppo (Italy, Europe)
Bronze 28 3/4 x 23 in. (73.03 x 58.42 cm)
The William Hood Dunwoody Fund 33.3Frenkley, Alexander. Stones of Glory-Stones of France: A Pictorial Sequence of French Architectural Monuments. New York: International University Press, 1944.
About Eric: His illustrations and writing have appeared in Vanity Fair, Harper’s, New York Times, Rolling Stone, McSweeney’s and The Atlantic. A Book of Ages, published in 2008, is his wittily curated collection of moments in the lives of the famous. He also creates children’s books. He will discuss his MIA residency and present new work inspired by it on Thursday, June 19th at 7pm in the MIA’s Friends Community Room, during Third Thursday: Get Local. You’re invited. Until then, you have his words and drawings.