The Collection at the BMA

Featured Works

Storage Jar

Copy of the Roman glass Portland Vase (now in the British Museum) in solid black jasper with white jasper relief decoration, the two-handled vase in the shape of an amphora, one side shows on the left the image of a nude male emerging from an architectural structure and grasping the arm of a recumbent, draped female figure holding a sea serpent, above her is a flying cupid holding his bow and arrows, to the right is a tree and a nude male figure resting his right leg on the stump, his chin in his right hand, which is resting on his knee; on the other side left is a draped male figure seated on a rocky structure next to a column, he looks over his shoulder to his left at a central figure, a draped, recumbent female, lying on the rocky base, looking slightly left and with her right arm reaching over her head, behind her and to the right is the figure of a draped seated male looking over his right shoulder at the central figure; underneath each handle is a bearded mask; the base with the image of a cloaked figure, head lowered, wearing a wrapped headdress, with right arm raised to face, in the background foliage; the white relief has been selectively shaded using a black jasper slip to give the impression of enhanced translucency.

Portland Vase copy

The Collection

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Helmet mask with female face has glossy, black surface, elaborate plaited coiffure, band of horizontal marks on forehead, slitted eyes, bulging rings around neck, and black raffia fringe attached to base.

Helmet Mask (sowo)

Large image of Avalokitesvara seated in pose of Royal Ease

Seated Avalokitesvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion

Still Life of Flowers, Fruit, Shells, and Insects, Balthasar van der Ast, oil on panel

Still Life of Flowers, Fruit, Shells, and Insects

Feathered serpent tied into knot with rattles visible at back. Atypical in having human head connected to body. Characteristic undilating headband with knot at front center. pendant earlugs (indicative of Quetzalcoatl). No carvings on base, apparently cut from larger piece (?). Tip of nose broken.

The Feathered Serpent Deity, Quetzalcoatl

  • Aztec culture, Tenochtitlan, Mexico, Pre-Columbian
  • carved stone
Carlos Fernando FitzJames-Stuart, Marquess of Jamaica, François-Hubert Drouais, oil on canvas

Carlos Fernando FitzJames-Stuart, Marquess of Jamaica

A large bronze Hu with ring handles

Jar (Hu)

This still life of inanimate objects has been assembled on a table draped with red and blue textiles. The arrangement includes a globe, a skull with a detached jawbone, a book opened to pages with printed portraits of Charles I and Henrietta a round box with coral branches on the lid, shells, a statue of a putto, two female busts, bubbles, glasses, and a candleholder that has fallen over with the candle just snuffed out.

Vanitas Still Life

Rattle in shape of a raven, carrying on its back a reclining figure with bent knees and extended tongue; human figure is joined by his tongue to a frog, which is held in the beak of a kingfisher bird, whose head is depicted (without a body) and located closest to the handle of the rattle. The underside of the rattle (the raven's belly) has the abstracted features of a human face.

Raven Rattle

La boisson chaude (The Hot Drink), Christophe Huet, oil on canvas

La boisson chaude (The Hot Drink)

A life-size torso of a Lohan

Lohan (Arhat) Disciple of the Historical Buddha Shakyamuni