Dumbarton Oaks

Download or read book Beatrix Farrand's Plant Book for Dumbarton Oaks written by Diane K. McGuire and published by Dumbarton Oaks. This book was released on 1980 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Plant Book for Dumbarton Oaks was prepared as a resource for those charged with maintenance of the gardens following their acquisition by Harvard University in 1941. Beatrix Farrand here explains the reasoning behind her plan for each of the gardens and stipulates how each should be cared for in order that its basic character remain intact. Her resourceful suggestions for alternative plantings, her rigorous strictures concerning pruning and replacement, her exposition of the overall concept that underlies each detail, and the plant lists that accompany her discussion of each garden make this a volume of interest to every student, practitioner, and lover of landscape design.

Download or read book Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks written by Karl A. Taube and published by Dumbarton Oaks. This book was released on 2004 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks presents the Olmec portion of the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. It illustrates all thirty-nine Olmec art objects in color plates and includes many complementary and comparative black-and-white illustrations and drawings. The body of Pre-Columbian art that Robert Bliss carefully assembled over a half-century between 1912 and 1963, amplified only slightly since his death, is a remarkably significant collection. In addition to their aesthetic quality and artistic significance, the objects hold much information regarding the social worlds and religious and symbolic views of the people who made and used them before the arrival of Europeans in the New World. This volume is the second in a series of catalogues that will treat objects in the Bliss Pre-Columbian Collection. The majority of the Olmec objects in the collection are made of jade, the most precious material for the peoples of ancient Mesoamerica from early times through the sixteenth century. Various items such as masks, statuettes, jewelry, and replicas of weapons and tools were used for ceremonial purposes and served as offerings. Karl Taube brings his expertise on the lifeways and beliefs of ancient Mesoamerican peoples to his study of the Olmec objects in teh Bliss collection. His understanding of jade covers a broad range of knowledge from chemical compositions to geological sources to craft technology to the symbolic power of the green stone. Throughout the book the author emphasizes the role of jade as a powerful symbol of water, fertility, and particularly, of the maize plant which was the fundamental source of life and sustenance for the Olmec. The shiny green of the stone was analogous to the green growth of maize. This fundamental concept was elaborated in specific religious beliefs, many of which were continued and elaborated by later Mesoamerican peoples, such as the Maya. Karl Taube employs his substantial knowledge of Pre-Columbian cultures to explore and explicate Olmec symbolism in this catalogue.

Download or read book Byzantine Garden Culture written by Antony Robert Littlewood and published by Dumbarton Oaks. This book was released on 2002 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Individual essays discuss Byzantine conceptions of paradise, the textual evidence for monastic horticulture, animal and game parks, herbs in medicinal pharmacy, and the famous illustrated copy of Dioskorides's herbal manual in Vienna. An opening chapter explores questions and observations from the point of view of a non-Byzantine garden historian, and the closing chapter suggests possible directions for future scholarship in the field.

Download or read book Perspectives on Garden Histories written by Michel Conan and published by Dumbarton Oaks. This book was released on 1999 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprising ten papers which critically examine the field of garden history, presented at the twenty-first Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture. Topics include changes in approaches to garden history and architectural studies over time and new historical investigations and discoveries in Italian and Mughal gardens. Good

Download or read book Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks written by Dumbarton Oaks and published by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introduction to Maya art is based on study of one of the most important collections in the United States, assembled by Robert Woods Bliss between 1935 and 1962. The catalogue, written by leading Maya scholars, contains detailed analyses of specific works of art along with thematic essays situating them within the context of Maya culture.

Download or read book A Home of the Humanities written by James N. Carder and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss were consummate collectors and patrons. The illustrated essays in this volume reveal how the Blisses' wide-ranging interests in art, music, gardens, architecture, and interior design resulted in the creation of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection--what they came to call their "home of the humanities."

Download or read book Dumbarton Oaks written by Robert C. Hilderbrand and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2001-02-01 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hilderbrand explains why, with the Second World War moving toward an Allied victory in the summer of 1944, the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China began to give greater priority to protecting their own sovereignty than to preventing