Ancient Alloy:
Bronzes From the Collection

Ground Floor Gallery
Opens January

Bronze has held a special fascination since it was first developed more than 5,000 years ago. Its hardness made it desirable for weapons and tools, but it has always been favored for special objects—for adornment, for ritual and for simple aesthetic pleasure. Drawing from its permanent collection, supplemented by loans from a private collection of ancient Chinese bronzes, the Museum has assembled an exhibition with works spanning three continents and three thousand years.

Ancient Alloy features some of the best artworks in the Museum’s collection, including many that have never been displayed here before. Many of the works were given to the museum by James D. Baldwin, whose collection ranged from ancient Indian bronzes to contemporary sculpture. The exhibit features works contemporary artists, such as Kiki Smith, and the late John Silk Deckard, whose Eternal Vigilance sits at the foot of the Museum’s steps, alongside works from ancient Rome and Renaissance Europe. Visitors will find a diversity of subjects—animals, abstract design, and the human form are presented in ways that are serious, humorous, ordinary, and otherworldly.

At a time when everything around us is changing so rapidly, there is a certain reassurance in the continuity and commonality of the human experience, as expressed in all its variety over the millennia in this ancient alloy.