Philadelphia Museum of Art
Subtitle: Handbook of the Collections
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 440
ISBN-13: 9780300207996
Subjects: Art museums; Museums, united states
Description: This fully updated and beautifully redesigned handbook is the essential guide to the encyclopaedic collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Divided into four sections - Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Contemporary - the handbook features more than five hundred masterpieces from the museum's world-renowned holdings, each handsomely illustrated in colour and accompanied by a brief text written by the museum's curators. Each section integrates a wide variety of media, including paintings, works on paper, sculptures, decorative arts, costumes and textiles, arms and armour, and photography. Expanded entries provide in-depth information on some of the most historically significant and beloved objects, such as a 16th-century Indian temple hall, Grace Kelly's wedding dress, and Marcel Duchamp's Etant donnes. Other passages discuss the contributions of several of the museum's most important donors, exploring the idea of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as "a collection of collections".