Index Magazine

Creature Feature: Merpeople!

October 20, 2020
Two images are shown side by side. On the left is an image of an intricately decorated silver tazza. It depicts a merman sitting on a turtle, blowing into a seashell horn while holding up a silver tray. The image on the right is of a painting of a pale-skinned woman with auburn hair wearing a crown of pink flowers. She bends toward the string instrument she is playing, surrounded by fruits and flowers in the background.

Take a (virtual) trip to the sea! Join curatorial assistants Casey Monahan and Heather Linton to discover sirens and merpeople in Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting A Sea-Spell and Edward Farrell’s Rutland Tazzas, a pair of elaborately decorated silver vessels.

We invite you to continue exploring merpeople at the museums using the online collection Merpeople! at the Harvard Art Museums.

Creature Feature, a new online series from the Harvard Art Museums, offers a chance for families to explore magical creatures across the collections through close-looking and curious exploration with museum staff. Creature Feature talks are free, open to curious explorers ages 6 and up, and offered once a month on Zoom.


Speakers:
Casey Kane Monahan, Cunningham Curatorial Assistant for the Collection, Division of European and American Art

Heather Linton, Curatorial Assistant for Special Exhibitions and Publications, Division of European and American Art 

Works Explored:
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, British, A Sea-Spell, 1875–77. Oil on canvas. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Grenville L. Winthrop, Class of 1886, 1939.92.

Edward Farrell, British, Rutland Tazzas, 1826–28. Silver. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Paul Clarke Stauffer Fund, 2016.111.1–2.

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