Author Archives: sclippa

April 30, 2012

“The Art Department’s wanderjahre” — The origins of the Sloane Art Library

Over the last few months, I’ve had the pleasure of working on a project researching the history and origins of the Sloane Art Library. While rummaging through the Art Department’s old letters and administrative files might not sound like a fascinating way to spend time to everyone, my time in the University Archives at Wilson Library has revealed a surprisingly gripping narrative. Though many side stories attracted my attention, the main tale of the Art Library’s founding seems to be one of constant, dogged perseverance in the face of a troubled economy and an intransigent government.

The Sloane Art Library’s early history is inextricable from the history of the Ackland Art Museum. The first evidence in the archives of discussion of either the Art Library or the Ackland is in a 1951 report to Chancellor R.B. House from the “Committee on the Ackland Memorial,” in which the members discuss their plans to build an arts center in the “Fine Arts Area” of campus.

The intended location of the arts center. (1951)

Envisioned as a combination gallery and art department in which teaching would be facilitated by the presence of art, the plan was to include “the development of the Art Reference Library, housing books, prints, photographs and slides, for research and the teaching of art.” Later documents from 1953 detail more specific plans for this library, including:

  • A main reading room, office space for a librarian, and a “typing room”
  • Smaller reading rooms for classes
  • Shelving for 5000 books
  • An accessible “back stack”
  • A slide room and a file room for photos and prints
  • A vault for small valuable objects
  • Offices for the library’s art historian staff
  • Adequate table space for 30 readers
  • Spaces for 12-15 graduate students
  • 4 individual study rooms for faculty and researchers
  • An open-air reading room

Initial plans for the Ackland building, including the Art Library. (1951)

At first, the path seemed smooth for the Art Library. Grounds work was in progress on the Ackland complex by 1958, and the Ackland had an opening ceremony the same year. However, it seems that some problems were already beginning to surface just a year later, in 1959:

“The enclosed sketch shows why the [roof] canopy leaks. The rain water fills the channels faster than the water runs off so that drops hitting it splash up around the edge of the trough and drop below in quantity. I do not know if the design is defective or the installation, but in either case, the thing leaks like a sieve.”

At least they didn't have this problem! Close-up from an ad for fire safety products in the archive file. The ad title reads: "Stop Fire BEFORE It Spreads."

In 1966, plans were beginning for what would eventually become the Hanes Art Center. A “Defense of an Appropriation for an Art Building at UNC Chapel Hill” complained that the current library space was completely full (in terms of both books and people), had inadequate work space for librarians, and not enough study space. Unfortunately, in 1967 the art building was excised from the governor’s budget, prompting Joseph Sloane (then Director of the Ackland Art Museum, including the Art Library) to write to Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson: “Sadly enough, we all know that sweet reason is not what the Legislature is most likely to listen to.” 

One of many facilities photographs used as an argument for a new space. (1970)

These hard times, described in another letter from Sloane as “the Art Department’s wanderjahre,” lasted for another twelve years, with a total blackout on new construction in 1969 and another ignored request for funding in 1970. At long last, in 1978, discussion of the new building resumed, and in 1979 building plans were once more being reviewed, this time with a new architectural firm.

I have many more files to go through, and more questions to answer: when was the library finally completed? What was the turning point for getting construction done? When did the Art Library go from being part of the Ackland to become part of the University Library system?

I’ll return to you with some of these answers in a later installment!

– Eva Sclippa

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November 23, 2011

Patron Interview: Krysta Black on doing research with manuscript facsimiles

The 10th century in Spain was a hectic time to create an illuminated manuscript.  In the south, the Umayyad Caliphate ruled from Cordoba, while in the north, a series of kings attempted to define themselves and their struggling kingdoms.

Art History PhD candidate Krysta Black, who recently sat down with me to talk about her research, feels that this climate of social upheaval helps to explain some of the odd quirks about her manuscript of choice: the Leon Bible of 960.

The Leon Bible of 960

The Rare Book Collection's facsimile of the Leon Bible of 960, on display at an event in the Art Library on Nov. 9th.

Krysta described one of her first experiences studying the facsimile of the Leon Bible, which is held in the Rare Book Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library:

“… one of the things that I noticed that I hadn’t really gotten from any of the literature on the manuscript, was the way in which certain books of the Bible were far more heavily illustrated than others.   Because it’s something that is really striking when you’re actually leafing through the book.  You’re like ‘Okay, I’m going through Genesis, there are a couple of little illustrations, that’s cool, that’s cool…’ I get to Exodus and the book just explodes!” 

Since then she has been exploring, among other issues, the connection between the heavy illustration of the Book of Exodus–a book entirely focused on the escape from slavery–and the political climate at the time.

Krysta emphasized not only that she could not have made this discovery without the facsimile, but also just how much the facsimile helped to dictate her future course of study.  In choosing a manuscript to work with, she gravitated toward those works the UNC libraries had available in facsimile form.

Krysta Black speaking on her chosen manuscript.

Krysta Black in action, presenting the facsimile of the Leon Bible of 960.

“So, Rare Books had recently acquired a facsimile of the Leon Bible of 960, the most densely illustrated bible before the year 1000.  After looking at what books the UNC collection had, I saw that and said ‘Okay, that’s what I’m going to work on.’  I would say that the collection here directed me to what I studied rather than the other way around.”

Much like Professor Chatterjee noted in my previous interview, Krysta has discovered that manuscript facsimiles provide a way to connect with the experience of the book as it was originally intended, and to learn from that experience:

“I think working with facsimiles really facilitates being able to study those experiential aspects of manuscript illustration.  Whereas, if you’re just dealing with excised images, you’ve completely lost the entire context of what the book is about. ”

The audience enjoying firsthand experience with manuscripts at the Art Library facsimile event.

Finally, there is the issue of access.  To Krysta, facsimiles are important not only for the ways in which they open up new avenues of thought about the manuscripts, but also the ways in which they bring the user one step closer to actually accessing the original–which can be very difficult.

“I studied in Spain to do just that, and even when you gain access to these  things you have maybe a couple of hours with them.  So, [working with the facsimile in the library] helps you to prepare for actually getting to see the real thing. But also if you can’t make it to see the real thing the facsimile is, of course, the next best thing. ”

Krysta, along with Professor Dorothy Verkerk, gave us a great introduction to “the next best thing” when they gave a facsimile talk in the Art Library on November 9th.  With the generous assistance of the Rare Books Collection they were able to present the Leon Bible facsimile in the Art Library in all its glory.  Keep following us here to learn of more such events in the future as well as for further interviews!

– Eva Sclippa

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November 7, 2011

Facsimile Talk Wednesday, Nov. 9

Join us at the Sloane Art Library this week for another facsimile talk!

This week’s talk will feature Professor Dorothy Verkerk and PhD. candidate Krysta Black as they speak on the Ashburnham Pentateuch and the Leon Bible of 960.  Both speakers will be presenting facsimiles of their respective manuscripts from the Rare Book Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library.  As it is a facsimile event, this will be a hands-on experience, so be sure to come have some “face time” with these manuscripts.

Again, the information is:
Wednesday, 6 pm
November 9th
Sloane Art Library

Hope to see you there!

-Eva

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October 5, 2011

Faculty Interview: Paroma Chatterjee on using manuscript facsimiles

You look at books, right?

Dr. Chatterjee sharing an illuminated manuscript facsimile with one of her classes.

That is to say, whatever form they take, you probably think of books as something you take in almost wholly through the sense of sight.  In a world of “disembodied” books on Kindles, Nooks, Crannies (which do not exist just yet), and other e-readers, it is easy to get used to the idea of a book as a visual phenomenon divorced from a physical, touchable, smell-able shape.  In my work with manuscript facsimiles, however, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with some of our patrons about how they use our facsimile collection.  As it turns out, some of them have very different ideas about how best to experience a book.

Professor Paroma Chatterjee has been teaching medieval and Byzantine art here at UNC for the last three years.  Her particular interests are in “textual and pictorial narrative, concealment and revelation, the creation (and sometimes destruction) of cult images, the delights and discontents of illusionism, and silent cinema.”  When we met, she explained the benefits of bringing her classes to the library to use our manuscript facsimile collection — which she does at least once each term.

“For them to actually see the stuff and to touch it, and to use it, to see how even the shape and the weight of the folio is different from a regular book, that is what I’ve tried to do.”

The unique physical experience of these facsimiles is not limited to books, either.  For example, there is also the Codex Vaticanus Palatinus Graecus 431 — better known as the Joshua Roll. The Joshua Roll is a large scroll facsimile which Professor Chatterjee enjoys showing the students because it exposes them to an alternative form of the book.

The Joshua Roll in action.

“A lot of the students are very unsure of how to use this object; and then there’s the whole box in which it’s kept, so you open the box, and it has those rollers… but then you begin to play with it and they get more comfortable,” she said, describing the experience.

The “experience” seemed to be the most important part of our facsimile collection for Dr. Chatterjee, and the ways in which that experience differs from more typical means of viewing manuscripts.

“You realize how much your body is implicated in that (handling a manuscript).  I’ve had to lift some of these facsimiles to show, and I can tell you it really was a workout.  And then there are these tiny ones, which also require your body, because you literally have to peer (at it); there’s so much detail and you feel clumsy compared to it, your size is so out of proportion to these beautiful little things. That is what I want the students to get a sense of, there’s NO way a slide lecture does that.  There’s no way a museum does that either, because you can’t actually touch it.  That’s the fun thing about the library, that’s what I try to make them see: look, you can touch it, you could tear it if you wanted!”

“Which we won’t!” she hastily added.

Feeling the love.

Apparently her approach works, too.  Professor Chatterjee described situations in which students simply could not stop handling the facsimiles, staying even after class had ended.  I’ve attended a few of these sessions myself and their excitement is palpable.

If you’re interested in learning more, Professor Chatterjee will be presenting some of our illuminated manuscripts at the Art Library on the evening of October 11 at 6 p.m. I’ll also be continuing to explore our facsimile collection in a series of similar interviews here on the blog. Stay tuned for more discoveries and insights!

– Eva Sclippa

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September 23, 2011

The Pretzels and the Fishes: Marginalia in Our Manuscript Facsimile Collection

Beneath the Lamentation of Christ, a stocky peasant man has pulled down his trousers and is mooning the audience.

A man in the margins of the illuminated manuscript The Hours of Simon de Varie.

He offers no explanation for his presence. Neither does the man standing—or rather, blossoming from a flower—to the right of the dead Christ.  His silence may be explained by the fact that he has both hands in his mouth, pulling it open to stick out his tongue in a gesture recognizable across the ages.

Another man and his gesture, from the margins of The Hours of Simon de Varie.

These characters are just two of the many striking grotesques parading through the margins of The Hours of Simon de Varie, an illuminated book of hours from 15th century France.  Here at the Art Library, we have a facsimile of it in our illuminated manuscript facsimile collection.

Perhaps as interesting as the images themselves is the fact that, at some point in the manuscript’s history, one of its owners evidently disapproved of the mooning man.  It is the only image in the text that seems to have been intentionally marred, his twin cheeks barely visible beneath the streaks of paint.  The outrageous cheekiness of this image make it an obvious target for elimination. Remarkably, though, most of the other grotesques remain untouched.  A tour through some of our facsimiles of books of hours shows a similarly bold presence of secular, bizarre, and even crass imagery in the pages of holy texts.

A book of hours is a book created for personal worship.  It was typically used as a kind of plug-and-pray prayer reference book, filling needs such as “to pray for the dead or dying,” “to ask for forgiveness from sins,” “to ask for the intercession of saints,” and many other categories of devotions.

As with most other illuminated manuscripts, books of hours were luxury items possessed only by the richest members of society.  A book that is both a practical prayer manual and a status symbol seems like an unlikely place to find the whimsical creations of an illuminator, but some carried a subtler, more pointed message than those in The Hours of Simon de Varie.

In The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, a life-like rosary frames the page.

Unlike the “mooner and friend”, most of the strange creatures and objects in The Hours of Catherine of Cleves appear in frames encircling pages in the second half of the manuscript.  These are usually executed in a trompe l’oeil style, so that the items that make up the frames appear as if they are lying on top of the page rather than painted on it.  On one page, a rosary lies around the text as if just dropped by the reader.

Some of the items in these frames have more distinct, symbolic meanings. A scene of St. Sebastian’s martyrdom by a firing squad of bowmen is surrounded by a frame made up of bows and arrows. Another saint is surrounded by a chain of fish eating each other.

Mmmmmmm, fish.

A cannibalistic fish fest may not seem very holy, but the image of a larger fish eating a smaller one was a common metaphor during the medieval period for the rich “consuming” the poor.

Hang on to that pretzel.

Other items seem to have been included purely on a whim.  For example: pretzels, which appear in this image along with communion wafers.  Although you might not think that delicious salty snacks would have hidden theological significance, pretzels were evidently a symbol of the arms of the Father.  Mysterious objects that appear on other pages include mussels filled with gold, and crabs.

It seems like an unfair tease to tell you now that “there are many more of these creatures, and you should come see them for yourself,” but a full listing of every unique grotesque in every book of hours we have would tax even the greatest attention span.  There are too many boars playing harps and ghostly faces emerging from cadelles in The Hours of Mary of Burgundy, for one, and too many men wearing ox yokes and beasts in bishop’s miters in The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux to discuss in one blog post.  So take a look at what we have here, and come in prepared to squint.

– Eva Sclippa

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