Taglioni's Jewel Casket

Cornell, Joseph

dc.coverage.temporal	creation date: 1940	en_US
dc.creator	Cornell, Joseph	en_US
dc.date	1940	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2007-11-02T18:14:44Z
dc.date.available	2007-11-02T18:14:44Z
dc.date.issued	1940	en_US
dc.identifier	105084	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1721.3/22367	en_US
dc.description	Wood box covered with brown velvet containing three rows of four glass cubes resting in slots on blue glass, glass necklace, jewelry fragments, and red, blue, and clear glass chipsThe art form that Cornell made his own was the box, its contents carefully arranged to evoke a mood or narrative. These works may recall toys the artist had played with as a child, but they must also trace back to devices in Surrealist art (which Cornell knew well) and, earlier, in paintings by Giorgio de Chirico. In Taglioni's Jewel Casket, small glass cubes lie in a wood box. Beneath them, and under blue glass, necklaces, sand, crystal, and rhinestones rest on a mirrored surface. This romantic scene of ice and jewels relates to an event in the life of the legendary nineteenth-century ballerina Marie Taglioni. A label in the box's lid tells the story: "On a moonlight night in the winter of 1835 the carriage of Marie TAGLIONI was halted by a Russian highwayman, and that enchanting creature commanded to dance for this audience of one upon a panther's skin spread over the snow beneath the stars. From this actuality arose the legend that to keep alive the memory of this adventure so precious to her, TAGLIONI formed the habit of placing a piece of artificial ice in her jewel casket or dressing table where, melting among the sparkling stones, there was evoked a hint of the atmosphere of the starlit heavens over the ice-covered landscape."	en_US
dc.description	full view	en_US
dc.format.extent	12 x 30.2 x 21 cm (4.72 x 11.89 x 8.27 inches)	en_US
dc.format.medium	mixed media	en_US
dc.format.medium	glass (material)	en_US
dc.format.medium	wood (plant material)	en_US
dc.format.medium	velvet	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	131214	en_US
dc.rights	(c)Davis Art Images	en_US
dc.subject	Jewelry	en_US
dc.subject	Ballerinas	en_US
dc.subject	Snow	en_US
dc.subject	Boxes (Containers)	en_US
dc.subject	Gems	en_US
dc.subject	Ice	en_US
dc.subject	Sky	en_US
dc.subject	Art, American --20th century	en_US
dc.title	Taglioni's Jewel Casket	en_US
dc.type	Image	en_US
dc.rights.access	Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only	en_US
dc.identifier.vendorcode	MOMA-S0341	en_US
dc.publisher.institution	Repository: Museum of Modern Art (New York, New York, United States) ID: 474.53	en_US
vra.culturalContext	American	en_US
vra.technique	construction (sculpture)	en_US
vra.worktype	Box (container)	en_US
dc.contributor.display	sculptor: Joseph Cornell (American, 1903-1972)	en_US