Outside of any well-endowed museum, the Barakat Gallery Collection proves to be one of the finest assemblages of its kind. Marvelous sculptures from the world’s most ancient of civilizations, exquisite glass vessels, figures of ancient gods and goddesses, as well as priceless jewelry make this collection a rarity.
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Bronze. The word itself has musical resonance, like the ringing of a bell. An alloy of copper and tin, this fabled metal has been prized through the centuries for its strength and beauty. Many of the great treasures of human culture have been shaped in this warm and enduring material.
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Jewelry is said to be one of life's luxuries, but it is virtually impossible to imagine the world without it. The adoration of ornament is as old as civilization itself. Once mankind obtained the basic necessities of life, he began to adorn himself with rare, unusual and beautiful objects.
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An international team of archaeologists has unearthed three 2,200-year-old, well-preserved glass mosaics at the site of the ancient city of Zeugma in Turkey. According to the team, all mosaics are constructed of colored glass and served as floors of a building that archaeologists have dubbed the House of Muses.
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The internationally renowned Barakat Gallery, with over 150 years of tradition and established galleries in London, Beverly Hills and Abu Dhabi is now opening their 4th branch on the 11th of October in Seoul, South Korea. Barakat Seoul will permanently host selections from the Barakat Collection, which houses tens of thousands of museum quality items of ancient art.
Barakat runs a fifth-generation family business in art of the antiquities, running galleries in Beverly Hills and London as well as a museum in Amman, Jordan. The first Barakat Gallery in Asia is officially opening in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, on Monday.
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You can tell a lot about a culture by how they bury their dead. In the case of Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) China, the sculptural figures found in tombs tell the story of everyday life more than 500 years ago. To find out more about these curious sculptures, we went to Lofty expert Amanda Miller, a specialist in Chinese and Japanese decorative arts with more than a decade of auction house experience, for the scoop on these buried treasures.
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Coins. Reach into any pocket or purse and you’re certain to find a few. They are an integral part of daily life, so ubiquitous that we rarely think about them. Few objects are as universally employed by human culture. Throughout the world, every civilized society uses coins as a medium of exchange. Coins serve as a kind of propaganda, an advertisement for the aims and ambitions of the people who mint them.
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It may be easy for us to project our modern idea of beauty onto the ancient Egyptians. But given that their culture was so fundamentally different from our own and that their everyday customs were imbued with powerful religious symbolism completely alien to modern sensibilities, we must not act so fast.
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This exhibition celebrates the complexity of South Asian representation and iconography by examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice, or puja, in the three native religions of the Indian subcontinent.
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The exquisite beauty and incredible strength of jade resulted in the belief by numerous Pre-Columbian cultures that this remarkable stone had qualities of both power and magic. Crafted by expert artists, this extraordinary medium was used for the creation of spirited works of art--objects that gave substance to myth and its symbolic language.
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Check out the Barakat Gallery tumblr blog for an immersive visual experience of all things ancient. Everything from culture, architecture, art, objects, paintings, design, and fashion. If it is inspired or related to the ancient world... and aesthetically stimulating... you can find it here.
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This week we are featuring a beautiful collection of newly added items to the website from the African and Tribal Arts. Including a magnificent Mangbetu sculptural vessel in the form of conjoined twins. Highly detailed with an elaborate surface texture and elegant form this is a unique piece whose two headed visage only serves to heighten its whimsical mystique.
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This spring the Getty Museum will exhibit replicas of three of these caves for "Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China's Silk Road," which opens May 7. The ambitious, three-part exhibition, co-organized by the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Conservation Institute, also includes a gallery showing of more than 40 objects resurrected in 1900 from one cave.
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This week we are featuring a variety of objects newly added to the website in the Classical Collection. Standout selections include a stunning Blue Glass Sealed Vessel and a beautiful pair of Roman Lion Head Roundels with handles. Last but not lease we are offering a small bronze handle with a delightful representation of Silenus and lovely patina.
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Villa Kerylos in Beaulieu-sur-Mer is a Greek-style property built in the early 1900s by French archaeologist Theodore Reinach, and his wife Fanny Kann, a daughter of Maximilien Kann and Betty Ephrussi, of the Ephrussi family. A Greek word, "Kerylos" means Halcyon or kingfisher which in Greek mythology was considered a bird of good omen.
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Daily religious devotion in the Greek and Roman worlds centered on the family and the home. Besides official worship in rural sacred areas and at temples in towns, the ancients kept household shrines with statuettes of different deities that could have a deep personal and spiritual meaning.
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The Met’s MediaLab has installed a projector that fills in the temple’s carvings with color. Through March 19, one section of the structure’s south side is on view: a scene of the Roman emperor Augustus, dressed as a pharaoh and making an offering to the deities Hathor and Horus. Because the sun would wash out the projector’s light (the gallery has floor-to-ceiling windows), the scene is illuminated on Friday and Saturday evenings, when the Met offers extended hours.
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The passage of centuries has graced us with these splendid objects... aglow with iridescence, making it look as if they were carved from a rare gemstone. The elegant purity of their shape appeals to the modern eye as much as it would have pleased the ancient, proving that classical beauty never goes out of fashion.
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The Barakat Gallery has recently acquired a brilliant new collection of Islamic bronzes. Featuring everything from elegantly cast ewers and vessels, to exceptionally engraved 10th century sprinklers and vases. Additional standouts include the oil lamp pictured above, a 12th century lamp stand, and a beautiful mortar and pestle set.
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