Ancient Splendor

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Ancient Splendor

Artist Edris Eckhardt (American, 1905-1998)

Date1962

Dimensions12 x 21 in. (30.5 x 53.3 cm)

Mediumtransparent multi-colored glass, bronze

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2005.22

Not on View

DescriptionSolid chunks of colored glass are crushed and embedded into openings cut into a rectangular sheet of sculpted wax relief forming a base that is burned out and replaced by cast bronze. Two rod-like supports of decreasing diameter extend from the bottom of the piece. The whole is mounted on a rectangular base of wood. The front of the relief is densely packed with protruding gem-like settings forming bezels and prongs that enclose drops, blobs, and small shards of colored glass. A rectangular, slightly concave surface near the right edge is inscribed vertically with a stylus before casting "Edris Eckhardt 1962." The name "Edris Eckhardt" is also inscribed in block letters horizontally in the edge of the plaque near the right corner.

Label TextCleveland artist Edris Eckhardt is renowned as an early leader in 20th-century American ceramics and glass. The sculpture captures the aesthetic of the period through its random array of more than 150 glass “gems” fused into bronze “settings,” its bejeweled splendor evoking an ancient civilization. Ancient Splendor was the centerpiece of Eckhardt’s 1968 retrospective at The Corning Museum of Glass and is considered one of her two most important sculptures.Published ReferencesUntracht, Oppi, "The glass of Edris Eckhardt," Craft Horizons, 22, no. 6, 1962, p. 36.

Paul Higgins, Edris Eckhardt," Neues Glass (New Glass), 4, 1985, pp. 232-240, ill. P. 240, no. 21.

Dancyger, Ruth, Edris Eckhardt: Cleveland Sculptor, Roger A. Welchans, Cleveland, OH, 1990. no. 264.

Drexler-Lynn, Martha, American Studio Glass 1960-1990, Hudson Hills, New York, 2004, pp.39-40, ills. pp. 38 and 39.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 194, repr. (col.) p. 195.

Cleveland Artists Foundation, Edris Eckhardt: Visionary and Innovator in American Studio Ceramics and Glass, Cleveland, 2006, repr. p.41 (exhibition catalog; not in exhibition)

Page, Jutta-Annette, "News: the Glass Pavilion of the Toledo Museum of Art," New Glass Review 28, 2007, p. 103.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 342, repr. (col.).

Page, Jutta-Annette, Peter Morrin, and Robert Bell, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, Toledo, OH, 2012, p. 22, p. 23, pl. 7.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, June 14-September 9, 2012.