Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood Donate Important Collection of Islamic Art to Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum

Ceramics, Works on Paper Add Critical Depth to Harvard Collection

CAMBRIDGE, MA (March 13, 2002) – Longtime benefactors Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood have donated Mrs. Calderwood's extensive collection of Islamic art to Harvard University's Arthur M. Sackler Museum. The gift continues the Art Museums' leadership role as a recipient of major acquisitions for the purpose of teaching and research.

The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art consists of 120 objects acquired by Mrs. Calderwood during four decades of travel and study. The assemblage includes paintings, drawings, metalware, lacquer, and ceramics largely from countries within the Iranian cultural orbit (an area that at times extended into present-day Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, and Georgia) during the millennium between the 9th and 19th centuries.

The collection represents 1,000 years of Iranian artistic achievement, ranging from the austere and powerful epigraphic ceramics of the 9th and 10th centuries to the introspective realism of late 19th-century portraiture. It includes 60 pieces of ceramics that represent - with outstanding quality - every significant period and technique in Persian pottery, including a rare example of Timurid blue-and-white ware from the 15th century.

"We're both proud of, and humbled by, this gift," said James Cuno, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums. "By entrusting this collection to the Sackler, the Calderwoods preserve intact an intellectual achievement of the greatest magnitude and share it with everyone interested in the arts of Islam and Iran. The significance of this gift is all the greater, given the time in which we live. We all need to learn more about and better appreciate the achievements of the Islamic world, and the Calderwoods' gift contributes mightily to this."

Gift enhances existing collection
The Calderwood gift adds critical depth to the Sackler's traditional area of preeminence in Islamic art - manuscript illustration - and gives the Museum a real strength in the field of ceramics. Students, scholars, and the public will now have access to ceramics that "beautifully illustrate the achievements of this industry during a period of 1,000 years," said Mary Anderson McWilliams, the Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic Art at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum. "The high quality and comprehensive nature of Mrs. Calderwood's ceramics collection reflect not only her excellent eye but her years of teaching Islamic art at Boston College."

Harvard was a "co-collector"
Stanford Calderwood said he and his wife felt it was appropriate to donate the collection to the Sackler because "Harvard, in effect, was co-collector with Norma Jean as she scoured the world to build her collection of Islamic art. I couldn't be more pleased that the collection will have as its home in perpetuity the Sackler Museum."

"Norma Jean bought the first piece of her collection in Teheran while on a Museum of Fine Arts tour of Iran," he recalled. "Triggered by that and eager to know more about Islamic Art, she first began auditing courses at Harvard and later moved to the Ph.D. program. Year after year, Harvard curators and professors sharpened her eye for quality and refined her taste. This was in the classroom and in face-to-face consultations in which Harvard experts happily and generously shared their expertise."

Mrs. Calderwood's love of Persian art directed her travels and collecting efforts. During the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, she visited 15 countries in Asia - making four trips to Iran and others to Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iraq. She also undertook graduate studies in Islamic Art and education at Harvard University and taught Asian and Islamic art at Boston College during the 1980s. As overseer and member of four visiting committees at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mrs. Calderwood lectured extensively on Islamic Art to the MFA's visitors and gallery instructors.

Works on paper are significant
In addition to the ceramics, Mrs. Calderwood donated more than 50 works on paper, including calligraphy, paintings, and drawings from the 14th through 19th century. The paintings reflect the major regional and chronological styles of Persian painting since the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The great strengths of the collection are paintings and illuminated frontispieces from 16th-century Iran. Most famous among these is Afrasiyab and Siyavush Embrace from one of the most famous manuscripts in Persian painting, Firdausi's great Shahnama, which was made for the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I, who ruled from 1524 to 1576. The painting illustrates a temporary truce in the central conflict of the Shahnama - the ongoing hostilities between Iran and Turan (the region of modern-day Uzbekistan). In the painting, the Turanian shah (Afrasiyab) addresses the Iranian prince (Siyavush) with these words: "Now evil lies asleep in every land. Hate and tumult cease; the tiger and the lamb drink together in peace. All now is safe and sure; for the world has had a surfeit of the wars of Tur." This painting and others donated by the Calderwoods enhance Harvard's already important collection of Persian paintings from the Safavid period (1501–1722).

About the Harvard University Art Museums
The Harvard University Art Museums are one of the world's leading arts institutions, with the Arthur M. Sackler, Busch-Reisinger, and Fogg art museums, the Straus Center for Conservation, and the U.S. headquarters for the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, an excavation project in western Turkey.

The Harvard University Art Museums are distinguished by the range and depth of their collections, their groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original research of their staff. As an integral part of the Harvard community, the three art museums serve as a resource for all students, adding a special dimension to their areas of study. The public is welcome to experience the collections and exhibitions as well as to enjoy lectures, symposia, and other programs.

For more than a century, the Harvard University Art Museums have been the nation's premier training ground for museum professionals and scholars and are renowned for their role in the development of the discipline of art history in this country.

Location and Hours
The Fogg Art Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum are located at 32 Quincy Street in Cambridge. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is located next door at 485 Broadway. Each Museum is a short walk from the Harvard Square MBTA station.

Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sunday 1 – 5 p.m.; the Museums are closed on national holidays. Admission is $5; $4 for seniors; $3 for students; and free for those under 18 years of age. The Museums are free to everyone all day on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, 10 a.m. until noon. The Harvard University Art Museums receive support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. More detailed information is available at 617-495-9400 or on the Internet at www.artmuseums.harvard.edu.