The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Ancient Greek Bronze Helmet and Works by Dorothea Tanning and Rembrandt van Rijn

Cleveland (September 25, 2024)—The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) announces the acquisition of three new pieces including an ancient Greek helmet, an oil painting by Dorothea Tanning, and a drypoint etching by Rembrandt van Rijn. 

Corinthian Helmet, Greek, c. 625–550 BCE

The most familiar and long-lived ancient Greek helmet type

Used by hoplite warriors fighting in phalanx formations, Corinthian helmets were designed to cover nearly the entire face and head, providing maximum protection but limiting vision, hearing, and movement. Seamlessly made from a single piece of bronze, this remarkably preserved helmet has a rounded, domed top, a substantial nose guard, rounded triangular eyeholes, large integrated cheekpieces, and a flaring rear neck guard. The gentle curves and sharp angles evoke the head and face that it protected.

Although the helmet’s archaeological find spot is unknown, it has a long and well documented modern history, stretching back to a 1934 sale held by Sotheby’s in London, where it was listed as the “Property of Capt. E. G. Spencer-Churchill,” an esteemed collector of antiquities. The first of its kind to be acquired by the CMA, this Corinthian helmet will be on view in the Dr. John and Helen Collis Family Gallery of Greek Art (102B) beginning later this year.

Musical Chairs, Dorothea Tanning, 1951

A key member in the pantheon of Surrealist artists

One of Dorothea Tanning’s finest and most admired works, Musical Chairs is a visually compelling, generously scaled oil painting depicting a pre-adolescent girl in a strikingly unruly domestic interior. Before becoming a professional painter and sculptor, Tanning worked as a fashion illustrator, solidifying her lifelong interest in the expressive qualities of cloth. With its deliberately uncanny subject, composition, and tenor, Musical Chairs is an excellent example of Surrealism, the early to mid-20th-century avant-garde movement that investigated the creative potential of the irrational subconscious mind.

Tanning created an intellectually rich body of work often centered upon female subjects. Although her art was underappreciated during much of her career, today she is regarded as a pillar in the Surrealist movement. 

Musical Chairs was previously sequestered in a family’s private collection for more than 70 years. It will be on view in the Hammond Hemmelgarn Family Gallery of American Modern Art 226B beginning in early December.

Saint Francis Beneath a Tree Praying, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1657

Dutch Golden Age artist was an innovator in painting, drawing, and printmaking

Considered among the most significant works of art from the Baroque period, Rembrandt van Rijn’s prints number over 300; today, they continue to inspire through the emotion and humanity of their subject matter as well as their beauty and technical mastery. Created late in Rembrandt’s life, in 1657, Saint Francis Beneath a Tree Praying is one of Rembrandt’s most spiritually moving works, depicting a hermit saint sequestered in the wilderness and praying to a crucifix near an ancient tree. A landscape rising to the right reaches a distant structure on a hill. 

Distinguished for its mixed etching and drypoint technique and impression quality, the work is one of 46 known impressions of the second and primary state of the etching. Rembrandt was known to manipulate various elements of the printing process in order to create virtually unique impressions that vary in mood and pictorial effect. Here, he left ample ink on the surface of the plate to create the dark tonal areas, elsewhere wiping the plate cleanly to create highlights. At once a landscape, an image of spiritual devotion, and a portrait of old age, the work has an indisputable place among Rembrandt’s greatest prints.

About the Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 63,000 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovation. One of the leading encyclopedic art museums in the United States, the CMA is recognized for its award-winning Open Access program—which provides free digital access to images and information about works in the museum’s collection—and free of charge to all. The museum is located in the University Circle neighborhood with two satellite locations on Cleveland’s west side: the Community Arts Center and Transformer Station.

The museum is supported in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and made possible in part by the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts. The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. For more information about the museum and its holdings, programs, and events, call 888-CMA-0033 or visit cma.org.