First off is the Legion of Honor:
This guy looks like a Minoan piece to me. The label only says South Italian from around 335BC. I like it because it has crazy sea creatures, and is that an eyeball in the center? I think so :D
The next piece also has a lot of critters. It is from the fancy porcelain room at the Legion by a man named Bernard Palissy in 1500s France. He liked to make casts from dead critters to make his decorations, and he liked natural things as you can see by this platter. It has oak leaves, fern leaves, grape, acorns, shells, a snake and a lizard probably cast from the real thing. The colors are a little bit blotchy, but I must say, I love this guy XD.
The porcelain room had a lot of what I'd call bug-wear. That is to say many of the plates, cups, and dishes were decorated by some sort of insect. This tureen was the granddaddy of them all however. It was made in Chantilly around 1735-1745 of a low fire porcelain (called soft paste porcelain). Not only does it have the awesomeness to be a three dimensional pumpkin with vine handles and a pomegranate finial, it is also covered in different types of insects. Epic.
I felt that a note must be made about this painting. It is wonderfully executed with watercolor and graphite on paper, but the subject matter is also enjoyable. It is called Love and Its (His) Counterfeits and was painted in 1904. You've got a line of characters with their various riches, tales, and vanities in front of a woman's door. Her expression is priceless - a silent "good grief" to all this hullabaloo. It is at this point I found the painting was indeed made by a woman, Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, who lived from 1872-1945, and I felt a general sense of kinship :BIt seems that blogger has eaten my other photos as well as being dumb in regards to post editing (it is not logical! D:<), so I'll leave the De Young museum for later XP
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