Mead Art Museum, Art museum at Amherst College, US
The Mead Art Museum is an art collection on the Amherst College campus containing about 19,000 works, including American paintings, European art, Russian pieces, Mexican ceramics, and Tibetan scroll paintings. The holdings also include monumental carved stone panels from ancient Assyria displayed in a dedicated gallery space.
The museum acquired monumental carved stone panels from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II. in ancient Mesopotamia back in 1857. These pieces were brought to America in the 1850s and have remained central to the collection ever since.
The museum features a historic English room from the 1600s with intricate carved oak and walnut paneling that visitors can see during their visit. This restored space gives you a sense of how wealthy households in Europe once displayed their taste and craftsmanship.
The museum is located on the Amherst College campus and offers free admission to all visitors. Throughout the academic year, regular exhibition openings and student-led tours provide opportunities to explore the collection with guidance.
The museum houses multi-ton stone blocks from ancient Assyria that were transported thousands of miles to Massachusetts in the 1850s. These monumental pieces show the scale of artistic ambition and the engineering efforts required in moving such massive works across continents in the pre-industrial era.
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