Their interiors are richly decorated with hieroglyphs and paintings signs and symbols that detail the necessary steps to attain immortality. Egypts power and the grandeur that came with it were wellestablished by 2500 bc when the Great Pyramids at giza were built. The sphinx was a philosophy of government set in stone. It depicted the king as fearless, cunning and brave as the lion. And as crucial to egypt as the nile itself. The king was not just a political leader but a religious leader too. In the minds of the ancient egyptians, the pharaohs power and authority as a king stretched far beyond the boundaries of his country and into the cosmos itself. After death, he would escape the earthly bounds of his tomb, board a solar boat and sail into immortality. This vision became material in objects and images found in the tombs and temples as a way of preordaining a central idea after a perilousnd carefully prescribed journey through the night, the king would become one with the sun god re. The king becomes associated with re in particular because of the idea that the sun is born every day out of the womb of the sky, and then comes into the world and goes into the body of the sky at night. And the king in his cycle, in his daily comings and goings, is seen to be like the sun. narrator the idea that the pharaoh would be reborn as the sun god re is described in paintings and hieroglyphs in countless royal tombs. It runs like a spine through the theology and philosophy of egypt for more than two thousand years. A clear development begins in the old kingdom in the Third Millennium before christ. There, at the time of the pyramids, the beyond was located in the sky the celestial beyond was always the royal beyond whe kin wanted to rise. narrator e vision of a cestiaheaven continueinto the new ngdoera and was depicted in the tomb of ramses the sixth, who died in 1136 bc. But the concept of an afterlife in the netherworld had begun to replace it by the beginning of the new kingdom, around 1550 bc. In the second millennium a change took place. The main focus shifted from the sky to the netherworld because egyptians believed that there, the actual regeneration, the coming back to life took place in the world of osiris. narrator osiris, ruler and judge of the dead in the underworld. A powerful figure in ancient egyptian cosmology. His origins rooted in an ancient legend. Through some horrible machinations he was killed and torn asunder and brought back to life as the worlds first mummy, and magically brought back through the help of his sister and wife, isis. Osiris, because he was brought back from the dead and because he was put back from pieces and made to live again, became the symbol of regeneration and particularly was associated with the dead and with the land of the west, the place where most of the burials a, incling th and valley of the kings. West, narrator the cosmological landscape of the life after death was rich with deities hundreds in number. The falconheaded horus god of the sky and the embodiment of divi kingship. Hathor, sky goddess, protector of the sun at night. The jackal anubis, guardian of the body, its divine embalmer and protector. The versatile isis, goddess of fertility patroness of magic and healing and queen of the sky. Thoth, a lunar god often represented as a baboon. An ibis. Or an ibisheaded human. Patron of knowledge and writing, and protector of the scribes. Great and small, the gods took different forms usually human or animal in shape, and often both all of them familiar to the ancient egyptians. When we talk about the hundreds of egyptian gods, each and every one of those is a manifestation of something they associate with the notion of deity or god. For example, the crocodile god, whose name is sobek. The egyptians did not worship crocodiles, they worshipped in this case the force that they associate with the crocodile, who is one of the most fearsome and powerful enemies that they have in their world. So they want to control that particular essence, and they turn it into a deity that they can worship and offer to and then get back what they want from it. narrator the niles fertile banks and the hills just beyond were home to birds and animals that fed the egyptian imagination. They integrated them into their vision of the world that would follow. Like the sun, the sun god re was believed to die each night. He is rejuvenated each day in the form of the scarab beetle. The beetle seemed an apt symbol of rebirth because its eggs were laid in dung, the ultimate form of death and nothingness and nonetheless sprang into the preciousness of new life. The egyptians hoped and prayed for certainties acy the sud ri, thach mm nile would flood, that each winter the crops would ripen. That yearnr hmd c pra i he k a period of great expansion of egyptian power. The charismatic king thutmose the third aggressively expanded egypts borders. He pushed north into syria and palestine. And south, tightening control over nubia and securing its gold mines. That gold was a source of wealth that would fill the coffers wo fie grchheombs ic wks t n kinom like the festival hall, also known as a temple of millions of years, and embellish the public image of thutmose the third. Thutmose the third ruled from 14791425 bc, and embodied the strong Central Authority that characterized the new kingdom. The pharaohs of the new kingdom were just as intent on establishing order and certainty in thefterlife. Across the nile from thebes, due west, they found the perfect staging area for their quest for immortality. The west side of the nile is for the egyptians of course where the sun sets. Where the journey to the next world starts. To be on the west side is directly related to the fact that the suns journey is what were following. At the end of each day, the sun sets in the west and then travels backwards to the Eastern Horizon to rise the next morning. narrator tucked beneath a peak called elqurn that may have appealed to them because of its resemblance to a pyramid, the pharaohs of the new kingdom began to construct a cemetery of royal tombs carved into the limestone hillsides. Preparations for the tomb began just as soon as the king assumed power, permitting time for the elaborate construction throughout his reign. Nearby, a set of smaller tombs began to take shape final resting place for nobles Whose Service to the king was acknowledged by close access to their master for eternity. The tombs of the nobles were less elaborate, but they also displayed a desire to retain their status in the next world. And they were cut just as deeply into the hillsides. The tomb of sennefer, mayor of thebes, depicts sennefer and his wife united eternally in the afterlife. On the ceilings, arbors heavy with ripening grapes evoke the vineyards of osiris a source of vitality and regeneration in the next world. Deir elmedina, a village constructed for artisans who worked in the valley of the kings, contains a scattering of smaller tombs they built for themselves. Wall paintings in the tomb of sennedjem, overseer of the artisans, display the piety of sennedjem and his wife, as they worship the gods of the underworld. The sarcophagus of sennedjems son khonsu attests to that yearning for the continuation of life after death. The surfaces of the sarcophagus are richly covered in hieroglyphs and images, a detailed account of the pieties and rites necessary for passage to an eternal life. Khonsu himself is pictured worshipping two lions, images representing the past and the future. The journey to immortality began with mummification an attempt to prerve the bod as an eternal vessel for the soul. These practices continued for centuries. In the mid fifth century bc, the greek historian herodotus detailed the process of embalming. First with a crooked iron tool they draw out the brain through the nostrils. After this they make a cut along the side and take out the whole contents of the belly. Then they fill the belly with myrrh, and sew it together again. They keep it covered up in natron salts for seventy days. Ed one each for the liver, lungs stomach and intestines. The jars were then placed in a chest. Ornamental plaques made of precious metal might be placed over the incision where the vital organs were removed. After embalming, mummies of kings and the upper echelons of Egyptian Society were elaborately dressed with mummy nets anin dted lar e upper echelons of thd Egyptian Society as symbols of kingly power. The mummies wereften adorn and protted with Precious Metals their fingers and toes sheathed in gold, their faces covered with luminous masks. narrator color carried special significance in ancient egyptian funeral rituals the red granite used in this sarcophagus was also associated with the sun. Black stone, the color of the fertile soil of the nile valley, carried with it associations of resurrection and rebirth, and often referred to eternal life. Fully prepared and adorned, the mummies were then placed in coffins. They were made from Precious Metals orved gildoods. Coffs hous the deceased and provided another vessel for their spirit. They were inscribed with images of deities another layer of protection to ensure safe passage into the netherworld. The mummy was now prepared for its westward journey across the nile. Judging by the scenes of funeral processions in the tomb of the noble ramose, the bereaved dealt with the expression of grief much as we do today. But there was a major difference. Egyptians bearing offerings food, wine, clothing, furniture joined the funeral procession. Representations of these provisions werent just pictures. Egyptians believed what they depicted would come into being. I think its important, when you look at objects from an egyptian tomb, including the decorations on the walls and the mummy itself and even the elements of food and furniture, to remember that all of it was functional. Functional not in the way that we would think about used in daily life. Now some of those pieces indeed are elements, items of tomb equipment could indeed be used in daily life and then be reused in the burial. But everything was intended to function magically in the next world. narrator the royal tombs were hidden from view. There was generally a series of descending shafts, some richly decorated, followed by an antechamber, and then the Burial Chamber. The coffins were placed into monumental sarcophagi. These massive containers protected the pharaoh from grave robbers in this life and his enemies in the netherworld. The tombs also included ushebtis small lifelike figures that performed work for the deceased, acting as servants in the afterworld. By around 1000 bc, it was common to find hundreds of these ushebtis one for each day of the year and a team of supervisors to oversee their work. Boats to carry the king through the netherworld, were also common in royal tombs. Funerary texts, guidebooks to the land beyond life, were a long tradition in egypt. The book of the dead was a collection of spells, sometimes inscribed on coffins and sarcophagi, to help the deceased overce the perils of his journey. The most famous spell centers on tprid over by t the deceded is. Heart, thhet must b with the feather of trh, the symbol of maat, goddess of truth, justice and harmony. In a declaration of innocence, the deceased must demonstrate that he has not sinned in his past life. reader i hai have notilled,ars. I have notamaged thrings t temples, i haveot added to the weight of the balance narrator declar wthofortality, the deceased could expect to reside in the ideal world after his death. The egyptian had a fixed idea of the landscape. He had his nile valley with its canals and the bordering desert and of course he imagined that in the beyond it would look about the same. But he imagined the possibilities in the beyond to be simply greater. That, for example, all the flaws connected with the body would be smoheou that the gras woulgrow much tler. Therefore it would be an improved life, really. Imperfections in this life would be healed in the afterlife. narrator the excavation of the tombs in the valley of theings by archaeologists beginning in the early 19th ceur proved the clearest idea of the new kingdoms addition to t funery literature a text called the amduat detailing the pharaohs long nighttime journey into oneness with the sun god re. The amduat literally translated it means that which is in the netherworld is a guidebook to the afterlife. And a secret text primarily reserved for the use of pharaohs. It was reproduced in full on the walls of the tomb of thutmose the third, who died in 1425 bc. The black script written against a lighter background suggests a giant papyrus wrapped around the Burial Chamber walls. It tells the story of a journey through uncertainty where time and space merge. dr. Betsy bryan for the egyptians, the notion of trying to turn time, that is, twelve hours of night into space is very complicated, both for them and for us, without any question. But the way they did it was to identify each hour with a particular region. They would even name the hour as the name of a town in those geographical regions and then describe those geographical regions. So that as you move through your hour you were moving through a particular area associated with it, and then youd move into the next hour and be in a different geographical region. So it is confusing, but it is how they perceive movement during the nighttime, through space. narrator to begin his journey the pharaoh unites with the sun god and boards t solar boat. During t twe noctnal hours, they sail from dusk to dawn, from death to resurrection. In hour one, the god appears as a ramheaded figure symbolizing the ul othe sun and as a beetle, a symbol of the hopedfor dawn. s greet ie neerwod with jilatio deities raise their arms as he brings light into the derworld. The voyage begins in earnest in hours two and three, as the sun god travels across the water ofhe netherworld, bringing civilization and order to the afterlife. But trouble is on the horizon. In the fourth hour, the water dries up and he finds himself in his sun boat on sand. Hes also confronted by a strangelooking zigzag that runs through this fourth hour very much like a descending shaft from a tomb from above. But in any cas s blocking hiway, as is the nd. And so at this point we find that the sun god is challenged as to how hes going to proceed to move through the hours of the night. narrator the sun god overcomes this by turning his boat into a snake. As a ske, you can move across sand. Snakes dont need water obviously. So he is able to proceed, by means of slithering as a snake boat. narrator the duat containages that are also present in the tombs. The protective wedjat eyes allow the pharaoh as sun god to literally keep an eye out for danger. The message, that vigilance is vital to the journey, is reflected in objects of all kinds that are included in the tombs of royals and nobles. In the hours to come, there would be much to keep an eye on. Hour five takes the sun god into the very maw of the underworld. The channel is narrowed by the secret cavern of the god sokar. The falconheaded god clutches the wings of a multiheaded serpent. Together they hold back the hidden chaos that threatens to block the sun gods passage. The sixth and seventh hours are the dark side of the egyptian psyche the point where the sobering thought that salvation is a perilous journey is driven home with frightening clarity. These dangers waiting and lurking in the dark for the deceased were pointed out again and again in the amduat. The egyptian tried to shield himself from these dangers in all kinds of ways, mainly with magic words. There is a threat to the sun. The giansnake ophis trs to stop thcourse of the sun, but happily he doesnt succeed. D so there wasope for everyone. Arrar protec gdessesd, c, and punish the enemy apophis. Now under the control of the sun god, e stanrousoment has pass. Becomes an ally. Growing sense of calm and orr ispahehth d hours. Rronho all forces seem to protect the pharaoh as t sun god re. Thartns to t of the sun gods triumph over his enemies. The falconheaded re is seen before a row of fire pits in which his enemies are incinerated. Goddesses, with terrifying nicknames the one who injures and the one who is over her slaughtering block, spew fire and clutch weapons to ensure the total annihilation of the enemies a brutal necessity for res rejuvenation. In the twelfth and final hour of the amduat the journey through primeval darkness ends, as the sun rises in the east and the sun god is reborn. The fullyfledged re emerges as a beetle, flying into the arms of the god shu, who will lift the sun up to daylight. The dense texture of storytelling created by the combination of images and text makes the amduat a uniquely egyptian phenomenon. Together with other funerary texts, mummy wrappings, coffins, sarcophagi, and tombs, the amduat protected the deceased and guided them through the afterworld. The pharaohs successful navigation of the netherworld resulted in more than his own rebirth as the sun god. By ensuring that the lifegiving sun would rise each dawn, the journey promised all egyptians that day would follow night and that life as they knew it would continue. music in the history of art, raphael was unique. Called the prince ofainters, he was placed above other artists, not among them. Even working in the rarified company of such other renaissance masters as michelangelo and leonardo da vinci, raphael was the most popular and most beloved artist of his time. For the past five centuries, his vision has influenced both the art of painting and our image of the christ child, the madonna, and many other sacred subjects. Raphaels paintings have been among the most coveted in the world. Through the efforts of american collectors, we are fortunate that many of this masters works have ended up in public museums. Today, raphaels genius continues to inspire us. Narrator Raphael Sanzio was born april 6, 1483, in urbino, a great center of italian renaissance culture. His father, a poet and painter, instild in the young artist an unquenchable curiosity and ambition. Raphaels remarkable artistic talent developed early, and as a teenager he studied with the leading umbrian painter, pietro perugino. Raphaels early rk reflected peruginos influence, buthe student soon overshadowed his teacher, to create more damic spatl composions and arrangements of figus. At the age of 21, raphael was drawn to florence, where the work of leonardo and michelangelo had trendous impact on him. His painting style was transformed, becoming more complex and heroic. Raphaels reputation flourished. At 25, he moved to rome, fully prepared to take on the monumental tasks that were presented to him. He was commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the stanza della signatura in the vatican palace. Raphaels paintings were so well received that he was enlisted to decorate the entire suite of rooms. Sed on classical themes, his frescoes combine the ideal world of the antique past with the ideas and innovations renaissance style. The grandeur and nobility of his works mark a peak in renaissance art. His fame was enhanced when pope leo x appointed raphael architect of st. Peters in 1514. By the time of his death, at age 37, raphael had achieved a position of supremacy among his contemporaries. He left a legacy of artistic perfection that has endured through the centuries. Artists have taken direction from raphaels work, and great connoisseurs have coveted s few obtainable altarpieces, portraits, and madonnas. Only a handful of authentic raphael paintings have reached america. But his art has played a signifant role in the development of taste in collecting, dating back to our beginnings as a nation. music like anyultivated gentleman his time, Thomas Jefferson had a special admiration for raphael. Jefferson was in the avantgarde in forming taste for classil architecture and art in america. Raphael stood athe summit of that tradition. While serving as minister to france, jefferson purchased art for his collection. Included were two copies after raphael. One is now lost, but the other, a copy after a holy family, is still at monticello. A copy adequately represented raphaels style. It also stood as an example of jeffersons taste. But his contemporaries believed that the United States should first develop in a practic direction. Benjamin franklin claimed, for example, thatthe invention of a machine is of more importance than a masterpiece by raphael. John adams said, the age of painting and sculpture has not arrived in this country, and i hope it will not arrive soon. I would not give a sixpence for a picture of raphael. Nevertheless, admiration for the artist became so great th copies of his works grew in number, especially of the madonna of the chair. Merchants and landowners placed these copies in rooms filled with family portraits and memorabilia. Unlike jeffersons monticello, the copy after raphael might now be the only art relating to an old master in the room. The attitude toward raphael changed during the 19th century. Through prints and the new medium of photography, copies of his sistine madonna and other works proliferated. Once massproduced, they were no longer a mark of taste and distinction but symbolized their owners moral as well as artistic values. Eventually, raphaels images became so commonplace they were fair game for parody. In the late 19th century, a new, more sophisticated type of collector arose in america the millionaire who, having amassed a fortune, was now prepared to spend it on masterpieces. These collectors wanted authentic works among those advisors or connoisseurs, the foremost was certainly bernard berenson. Through study, he made himself the leading authority on early italian painting. Berenson played a crucial role in bringing authentic works by raphael to america. The first raphael collector was a woman. Isabella Stewart Gardner of boston brought together one of the finest collections of old master paintings in america. From her father and husband she inherited two fortunes and traveled extensively abroad. She was deeply influenced by what she saw. In the outskirts of boston, she built fenway court, inspired by venetian palazzos she had visited. She placed her works of art in settings meant to evoke their originalnvironme. Isabella gardner identified with isabella deste, the great patron of the arts in the renaissance, whom she saw as her precursor. Like isabella destes, mrs. Gardners ambition was to obtain a raphael for her collection. The kind of raphael she wanted was, naturally, a madonna. The one she coveted was the socalled small cowper madonna, then in an English Private collection. Berenson said he moved heaven and earth to get the painting for her, but was ver successful. Mrs. Gardner had to be tisfied instead with a portrait by raphael. The painting was of a roman prelate, tommaso inghirami. This realistic portrayal of an unattractive sitter was one raphaels most brilliant inventions. Although it was not the kind of raphael that collectorpreferred, mrs. Gardner purchased it in 1898. A Predella Panel from an altarpiece represting the lamentation. Mrs. Gardner had never seen the painting. She bought it based on berensons recomndation and on a photograph which he had sent her. Although Isabella Gardner never obtained a madonna, she did succeed in acquiring the first authentic raphael to reach these shores. By the turn of the century, the fortunes creat when america changed from an agricultural to an industrial economy had grown enormously. J. Pierpont morgan was the greatest financier of his age. He also was determined to become its greatest collector. In the year that morgan formed United States steel, the worlds first billion dollar corporation, he achieved a goal equally great in the field of art. For an unprecedented sum, he acquired raphaels famous colonna altarpiece. Like other wealthy americans of his time, morgan sought the company of the european aristocracy. He was part of the Cultural Movement known as the american renaissance, which saw the United States as the heir of the european past. Adjacent to his house in new york, morgan built a library as a monument to his taste. The decoraon inside the library was inspired by raphael and other italian masters. Morgans library contained his collection of rare books and manuscripts, as well as renaissance paintings and sculpture. Like Isabella Gardner, morgan identified with a renaissance predecessor, the great baer agostino chigi. Morgan even installed in his study brocade wallcovering with chigis coatofarms. Morgans taste inclined to the decorative arts. He liked small, finely wrought objects. Nevertheless, like other american collectors he wanted a raphael madonna. In 1910 he purchased the holy family, which he hoped would prove to be by raphael. This picture is now knowto be a copy, but morgans impornce as a collector of raphael should not be underestimated. He spent more than half his fortune on works of art and set the example that other collectors would follow. Like mrs. Gardner, morgan never succeeded in obtaining an autographed madonna by raphael. The First American to accomplish this was Henry Walters of baltimore. Walters made a fortune consolidating railways and was reputed to be the richest man in the south. Welleducated, welltraveled, cultivated, walters, like morgan, had a taste for precious objects. Nevertheless, he felt it was important to include a raphael in his collection. In 1901 walters acquired the madonna of the candelabra, believed to be at least partly by the masters own hand. Scholars attribute the virgin and child to raphael and the angels to an assistant. Walters proudly displayed his madonna in a gallery which he built adjacent to the family house in baltimore. Owning a raphael had a significance beyond that of acquiring a beautiful work of art. He was the only artist whose prestige had endured all changes of taste and fashion. The next raphael acquisition marked the comingofage of america as a nation of collectors. The small cowper madonna, which mrs. Gardner had coveted, was sold to the wideners in 1914 for the highest price that had ever been paid for a painting. Outside philadelphia, the wideners built one of the grandest estates of the gilded age. Re, they lived the life of american princes. P. A. B. Widener made his fortune in street railways. He was eectic in his tastes. His son, joseph,as more discriminating. Of some 500 paintings originly in e widener collection, joseph reduced the number to 100. As at fenway court, Lynnewood Hall had a raphael room whose focus was the small cowper madonna. Saw the group of raphael collectors widen. Sir joseph duveen, the flamboyant dealer, provided these collectors with many of the raphaels that are now in america. In 1924 Clarence Mackay bought a small Predella Panel, agony in the garden. In 1928 jules bache acquired the portrait of giuliano de medici. A broker himself, bache would have identified with that great family of renaissance bankers. Other collectors bought works which were by or believed to be by raphael, including the portrait of a young man, now in the Hyde Collection at glens falls, new york. But by any count, the most successful of all these american collectors of raphael was andrew mellon. A leading force in banking and industry, mellon went on to become secretary of the treasury and later ambassador to england. He also had a second career as a collector. Mellon acquired his first raphael in 1928 the large cowper madonna. At that time, the idea was beginning to take shape in mellons mind for a National Gallery, one which would rival the great european galleries. Clearly, such a collection had to include raphael. In 1930 mellon was presented with an extraordinary opportunity. The soviet government agreed to sell two of their best raphaels. One was the alba madonna, for which mellon offered the highest price ever paid for a painting up to that time. The other was raphaels small saint george and the dragon, an early work with an illustrious history. Along with the rest of his collection, mellons three raphaels formed the nucleus of the National Gallery, founded in 1937 and opened to the public in 1941. President Franklin Roosevelt this National Gallery and the collections it contains. Narrator the raphaels in the National Gallery were joined by another painting by the artist, the portrait of bindo altoviti, purchased by chain store magnate samuel kress. On berensons recommendation, kress bought the portrait from a european museum. Today, it is generally accepted as a work by the masters hand. It was not only nostalgia for the past which led american collectors to pursue raphael, nor was it merely rivalry with each other. These collectors shared a sense of cultural responsibility. The raphaels, once in private hands, are now all in public museums where they can be seen and enjoyed by the american people. music music narrator the east buiing of the National Gallery of art in washing d. C. Built to relieve the heavily burdened facilities of the original gallery, to house temporary exhibitions, and to serve as a center for advanced study in the visual arts. Within these walls, visitors to our Nations Capital are drawn in to a very special place where monumental accomplishments of modern masters await discovery. Built on a trapezoidal plot of land adjoining the original gallery, the East Building is of a unique and radical design, utilizing triangular shapes with large interior spaces. It was a collaborative effort spanning more than ten years. Director j. Carter brown worked closely with architect i. M. Pei in its development. Seven works of art were commissioned it was agreed that a specific pieceas needed to animate the unbroken expanse of wall in the central courtyard. But the artist would have to have a capacity for monumental concepts, with a sense of color and scale appropriate to the site. A unanimous choice was spanish artist joan miro. Bo in the catalan city of barcelona in 1893, miro has remained close to the land and its people. But as a young man in paris, he joined th friends like max ernst and jean arp in the emerging Surrealist Movement of the 1920s. In his painting the farm, miros characteristic symbols and themes began to appear serpentine shapes, checkerboard patterns, infinite sce represented by the moon or a star. In 1922, he painted the farmers wife, the ancestress of countless female symbols that also became a continuing motif in miros art. In 1924, his art broke free of gravitational constraints in theurrealistic world of harlequins carnival. Over the years, he developed his own personal symbolism, and in the 1950s, the scale of h art grew with such works as a mural at harrd university and the wall ofhe sun for unesco in pas. As his work grew in size, miro continued what he termed a process of simplification. He stated, little by little, i have managed to reach a point at which i use no more than a small number of forms and colors. This process found a culminating expression in his eightoothigh painting femme, miro entered the project with much enthusim, stati, ill go into this and fight it through with everything i have. Over many months, the tapestry took shape in his imagination. Finally, in 1976 it was set down rapidly as a maquette. In the ancient catalan city of tarragona, joan miro meets with young master weaver josep royo to discuss the transformation of his painting into a 10meterhigh tapestry. Studying a photograph of the maquette, they consider how best to translate miros art into a heavily textured weaving, which would capture the spirit of his concept. Royo has an enormous task before him. In this converted flour mill in tarragona, many months of preparation are needed before the weaving itself can begin. Nearly four miles of heavy cotton line is measured, stretched and chained for use as the tapestrys vertical warp. Royo has developed a unique loom for weaving large tapestries. It has been built to accommodate the 20foot width and the 420warp threads which st be accurately spaced and held in line. After all the warps have been laid out, each more than 50 feet in length, they areound s onto a huge um before finally being transferred to a massive overhead roller and stretched tight. On a cold february morning in 1977, the loom is ready for the weaving process to begin. The wool for the weft was imported from new zealand, in the heart of catalonia, and tested for durability and resistanceo fading. Weaving from the bottom up and in meter segments, the completed seion is pulled below the working bridge onto the floorenabling the finished portion to be viewed as the work progresses. In march, miro visits his young colleagues studio. He inspects the progress, makes suggestions, and gives his approval. Royo works with a team of fellow weavers whom he has carefully trained to accomplish this imposing task. Royos revolutnary conce allows weaving to be performed from either side using multiple groups of yarn twisted together and passed over varying numbers of warps through the months of april and may, meter by meter the forms of the tapestry gradually begito emerge. Miro has said of his approach to art, things come to me slowly. My vocabulary formsas not been the discovery of a day. It took ape alst spite of myself. In this way, ty ripen in my spirit. Into the steamy month of august, the spirit of femme grows until the figure is complete. Now, with only a few inches of background remaining, royo welcomes miro to his studio once more to witness the final steps of an eightmonth process. Royo says, working together, we have become so closely attuned that i can almost read his mind. I take direction as much from an expression or gesture as from wordor sketches. Working with miro has forced me to make a constant effort to do better, an effort from which i have benefited in many respects. For these two catalan artists, it has been a fulfilling experience. What was born in the imagination of one artist has been translated and skillfully brought into being by another. It has been more than five years since miro accepted this project. The end is now in sight, but first femme must be prepared for her trip. Hundreds of mothballs are scattered for protection before the tapestry is cut from the loom, covered, rolled and packed for shipment. The finished tapestry roll is 20 feet long, weighing well over a ton, and the task of moving is not a simple one. A window has to be enlarged to accommodate the passage of this huge parcel from royos studio. muffled comments, crane engine rumbling the people of tarragona watch as femme is cautiously lowered onto the waiting truck to begin a long voyage across the atlantic. First she must travel to barcelona to be crated, before passage by ship to her home in america. Royo follows femme to washington, d. C. , to supervise the installation on the south wall of the East Buildings central court. There are now many new problems to overcome. The tolerances are extremely close, demanding precise measurement, careful planning and a team effort. The huge roll barely fits into this confined space. The workers must unroll it evenly and accurately. Bolts have been embedded deep into the structural wall, behind the marble facing, to support this massive piece when it slides into place. muffled comments carefully, royo grooms femme, as the crew gradually hoistser upwd over the last few yards of a long journey. music this is the realization of many dreams, uly a work of collaboration; the fulfillment of a vision shared by the architect and the National Gallery, supported by generous patrs, brought to fruition by joan miro and josep royo. On this day, those drms and efforts are reaching a successf conusion. Femme is at home. Brown its everything we hoped. Today, suspended 42 feet above the museum floor, femme is fulfilling her intended role. She stands tall, as the 76foot mobile by miros close friend Alexander Calder slowly circles by. She is in the company of the works of other modern masters such as henry moore and jean arp, of david smith, noguchi, caro, rosati and motherwell. But she stands alone at the head of the south wall as a Unifying Force and vital core of color in the East Building of the National Gallery of art