Memory in Metal: The Enduring Power of Renaissance Portrait Medallions at the Frick Museum

Memory in Metal: The Enduring Power of Renaissance Portrait Medallions By Dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell, Aug. 29, 2025. Fig. 1:  The Medals Room, The Frick Museum, NYC. Image courtesy of The Frick Museum, NYC. “This is not the face as mirror of the soul, but as sigil of the self.” The Mnemonic Sigil Perdures: Italian Renaissance and Later Metal Medallion Portraits from the Frick Museum Collection O’Connell (2025) Climbing the grand staircase, a feature once off-limits to the public (fig.Read more

The Ruins at Mitla, a Legacy of Proto Surface Design

On the advice of friends from the weaving community of Santa Ana del Valle, I visited the Zapotec architectural ruins at Mitla, about an hour from Oaxaca City, Mexico. Like many legacies of pre-Hispanic cultures much of the site was taken apart and used to build new buildings that supported the visual supremacy of conquering forces. What is significant however is what has been left. The walls of the ruins are made of decorative repeating motifs, or “grecas” in Spanish.Read more