"Bowl with Human Feet", pottery from predynastic Egypt (circa 3700–3450 BCE). Currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. All images of public domain works in the Met's collection are themselves in the public domain as a part of their Open Access policy. More public-domain predynastic Egyptian works can be found on the Wikimedia Commons.
Terracotta mask of an unidentified animal (suggested as "a fox, dog, or bat") from Cyprus, circa 600-480 BCE. Now in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. More ancient Cypriot art can be found in their collection and on the Wikimedia Commons.
"External Muscles of the Horse," image from The Natural History of Horses, an 1841 publication in the collection of the Biodiversity Heritage Library. They have scanned many of the illustrations and engravings within their collection onto their Flickr pages under the public domain.
Composition X by Wassily Kandinsky, 1939. More of Kandinsky's work can be found on his gallery page on WikiArt. WikiArt has a large collection of works in the public domain, including this one, and per its Public Domain policy "allows unlimited copying, distributing and displaying of the images of public domain artworks."
The National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has released what it describes as "2,000+ science and medical art visuals" into the public domain as a part of its "BioArt source" beta. These constitute vector images of everything from people to cell organelles, and (at least in my opinion) would be amazing in contribution to either digital or physical collage.
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art description on this piece:
The priestess Tagerem was God's Wife of the god Re in Sakhebu in the southwestern Delta, a temple functionary of special order, intimate of the god.
From the Ptolemaic Period, circa 300–250 BCE. More pieces are available as a part of the Met's Egyptian collection. This piece was found via No Brash Festivity on Tumblr, and is in the public domain as a part of the Met's Open Access program.
The Nazca culture flourished from 100 BCE to 800 CE in what is now southern Peru. While most famous for their massive earthwork glyphs, the Nazca Lines, they also made brightly-colored pottery.
Pottery with characters that look as if they could be in modern memes. I'm not kidding, this is not a specifically-plucked outlier. About half of the humanoid figures on Nazca pottery artifacts I've seen look as if they could receive either subtitles or word-bubbles and go directly on social media. Check out the Nazca collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the collection of Nazca Pottery on the Wikimedia Commons for more examples.
There's something just so... relatable about these.
Example of a stone sphere from the pre-Columbian Diquís people of what is now modern-day Costa Rica, currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Additional pieces by the Diquís can be found in their Met collection and on the Wikimedia Commons. This particular image, as with all Diquís artifacts in their collection, is in the public domain per the Met's Open Access policies. (Wikimedia images vary in permissions, but are typically under Creative Commons licenses by the creators.)
Image from the book Astronomy for Amateurs, written by Nicolas Camille Flammarion and Frances Alice Welby and published 1904. Image scanned by The Internet Archive and uploaded to their Flickr as a part of the Internet Archive Book Images collection. In case the Internet Archive is down at the time of reading, Astronomy for Amateurs is also available from the Wikimedia Commons.
Pied (hooded) Crow on Branch, estimated date of creation 1878–1910. Print by Theo van Hoytema (1863-1917). More prints by this artist available through the Wikimedia Commons, although this particular image was found within the public domain prints and imagery collection curated on Picture Box Blue by Claire Armstrong of Pillar Box Blue (specifically, her Halloween image collection).
This piece, Daffodils by Any Means Necessary by R/L Monroe, is part of the gallery Unprintable hosted on his website. This is described by its creator as an "online free shop, where original artwork and arts resources are released into the public domain."
The collection is currently limited in scope, but still - it's a neat collection of completely free-to-use content of various forms.
Wrought iron, 15th or 16th century CE, from Spain. Currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. All images of this piece are in the public domain as a part of the Met's Open Access policy.
Detail from the Van Gogh Museum on this piece:
"Large blossom branches like this against a blue sky were one of Van Gogh’s favourite subjects. Almond trees flower early in the spring making them a symbol of new life. Van Gogh borrowed the subject, the bold outlines and the positioning of the tree in the picture plane from Japanese printmaking.
The painting was a gift for his brother Theo and sister-in-law Jo, who had just had a baby son, Vincent Willem. In the letter announcing the new arrival, Theo wrote: ‘As we told you, we’ll name him after you, and I’m making the wish that he may be as determined and as courageous as you.’ Unsurprisingly, it was this work that remained closest to the hearts of the Van Gogh family. Vincent Willem went on to found the Van Gogh Museum."
More works are available in the Van Gogh Museum online gallery, as well as on Wikimedia's gallery. The Van Gogh museum page regarding this work includes the following musical piece inspired by the work by pianist Remko Kühne:
Ivory furniture plaque in the shape of a hawk, circa 18th century BCE, from the Anatolian region of modern-day Türkiye. Currently in the Ancient Near-Eastern collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and believed to originate from the palace of Acemhöyük. From the item's description:
The plaque is discolored with a combination of reddish areas, where iron oxides are present on the surface, and a gray hue that indicates the object was exposed to considerable heat, perhaps during the destruction of the palace.
Additional pieces believed to come from this archaeological site can be found on the Met's site and on the Wikimedia page for Acemhöyük. This image is in the public domain as a part of the Met's Open Access policy.
( Content Warning: Artistic Nudity )
Eve, woodblock print by Eric Gill, 1926. More work by this artist can be found via the Tate Modern Museum's collection of his works, and this image (as with many others) is released under a Creative Commons license by the museum.
HE TELLS HER
He tells her that the earth is flat-
He knows the facts, and that is that.
In altercations fierce and long
She tries her best to prove him wrong.
But he has learned to argue well.
He calls her arguments unsound
And often asks her not to yell.
She cannot win. He stands his ground.The planet goes on being round.
Differences of Opinion by poet Wendy Cope, from the February 2006 edition of Poetry.
All issues of Poetry going back to October 1912 are accessible on the Poetry Foundation website.
Scan of color lithograph by the Donaldson Lithographing Company, produced in approximately 1911. Part of the Library of Congress's "Free to Use and Reuse" collections. They have an entire collection of Vaudeville and Performing Arts Posters, many of which are also in the public domain and thus free for use.
Surviving portion of a yellow jasper sculpture from the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, circa 1390–1336 BCE. This piece is on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and more of their works from that time can be found here.
This image of this piece is in the public domain, along with many others, as a part of the Met's Open Access program.
Painted by Vincent Van Gogh in 1889, during the last year of his life, this painting was considered a "study" by the artist. Images of it, along with thousands of other pieces, have been released into the public domain by the Getty Conservation Research Foundation Museum under their Open Content program. Per their website:
The Open Content Program makes high-resolution images of public domain artwork from the Getty collections freely available, without restrictions, to advance the research, teaching, and practice of art and art history.
The initiative also aims to support and promote the open-access movement among museums and cultural heritage institutions in removing barriers to the use of cultural heritage images.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandroot
