Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Curator · Scholar · Cataloguer

Joan R. Mertens

fl. 1975–2015

Curator in the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Greek and Roman Art who co-ordinated the 2000 Cypriot galleries and co-wrote the 2014 catalogue of the Cesnola stone sculpture.

Biography

Joan R. Mertens, a curator in the Department of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, worked with Karageorghis on the Cesnola Collection's reinstallation and publication. Vassos Karageorghis names her as co-ordinating with him both the exhibition and the publications for the new Cypriot galleries1. The galleries opened in April 2000 with about 500 to 600 works, accompanied by Ancient Art from Cyprus, edited by Karageorghis, Mertens and Marice Rose; the director was Philippe de Montebello and the curator in charge Carlos A. Picón2,12.

Her earlier publications include "Three Chalcolithic figures from Cyprus" (Metropolitan Museum Journal 10, 1975, pp. 5-8)8. In 1985 she told Antoine Hermary that the Cesnola "bull-mask priest" statue was in the Metropolitan, correcting his assumption11. In 1996 Olivier Masson suggested that she and Karageorghis visit the ninety-year-old granddaughter of Luigi Palma di Cesnola and expected her, as curator, to examine Cesnola's papers at the Museum10.

The 2014 volume, The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Stone Sculpture, runs to 436 pages and 635 stone pieces. Hermary wrote the introduction and the catalogue except some stone vases; Mertens catalogued the remaining vases, supervised the photography and took part in every aspect of production4. In 2015 she published an article on fourteen letters from Cesnola in the Museum's Archives, written in Libby Prison in 1863-645.

Life and work

  1. 1977
    Published Attic White-Ground: Its Development on Shapes Other than Lekythoi (New York), cited for a Cypriot find (Mertens 1977, 128, no. 1).

    New YorkChilds et al. 2012

  2. 1985
    Informed Hermary that the Cesnola 'bull-mask priest' statue was really in the Metropolitan Museum, so that he could examine it in 1985.

    New YorkHermary 2001

  3. 1996
    Olivier Masson suggested that she and Karageorghis visit Cesnola's ninety-year-old granddaughter in the USA, and expected her to be the one to examine Cesnola's papers at the Metropolitan Museum.

    Tatton-Brown 2001, pp. x-xi

  4. 1997 – April 2000
    Co-ordinated with Karageorghis the exhibition and publications for the Metropolitan's four reinstalled Cypriot galleries, opened 4-5 April 2000 with about 500-600 Cesnola objects.

    New YorkKarageorghis 1998Marangou 2000Informations 1999

  5. 2000
    Co-editor with Karageorghis and Marice E. Rose of Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (about 500 objects). Karageorghis writes that Mertens collaborated throughout.

    New YorkKarageorghis et al. 2000, p. 10Informations 1999

  6. 2014
    Co-author with Antoine Hermary of The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Stone Sculpture (436 pp., 635 stone pieces). Hermary wrote the introduction and the catalogue except some stone vases; Mertens catalogued the remaining stone vases, supervised the photography and took part in all aspects of production (as quoted by the reviewer).

    New YorkSatraki 2014

  7. 2015
    Published 'Luigi Palma di Cesnola in Libby Prison (1863-1864)', CCEC 45, pp. 399-408, on fourteen letters from Cesnola to his wife and mother in the Metropolitan Museum's Archives.

    Mertens 2015, p. 2

Connections

10 people
Vassos KarageorghisLuigi Palma di CesnolaOlivier MassonAntoine HermaryCarlos A. PicónElizabeth J. MillekerChristopher S. LightfootSeán HemingwayGloria S. MerkerMarice E. RoseJoan R. Mertens
Scholarship

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

On Ancient Cyprus

3 pages

Sources

  1. 1.V. Karageorghis (1998). “Cypriote Antiquities in Foreign Museums”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 28, 118-119.
  2. 2.V. Karageorghis, J. R. Mertens, M. E. Rose (2000). Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  3. 3.A. Hermary, J. R. Mertens (2014). The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Stone Sculpture. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  4. 4.A. Satraki (2014). “Review of A. Hermary and J. R. Mertens, The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art. Stone Sculpture, 2014”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 44, 448-451. Online
  5. 5.J. R. Mertens (2015). “Luigi Palma di Cesnola in Libby Prison (1863-1864)”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 45, 399-408.
  6. 6.J. R. Mertens (1975). “Three Chalcolithic figures from Cyprus”. Metropolitan Museum Journal 10, 5-8.
  7. 7.J. R. Mertens (1977). Attic White-Ground: Its Development on Shapes Other than Lekythoi. New York.
  8. 8.Bodies of Evidence on Prehistoric Cyprus.
  9. 9.W. A. P. Childs (ed.), J. S. Smith (ed.), J. M. Padgett (ed.) (2012). City of Gold: The Archaeology of Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus. Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum.
  10. 10.Veronica Tatton-Brown (ed.) (2001). Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction. Oxford, Oxbow.
  11. 11.A. Hermary (2001). “Sculptures de la collection Cesnola: le prêtre à la tête de taureau”. Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction, 153-155.
  12. 12.A. G. Marangou (ed.) (2000). The Consul Luigi Palma di Cesnola 1832-1904: Life and Deeds.
  13. 13. (1999). “Informations”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 29. Centre d'Études Chypriotes.
  14. 14.Carlos A. Picón, Joan R. Mertens, Elizabeth J. Milleker, Christopher S. Lightfoot et al. (2007). Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome. New York; New Haven and London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Yale University Press.
  15. 15.Alicia Marie Dissinger (2017). “Cypro-Archaic Bird Iconography: Types, Uses, and Meanings”. University of Virginia.