In the Middle Ages, several saints were represented as knights in art, making it difficult to identify RISD’s Crusading Saint. This article will explore his possible identities.

This article argues that Simon the Pharisee would have been viewed as an explicitly Jewish character by sixteenth-century viewers.

This late fifteenth-century Virgin and Child was created with subtlety, flexibility, and portability in mind. These features were central to its medieval use—and its use at the RISD Museum.

Devotional representations of Saint Barbara, a Christian martyr whose legend extended across both Western and Eastern medieval worlds, flourished in fourteenth-century Europe. An examination of the Providence Saint Barbara reveals a sculptural tradition with a complex and colorful practices of medieval devotion to the cult of saints.

This article provides a brief introduction to this finely carved and dynamic sculpture of the Archangel Gabriel.

During the Fall of 2015, Sheila Bonde’s graduate students in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University undertook an investigation of the wood sculptures in the RISD Museum collections. This multi-author paper includes some of their findings.

In the winter of 1886, the neighborhoods of Paris were transformed by an unusually heavy snowfall that lingered on the branches of trees and captured the imagination of the artist Berthe Morisot.

Ceramics student Lindsay Savoie subverts traditional hierarchies that value painting and sculpture more highly than utilitarian art forms like pottery and photography.

A summer intern's 3-dimensional visualization and virtual reality exploration of the Kanzeon Raijin Gate in Edo, Japan, as seen in an 1820s print.

A summer intern's short story/poem about a cat that investigates the spatial politics of Duchamp’s 'Boîte-en-valise' and also falls in love

The RISD Museum collection application program interface (API) lays out how our website’s search function operates, aiding discovery of the museum’s collection and allowing collection data to be used in innovative ways.

How are museum collections constructed? Producer Emma Vecchione searches for an answer in examining the police raid of a 1978 art exhibition, a collection of pictures at the RISD Museum, and the family photographs on top of her mother’s television set.

3-D technology expands the ways of seeing and studying RISD Museum's 12th century Dainichi Buddha.

Curatorial intern Sam Nehila uses collage to create abstracted forms and explore the trans experience of engaging with the museum’s collection of male nude bodies.

The American and European jewelry collection at the RISD Museum, part of the Decorative Arts and Design Department, is made up of more than 800 works, including necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings from the medieval period to present day.

The RISD Museum is proud to participate in this non-partisan initiative of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), which uses design to encourage civic engagement.

The RISD Museum commits to work deliberately, consistently, and compassionately to confront racism and injustice in its many forms.

A graphic design student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Marta Jeż describes her virtual exhibition project and new possibilities of translating physical exhibitions into digital forms.

A student dismantles the outdated terminology and practice of “master copies” by constructing a series of copies that works to bolster underrepresented artists and subvert the pervasive presence of white males in the Western art canon.

Artist Jane Ogden (British, ca. 1845–1928) painted flowers and other still-life subjects in oil and watercolor.

The handmade object has a tendency to prompt memories from the craftsperson who made it. In this reflection on an embroidered purse from the 1970s, Ariel Wills and Kate Irvin are joined by maker Christina Bevilacqua for a dynamic conversation that demonstrates the narrative qualities embodied in material culture.

Dear Museum Friends,

As the world bears witness to the recent tragedies of George Floyd’s death, the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the countless numbers of Black people before them, it’s difficult to feel like I have anything new to say on a subject that I should meet with respectful listening, but as the director of this institution it is my job to lead both in words and in deeds.

A student in a RISD course on pan-African aesthetics, inspired by a photograph in the collection, explores Black youth occupying space in movements from La Sape to Noirwave.