A colossal Romanesque head in the RISD collection has yet to be securely identified, but the sheen of his nose suggests that it was rubbed by many penitent hands during the course of this sculpture’s life.

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.

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

This seven-foot-tall Christ would have been suspended above an altar or screen, the juxtaposition of his damaged body and calm, downward gaze reminding those below him of both his humanity and his divinity. 

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.

Egungun costumes are usually created from a wide variety of carefully chosen fabrics ranging from exquisite samples of local handwoven aso ofi to exotic fabrics imported from aro

For Yorùbá-speaking peoples in West Africa, cloth is equated with their most precious possession, children.

John Steuart Curry's images of the circus provide us with an insider's look at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the 1930s.

Understanding historic frames and how to care for them can be a complicated matter.

This past summer, with a focus on design thinking, the students were asked What is useful? as a starting point for their group design.

The man in this painting lived in the same era and region as some of colonists seen in this gallery.

The RISD Museum’s 2009 acquisition of the Richard Brown Baker collection included two drawings by the English artist Howard Selina—Cowboy Hat (1974) and Two Boots (1974)—carefully and precisely rendered drawings in graphite on paper of well-worn, utilitarian garments.

A jade lithophone from 18th-century China offers insight to the significant role of ritual music in ancient China—as an essential part of state rite to assert the legitimacy of reign.

Dubbed a travel coat by artist and designer Christina Kim, this is a garment made for journeys long and far, both real and imagined, for traversing territories in the mind as much as in the physical world.

The RISD Museum continues to build a robust collaboration with Brown University's Alpert Medical School, providing professional-development opportunities for premedical students, medical students, residents, and practicing attending physicians.

A study of the elements that pull and push a visitor through the museum’s 3rd and 4th floor spaces