{"id":2939,"date":"2020-08-13T21:19:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T21:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/?p=2939"},"modified":"2020-08-13T21:19:06","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T21:19:06","slug":"ugly-object-of-the-month-august-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/2020\/08\/13\/ugly-object-of-the-month-august-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Ugly Object of the Month \u2014 August 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Caroline Roberts, Conservator
<\/strong>
August 26 is National Dog Day<\/a>, and our canine-loving readers out there will appreciate this month\u2019s Ugly Object pick, a terracotta dog figurine from Karanis, Egypt<\/a>. This previously painted ceramic pup was discovered in 1935, and its original function remains something of a mystery. We can all agree though that it in the 2,000 years since its manufacture (probably in a three-part mold), this figurine has preserved much of its original charm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"terracotta
Terracotta figurine of a dog from Karanis, Egypt. 1st\u20133rd century AD. Ceramic, gesso, pigment. KM 6909.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In fact, you\u2019re probably wondering how this critter made our Ugly Object cut. If you\u2019re able to look past the cute collar and curly tail, you\u2019ll see a pair of highly skeptical-looking incised eyes \u2014 one of which has a brow that is ever so slightly raised. It\u2019s a look not unlike the one I get from my toddler when I offer him asparagus. This adorable dog is \u2026 Discerning? Disgruntled? Maybe sleep-deprived? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another mystery to ponder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned about this and other canines in the Kelsey collection from Terry Wilfong\u2019s catalog for his 2015 exhibition Death Dogs<\/a>, which is available on the Kelsey website<\/a> as a free PDF download, along with many more digitized publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Caroline Roberts, ConservatorAugust 26 is National Dog Day, and our canine-loving readers out there will appreciate this month\u2019s Ugly Object pick, a terracotta dog figurine from Karanis, Egypt. This previously painted ceramic pup was discovered in 1935, and its original function remains something of a mystery. We can all agree though that it in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4349,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[473,474,200,265,475,423],"class_list":["post-2939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ugly-object","tag-canine","tag-dog","tag-figurine","tag-karanis","tag-national-dog-day","tag-terracotta"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2939"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2949,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939\/revisions\/2949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/kelsey-museum-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}