What makes a king or noble honorable? How does a hero act? The seven illustrations in this exhibition come from manuscripts created in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries under the Safavid rulers of Iran (Persia) and the Mughals of India. Each demonstrates a feat of heroism or an act of justice befitting a good Islamic ruler.

Complementing works of art donated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art over the years, generous patrons have also given thousands of books and manuscripts to the Library and Archives. The Library and Archives is showcasing these wonderful treasures in a series of exhibitions in its new home in the Perelman Building.

This exhibition brings together over twenty-five drawings, prints, and watercolor paintings to explore “contemporary” art on the Indian subcontinent over the past century, a period that witnessed dramatic social and artistic transformations.

In this exhibition, the Museum presents masterpieces from its outstanding collection of rarely seen Malla Period art. Vibrant Buddhist ritual paintings burst with energy, a marvelous goddess coyly dances, and golden Hindu and Buddhist sculptures regally invite adoration.

This installation features compelling images of the women of Gee's Bend and their life in rural Alabama, taken by visual artist Linda Day Clark.

The paintings in this exhibition illustrate the diverse practice of folk artists working in the northeastern United States during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The selection demonstrates the array of individual styles inspired by different creative environments outside the "academic" art world, from the professional painter trained in a commercial workshop to the self-taught artist or amateur.

The mysterious Thomas Chambers arrived in the United States from England in 1832, worked for three decades as a marine and landscape painter, and then disappeared after 1866, leaving behind a boldly expressive and puzzling body of work. This exhibition—the first major survey of Chambers’ work since his rediscovery in 1942—seeks to define his style, examine his sources, and investigate the popular audience for landscape and marine painting in the mid-nineteenth century.

Among the some thirty pieces in this installation are a number with views of Philadelphia landmarks including the Dam and Water Works on the Schuylkill River, the Bank of the United States and the Philadelphia Library Company building.

For Europeans during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, China—or Cathay as it was sometimes called—was a magical place. This exhibition includes nine Chinoiserie textiles and embroideries from the Museum's outstanding collection.

This installment of Live Cinema focuses on the video work of Italian artist Anita Sieff. Inspired by filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, and Luchino Visconti, Sieff explores in non-linear narratives the interactions between disparate characters bestowed with allegorical qualities.

This visually bold exhibition of more than thirty photographs brings together two contemporary artists, Bill Armstrong and Milan Fano Blatný, whose work has been inspired by the ancient form of the mandala.

Drawing from the John G. Johnson’s rich collections in Italian Renaissance painting, which included every region of Italy, this installation consists of 10 rare paintings from late fifteenth and early sixteenth-century Lombardy of which Milan was the capital.

In 1772, a group of Philadelphia master cabinetmakers published Prices of Cabinet and Chair Work, a 36-page book listing furniture forms and their decorative variations, retail prices for furniture in mahogany and walnut, and the wages to be paid to the journeymen who made the furniture. This exhibition features furniture that is delineated in the book of prices, including three large case pieces with the three types of tops, or "heads", from least expensive to most expensive: flat, pitch pediment, and scroll pediment.

This exhibition includes thirteen examples by leading Southern quilt makers. The collection was formed between 1981 and 1983 while Ms. Torrey was conducting fieldwork on African American quilt-making with Maud Southwell Wahlman.

This exhibition highlights a selection of purchases, gifts, and bequests since the year 2000—a group so varied it encompasses the Museum’s departments of American art, costume and textiles, East Asian art, and European decorative arts.

This exhibition explores for the first time how a decade-long residential commission for Peter Lewis in Lyndhurst, Ohio (1985-1995), gave Frank Gehry a unique opportunity to experiment, and in the process, achieve the formal and technological breakthroughs that have made him one of the most influential architects of our time.

Kansai Yamamoto is one of the founding fathers of Japanese contemporary fashion. Best known for his work during the 1970s and 1980s, his avant-garde designs are inspired by the colorful Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600) and traditional Kabuki theatre. The exuberant Pop-like quality of his work contrasts with what is today associated with Japanese fashion, Zen-like simplicity and deconstructed silhouettes.

Clay, wood, and paper are essential materials employed for Korean art and craft. They are extremely versatile, allowing for the creation of a wide range of objects, including fine arts, crafts, and wares for everyday use. This exhibition from the Museum's Korean art collection, which spans over 1,500 years, explores the diverse applications of these materials, both in traditional and contemporary arts.

The Museum welcomes two masterpieces made for Philadelphia by two of nineteenth-century America’s finest artists, Thomas Eakins and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Close contemporaries and friends, they both trained in Paris and traveled in Europe before returning to the United States about 1870 to begin distinguished careers. Sharing a belief in the expressive power of the human body as a subject for modern painting and sculpture, they developed different styles.