16th Century
16th Century Panels Restored at Palais des Beaux Arts in Lille
March 19 2025
Picture: Palais des Beaux Arts
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palais des Beaux Arts in Lille has shared news of the recent restoration of four 16th century panels depicting the annunciation. The works, which are amongst the largest early German panels in any public collection in France, were treated by Centre de recherche et de restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF). Click on the link above for better images.
Andrea Solario at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli
March 18 2025
Picture: Museo Poldi Pezzoli
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan will be opening their latest exhibition devoted to Andrea Solario later this month (spotted via @Mweilc).
According to the museum's website:
An unprecedented exhibition project dedicated to the painter Andrea Solario (1465-1524), one of the most original interpreters of the Lombard Renaissance, comes to life at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum.
The exhibition, the result of a scientific collaboration with the Musée du Louvre, brings together for the first time a selection of about 36 works from prestigious collections in Italy, France and England. An unmissable opportunity to admire masterpieces that reveal the technical mastery and stylistic evolution of an artist influenced by great masters such as Giovanni Bellini, Antonello da Messina and Leonardo da Vinci.
The show will run from 26th March until 30th June 2025.
Upcoming: Renaissance Jewellery at the Fondation Bemberg
March 14 2025
Picture: fondation-bemberg.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse will be opening a new exhibition dedicated to Renaissance Jewellery next month (spotted via @gazettedrouot). The show is the first on the subject in 40 years since the last held at the V&A in London back in the 1980s.
It will run from 4th April until 27th July 2025.
Michelangelo's Tomb Conserved
March 8 2025
Video: tianimu on YouTube
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Florence that Michelangelo's freshly conserved Tomb in the basilica of Santa Croce in Florence has been presented to the public. The 100,000 EUR project, completed to mark the artist's 550th birthday, was conducted by Opificio delle Pietre Dure (Factory of the Hard Stones).
As I'm unable to share photos (click on the link above to see more), instead I thought I would share the late Brian Sewell's reflection on the monument from one of his television series.
Possible Lady Jane Grey Portrait on loan to Wrest Park
March 7 2025
Picture: English Heritage via news.artnet.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A sixteenth century portrait which may depict the famous 'nine days Queen' Lady Jane Grey has been loaned to Wrest Park, an historic property in Bedfordshire run by English Heritage. The loan, from a private collection, is accompanied by interpretation regarding a recent research and conservation project on the picture.
Although the articles linked above make claims that the painting, and its dating, is a new discovery of sort, Bendor has published his catalogue entry on 'X' for the picture from a 2007 exhibition which contained the same arguments backed up with dendrochronology undertaken all those years ago.
The painting will be on display from today.
Leonardo – Dürer: Renaissance Master Drawings on Colored Ground
March 7 2025
Picture: albertina.at
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Albertina in Vienna will be opened their latest exhibition today entitled Leonardo – Dürer: Renaissance Master Drawings on Colored Ground.
According to their website:
In this exhibition 26 drawings by Albrecht Dürer meet as many works by Leonardo da Vinci. In addition to works by Leonardo and Dürer, the exhibition presents top-class works by Raphael, Titian, Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Baldung Grien, Hans Holbein the Elder and other outstanding Renaissance masters. The starting point for the extensive show is the museum's own collection: around two thirds of the masterpieces on display come from the ALBERTINA Museum. [...]
The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to discover this virtuoso technique with top-class works from the museum's own collection as well as important international loans from the Royal Collection Trust Windsor Castle, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum New York, the Uffizi in Florence, the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, the British Museum and numerous other international collections.
The show will run until 9th June 2025.
Tudor Portrait rediscovered on 'X' to be redisplayed in Museum
March 7 2025
Picture: Warwickshire County Council
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A small plug that I'm helping the Warwickshire Museum Services fundraise for the conservation and redisplay of Ralph Sheldon's Lost Portrait of Henry VIII, which I accidentally rediscovered on social media last summer. Alongside repairs to the oak panel, frame, followed by reglazing, the painting will have its rather clumsy and discoloured retouchings removed and replaced to allow the obvious quality of the picture to shine through.
Due to the fact that funds are being raised through the Warwickshire County Council, it is not possible to set up a 'go-fund-me' style page alas (more details of how to get in touch to donate via the link above). Any donations are gratefully received as ever!
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As an aside, do get in touch if you ever hear of any similar fundraising projects that are worth posting here on AHN.
Update - Here's the BBC's article on the fundraising campaign.
Update 2 - Here's an interview I gave for BBC Midlands Today on the painting, including pointing out some interesting pentimenti etc.
Titian in the Burlington
March 6 2025
Picture: Burlington
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm excited to get my hands on this month's edition of The Burlington Magazine, which appears to have a very interesting selection of fresh research on many intriguing paintings. This includes new technical analysis on the Titian portrait illustrated above, which is preserved in a private collection.
Here's a list of the other articles in March's edition:
Cristoforo de Predis at the Sforza Court - By Jeffrey Schrader
A portrait of an unknown woman by Titian - By Peter Humfrey and Paul Joannides
A Safavid ambassadress in Rome: the last testament of Teresa Sampsonia Shirley - By Alexandria Brown-Hedjazi
Additions to Ter Brugghen in Italy: ‘Christ bound to the column’ and ‘St John the Baptist in the wilderness’ - By John Gash
‘Two boys with a bladder’ in the J. Paul Getty Museum and Joseph Wright of Derby’s early candlelights - By Julia Siemon
Paul Sandby and Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn revisited - By Oliver Fairclough
Observations about the abandoned portrait beneath Gainsborough’s ‘Blue boy’ - By Christina Milton O'Connell
Uffizi Redisplay Cranach Adam and Eve
March 6 2025
Picture: Uffizi.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Uffizi Galleries in Florence have redisplayed and reframed Lucas Cranach the Elder's Adam and Eve for a special display on the second floor of the museum. Although the pair are apparently unrelated, as Cranach and his workshop are known to have produced 50 versions of the composition, the curators had decided to reframe and display them as if they were conceived as a pair (with the tree of knowledge visible in the centre also making this possible).
Lorenzo Lotto at the Carrara Academy of Bergamo
March 4 2025
Picture: Bergamo, Church of San Bernardino in Pignolo
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Carrara Academy of Bergamo will be celebrating the 500th year anniversary of Lorenzo Lotto's departure from Bergamo with a special exhibition entitled Inside Lorenzo Lotto - From the San Bernardino Altarpiece to the Photographs of Axel Hütte.
According to Finestre sull'Arte:
In the 500th year since Lorenzo Lotto’s departure from Bergamo, after 12 years of intense activity, the Carrara Academy celebrates the artist by exceptionally hosting the San Bernardino Altarpiece, a masterpiece from the church of the same name located just 500 meters from the museum, which is currently closed to the public. This is an itinerary that, in addition to celebrating the painter, will include an original photographic intervention by Axel Hütte, who will appropriate Lotto’s painting to tell its story through the contemporary language of photography.
The show will run from 11th April until 31st August 2025.
Giovan Battista Trotti in Piacenza and Cremona
February 21 2025
Picture: ilpiacenza.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The artist Giovan Battista Trotti will be celebrated with two exhibitions in Piacenza and Cremona later this spring. The shows are partly to celebrate the reunification the so-called Salazar Triptych, after two missing wings (to accompany the central panel which belongs to Bank of Piacenza) were discovered on the Italian art market. Click on the link above for more details.
How to be a Tudor player at the Folger Shakespeare Library
February 18 2025
Picture: Folger Shakespeare Library
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. are about to open a very intriguing exhibition entitled How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition.
According to the library's website:
Social climbing was a competitive sport in Tudor England, requiring a complex range of skills, strategies, and techniques. How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition invites you into a world of lace ruffs, jousting, hawks, bad handwriting, scandal, and political factions. Experience the playbooks, the people, and the spectacular fails, as courtiers tried to navigate the minefield of working for a boss who could shower you with riches or chop off your head.
The exhibition features more than 60 objects from the Folger’s collection to demonstrate the “rules” for how to be a successful courtier. They show how historical and literary figures ranging from royal advisors to household staff used cunning, cutthroat, and creative means to acquire power and curry favor with the Tudor monarchs.
The show will open on 21st February 2025.
Tintoretto's Crucifixion Unveiled after Conservation Project
February 17 2025
Picture: savevenice.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Venice that Tintoretto's famous Crucifixion for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco has been unveiled to the public after a long restoration project. Discoveries made during treatment include evidence that the artist used complex grids to organise the spatial relationships between figures. Click here to read more from the organisation Save Venice on the specifics of the project.
The Farnese in Sixteenth-Century Rome
February 11 2025
Picture: Capitoline Museums
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Capitoline Museums in Rome have just today opened an exhibition exploring the history of The Farnese in sixteenth-century Rome. The show draws together one hundred and forty masterpieces including ancient sculptures, bronzes, paintings, drawings, manuscripts, gems and coins, all of which tell the story of the collection and the various figures who contributed to it.
The exhibition will run until 18th May 2025.
Portrait found underneath Ecce Homo
February 10 2025
Picture: news.artnet.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Artnet have published a rather interesting news story regarding a piece of scientific research undertaken on an Ecce Homo by the Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Laboratories in Cyprus. Surprisingly, x-ray results have shown that the composition, a version of Titian's famous Ecce Homo (or Christ Shown to the People) of c.1565-70 which exists in Saint Louis and the Prado, was painted on top of a portrait.
The question remains as to why this occurred and how this affects its dating (although, I think costume historians will be able to work out what has happened here with relative ease), yet, according to the article:
Bakirtzis [APAC director Nikolas Bakirtzis] added that Titian effectively painted the new composition directly onto the portrait, which he said, “points to an experienced, confident artistic hand.”
The tone of the two paintings is markedly different. One is a portrait of an unknown professional man, and the other is a narrative scene from a known episode from the passions of Christ.
“They were intended for different clients and audiences. Unfortunately, this is as far as we can go until further research allows us to either identify the depicted man or we find ways to date the paintings,” Bakirtzis said. “We cannot really estimate how much earlier the first painting is. Any suggestion remains hypothetical and based on stylistic observations.”
The painting and results are on display at the Limassol Municipal Arts Center in Cyprus until 10th March 2025, in case you'd like to go and have a look for yourselves.
Upcoming Release: Holbein
February 4 2025
Picture: Yale University Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that Yale University Press will be publishing a new in-depth biography on Hans Holbein the Younger in November 2025. The volume has been produced by Elizabeth Goldring, who has published widely on Tudor subjects including Nicholas Hilliard and Robert Earl of Leicester.
According to the book's blurb:
This landmark scholarly biography of Hans Holbein the Younger (c.1497–1543), court painter to Henry VIII, is the first in more than a century. This definitive account breathes new life into Holbein’s story. From his early days in Augsburg and Basel to his lasting impact on British art and culture, Holbein sheds light on the artist whose paintings would shape perceptions of the Tudor court for five hundred years. [...]
Beautifully illustrated, and including rarely seen paintings from private collections, this volume weaves the latest research – including new archival discoveries and scientific analysis – into a fresh examination of Holbein’s life and work.
Royal Collection conserve Elizabeth I Allegory
January 16 2025
Picture: Royal Collection Trust
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Collection Trust has shared news on Instagram of the recent* conservation of Hans Eworth's Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses. The results are rather pleasing, as you can see above.
* - Alas, I can't work out exactly how recently though!
Michelangelo Casts and 3D Prints at the SMK
January 10 2025
Picture: smk.dk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery of Denmark will be opening a new exhibition dedicated to Michelangelo in March. Michelangelo Imperfect will place specific focus on the gallery's collection of casts after his works 'alongside newly-produced 3D-modelled and -cast facsimiles'.
According to their website:
In the exhibition, SMK will juxtapose its own extensive collection of historical casts of Michelangelo’s sculptures with brand new, high-quality 3D-cast replicas. This way, you can experience the majority of Michelangelo’s sculptures in one place – something that would be impossible with the originals, which are never moved. You will also be able to see the largest selection of Michelangelo’s original drawings, letters, and sculpture models ever displayed in Denmark.
Join us as SMK unfolds Michelangelo’s life and art through close studies of his sculptures and focuses on the complex relationship between original and reproduction in the digital age.
The show will run from 29th March until 31st August 2025.
Tudor (?) Guido Mazzoni Busts with Colnaghi
January 7 2025
Picture: Colnaghi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The dealers Colnaghi have shared interesting news on Instagram that they are currently exhibiting two rare terracotta busts attributed to the Italian renaissance sculptor Guido Mazzoni. Dated to the last years of the fifteenth century, fans of Tudor art will recognise the relation of these works to a bust in the Royal Collection (1) which at various times throughout its history has been identified as a likenesses of the young Henry VIII (although this has been doubted in more recent times). Colnaghi has suggested in their post that theirs might depict Margaret Tudor and her brother Henry VIII, although, the dealers haven't yet published any catalogue notes or further information online yet. The sculptures are on display at 26 Bury Street, London, in case any AHN readers would like to go and have a look for themselves!
Luca Signorelli's Saint Cecilia Altarpiece Conserved
January 6 2025
Video: Retesole TV Umbria
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Luca Signorelli's Saint Cecilia Altarpiece, one of the star attractions of Pinacoteca comunale di Città di Castello, has been conserved and redisplayed to the public.
