17th Century
Bernini e i Barberini at the Palazzo Barberini
January 19 2026
Picture: barberinicorsini.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palazzo Barberini in Rome will be opening a new exhibition on 12th February dedicated to exploring the relationship between Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII. The exhibition also coincides with the 400th anniversary of the consecration of the new St. Peter’s Basilica.
Give Van Dyck back to Church in Palermo, says Group
January 16 2026
Picture: Wikipedia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that a group of citizens and experts in Sicily have been calling for a version of Van Dyck's Madonna of the Rosary to be permanently restituted to the church of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria in Palermo. The artwork was removed from there in 1922 for storage and display in the Palazzo Abatellis. It has been allowed to return to the church twice in every year for the Christmas period and in May.
___________
As it happens, I had a quick flick through the 2004 Van Dyck catalogue raisonné for this very picture and couldn't find it.* The composition appears to have been partly borrowed from the more famous Madonna of the Rosary located in the city's Oratorio del Rosario.
* - I'm sure a reader will get in touch in case I've been negligent here.
Update - A reader has kindly been in touch with the following link to another version which sold in Sweden in 2024. The catalogue note provides further details on the composition.
Attributed to Rubens Head with Second Face
January 14 2026
Picture: artnet.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Artnet.com have published a story relating to a head study of an Old Man attributed to Rubens which is being unveiled at the BRAFA fair in Brussels by dealer Klaas Muller. Acquired at auction a few years ago for €100,000, the head study (which relates to a finished Rubens in the Prado and is often repeated by other hands) curiously features another face which was painted over during the process of its creation. Click on the link to read the full story.
Rembrandthuis borrow Rembrandt from Rijksmuseum
January 12 2026
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam have shared news on Instagram that they will be borrowing Rembrandt's preparatory oil study for Joseph relating his dreams to his parents and brothers from the nearby Rijksmuseum. The painting will be on display for their latest exhibition Rembrandt's Masterclass which opens at the end of this month.
According to their post:
The great sadness of the Rembrandt House Museum is that it has never managed to acquire a painting by Rembrandt, despite the fact that he made over 100 paintings in the world-famous studio on the Jodenbreestraat. Within the current art market, a museum like ours can only display a Rembrandt painting as a loan or acquire it thanks to a donation. Therefore, we are delighted with the generous loan from the Rijksmuseum and the support of Vereniging Rembrandt. They are helping us to continuously display a Rembrandt painting in the coming years and to make this important piece of Dutch heritage accessible to a wide audience.” Milou Halbesma, Director of the Rembrandt House Museum.
''The intimacy of the scene in a room perfectly complements the domestic setting of the Rembrandthuis. The painting provides a fascinating insight into Rembrandt's working methods. The painter at work. It is wonderful that visitors will be able to see it permanently on this special site.” Taco Dibbits, Genral Director of the Rijksmuseum.
Luca Giordano Soars
January 6 2026
Picture: Abalarte Subastas
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm slow to news (via Drouot) that the following Battle of the Amazons by Luca Giordano soared to past its starting estimate of €180,000 to achieve €854,000 (inc. commission) at Abalarte Subastas in Spain at the end of December. This is apparently the second highest price at auction for the artist.
Ignacio Iriarte landscape acquired by Museo Bellas Artes de Sevilla
January 6 2026
Picture: arsmagazine
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via the Artsmagazine in Spain that the Museo Bellas Artes de Sevilla have acquired a Landscape with St Jerome by the 17th century Spanish artist Ignacio Iriarte. The work was acquired from a Spanish collection, where it had previously been considered Flemish, for €42,000.
El Greco thieves escape with copy instead of original
December 29 2025
Picture: abc.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Spanish media have reported on news that thieves who attempted to plunder El Greco's Penitent Magdalene from the parish church of San Eutropio in Paradas, Seville, walked off with a reproduction instead of the original painting itself (spotted via @currmon on 'X'). The break-in, which happened on 24th December, was foiled (it appears) due to the original being kept behind a fence and alarm. It seems that the thieves were content to take a copy instead.
Museo de San Isidro acquires 17th century Isidore the Labourer painting
December 29 2025
Picture: Mutualart
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain (via @Boro_RR on 'X') that the Museo de San Isidro in Madrid have acquired an anonymous 17th century painting of Isidore the Labourer Feeding Doves. It was acquired earlier at auction where it was catalogued as 'Madrid School, 17th century'.
Frans Francken II acquired by Art Institute Chicago
December 24 2025
Picture: CODART
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from CODART that the Art Institute Chicago have acquired Frans Francken II's Queen Esther before her husband, the Persian king Ahasuerus. The painting is apparently 'the first Flemish early modern painting to be acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in nearly fifteen years.' The work had previously been with the dealers Salomon Lilian.
Sustermans Cosimo III de’ Medici being Conserved
December 23 2025
Picture: phoebusfoundation.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Phoebus Foundation in Belgium have published an interesting article on the conservation of Justus Sustermans’ Portrait of Cosimo III de’ Medici as a Child. For more information and pleasing mid-clean photos click on link above.
Cornelius Jonson at the Stadsmuseum Zierikzee
December 23 2025
Picture: WBOOKS / Stadsmuseum Zierikzee
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Stadsmuseum Zierikzee in the Netherlands will be opening a new exhibition on Cornelius Jonson van Ceulen on 15th January 2026. The show, which has been curated by Karen Hearn, will feature loans from major European museums including Tate, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden, and the Rijksmuseum. In fact, the Mauritshuis have cleaned their painting of Jan Beck and his five children (from which the detail in the image above is taken) especially for the exhibition.
The exhibition, for which a full printed catalogue (with an English version available too) has also been published, will run until 14th June 2026.
Recent Release: Final Volume of Rubens Drawings Catalogue
December 22 2025
Picture: Brepols
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm late to news that the final volume of the Critical Catalogue of the drawings of Rubens was published this autumn. This third volume covers the years 1621-1640 and was edited by Anne-Marie Logan and Kristin Lohse Belkin.
According to the publisher's website:
This is the final volume of the catalogue raisonné of the drawings by Peter Paul Rubens, covering the years 1621–1640. The project is a collaboration between Anne-Marie Logan, to whom belong all the Rubens attributions, and Kristin Lohse Belkin. It is the first publication that presents the artist’s entire drawn oeuvre in chronological order, previous such publications containing only selections of drawings. Accordingly, Volume III consists of the drawings from 1621 to the artist’s death in 1640.
The first decade is characterized by Rubens’s first foreign commission, the paintings for the Luxembourg Palace, Marie de’ Medici, the Queen Mother’s new residence in Paris, and by the demands of the artist’s diplomatic missions to the courts of Madrid and London. In contrast to the works requested by Rubens’s official duties, especially portraiture, a subject not of primary interest to the artist before, are the paintings and drawings of the second decade, predominantly inspired by the elderly painter’s marriage to the young Helena Fourment and the love and deep affection for his wife and her children. Court portraits are replaced by images of his family à trois crayons, Rubens preferred medium in these years. Helena in disguise appears in the artist’s religious, mythological and genre paintings, most gloriously in the series of drawings for The Garden of Love. Commissions for altarpieces continue but unlike the black chalk anatomical studies of the 1610s, preparatory drawings now consist of head studies in black and red chalk, the latter used for the capture and color of skin. At the same time, images of domestic bliss are accompanied by drawings of the Flemish countryside, especially after Rubens’s purchase of the seignorial estate “Het Steen” in 1635.
Prado acquire Juan Bautista Maíno Visitation
December 19 2025
Picture: arsmagazine.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
More acquisition news from the Prado that they have acquired Juan Bautista Maíno's Visitation. The work, dated 1636 and exhibited at the 2022 edition of TEFAF, was acquired from dealer Jaime Eguiguren's gallery for €375,000.
Caravaggio in Goa
December 17 2025
Video: National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru via Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A collaborative project between the Embassy of Italy in India and the Consulate General of Italy in Mumbai has seen the loan of Caravaggio's Magdalene in Ecstasy to the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa. The same painting had been displayed in the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art earlier this year. Here's a video of Dr. Jayaram Poduval's take on the work.
Palazzo Spinola acquire Castiglione Adoration
December 17 2025
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the National Gallery of Liguria based at the Palazzo Spinola in Genoa have acquired Salvatore Castiglione's Adoration of the Shepherds (spotted via @mweilc). Recent conservation of the painting revealed the artist's monogram, confirming it not to be the work of his older brother Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.
Pietro Antonio Ferro Fresco Restored in Polla
December 16 2025
Video: InfoCliento
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
An early 17th century fresco attributed to Pietro Antonio Ferro in the Franciscan Sanctuary of San Antonio in Polla has been conserved and revealed to the public. The scene, depicting The Descent into Hell, is located in the same church where in 2010 a statue of Saint Anthony was found to be shedding tears.
Jordaens drawing acquired by Snijders&Rockoxhuis
December 16 2025
Picture: @galerie_ldw
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Belgian dealers Galerie Lowet de Wotrenge have shared news on Instagram that Snijders&Rockoxhuis in Antwerp have acquired the following still life drawn by Jacob Jordaens. The work is a preparatory study for The King Drinks.
Rembrandt & Workshop of Rembrandt side by side in Chicago
December 16 2025
Picture: Art Institute Chicago
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Institute Chicago are putting on a special display from tomorrow (17th Dec) onwards of featuring their fully attributed Rembrandt of a Old Man with a Gold Chain next to a Workshop of Rembrandt repetition.
According to the very interesting article on the museum's website:
This work had previously been considered an original by Rembrandt, but as the article reported, after carefully evaluating both paintings—the one now in the Art Institute’s collection and this painting on canvas—the connoisseur Dr. Wilhelm Bode believed the work on canvas to be “a clever reproduction by one of the artist’s talented pupils.” Recent technical research suggests that Bode’s assessment was spot-on: the painting [some text redacted not to spoil the fun], now in a private collection, appears to have been made in the workshop of the young Rembrandt around 1632.
Once you've decided which of the paintings above is the copy, click on the link above the find out if you were right!
Baroque in Forli for 2026
December 12 2025
Picture: San Domenico Civic Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The San Domenico Civic Museum in the town of Forli, Italy, will be hosting a big exhibition of Baroque art in 2026. The show will contain 200 works with major loans from across Italy and Europe, including artworks by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Francesco Borromini, Pietro da Cortona, the two Gentileschi, Luca Giordano, Guercino, Guido Reni, Van Dyck, Andrea Pozzo, Nicolas Poussin, Peter Paul Rubens and Francisco de Zurbarán. The show will run from 21st February until 28th June 2026.
Flemish Caravaggism at Colnaghi Brussels
December 11 2025
Picture: Colnaghi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The dealers Colnaghi opened a new selling exhibition at their Brussels branch yesterday entitled Northern Lights: Masterpieces of Flemish Caravaggism. It will run until 30th January 2026.
According to their website:
The exhibition brings together works by minds such as Matthias Stom, Hendrick de Somer, Abraham Janssens, and Jan van Dalem; artists whose careers unfolded across Rome, Naples, Antwerp, and Brussels. Among the works on view is a representative cross-section of Flemish engagements with Caravaggio. Matthias Stom’s Mocking of Christ, with its pared-back nocturnal intensity; Hendrick de Somer’s Neapolitan David with the Head of Goliath, which reflects the city’s shift from Ribera’s stark naturalism toward a softer, more chromatic idiom. Abraham Janssens’s Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, however, signals the classicising turn of an artist who had been among the earliest Flemish painters to confront Caravaggio in Rome. A newly identified Bacchus by Jan van Dalem, a rare example from an exceptionally small oeuvre, demonstrates his independence from mainstream stylistic currents.
