Category: Research

The Nationalmuseum in Stockholm is home to the world's largest collection of miniature paintings, 5,700 in all. The majority of them are are portrait miniatures, by Swedish and other European artists from the 16th century down to the middle of the 20th. The collection is remarkable not only for its size, but just as much for its breadth and depth. No other holding is as representative of miniature paitning across Europe. Despite this, the collection has remained unknown to many outside specialst circles. This volume provides, for the first time, a comprehensive introduction to the Museum's large holding of miniatures, a combined guide and history written by Magnus Olausson, Director of Collections. At the same time, it offers a survey of the history of miniature painting, with examples drawn exclusively from the Nationalmuseum. A good deal of space is devoted both to the nations of major significance for this art form and to individual miniaturists, as well as to aspects of the subject such as the roles of artist and patron, the uses and functions of miniatures, and materials and techniques. the last of these sections is written by miniatures conservator Cecilia rönnerstam.

More portraits survive of Lucy Harington Russell, 3rd Countess of Bedford (1580-1627) than of any other non-royal Jacobean woman. A Lady of the Bedchamber to James I’s queen, Anna of Denmark, the charismatic Lucy performed in elite Court entertainments and was a patron of writers, including poet John Donne. Currently on loan to the Queen’s House from Woburn Abbey are important full-lengths of Lucy wearing fantastical masque costume, of 1605-6, and a slightly later one of Queen Anna herself. Art historian Karen Hearn will discuss both portraits and consider some further remarkable images of Lady Bedford.

In 2021, as a result of the financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the V&A underwent a major restructure, creating new curatorial departments and bringing the National Art Library and Archives together with the V&A’s Research Institute. Together with this move, we began a comprehensive review of the NAL and Archive services, led by two independent consultants, Dr Sarah Thomas and Anna Jobson. Sarah and Anna were tasked with examining how, in the extraordinary context of the pandemic, the library could – and should – move forward as a core part of the V&A’s mission, considering the place of the NAL within a national and international library landscape, how libraries have changed in response to the pandemic and wider trends in digital and technology and, in particular, how we might broaden access to the NAL and our archives.

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To that end, we are embarking on a transformation programme to take the National Art Library into its next phase, with renewed commitment to make our collections and resources accessible to all. We’ll shortly be appointing a Chief Librarian to lead this process, and we will be working behind the scenes to make our digitised collections more discoverable, to make more of our unique and distinctive collections, and to improve remote access to our resources. While financial constraints mean that we’re not able to act immediately on all of Sarah and Anna’s recommendations, we are committed to renewing and reinforcing the NAL, making it more sustainable, connected and inclusive, serving more people nationally and internationally as a fundamental part of the V&A’s 21st-century mission.

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We’re delighted to be able to welcome readers back to the National Art Library’s reading rooms from 26 January, with increased opening hours and capacity. We’ll be opening every Wednesday from 11am and 5pm, with a walk-in service: and we’ll be increasing our opening hours later in the spring.

Woodland Imagery in Northern Art reconnects us with the woodland scenery that abounds in Western painting, from Albrecht Dürer’s intense studies of verdant trees, to the works of many other Northern European artists who captured 'the truth of vegetation' in their work. These incidents of remarkable scenery in the visual arts have received little attention in the history of art, until now. Prosperetti brings together a set of essays which are devoted to the poetics of the woodlands in the work of the great masters, including Claude Lorrain, Jan van Eyck, Jacob van Ruisdael, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci, amongst others.   

Through an examination of aesthetics and eco-poetics, this book draws attention to the idea of lyrical naturalism as a conceptual bridge that unites the power of poetry with the allurement of the natural world.

Duties and Responsibilities

- The Durwood Curatorial Fellow, working closely with the Maida and George Abrams Curator of Drawings, conducts object-based research focused on the Museums’ Dutch art collections, with a preference for seventeenth century Dutch drawings. The Fellow will also have the opportunity to carry out research on Dutch works from the permanent collection in other media and on drawings from other cultures and periods. Investigations into global correlations of Dutch art and colonialism will be encouraged.

- The Curatorial Fellow assists with a broad range of other curatorial activities, including preparation of interpretive materials, cataloguing of the permanent collection in the Art Museums’ database, assistance with new acquisitions, donor cultivation.

- Foregrounding the museums’ teaching and research mission, the Curatorial Fellow helps provide content expertise and support for the Art Museums’ Art Study Center by supporting classes and individual appointments of approximately six hours a week, participates in a series of art handling workshops, and contributes to a rich offering of public and academic interpretive programs across various platforms.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw the art of frame carving and gilding reach a crescendo of beauty and skill. The formation of The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 saw a shift back to artist-designed frames. Their first frames were both robust and innovative and probably went some way to softening their brilliant-coloured painting. This lecture will explore how artists revived the tradition of frame design during the second half of the 19th century and how these were a more personal expression of the artists than at any other period in history.

The intimate character of A Young Woman Writing a Letter is closely related to its distinctive brushwork and muted palette of grays, browns, ochres, and purple. Van Mieris executed this painting with mostly fluid, thin brushstrokes, in some areas in only one or two layers, and left the brown ground layer exposed in certain places to enhance the effect of shadow, as in the darker areas along the side of the woman’s neck and beneath the folded corners of the letter in the foreground. This unusual technique has led Quentin Buvelot to raise the possibility that the painting was not finished, yet the careful and nuanced manner with which Van Mieris approached the composition—and the presence of the artist’s signature—indicates otherwise.

The Courtauld, as a specialist institution with a global reputation, distinguished history and founding principle of “art for all”, has a deep-rooted commitment to make change for the better, to be progressive, relevant, and resilient, and to push forward the understanding of the visual arts at a time when the arts have never been more important.  King’s, a large multi-Faculty Russell Group institution, has strengths in all areas from the Arts & Humanities through to Medicine and Health Sciences, Psychiatry and Psychology, the Social Sciences and Natural & Mathematical Sciences, and is committed to excellence, inclusion, and service to society in making the world a better place.

A revelatory resituation of Van Gogh’s familiar works in the company of the surprising variety of nineteenth-century art and literature he most revered.

Vincent van Gogh’s (1853–1890) idiosyncratic style grew out of a deep admiration for and connection to the nineteenth-century art world. This fresh look at Van Gogh’s influences explores the artist’s relationship to the Barbizon School painters Jean-François Millet and Georges Michel—Van Gogh’s self-proclaimed mentors—as well as to Realists like Jean-François Raffaëlli and Léon Lhermitte. New scholarship offers insights into Van Gogh’s emulation of Adolphe Monticelli, his absorption of the Hague School through Anton Mauve and Jozef Israëls, and his keen interest in the work of the Impressionists. This copiously illustrated volume also discusses Van Gogh’s allegiance to the colorism of Eugène Delacroix, as well as his alliance with the Realist literature of Charles Dickens and George Eliot. Although Van Gogh has often been portrayed as an insular and tortured savant, Through Vincent’s Eyes provides a fascinating deep dive into the artist’s sources of inspiration that reveals his expansive interest in the artistic culture of his time.

Jews and Judaism in Rembrandt’s Own World

Spiritual Values that United and Divided Rembrandt and the Jews

Jews in the Art World and Rembrandt

Rembrandt in Russia

How did citizens in Bruges create a home? What did an ordinary domestic interior look like in the sixteenth century? And more importantly: how does one study the domestic culture of bygone times by analysing documents such as probate inventories? These questions seem straightforward, yet few endeavours are more challenging than reconstructing a sixteenth-century domestic reality from written sources. This book takes full advantage of the inventory and convincingly frames household objects in their original context of use. Meticulously connecting objects, people and domestic spaces, the book introduces the reader to the rich material world of Bruges citizens in the Renaissance, their sensory engagement, their religious practice, the role of women, and other social factors. By weaving insights from material culture studies with urban history, At Home in Renaissance Bruges offers an appealing and holistic mixture of in-depth socio-economic, cultural and material analysis.

Carlo Dolci’s Inscriptions 1 – Dolci’s signatures and prices in context BY RICHARD E. SPEAR

Carlo Dolci’s Inscriptions II – Diligence and devotion in Dolci’s ‘The Adoration of the Kings’ in the National Gallery, London BY LETIZIA TREVES

New light on the colossal statues on the façade of St Peter’s, Rome BY FERNANDO LOFFREDO

Caravaggio’s ‘Entombment of Christ’ and the birth of Christian archaeology BY SILVIA DANESI SQUARZINA

Edith Coulson James, Francesco Francia and ‘The Burlington Magazine’, 1911–17 BY MARIA ALAMBRITIS

The Italian Caravaggio, among others BY SHEILA MCTIGHE

Mediterranean maritime art and the forced labor on which it depended were fundamental to the politics and propaganda of France's King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715). Yet most studies of French art in this period focus on Paris and Versailles, overlooking the presence or portrayal of galley slaves on the kingdom's coasts. By examining a wide range of artistic productions-ship design, artillery sculpture, medals, paintings, and prints-Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss uncover a vital aspect of royal representation and unsettle a standard picture of art and power in early modern France. With an abundant selection of startling images, many never before published, The Sun King at Sea emphasizes the role of esclaves turcs (enslaved Turks)-rowers who were captured or purchased from Islamic lands-in building and decorating ships and other art objects that circulated on land and by sea to glorify the Crown. Challenging the notion that human bondage vanished from continental France, this cross-disciplinary volume invites a reassessment of servitude as a visible condition, mode of representation, and symbol of sovereignty during Louis XIV's reign.