Previous Posts: September 2021
New Release: The Drawings of Peter Paul Rubens, A Critical Catalogue, Volume One (1590–1608)
September 9 2021
Picture: Getty.edu
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Brepols have recently released the first volume of a new catalogue raisonné of drawings by Rubens. The Drawings of Peter Paul Rubens, A Critical Catalogue, Volume One (1590–1608) was edited by the scholars Anne-Marie Logan and Kristin Lohse Belkin.
According to the blurb:
This is Volume I of the three-volume catalogue raisonné of all drawings considered by the authors to be by Rubens. It covers the years 1590–1608, Volumes II and III dealing, respectively, with the periods 1609–20 and 1621–40.
It is the first publication that presents the artist’s entire drawn oeuvre in chronological order, previous such publications containing only selections of drawings. By leafing through the illustrations, this arrangement provides the user with a quick visual impression of the variety of techniques, media, subject and functions of Rubens’s drawings at an one time.
Volume I consists of the drawings of the artist’s childhood, apprenticeship and first years as a master in Antwerp to his formative years in Italy, spent mostly in Mantua and Rome, with an excursion to Spain.
These are the years primarily devoted to learning and absorbing the art of the past, from sixteenth-century German and Netherlandish prints to the works of the ancient and Italian Renaissance masters. A large number of these drawings consists of copies after the works of other artists, largely executed as part of the artistic training at the time.
Callisto Piazza da Lodi Altarpiece Restored
September 7 2021
Picture: fsspx.news
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has kindly alerted me to news that an altarpiece by Callisto Piazza da Lodi (1523-1561) has been restored. The mid-sixteenth-century painting depicting the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin was reportedly purchased from Sotheby's and will be heading back to Lugano, Switzerland, where the painting was kept until it was sold in c.1700. The conservation of the picture was undertaken in London.
Restorers in Art Crime
September 7 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have published an interesting short article on the role of restorers in art crime.
According to the piece:
“Without restorers to disguise stolen relics, there would be no laundered items for antiquities traffickers to sell,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. “Behind every antiquities trafficking ring preying upon cultural heritage for profit, there is someone reassembling and restoring these looted pieces to lend the criminal enterprise a veneer of legitimacy.”
Whistler Exhibition at the RA for 2022
September 7 2021
Picture: NGA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Academy in London have provided more details regarding their new exhibition set to open in February 2022. Whistler’s Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan will focus around the loan of Whistler's portrait of Joanna from the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
According to the exhibition's blurb:
Many of James McNeill Whistler’s works feature the red-haired figure of Joanna Hiffernan. Her close professional and personal relationship with the artist lasted for two decades, yet little about her role or influence in his life has been explored – until now.
This exhibition brings together portraits of Hiffernan, ranging from innovative paintings, prints and drawings that challenged cultural norms and established Whistler’s reputation as one of the most influential artists of the late 19th century.
We also explore works by Gustave Courbet, who painted Hiffernan when he and Whistler worked together in Normandy, and conclude with paintings by Millais, Klimt and more who were inspired by Whistler’s Symphony in White.
The exhibition is set to run between 26th February 2022 - 22nd May 2022.
Michelangelo's Shoes Suggest Artist was Short
September 7 2021
Picture: livescience.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a curious story that appeared in the press a few days ago.
A group of scientists from the Forensic Anthropology, Paleopathology and Bioarchaeology Research Center (FAPAB) in Avola, Italy, have been studying a set of shoes allegedly owned by Michelangelo surviving in Florence's Casa Buonarroti Museum. Using some clever analysis, the group has estimated that Michelangelo's must have been no taller than 5 feet 2 inches (1.6 meters).
According to the article:
While this is relatively short for a European adult man by today's standards, at the time Michelangelo was alive (1475 to 1564) that height would not have been unusual, said scientists with the Forensic Anthropology, Paleopathology and Bioarchaeology Research Center (FAPAB) in Avola, Italy.
FAPAB researchers Francesco Galassi, a paleopathologist, and Elena Varotto, a forensic anthropologist, measured the shoes and then calculated the wearer's foot dimensions and height, and their results aligned with a description of Michelangelo by the 16th-century artist and writer Giorgio Vasari. Vasari wrote that Michelangelo was "broad in the shoulders" but the rest of his body was "somewhat slender in proportion" and his stature was average, according to the study.
40 Lady Waterford Pictures Donated to Lady Waterford Hall
September 7 2021
Picture: ford-and-etal.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Apologies, here's a story which I missed two weeks ago.
The Lady Waterford Hall in Northumberland has received a donation of 40 paintings by the Victorian aristocratic artist Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford (1818-1891). The collection of works includes paintings, watercolours and sketches by the artist. It was amassed by Peter Stickley and Stewart Hamilton over the course of 50 years and has since been gifted to the Hall which contains Waterford's famous frescos.
A new exhibition of the collection will open over the weekend. Indeed, there's a ticketed opening being held on the 9th September, in case any readers might be in the area!
Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace
September 6 2021
Picture: RCT via AB
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I've been meaning to point how magnificent the current exhibition at the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace is. I visited Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace earlier in July and spent many more hours that I had planned enjoying each of the paintings on display.
Naturally, historic house settings are very evocative for the display of pictures. I will never tire of visiting places such as Windsor Castle, which is always full to the brim with the Queen's best Van Dycks and Royal Portraits. However, there's something rather special too when such masterpieces can be displayed in gallery conditions such as at the Queen's Gallery. This setting really encourages you to hone in on the sheer quality of the pictures assembled.
The arrangement into Dutch, Flemish and Italian schools works very well. There are walls of Rembrandts to admire as well as top pictures by Van Dyck, Rubens, Canaletto, Claude, Titian, Jan Steen and others.
I should recommend getting an early time slot, as you'll almost certainly have the galleries to yourself. It's also possible to get right up close to these pictures as many of them are glazed for protection. In contrast, it's impossible to see them in such proximity when they're hanging in the Palace. Take this opportunity while you can.
Finally, I was thinking that there are probably very few galleries in the world that would let you get so close to a Vermeer. It is even possible to read my favourite wisdom inscribed onto the case of the virginal:
MVSICA LETITIAE CO[ME]S MEDICINA DOLOR[VM] / Music is the companion of joy and the balm of sorrow.
Frick Hogarth to be loaned to Tate
September 6 2021
Picture: The Frick Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Guardian have published an article on news that the Frick Collection will be loaning their William Hogarth portrait of Mary Edwards of Kensington to an upcoming exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London. This is said to be the first time the painting has returned to London in a century.
The article quotes Assistant Curator Alice Insley:
She trod her own path and contravened the social mores of the time. Mary will be a highlight of the exhibition and it is the kind of loan from the Frick Collection in New York that only happens in exceptional circumstances. Luckily for us, there is building work at the gallery and so the painting cannot be displayed there.
The Tate's upcoming exhibition Hogarth and Europe, which will feature 60 works by the artist, will be opening on 3rd November 2021 and run until 20 March 2022.
New Arts & Crafts Museum for St Petersburg, Florida
September 6 2021
Picture: TAN
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have reported on news of a new museum dedicated to the Arts & Crafts Museum. The new The Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement (MAACM) has been founded by Florida-based pharmaceutical businessman Rudy Ciccarello and will house his private collection and the holdings of the Two Red Roses Foundation, a non-profit educational organisation Ciccarello founded in 2004. His collection contains more than 2,000 objects related to the American Arts & Crafts Movement.
According to the article:
With more than 40,000sq. ft of gallery space, the new museum will be housed in a five-storey, 137,000sq. ft structure designed by the Tampa-based architect Alberto Alfonso. The institution will also have an outdoor garden, an education studio, graphic studio, research library, theater, event space, café, and restaurant.
Flowers and Gardens in Pre-Raphaelite Art
September 6 2021
Picture: Ashmolean
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I have spotted this upcoming online lecture which is bound to be an aesthetic delight. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford are hosting an online lecture this Wednesday 8th September 2021 entitled Cultivating Beauty: Flowers and Gardens in Pre-Raphaelite Art. The talk will be presented by Dr Lindsay Wells.
According to the blurb:
From lilies and roses to poppies and pansies, flowers are ubiquitous in the art of the British Pre-Raphaelites. This talk will explore how Pre-Raphaelite painters engaged with Victorian gardening trends to craft their distinctive floral imagery.
The online lecture will be broadcast at 2pm (BST) and cost a mere £4 to attend.
Uffizi Acquire Tibaldi and Gnocchi Saint Paul
September 6 2021
Picture: Uffizi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence have announced their acquisition of a full-length Saint Paul by Pellegrino Tibaldi and his Milanese pupil Giovanni Pietro Gnocchi. The work, dated to c.1585, was purchased after an export ban was placed on it by the authorities in Italy. Recent research undertaken by the scholar Agostino Allegri has established that the work was produced for the Milanese private chapel of the heirs of San Carlo Borromeo in 1585. Indeed, the painting was mentioned in a 1587 text by Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo and managed to survive the bombings of 1943 when the chapel was badly damaged.
Shredded Banksy Back on the Block
September 6 2021
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Interesting news emerged last week that Sotheby's will be re-auctioning Banksy's Love in the Bin in October. Famously, the work was shredded during a live auction in 2018 just after it was sold for £1,042,000. The work will now reappear with an estimate of £4m - £6m.
________________
The 2018 gimmick caused quite the stir back in the day. Let's wait and see if the hype has been sustained over these past three years.
Burlington Article Reveals Jacques-Louis David Secrets
September 6 2021
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
September's edition of The Burlington Magazine contains a fascinating article on recent discoveries made on Jacques-Louis David's 1788 Portrait of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and Marie- Anne Lavoisier (Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, 1758– 1836). This study was undertaken by staff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Vast technical analysis has shown the many changes were undertaken during its early history. This included the removal of a fancy hat, now missing of course, and the fact that their scientific instruments were a later addition. It is believed that these alterations were made to try and distance the sitters from looking too much like tax-collectors, a profession which ultimately led Lavoisier to the guillotine in 1794.
TEFAF Funds Restoration of Manet Portrait
September 6 2021
Picture: National Museum Wales
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Apologies, I missed this story the other week. The National Museum Wales has completed the restoration of Portrait de Monsieur Jules Dejouy by Édouard Manet. The painting, which dates to 1879, was acquired by the museum in 2019 through the acceptance in lieu scheme. Conservation was paid for through funds donated by The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) Museum Restoration Fund as well as help from the Friends of the Museum and The Finnis Scott Foundation.
Coustou Sculptures Restored
September 2 2021
Picture: rue89lyon.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from France that two sculptures representing allegories of the Rhône and the Saône by Nicolas and Guillaume Coustou have been restored. The large early eighteenth century bronzes had originally adorned a statue of Louis XIV at the Place Bellecour in Lyon. Their restoration has taken place in the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon where they will be displayed at the foot of a staircase.
Busts Return to Genoa
September 1 2021
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Two seventeenth century busts are heading back to Genoa. The two marbles depicting Tommaso Gentile and Ginetta Pinelli, completed for the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata del Vastato by sculptor Daniele Solaro (Genoa, 1649 - 1709), had long thought to have been destroyed during the war. The rediscovery was made after research was commissioned by a private collector into their histories. It is not known exactly how the pair came to leave the city, however, they have since been reacquired by the authorities in Genoa.
Rijksmuseum Acquires and Reattributes Sluter Crucifix
September 1 2021
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has acquired a carved wooden crucifix that it has reattributed to the fifteenth-century Dutch sculptor Claus Sluter.
According to the article above:
Research conducted into art historical and technical aspects of the work has led multiple experts to conclude that this exceptional object can be conclusively attributed to Haarlem-born Claus Sluter, who was the court sculptor to Philip the Bold in Dijon, France, from 1389 to 1406. This makes the work the first by Sluter to be held in a Dutch collection.
La Dynastie Francken
September 1 2021
Video: museedeflandre.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musée de Flandre in Cassel, France, will be opening their delayed exhibition La Dynastie Francken on the 4th September 2021. Here's the museum's 'teaser' published on Facebook.
The show will run until 2nd January 2022.
Refurbished Rooms in Venice's Gallerie dell'Accademia
September 1 2021
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice has recently reopened a set of newly refurbished rooms which house their collection of seventeenth and eighteenth century paintings. The new Selva-Lazzari rooms contain 63 works with many having been recently restored for the occasion.
One of the most significant restored works include Tiepolo's 13-meter-long painting Punishment of Snakes (pictured).
