Previous Posts: October 2023
Upcoming Release: A Delicate Matter - Art, Fragility, and Consumption in Eighteenth-Century France
October 31 2023
Picture: Penn State University Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Penn State University Press will be releasing a very intriguing book in January 2024. A Delicate Matter: Art, Fragility, and Consumption in Eighteenth-Century France is the latest publication to investigate the history of 'unstable' art.
According to the book's blurb:
Eighteenth-century France witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of materially unstable art, from oil paintings that cracked within years of their creation to enormous pastel portraits vulnerable to the slightest touch or vibration. In A Delicate Matter, Oliver Wunsch traces these artistic practices to the economic and social conditions that enabled them: an ascendant class of art collectors who embraced fragile objects as a means of showcasing their disposable wealth.
While studies of Rococo art have traditionally focused on style and subject matter, this book reveals how the physical construction of paintings and sculptures was central to the period’s reconceptualization of art. Drawing on sources ranging from eighteenth-century artists’ writings to twenty-first-century laboratory analyses, Wunsch demonstrates how the technical practices of eighteenth-century painters and sculptors provoked a broad transformation in the relationship between art, time, and money. Delicacy, which began the eighteenth century as a commodified extension of courtly sociability, was by century’s end reimagined as the irreducible essence of art’s autonomous value.
Innovative and original, A Delicate Matter is an important intervention in the growing body of scholarship on durability and conservation in eighteenth-century French art. It challenges the art historical tendency to see decay as little more than an impediment to research, instead showing how physical instability played a critical role in establishing art’s meaning and purpose.
Art Fund Pledges £200,000 to Save Tapestry
October 31 2023
Picture: uk.news.yahoo.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A campaign to raise £4.1m to save Henry VIII's Burning of the Heathen Books Tapestry has received a generous pledge of £200,000 from the Art Fund. The campaign is being run by the Auckland Project, as it hopes to redisplay the work in its recently opened Faith Museum in Bishop Auckland.
According to the press report:
If the campaign is successful, visitors will be able to see the tapestry alongside artefacts closely associated with these tumultuous years - including a rare copy of Tyndale’s New Testament, and a portrait of Sir Thomas More in the last week of his life.
Auckland Castle itself has a historical link to Henry VIII via his advisors Cuthbert Tunstall and Cardinal Wolsey, both Prince Bishops of Durham.
Jenny Waldman, director of art fund, said: “This exquisitely detailed tapestry is the only surviving example of nine tapestries commissioned by Henry VIII. We have a unique opportunity to bring it back to the UK after being considered lost for almost 200 years.
“I can’t think of a better home for this monumental tapestry than The Auckland Project’s new Faith Museum, and I’m delighted we’ve been able to support their campaign to acquire it, building on a decade of support for the charity.
"This has only been possible thanks to Art Fund's generous donors and members, who I urge to visit The Auckland Project."
Reattributed Titian On Display in Warsaw
October 31 2023
Video: The Royal Castle Warsaw
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Castle in Warsaw have put on a small exhibition dedicated to what they claim is a rediscovered portrait by Titian. The Portrait of a Young Man is on loan from a private collection and is said to have been created before 1515. The website, which gives a list of works it can be compared to, does not list which recognised scholars have supported the reattribution to the Venetian master.
Uffizi Restores and Redisplays Lorenzetti Polyptych
October 31 2023
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Uffizi in Florence have restored Pietro Lorenzetti's (Siena 1280-1348) Santa Umiltà polyptych. The polyptych, which is composed of 22 elements, has taken over four years to conserve. In line with the gallery's Diffusi project, the large work has been sent off for an exhibition at the Pinacoteca Comunale di Faenza where it will be on display until March next year.
Readers will also notice that the museum has taken the opportunity to give the multipaneled work the contemporary 'Italian' framing treatment. Click here to see the Uffizi's washing machine setting for Michelangelo's Doni Tondo.
Artcurial November Sale
October 30 2023
Picture: Artcurial
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Artcurial in Paris have uploaded the full online catalogue for their upcoming MAÎTRES ANCIENS & DU XIXe SIÈCLE Tableaux, Dessins & Sculptures sale.
Amongst the many treasures found within is this rather extraordinary An Antique Sacrifice, known as The Sacrifice to the Minotaur by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. This very colourful and powerful work, which has everything you'd want in a mythological scene of this period I would think, has been in a private collection for over one hundred years. It carries an estimate of €4,000,000 - €6,000,000, but, I wonder if it will make more...
The auction will take place on 22nd November 2023.
Sotheby's publishes Rembrandt Catalogue Online
October 30 2023
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's London have published a full PDF of its 58+ page catalogue dedicated to Rembrandt's The Adoration of the Kings in their upcoming December sale. The catalogue contains vast amounts of research, both art historical and technical, which explains how and why work has been upgraded to the master in full.
Paintings from the Diocese of Paris Restored and On Display
October 30 2023
Picture: collegedesbernardins.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Collège des Bernardins in Paris have recently opened a small exhibition of fourteen works from the Diocese of Paris. Many of the paintings, spanning the fifteenth until the twentieth centuries, have been recently restored.
The display will run until 16th December 2023.
The University of Exeter are Hiring!
October 30 2023
Picture: Wikipedia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The University of Exeter are hiring a Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture (Education and Scholarship).
According to the job description:
The post includes responsibility for the design, development and delivery of teaching and learning materials across a range of modules within AHVC, with a focus on the period 1700-1900.
You will contribute to team-taught core module teaching in Art History and Visual Culture, including the field trip, and supervision of undergraduate final year dissertations. You will contribute to a module on ‘French Visual History’ and the ability to offer an option module on an aspect of French art history and visual culture is desirable. You will contribute directly to foundation teaching in AHVC and to the development and implementation of innovative teaching practices.
The job comes with a salary of around £41,732 and applications must be in by 9th November 2023.
Good luck if you're applying!
Christie's Paris November Sale
October 30 2023
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's Paris have uploaded their upcoming November Maîtres Anciens : Peintures - Sculptures - Dessins online.
Amongst the highlights of the sale is a Charles-Antoine Coypel, with Rothschild provenance, which will be offered at €200,000 - 300,000. Other works by Jean-François de Troy, Jan Brueghel the Younger and Pieter Claissens the Elder are also featured.
The accompanying online hasn't been uploaded yet, but will appear here when it does!
Venezia500 at the Alte Pinakothek
October 27 2023
Picture: Alte Pinakothek
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Munich's Alte Pinakothek latest exhibition opens today. VENEZIA 500:
THE GENTLE REVOLUTION OF VENETIAN PAINTING is a celebration of Venetian painting of the sixteenth century and will feature works by all the big names including Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Palma Vecchio, Lorenzo Lotto, Titian and Tintoretto.
According to the museum's website:
The exhibition is devoted to the groundbreaking innovations in Venetian Renaissance painting, with lasting effects that continued to resonate far into European modernism. It presents 15 masterpieces from the Munich collection and around 70 international loans, focusing on portraits and landscapes from the first half of the sixteenth century as the most eloquent examples of the characteristics and achievements of the flourishing Venetian school. The leading masters brought a previously unprecedented intensity to their explorations of the essence of humanity and nature and their interrelations. This explains the attraction and the relevance of these portraits and landscapes, which will be presented in themed groups and in juxtapositions of drawings and sculptures that address the contexts of their creative origins and contemporary readings.
This free (!) show will run until 4th February 2024.
Petworth are Hiring!
October 27 2023
Picture: The National Trust
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Would you like to work with what must surely be one of Britain's greatest collections of art? Well, Petworth (Managed by The National Trust) are hiring a Collections & House Manager.
According to the job description:
Reporting to the Property Curator, you'll contribute to the Treasure House programme ambitions. This will include improvements to the visitor offer such as high standards of presentation and meticulous conservation and collections management and care. You'll lead on the development of the remedial conservation plan and emergency salvage plan with support from the Property Curator and identify collections and interiors conservation projects, managing their planning and delivery. Alongside these projects, you'll oversee the daily smooth-running of house team operations. This will include overall responsibility for ensuring timely and effective preventive conservation methods, environmental monitoring, and auditing. You'll also develop and implement plans to ensure information on the Collections Management System (CMS) is accurate and actively managed, training team members where necessary.
The job comes with a salary between £30,000 - £40,000 per annum, and applications must be in by 5th November 2023.
Good luck if you're applying!
Prado Acquires Paolo da San Leocadio
October 27 2023
Picture: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that the Prado Museum in Madrid have acquired an Agony in the Garden by Paolo da San Leocadio. Born in Italy in 1447, this master is most famous for his work during his stay in Valencia, which included producing frescos and works of art for the city's cathedral. Press reports have stated that the work was purchased for 600,000 from the Bernat Gallery, with the American Friends of the Prado Museum paying for half of the costs.
Ombersley Court Treasures at Christie's
October 26 2023
Picture: malverngazette.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's have recently published full cataloguing for their upcoming Ombersley Court: The Collection of Lord and Lady Sandys sale. As expected from an English Country House auction, there are many fine British Portraits from all ages with particularly tempting estimates.
Regular auction watchers will remember that a few selected times from the collection were offered by Sotheby's back in 2019, however, it appears that it is Christie's who have been instructed to offer works of art from the collection this time around.
The auction will be held on 29th November 2023.
Sell the Bouchardon Bust, says Councillor who Rediscovered it
October 26 2023
Picture: ross-shirejournal.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Interesting news from Scotland that a local Highland councillor, who rediscovered a very fine bust of Sir John Gordon of Invergordon by Bouchardon in the council's stores, has called for it to be sold. The bust was rediscovered in 1998 by Maxine Smith, now a local councillor, and former Highland councillor Andy Anderson when looking for 'missing' robes and chains of office in stores. The bust, which had been purchased by the council for £5 in 1931, had been holding open a door at the time. Since its rediscovery it has been exhibited at the Louvre and its market value has increased too. In the early 2000s it was valued at around £450,000, and the recent reports (linked above) suggest that it is now worth £2.5m.
Miss Smith is now in the process of calling for a public consultation to have the bust sold for funds for 'community projects':
The councillor wants the community to back a plan to sell the bust, and with the proceeds make a replica of the original to keep in a museum.
And with the proceeds of the sale, she wants backing to set up an Invergordon Common Good Fund, putting £125,000 back into community projects each year.
She said: “I’m so excited we played the long game.
“It may be that the community don’t wish to sell it, but to be honest it’s doing nobody any good sitting in the Inverness archive centre which is the only place secure enough to cover the insurance costs.”
Update - The BBC have published the story too earlier today. AHN's Bendor has been quoted giving his own opinion:
"Here is this work of art that has fallen into the lap of Highland Council for no money at all and it seems all they want to do is sell it for a lot of money to someone outside Scotland, when really there is no reason they can't lend it to Inverness Museum or National Galleries of Scotland or National Museum of Scotland."
Sotheby's to offer $40 - 60m Basquiat Self-Portrait
October 26 2023
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's New York will be testing the upper end of the modern and contemporary art market next month with the sale of the following Basquiat Self-Portrait. With an estimate of $40 - $60m, this will certainly be an interesting indicator for the state of the market in this area. Interestingly, a video produced by the auction house for Instagram has directly compared the self-portrait to examples by Rembrandt, Van Eyck, Parmigianino, Durer, Wright of Derby and others (Schiele, Van Gogh etc.). It's good to know that the Old Masters are still the benchmark for this particular genre!
'Sleepy Sleeper' Returns for Sale
October 26 2023
Picture: Wannenes
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News on 'X' via the art researcher Mirna Megyeral (@Megyeral) that a 'Sleepy Sleeper' posted here in December 2020 has reappeared in a sale. Regular readers might remember that the drawing made a staggering €160,000 (hammer) over its €800 - €1,200 estimate at the auction house Wannenes in Italy. It is now being reoffered at Farsetti Arte in Milan with an estimate of €900 - 1,300. Not all sleepers work out the way you sometimes hope, it seems...
Anne Lyden named as new Director General of National Galleries of Scotland
October 26 2023
Picture: BBC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Anne Lyden has been named as the new Director General of the National Galleries of Scotland. She will replace Sir John Leighton who has held the position for 17 years and will be the first ever female to be appointed in that role.
Here's a little of her professional background:
Lyden joined the National Galleries of Scotland first as International Photography Curator and then as Chief Curator, Photography.
In 2022, she became Interim Co-Director of Collection and Research, overseeing the public programme across three sites and building on research initiatives to widen accessibility and representation within the collection.
Previously, she held various curatorial positions at the J.Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where she worked for 18 years from 1995, most recently in the role of Associate Curator.
In anticipation of the upcoming Holbein exhibition...
October 26 2023
Picture: Royal Collection Trust
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Guardian have published its art critic Jonathan Jones's thoughts on a private tour of the Royal Library at Windsor Castle in anticipation of the upcoming Holbein Exhibition at the Queen's Gallery. It seems that he was impressed by the mastery of these artworks and it will be exciting to see how they are presented when the show opens in November!
Louvre Acquires Portuguese Resurrection
October 25 2023
Picture: Louvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
La Tribune de l'Art have reported on news that the Louvre have acquired a Portuguese painting depicting the Resurrection of Christ. Dated to around 1540, and connected to an unknown artist connected with the Royal Court of Lisbon, the painting was acquired from the dealer Philippe Mendes who had the work on their stand at TEFAF earlier this year.
Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen to leave Christie's after 38 years
October 25 2023
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News has broken that Christie's Global President and long-time auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen will be leaving the company in December to become an independent art advisor. He has been with the auction house for 38 years, and has taken the majority of Old Master Paintings Evening Sales in some time.
According to Artnews:
Pylkkänen’s final Christie’s sale will be an Old Masters auction slated to take place in London on December 7. The house said in its announcement that he will still preside over the marquee 20th-century art evening sale in New York this November.
Some of the most expensive works of art ever sold at auction have hit the block during live sales conducted by Pylkkänen. In 2017, he took the rostrum during the sale of Salvator Mundi, a painting the house credited to Leonardo da Vinci. That work sold for $450.3 million, and still holds the record for the priciest piece ever sold publicly at auction. In 2022, he facilitated bidding for a $195 million Andy Warhol painting of Marilyn Monroe; the buyer was dealer Larry Gagosian.
