Previous Posts: articles 2023
Is this Cromwell's mum?
May 9 2022
Picture: BBC News/Cromwell Museum
A picture has gone on display at the Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon, with the suggestion it might be Oliver Cromwell's mother. Of whom no known portraits are thought to have survived. The identification was attached to the picture from at least the mid 18th Century. However, Elizabeth Cromwell (nee Steward) was born in 1565, and this seems to be a picture of about the 1650s. Can it really show someone in her 80s? More here.
Ashmolean Pre-Raphaelites at the Watts Gallery
May 9 2022
Video: Watts Gallery
There's a new exhibition at the Watts Gallery, 'Pre-Raphaelite Treasures: Drawings and Watercolours on loan from The Ashmolean'. In the video above, curator Emily Burns give us a guided tour. Show till 12th June. More here.
In Our Time on the Sistine Chapel
May 9 2022
Picture: Vatican Museums
There's a good In Our Time on the Sistine Chapel, here on BBC Radio 4.
Oops...
May 9 2022
Picture: via Artnet
Someone stumbled in front of a Guido Reni of St Francis in Ecstasy at the Galleria Borghese, and made a hole in it. It was only a small one, and easily repaired. I'm not surprised though, the installation looks like an obvious trip hazard. More here in Artnet, more here on the exhibition itself.
Titian discovery at Dorotheum
May 9 2022
Video: Dorotheum
At Dorotheum on 11th May, a previously unknown Titian of the Penitent Magdalene will be offered, with an estimate of €1m-€1.5m. The composition was one of Titian's most popular, and often turns up optimistically as as Titian/Attributed/Workshop. But this one looks entirely right, and has a good claim to some very illustrious provenance. I suspect the estimate will be easily beaten. The catalogue entry is here.
Update - it made €4.8m.
Michelangelo at Christie's, Paris
May 9 2022
Video: Christie's
Here's the catalogue entry (and, above, a dramatic video) of the newly discovered drawing by Michelangelo coming up at Christie's in Paris on 18th May. I didn't realise from the photos how big it was. The scale is lovely, don't you think? It's such a sculptural image too, the central figure has the feeling of a piece of worked clay.
What will it make? The last comparable Michelangelo drawing was at Christie's in London back in 2000, and made over £8m. The estimate is 'on request' but the press have floated the figure of €30m. Which is probably on the conservative side. Although any buyers will have French export and pre-emption laws to contend with, so this might dampen the bidding.
Update, it made €23m. Not as much as I thought.
Blog on
May 9 2022
Posted by Bendor
With some trepidation, I'm going to try stepping back into AHN. Adam has done such a great job resurrecting it, and it would be a shame to let it fall back into abeyance. It's been a while since I posted regularly, and time seems to become more and more fleeting, so we'll see how it goes. Stories will probably reflect more of a personal hue, things that interest me, or (be warned) enrage me. I see AHN started back in December 2010 - over 7,000 posts ago. It seems like several lifetimes have passed since then.
1,780 posts later...
April 10 2022
Video: AB
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It was exactly 2 years to this month when Bendor very kindly asked me to start posting on AHN. Over 1,780 posts later, this is my final offering.
It has been a great honour and tremendous fun to keep the blog running, thank you to all of you who have continued to read it! I'm very grateful for all the interesting stories, comments and corrections I've received. It has never ceased to amaze me how many readers get in touch from all over the world. Ultimately, it is Bendor who we must all thank for supporting its continuation. I'm sure the next phase will be interesting too (and might contain more contemporary art stories, many of which I found particularly difficult to find any enthusiasm for).
New adventures await me as I have recently accepted a job cataloguing Old Masters at Sotheby's in London. As my doctoral research has recently ended, I think it is about time that I found another challenge to pursue.
As a parting gift, I thought I would record a segment of one of my favourite Pavans for the lute. It is entitled Sedet Sola [Sitting Alone] and was written by one of Elizabeth I's lutenists Anthony Holborne (c.1545-1602). I particularly love this piece as it is probably connected (subject wise at least) to Isaac Oliver's A Young Man Seated Under a Tree c.1590-1595 in The Royal Collection. I have always imagined that this particularly sweet melancholy is exactly what Oliver's miniature sounds like.
Update - Dear Adam, I can't thank you enough for all your excellent work on AHN these last two years. Your keen eye for a story, and many a sleeper-alert, have been indispensable in keeping us all informed about what's going on in the art historical universe. What a pleasure it has been to know the blog has been in such good hands. I'm not sure what happens next on AHN, but I doubt there'll be much enthusiasm for contemporary art stories any time soon. Sotheby's are lucky to have you (and your lutes!) and I not only wish you the best of luck there, but look forward to reporting on all the exciting discoveries I know you'll make, thanks to your excellent connoisseurial instincts. Thanks again, BG
Nationalmuseum Stockholm acquires La Tour Pastel
April 10 2022
Picture: La Gazette Drouot
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from La Gazette Drouot that the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm have acquired Quentin de La Tour's portrait of a Lady presumed to be Mrs. Catherine Massea. The work was acquired at auction last month for €60,536.
Tiepolo's Paintings in Verolanuova are being Restored
April 10 2022
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Two large paintings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's, kept in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Verolanuova, are to be restored. Work has recently begun on bringing the artist's monumental canvases of The Sacrifice of Melchizedek and The Collection of Manna back to life. The work is being supervised by conservator Davide Dotti.
The Uffizi Gallery sends Charles V to Teglio
April 10 2022
Picture: Uffizi Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Florence's Uffizi Gallery have sent their Titian and Workshop of Emperor Charles V the Palazzo Besta in Teglio, Northern Italy. The Emperor's likeness appears an historic fresco scheme already in the palace, hence the connection. The loan is part of the '100 works return home' project that sees the gallery's artworks spread across different parts of the country. It seems that the project will soon be televised in a special documentary with Rai.
Bob Dylan on Van Gogh
April 10 2022
Picture: faroutmagazine.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Far Out Magazine have published a short article on Van Gogh's influence on the music of Bob Dylan. The article, which contains some YouTube links to Dylan's songs, explores the thematic influence on his lyrics.
To quote some lyrics from his Blonde on Blonde demo:
When I’d ask why the painting was deadly / Nobody could pick up my sign / ‘Cept for the cook, she was always friendly / But she’d only ask, ‘What’s on your mind?’ / She’d say that especially when it was raining / I’d say ‘Oh, I don’t know’ / But then she’d press and I’d say, ‘You see that painting? / Do you think it’s been done by Van Gogh?
Vanishing Point
April 10 2022
Picture: FT
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Financial Times have published an interesting article on Barbara Walker’s new exhibition Vanishing Point. The show is currently on at the Cristea Roberts Gallery in London until 23rd April 2022. As you can see, these graphite drawings (combined with blind embossing) hone in on black figures that feature within old master paintings.
To quote the artist:
I spend a lot of time in the National Gallery, and when I’m looking at those beautiful paintings, I’m looking for me — how we are represented, how we are viewed — and to understand our journey. Often the black figures are in the corner or with their backs turned to us. The viewer sometimes doesn’t see these individuals. But I’m making them high-definition and bringing them to the forefront: here, they are not just props.
...
I’m duplicating an Old Masters painting and I want people to see the original in my work. So the black figure is still in situ; I don’t completely wash away the white figures, as I’ve done previously, or rub them away or paint them out. I want the audience to see the dynamics.
Upcoming Release: Scented Visions
April 10 2022
Picture: Penn State University Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here is a September release that will be worth keeping an eye out for. Scented Visions: Smells in Art 1850-1914 is the upcoming publication by Christina Bradstreet, Courses and Events Programmer at the National Gallery in London.
According to the book's blurb:
Smell loomed large in cultural discourse in the late nineteenth century, thanks to the midcentury fear of miasma, the drive for sanitation reform, and the rise in artificial perfumery. Meanwhile, the science of olfaction remained largely mysterious, prompting an impulse to “see smell” and inspiring some artists to picture scent in order to better know and control it. This book recovers the substantive role of the olfactory in Pre-Raphaelite art and Aestheticism.
Christina Bradstreet examines the iconography and symbolism of scent in nineteenth-century art and visual culture. Fragrant imagery in the work of John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Simeon Solomon, George Frederic Watts, Edward Burne-Jones, and others set the trend for the preoccupation with scent that informed swaths of British, European, and American art and design. Bradstreet’s rich analyses of paintings, perfume posters, and other works of visual culture demonstrate how artworks mirrored the “period nose” and intersected with the most clamorous debates of the day, including evolution, civilization, race, urban morality, mental health, faith, and the “woman question.”
The book will be released in September 2022.
Louis Gauffier in Italy
April 10 2022
Picture: Musée Fabre à Montpellier
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musée Fabre in Montpellier will be opening their latest exhibition next month. As the title suggests, Le voyage en Italie de Louis Gauffier will be following the journey Louis Gauffier (1762-1801) made to Italy from 1783 onwards. The show features landscapes, portraits, biblical and mythological subjects with loans from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Kenwood House in London, The National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, The Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Minneapolis Art Institute, Fine Art Museums in San Francisco and The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.
The exhibition will run from 7th May 2022 until 4th September 2022.
Michelangelo Poletti Collection on Display in Bologna
April 9 2022
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The collection of the entrepreneur Michelangelo Poletti has gone on display in a special exhibition at the Palazzo Fava in Bologna. The collection consists predominately of Emilian painters from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. A total of 84 works are on display including paintings by the likes of Lorenzo Pasinelli, Donato Creti, Graziani, Aureliano Milani, Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, Lucia Casalini, The Master of the Baldraccani, Girolamo Genga and Garofalo.
The show will run until 24th July 2022.
No one wants the Villa Aurora? (ctd.)
April 9 2022
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
There were no bidders during the most recent attempt to sell the aforementioned frescoed Villa Aurora. The opening price had been set at €282m but will now be lowered again.*
* - It had started at €353m in January.
50 Old Masters from the Alana Collection coming up at Christie's NY
April 9 2022
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News has emerged that Christie's New York will be offering 50 old master paintings from the Alana collection on 9th June 2022. The collection was formed by Chilean billionaire Alvaro Saieh and his wife Ana Guzmán over a period of decades. Many pictures included were displayed at the Jacquemart-Andre Museum in Paris between 2019-20. The total value of the collection is said to be worth between $30m and $50m.
Amongst the highlights in Fra Angelico's Saint Dominic and the Stigmatization of Saint Francis estimated at $4m - $6m (pictured).
Raphael Reframed
April 9 2022
Picture: @psframes
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Peter Schade, Head of Framing at The National Gallery in London, has shared this beautiful comparison on his Twitter account. Raphael's Saint Catherine has been housed in a new antique frame (right). This new setting has received its debut at the gallery's new Raphael exhibition (which opened the other day, as it happens).
Sleeper Alert!
April 7 2022
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This painting of A Peasant Woman holding a Cockerel catalogued as 'North Italian School' realised £176,400 (inc. commission) over its £6k - £8k estimate yesterday at Sotheby's. The work was sold from the collection of the Marquess of Downshire. This beautiful and very yellowed Lely, from the same collection, realised £113,400 over its £20k - £30k estimate.
