18 Officers on Display
February 21 2022
Picture: Facebook via. Jeroen Punt
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museum de Tiid in Bolsward, the Netherlands, have just opened a special exhibition focusing on 18 portraits of officers who served in a Frisian regiment against the Spanish during the Eighty Years' War. It is believed that the set may have been commissioned by Hendrik Casimir I of Nassau or the Frisian States, with artist Wybrand de Geest having produced a number of them.
Paintings on Stone to open (finally) in St. Louis
February 18 2022
Video: Saint Louis Art Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Saint Louis Art Museum will finally be opening their much-delayed exhibition Paintings on Stone: Science and the Sacred 1530-1800 over the weekend.
According to the museum's website:
In 2000 the Saint Louis Art Museum purchased Cavaliere d’Arpino’s Perseus Rescuing Andromeda, an exceptional painting on lapis lazuli. The acquisition of the small, stunning work of art spurred extensive research that culminates in Paintings on Stone: Science and the Sacred 1530–1800, the first systematic examination of the pan-European practice of this unusual and little-studied artistic tradition.
By 1530 Italian artists had begun to paint portraits and sacred images on stone. At first artists used slate and marble. By the last decades of the 16th century, the repertoire expanded, eventually including alabaster, lapis lazuli, onyx, jasper, agate, and amethyst. In addition to demonstrating the beauty of these works, Paintings on Stone explains why artists began using stone supports and the role that stone played in the meaning of these endeavors.
Bringing together more than 70 examples by 58 artists, Paintings on Stone represents major centers of stone painting and features 34 different stones, nearly the full range that were used.
The show will run from 20th February 2022 until 15th May 2022.
Save Venice target Works by Women Artists
February 18 2022
Picture: Save Venice
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have published an article on the conservation charity Save Venice's new initiative to raise money to conserve 30 works by Women Artists.
The idea was hatched during the restoration of a Tintoretto which is kept in the same church as a neglected picture by Giulia Lama (1681-1747) (another of Lama's works is pictured above):
“The minute [the spandrels] started to come out from all of this grime, people went, ‘Right, we know this artist. There’s work by her in the Accademia, major altarpieces… Wait a minute, why are we not paying more attention to Giulia Lama?’” recalls Tracy Cooper, a Save Venice board member and art history professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, who is leading research for the organisation’s Women Artists of Venice (WAV) programme.
Other works on the radar include paintings by the likes of Irene di Spilimbergo (who studied briefly under Titian), the 17th-century portraitist Chiara Varotari, Bernardina di Zuan Mathio, Caterina Tarabotti and Marietta Robusti.
£10m - £15m Freud coming up at Christie's
February 18 2022
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's London will be offering a £10m - £15m painting by Lucian Freud in their upcoming 20th / 21st Century Sale on 1st March 2022. Girl with Closed Eyes was painted in the mid 1980s and is being marketed as a hark back to Venuses by the likes of Giorgione, Canova and Modigliani. The model for the picture was Janey Longman whose mother Elizabeth had been a bridesmaid at Queen Elizabeth II's wedding.
According to their website:
The canvas was sold as soon as it was painted and, having been in the same private collection ever since, now comes to market for the first time. It has been exhibited only occasionally in the three and a half decades of its existence, notably in the landmark retrospective Lucian Freud Paintings, which toured the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Hayward Gallery in London and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1987-88.
Royal Museums Greenwich raising funds to Conserve Tapestry
February 17 2022
Video: Royal Museums Greenwich
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich is raising funds to restore the Solebay Tapestry. The wall hanging, commissioned by King Charles II and dated to c.1672, was designed by artist Willem Van de Velde. The museum is hoping to raise £15,000 for the project which will hopefully be completed in time for the museum's 2023 exhibition on the Van de Veldes (!)
See the Brancacci Chapel by Scaffold
February 17 2022
Picture: madeoftuscany.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Upcoming visitors to Florence will have the most marvellous opportunity to see the famous Brancacci Chapel like never before. (spotted via. @maaikesartstories) Due to the aforementioned restoration project announced last year, a scaffold has been erected in the Carmine Church to allow conservators to get up close to these important frescos by Masaccio and Masolino.
In fact, visitors will now have the opportunity to book a special ticket to walk on the scaffold to see the wall paintings up-close for themselves. The Chapel will be open to the public four days a week: Friday, Saturday, Monday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday between 1pm to 5pm. Tickets are limited and must be booked in advance.
Farinelli's Paintings up for Sale (?)
February 17 2022
Picture: diapasonmag.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Interesting news from France that the auction house Aguttes will be offering two recently rediscovered pictures by Francesco Battaglioli (1725-1796) in March. The pictures have been identified by the scholar Mickaël Bouffard as opera stage sets for productions of Nitteti. This opera, with a libretto by Metastasis set to music by Nicola Conforto, was performed in 1756 at the Theatre of the Buen Retiro Palace on the occasion of the birthday of King Ferdinand VI.
Researchers have gone as far to suggest that the paintings might have belonged to the famous castrato Farinelli. The works have been linked to two others kept in Library-Museum of the Paris Opera, which were said to have been brought back by the singer as gifts from the Spanish court.
The pair will be sold on the 25th March 2022.
Velázquez Portrait coming up for sale in Madrid
February 17 2022
Picture: abc.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Madrid that a Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman by Diego Velázquez is coming up for sale at the auction house Abalarte on 2nd March 2022.
The owners of the painting, which is part of the collection of the Vizcondes de Roda, had tried to sell it in the 2000s until the Spanish Government stepped in to declare it an Asset of Cultural Interest. Press reports do not make it clear whether the painting would be allowed to leave Spain or not.
Interestingly, the report linked above suggests that scholars believe the intricate lace ruff is a later addition by another hand. It is thought that the face is the work of the artist himself. The likes of the late Alfonso Pérez Sánchez (former Director of the Prado) and Carmen Garrido have supported the attribution.
The painting will be sold on 2nd March 2022 carrying an estimate of €2.5m - €3m.
The Duke of Bedford's Canalettos head to Greenwich
February 16 2022
Picture: Woburn Abbey
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Brilliant news for those of us who didn't get the chance to visit Bath last year. The Duke of Bedford's Canalettos will be heading to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich later in Spring. This outstanding set of 24 Venetian views by the artist will be exhibited for the public in gallery conditions whilst the Duke's ancestral home Woburn Abbey is being refurbished.
The exhibition will run from 1st April until 25th September 2022.
Lemoyne Annunciation returns to Winchester College
February 16 2022
Picture: Winchester College
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Hampshire that François Lemoyne’s Annunciation (1727) has returned to Winchester College after a ten-year loan to the National Gallery in London.
According to the school's website:
The Annunciation had been at the College since 1729 and originally hung above the altar in Chapel. It was a gift from John Burton, headmaster of Winchester from 1724 to 1766. The painting illustrates a passage in St Luke’s Gospel, where the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will give birth to Jesus. This subject was particularly appropriate for Winchester College, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, but the choice of a Catholic artist was unusual at the time. Lemoyne’s work is probably the earliest example, after the Reformation, of a foreign painter being commissioned to produce an altarpiece for an English church.
Visitors will be able to see the picture in the school's museum which is open from 2pm- 4pm every afternoon.
UK Ivory Act to be Enforced
February 16 2022
Picture: @AntiquesRescue
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The UK Ivory Act 2018 is due to be enforced on 24th February 2022.
Although the Act does contain many exemptions, including pre-1918 Miniatures on Ivory up to 320cm², it seems that many antique works of art will soon become illegal to sell. Items such as this c.1820 silver fork (with a c.1650 carved handle) will not be covered by the exemptions list, as it contains more than the 20% (in weight) allotted ivory covered by the law. Owners of items not covered by the exemption list will have to apply for exemption certificates issued by a list of sanctioned museums to prove that it is of great cultural significance.
Many antiques enthusiasts, collectors and dealers are worried that the new law might result in the destruction, scrapping and disfiguring of many historic artworks. Silver specialist and dealer Michael Baggott has written in the Antiques Trade Gazette on plans to start a new charity called the Antiques Rescue Centre. The charity will hopefully allow owners to donate items in order for them to be saved from the industrial shredder, crusher or scrap metal merchant.
Prado Unveil Revamped Goya Rooms
February 16 2022
Picture: elimparcial.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that the Prado Museum in Madrid has unveiled their newly organised Goya rooms. The refurbishment has focused on the removal of a wall partition, repainting and rehanging rooms 37 and 38 in the Villanueva building which contain some of the museum's most significant paintings by the Spanish artist. In addition to this work, new dialogues have been created by hanging a Venus by Titian next to Goya's Las Majas (pictured) to demonstrate the influence of this Venetian painter.
Apologies...
February 15 2022
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Apologies for the delay in getting started this week, I have been rather tied up with some important work. I'll be posting a long list of stories tomorrow (Wednesday).
KHM Goes Digital
February 11 2022
Picture: Kunsthistoriches Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I couldn't help but repost this rather amusing reinterpretation of Parmigianino's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror that has been published by the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna. The image was featured a recent-ish press release which gives a full and impressive list of all the digital resources published by the museum.
Divine Seduction, Bosch, El Greco and Matisse shows in Budapest for 2022
February 11 2022
Picture: Museum of Fine Arts Budapest
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It looks as if 2022 is the year to visit Budapest, Hungary. The Museum of Fine Arts Budapest has revealed their rather impressive programme of exhibitions for 2022.
These include:
Divine Seduction Erotica and Passion in Five Centuries of Mythological Depictions: 17 February – 17 April 2022
Between Heaven and Hell The Enigmatic World of Hieronymus Bosch: 8 April – 17 June 2022
Henri Matisse Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou in Paris: 1 July – 30 October 2022
El Greco: 27 October 2022 – 19 February 2023
Saved Art Treasures in Minsk
February 11 2022
Picture: artmuseum.by
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Apologies for being rather late to this. A rather interesting exhibition at the Belarusian National Arts Museum in Minsk will be closing this weekend. Saved Art Treasures is a show highlighting several dozens of works (mostly icons) that have been restored by the museum since 2010. The artworks, largely dating from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, were discovered in the abandoned attics of churches, bell towers, church cellars and other such places.
For any readers who might be in Minsk at the weekend, the exhibition closes on 13th February 2022.
Restoring Guido Reni's 'Aurora' Fresco
February 10 2022
Picture: Il Giornale dell'Arte
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Italy's Il Giornale dell'Arte have published an interesting interview with the conservators of Guido Reni's frescos in the Casino di Scipione Borghese, Rome. The delicate conservation of Reni's Aurora, located in a building which remains in private hands, was undertaken by Laura Cibrario and Fabiola Jatta. It seems that the wall paintings have a long and complicated history of conservation, having been treated every half century since 1850. The piece is well worth a read.
The Courtauld Institute are Hiring!
February 10 2022
Picture: courtauldamerica.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Courtauld Institute in London is hiring a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Curating.
According to the job description:
The Courtauld is seeking to appoint a Lecturer or Senior Lecturer with a specialism in the history and/or theory and/or practice of curating art. The Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Curating will contribute to our BA Art History programme, in particular by convening a new team-taught second-year core course in critical museology as well as developing elective modules and contributing to other team-taught modules. The new lecturer will play a leading role in developing new masters-level opportunities, including with King’s College London, with whom we have recently announced a strategic relationship. S/he may also make a contribution to our long-established MA programme ‘Curating the Art Museum’.
The job comes with an annual salary of between £38,995 and £45,818 (senior lecturers can up to £53,964) and applications must be in by 18th March 2022.
Good luck if you're applying!
_______________________
I should also probably mention that the institute is also currently hiring a Vice-Dean for Research.
Het Noordbrabants Museum seeks New Director
February 10 2022
Picture: Het Noordbrabants Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (Network for Curators of Dutch and Flemish Art) has shared news that the Het Noordbrabants Museum in the Netherlands are looking for a new Director. The position has recently been made available due to the retirement of Charles de Mooij who has been in the job for thirty-six years.
The museum will be looking to make a new appointment by April 2022.
Good luck if you're applying!
Rediscovered Romney up for Sale
February 9 2022
Picture: Toovey's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Some interesting news that a rediscovered portrait of Lady Laetitia Beauchamp-Proctor by George Romney is coming up for sale at Toovey's later this month. The picture was spotted in a private collection by consultant Tim Williams where it had been considered to be 'attributed to' Angelika Kauffman for some time. Romney's hand in the picture was finally confirmed by Alexander Kidson, who had included the work within his 2015 catalogue raisonné as 'whereabouts unknown'.*
According to the press release:
George Romney recorded Lady Beauchamp-Proctor’s seven sittings between 20th July and 16th August 1780, and the 18 guinea fee was paid to the artist on 5th May 1781. It was sent to Thomas Allwood for framing and is recorded in his framing book as ‘an oval 3/4 at a price of £2 12s 6d for Lady Beauchamp Proctor’.
* - Editors of future 'discovery' pieces take note, it's very good when recognised authorities are consulted as part of any story that deal with such things!
