New Release & Free Ebook: At Home in Renaissance Bruges
January 5 2022
Picture: Leuven University Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Leuven University Press will be publishing Julie de Groot's new book At Home in Renaissance Bruges Connecting Objects, People and Domestic Spaces in a Sixteenth-Century City later this April. Amazingly, the scholarly publication will also be released as a free ebook.
According to the book's blurb:
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.
Art Gallery of New South Wales Acquires a Ribera
January 5 2022
Picture: The Art Gallery of New South Wales
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has been in touch with news that The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, has acquired Jusepe de Ribera's Aesop. It seems that this is the same Aesop that was sold at auction in Paris during 2000.*
According to the gallery's press release:
Painted in Naples, Aesop c1625–31 is a portrayal of Aesop, the legendary ancient Greek storyteller, and one of Ribera’s very first representations of so-called ‘beggar philosophers’.
Spanish by birth, Ribera (1591–1652) moved to Rome at an early age and eventually made his home in Naples where he adopted Caravaggio’s practice of working directly from posed models, imparting them with a vibrant presence that showed all their imperfections with life-like realism.
Purchased in 2021, the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation funded the acquisition from its endowment and funds raised at a 2019 Foundation event.
The work is on display in the Art Gallery’s revitalised Grand Courts, which are considered the finest Victorian-era galleries in Australia.
* - A reader has kindly been in touch to let me know that the picture is not the same as the one with Colnaghi's in 2018, as I had previously suggested.
Boilly Exhibition at the Musée Cognacq-Jay
January 4 2022
Picture: Musée Cognacq-Jay
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris will be opening their latest exhibition next month. Boilly. Parisian chronicles will examine the artist's career in no less than 130 works chosen to show his singularity, brilliance, humour and his inventiveness. Furthermore, the show was intended as a sort of extension to the catalogue raisonné by Etienne Bréton and Pascal Zuber published by Arthena in 2019.
The show will run from 22nd February 2022 until 26th June 2022.
Preserving Rosa Bonheur's Château de By
January 4 2022
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The French newspaper Le Mond have published what looks to be an interesting article on artist Rosa Bonheur's Château de By in Thomery. The château came into the possession of Katherine Brault in 2017, who has been continuing to transform the building and collection into a museum worthy of commemorating the famous nineteenth-century female artist. 2022 is a special year as it marks 200 years since Bonheur's birth in 1822.
MNAA Lisbon to send 15 Masterpieces to the Louvre
January 4 2022
Picture: MNAA Lisbon
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon will be sending 15 masterpieces of the Portuguese Renaissance to the Louvre later this year. Works by the likes of Nuno Gonçalves (active 1450-before 1492), Jorge Afonso (active 1504-1540), Cristóvão de Figueiredo (active 1515-1554) and Gregorio Lopes (active 1513-1550) will be sent for a special exhibition entitled L’Age D’or de la Renaissance Portugaise.
The show will run from 10th June 2022 - 10th September 2022.
Rediscovered Caravaggio Offered to Spain
January 4 2022
Picture: digismak.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have shared news that last year's Caravaggio rediscovery has been offered to the Spanish state for purchase. No exact price has been published, however, it must surely be in the millions.
To quote the article:
In a recent statement, the Madrid regional government supported the theory that the work is by the Old Master, saying: “The information that has appeared over the past few months, together with the studies undertaken by experts, reinforces the theory that it is the work of Caravaggio.” It also described the work as “an example of the excellence and pictorial mastery of the Italian naturalism” that had a great influence on the Madrid school of painting in the 17th century.
Burlington Magazine - Current Issue
January 4 2022
Picture: Burlington Magazine
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
January's edition of The Burlington Magazine focuses on Italian Baroque Art. As ever, the publication is full of interesting pieces of research alongside a free-to-read editorial and review of the exhibition By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women.
Here is a list of this month's contents:
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
Louis Chéron Exhibition in Caen
January 3 2022
Picture: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen have recently opened a new exhibition dedicated to Louis Chéron (1660–1725). Although born in Paris, Chéron is known for having spent a considerable time in England worked alongside the likes of James Thornhill and others. The show contains around forty works sourced from French and English collections covering the years 1678 - c.1720.
The exhibition will run until 6th March 2022.
Rijksmuseum Upload 717-gigapixel Image of The Night Watch
January 3 2022
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam have uploaded a 717-gigapixel image of Rembrandt's The Night Watch onto their website. The digital image, which allows you to zoom in with unbelievable depth, is four times sharper than the picture uploaded last year and is absolutely free to use.
Brooklyn Museum Announces Acquisitions and Gifts
January 3 2022
Picture: Brooklyn Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Brooklyn Museum in New York City have announced the nearly 500 acquisitions and gifts it has received between October 2020 and October 2021.
On the old masters front, the most significant acquisition is a Portrait of a Man of African Descent c.1600, by an 'unknown artist (probably Venetian)'. The work was acquired through the William K. Jacobs Jr. Fund and the Dorward Fund.
According to the museum's press release:
This painting is a rare and compelling portrait of an as-yet-unidentified Black man. With none of the typical signifiers of servitude, this individualized portrayal opens up inclusive narratives about the presence of Black people in early modern Europe—some having arrived as pilgrims or members of diplomatic retinues, with many more brought as a result of the intensifying European slave trade in Africa. It is a powerful and urgent visual intervention among the Museum’s other works from seventeenth-century Europe, which is often perceived and presented as an almost exclusively white milieu.
New Release: The Sun King at Sea
January 3 2022
Picture: Yale Books
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Yale Books have just this month released their latest title The Sun King at Sea - Maritime Art and Galley Slavery in Louis XIV's France by Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss.
According to the book's blurb:
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.
Happy New Year!
January 3 2022
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Wishing all readers of AHN a very Happy New Year!
I am certain that 2022 will bring all sorts of interesting new stories, pieces of research, discoveries and big auction prices.
As always, do get in touch if you come across some interesting piece of news that is worth sharing on the blog. Equally, if there are any exhibitions that are worth knowing about, I'd be most grateful to hear about them!
'A Photo Archive Changed my Life'
December 31 2021
Picture: PMC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Bendor has written a short piece for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art on how a photo archive changed his life. In short, the article celebrates how important photo archives are for art history and connoisseurship in general. Brilliant resources such as the recently published online Paul Mellon Centre Photo Archive makes the process of research easier than ever before.
________________
Indeed, instead of shedding tears of frustration into the stacks and boxes often held within London basements, we can now do so from the comfort of our own armchairs at home. Is this progress? I think so.
Spain's Ministry for Culture Buys €237k worth of Art
December 31 2021
Picture: culturaydeporte.gob.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Spain's Ministry for Culture and Sport have announced that they have recently spent €237,100 on purchasing art for the nation. This includes a Goya drawing entitled En Voyage for the Prado Museum. Of greater interest perhaps is the €152,200 spent on 17 oils on copper by the Mexican artist José Joaquín Magón (active between 1742 and 1764) (pictured). These rare and interesting works, which depict scenes from the Life of Mary, will go to the Museo de América.
Manet's Philosophers Reunited at the Norton Simon Museum
December 31 2021
Picture: @NortonSimon
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Norton Simon Museum in California opened an exhibition earlier this autumn dedicated to reuniting three of Manet's Philosophers. This is the first time in over 50 years the paintings have been exhibited in the same space.
According to the exhibition's blurb:
In 1865, Édouard Manet (1832–1883) traveled to Spain to “see all those beautiful things and seek the counsel of maestro Velázquez,” as he wrote to a friend, later declaring “the philosophers of Velázquez” to be “astounding pieces” that were “alone worth the journey.” Indeed, Diego Velázquez’s paintings of Aesop and Menippus, both c. 1638, would provide a model for Manet, whose guiding artistic ambition was to relate art historical tradition to contemporary life.
Shortly before and after his trip to Spain, Manet painted three of his own “philosophers,” which, along with an earlier painting of an absinthe drinker, were loosely grouped as a series when he sold them to his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, in 1872. The works depict disheveled, down-and-out male figures, all of whom would have been legible urban types to viewers of the mid-19th century. Portraying the men at nearly life size against an indecipherable dark background, Manet borrowed Velázquez’s format and updated it to offer a modern equivalent.
This special installation reunites three of Manet’s Philosophers for the first time since the artist’s major retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1966-7: The Norton Simon’s Ragpicker, c. 1865–70, and two paintings on loan from the Art Institute, Beggar with Oysters (Philosopher) and Beggar with a Duffle Coat (Philosopher), both dated 1865/67. Together, these richly resonant works reveal Manet at his most provocative, harnessing the authority of an established style to convey dignity on a class of people overlooked by French society.
The exhibition will run until 28th February 2022.
Reynolds's and Lawrence's Van Dyck Up for Sale
December 30 2021
Picture: L - Sotheby's / R - Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I thought it may be of interest to point out that a Van Dyck owned by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence is up for sale at Sotheby's New York's upcoming Nelson Shanks Collection Sale on 27th January 2022 with an estimate of $100k - $150k. The work is a head study of Saint Anthony of Padua which appears in large painting kept at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. As the catalolgue note explains, the picture was rejected in the 2004 catalogue raisonné, a project that didn't provide much attention at all to head studies. Fortunately, scholars have since given the work back to Van Dyck in full.
Curiously, the same picture was sold at Christie's in 2012 (right image), given to Van Dyck in full. Comparing pictures, isn't it astonishing how quickly varnish can discolour! (unless one of the images is photoshopped, of course)
Spanish Church Sells 'Workshop of El Greco' (?)
December 30 2021
Picture: wikimedia.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Some of the Spanish Press have published a curious story (which has since been removed it seems from abc.es) that the Parish of Orgaz in Spain have sold a workshop version of El Greco's Disrobing of Jesus. The autograph version is kept in the Sacristy of Toledo Cathedral, however, this copy has sometimes been suggested to be the work of the artist's son Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli. The sale is reported to have been brokered to a Swiss collector with residency in Spain. Press reports claim that the money, an undisclosed sum, was intended for use on restoring churches.
Italian Warehouse Crucifix turns out to be Sixteenth Century
December 30 2021
Picture: tp24.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that a forsaken wooden crucifix rediscovered in a warehouse has been redisplayed in the Museo diocesano di Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, as an early sixteenth century original. The work, which has since been carefully restored, had been placed there long ago by a Parish church and was duly forgotten. It has since been dubbed Cristo salvato (the saved Christ).
Still Life Exhibition at the Louvre for Oct 2022
December 30 2021
Picture: Louvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre in Paris will be opening a large exhibition on Still Lifes in October 2022 entitled Les Choses: Une histoire de la nature morte depuis la Préhistoire. As the title suggests, artworks will span from antiquity to the twentieth century, and will also include works outside western culture. The exhibition is scheduled to run from 13th October 2022 until 23rd January 2023.
Recent Release: Thomas Robins and the Art of the Georgian Garden
December 30 2021
Picture: Stephen Morris
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a recent release that I missed a month ago. Cathryn Spence's latest book entitled Nature’s Favourite Child: Thomas Robins and the Art of the Georgian Garden has recently been released by Stephen Morris.
According to the blurb published by johnsanddoe.com:
Thomas Robins the Elder (1716-1770) recorded the country estates of the Georgian gentry – their orchards, Rococo gardens and potagers – like no other, with both topographical accuracy and delightful artistry, often bordering his gouaches with entrancing tendrils, shells, leaves and birds. His skill was honed by the delicacy required for his early career as a fan painter and is shown too in his exquisite paintings of butterflies, flowers and birds. This ravishing and scholarly study emerges from many years’ research by Dr Cathryn Spence, the curator and archivist at Bowood House who has also worked for the V&A, the American Museum, the Bath Preservation Trust and the National Trust. This is the first full study of Thomas Robins since John Harris’s Gardens of Delight, published in 2 vols in 1978; Harris in fact made over all his research notes to Spence in 2005 when she embarked on her work. Chinoiserie is everywhere – a wooden bridge over the Thames, delicious kiosks in a garden, a view of Bath with sampans and Chinese fishermen on the river. There are also fascinating views of Sudeley Castle and other great houses that incorporated more or less ruined monastic structures, destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Spence has tracked down many previously unknown paintings by Robins, and sets his elusive life and work in the framework of his patrons.
