Framed: Stealing a Picasso from the NGV
December 28 2021
Video: SBS Australia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Subscribers to SBS Australia will be able to enjoy a new four part documentary on the 1986 theft of Picasso's The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Australia.
Painting En Plein Air 1780 - 1870
December 28 2021
Video: Beaux Arts Magazine
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fondation Custodia in Paris opened their latest exhibition earlier this month entitled PEINDRE EN PLEIN AIR 1780–1870 SUR LE MOTIF. Artists featured within the exhibition include the likes of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, Achille-Etna Michallon, Camille Corot, Rosa Bonheur, John Constable, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Johan Thomas Lundbye, Vilhelm Kyhn, Johann Martin von Rohden and Carl Blechen.
According to the exhibition's blurb:
The exhibition brings together over one hundred and fifty oil studies from the collections of the Fondation Custodia in Paris, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and a private collector, offering a fresh look at open-air landscape painting in Europe between 1780 and 1870.
Occupying a place between painting and drawing, these études – or studies – were small-scale works, mostly executed on paper, and painted quickly before the motif in order to train the hand and the eye in capturing fleeting effects of light and colour. Though some were later embellished in the studio, they were not seen as finished pictures intended for sale or exhibition, but as a precious resource which artists could draw upon to bring a sense of freshness and immediacy to their official work. At the time, they would only have been known to an intimate circle of friends, colleagues or students.
The exhibition will run until 3rd April 2022.
Update - I've been reminded by a reader that the exhibition will travel to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, on 3rd May 2022 and will run there until 29th August 2022.
Michelangelo's David Action Figure
December 28 2021
Picture: Amazon
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The season of gift-giving is nearly at an end. However, since AHN is dedicated to bringing its readers only the best in art history related ephemera, this one was too good to miss.
I've spotted on Twitter (via. @SocialCultura) that a company called FREEing are selling a Michelangelo's David action figure on Amazon. The plastic figure can assume all different sorts of poses and will cost you a mere €274,90.
Wine Sale to Fund Painting Restoration
December 27 2021
Picture: Palazzo Barberini
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palazzo Barberini in Rome are funding the restoration of Sant’Onofrio by Battistello Caracciolo (1578-1635) by the sale of wine from the Caparzo di Montalcino Estate. Work on the painting, which is currently obscured by lots of dirt and old varnish, will begin in 2022.
Recent Release: Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Gift in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art
December 27 2021
Picture: Amsterdam University Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Since it is the time of gift-giving, here's a recent release from the Amsterdam University Press that I missed earlier in the Autumn. Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Gift in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art is the latest book by Michael Zell.
According to the blurb:
Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Gift in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art offers a new perspective on the art of the Dutch Golden Age by exploring the interaction between the gift's symbolic economy of reciprocity and obligation and the artistic culture of early modern Holland. Gifts of art were pervasive in seventeenth-century Europe, and many Dutch artists, like their counterparts elsewhere, embraced gift giving to cultivate relations with patrons, art lovers, and other members of their social networks. Rembrandt also created distinctive works to function within a context of gift exchange, and both Rembrandt and Vermeer engaged the ethics of the gift to identify their creative labor as motivated by what contemporaries called a "love of art," not materialistic gain. In the merchant republic’s vibrant market for art, networks of gift relations and the anti-economic rhetoric of the gift mingled with the growing dimension of commerce, revealing a unique chapter in the interconnected history of gift giving and art making.
Capodimonte Museum Restores a Filippino Lippi
December 27 2021
Picture: finestresullarte
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Capodimonte Museum in Naples has completed the conservation and restoration of Filippino Lippi's The Annunciation with Saints John the Baptist and Andrew (pictured). The project was completed by the Neapolitan company Temi SpA and was funded in its entirety by a private individual. In addition, the museum's Portrait of the Infante Francesco di Borbone by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun was also restored as part of the same project.
Intriguingly, the necessary funding was achieved through an 'Art Bonus mechanism' which provides patrons with a tax deduction of 65%.
Prado will Redistribute Hundreds of Paintings
December 27 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that the Prado Museum is the latest European institution to commit to redistributing its art collection around Spanish museums. Director Miguel Falomir recently said in a speech that more work is being done to liase with regional museums who would like to borrow artworks relevant to their particular region, including the likes of Andalusia and Catalonia. It is estimated that only around 11% of artworks owned by the Prado are on display. Greater efforts have been made to loan artworks to various regions and now 48 out of 50 regions of Spain have works on loan from the museum.
Falomir also detailed some of the losses due to the ongoing virus crisis, including the fact that museum only welcomed 850,000 visitors in 2020 compared to the 3 million it expected.
New Project Saves Paintings from Destruction (?)
December 27 2021
Picture: The Guardian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Guardian published an interesting story yesterday regarding a new research project into a set of paintings held by the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery. The piece focuses on the work of Tara Munroe who has been researching a rare and intriguing set of 'casta' paintings created in eighteenth century Mexico. These paintings, donated to the gallery in 1852, depict race and class divisions as they were perceived around two hundred and fifty years ago.
The article also claims that the set of five paintings in the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery "had been marked for destruction by the gallery."
The article quotes Munroe:
A lot of people had looked at these paintings before, and they were just being used to train picture restorers before they were destroyed. It was only because I was working there that I saw something in them. There is a new level of understanding that comes when you have different people working somewhere.
This image of one of the canvases does seem to show various attempts at a cleaning test in the sky, presumably undertaken some time ago:
Fortunately, efforts to restore and redisplay the works will be completed later in 2022.
Christmas Greetings
December 24 2021
Picture: Bristol Museum of Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Wishing all readers of AHN a very Merry Christmas.
Thank you for sticking with the blog, particularly during those odd periods of absence. As ever, I'm most grateful for all readers who get in touch with stories and comments.
I do hope that you and your families are continuing to keep safe during this prolonged period of uncertainty. Although 2021 hasn't ended quite as we'd hoped, let's hope that 2022 will be a better one indeed!
New Lighting for the Madonna del Parto
December 24 2021
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Piero Della Francesca's fresco known as the Madonna del Parto has been illuminated with a new LED lighting system. The lighting for the work preserved in the Musei Civici Madonna del Parto, Monterchi, had not been updated since the 1990s. It is claimed that the new system finally does justice to the artist's original intentions, particularly in regard to colouring.
James II 'Under Review' in Downing Street
December 24 2021
Picture: Government Art Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a story I missed last week. It has emerged that John Michael Wright's portrait of King James II in the Government Art Collection (GAC) is currently 'under review' for a project exploring colonialism and 'hidden narratives.' In particular, it has been suggested that James's portrait is being 'interrogated' by the GAC's project due to the King's involvement with the Royal African Company. The painting is currently situated in the Drawing Room of No.11 Downing Street, London, the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. There has been no suggestion that the painting will be removed from display.
New Release: Pre-Raphaelites in the Spirit World
December 24 2021
Picture: Peter Lang
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a curious new release for December 2021. Peter Lang have just published a scholarly book entitled Pre-Raphaelites in the Spirit World. In particular, the edition focuses on a séance diary kept by William Michael Rossetti, one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.
According to the blurb:
William Michael Rossetti’s séance diary is a remarkable document in both the history of Pre-Raphaelitism and nineteenth-century spiritualism. In this previously unpublished manuscript, Rossetti meticulously recorded twenty séances between 1865 and 1868. The original motive was the death, in 1862, of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s wife, Elizabeth Siddal. He felt a profound sense of guilt about her and began these séances to reassure himself that she was happy in the afterlife. Messages came from many spirits within the Pre-Raphaelite circle and provide an unprecedented record of spiritualist activity in the late nineteenth century. Questions and answers fill the pages of the diary, many of them communicating uncannily accurate information or details that could be known only to the participants.
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As it happens, I accidentally rediscovered some transcripts of Victorian séances while researching for my PhD (click the link to watch a short video if you'd like to hear more about that). The short stories of M.R. James have proved that Christmas and Ghost Stories really do go together.
UK Export Ban placed on William IV Portrait
December 23 2021
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The UK Government has placed a temporary export ban on Benjamin West's portrait of the future King William IV. Sold at Sotheby's earlier this summer, cultural institutions who might be interested to acquire the work will now have to find £314,880 by 16th March 2022 to keep it in the country.
Committee Member Professor Mark Hallett is quoted:
This is a highly original and visually striking portrait of a royal prince by one of the leading painters working in Georgian Britain. Showing the future King William IV standing alone on the deck of a warship, dressed in his midshipman’s uniform, looking steadfastly out to sea and resting his hand on a sword, the portrait highlights both his youth and bravery. The work’s significance lies not only in its exceptional quality and interest as a painting; the portrait also provided the basis for a widely disseminated engraving that served to promote the modest, heroic virtues of the prince and his family at a time of profound national crisis. For all these reasons, this is a painting of great historical and art-historical importance.
La Pinacoteca di Cento acquire Painting by Guercino's Brother
December 23 2021
Picture: finestresullarte
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Bologna that the local La Pinacoteca di Cento have acquired a Still Life of Church Vestments and Silver by Paolo Antonio Barbieri (1603-1649). Barbieri, who was brother to the more widely known Guercino, painted the work in c.1647 and was later descended with the great-grandchildren of Guercino. The work appeared at an antiques exhibition in Florence in 2019 where it was spotted by members of the 'Friends of the Pinacoteca'.
Rembrandt House Museum - 360 Experience
December 23 2021
Picture: Rembrandthuis
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I forgot to point out last week that the Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam have published a new 360 virtual tour of their building and collections. This online tour is free to use and at the present you'll have the opportunity to be toured around by the museum's director Lidewij de Koekkoek (more guides to be uploaded soon, it seems).
Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting - March 2022
December 23 2021
Picture: museabrugge.be
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (Curators Network for Dutch and Flemish Art) have drawn attention to the upcoming Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting held in Bruges in March 2022.
According to the website:
The theme of next year’s symposium is ‘Alla Maniera: technical art history and the meaning of style in fifteenth to seventeenth century painting’. The symposium focuses on how technical research can provide additional insights or challenges concerning the style of an individual painter, a workshop or a group of painters. Stylistic similarities might indicate cultural, social, geographical or chronological connections in paintings, drawings, prints, applied arts, etc. as well as across artistic media.
The symposium will be held in the English language.
Louvre Acquire Two Panels by Matteo Giovannetti
December 23 2021
Picture: @MuseeLouvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre in Paris have announced their acquisition of two panels by Matteo Giovannetti (c.1322-1368). The two works of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Anthony the Abbot (pictured) were created around 1345 and are now some of the oldest examples of fourteenth century paintings preserved in the national collection of France.
Robert B. Simon Defends Salvator Mundi Attribution
December 23 2021
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have published a letter by the dealer Robert B. Simon defending the attribution of the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo. In particular, Simon explains that nowhere in the recent Prado exhibition catalogue Leonardo y la copia de Mona Lisa del Prado is an opinion expressed on the attribution of the picture.
To quote the piece:
It should be mentioned at the outset that in the catalogue no curator, conservator or official of the Museo del Prado expresses any opinion on the attribution of the painting, let alone downgrades it. Rather, as quoted in the article, Ana González Mozo, one of the five authors of the catalogue, reports, “Some specialists consider there was a now lost prototype, while others think the much debated Cook version is the original.”
The Art Newspaper have responded by quoting curator Ana González Mozo:
In her subsequent brief discussion about a Youthful Christ image, included in the same Salvator Mundi paragraph, she writes: “Once again [our emphasis] there is no painted prototype.” It is also notable that the Gulf (Cook) version is not among the 75 illustrations in the catalogue.
Virtual Veronese at the NG for March 2022
December 23 2021
Picture: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London have announced a virtual reality research and development project for March 2022. Virtual Veronese will allow visitors to virtually see Veronese's The Consecration of Saint Nicholas housed in its original setting of San Benedetto al Po, near Mantua, Italy.
According to the gallery's website:
Virtual Veronese is a research and development (R&D) project looking at how we can share research with a wider audience by using immersive technologies to explore new ways of telling stories. The project will enable us to understand how immersive storytelling can add depth of information, meaning, and emotion to Gallery visitors’ experiences of our paintings.
For two weeks, we are inviting visitors to experience Veronese’s painting The Consecration of Saint Nicholas as it would have been seen in 1562 by using augmented and virtual reality headsets. This is a working prototype that will allow us to collect audience feedback to inform the development of this and other projects.
Click here to read more on the tech developer's own website.
Sotheby's New York January Sale
December 23 2021
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's New York have uploaded their January Old Master Paintings sale online. The auction will take place on 27th January 2022.
Amongst their top lots are Botticelli's The Man of Sorrows estimated in excess of $40m; Giovanni Bellini's The Madonna and Child estimated at $3m - $5m; Correggio's Saint Mary Magdalen Reading estimated at $4.5m - $5.5m; Artemisia Gentileschi's Portrait of a Lady estimated at $2m - $3m; Andrea Del Sarto's Portrait of a Man estimated at $2m - $3m; A Still life of fraises-de-bois by Adriaen Coorte estimated at $1.5m - $2m; Nicolas de Largillierre's portrait of a Lady as Pomona estimated at $1m - $1.5m; Pieter van Mol's Diogenes with his lantern looking for an honest man estimated at $2m - $3m and Jacobus Vrel's Old Woman Seated with a Young Girl estimated at $300k - $500k (pictured).
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With 57 lots in the evening sale alone, this auction might well be one to watch.
