Pietro Francesco Guala Portraits at Casale Monferrato
December 16 2025
Picture: monferrato.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very slow to news that a special exhibition of portraits by Pietro Francesco Guala will run at the Casale Monferrato until 6th January 2026. In particular, the show highlights a group of 15 reunited likenesses made for the Marquises Scarampi di Camino begun in 1738.
Prado acquire portrait of Luis de Paret's daughters
December 16 2025
Picture: Ars Magazine
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via the Ars Magazine in Spain that the Prado have acquired Luis de Paret's portrait of his daughters Maria and Luisa. The picture was acquired for €395,000 (inc. taxes) with assistance from a legacy left by Juan José Luna.
Rembrandt & Workshop of Rembrandt side by side in Chicago
December 16 2025
Picture: Art Institute Chicago
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Institute Chicago are putting on a special display from tomorrow (17th Dec) onwards of featuring their fully attributed Rembrandt of a Old Man with a Gold Chain next to a Workshop of Rembrandt repetition.
According to the very interesting article on the museum's website:
This work had previously been considered an original by Rembrandt, but as the article reported, after carefully evaluating both paintings—the one now in the Art Institute’s collection and this painting on canvas—the connoisseur Dr. Wilhelm Bode believed the work on canvas to be “a clever reproduction by one of the artist’s talented pupils.” Recent technical research suggests that Bode’s assessment was spot-on: the painting [some text redacted not to spoil the fun], now in a private collection, appears to have been made in the workshop of the young Rembrandt around 1632.
Once you've decided which of the paintings above is the copy, click on the link above the find out if you were right!
Restoration on View at the Royal Palace of Caserta
December 12 2025
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Visitors to the Royal Palace of Caserta will be able to see the 'live' restoration of a monumental canvas by Ilario Giacinto Mercanti showing Elisabetta Farnese leaving Parma after her marriage to Philip V of Spain. The work is being sponsored in-part by a film company called Eagle Pictures who used one of the halls in the Palace for filming earlier in the year.
Baroque in Forli for 2026
December 12 2025
Picture: San Domenico Civic Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The San Domenico Civic Museum in the town of Forli, Italy, will be hosting a big exhibition of Baroque art in 2026. The show will contain 200 works with major loans from across Italy and Europe, including artworks by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Francesco Borromini, Pietro da Cortona, the two Gentileschi, Luca Giordano, Guercino, Guido Reni, Van Dyck, Andrea Pozzo, Nicolas Poussin, Peter Paul Rubens and Francisco de Zurbarán. The show will run from 21st February until 28th June 2026.
14th Century Fresco Restored in Florence
December 12 2025
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that a 14th century fresco by Master of the Rinuccini Chapel in church of Sant'Ambrogio, Florence, has been restored. The project was undertaken by Cristina Napolitano and supported financially by the Friends of Florence.
Fondazione Perugia acquire Perugino Pair
December 12 2025
Picture: Dorotheum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fondazione Perugia have unveiled their latest acquisitions at the Palazzo Baldeschi in Perugia, a diptych of Christ crowned with thorns and The Virgin given to Perugino. The pair were purchased at the Dorotheum last October where they made €842,799 (inc. commission) over their €600k - €800k estimate.
Flemish Caravaggism at Colnaghi Brussels
December 11 2025
Picture: Colnaghi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The dealers Colnaghi opened a new selling exhibition at their Brussels branch yesterday entitled Northern Lights: Masterpieces of Flemish Caravaggism. It will run until 30th January 2026.
According to their website:
The exhibition brings together works by minds such as Matthias Stom, Hendrick de Somer, Abraham Janssens, and Jan van Dalem; artists whose careers unfolded across Rome, Naples, Antwerp, and Brussels. Among the works on view is a representative cross-section of Flemish engagements with Caravaggio. Matthias Stom’s Mocking of Christ, with its pared-back nocturnal intensity; Hendrick de Somer’s Neapolitan David with the Head of Goliath, which reflects the city’s shift from Ribera’s stark naturalism toward a softer, more chromatic idiom. Abraham Janssens’s Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, however, signals the classicising turn of an artist who had been among the earliest Flemish painters to confront Caravaggio in Rome. A newly identified Bacchus by Jan van Dalem, a rare example from an exceptionally small oeuvre, demonstrates his independence from mainstream stylistic currents.
Vatican loans Barocci to Turin
December 11 2025
Video: Il Sole 24 ORE
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Vatican have lent Federico Barocci's Madonna delle ciliegie to the Gallerie d’Italia in Turin for a special exhibition over the Christmas period. You'll have to be quick to see it, as the painting will only be on display there until 11th January 2026.
Norwegian Bank Foundation acquires $9.2m Beckmann
December 11 2025
Picture: DNB Savings Bank Foundation
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has kindly been in touch with news that the DNB Savings Bank Foundation has acquired Max Beckmann's Der Wels. It will now go on permanent loan to The National Museum in Oslo. The picture realised $9.2m over its $5m - $7m estimate at the Sotheby's New York The Cindy and Jay Pritzker Collection Evening Auction back in November.
Old Masters Soar in Australia
December 11 2025
Picture: Leonard Joel
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Australia that a sale of Old Masters from the Robert Compton Jones Collection in Woollahra, New South Wales, produced some rather impressive results on Monday. Paintings given and attributed to the likes of Jacopo di Cione, Neri di Bicci, The Master of Frankfurt, Francesco Guardi and Matthias Stomer performed well against their estimates. Click on the link above to view the sale.
Earliest Tattoo in Western European Painting?
December 10 2025
Picture: Amsterdam Museum via CODART
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Interesting news from CODART at the end of last month that the condition report of a painting attributed to Wallerant Vaillant in the Amsterdam Museum may have led to the discovery of 'the earliest known depiction of a tattoo in Western European painting'.
According to the article:
During an inspection of a seventeenth-century painting in the Amsterdam Museum collection, a tattoo was discovered on the wrist of a prominent Amsterdam merchant. The painting, a 1674 portrait of the College of the Chief Commissioners of the Wharves attributed to Wallerant Vaillant (1623–1677), was undergoing a routine condition check when restorer Liesbeth Abraham noticed the mark on the inside of one subject’s wrist.
Click on the link above to read the full story.
National Gallery seeking £375m to Buy Modern Art & Create Endowment Fund
December 10 2025
Picture: artnews.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Following on from news that The National Gallery in London has raised £375m for the building of a new extension, more news has emerged that it will be seeking an additional £375m (yet to be raised) which will be 'earmarked for post-1900 acquisitions and to create an endowment fund to cover the operating expenses for the new wing.' The total cost of Project Domani is expected to be around the equivalent of $1bn.
Beale Sleeper Soars
December 10 2025
Picture: Capitolium
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Social media was awash yesterday with news that the following Mary Beale head study catalogued as 'Artist of the 17th - 18th Century' soared past its €500 - €700 estimate to achieve €78,000 (hammer) at Capitolium in Italy yesterday.
Curiously, a similar head study, catalogued as 'Attributed to' Beale, failed to find a bid within its £15k - 25k estimate at Sloane Street Auctions last week (having previously sold as a 'sleeper' for £16,380 at Chiswick Auctions earlier in the year).
MET acquires Købke
December 10 2025
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm slow to news (which has been picked up here by La Tribune de l'art) that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has acquired Christen Købke's portrait of his sister Sophie Købke.
According to the museum's website:
Christen Købke was one of eleven siblings. He portrayed his elder sister Sophie in the parlor of the Kastellet, the fortress of Copenhagen, where their father served as overseer of the bakery. The casual refinement of Sophie’s middle-class respectability is of a piece with the up-to-date Biedermeier style of the setting. This painting served a dual function: first, as an independent portrait and, second, as the model for the far larger portrait of another sister, Conradine Feilberg (private collection).
Cataloguing Turner's Sketchbooks Ends
December 10 2025
Video: Paul Mellon Centre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A collaborative project to catalogue JMW Turner's sketchbooks has just ended. This mammoth task, shared between Tate and the Paul Mellon Centre, has seen the cataloguing of 37,000 drawings, sketches and watercolours by the artist. Click here to access the website which allows visitors to have for themselves!
Louvre Reopens Renovated Italian & Spanish Galleries
December 9 2025
Picture: Louvre_Réouverture salles de peintures italiennes et espagnoles 17 et 18e S rénovées © 2025 Musée du Louvre - Nicolas Bousser-jpg
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre in Paris has shared news that it has reopened their newly renovated Italian & Spanish 17th - 18th century paintings gallery. The renovation took one year to complete and features a new arrangement and hang of the pictures alongside the regilding picture frames.
Stomer Restored
December 9 2025
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Matthias Stomer Nativity, which was rediscovered in Genoa earlier this year, has been restored. The campaign of conservation was undertaken by Elena Parenti and the picture will go on public display for at least two years.
ArtUK wins National Lottery Heritage Funding
December 9 2025
Picture: artuk.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
ArtUK, the online home of the nation's catalogue of art, has won preliminary funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to work on a new phase of project work. Most excitingly and relevant for this blog, this will include 'plan[ning] a transformative programme around digitally sharing images of the UK's national collection of art, leading the museum sector towards making more of their public domain images freely available, and making vital investments in our digital infrastructure.'
According to the article linked above:
The ultimate programme will support public collections across the UK to adopt open access for images of public domain artworks – or in other words, artworks that are no longer protected by copyright and where no new rights can be asserted in the digital image surrogates.
Here are the main focuses of their plan:
1. Build the required digital infrastructure
2. Encourage and facilitate a major shift towards open image licensing by UK museums
3. Encourage creative re-use by audiences
4. Encourage community engagement across the project
AHN wishes the project all the very best!
Rubens Conserved
December 9 2025
Picture: codart
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via CODART (the international network of curators of Dutch and Flemish art) that the Jupiter and Callisto by Rubens at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe has been conserved. The campaign undertaken by conservators Hessen Kassel Heritage took one year to complete and has since been put on display in a new hang.
