Museo Correr Reattribute Work to Mantegna
December 20 2023
Picture: arte.sky.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo Correr in Venice has reattributed a painting in their collection to Andrea Mantegna. According to the reports, the painting was re-examined after languishing in the museum's stores for many years. The painting appears to relate to another work attributed to the artist in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and may have been left unfinished. The current research project into the work has been supported by the G. E. Ghirardi Foundation and is still ongoing.
Closer to Memling in Bruges
December 20 2023
Video: Musea Brugge
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musea Brugge in Bruges has published a digital project on its website exploring high-definition images of paintings by Hans Memling (1430–1494). The Closer to Memling project allows visitors to the website to get closer than ever before with exquisite images of works in its collection and those in the Museum Sint-Janshospitaal. Anyway, it's now time to go and 'look into the eyes' of Sibylla Sambetha, I think!
Restoration Funds for Rubens' Altar in Genoa
December 20 2023
Picture: Wikipedia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that funds are being raised to conserve Rubens' The Circumcision, an early masterpiece which is in the Chiesa del Gesù on the Piazza Matteotti, Genoa. €60,000 has been raised so far, with work expected to take around a year to complete.
Conserving the Prado's Caravaggio
December 20 2023
Video: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo Prado in Madrid have uploaded this rather eerie video showing the process of conserving and analysing Caravaggio's David with the Head of Goliath. The project was undertaken by the museum's conservator Almudena Sánchez and will feature in a new display drawing attention to the process and findings made throughout.
Christie's New York Sale Online
December 20 2023
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that Christie's New York have published their upcoming January Old Master Paintings Sale online. Containing no fewer than 78 lots,* this live sale will take place on 31st January 2024.
Highlights of the auction include a powerful pair of Venetian views by Michele Marieschi, estimated at $2 - $3m. Other highlights include works by Lo Scheggia, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Ambrosius Bosschaert, Anne Vallayer-Coster (pictured), Joachim Beuckelaer, Peter Paul Rubens and Fragonard (the last two of which have been upgraded after appearing in minor sales).
It is also worth mentioning that the auction house have already published their Part II sale online also. As usual, I won't spoil the fun by pointing out any potential interesting works in this particular auction.
* - This is compared to the 40 lots offered in the London December sales.
Free Talk on the Wallace Collection's Dudley Portrait
December 20 2023
Picture: The Wallace Collection, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Wallace Collection in London is holding a free one hour talk on its superb Portrait of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a painting which is currently Attributed to Steven van der Meulen. The talk, which will be streamed online as well as be available in-person, will be presented by Professor Karen Hearn and the museum's paintings curator Dr Lucy Davis.
According to the website:
While Frans Hals’s The Laughing Cavalier is on loan to the National Gallery, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester takes up his esteemed position in the Great Gallery. Like Hals's ‘cavalier’, Dudley is shown wearing rich clothing appropriate to a member of society's elite. Known today mainly as Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Dudley was a complex figure. Learn what the painting tells us about its famous sitter and hear how art historians investigate surviving Elizabethan paintings today.
The talk will take place on 18th January 2024.
Women Masters at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
December 20 2023
Video: Thyssen-Bornemisza
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
One exhibition I've missed the opening of is Women Masters at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.
According to the museum's website:
Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffmann, Clara Peeters, Rosa Bonheur, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, María Blanchard, Natalia Goncharova, Sonia Delaunay and Maruja Mallo were celebrated artists in their lifetimes who are now enjoying renewed recognition in response to their erasure from the art-historical account alongside others who broke moulds with creations of undoubted excellence.
Featuring nearly 100 works, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper and textiles, the exhibition is curated from a feminist viewpoint by Rocío de la Villa. It presents a survey from the late 16th century to the early decades of the 20th century through eight contexts important within women’s path towards emancipation.
The exhibition runs until 4th February 2024.
UCL is Hiring!
December 15 2023
Picture: ucl.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
University College London (UCL) is hiring a Lecturer in Contemporary Art History.
According to the job description:
We are looking to attract a scholar whose work centres on visual, theoretical and aesthetic questions as well as recent and contemporary art practices. We are particularly interested in scholars who engage in critical debates around racism and racialisation; migration and diaspora; cross-cultural and cross-regional interactions; and/or ecologies and environmental politics. However, we encourage applications from all candidates interested in innovative conceptual approaches, who are able to connect their areas of expertise to larger intellectual and methodological frameworks.
The job comes with a salary between £51,474 to £60,521 and applications must be in by 31st January 2024.
Good luck if you're applying!
Private Tour of the La Régence à Paris Exhibition
December 15 2023
Video: Scribe Accroupi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
For those of us unable to get to the Musée Carnavalet in Paris for their ongoing exhibition La Régence à Paris, the YouTube account Scribe Accroupi have published the following free private tour in French from curators José de los Llanos and Ulysse Jardat.
Uffizi Reports Record Year for Visitors
December 15 2023
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Italian press have published news that the Uffizi Galleries in Florence have had a record number of visitors in 2023. Around 5 million visitors have walked through the doors of its galleries this year, which can be compared to 4.3 million in 2022. Staggeringly, the gallery has received an increase of almost 50% of visitors compared to numbers in 2015.
Does this suggest that the museum director Eike Schmidt's flagship Uffizi Diffusi project just isn't working? Equally, maybe it's time Elon Musk took up Schmidt's offer to send works to Mars, a stellar idea which just might do the trick...
Lorenzettis Soar!
December 15 2023
Picture: tajan.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
As expected, the previously mentioned pair of Pietro Lorenzettis soared well past their estimates at Tajan this week. Saint Silvestre realised €3,034,800 over its €1.5m - €2m estimate and Sainte Hélène realised €1,657,600.00 over its €400k - €600k estimate.
Curiously, the following portrait catalogued as 'Circle of Arthur Devis' also achieved an impressive price of €81,344 over its €3,000 - €5,000 estimate. Perhaps someone has managed to crack the attribution?
Vancouver Art Gallery Exhibit Fakes
December 15 2023
Picture: vanartgallery.bc.ca
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Vancouver Art Gallery in Canada are opening an exhibition tomorrow dedicated to 10 oil sketches they acquired in 2015 purportedly by the celebrated Canadian 'Group of Seven' artist J.E.H. MacDonald (1873–1932). Alas, it transpired that the oil sketches were all modern fakes. Rather than hide the paintings in a cupboard of regret, the gallery have bravely put on a show to explain how they came to the conclusion that the paintings were 'not right' (as it is said in the art trade).
According to the gallery's website:
In 2015, the Vancouver Art Gallery announced the acquisition of ten previously unknown painted sketches attributed to J.E.H. MacDonald, one of Canada’s most celebrated painters and a founding member of the Group of Seven. Soon after, experts in the wider arts community began to publicly raise questions about the authenticity of the ten works. Experts took sides and the Gallery ultimately postponed a planned exhibition in order to investigate the works further. This included bringing in leading art historians, handwriting experts, and the scientific resources of the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI).
J.E.H. MacDonald? A Tangled Garden will not only provide an answer regarding whether the ten sketches can be attributed to MacDonald, but will also allow visitors a rare and detailed look into how that conclusion was reached. Most notably, the Gallery will be working closely with the CCI to present their soon-to-be published findings. Visitors will be able to assess the key evidence and come to their own conclusions.
The exhibition will run until 12th May 2024.
Catalogue Raisonné Lists and Databases from the French Ministry of Culture
December 14 2023
Picture: ifar.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The French Ministry of Culture has put together a new and very interesting list of artist catalogue raisonnés, both online and databases (via. ifar.org) for printed versions. It seems to be a very useful tool (particularly the database search linked above), as it allows one to search via artist and period with relative ease.
Of course, the Old Master world is still getting used to the idea of online catalogue raisonnés, with the Richard Wilson, Francis Towne and Lucas Cranach online projects being a good example of what is possible (not to mentioned Neil Jeffares's Pastels & Pastellists). I am aware of several ongoing catalogue projects which will be online-only, which will be painful for those of us who love to have such beautiful and scholarly tomes weighing down our bookshelves at home. Questions regarding exactly who controls such websites, and how data can be added (or removed or lost), is likely to cause a prolonged teething period for the art world. This is particularly the case for the art market, who particularly rely on the authority of such projects past and present.
Picturing Childhood at Chatsworth in 2024
December 14 2023
Picture: chatsworth.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Derbyshire that Chatsworth, the home of the Dukes of Devonshire and their outstanding art collection, will be putting on a special exhibition dedicated to Picturing Childhood in 2024.
According to the blurb on their website:
Picturing Childhood [...] celebrates children and their experience of the world as represented in art.
The exhibition, which will be on display in the house and garden, will include rarely-seen pieces from the Devonshire Collections, as well as loans and exciting new interactive works by contemporary artists.
...
The pieces selected for Picturing Childhood include paintings, sketches, literature, costume and sculpture, and span five centuries, from the Tudors through the Tudor and Stuart periods to the present day.
Artworks by artists including Raphael, Anthony van Dyck, Edwin Landseer and Lucien Freud, will be on display in historic spaces throughout the house, such as the Chapel, the State Apartment and the Oak Room.
Exploring themes ranging from family relationships to identity and colonialism, collection highlights include Old Master drawings by Carracci and intergenerational representations of the Devonshire family by Joshua Reynolds. These are complemented by institutional loans, such as two Johan Zoffany paintings from Tate that highlight growing societal interests in children’s education and upbringing in the Georgian period.
The exhibition will run from 16th March 2024 until 6th October 2024.
Rare Opportunity to see Piero della Francesca Frescos in Arezzo
December 14 2023
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that visitors to the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo will be able to pre-book a special scaffold tour to get up close to Pierro della Francesca's famous The History of the True Cross fresco cycle. This is made possible due to a conservation project which requires the fragile paintings to be examined and maintained. Pre-booked tours will be available between 27 January and 12 March 2024.
Rijksmuseum Display Christie's Rembrandt Portraits
December 13 2023
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the Netherlands that the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam have displayed two rediscovered Rembrandt portraits that appeared in this year's Christie's London Old Master Paintings sale. The works, which had descended into a Scottish noble collection, eventually made £11,235,000 over their £5m - £8m estimate and were acquired by the Holterman family who has generously loaned them to the museum. As you can see, the owners have already done a rather good job of reframing the pair in ebony style frames, which does enhance their appearance greatly I think!
PhD Scholarship: Generative AI and the Art Museum
December 13 2023
Picture: tate.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
As far as PhD scholarships go, this is probably one of the most intriguing out there. Tate are offering a funded PhD Scholarship researching GENERATIVE AI AND THE ART MUSEUM: THE ONLINE COLLECTION OF BRITISH ART, AUDIENCES AND VISUALITY.
According to the museum's website:
The research seeks to understand and develop new knowledge of the ways in which users engage with visual images in network culture in the light of recent generative AI image software. It will do this through a specific focus upon online engagement with Tate in relationship to the collection of British art from the 16th century to the present day and of international modern and contemporary art, including Tate’s exhibition and display programmes.
The project aims to contribute to a greater knowledge and understanding of the circulation of the computational image and the reproduced work of art in supporting the development of Tate’s online user base. There is also further opportunity to develop recommendations for an ethical and moral policy response, alongside noting the risks and benefits to Tate. The studentship offers the opportunity to develop practice-based doctoral research with Tate Digital to develop new modes of co-curating with a diversity of audiences. With recent developments of machine vision employed in AI generative interfaces, such as Chat GTP-3, DALL-E-2, Craiyon, Midjourney and Bing, new opportunities arise to investigate the ways in which users collaborate with machine vision in the process of image making. This research aims to reverse engineer what is involved technically and culturally in producing AI composite images from prompts such as, ‘a still life in the style of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’ for example. The research will be of benefit to Tate Digital and Art Museum curators in thinking about audiences of the future and how the museum can engage with them.
The scholarship is fully funded for three years and applications must be in by 18th December 2023.
Good luck if you're applying!
Spain's Ministry of Culture acquire Goya Pieta for €1.5m
December 13 2023
Picture: cultura.gob.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain's Ministry of Culture that they have acquired an early Pieta by Francisco Goya. Dated between 1772-4, the painting is believed to have been inspired by the artist's travels in Italy. The work was acquired for €1.5m and will head to the National Museum of Romanticism in Madrid.
Fitzwilliam Museum acquire Apollo Bronze as part of AIL
December 12 2023
Picture: The Guardian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It seems to be the season for UK museums making acquisitions, as the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has also today made the announcement of its acquisition of a sixteenth century bronze of Apollo by Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico, under the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme.
According to the article linked above:
Luke Syson, the Fitzwilliam’s director, said: “What is most remarkable is the way [Antico] takes an ancient marble sculpture that had been rediscovered only relatively recently and turns it from something so beautiful but solid and remote into this fantastically miniaturised, energised work.”
...
The figure was once part of a collection of Renaissance and baroque bronzes amassed by Lt Col Mildmay Thomas Boscawen, who died in 1958. His sister later bequeathed the collection to the Fitzwilliam. Antico’s Apollo will now rejoin 56 other Boscawen bronzes at the museum.
Rare Peruzzi saved for Ulster Museum, Belfast
December 12 2023
Picture: independent.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Ulster Museum, Belfast, has shared news that it has saved Baldassare Peruzzi's rare Nativity for its collections. Regular readers might remember that the painting was at risk of leaving the country back in 2021, with a total of £463,317 being needed to keep it for a public collection here in the UK. A vast conservation project undertaken by the National Gallery, supported by the Aldama Foundation, has allowed for the painting to be cleaned and put on display in time for Christmas.
