14 novembre 2009
Frans II. Francken @ the Kunstmuseum Basel
Frans II. Francken, Der Triumph des Bacchus, um 1625/30. Privatsammlung. Kunstmuseum Basel
BASEL.- Over several generations members of the Francken family of painters formed the backbone of Antwerp painting in the early baroque period. A large panel by their most imminent representative, Frans II. Francken (1581 – 1642) was bequeathed to the Kunstmuseum Basel in 2004. With his typical dedication to minute details, imagination and wit Frans Francken gives a lively account of the Adoration of the newborn Christchild by the Three Magi, introducing the powerful, light translucent brushwork characteristic of his late period. However, in an earlier century the panel of the Adoration had been nailed to a wooden support in an effort to stabilize it. Thus, a long and careful restauration was necessary which has only now been completed, guaranteeing not only a more solid condition but also a more satisfactory visual appearance of the work.
The exhibition places this restored masterpiece by Frans Francken of 1632 in the context of other surprising discoveries. Already in his own lifetime Francken catered mostly for an elite of connoisseurs, and, up to the present day, art collectors never ceased to admire his works. It is therefore more than just coincidence that the exhibition draws almost eclusively on private holdings normally not accessable to the public. A dozen important but little known paintings reveal the artist’s talent as a most gifted storyteller rendering contemporary concerts and banquets as fascinatingly as the sacred acts of the bible or bizarre medieval legends.
Thus, the Three Magi arrive with almost an overdose of exotic oriental treasures and beasts including camels, parrots and elephants. A naked woman is being introduced to witchcraft amidst strange sensations of light and smoke and fantastic creatures. Virgil, the great poet of Roman antiquity, is represented as a sorcerer with amazing magic power. And a panel that resurfaced only recently shows Francken as a master of night scenes as well. The Babylonian King Belshazzar celebrates his last feast with courtiers and mistresses amidst precious silverware, delicate textiles and deliciously baked peacock- and rabbitshaped pies all shimmering and sparkling in the mysterious light of candles and torches.
Frans II. Francken, Die Anbetung der Könige, 1632. Vermächtnis Margot Schmidt 2004. Kunstmuseum Basel
Frans II. Francken, Gastmahl des Belsazar, um 1610. Hermann Beyeler Collection. Kunstmuseum Basel
Ecole Romaine. Première moitié du XVIIe siècle Le Christ s'adressant à ses apôtres près du lac de Tibériade
Ecole Romaine. Première moitié du XVIIe siècle Le Christ s'adressant à ses apôtres près du lac de Tibériade, ou « Paix mes brebis » (Jean 21, 15 - 17).
Huile sur lapis-lazuli de forme ovale. (Petit trace d'accident en haut à gauche ; quelques restaurations). 15,3 x 20 cm - Pas d'estimation
Vente du Mercredi 18 novembre 2009. Dessins et Tableaux Anciens, Mobilier et Obejts d'Art. Peintures & Arts Graphiques. Blanchet & Associés - Paris. M. Patrice DUBOIS. Drouot Richelieu - Salles 5 et 6 - 9, rue Drouot - 75009 Paris. Pour tout renseignement, veuillez contacter la maison de ventes au (33)1 53 34 14 44.
12 novembre 2009
Bath's Holburne Museum Acquires Artist William Hoare's Masterpiece
William Hoare, "The Pitt Family of Encombe".
LONDON.-The Holburne has acquired for its Collection a painting by the celebrated 18th century artist William Hoare. The acquisition of a superb portrait "The Pitt Family of Encombe" has been made possible through a grant from independent charity The Art Fund, the generous help of the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Beecroft Bequest, the Friends of the Holburne, David Posnett in memory of his mentor Harold Leger, and a private donor.
When the Holburne re-opens to visitors in 2011, "The Pitt Family of Encombe", painted by Bath ’s foremost painter at the time, William Hoare, will join old favorites by Gainsborough, Ramsay and Stubbs in the Museum’s spectacular collection of 18th century British portraits.
Andrew Macdonald, Acting Director of The Art Fund said: “It is entirely fitting that this accomplished portrait of a well-known Dorset family by an esteemed local artist be housed in one of Bath ’s finest museums. William Hoare thought highly of this work and I’m very pleased that The Art Fund has been able to help bring it back to Bath .”
Amina Wright, Curator of Fine Art at the Holburne, said: “In its Georgian heyday, Bath was second only to London as a center of cultural excellence, and we are delighted that this important and beautiful work by one of Bath’s most famous artists of the time will be back in Bath for everyone to enjoy when the Holburne re-opens in 2011.”
MP for Bath, Don Foster, said: “This acquisition of this portrait painting for the Holburne Museum is wonderful news and further strengthens the Museum’s outstanding collection of local art. I would like to pay tribute to all those organizations and individuals involved in funding it. I look forward to visiting the portrait in its new home and am sure that Bath residents and tourists alike will derive great enjoyment from it.”
William Hoare ‘of Bath ’ (1707-1792) dominated the spa town’s artistic life from around 1740 to 1780. Like Thomas Gainsborough, he was born in Suffolk , but had the advantage of nine years’ study in Rome , as well as influential patrons among the intelligentsia of London and Bath . With his brother the sculptor Prince Hoare, William quickly found a niche in the growing Bath market for luxury goods, gaining prestigious commissions to paint the leading political and literary figures of his day, many of whom came to Bath to recuperate. Hoare and his studio so dominated Bath’s market for oil paintings in the third quarter of the 18th-century that they continued to prosper even after the arrival of the younger and more innovative Gainsborough in the late 1750s.
Although the Holburne already has a good collection of works by Hoare, including drawings, oil paintings and pastels, none is as fine or as important as this splendid portrait of a Dorset family. Dated c. 1761, it depicts John Pitt of Encombe House in Dorset, who came from a long line of Dorset and Berkshire gentry and was a distant cousin of the Prime Minister (and MP for Bath) William Pitt the Elder. In the portrait, which remained in the family collection until the 20th-century, he is pictured with his Irish wife Marcia whom he married in 1752, and their first child William Morton Pitt, born about two years later.
William is seen still wearing an infant’s frock, while his mother wears a soft, informal gown, loosely laced and with the hem of the skirt pinned up to reveal the petticoat beneath. This unusual arrangement of the robe suggests that the artist may be drawing attention to the sitter’s pregnancy, as she had three children between 1757 and early 1759 but only one, Marcia, survived. This portrait must date from that period, when William Morton Pitt would have been four or five. Stylistically, it shows that Hoare was a follower of fashion rather than an innovator: the bright, fresh colours recall the work of Van Dyck, and the graceful arrangement of the figures, the husband and wife placing their hands together like a couple of dancers, is drawn from Van Dyck’s celebrated portrait of the Herbert family (1635), which Hoare probably saw at Wilton House.
This is one of Hoare’s best portraits and the artist himself must have thought highly of it. He was a founder member of the Society of Artists, and this was the first painting that he chose to send to the Society’s exhibition in London, in 1761. The same exhibition included another painting sent from Bath, Thomas Gainsborough’s first contribution to the Society of Artists. Gainsborough’s exhibit, the full-length portrait of Robert Craggs Nugent, is now on long-term loan to the Holburne, so the first two exhibition pieces by these two friendly Bath rivals will be reunited in our own galleries after exactly 250 years.
Since purchasing the portrait, the Holburne is delighted to have acquired an oil sketch almost certainly made as a compositional study for The Pitt Family. This rough little painting on a scrap of canvas about 19 x 17 cm (7½ x 7”) uses the same composition and colors as the final version, except that the porticoed building appears on the left of the image rather than the right, between the mother and her child.
Hoare probably moved the building to the right in his later version so that it would stand behind the father of the family, John Pitt, who was interested in architecture and may even have designed this building. The masculine classicism of the portico contrasts with the more feminine greenery seen behind Mrs. Pitt in the final version. However, the fact that the building could be moved about with such ease suggests that it may have been an imaginary one, rather than one of the famous garden temples of Encombe. The sketch has been generously donated by Jacob Simon.
The Pitt Family of Encombe will be on display at the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester from January 2010.
10 novembre 2009
Felice Ficherelli (San Gimignano 1605 - Florence 1660) Salomé et la tête de Saint Jean Baptiste
Felice Ficherelli (San Gimignano 1605 - Florence 1660) Salomé et la tête de Saint Jean Baptiste
Toile. 71 x 57 cm - Estimation : 12 000 / 15 000 €
Delorme - Collin du Bocage - Paris. Vente du Lundi 16 novembre 2009. Tableaux Anciens et Modernes, Objets d’Art, Tapis, Asie, Jouets. Peintures & Arts Graphiques. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 5 - 9, rue Drouot - 75009 Paris. Monsieur René MILLET, Expert. Pour tout renseignement,veuillez contacter la maison de ventes au 01 58 18 39 05.
Felice Ficherelli dit Felice Riposo (né le 30 août 1605 à San Gimignano en Toscane, mort à Florence le 5 mars 1660,, est un peintre italien baroque du XVIIe siècle.
Les premiers travaux de Ficherelli ont été des toiles commandées par le Conte Bardi qui le persuade d'aller à Florence et à d'étudier avec Jacopo da Empoli dont il fut l'élève ensuite, et dont l'influence se retrouve dans ses œuvres les plus réussies.
À Florence de 1655 à 1667, il travaille avec Antonio Franchi et Baldassare Franceschini.
Son surnom de Felice Riposo (« Heureux je repose ») découle de son peu d'entrain au travail.
L'origine de la copie de Saint Praxidis qui semble être signé par Johannes Vermeer, datée 1655 et attribuée à Ficherelli est très controversée. (wiki)
'Velázquez Rediscovered' @ The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish, 1599-1660), "Portrait of a Man". Oil on canvas. 27 x 21-3/4 inches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 49.7.42
NEW YORK, NY.- Velázquez Rediscovered, a special exhibition opening November 17 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will feature a newly identified painting by Velázquez, "Portrait of a Man", formerly ascribed by the Museum to the workshop of Velázquez and recently reattributed to the master himself following its cleaning and restoration. It will be shown alongside other works from the Museum's superior collection of works by the great Spanish painter.
In summer 2009, the arresting "Portrait of a Man" was taken off the walls of the gallery where it had been on view for many years and brought to the conservation studio for examination. Long obfuscated by thick, discolored layers of varnish and an old restoration that attempted to make it look more finished than the artist intended, the picture has emerged from its cleaning as an autograph work by the master: an informal portrait done from life, with parts left only summarily described, showing the hallmarks of Velázquez's sure touch of the brush. The painting is now confidently reattributed to Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599– 1660).
"This reattribution to Velázquez of a work that has been in the Metropolitan Museum's collection for decades is the result of the fine collaborative work of two of the Museum's renowned experts: Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of European Paintings, and Michael Gallagher, the Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of Paintings Conservation," stated Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "It highlights the depth of the Museum's collection as well as the acumen of its superb curatorial and conservation staff."
The painting's fascinating history is notable for the changes in attribution and identification, providing a case study in the ways critical opinion can alter over time. The picture entered the collection in 1949 as part of the bequest of Jules Bache, who headed one of the most successful brokerage firms in the country before the Second World War, and who was an art collector of great distinction as well as one of the major benefactors of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Acquired sometime before 1811 by Johann Ludwig Reichsgraf von Wallmoden-Gimborn (the illegitimate son of George II of Great Britain) and later in the collection of George V, King of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duke of Cumberland (1857–d. 1878), the picture was acquired by Bache from the famous dealer Joseph Duveen in 1926. At the time, it was considered by a leading specialist as a self-portrait of Velázquez, and as such it entered the Museum. However, more recent scholarship has had a less favorable view of the picture. In the standard 1963 monograph on the artist by José López-Rey, it is described as a "school piece rather close to Velázquez's manner." In 1979, the Museum demoted the attribution to the workshop of Velázquez. What was not realized was the degree to which heavy retouching and a thick, discolored varnish obfuscated the qualities of the picture.
Jonathan Brown, author of the authoritative monograph in English on the artist and a professor at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, concurs that the work is indeed by the artist – most likely an informal, rapidly painted study, with the head more highly finished than the costume and background, which is a thinly painted gray over a warm pinkish-buff ground.
Many questions remain, the most intriguing of which is the identity of the sitter who gazes at the viewer with such intensity. As has long been recognized, the same person appears at the far right of Velázquez's masterpiece, "The Surrender of Breda" (Museo del Prado, Madrid), painted in 1634-35 to commemorate the Spanish victory over the Dutch. The placement of the figure—as an observer rather than a direct participant in the action, and the way he looks out at the viewer—has led some scholars to identify it as a self-portrait. The matter remains highly speculative. There is the question of his resemblance (or lack thereof) to bona-fide portraits of Velázquez and the fact that he is attired like other members of the Spanish contingent. Other depictions of Velázquez —most famously his inclusion of himself in his most celebrated masterpiece, "Las Meninas"— are all much later in date (Velázquez was 57 when he painted La Meninas). Thus the Museum has retained the title "Portrait of a Man".
Velázquez Rediscovered, a small, focused exhibition, will feature other Velázquez paintings from the Metropolitan Museum's collection such as "Don Gaspar de Guzmán" (1587-1645), "Count Duke of Olivares" (1638), "The Supper at Emmaus" (ca. 1622-23), "María Teresa" (1638-1683), "Infanta of Spain" (ca. 1651), and the celebrated "Juan de Pareja" (ca. 1610-1670). Other works on view will include "María Teresa" (1638-1683) by Velázquez's gifted pupil and son-in-law, Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (1612- 1667).
Velázquez Rediscovered is organized by Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660), Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587–1645), Count-Duke of Olivares, ca. 1635. Oil on canvas, 50 1/4 x 41 in. (127.6 x 104.1 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1952. 52.125
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660), The Supper at Emmaus, 1622–23. Oil on canvas, 48 1/2 x 52 1/4 in. (123.2 x 132.7 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913, 14.40.631
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660), María Teresa (1638–1683), Infanta of Spain, 1651–54. Oil on canvas. Overall 13 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. (34.3 x 40 cm); original painted surface 12 7/8 x 15 1/8 in. (32.7 x 38.4 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jules Bache Collection, 1949. 49.7.43
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660), Juan de Pareja (born about 1610, died 1670), 1650. Oil on canvas, 32 x 27 1/2 in. (81.3 x 69.9 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Fletcher and Rogers Funds, and Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), by exchange, supplemented by gifts from friends of the Museum, 1971. 1971.86
Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (Spanish, born about 1612, died 1667), María Teresa (1638–1683), Infanta of Spain, 1644–45. Oil on canvas, 58 1/4 x 40 1/2 in. (148 x 102.9 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1943. 43.101
08 novembre 2009
'Rubens & Van Dyck' @ Nationalmuseum
Anthonis van Dyck (1599-1641) Självporträtt / Self-portrait. c.1620-21.Olja på duk, 119,7 x 87,9 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
STOCKHOLM.- In a one-off exchange this fall, two of Sweden’s largest and most famous baroque paintings have been taken to Munich to star in a major exhibition of works by Peter Paul Rubens, the 17th-century Flemish master. In return, Nationalmuseum will receive 20 spectacular paintings from Munich next spring. These will go on show alongside other works in Nationalmuseum’s "Rubens & Van Dyck" exhibition, opening February 25, 2010.
Mythological and biblical scenes. Still lifes of Flemish kitchens. Personal portraits, dramatic hunting scenes. The motifs in 17th-century Flemish painting are vivid and colorful. After several years’ research and inventory of its Flemish art collection, Nationalmuseum can now present an exhibition, a guide book for the general public and a detailed catalogue.
In addition to the extensive collection owned by the Swedish state, the exhibition will be enhanced with loans from museums across the globe, including world-class works by Titian and Rubens from the Prado in Madrid. Good negotiating skills and offers to loan works in exchange proved the key to success. The two key works by Rubens had only been loaned out twice before their present sojourn in Munich. They will be back in Stockholm in time for the February opening.
The spring exhibition, "Rubens & Van Dyck", focuses on Antwerp as the 16th-century’s principal artistic centre north of the Alps. Artists flocked to the city, and art trading flourished. Paintings were exported by the boatload to fashionable collectors across Europe. As a result of this high demand, artists chose to specialize, and close working relationships developed among them. As a master, Rubens collaborated with Jan Brueghel, Frans Snyders and Anthonis van Dyck on various details in his paintings. His pupils, who did the rough work, later became masters in their own right, with their own distinctive style and career.
The exhibition compares works by Rubens and Van Dyck, highlighting the relationship between them and the unparalleled influence of these two masters on Flemish painting in their day.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Backanal på Andros / The Andrians.Olja på duk, 200 x 215 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Anthonis van Dyck, Den helige Hieronymus / St Jerome. Olja på duk. 167 x 154 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Anthonis van Dyck (1599-1641) Den Helige Hieronymus / St Jerome. c. 1618-20. Olja på duk, 165 x 130 cm. Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; on loan from Foundation Willem van der Vorm © Foundation Willem van der Vorm
Frans Snyders (1579-1657) Visthusbord med tjänare / Pantry Scene with Servant. 1615/20. Olja på duk, 135 x 201 cm. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Alte Pinakothek © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Alte Pinakothek
Titian (1488-1576) Adam och Eva / Adam and Eve. 1550.Olja på duk, 240 x 186 cm. Museo Nacionál del Prado, Madrid © Museo Nacionál del Prado, Madrid
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Adam och Eva / Adam and Eve. 1628-1629. Olja på duk, 237 x 184 cm. Museo Nacionál del Prado, Madrid © Museo Nacionál del Prado, Madrid
Anthonis van Dyck (1599-1641) Familjeporträtt / Portrait of a Family. c. 1619. Olja på duk , 113,5 x 93,5. The State Hermitage Museum © The State Hermitage Museum
Anthonis van Dyck (1599-1641) Isabella Brant. Olja på duk, 153 x 120 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Collection 1937 k © National Gallery of Art, Washington
Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) Den heligen familjen / The Holy Family. Olja på trä. 122 x 92 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Anthonis van Dyck (1599-1641) Vilan under flykten till Egypten / Rest on the Flight into Egypt. c 1627/32. Olja på duk, 134,7 x 114,8 cm Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Alte Pinakothek © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Alte Pinakothek
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Ung man med svart barett / Young Man with a Black Cap.1615. Olja på ek, 44,1 x 35,3 cm Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Alte Pinakothek © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Alte Pinakothek
Anthonis van Dyck (1599-1641) Bildhuggaren Jörg Petel / Portrait of the Sculptor Georg Petel. 1627/28. Olja på duk, 73,3 x 57,2 cm Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Alte Pinakothek © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Alte Pinakothek
Frans Snyders (1579-1657) Räven på besök hos hägern / Sable of the Fox and the Heron. Olja på duk, 121 x 238 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Jacob Fopsen van Es (1596-1666) Frukoststycke med ost och pokaler / Breakfast Piece with Cheese and Goblets. Olja på trä, 50 x 84 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Dvärgen Robin / Robin, the Dwarf of Earl of Arundel. 1620. Svart, röd och vit krita, penna och brunt bläck på ljusgrått papper (från Held), 40,8 x 25,8 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) Kung Kandaules av Lydien visar sitt gemål för Gyges / King Candaules of Lydia Showing his Wife to Gyges. Olja på duk. 193 x 157 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Peter Paul Rubens, Susanna och gubbarna / Susanna and the Elders. 1614. Olja på trä 64 x 46 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Anthonis van Dyck (1599-1641) Porträtt av Maria Louisa de Tassis / Portrait of Maria Louisa de Tassis. c.1629. Olja på duk, 129 x 93 cm. Sammlungen des Fürsten von und zu Liechtenstein, Vaduz - Wien © Sammlungen des Fürsten von und zu Liechtenstein, Vaduz - Wien
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Europa och tjuren / The Rape of Europa. 1628. Olja på duk, 181 x 200 cm. Museo Nacionál del Prado, Madrid © Museo Nacionál del Prado, Madrid
Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (1613-1654) Amor triumferande bland konstens och krigets emblem / Amor Triumphant among Emblems of Art, Science and War. c. 1645-50. Olja på duk, 169 x 242 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Otto van Veen (1556-1629) Allegori över ungdomens frestelser / Allegory of the Temptations of youth. Olja på trä, 146 x 212 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
Frans Snyders (1579-1657) Stilleben med villebråd / Still life of Dead Game. 1630-1650. Olja på duk, 111 x 180 cm. Nationalmuseum © Nationalmuseum
"Botticelli" @ The Städel Museum
Sandro Botticelli, Idealized Portrait of a Lady (Simonetta Vespucci), 1480. Mixed technique on poplar, 82 × 54 cm. Inv. No. 936. Städel Museum
FRANKFURT.- The Städel Museum will show the first monographic exhibition on Sandro Botticelli (1444/45–1510) in the German-speaking world from 13 November 2009 to 28 February 2010. Taking the artist’s monumental Idealized Portrait of a Lady, one of the Städel Museum collection’s highlights, as its starting point, the exhibition presents numerous works from all productive periods of this great master of the Renaissance in Italy about 500 years after his day of death (17 May 1510). The exhibition opens with portraits and allegorical paintings that illustrate the degree of sophistication with which Botticelli drew on this highly developed genre and enriched it with new impulses. While the second chapter centers on his famous mythological representations of goddesses and heroines of virtue, the third part is dedicated to his abundant religious oeuvre. With a total of more than forty works by Botticelli and his workshop, the show presents a comprehensive selection of his work surviving worldwide. Forty further exhibits, among them works by such contemporaries as Andrea del Verrocchio, Filippino Lippi, and Antonio del Pollaiuolo, will allow to understand Botticelli’s precious creations in the historical context of their genesis. The presentation is supported by outstanding loans from the most important collections of paintings in Europe and the United States. These include the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery London, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, and the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Dresden, as well as the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Sandro Botticelli’s painting has become a landmark of Italian Renaissance. The delicate beauty, elegant grace, and unique charm of his frequently melancholic figures make his work the epitome of Florentine painting in the Golden Age of Medici rule under Lorenzo the Magnificent. Initially trained as a goldsmith and then apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi, Sandro Botticelli soon ranked among the most successful painters in Florence in the second half of the quattrocento next to Verrocchio, Ghirlandaio, and the Pollaiuolo brothers. From 1470 on, he received prestigious public commissions and established himself as a painter of large altarpieces. Throughout his life, Botticelli was in the ruling Medici family’s and their supporters’ good graces. Fulfilling their wishes for innovative decorative paintings, the master could not only rely on his personal knowledge of Florentine traditions and of ancient art, but also on definite suggestions and concepts from the circle of humanists gathered around Lorenzo de’ Medici. Held in equally high esteem as both a panel and a fresco painter, Botticelli enjoyed a high standing beyond his native Florence and was thus one of the artists summoned to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel in Rome by Pope Sixtus IV in 1481. It was particularly his much-discussed late work that brought out the characteristic features of his original style in an extreme manner. Guided by the art of drawing – the exhibition includes an outstanding selection of preparatory sketches – Botticelli followed his penchant for presenting his figures with sharp contours, strong movements, and abundant gestures, grounding his compositions on textures of lines and surfaces rather than on spaces and volumes. In this respect, his painting had already stood out against his competitors’ works and current theoretical demands in his early years. This is one of the reasons why art-historical research, which has devoted a vast number of major monographs and work studies to Botticelli since the beginnings of the twentieth century, still assigns a special position to the artist without fail.
The starting point and center of the cross-genre exhibition is provided by a main work from the collection of the Städel Museum not only very well known in Frankfurt: the master’s idealized portrait of a young lady, who is probably to be identified with Simonetta Vespucci, the beloved jousting tournament lady of Lorenzo’s brother Giuliano de’ Medici. This portrait is less aimed at a true-to-life likeness of the subject than at the ideal of a woman characterized by perfect beauty and equally perfect virtuousness, an ideal also reflected in the poetry of that time. Such an ideal defines itself not least through its rapport with antiquity: thus, the beautiful female wears a piece of jewelry round her neck which is obviously based on an ancient cameo showing Apollo and Marsyas, which will also be on display in the exhibition. In the Städel Museum, Botticelli’s famous portrait of Giuliano from the National Gallery of Art in Washington will offer itself for comparison with his beloved Simonetta’s likeness. Both paintings make up the center of the first part of the presentation, which is devoted to Botticelli’s art of portraiture and, drawing on prominent examples, illustrates the interplay between social norm and artistic form as well as the different genre conventions of the male and the female portrait.
The second chapter of the exhibition deals with Botticelli’s mythological pictures, which number among the artist’s most original creations. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which safeguards the most comprehensive and significant collection of works by the artist in the world, supports the exhibition in Frankfurt with one of its most popular works among others loans: the famous Pallas and the Centaur, one of Botticelli’s monumental mythological paintings, to be seen in the context of Medicean self-presentation. Together with Botticelli’s Primavera, it once adorned the walls of a bedchamber in a Florentine palace owned by the family of bankers. We see Pallas taming the wild centaur indulging in his passions through her wisdom and virtue. The control and cultivation of emotions was a central issue in ancient philosophy and – combined with Christian thought – of the Renaissance, too; among the painters of the time, Botticelli offered himself as a congenial interpreter for such subjects. The political dimension and the reference to the patron family are symbolically present in the form of two intertwined diamond rings on Pallas’s gown, which were an emblem of the Medici family. Another great female figure featuring in the Florentine artist’s oeuvre is the goddess Venus. His life-size Venus from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin is a repetition of the central figure of (the unloanable) Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Gallery, which he isolated from the context of the scene and set off against a black background. This work is one of the first monumental nudes of postancient painting.
The third and last section of the exhibition is devoted to Botticelli’s religious pictures. Next to his portraits and mythological works, Botticelli has owed his continuing fame to his Madonnas. According to theological thinking, Mary stands out as the ideal woman among the saints: she is the most virtuous and the most beautiful female, the bride of the Song of Songs. Besides many other works spanning from Botticelli’s earliest works still revealing the influence of his teacher Fra Filippo Lippi to examples of his late style, the exhibition in Frankfurt shows one of the artist’s most beautiful Madonnas: The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child. The Madonna’s physiognomy of this painting from the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, whose brilliant colorfulness has only been uncovered through restorative measures some years ago, is rendered in the vein of the same female model which the painter developed for his idealized portraits and pictures of ancient goddesses. This chapter also includes a number of narrative pictures, such as a removed Annunciation fresco once to be found in the vestibule of the hospital of San Martino alla Scala in Florence and preserved in the Uffizi Gallery today. Not only the enormous size of the fresco (243 x 550 cm), but also its qualities as a painting testify to Botticelli’s extraordinary importance in this medium. Four panels depicting scenes from the life of St. Zenobius, an early bishop and patron of Florence, offer a further highlight, with which the exhibition ends. Usually scattered to museums in London, Dresden, and New York, they have been brought together for the first time in Frankfurt again. Ranking not only among his most significant late works, but also among his very last, the panels are to be considered as Botticelli’s legacy as an artist.
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), “Annunciation (Detail)”, 1481, Fresco, 243 x 550 cm. Uffizi, Florence. Photo: Uffizi, Florence
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), “Minerva and the Centaur”, 1480-1482, canvas, 207 x 148 cm. Florence, Uffizi. Photo: Uffizi
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), “Portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici”, wood, 75,5 x 52,5 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Photo: National Gallery of Art, Washington
02 novembre 2009
École italienne du XVIIIe siècle, Etude de perroquet et autres oiseaux
École italienne du XVIIIe siècle, Etude de perroquet et autres oiseaux
Gouache - 26 x 20 cm - Epidermures - Estimation : € 800-1,000
Tajan. DESSINS ANCIENS, 27 nov. 2009 14:30, Drouot - salle 2 www.tajan.com
23 octobre 2009
'Jan van Eyck. Grisailles' @ Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Jan van Eyck, The Annunciation Diptych, ca.1435-1440 Oil on panel. Left panel (the Archangel Gabriel) 38.8 x 23.2 cm; right panel (the Virgin Mary) 39 x 24cm. Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Inv. [137.a-b (1933.11.1-2)]
On 3 November the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid opens the 23rd exhibition in its Contexts of the Permanent Collection series. The exhibition is devoted to Jan van Eyck’s Annunciation, one of the jewels of the Permanent Collection and one of the most important examples of grisaille painting. Widespread and highly esteemed from the late 14th century onwards, the technique known as grisaille is based on the graduated application of a single colour, usually grey or another neutral tone, which is used to model the shadows and thus produce an effect of sculptural relief.
In addition to Van Eyck’s painting, the exhibition includes other examples of grisaille painting from the late Middle Ages in the form of drawings, paintings, ivories, miniatures and textiles. It aims to offer a comprehensive overview of this technique in the 14th and 15th centuries and to present an in-depth study of its artistic, social and functional implications. This will be the case both through the carefully selected group of works on display and also – as is always the case with the Museum’s exhibitions of this type – through the essays in the accompanying catalogue.
The loans to the exhibition are all of singular importance given the high value of the works and the fact that they need special transport and display conditions. Particularly exceptional is the loan of Van Eyck’s Saint Barbara panel, a masterpiece that has only rarely been seen outside the galleries of the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp and which will be shown in Spain for the first time. Also outstanding are the two key panels from Hans Memling’s Annunciation, loaned by the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. Finally, the manuscripts on display constitute an exceptional group that includes magnificent sheets decorated with some of the finest grisaille illuminations to have survived.
Painting in tones of grey, semi-grisailles and monochromatic paintings
The term “grisaille” means “painting in grey tones” and derives from the French word gris. It has traditionally been used by art historians to describe the monochromatic depictions that appeared from the 14th century onwards, although its modern-day usage – referring exclusively to paintings in tones of grey – is not documented until the 17th century, the high point of the technique in the Low Countries. In the 15th and 16th centuries other terms were used for works of that type, including “de noir et de blanc” (in black and white), and “color lapidum” (painting in stone colour).
The Annunciation c. 1467-1470 Oil on panel. 83,3 x 26,5 x 0,4 cm; 83,1 x 26,4 x 0,4 cm Brujas, Musea Brugge,
In the late Middle Ages grisaille was considered a separate artistic category and it is to be found on a wide variety of supports and in different techniques, from mural and fresco painting to painting on panel, canvas, textiles and glass, as well as miniatures and drawings. It was extremely highly esteemed as it was considered to be closer to the artist’s creative process and thus particularly appropriate for displaying his or her talents and technical virtuosity.
As noted above, late medieval grisailles are not just paintings in tones of grey, and the term also covers works in “semi-grisaille”, meaning monochromatic depictions executed in a very limited tonal range and frequently accompanied by the limited use of more intense colours such as red and blue or gold, particularly in the backgrounds. This produced a greater effect of contrast and emphasised the flesh tones of the figures and their sculptural quality.
Jean Le Noir. Salterio de Bonne de Luxemburgo, duquesa de Normandía. Nueva York, The Metropolinan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection
During the period in question there were basically two types of grisaille representation: pictorial works painted in a stony tone that aimed to imitate sculptures (usually on panel) and the grisailles often found in miniatures. Notable among the first group are the images of fictive sculptures that adorned the outer faces of altarpieces and triptychs. They are commonly found in Flemish painting from the last third of the 15th century are also widespread in French and German art. They are generally relatively simple compositions that frequently depict the Annunciation or statues of saints on plinths within their own niche. All the elements are painted and such works are thus considered early examples of trompe l’oeil painting.
The second group, comprising miniature illuminations, is principally characterised by the exclusive use of grisaille to depict the figures. The technique is used to make them stand out from the coloured backgrounds and from the other elements in the spaces or interiors in which they are located, such as the landscape, buildings, altars, thrones, etc. In addition to emphasising the effect of grisaille, the result of this technique is to highlight the volumetric quality of the figures and their artificial nature.
From the mid-14th century onwards the use of grisaille became widespread for illuminating manuscripts in Parisian specialist workshops and was extremely popular among the highest levels of French society, for whom these chronicles, religious texts and Books of Hours were intended. The Book of Hours that Charles IV of France gave to his wife Jeanne d’Evreux between 1324 and 1328 was illuminated by the Paris master Jean Pucelle and is considered the first example of this new technique. It includes many of the characteristics subsequently found in grisaille, not just in book illumination (for which it was a highly influential work in the 14th century) but also with regard to the use of grisaille for painting on panel and canvas.
In the section devoted to manuscript illumination the exhibition features outstanding examples by the leading miniaturists of the day both in France and the Low Countries, including Jean Le Noir, Jan Baudolf, Jean d’Orleans, the Masters of the Grisailles of Delft, Simon Marmion and others. The exhibition also includes a small group of sculptures that allows for a comparison of the depiction of sculpted figures in painting with contemporary carved examples. Finally, visitors can see an example of the use of grisaille in textiles in the form of a mitre decorated with Indian ink on white silk.
Virgin from the Annunciation. (Alabastro). 19,8 x 12,5 x 6,1 cm. Viena, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Kunstkammer, Inv. KK 21
18 octobre 2009
Gaetano Gandolfi (1734 – Bologne, 1802). Étude de têtes.
Gaetano Gandolfi (1734 – Bologne, 1802). Étude de têtes.
Encre brune sur papier - Exécuté vers 1775 - 1780 - Prix sur demande
Notre feuille fait partie des études de têtes qui firent la renommée de Gaetano Gandolfi dessinateur. Ce type d'œuvres est issu d'une tradition bolonaise remontant au Guerchin : des dessins à la plume exécutés dans un style mêlant hachures et pointillés. L'élégance des visage et la simple utilisation de l'écriture graphique pour rendre le modelé et relief, faisaient de ces dessins des pièces très recherchées des collectionneurs.
Didier Aaron & Cie 118, rue Faubourg Saint Honoré, 75008 Paris - France - Tel : +33 1 47 42 47 34 - Fax : +33 1 42 66 24 17 - contact@didieraaron-cie.com - http://www.didieraaron.com
Gaetano Gandolfi (San Matteo della Decima, frazione de San Giovanni in Persiceto, 31 août 1734 - 2 juin 1802) est un peintre italien rococo de l'école bolonaise. Il naît dans une famille d'artistes italiens, des peintres prolifiques dont Mauro et Ubaldo Gandolfi, et devient élève de Felice Torelli et de Ercole Lelli à l'Accademia Clementina de Bologne, où il reçoit plusieurs prix de portraits et de sculpture. Il a voyagé en Angleterre et a été fortement influencé par Giambattista Tiepolo. (Merci WIKI)