New Book | The Reception of Titian in Britain from Reynolds to Ruskin
Papers from a 2011 conference have recently been published by Brepols:
Peter Humfrey, ed., The Reception of Titian in Britain from Reynolds to Ruskin (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), 258 pages, ISBN: 978-2503536750, 70€.
This volume comprises sixteen essays on the reception of Titian by British painters, collectors and critics in the long nineteenth century. The main focus falls on the first three decades of the century, in the aftermath of the exhibition of the celebrated Orléans collection in London in 1798–99. But the chronology extends from Reynolds and his contemporaries, around the time of the founding of the Royal Academy in 1768, to the more diverse and complicated reactions of the Victorian age, and even into the twentieth century.
C O N T E N T S
• Peter Humfrey, Introduction: The Pre-History,
• Marin Postle, ‘That Titian of our times’: Sir Joshua Reynolds and the ‘Divine Titian’
• Jonathan Yarker, Copies and the Taste for Titian in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain
• Stephen Lloyd, ‘So much is Titian the rage’: Titian, Copies and Artist-Collectors in London c.1790–1830
• Rosie Dias, Colour, Effect and the Formation of an English School of Painting
• Linda Borean, Sir Abraham Hume as Collector and Writer
• Philippa Simpson, Titian in Post-Orléans London
• Anne Lyles, Constable and Titian
• Tom Nichols, Hazlitt and Titian: Progress, Gusto and the (Dis)Pleasure of Painting
• Godfrey Evans, ‘Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself’: The Dukes of Hamilton and Titian
• Caroline Campbell, Titian in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction
•William McKeown, Getting at ‘the mind of Titian’in Ruskin’s Modern Painters
• Jason Rosenfeld, Millais and the ‘luster of Titian’
• Jeremy Howard, Titian’s Rape of Europa: Its Reception in England and Sale to America
• Catherine Whistler, Merchants and Writers: The Ashmolean’s Titian Collection and Some Nineteenth-Century Owners
• Susanna Avery-Quash, Titian at the National Gallery, London: An Unchanging Reputation?
Exhibition | Antonio Canova: The Seven Last Works
From The Met:
Antonio Canova: The Seven Last Works
Gallerie d’Italia, Milan, 4 October 2013 — 6 January 2014
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 22 January — 27 April 2014
Curated by Fernando Mazzocca and Matteo Ceriana
Antonio Canova (1757–1822), the greatest of all neoclassical sculptors, remains famous above all for the elegant nude mythological subjects that he carved exquisitely in marble. But he also worked in a deeply serious, deceptively simple style. This less familiar Canova is revealed in an extraordinary series of full-scale plaster models illustrating episodes from the Old and New Testaments. Such models, used to review his compositions before they were transferred into stone, were a distinctive feature of his sculptural practice. These Biblical scenes were made in connection with a project for 32 low reliefs that were to adorn the Tempio Canoviano, the church in his home town Possagno, which later became the artist’s mausoleum. He completed only seven models before his death. Six come from the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, and one from the Gipsoteca in Possagno. Newly restored, they will all be lent for the first time to the United States. Drawing inspiration from ancient sculpture and early Renaissance masters, the models are striking for the marked linearity of the figures, arranged in brilliantly syncopated compositions. They constitute Canova’s last, profoundly moving masterworks.
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From the Gallerie d’Italia:
Canova. L’ultimo capolavoro. Le metope del Tempio
Gallerie d’Italia, Milan, 4 October 2013 — 6 January 2014
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 22 January — 27 April 2014
a cura di Fernando Mazzocca e Matteo Ceriana
L’esposizione è organizzata da Intesa Sanpaolo in partnership con la Soprintendenza Speciale PSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Venezia e dei Comuni della Gronda lagunare e in collaborazione con la Fondazione Cariplo. Aperta al pubblico nella sede milanese fino al 6 gennaio 2014, la mostra sarà ospitata al Metropolitan Museum of Art di New York dal 20 gennaio al 27 aprile 2014.
Il recente restauro di sei bassorilievi in gesso conservati presso le Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia, ispirati a episodi dell’Antico e del Nuovo Testamento, e lo studio dei documenti ad essi relativi hanno portato alla luce opere di grande valore storico. Sono infatti state identificate nelle opere restaurate i modelli originali per le prime delle trentadue metope – i pannelli decorativi destinati a ritmare il fregio dorico – che Antonio Canova, moderno Fidia, intendeva realizzare per il pronao del Tempio della natia Possagno, l’edificio maestoso da lui stesso progettato ispirandosi all’architettura del Partenone e del Pantheon.
Lo scultore iniziò a lavorare ai modelli delle metope nel dicembre del 1821; ai primi di aprile del 1822 ne erano stati eseguiti sette, subito inviati dallo studio di Roma all’Accademia di Venezia, perché altrettanti scultori, scelti tra i migliori allievi dell’Accademia stessa, iniziassero a realizzarne la versione in marmo. La morte, sopraggiunta il 13 ottobre 1822, impedì allo scultore di portare a compimento il progetto. Insieme ai sei bassorilievi del Tempio, sono in mostra sette disegni preparatori, provenienti dal Museo Civico di Bassano del Grappa, in stretta relazione alle metope stesse, che testimoniano il costante interesse di Canova per i temi biblici e cristiani, così come il suo studio dei Primitivi.
Completano l’esposizione due esemplari, provenienti dalla Biblioteca Braidense, dell’Atlante illustrato della Storia della scultura (1813–1818 e 1822–1824) di Leopoldo Cicognara, storico dell’arte e amico di Canova: una fonte importante che permette di contestualizzare meglio il confronto con il Medioevo e il primo Rinascimento. Uno dei sette modelli delle metope, andato purtroppo perduto, viene rappresentato in mostra dal bassorilievo proveniente dalla Gipsoteca Antonio Canova di Possagno, appartenente ad una serie eseguita dai seguaci dell’opera del Maestro.
La mostra trova una sede ideale nelle sale della sezione Da Canova a Boccioni delle Gallerie di Piazza Scala, nelle quali sono esposti i bassorilievi Rezzonico di Collezione Fondazione Cariplo. Tale collocazione consente un confronto diretto – nell’ambito delle opere di Canova con la tecnica del bassorilievo in gesso – tra la produzione giovanile dell’ultimo decennio del Settecento, ispirata all’antichità classica, e opere realizzate prima della morte.
Lecture | Richard Cooper’s Album of Italian Drawings
From the Paul Mellon Centre:
Tom Edwards (Abbot & Holder, Ltd) | Amongst the Grand Tourists:
Richard Cooper Jnr’s (1740–1822) Album of Italian Drawings
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 6 December 2013
Research lunches are intended to be informal events in which individual doctoral students and scholars talk for half-an-hour about their projects, and engage in animated discussion with their peers. A sandwich lunch, will be provided by the Centre. We hope that this series will help foster a sense of community amongst PhD students and junior colleagues from a wide range of institutions, and bring researchers together in a collegial and friendly atmosphere.
In order to help us plan for these events, it is essential to check availability by emailing the Centre’s Events Co-ordinator, Ella Fleming (efleming@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk) at least two days in advance.
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