Enfilade

Now on view at the Castello del Buonconsiglio:

Grezler’s Choices: Work from the ITAS Collection, 1500–1900
Le scelte di Grezler: Opere antiche della collezione Itas al Castello del Buonconsiglio
Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento, 5 December 2015 — 1 May 2016

Bernardino Nocchi (previously attributed to Pompeo Batoni), Vulcan Delivering the Weapons of Aeneas to Venus, second half of the eighteenth century

Claudio Grezler, well known in Trento as having been president for over twenty years of the insurance company ITAS (Istituto Trentino Alto Adige per Assicurazioni), was also distinguished as a passionate art-lover. Over the years, this passion translated itself in the accumulation of a rich and varied personal collection of paintings. For the most part consisting of pictures by Italian and Flemish artists from the 1500s to the 1800s, his collection included outstanding works along the theme of the sacred and profane, of portraits, battles, and landscapes. By his own wish, his collection was merged with that of ITAS on his death and, in 1981, was exhibited in the prestigious setting of Buonconsiglio Castle. Claudio Grezler expressly wished that his collection, built up “with time, effort and sacrifice” should not be divided up and should instead become a public heritage.

Today, in gathering together this important patrimony, the Buonconsiglio Castle museum and ITAS have worked in harmonious synergy to pay homage to this important figure through a new initiative in appreciation of his collection. After assiduous research and a painstaking restoration process, the paintings are presented to the public in an exhibition that is further enriched by other exquisite works that Grezler, during his time as president, had added to the insurance company’s own collection.

Among the works exhibited are many that have only now, thanks to research conducted especially for this occasion, emerged from anonymity and been associated with their legitimate authors. We can, for instance, now admire Antonio Giuseppe Sartori’s baroque relief featuring the figure of Saint Florian, the patron saint of fire-fighters which is ideally suited to the insurance activities of ITAS. Present, too, is a delicate representation of Holy Conversation attributed to Nicolò de Barbari, alongside a sumptuous painting by Antonio Marini and an equally vivacious Bacchanalia from the Flemish school.

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From Fondazione Cariplo:

Lo Splendore di Venezia: Canaletto, Bellotto, Guardi e i Vedutisti dell’Ottocento
The Splendour of Venice: Canaletto, Bellotto, Guardi and the Vedutisti of the Nineteenth Century
Brescia, Palazzo Martinengo, Brescia, 23 January — 12 June 2016

Palazzo Martinengo is hosting a new international art exhibition to celebrate the city of Venice. The Splendour of Venice shows how the city has been and still is—more than any other city—a timeless legend in the world’s collective imagination. Down through the centuries, Venice has been immortalised by Italian and foreign artists so often that it was identified as the origin of vedutismo. ‘Veduta’ in English was a successful new landscape genre that was appreciated by the rich and educated Grand Tour travellers who wanted to return to their home countries with a lovely picture of the charming sights they had seen in Italy.

To tell the public about the origins and development of the glorious season of Venetian vedute, Palazzo Martinengo presens for the first time ever a selection of over one hundred masterpieces by Canaletto, Bellotto, Guardi, and other important vedutisti from the 18th and 19th centuries. The paintings, on loan from prestigious private and public collections in Italy and Europe, have been carefully selected by an international scientific committee. This artwork demonstrates that the popularity of the genre did not end with the Republic of Venice, which came about with the Treaty of Campo Formio, signed in 1797 by the French and the Austrians, but instead continued during the entire 19th century.

The exhibition will follow an interesting chronological itinerary, divided into ten thematic sections, which all feature a selection of Murano glass objects created by master craftsmen of the 20th century. The exhibition will end with a final surprise, set up in the section ‘Venice, theatre of life’, with scenes from daily life in the squares, open spaces, streets, and canals of the city. Fondazione Cariplo is present at this event with four masterpieces from its art collection, painted by Guglielmo Ciardi and Pietro Fragiacomo.

Press release for the exhibition now on view at the NGV:

Eighteenth-Century Porcelain Sculpture
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 27 February — December 2016

Chelsea Porcelain Factory, London, Joseph Willems (modeller), Pietà, ca. 1761, porcelain (soft-paste), 38.5 x 28.5 x 22.8 cm (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria)

The NGV will present its renowned collection of eighteenth-century porcelain sculpture in an upcoming exhibition, revealing eighteenth-century baroque life and culture, from commoners and aristocrats to famous actors and musicians. Eighteenth-Century Porcelain Sculpture will showcase over eighty exquisite examples from famed European factories—including the German Meissen, French Sèvres, and English Derby factories—of intricately modelled porcelain figures, large-scale sculptural works, and celebrity portraits.

Tony Ellwood, Director, NGV, said, “The NGV holds the largest collection of porcelain sculpture in Australia, and this exhibition offers an opportunity to view a number of our rarest and most important works, including the Chelsea Porcelain Factory’s large-scale Pietà sculpture of which the NGV will present two of the only three examples in the world.”

Whilst today porcelain sculptures are often considered ‘decorative’ items, in the eighteenth century many of the finest artists of the time were drawn to the novel medium. The exhibition will include the work of key modellers such as Johann Joachim Kändler—the era’s most important ceramic sculptor and a major innovator—Franz Anton Bustelli, Johann Peter Melchior, and Giuseppe Gricci, court sculptor to King Charles VII of Naples.

The exhibition also includes rare porcelain sculptures of popular eighteenth-century London stage actors including Kitty Clive, Henry Woodward, David Garrick, and James Quinn. Collected by wealthy members of the elite, these figures give insight into the growing culture of celebrity in eighteenth-century England and demonstrate how porcelain became an important medium for the dissemination of popular imagery. Another highlight is the exceptionally rare Goffredo at the Tomb of Dudone, modelled by Giuseppe Gricci for the Neopolitan Capodimote factory, which portrays an episode from Tasso’s great Renaissance epic poem Jerusalem Liberated.

Due to the fragile nature of porcelain sculpture, NGV conservators have undertaken five months of restoration work to return many of these pieces to display. One sculpture, by the Italian Doccia factory of a shepherd and his companion, will be displayed for the first time in more than twenty years. Individual fingers no more than 2mm across were remade from porcelain and skilfully attached to the shepherd’s hand, an incredibly delicate procedure that required three attempts. Conservators have also removed discolouration from other pieces enabling them to be displayed once more in all of their original beauty.

The exhibition is accompanied by an online essay by Matthew Martin and public program offerings including floor talks which will provide unique insights into the period.