Enfilade

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Now on view at Mount Vernon:

Gardens & Groves: George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, Virginia, 22 February 2014 — 30 May 2016

Countless photographs testify to the beauty of Mount Vernon’s landscape. Two hundred years after its creation, it continues to delight. Although the beautiful gardens, sweeping lawns, and inviting paths seem perfectly natural, these features were all carefully planned by George Washington. When he returned to Mount Vernon after the American Revolution, General Washington found the estate in need of extensive repairs and improvements. The buildings and grounds surrounding the Mansion lacked an overall design, having evolved over time with an eye more for practical function than beauty.

Between 1785 and 1787, George Washington completely transformed Mount Vernon’s grounds into a landscape very similar to the one that survives today. During this break from public affairs, few days passed without the General working on the landscape. To update Mount Vernon, Washington had his free and enslaved workers install such picturesque features as sweeping lawns, groves of trees, curving paths, vistas, and hidden walls (called “ha-has”). From laying out paths to tagging trees for transplanting, the General was involved in every aspect of designing and installing his gardens and grounds.

From the exhibition press release (27 January 2014) . . .

Mount Vernon invites visitors to explore George Washington’s design for the grounds of his estate, through the exhibition, Gardens & Groves: George Washington’s Landscape at Mount Vernon, on view until May 2016. Gardens & Groves is the first museum exhibition to focus specifically on Washington’s landmark achievements as a landscape designer combining rarely-seen original documents, artworks, and books with period garden tools, gorgeous landscape photography, and a stunning scale model of the Mount Vernon estate. In Gardens & Groves, visitors can view the first president’s spyglass, watering can, and garden roller, in addition to reading Washington’s notes and instructions for Mount Vernon’s landscape in his own hand.

Kitchen garden at Mount Vernon

“Each year, more than a million visitors enjoy the remarkable beauty of Mount Vernon’s gardens and grounds,” said Mount Vernon curator, Susan Schoelwer. “But few realize that the views that we enjoy today were all carefully planned by George Washington himself. Gardens & Groves aims to change that, as visitors have the opportunity to ‘unpack’ the landscape surrounding the Mansion, following in Washington’s footsteps to examine each of the elements in the design.”

The exhibit presents five 18th-century views of Mount Vernon—oil paintings of both river and land fronts of the Mansion, by Edward Savage; two detailed drawings of the layout of the grounds, by English admirer Samuel Vaughan; and a recently-acquired image of the Washingtons relaxing on the piazza in 1796, by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the US Capitol Building (due to their fragility, the Vaughan and Latrobe drawings were on view in Gardens & Groves through August 17, 2014).

“Bringing these five important works together presents a rare opportunity to see Mount Vernon through the eyes of artists who visited during George Washington’s lifetime,” said Mount Vernon exhibition curator Adam T. Erby. “These artworks record details of the landscape that we would not otherwise know—information that continues to inform our ongoing research and restoration efforts.”

Watering Pot, made in France or England, 18th century, copper, iron.

At the center of Gardens & Groves is a fascinating 8’x 9’x 11’ model of Mount Vernon’s landscape as Washington last saw it in 1799. Developed by Mount Vernon historians, archaeologists, and curators, this state-of-the-art model has returned home from a national tour in Mount Vernon’s traveling exhibition, Discover the Real George Washington: New Views from Mount Vernon. In addition to delighting viewers with its intricate craftsmanship, the model incorporates countless scenes from daily life—laundry drying in the laundry yard, a sailing ship on the Potomac, just-planted trees along the bowling green.

Such details introduce a broad view of the landscape, revealing two separate, but intersecting landscapes that existed at Mount Vernon: the pleasure grounds of the planter and the working spaces of the enslaved community. Gardens & Groves also tells the stories of the men and women, both hired and enslaved, who created and maintained George Washington’s gardens, and visitors will see some actual artifacts that they used, including a copper watering can and archeologically-recovered flower pot fragments.

An interactive touchtable will demonstrate the evolution of the landscape at Mount Vernon over time. Visitors will be able to scroll through three topographical maps created by Mount Vernon’s preservation staff, reconstructing the appearance of the landscape when Washington inherited the property, during an early renovation, and as it finally appeared at the end of Washington’s life. On each of the maps, visitors will be able to click on individual elements to bring up more information about a particular feature.

A list of ten facts about the landscape at Mount Vernon is available here»

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Published this spring in connection with the exhibition:

Susan P. Schoelwer, ed., The General in the Garden: George Washington’s Landscape at Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon: Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, 2015), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-0931917486, $35.

The General in the Garden provides an engaging, informative, and richly illustrated introduction to George Washington’s landscape at Mount Vernon—arguably the best-documented, best-preserved complex of gardens and grounds to survive from eighteenth-century America.

The book’s three essays, by Adam T. Erby, J. Dean Norton, and Esther C. White, chronicle Washington’s transformation of the estate in the years between the American Revolution and the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the stewardship of its gardens by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association since 1860, and the archaeology that led to the recent restoration of Washington’s showplace upper garden. Mount Vernon assistant curator Adam Erby examines Washington’s critical role in developing Mount Vernon’s landscape, arguing that the general drew on British design sources and gardening manuals but adapted them to his own circumstances, creating a truly American garden. J. Dean Norton, Mount Vernon’s director of horticulture, traces the evolution of the estate’s landscape and recreated gardens across the two centuries since Washington’s death. And Esther White, Mount Vernon’s director of historic preservation and research, shows how groundbreaking archaeological methods facilitated the discovery of Washington-era garden beds and borders of flowers, shrubs, and vegetables in his upper garden—a remarkable find that yielded one of the most significant eighteenth-century garden recreations of our time. Also included is a lavishly illustrated guide to Mount Vernon’s landscape features, introducing Washington’s beloved estate to a modern audience.

An interview with the authors of the book is available here»

Magasin des Modes Nouvelles Françaises et Anglaises (1 Juin 1789), Pl. 1, 2 et 3
(Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum)

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Press release (20 May 2015) from the Rijksmuseum:

New for Now: The Origin of Fashion Magazines
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 12 June — 27 September 2015

From 12 June, the Rijksmuseum presents a major retrospective of its rich collection of costume and fashion prints for the first time. The change in women’s and men’s fashion from the year 1600 up to and including the first half of the 20th century, and the development of the fashion magazine into the fashion glossies we know today, can be seen in more than 300 prints. The exhibition was designed by designer and co-curator Christian Borstlap, in collaboration with fashion illustrators Piet Paris and Quentin Jones.

The publishers of fashion prints did everything to make their product as attractive as possible. They attracted skilled illustrators for this purpose, some of whom went on to become specialists in this area: true ‘fashion illustrators’. The trick was to portray the models on the prints as skillfully as possible and with a great sense of elegance. The printmaker was responsible for transferring the design sketches onto an engraving that could reproduce the design. A so-called ‘colourist’ subsequently added colours to each individual image by hand.

New for Now shows prints by fashion designer Paul Poiret, among others. His ‘Fashion is Art’ statement marked the beginning of a new era. He presented his designs in two artfully designed series of works in bright opaque colours, which served as an inspiration for a number of artistically high-quality fashion magazines.

Many of the prints shown are from two important collections acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 2009: The Raymond Gaudriault Collection and The MA Ghering-van Ierlant Collection. All 8,000 prints from these collections can be seen online from June 2015. This is the result of a multi-year project in which the prints were catalogued, described and digitalised.

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The catalogue is available from the Rijksmuseum:

Georgette Koning and Els Verhaak, New For Now: The Origin of Fashion Magazines (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 2015), 204 pages, 20€.

Fashion changes constantly, but the desire to be ‘in fashion’ is eternal. For centuries people have eagerly followed the latest fashion trends. But how did one keep up in an age without internet, fashion blogs, Pinterest and glossy fashion magazines? New for Now explores how trends were spread before Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar appeared on the shelves. From the costume book in the 16th century by way of individual, hand-coloured fashion plates to the first fashion magazine to roll off the presses in 1785: Cabinet des Modes. There was no stopping after this, and one fashion magazine appeared hard on the heels of the other, reaching an absolute high point in the Gazette du Bon Ton in 1912, full of magnificent art deco illustrations.

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From Gioia Oggi:
Tavole Barocche: Banchetti, feste e nature morte tra
XVII e XVIII secolo dalla Collezione Corsi di Firenze
Castello Svevo di Gioia del Colle (Ba), 11 April — 28 June 2015

Curated by Francesco Di Ciaula

Nell’anno dell’Expo di Milano, dedicato alle tematiche dell’alimentazione, le suggestive sale del Castello Svevo di Gioia del Colle (Ba) ospitano dall’11 aprile al 28 giugno 2015 la mostra Tavole Barocche, promossa dalla Regione Puglia e dal Comune di Gioia del Colle.

La mostra, a cura di Francesco Di Ciaula ed organizzata dalla società Sistema Museo, espone dipinti raffiguranti nature morte, paesaggi e scene conviviali tra XVII e XVIII secolo, provenienti dalla Collezione Corsi di Firenze conservata presso il Museo Bardini, una delle istituzioni museali più importanti del capoluogo toscano. L’esposizione è allestita nel Castello di Gioia del Colle, tra i più affascinanti manieri realizzati dalle maestranze dell’Imperatore Federico II Hohenstaufen, il Sovrano tedesco che fece della Puglia del XIII secolo la sua terra d’elezione. Tra la magnifica Sala del Trono, così nominata per la presenza dell’imponente seggio reale, la Sala del Camino, la Torre de’ Rossi e il Gineceo, si sviluppa armoniosamente la mostra, ricca di opere importanti per la storia dell’arte del Seicento e del Settecento italiano e fiammingo, come quelle del Gobbo dei Carracci, lo Spadino, Giovan Battista Ruoppolo, Jacopo da Empoli, Gian Domenico Ferretti, della bottega dell’Arcimboldo e del seguito di Pieter Brueghel il Giovane. Due le sezioni di mostra, incentrate sulla cultura del cibo e della tavola: la prima espone la rappresentazione degli alimenti nel genere della natura morta, che si impone in maniera decisiva nel Seicento. I dipinti sono dominati dalla variegata presenza di carni, selvaggina, pesci, frutti e ortaggi realizzati da artisti soprattutto di ambito toscano e romano-napoletano. La seconda sezione, arricchita dalle opere di autori fiamminghi, presenta i piaceri conviviali: prevalgono scene di banchetto e di festa, riscontrabili sia nei rituali opulenti e fastosi delle classi aristocratiche sia nelle immagini di contesti umili e popolari, nei quali l’alimentazione più che piacere della tavola diviene ricerca di appagamento della fame.

Le Sezioni

Il tema delle quaranta opere esposte, il cibo e la tavola, si rifà al mondo fisico puramente rappresentato, in un contesto di pittura profana dell’epoca barocca, il cui chiaro richiamo alle esperienze dei sensi conduce l’osservatore verso una visione seducente delle cose naturali. La nascita della natura morta, al centro della prima sezione della mostra, è paradigmatica di un interesse, presente già negli ultimi decenni del XVI secolo tra Fiandre e Italia settentrionale, della possibilità di indagare il reale negli aspetti più dettagliati e “microscopici”, considerati “laterali” nella pittura di storia. L’illusionismo, tutto teatrale, di credere di poter toccare, annusare, assaggiare i cibi sul piano della tela, accentua questa visione di una riproduzione della realtà riconoscibile come vita e vissuto quotidiano dove gli stessi alimenti, fuori da ogni intendimento retorico, suscitano desideri e ricordi sensoriali. Il processo di crescita e decadenza della frutta e dei vegetali, in connessione con l’idea del tempo che scorre, pone la natura morta come specchio della vita della materia, le cui forme assumono più o meno colore e spessore dall’impatto con la luce, l’unico elemento in grado di interagire con lo spazio della scena. Nella seconda sezione della mostra, illustrante i piaceri conviviali, i dipinti di ambito fiammingo e francese, raffiguranti feste aristocratiche tra parchi e boschi, fanno riferimento alla fusione del momento della tavola con l’intrattenimento di danze e musiche. Sempre fiamminghe le scene campestri illustranti i pasti del mondo contadino e le colazioni borghesi, mentre nelle vedute urbane del Settecento fiorentino si osserva la vita brulicante delle città, tra fiere e mercati. Le dispense e le cucine, come luoghi della conservazione e della cottura dei cibi, assumono anch’esse una rilevanza artistica, espressione di una concezione fortemente naturalistica e verosimile della realtà, priva ormai del puro idealismo del Rinascimento.

Le Opere

Come incipit del percorso di visita, accanto al trono di Federico, sono collocate la Primavera, l’Estate e l’Inverno eseguiti dalla bottega dell’Arcimboldo, l’enigmatico pittore lombardo cinquecentesco, il quale inventò la conversione del corpo umano in figura vegetale, facendo delle sue opere una prefigurazione della nascita della natura “in posa”. Nell’insieme delle nature morte qui presenti spiccano i dipinti, la Frutta e la Natura morta con cacciagione e frutta, legati a due tra gli esponenti più rappresentativi del genere in Italia, come Pietro Paolo Bonzi, detto il Gobbo dei Carracci e il Maestro S.B., noto come lo Pseudo Salini, i quali riflettono le innovazioni caravaggesche dei primi capolavori romani del Merisi, connotate da un intenso e “contemplativo” naturalismo. Nel caso del secondo pittore si nota la ripresa di modelli nordici, nell’iconografia degli animali da selvaggina, e una carica cromatica tipica della scuola napoletana del Seicento alla quale egli era legato, che in mostra è splendidamente rappresentata dalla tela attribuita a Giovan Battista Ruoppolo, la Natura morta di cucina. La natura morta fiorentina è presente nelle opere della cerchia di Jacopo da Empoli, il pittore che, formatosi sulla pittura manierista fiorentina, “importa” a Firenze nei primi decenni del XVII secolo il nuovo genere proveniente dalle botteghe romane, tramite la presenza nelle collezioni Medicee di varie tele raffiguranti “pose” di animali e vegetali. I fasti del Barocco romano sono evocati dalla Natura morta di frutta e zucche di Giovanni Paolo Castelli detto lo Spadino, e la grande tela di Michelangelo Pace detto da Campidoglio, Natura morta di fiori e frutta con papere che si abbeverano ad una fontana. La seconda parte della mostra è aperta dai convivi immersi liberamente nel contesto naturale di parchi, boschetti e giardini, con l’allusione all’imprescindibile legame tra cibo ed Eros. La cornice fiabesca delle tele fiamminghe qui esposte, Festa nel parco del Castello e Convivio, con i meravigliosi sfondi di castelli dall’aspetto ancora medievale, dona alla scena un’atmosfera sognante e ovattata, tipica della vita di corte. Ancora di scuola fiamminga, della prima metà del Seicento, sono le due tele che illustrano la piacevolezza del mangiare immersi nella natura, il Banchetto all’aperto e il Paesaggio estivo, nei quali gli atteggiamenti dei personaggi richiamano una disinvoltura borghese nell’atto della consumazione dei pasti e dello stare a tavola. La presenza in mostra di un’opera come Interno di osteria con contadini, attribuibile a un artista del seguito di Pieter Brueghel il Giovane, ci permette di cogliere l’elemento grottesco di una scena di festa contadina, dove l’aspetto di preparazione e consumazione del pasto assume una grandissima forza espressiva, tipica dell’arte bruegheliana. La descrizione della vita umile degli ultimi, in una chiave legata ai costumi alimentari, viene espressa dalla presenza di una tela del pittore del Settecento bolognese, Stefano Gherardini, Interno di osteria con personaggi, formatosi sulla scia del Crespi, e da Il Pulcinella malato, eseguito da un seguace di Pier Leone Ghezzi, il grande caricaturista romano attivo nella Roma della prima metà del XVIII secolo. In posizione dominante, nella bellissima Sala del Camino, svetta il Bacco e Arianna del pittore Rococò fiorentino Gian Domenico Ferretti, il cui dipinto celebra il Dio del vino, dell’ebbrezza, della trasformazione e della rigenerazione della vegetazione. Seguendo un suadente percorso tra dipinti ricolmi di frutta, selvaggina, pesci, tavole imbandite e paesaggi animati da feste aristocratiche, colazioni campestri e fiere cittadine, si assiste alla rivelazione di una cultura artistica dominata dal trionfo della Natura mater, la procreatrice dei prodotti della terra, raffigurata nei paesaggi come luogo di bucolico abbandono, dove Eros e le Dee della fertilità e dell’abbondanza giacciono felici sul verde rigoglioso di un prato primaverile.

Il Castello

Tra le opere fortificate di epoca federiciana presenti in Puglia, il castello di Gioia del Colle è una di quelle che conservano più integro l’impianto architettonico, definito dall’ampio cortile quadrangolare, le poderose torri angolari e le cortine con paramento a conci bugnati. L’originaria struttura di epoca bizantina fu ampliata in epoca normanna. Fin dal 1500 storici, viaggiatori e studiosi hanno attribuito a Federico II la sistemazione definitiva del castello così come appare attualmente. Parte integrante della visita al monumentale Castello di Gioia del Colle sono le sale del Museo Archeologico, dove è presente una sistematica esposizione dei numerosi corredi delle necropoli di Monte Sannace e Santo Mola che coprono un ampio arco cronologico, dall’inizio del VI al III/II secolo a.C. Vasi geometrici e figurati, armi in bronzo, fibule e statuine fittili definiscono la consueta composizione dei corredi funerari del glorioso centro indigeno, ma anche delle più ampie comunità peucete.

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The catalogue is available from Artbooks.com:

Francesco Di Ciaula, Tavole Barocche: Banchetti, feste e nature morte tra XVII e XVIII secolo dalla Collezione Corsi di Firenze (Foggia: Claudio Grenzi, 2015), 96 pages, ISBN: 978-8884315830, $53.

On view this summer at the Shelburne Museum:

Rich and Tasty: Vermont Furniture to 1850
Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, 25 July — 1 November 2015

Stand, attributed to Lemuel Bishop, Charlotte, Vermont, ca. 1815. Cherry, birch, mahogany, basswood and brass, 28 x 18 x 15 inches. Private Collection

This exhibition and accompanying catalogue will introduce and identify Vermont high style furniture, previously known only to decorative arts scholars, historians, and collectors. The project arrives twenty years after Shelburne Museum published a seminal checklist of early Vermont Furniture and is the result of two decades of scholarship. The exhibition will feature pieces that will illuminate the craft practices and regional economics that help define Vermont furniture’s stylistic features and unexpected aesthetic innovations, referred to as “rich and tasty” by one Vermont cabinetmaker.

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Jean M. Burks and Philip Zea, eds., Rich and Tasty: Vermont Furniture to 1850 (Shelburne, Vermont: Shelburne Museum, 2015), 180 pages, ISBN: 978-0939384112, $30.

Two landmark 1995 publications, The Best the Country Affords: Vermont Furniture 1765–1850 and Vermont Cabinetmakers & Chairmakers Before 1855: A Checklist, reintroduced Vermont high style furniture to decorative arts scholars, historians, and collectors. Equipped with this seminal knowledge, a small cadre of Vermont connoisseurs started scouring country auctions, adding signed and well-documented pieces to their private collections. Twenty years later, it is time to bring these pieces together and share them with the public. This catalog and the accompanying exhibition advances the understanding of Vermont high style furniture—from its features, craftsmanship, and economics, to its unexpected aesthetic innovations. The authors identify key eighteenth-century Vermont pieces before covering a variety of topics, including clockmaking, chairmaking, the half sideboard, furniture from Woodstock, and furniture from Vermont factories. Seventy-five full-color photographs by acclaimed Boston photographer David Bohl and extended catalog entries display furniture from all over the Green Mountain State.

Scenes of Traders in Nagasaki, mid-eighteenth century, detail from a pair of hand scrolls, opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper, box, wood, paper and ink, each 313 x 35 cm (Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide)

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Press release (April 2015) from the Art Gallery of South Australia:

Treasure Ships: Art in the Age of Spices
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 13 June — 30 August 2015
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 10 October 2015 — 31 January 2016

Curated by James Bennett and Russell Kelty

Treasure Ships: Art in the Age of Spices is the first exhibition on view in Australia to present the complex artistic and cultural interaction between Europe and Asia from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries—a period known as the Age of Spices. The exhibition includes 300 outstanding and rarely seen works of ceramics, decorative arts, furniture, metalware, paintings, prints, engravings and textiles from both public and private collections in Australia, India, Portugal, Singapore and the United States.

Nick Mitzevich, Director, Art Gallery of South Australia sees this landmark exhibition and its publication as highlighting the Gallery’s international reputation for presenting spectacular exhibitions of historical Asian and European art. Treasure Ships showcases a diverse collection of luxury objects, many of which have never previously been seen on public display in Australia. This has been made possible through the extensive cooperation and support the Gallery has received from institutions, collectors and scholars in Portugal, India, Singapore, Indonesia and the United States, as well as the partnership with the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The Gallery’s two curators James Bennett and Russell Kelty have worked researching the exhibition for over three years, and their professional commitment has ensured the success of this much-anticipated exhibition.

China and Europe–Japan, Surcoat (jinbaori), with mon, late 18th century with 19th-century repairs, brocade created in China, velvet and factory print created in Europe, possibly France, garment constructed in Japan, cotton, wool, silk, velvet, metallic thread, natural dyes, supplementary weft and plain weave, wood, 101 x 85 cm (Helen Bowden Gift Fund 2015, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide)

The works of art selected reveal how the international trade in spices and other exotic commodities inspired dialogue between Asian and European artists, a centuries old conversation whose heritage is the aesthetic globalism we know today. Europe’s infatuation with pepper, nutmeg and cloves has often been explained in terms of the necessity to preserve cooked foods in the days before the invention of refrigeration. “This is a half-truth, which takes little account of the complex reasons the condiments of luxury and status were so avidly sought, often at great expense to human lives,” said Bennett.

The exhibition commences with the small country of Portugal. Located on the periphery of Europe, Portugal re-mapped the West’s view of the world and created a mercantile spice empire stretching halfway around the globe during the fifteenth-sixteenth century. In 1498 Vasco Da Gama’s small fleet became the first to reach India, landing with the famous words, ‘we come in search of Christians and spices’. Within a decade, the Portuguese soldier—aristocrat Francisco de Almeida (1450–1510) had ruthlessly seized control of the Indian Ocean spice trade and established Portugal’s permanent presence in Asia that lasted four hundred years.

Treasure Ships also presents the story of the slave trade, piracy and shipwrecks, as well as illustrating the astonishing beauty of Chinese porcelain, known as ‘white gold’, and celebrating the vibrant Indian textiles created for export around the world. There are several highlights in this exhibition including two works from the personal collection of Queen Adelaide (1792–1849), after whom the city of Adelaide was named in 1836: artefacts retrieved from the Batavia, which sank off the Western Australian coast in the seventeenth century, and a magnificent early 19th-century Chinese punchbowl depicting Sydney Cove that locates Australia within this global history.

It is most appropriate that this exhibition should originate in Adelaide as this is the only Australian city founded on the vision of a Eurasian—the surveyor Colonel William Light (1786–1839) whose Mother was of Malaysian descent and whose remarkable self-portrait features in the exhibition said James Bennett.

Treasure Ships also examines the impact of the Age of Spices on the ‘discovery’ of the Australian continent and the commencement of English occupation in 1788. The colonial art of the period displays the aesthetic reverberations that continued in the Australasian region long after European ships had ceased carrying cargoes of nutmeg and cloves.

James Bennett and Russell Kelty, Treasure Ships: Art in the Age of Spices (Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, 2015), ISBN: 978-1921668227, $70.