Exhibition: Bronze Sculpture in Minneapolis
Notwithstanding the show’s title, there are significant eighteenth-century works included (the ‘long Baroque’). Press release from the MIA:
Beauty and Power: Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Peter Marino Collection
The Wallace Collection, London, 29 April — 25 July 2010
The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, 9 October 2010 — 24 January 2011
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 6 February — 15 May 2011
Curated by Jeremy Warren
An important international exhibition, Beauty and Power: Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Peter Marino Collection opens at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) February 6 and runs through May 15. Additionally, the MIA is presenting Lost Wax, Found Sculpture, an exhibition that explains the technique of making bronze sculpture according to the historically popular technique of lost-wax casting.
Beauty and Power is selected from Marino’s unparalleled private collection of 16th- to 18th-century Italian and French bronzes, and contains many pieces never publicly displayed before the show debuted in early 2010 at the Wallace Collection in London. It comes to the MIA from its only other U.S. venue, the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.
Corneille van Clève (1646-1732), "Bacchus and Ariadne," bronze, ca. 1703-04
“The MIA is fortunate to be able to show more about thirty bronzes statuettes from Mr. Marino’s exemplary collection that spans the golden age of the art form,” said Eike Schmidt, the James Ford Bell curator of Decorative Art and Sculpture at the MIA. “For three-and-a-half months we are the beneficiaries of his two-decade quest to assemble one of the strongest compilations of Renaissance and Baroque small bronzes in the nation.”
Beauty and Power coincides with and complements three other important MIA exhibitions from the same time period: Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Paintings: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland, Venice on Paper, and The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures form the Court of Burgundy. . . .
Bronze statuettes became a serious art form in Renaissance Italy when interest in ancient Rome and Roman bronze-casting was revived, often using themes inspired by Greek and Roman mythology. Bronze has always been valued for its surface and molten qualities, which create complex and satisfying sculptural forms full of sensuality and emotion. Created on a scale that made them easy to collect and display, these bronzes were in demand, and sculptors across Europe created them to showcase their abilities. Included in the show are such works as the powerfully violent Samson and the Philistine (c. 1550–60), attributed to Baccio Bandinelli; the atypical depiction of an at-peace Diana (c. 1720–40) by Antonio Montauti; and Corneille van Cleve’s masterpiece Bacchus and Ariadne (c. 1703–4), showing the romantic encounter between the abandoned goddess and her rescuer. It also includes Florentine sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini’s heroic David and Goliath (c. 1722), Ferdinando Tacca’s touching Hercules and Iole (c. 1640–50), and Robert Le Lorrain’s symbolically portrayed Andromeda (c. 1695–1700). (more…)
Exhibition: Canaletto in Washington
Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals
National Gallery, London, 13 October 2010 — 16 January 2011
National Gallery, Washington D.C., 20 February — 30 May 2011
Canaletto, "The Square of Saint Mark's, Venice," 1742/1744 (DC: National Gallery, Gift of Mrs. Barbara Hutton 1945.15.3)
As the Canaletto exhibition opens in Washington, it will be introduced with a lecture by Charles Beddington (guest curator) and David Alan Brown (curator of Italian and Spanish paintings, National Gallery of Art). The show runs through the end of May.
Additional information is available here»
Book Review: ‘Thomas Roberts’ Catalogue
From the February issue of Apollo Magazine:
William Laffa and Brendan Rooney, Thomas Roberts (1748-1777): Landscape and Patronage in Eighteenth-Century Ireland, exhibition catalogue (Tralee: Churchill House Press for the National Gallery of Ireland, 2009), 416 pages, ISBN: 9780955024634, $110.
Reviewed by Toby Barnard, Hertford College, Oxford University; posted 1 February 2011.
Thomas Roberts (1748–77) blazed briefly across the Irish skies in the 1770s. Little in Irish painting before that decade prepared for his sudden appearance on the scene. At that time in 18th-century Ireland, the techniques and subjects of Claude, Poussin and Salvator Rosa appealed to artists and collectors alike. A succession of painters – Willem van der Hagen, Robert Carver, John Lewis and Joseph Tudor – assimilated the conventions and demands of pastoral landscape painting, and created decorative but generalised images. Roberts, in contrast, applied these classical dressings to recognisable Irish scenes. The results, seen in a revelatory exhibition at the National Gallery in Dublin in 2009, encompass the mansions and demesnes of Protestant grandees and remoter views of the west, notably the modest townships of Ballyshannon and Belleek. . . .
The full review is available here»
Exhibition: The Tragic Muse in Chicago
From the Smart:
The Tragic Muse: Art and Emotion, 1700-1900
Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 10 February — 5 June 2011
Curated by Anne Leonard
Noël Hallé, detail of "Joseph Accused by Potiphar’s Wife," c. 1740–44 (Chicago: Smart Museum of Art)
Art is often appreciated for its ability to delight our eyes and refresh our minds. But it can also serve as a powerful vehicle for exploring darker emotions, such as fear, sadness, and grief. And while these themes have a history dating back to the ancients, the ways in which they have been represented in art has changed dramatically over time.
This exhibition examines two centuries of works intertwined with emotion—from the sacrifice of classical heroines to the grief of ordinary people, from martyred saints to actors in tragic roles—and explores how art’s cathartic power grows or fades for new generations of viewers. With over forty paintings, sculptures, and prints, The Tragic Muse combines works from the Smart’s collection—both long-held treasures and new acquisitions—with important loans from the Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee Art Museum, National Gallery of Art, and Tate. Together with an accompanying catalogue, the exhibition draws on the scholarship of University of Chicago faculty to offer fresh insight into the visual representation of tragedy and art’s power to express and elicit intense emotions.
This exhibition is one in a series of projects at the Smart Museum of Art supported by an endowment from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that fosters interdisciplinary use of the Museum’s collections by University of Chicago faculty and students in both courses and special exhibitions. The Tragic Muse exhibition catalogue has received additional grant support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
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Anne Leonard with contributions by Joyce Suechen Cheng, Glenn W. Most, Erin Nerstad, Sarah Nooter, and Thomas Pavel, The Tragic Muse: Art and Emotion, 1700-1900, exhibition catalogue (Chicago: Smart Museum of Art, 2011), 128 pages, ISBN: 9780935573497, $30.
Published to coincide with the Smart Museum of Art’s exhibition The Tragic Muse, the publication draws on the work of several distinguished scholars to examine the richly varied representation of tragedy in the European artistic tradition over the course of two centuries. This catalogue is generously illustrated with full-color reproductions of all the works contained in the exhibition, and the fascinating contributions offer new insights into the approaches taken by the visual arts, as well as literature and drama, in expressing and eliciting strong emotions.
Exhibition: Baroque Ivory at the Court of Vienna
From the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung:
Ivory: Baroque Splendor at the Viennese Court / Elfenbein: Barocke Pracht am Wiener Hof
Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main, 3 February — 26 June 2011
Curated by Maraike Bückling and Sabine Haag
Ignaz Bendl (1682–1730) "Medaillon commemorating the erection of the mercy columm," ca. 1692
Ivory has been one of the most popular materials since ancient times. Its origins in unknown faraway lands and its rarity account for its costliness. It was particularly the Baroque era that had an extraordinarily high demand for ivory. In the seventeenth century, ivory work reached its culmination in Vienna in the days of Prince Karl Eusebius of Liechtenstein and Emperor Leopold I. The shimmering appearance of the polished material served princely-imperial claims to prestige, as its possession testified to its owners’ power and wealth. The exhibition Ivory: Baroque Splendor at the Court of Vienna, presented in the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung from February 3 to June 26, 2011, will focus on this heyday of ivory art. It will feature thirty-six splendid, virtuoso carvings impressively documenting the artisans’ great skill, among them masterly executed statuettes, pitchers, goblets, tankards, and bowls of ivory, objects created for display in so-called cabinets of curiosities and not intended for any practical use. The show comprises works by the most famous ivory artists of the Baroque period, such as Adam Lenckhardt, Johann Caspar Schenck, and Matthias Steinl. It was prepared together with the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, whose world-renowned Cabinet of Wonders is closed for the time being because of comprehensive restoration measures. This presented the Liebieghaus with the unique opportunity to show a high-caliber selection of masterpieces from the Kunstkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Frankfurt before the items will be on display again on a permanent basis in Vienna after the Cabinet’s reopening in late 2012. Eight additional high-carat loans come from the Reiner Winkler Collection.
Matthias Steinl (1643/44–1727) "Allegory of the Elements of Water and Air," ca. 1688
Matthias Steinl (1643/44–1727) "Allegory of the Elements of Water and Air," ca. 1688
In Ancient Greece, Phidias already created large statues of gods whose skin was executed in ivory, and the Bible describes Solomon’s throne as made up of ivory parts. It was above all in the Middle Ages and in the Baroque era that ivory was held in high esteem as a material. The great demand finally resulted in the emergence of new ports of entry in the seventeenth century; both the East India Company and the West India Company furthered the transport of African ivory in particular. The concentration on necessarily small-format ivory works fit in well with the fact that there were hardly any or no commissions at all conferred for large-size church or palace interiors during the Thirty Years’ War and the plague epidemics. Sculptors and their clients increasingly or entirely dedicated themselves to small mobile sculptures.
In the Renaissance and Mannerist periods, bronze was preferred for small sculptures. Yet, ivory outstripped the material in the course of the seventeenth century. People appreciated its combination of elasticity and hardness, as well as its gleaming transparency and delicate veining resembling the tone of flesh. The heyday of the production of ivory works in the seventeenth century was based on sixteenthcentury ivory turnery, on such early examples as those by the Master of the Furies. Besides the major bourgeois towns, the secular and ecclesiastical capitals became centers of ivory production from about 1650 on – a development that did not come to an end before the early eighteenth century. Ivory carvers were to be found mainly in Munich and Augsburg, but also in Schwäbisch Hall, Ulm, Mechlin, Amsterdam, Dresden, and Düsseldorf. (more…)
Furniture: ‘Inspired by Antiquity’ Highlights Thomas Hope
From a Carlton Hobbs press release:
Inspired by Antiquity: Classical Influences on 18th- and 19th-Century Furniture and Works of Art
Carlton Hobbs, New York, 20 January — 14 February 2011
One of a pair of wall lights in the form of a griffin, related to a design by Thomas Hope, bronze, ca. 1802
The opening night reception, on January 19th, benefited the Sir John Soane Museum Foundation. Tim Knox, the Soane Museum’s eminent director, lectured on the subject of the exhibition and elaborated on some of the highlights on view. “We are honored to have Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation as the opening night beneficiary,” said Carlton Hobbs. “We are particularly enthusiastic to present forty magnificent pieces inspired by antiquity, including the important group of Thomas Hope pieces from the Philip Hewat-Jaboor collection of Regency furniture and works of art,” he said. “It is the single largest collection of Thomas Hope pieces to come onto the market since the Christie’s auction of the contents of Deepdene, Hope’s country estate, in 1917.” Thomas Hope, the fabulously successful banker, connoisseur collector and designer, revolutionized British taste of the late 18th, early 19th century with his radical, classically inspired design ideas and came to be one of the key figures shaping the Regency taste.
In the continuous effort to deepen our understanding of the decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries we wanted to further explore the visual and philosophical inspirations that gave rise to the multitude of fascinating designs, which are now broadly described as Neoclassical,” said Stefanie Rinza. “We are thrilled to collaborate with some of today’s leading academics in identifying the ancient design sources for our pieces and in interpreting the symbolism of the decorative devices used. We hope our clients, colleagues and friends will much enjoy the catalog accompanying the exhibition.
Carlton Hobbs is most grateful for the contributions and collaboration of some of today’s leading experts in the field of decorative arts and in the compilation of the catalog accompanying the exhibition, including Martin Levy, former chairman of the British Antiques Dealers Association, author and specialist in 19th-century furniture and works of art, Tim Knox, Director of the Sir John Soane Museum, Philip-Hewat Jaboor, the authority on Thomas Hope and independent art consultant to private and institutional collectors, and John Hardy, the long-time director of Osterley Park House Museum, who added his insights into the meaning of the symbolism of the classical design elements to every entry.
Exhibition: Paper Dresses of Isabelle de Borchgrave
From the Legion of Honor Museum:
Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave
Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 5 February — 5 June 2011
Curated by Jill D’Alessandro
Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave is a painter by training, but textile and costume are her muses. Working in collaboration with leading costume historians and young fashion designers, de Borchgrave crafts a world of splendor from the simplest rag paper. Painting and manipulating the paper, she forms trompe l’oeil masterpieces of elaborate dresses inspired by rich depictions in early European painting or by iconic costumes in museum collections around the world. The Legion of Honor is the first American museum to dedicate an entire exhibition to the work of Isabelle de Borchgrave, although her creations have been widely displayed in Europe.
Pulp Fashion draws on several themes and presents quintessential examples in the history of costume—from Renaissance finery of the Medici family and gowns worn by Elizabeth I and Marie-Antoinette to the creations of the grand couturiers Frederick Worth, Paul Poiret, Christian Dior, and Coco Chanel. Special attention is given to the creations and studio of Mariano Fortuny, the eccentric early-20th-century artist who is both a major source of inspiration to de Borchgrave and a kindred spirit.
Catalogue: Jill D’Alessandro, Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave (Prestel, 2011), 104 pages, ISBN: 9783791351056, $29.95.
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From the artist’s website (worth visiting for lots more amazing images). . .
Isabelle de Borchgrave, "Madame de Pompadour paper dress," inspired by a 1755 painting by Maurice Quentin de la Tour, 85 cm x 65 cm x 165 cm, 2001 (Photo: René Stoeltie).
. . . . Following a visit to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1994, Isabelle dreamed up paper costumes. While keeping her brushes in hand and her paintings in mind, she worked on four big collections, all in paper and trompe l’œil, each of which set the scene for a very different world. “Papiers à la Mode” (Paper in Fashion), the first, takes a fresh look at 300 years of fashion history from Elizabeth I to Coco Chanel. “Mariano Fortuny” immerses us in the world of 19th century Venice. Plissés, veils and elegance are the watchwords of that history. “I Medici” leads us through the streets of Florence, were we come across famous figures in their ceremonial dress. Figures who made the Renaissance a luminous period. Gold-braiding, pearls, silk, velvet … here, trompe l’œil achieves a level of rediscovered sumptuousness. As for the “Ballets Russes”, they pay tribute to Serge de Diaghilev. Pablo Picasso, Léon Bakst, Henri Matisse, … all designed costumes for this ballet company, which set the world of the 20th century alight. These dancing paper and wire figures play a very colourful and contemporaneous kind of music for us.
Isabelle de Borchgrave, "Madame de Pompadour paper dress," detail
It’s true that, today, Isabelle de Borchgrave has become a name that is readily associated with fashion and paper. But her name is also closely linked to the world of design. By working together with Caspari, the potteries of Gien, Target, and Villeroy and Boch, Isabelle has turned her imagination into an art that’s accessible to anyone who wants to bring festivity into their home. Painted fabrics and paper, dinner services, curtains, sheets, decor with a personal touch for parties and weddings,… All this tells of the world in which she has always loved to move.
But in a 40-year career, she has never put to one side the thing that has always guided her in her life: painting. She still exhibits her paintings and her large folded paper works all over the world. With an imagination increasingly stimulated by her knowledge and interpretation of art, Isabelle, a follower of the Nabis movement, has a fresh perspective of a world that flies around her like a dream.
Exhibition: The Landscape of Tivoli in the Eighteenth Century
Tivoli: Variations sur un paysage au XVIIIe siècle
Cognacq-Jay Museum, Paris, 18 November 2010 — 20 February 2011
Joseph Vernet, "La cascade," ca. 1748 (Photo: Roger Viollet)
L’exposition Tivoli. Variations sur un paysage au XVIIIe siècle propose une réflexion originale sur l’évolution du paysage, de 1720 à 1830, autour d’un motif particulier : le site de Tivoli et son célèbre temple dit de la Sibylle.
Lieu de villégiature fameux depuis l’Antiquité, Tibur (le nom latin de Tivoli) fut mise à la mode par l’empereur Auguste et par Mécène, le fastueux ami des arts, et célébrée par les poètes Horace et Catulle (Ier s. av. J.-C.). La Sibylle Albunea y exerçait son art divinatoire. Le site est exceptionnel : bâtie sur les premiers contreforts des Apennins, à une trentaine de kilomètres à l’est de Rome, Tivoli se présente comme une ville à flanc de montagne, dominant la plaine qui s’étend de là jusqu’à la mer. Une rivière, l’Aniene, s’y précipite en multiples cascades. Une petite acropole s’élève au bord du gouffre : les ruines de deux temples sont encore conservées, l’un quadrangulaire, l’autre rond. Ce dernier surtout est devenu célèbre, sous le nom de temple de la Sibylle ou de Vesta.
ISBN : 9782759601462, 30€
Au XVIIIe siècle, Tivoli et son temple sont progressivement devenus l’un des motifs les plus représentés dans l’histoire de la peinture, singulièrement dans la peinture française. La perfection architecturale du monument, son emplacement au coeur d’un paysage sublime et terrifiant, la richesse incomparable de son histoire, de ses légendes, en ont fait un motif adulé par les peintres et leurs collectionneurs. C’est aussi l’époque où l’on décline le temple de Tivoli sous forme de fabriques édifiées dans les jardins.
En cinquante oeuvres, peintures, dessins et gravures, l’exposition propose de confronter le regard porté par les plus grands artistes de l’époque sur ce motif : une brève introduction présente l’origine de son succès, au début du XVIIe siècle, dans l’entourage de Paul Bril et de Gaspard Dughet. Pour le XVIIIe siècle, Vanvitelli, Boucher, Vernet, Hubert Robert, Piranèse… se succèdent autour du même motif. Puis Valenciennes, Simon Denis ou Granet qui furent en France les précurseurs du paysage moderne. Composées ou plus spontanées, caprices, variations poétiques, études faites en plein air, les oeuvres présentées posent de manière contradictoire la question du sujet dans la peinture de paysage. Le plus singulier est sans doute qu’un même motif ait intéressé tous les artistes sur une période aussi longue, des plus traditionnels aux plus modernes.
L’exposition sera accompagnée par un catalogue en couleurs. En plus de notices détaillées sur chaque oeuvre, des essais confiés à plusieurs auteurs traiteront notamment du site de Tivoli, de sa fortune dans l’histoire de l’art ou dans les récits de voyageurs, et de l’importance de certains artistes particulièrement associés à Tivoli (Joseph Vernet, Hubert Robert).
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Didier Rykner’s review of the exhibition (in French) for La Tribune de l’Art (30 November 2010) is available here»
Settecento Paintings in New York
The following press release comes from Sperone Westwater (as noted at Art Daily) . . .
Italian Paintings from the 17th and 18th Centuries
Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York, 7 January — 19 February 2011
Giovanni Paolo Panini, "Architectural Capriccio with an Apostle Preaching," 1755-60, oil on canvas, 20 7/8 x 28 7/8 inches (52.9 x 73.5 cm). Courtesy Sperone Westwater, NY.
Sperone Westwater is pleased to announce an exhibition of Italian Paintings from the 17th and 18th Centuries in partnership with Robilant + Voena. This survey of Italian Old Master paintings, with notable masterpieces by painters such as Canaletto (1697-1768), Cavalier d’Arpino (1568-1640), Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), and Michele Marieschi (1710-1743), intends to reassert the historical importance of Italian painting in the centuries following the Renaissance – a period which was to become an important foundation for modern art.
The exhibition unveils several new discoveries. One highlight is a very uncommon signed Portrait of an Unidentified Man (1630-1640) by Artemisia Gentileschi, among the most highly regarded female artists of the Baroque. It is exhibited alongside Tiberio Titi’s Portrait of Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (ca. 1617) – also a new addition to his body of work. An early Francesco Guardi, Piazza San Marco, looking West, from the Campo di San Basso (1757-1758), a newly discovered work from the late 1750s, represents a period when he was still very much under Canaletto’s influence. When comparing this to Guardi’s later and previously unpublished painting, Venice. The Lagoon and the Fort of San Niccolo at Lido (1775-1785), it is possible to see how far the artist took his own individual interpretation of the Venetian veduta. Canaletto’s small and exquisite View of Dolo at the bank of the Brenta (1763) completes this set of important additions.
Other early masterworks will include two rare paintings by Cavalier d’Arpino, who first hosted Caravaggio in his studio after his arrival in Rome. The first, David with the Head of Goliath (1598) is a signed and dated work from the extensive Aldobrandini collection that was treasured by several papal Cardinals since its creation. It contrasts forcefully with d’Arpino’s Venus and Cupid (1602-1603), executed a few years later. Works by Battistello Caracciolo, Angelo Caroselli and Carlo Dolci further exemplify the prominence of religious narrative during the 17th century. Paintings by Marieschi, Panini and Joli also underline the 18th-century fascination with the veduta.
By jointly exhibiting Italian Baroque paintings and vedute from the 17th and 18th centuries in New York, Sperone Westwater and Robilant + Voena inaugurate a closer partnership between the two galleries. In 2011 both galleries will open a new shared space in London, 2nd Floor at 38 Dover Street, W1, with a joint show in 2011.
A fully illustrated, scholarly catalogue is being published on the occasion of the show. There will be an opening reception on 7 January from 6-8 pm. For more information, please visit www.speronewestwater.com or contact Maryse Brand at +1 (212) 999-7337 or maryse@speronewestwater.com.
Chardin Exhibition in Ferrara and Madrid
Roderick Conway Morris reviews the Chardin exhibition currently in Ferrara for The New York Times, 22 December 2010, “Chardin’s Enchanting and Ageless Moments” . . .
Chardin: The Painter of Silence
Ferrara, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, 17 October 2010 — 30 January 2011
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 1 March — 29 May 2011
ISBN: 9788889793107, $90
“We stop in front of a Chardin as if by instinct,” wrote Diderot in his review of the Paris Salon of 1767, “like a traveler weary of the road choosing, almost without realizing, a place that offers a grassy seat, silence, water and cool shade.”
Jean-Siméon Chardin’s small still lifes and genre scenes have been working their magic ever since the 18th century. And trying to explain how Chardin created his enchanting effects has never ceased to exercise writers on art.
The Louvre has the world’s largest collection of Chardins, and Pierre Rosenberg, formerly the director of the museum, has made a lifelong study of the painter. He is now the curator of “Chardin: Painter of Silence,” the first exhibition devoted to the French artist ever to be staged either in Italy or Spain (the show will travel on to the Prado in February). The event brings together 52 pictures (with four additional works and a few substitutions in the Madrid version). . . .
The full article is available here. Didier Rykner reviewed the exhibition for The Art Tribune in October. The catalogue is available at artbooks.com.
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