German Drawings in Washington
Press release from the National Gallery:
German Master Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, 1580-1900
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 16 May — 28 November 2010
Curated by Andrew Robison, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, will present for the first time worldwide 120 stunning German watercolors and drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection—one of the finest private European holdings of old master drawings. On view in the Gallery’s West Building from May 16 to November 28, 2010, German Master Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, 1580–1900 will include rare and influential examples of German works on paper encompassing 16th-century mannerism, the 17th-century baroque, the 18th-century rococo, early 19th-century romanticism, and late 19th-century realism.
In 2007, the National Gallery of Art acquired 185 German and Italian works from the Ratjen Collection with the help of a dozen generous private donors as well as the Paul Mellon Fund and the Patrons’ Permanent Fund. Works included in the exhibition are by artists from Germany and German-speaking areas of Europe, German-born artists practicing abroad, and artists born in other areas who spent time working in Germany and adapting to German culture.
Organized chronologically throughout five rooms, the exhibition begins with outstanding early works by three of the most notable German mannerists: Friedrich Sustris (c. 1540–1599), living primarily in Munich; Hans von Aachen (1552–1615), working at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague; and Hans Rottenhammer (1564/1565–1625), living in Venice and Augsburg. Sustris’ sophisticated drawing An Elaborate Altar with the Resurrection of Christ and the Martyrdom of Saint Andrew (1570/1580) is one of the earliest Bavarian responses to Italian mannerist altars. Von Aachen’s The Madonna Enthroned with Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist (1589), a sacra conversazione (devotional scene) produced soon after his return from Venice, was a favored Venetian motif at the time. Rottenhammer’s colorful watercolor Minerva and the Muses (c. 1610) is directly inspired by Tintoretto, whose work he studied in Venice.
From the baroque period, Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610), a favorite artist of both Rubens and Rembrandt, is represented by an extremely rare atmospheric gouache—Ceres Changes Stellio into a Lizard (1605/1608)—perhaps his finest work in the United States.
Ratjen especially pursued watercolors from the 18th century by the great painters—including Cosmas Damian Asam (1686–1739), Matthäus Günther (1705–1788), and Johann Baptist Enderle (1725–1798)—who filled Bavarian churches and palaces with elaborate rococo altarpieces and stunning ceiling frescoes. A remarkable series of Augsburg rococo drawings includes Johann Elias Ridinger’s (1698–1767) charming portrait of the first rhinoceros to come to northern Europe, endearingly nicknamed “Miss Clara” (1748).
Around the turn of the 18th century, German artists developed a particular fondness for nature, as represented here by an extensive series of luminous drawings and watercolors. Highlights include five evocative landscape watercolors by Johann Georg von Dillis (1759–1841) as well as Caspar David Friedrich’s (1774–1840) romantic masterpiece New Moon above the Riesengebirge Mountains (1810 or 1828/1835). (more…)
Piermarini Exhibition
Most famous for his Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Giuseppe Piermarini (1734-1808) is the subject of this exhibition that comes on the heels of the the bicentenary of his death. Also, see the website of the Piermarini Foundation (all pages are available only in Italian). The following description comes from the site of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN) . . .
Giuseppe Piermarini tra Barocco e Neoclassicismo — Rome, Naples, Caserta, Foligno
Palazzo Trinci di Foligno, 5 June — 2 October 2010
Curated by Marcello Fagiolo and Marisa Tabarrini
Giuseppe Piermarini, one of the most famous neoclassical figures in Italy, is best known as the architect of the Theatre alla Scala in Milan and refounder of good taste in Lombardy during the second half of eighteenth century. The exhibition is divided into chronological and thematic sections, beginning with a panorama of eighteenth-century Rome, the place of Piermarini’s apprenticeship, between the end of the pontificate of Benedict XIV (1740-1758) and the reign of Clement XIII (1758-1769). It then follows the architect to Naples in the studio of Vanvitelli, his time in Milan from 1769 and, finally, his return to his native Foligno in the early nineteenth century.
Note (added 5 August 2010) — The exhibition catalogue, Giuseppe Piermarini tra barocco e neoclassico. Roma, Napoli, Caserta, Foligno, edited by Marcello Fagiolo and Marisa Tabarrini (Perugia, 2010), ISBN: 9788896591277, is available through artbooks.com.
Prince Eugene of Savoy
From The Art Newspaper:
Agnes Husslein-Arco, ed., Prince Eugene: General-Philosopher and Art Lover (Munich: Hirmer Verlag), ISBN 9783777425511, $75.
Reviewed by Theodore K. Rabb, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University; posted 29 June 2010
. . . Ruling a multitude of languages and peoples, the Habsburgs were unique among Europe’s monarchs in their enthusiasm for foreign aristocrats at their court and as commanders of their armies. None repaid that welcome as handsomely as Eugene. In a few decades, he not only launched a once shrinking dynasty into an expansive era of conquest, but he helped make Vienna into one of the most dazzling capitals and cultural centres in Europe.
This catalogue records an exhibition (until 6 June) that pays tribute to the prince’s many achievements. It is held in the lower half of the Belvedere in Vienna, a two-part palace that is a contender for the title of the most imposing townhouse ever built, and which Eugene spent over a decade completing during the 1710s and 1720s. Although more than 300 objects are on display, ranging from sculptures to manuscripts, weapons to portraits, they barely scratched the surface of his possessions. His library alone, now owned by the national library, contained some 15,000 volumes. He had two Van Dycks, seven Guido Renis, and hundreds of Dutch and Italian paintings. At the heart of the Albertina’s collection of prints, the largest in the world, are the 255 volumes of engravings by masters such as Dürer that ultimately came from Eugene. . . .
For the full review, click here»
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The exhibition as described at EuroMuse (sorry that this one slipped by me until just recently). . .
Prinz Eugen: Feldherr, Philosoph, und Kunstfreund / General, Philosopher, and Art Lover
Lower Belvedere, Vienna, 11 February — 6 June 2010
Of Italian descent and a native French, Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), following his meteoric rise and splendid career as a military leader, became one of the most influential Austrians who had a long-lasting impact on the country’s fate and its art and cultural history. As a diplomat and counsel to the emperors Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI, he travelled across Europe from one theatre of war to the next, playing a decisive role in determining the future of the House of Habsburg.
In 2010, the Vienna Belvedere, with its two palaces and Baroque gardens built by Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt in the early eighteenth century as a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy, will be the venue of an exhibition presenting the prince as a general, statesman, and patron of the arts and sciences. Throughout his lifetime, he devoted himself to the compilation of a comprehensive collection of paintings, copper engravings, incunabula, illuminated manuscripts, and books, which he displayed in his Viennese palaces. From ever changing war sites, Prince Eugene corresponded with artists and artisans, landscape designers and architects, as well as the most influential thinkers of his time.
His acquisitions went down in the annals of European art and cultural history and facilitated the transfer of works of art from the court of the French king Louis XIV to Vienna. His interest in the natural sciences – in matters of which he relied on the expertise of the philosopher and scientist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – is reflected in a large collection of exotic animals and plants.
The exhibition will showcase exhibits from Prince Eugene’s art collections – predominantly paintings from the Galleria Sabauda in Turin and cimelia from the Bibliotheca Eugeniana – in an ambience simulating period interiors, thus conveying to the visitors the complex decoration of those buildings where Prince Eugene, as president of the Imperial War Council and member of the Privy Council, received such illustrious guests as the ambassador of the Ottoman Empire.
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Additional information on the exhibition is available at The Luxury Traveler.
Collection of Early Drawing Instruments
The following 2007 press release from Columbia University regarding the Alpern Collection of drawing instruments notes that “an exhibition and catalogue are in preparation.” Well, here they are (nearly so anyway). . .
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A pocket set of silver instruments with an ivory scale/protractor, housed in a silver-mounted case covered in shagreen – the skin of a sting ray. English, 2nd half of the 18th c.
February 28, 2007 An outstanding collection of early architectural drawing instruments has been donated to the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University by noted New York architectural historian Andrew Alpern.
The collection comprises 170 English, Continental and American sets and individual pieces spanning over 250 years of exquisite craftsmanship in silver, ivory, steel and brass. Sets range from small portable sharkskin or tortoise-shell cases containing the architect’s essential tools – pen, scales, dividers, compass and protractor – to large mahogany cases containing every aid imaginable for the aspiring draftsman. Assembled over a 40-year span, the collection is fully functional. According to Alpern, “Preparing construction drawings (as I have) employing 18th-century solid silver instruments of superb quality is vastly more satisfying than using ordinary modern ones.”
“We are tremendously grateful to Andrew Alpern for his gift of these rare and precious instruments” said Avery Library’s Director, Gerald Beasley, who added that “Computer-aided design has entirely supplanted their manufacture and use, but this only increases their research value to historians of architectural design.”
The collection, which also includes numerous trade catalogues and other rare books about the instruments, is available to researchers by appointment at Avery Library’s Department of Drawings and Archives. An exhibition and catalogue are in preparation.
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This elegant volume documents three hundred years of exquisite drawing tools, richly photographed and described, for architects, draftsmen, and engineers. Crafted in silver, ivory, steel, and brass, the instrument sets catalogued here range from small silver-mounted tortoiseshell pocket étuis to multitiered mahogany cases housing every professional aid imaginable. Computers have supplanted their manufacture and use, yet these exquisite traditional instruments are still fully functional. ISBN 9780978903732, $60 (September 2010).
Exhibition Marks the 300th Birthday of Johann Evangelist Holzer
The following comes from the website of the Domschatz- und Diözesanmuseum; there’s also a fine site dedicated to the exhibition (I’m sorry that all are only in German). . .
Johann Evangelist Holzer (1709-40), Painter of Light
Augsburg, 28 March — 20 June 2010
Eichstätt, 14 July — 31 October 2010
Innsbruck, 3 December — 13 March 2011
- Johann Evangelist Holzer, altarpiece in Eichstätt Schutzengelkirche
Johann Evangelist Holzer (1709-1740) gehört zu den großen Meistern des 18. Jahrhunderts. Kirchen und Klöster in Süddeutschland stattete er mit prächtigen Fresken und Altarblättern aus. Nach nur wenigen Schaffensjahren hatte der in Burgeis in Südtirol geborene Künstler, der lange in Augsburg wirkte und mit nur 31 Jahren in Clemenswerth an der niederländischen Grenze starb, ein bedeutendes Werk hinterlassen.
Seine Zeitgenossen setzten Holzer gar dem italienischen Maler Raffael gleich, heute ist sein Werk eine wahre Entdeckung. Vier Museen in Deutschland und Österreich haben sich das gemeinsame Ziel gesetzt, mit unterschiedlichen Schwerpunkten Leben und Werk dieses Malers und Grafikers des Spätbarock in einer Werkschau mit etwa 160 Exponaten erstmals umfassend vorzustellen.
In der barocken Residenzstadt Eichstätt wird die Kunst Holzers in ihrer ursprünglichen städtebaulichen und künstlerischen Atmosphäre besonders gut erlebbar. In der ehemaligen Jesuitenkirche präsentieren sich dem Besucher frisch restauriert, drei Altarblätter Holzers, darunter der Hochaltar als sein größtes Leinwandgemälde. Weitere Altarbilder sowie eine Computersimulation der Kuppel von Münsterschwarzach sind im Kuppelraum der ehemaligen Klosterkirche Notre Dame zu besichtigen. Im Festsaal der ehemaligen fürstbischöflichen Sommerresidenz bildet das zauberhafte Deckengemälde Holzers einen weiteren Höhepunkt.
Das Domschatz- und Diözesan als zentrale Anlaufstelle in Eichstätt präsentiert eine reiche Schau zu Holzers Früh- und graphischem Werk. Ein vielfältiges Veranstaltungsprogramm rundet die Werkschau ab, zu der ein umfangreicher Katalog erscheint.
Engraving Watteau
Antoine Watteau et l’art de l’estampe / Antoine Watteau and the Art of Engraving
Musée du Louvre, Paris, 8 July — 11 October 2010
Exhibition catalogue by Marie-Catherine Sahut and Florence Raymond, ISBN: 9782847421521 ($50)
A hundred engravings from the oeuvre of Antoine Watteau, mostly from the Edmond de Rothschild collection, illustrate the art of engraving in the 18th century. Before his premature death at age thirty-seven, the painter, engraver, and tireless draftsman Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) set his seal on the 18th century with the grace and spontaneity of his art. The oeuvre was engraved almost at once—between 1724 and 1735—on the initiative of his friend and protector Jean de Julienne. This remarkable venture—four volumes totaling some six hundred plates after his drawings and paintings—was entrusted to fifty engravers. A crucible for young talents including François Boucher and Laurent Cars, the project played its part in the Europe-wide development of the Rocaille style, of which Watteau was one of the main instigators.
Curators: Marie-Catherine Sahut (Department of Paintings) and Pascal Torres-Guardiola (Department of Prints and Drawings)
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N.B. — The catalogue is available through artbooks.com (a full description, in English, is available here). The latest mailing from Artbooks.com also includes the forthcoming title edited by Christiane Naffah, Watteau et la fête galante (Paris: Musées nationaux, 2010), ISBN: 9782711856541 ($90).
Thomas Lawrence Exhibition and Conference
Thomas Lawrence: Regency, Power and Brilliance
A Conference at the National Portrait Gallery and The Paul Mellon Centre, London, 18-19 November 2010
Ed. by Cassandra Albinson, Peter Funnell, Lucy Peltz ISBN: 9780300167184 (YCBA, 2010), $70
This conference accompanies the exhibition Thomas Lawrence: Regency, Power and Brilliance at the National Portrait Gallery, London (20 October 2010–23 January 2011) which will be shown at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, (24 February–5 June 2011). This will be the first exhibition in the United Kingdom since 1979 to examine Lawrence’s work and the first substantial presentation of this artist in the United States. It will present Lawrence as the most important British portrait painter of his generation and will explore his development as one of the most celebrated and influential European artists of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By his untimely death in 1830 Lawrence had achieved the greatest international reach and reputation of any British artist. Based on new research and fresh perspectives, this exhibition will introduce Lawrence to a new generation of museum visitors and students. It will also contextualise his work in the light of recent scholarship on the art, politics and culture of the period. The exhibition will include the artist’s greatest paintings and drawings alongside lesser known works in order to provide a fresh understanding of Lawrence and his career. It will contrast his approach to sitters according to age and gender, juxtapose the power and impact of his public works with the intimacy and intensity of those portraits of his friends and family, trace his innovations as a draughtsman and painter, and place him within the broader contexts of the aesthetic debates, networks of patronage and international politics of his day.
Thursday, 18 November 2010, National Portrait Gallery (2:00pm–8:30pm)
Session One will address issues relating to Lawrence, gender and representation, and will include papers by Marcia Pointon (Professor Emerita, University of Manchester), Shearer West (Arts and Humanities Research Council and the University of Birmingham) and Sarah Monks (School of World Art Studies and Museology, University of East Anglia).
Evening: At 6pm, delegates are invited to attend a guest lecture by Richard Holmes, the biographer and author of The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science (2008) and formerly Professor of Biographical Studies at the University of East Anglia. The lecture will be followed by a wine reception hosted by the curators, and free admission to the exhibition.
Friday, 19 November 2010, Paul Mellon Centre (9:15am–7:15pm)
Session Two, devoted to Lawrence and his contemporaries, will include papers by Viccy Coltman (University of Edinburgh) and Martin Myrone (Tate).
Session Three will explore technical aspects of Lawrence’s career, particularly his studio practice and relationship with engravers, and will include papers by Jacob Simon (National Portrait Gallery) and Sally Doust (Independent Scholar).
Session Four will address Lawrence’s reputation and historiography into the later nineteenth century, and will include papers by Philippa Simpson (Tate) and Pat Hardy (Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool).
The conference will conclude with a roundtable discussion, including Mark Hallett (University of York), Ludmilla Jordanova (King’s College, London), David Solkin (Courtauld Institute of Art), and the curators of the exhibition, which will consider themes arising from this exhibition and conference. The discussion will be followed by a wine reception at 5:45pm.
Full conference fee for both days, including coffee, lunch and tea on 19 November, and receptions: £40. Student and Senior concessions £20. To register for the conference please check availability with Ella Fleming at The Paul Mellon Centre: Email: events@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk, Tel: 020 7580 0311, Fax: 020 7636 6730.
200th Anniversary of Napoleon’s Second Marriage
Press release (PDF) from the Musée national du château de Compiègne:
1810: The Politics of Love — Napoleon I and Marie-Louise in Compiègne
Musée national du château de Compiègne, 28 March — 19 July 2010
Exhibition catalogue, ISBN: 9782711857029
This first exhibition in France to evoke Marie-Louise, Empress of the French, intends to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the second marriage of Napoleon I to the young Archduchess of Austria, Marie-Antoinette’s grand-niece. It describes the extraordinary preparations for the arrival of the new Empress at the Palace of Compiègne, the splendours of the wedding ceremonies in Paris and the subsequent honeymoon in Compiègne. More than 200 works, wedding gifts, commissions for the sovereign’s trousseau and items of furniture, have been brought together: paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, objets d’art, clothes, silks and jewellery. The exhibition has special loans from French museums (Louvre, Versailles, Fontainebleau, Fondation Napoléon and Fondation Thiers, etc) as well as international loans (Italy, Switzerland, Germany etc).
Napoleon I chose to receive his second wife at the Palais de Compiègne, just as Marie-Antoinette had been received here in 1770 by Louis XV and the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI. This event took place on 27 March 1810 and, on the orders of the Emperor who in his impatience brushed aside all protocol, the official meeting planned for Soissons was cancelled. 1810: la politique de l’amour: Napoléon Ier & Marie-Louise à Compiègne sets out to show the sumptuous refurbishment of the palace and the park before 1810.
The works started in 1807 under the direction of the architect Louis-Martin Berthault, and were hurried forward for the arrival of the Archduchess. Large portraits of the great figures of the Empire were presented in the new Galerie des Ministres (Prud’hon, Fabre, Lefèvre, etc), paintings by great masters from many different schools (Le Dominiquin, Patel, Flinck, etc) were brought together in the new Galerie des Tableaux de l’Impératrice, and Canova’s famous marbles on the theme of Psyche and Love (the standing version of this is on special loan from the Louvre), were placed at the entrance to the imperial apartments. The furniture, made by cabinetmakers Jacob-Desmalter and Marcion, as well as the Sèvres porcelain ordered for the palace, illustrates one of the high point of decorative art at a time when the Empire style was at its peak.
The grandeur of the civil and religious wedding celebrations at the Palace of Saint-Cloud then in the Salon Carré of the Louvre, together with the festivities organised in Paris up to 1st July 1810, reflecting an Emperor at the height of his power, created a wealth of iconographic images (Rouget’s painting inspired by David’s Coronation of Napoleon, drawings by Zix and Prud’hon, portraits by Gérard, Isabey, etc). (more…)
Canaletto Exhibition in London and D.C.
Press release from the National Gallery in London:
Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals
National Gallery, London, 13 October 2010 — 16 January 2011
National Gallery, Washington D.C., 20 February — 30 May 2011
This exhibition presents the finest assembly of Venetian views, by Canaletto and all the major practitioners of the genre, to be held since the much-celebrated display in Venice in 1967. Remarkably, considering the dominant role of British patronage in this art form, Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals is also the first exhibition of its kind to be organised in the UK.
Canaletto, "The Stonemason's Yard," 1727-28 (London: National Gallery)
Bringing together approximately 55 major loans from public and private collections of the UK, Europe and North America, the exhibition highlights the rich variety of Venetian view painting, representing Canaletto alongside major rivals such as Luca Carlevarijs, Gaspar van Witell, Michele Marieschi, Bernardo Bellotto, and Francesco Guardi. Also represented are less well-known painters such as Antonio Joli, Pietro Bellotti, Francesco Tironi and Giambattista Cimaroli, each responding to the market driven largely by the British Grand Tour.
Featured works span the 18th century, from the first accurately datable Venetian view by Luca Carlevarijs in 1703 to the death of Francesco Guardi in 1793 and Napoleon’s invasion and the fall of the Republic in 1797.
In each room, major works by Canaletto are juxtaposed by those of his rivals and associates, to demonstrate their different approaches to the same or similar views of the city. The exhibition features many of Canaletto’s greatest masterpieces, including The Riva degli Schiavoni, looking West, 1736 (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London), The Stonemason’s Yard, 1727–28 (The National Gallery, London), and four of the finest works from the Royal Collection. A catalogue edited by Charles Beddington will accompany the exhibition (ISBN-13: 9781857094183), $50.
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For additional coverage, see the posting at Artdaily.org (16 June 2010).
Later this Year: Exhibition on Johann Christian Wentzinger
Freiburg Baroque: Johann Christian Wentzinger und seine Zeit
Augustinermuseum, Freiburg, 27 November 2010 — 6 March 2011
ISBN: 9783422070394, $53.50 (available in December 2010)
This exhibition at the Augustinermuseum in Freiburg, commemorates the 300th birthday of Johann Christian Wentzinger (1710-1797). A Baroque sculptor, painter and architect, Wentzinger may be counted among the most important eighteenth-century artists in southern Germany.
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A full description (in German) of the artist and the upcoming exhibition from the Badische Zeitung is available here»
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