Reviewed: Trio of Books on the Dilettanti and Antiquarianism
Recently added to caa.reviews:
Bruce Redford, Dilettanti: The Antic and the Antique in Eighteenth-Century England, exhibition catalogue (Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications, 2008), 232 pages, ISBN: 9780892369249, $49.95.
Ilaria Bignamini and Clare Hornsby, Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth-Century Rome, 2 volumes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), 622 pages, ISBN: 9780300160437, $85.
Jason M. Kelly, The Society of Dilettanti: Archaeology and Identity in the British Enlightenment (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), 366 pages, ISBN: 9780300152197, $75.
Reviewed by Susan Dixon, University of Tulsa; posted 1 December 2011.
These three recent books explore an eighteenth-century British engagement with classical archaeology during a time when the practice was transforming from an early modern antiquarianism into a modern scientific discipline. Two of the books are monographic studies of the Society of the Dilettanti, an organization that became known for its support of unprecedented archaeological activity in Greece, while a third outlines how British subjects, some of whom were Dilettanti, undertook archaeological excavations on Italian soil and refurbished, sold, and bought the antiquities found there. In some measure, all the authors note this engagement as integral to shaping British cultural identity in the eighteenth century, and in this way add to robust scholarship on the issue. . . .
The full review is available here» (CAA membership required)
Reviewed: ‘Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance’
Recently added to caa.reviews:
Cassandra Albinson, Peter Funnell, and Lucy Peltz, eds., Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance, exhibition catalogue (New Haven and London: Yale Center for British Art, National Portrait Gallery, London, and Yale University Press, 2011), 280 pages, ISBN: 9780300167184, $70.
Reviewed by Bruce Redford; posted 17 November 2011.
‘How various he is!’ Thomas Gainsborough’s tribute to Joshua Reynolds applies equally well to their successor in grand-manner portraiture. It is one of the signal achievements of ‘Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance’ that it removes any lingering traces of the negative stereotype: Lawrence the slick, formulaic sycophant who prostituted his gifts in the service of a decadent Regency elite. In its place this wide-ranging exhibition and thoughtful catalogue substitute a dynamic, probing, and inventive explorer of human psychology—one who is keenly attentive to the interplay of surface and depth, social mask and private self. Even Lawrence’s most public statements create a form of co-extensive space: not by breaking the picture plane, as in Caravaggio for instance, but by drawing the viewer into an
electric zone of intimacy. . . .
The full review is available here» (CAA membership required)
Exhibition: French Drawings in Grenoble
Jean-François-Pierre Peyron, “Curius Denatus refusant les présents
des ambassadeurs Samnites,” XVIIIe siècle, Musée de Grenoble
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Currently on display at the Musée de Grenoble, as noted by Hélène Bremer . . .
L’idée et la ligne – Dessins français
Musée de Grenoble, 5 November 2011 — 12 February 2012
Après la présentation de ses plus belles feuilles italiennes, le musée de Grenoble met en valeur son extraordinaire fonds de dessins français. De la Renaissance à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, les plus grands artistes répondent présents. Nicolo dell’Abate, appelé pour travailler à Fontainebleau, offre une introduction magistrale à un parcours graphique qui puise ses sources en Italie. Laurent de la Hyre, Simon Vouet, Philippe de Champaigne, Patel, Charles Mellin, Charles Alphonse Dufresnoy ou François Perrier illustrent brillament les tendances d’une école française qui s’affirme et prend peu à peu son indépendance face à l’Italie. Le Brun, Noël Coypel, Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne, Louis de Boulogne et Charles de la Fosse poursuivent les avancées sous Louis XIV. La partie la plus riche et paradoxalement la moins connue de cette collection concerne le XVIIIe siècle : Boucher, Pierre ou Huber Robert viennent marquer le triomphe de la couleur et de la nature. Feuillet après feuillet, un pan entier de l’histoire de l’art française se dessine
sous nos yeux.
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Catalogue: Guillaume Kazerouni, Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, Jérôme Delaplanche and Pierre Rosenberg, L’idée et la ligne: Dessins français du musée de Grenoble, XVIe-XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Somogy éditions d’art, 2011), 240 pages, ISBN: 9782757204818, €35.
Exhibition: Boxes and Objets de Vertu
From the Cognacq-Jay, as noted by Hélène Bremer . . .
Boîtes en or et objets de vertu
Cognacq-Jay Museum, Paris, 21 December 2011 — 6 May 2012
A l’occasion de la parution du Catalogue raisonné des Boîtes en or et objet de vertu, le musée Cognacq-Jay expose cet hiver sa riche collection de boîtes, tabatières, étuis, boîtes à rouge, à mouches, nécessaires de toilette, à écrire… Avec 240 objets, celle-ci est l’une des plus importantes des musées français.
Chefs-d’œuvre de l’orfèvrerie, en or, enrichis de pierres dures ou précieuses, d’émail, de porcelaine, d’ivoire ou de nacre. . . étaient dès le XVIIIe siècle l’objet d’orgueil et de convoitise Leur forme était parfois étrange, prenant l’apparence d’un dromadaire, d’un tatou, d’une jambe, d’une tête, d’un violoncelle. . . Leur usage, participant aux rituels de la vie quotidienne, témoigne des pratiques de la sociabilité au Siècle des Lumières : le tabac, les modes cosmétiques, le jeu. . .
L’exposition mettra exceptionnellement en lumière cette collection, au moyen d’une scénographie originale et surprenante, et en réunissant autour de ces
objets des dessins, des gravures pour mieux comprendre leurs secrets de
fabrication et leur usage.
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Catalogue: Objets de Vertus, Boites, Tabatieres, Etuis et Necessaires Collections D’Orfevrerie (Paris: Paris Musées, 2011), ISBN: 9782759601813, €44.
Exhibition: Winter Tales, from Bruegel to Beuys
From the Kunsthistorisches Museum:
Winter Tales: Depictions of Winter in European Art from Bruegel to Beuys
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 18 October 2011 — 8 January 2012
Kunsthaus Zurich, 10 February — 29 April 2012
Curated by Ronald de Leeuw
Joshua Reynolds,"Lady Caroline Scott as Winter," 1776. Collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Bowhill, Selkirk, Scotland (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
The creation myths of most great civilizations agree that winter came into the world to punish man, or as a plague. Boreas, the Greek god of the cold north wind, personified winter. In northern mythology three years of frost herald the end of the world.
Large-scale depictions of how Napoleon’s Grande Armée was defeated by the Russian winter are a modern equivalent of these ancient scenarios of the end of the world. The contrary vision comprises serenity and joyous cheer: we gaze at views of a snow-covered countryside with skaters enjoying themselves on frozen ponds and rivers in the distance. The late 18th century sees a revival of long-unfashionable winter landscapes: at first romanticized, they evolve to reflect the palette of winter.
Impressionism, Dutch art and a wealth of landscapes – these were the ingredients of earlier winter exhibitions. The Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Kunsthaus Zurich have expanded this successful trio. Broadening the selection to include many different genres and schools, the two museums present a comprehensive survey comprising over 180 works by west-European artists. Four galleries and nine small rooms of the KHM’s
Picture Gallery form the show’s spectacular setting. The works on show
date from 1450 to the present. In addition to the subjects mentioned
above there are Dutch allegories of the months, depictions of winter
festivities and folk customs, and still lifes; even portraits join in and
present changing winter fashions.
The paintings are arranged more or less in chronological order; the show’s guest curator, Ronald de Leeuw, was able to augment the selection by including large-scale tapestries and an imperial sleigh as well as cups and goblets, fragile porcelain figures and vessels cut from semi-precious stones. Three years in the making, the exhibition brings together important loans from Amsterdam, Munich, London, Cambridge, Paris, Strasbourg, Rotterdam, Dresden, Zurich, Philadelphia, Darmstadt, Edinburgh, Cologne, The Hague, New York, Gent, Weimar and Boston, to name but a few. However, the unique focal point of any winter exhibition is in the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum: Pieter Bruegel the elder’s painting “Hunters in the Snow”, perhaps the most famous depiction of winter in European art. The large panel cannot be loaned and will only be on show in Vienna.
In addition to works by Pieter Bruegel the exhibition includes paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael, Hendrick Avercamp, Jan van Goyen, Aert van der Neer, Peter Paul Rubens, Jan Steen, Jacob Jordaens, William Turner, Francisco de Goya, Caspar David Friedrich, Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Vincent van Gogh, Giovanni Segantini, Edvard Munch, Joseph Beuys and Anselm Kiefer.
For more information, see the exhibition press release»
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Catalogue: Sabine Haag, Ronald de Lleuw, and Christoph Becker, Wintermärchen: Der Winter in der Kunst von Bruegel bis Beuys (Cologne: DuMont, 2011), 432 pages, ISBN: 9783832193935, €39 / $77.50 [available from artbooks.com]
Exhibition: Duncan Phyfe, Master Cabinetmaker in New York
From The Met:
Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 20 December 2011 — 6 May 2012
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 20 June — 11 September 2012
In the early 1800s, furniture from the workshop of New York City cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe (1770–1854) was in such demand that he was referred to as the “United States Rage.” This exhibition—the first retrospective on Phyfe in ninety years—will serve to re-introduce this artistic and influential master cabinetmaker to a contemporary audience.
The full chronological sweep of Phyfe’s distinguished career will be featured, including examples of his best-known furniture based on the English Regency designs of Thomas Sheraton, work from the middle and later stages of his career when he adopted the richer “archaeological” antique style of the 1820s, and a highly refined, plain Grecian style based on French Restauration prototypes. The exhibition brings together nearly one hundred works from private and public collections throughout the United States. Highlights of the exhibition include some never-before-seen documented
masterpieces and furniture descended directly in the Phyfe family, as well as
the cabinetmaker’s own tool chest.
Organized chronologically, the exhibition will present the cabinetmaker’s life and work through drawings, documents, personal possession, and furniture. Portraits of his clients and contemporary depictions of New York City street scenes and domestic interiors will provide a glimpse into Phyfe’s milieu.
Read more»
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Catalogue: Peter Kenny, Frances Bretter, Michael Brown, and Matthew Thurlow, Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), 352 pages, ISBN: 9780300155112, $65.
Exhibition: The English Prize, The Capture of the Westmorland
From the YCBA:
The English Prize: The Capture of the Westmorland, an Episode of the Grand Tour
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 17 May — 27 August 2012
The Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 20 September 2012 — 6 January 2013
Curated by Scott Wilcox, Elisabeth Fairman, and María Dolores Sánchez-Jáuregui Alpañés
This exhibition tells the extraordinary story of the capture of the Westmorland, a British merchant ship laden with works of art acquired by young British travelers on the Grand Tour in Italy, and the subsequent disposition of its contents. Shortly after sailing from Livorno, Italy, in 1778, the ship was captured by the French navy, which was well aware of its exceptional contents. The Westmorland was escorted to Málaga, in southern Spain, where its contents were inventoried and acquired by agents who in turn sold most of the works of art on board to King Carlos III of Spain. Much of the material was subsequently presented by the king to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. The original inventories, which survive in the Academia’s archives, are remarkably thorough, enabling the identification of many of the items on board the ship when it was captured. Much of the material remains in the Real Academia, but significant works were passed on to the Spanish Royal Collection and are now in the Museo Nacional del Prado or in royal residences in Spain. Because most of these works can be associated with the tourists who were sending them back to Britain, the contents of the Westmorland forms the most complete “cross section” of the Grand Tour discovered to date. The exhibition comes out of a major research project initiated in the late 1990s, led by Professor José María Luzón Nogué, that investigates the story of the Westmorland and its contents. In recent years, with the support of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London, remarkable progress has been made in identifying and cataloguing these extraordinarily diverse treasures, and this research forms the basis of the exhibition.
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Catalogue: María Dolores Sánchez-Jáuregui Alpañés and Scott Wilcox, eds., The English Prize: The Capture of the Westmorland, an Episode of the Grand Tour (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 400 pages, ISBN: 9780300176056, $75.
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Charlotte Higgins writes about the exhibition for The Guardian (20 November 2011).
Exhibition: French Drawings from the Mariette Collection
From the Louvre, as noted by Hélène Bremer:
French Drawings from the Mariette Collection
Musée du Louvre, Paris, 10 November 2011 — 6 February 2012
Curated by Pierre Rosenberg, Laure Barthélemy-Labeeuw, and Bénédicte Gady
Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Egret (Paris: Louvre)
Pierre Jean Mariette (1694–1774) brought together one of the most fascinating collections in the whole of the eighteenth century, with drawings taking pride of place (around ten thousand sheets). Masterpieces by great artists stood alongside pieces of bravura by minor masters, in line with the encyclopedic commitment of this “genius jack-of-all-trades.” A collection of this caliber seemed destined to join those of king and nation. This was the wish of both Mariette and the administration—but, as sometimes happens, the heirs decided otherwise. The auctioning-off lasted for no less than two and a half months, during which time nearly one thousand drawings were nonetheless purchased for the king’s cabinet.
Pierre Rosenberg, of the French Academy, President emeritus of the Musée du Louvre, assisted by Laure Barthélemy-Labeeuw, rose to the dizzying challenge of reconstructing this legendary collection by scouring public and private collections the world over to track down drawings that had once belonged to Mariette. On the occasion of the publication of two initial volumes listing nearly four thousand French drawings, the Musée du Louvre is presenting the survey’s methodological basis and its main findings. On display are around one hundred works, some famous and some recently identified, which went from the collector’s to the museum’s portfolios.
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From Artbooks.com:
Pierre Rosenberg and Laure Barthélemy-Labeeuw, Les Dessins de la Collection de Pierre-Jean Mariette, volumes 1-2 (Milan: Electa, 2011), 704 pages, ISBN: 9788837064273, €600 / $900.
After the reproduction of the complete auction catalogue illustrated by Saint-Aubin and kept in Boston, a necessary tool through which to track down many of the items, the entire drawing collection which belonged to Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774) is now being reproposed. Without any doubt, to use the words of Frederik Johannes “Frits” Lugt, the 20th-century collector, Mariette was the greatest, if not the ‘prince’ in the field of drawing collections. He began his collection during brief sojourns in Italy and, from 1750 onwards, devoted himself exclusively to this pursuit. During his lifetime he put together almost 9,000 items, carefully cataloguing them according to school and type. When he died, they were scattered as a result of 42 auctions (between November 1775 and January 1776).
The incredible task of putting the collection back together was made possible because of the trade-mark (a capital M) which Mariette stamped on every drawing he owned and by the unusual mounting of each drawing on a blue background (‘Mariette blue’) which brought out the best qualities of the drawings. The whole collection will be published in six volumes: the first two are devoted to the French School, three to the Italian school and one to the Dutch, Flemish and German schools. A monumental work of inestimable historical and artistic value. This ambitious publishing project reconstructed the world’s largest-ever collection of drawings. The first volumes focus on the French school: thousands of drawings that were scattered worldwide can now finally be seen at a single glance.
Additional information (in Italian) comes from the Italian bookseller, LibroCo.Italia»
Humphrey Wine provides a review in the April 2012 issue of Apollo Magazine (note added April 2012).
Exhibition: Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World
From LACMA:
Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 6 November 2011 — 29 January 2012
Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico City, 6 July — 7 October 2012
"The Apparition of San Miguel del Milagro to Diego Lázaro," first half of the 18th century (Museo Universitario Casa de los Muñecos, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico)
Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World examines the significance of indigenous peoples within the artistic landscape of colonial Latin America. The exhibition offers a comparative view of the two principal viceroyalties of Spanish America—Mexico and Peru—from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Under colonial rule, Amerindians were not a passive or homogenous group but instead commissioned art for their communities and promoted specific images of themselves as a polity. By taking into consideration the pre-Columbian (Inca and Aztec) origins of these two vast geopolitical regions and their continuities and ruptures over time, Contested Visions offers an arresting perspective on how art and power intersected in the Spanish colonial world. The exhibition is divided into themes:
Contested Visions
Tenochtitlan and Cuzco Pre-Columbian Antecedents
Ancient Styles in the New Era
Conquest and New World Orders
The Devotional Landscape and the Indian as Good Christian
Indian Festivals and Sacred Rituals
Memory, Genealogy, and Land
A checklist of the exhibition is available here»
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Exhibition catalogue: Ilona Katzew, ed., Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 320 pages, ISBN: 9780300176643, $70.
Contested Visions offers a comparative view of the two principal viceroyalties of Spanish America: Mexico and Peru. Spanning developments from the 15th to the 19th century, this ambitious book looks at the many ways and contexts in which indigenous peoples were represented in art of the early modern period—by colonial artists, European artists, and themselves. More than two hundred works of art, including paintings, sculptures, illustrated books, maps, codices, manuscripts, and other materials such as textiles, keros, and feather works, are reproduced in full-color illustrations, demonstrating the rich variety of these artistic approaches.
A collection of essays by an international team of distinguished scholars in the field uncovers the different meanings and purposes behind these depictions of native populations of the Americas. These experts explore
the role of the visual arts in negotiating a sense of place in late pre-Columbian and colonial Latin America. They address a range of important topics, such as the construct of the Indian as a good Christian; how Amerindians drew on their pre-Columbian past to stake out a place within the Spanish body politic; their participation in festive rites; and their role as artists. Lavishly illustrated, this ambitious book provides a compelling and original framework by which to understand the intersection of vision and power in the Spanish colonial world.
Ilona Katzew is curator and co-department head of Latin American art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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Symposium: Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2-4 December 2011
LACMA and UCLA are co-sponsoring a major international three-day symposium in conjunction with the special exhibition Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World, which brings together thirty of the most distinguished scholars in the field from Mexico, South America, Europe, and the United States.
Free, no reservations | Printable Schedule | View Abstracts
Exhibition: Daniel Sarrabat
From the Centre des monuments nationaux website:
Daniel Sarrabat (1666-1743) l’éclat retrouvé
Monastère royal de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse (near Lyon), 15 October 2011 — 29 January 2012
Curated by François Marandet
Cette exposition révèle l’art d’un des plus grands peintre d’histoire à Lyon et dans sa région, pendant la première moitié du XVIIIe siècle : Daniel Sarrabat (1666-1743). Alors que le style rocaille triomphe en France, il poursuit l’idéal artistique de Nicolas Poussin, et montre combien la peinture d’histoire s’est maintenue à Lyon et dans sa région depuis la disparition de Jacques Stella (1596-1657) et Thomas Blanchet (1614-1689).
Cette toute première rétrospective rassemble près de 50 œuvres de l’artiste, dont 36 tableaux. Sont présentées des réalisations inédites aux cotés d’œuvres de collections privées, notamment le décor mythique de l’Hôtel de Sénozan, à Lyon, complété par un groupe de tableaux provenant du patrimoine religieux de la région, avec le cycle illustrant l’histoire de Marie-Madeleine de l’église de Thoissey. Le parcours de l’exposition restitue les étapes successives de la carrière de Daniel Sarrabat : l’époque de son apprentissage à Paris, le séjour à
Rome (1685-1694), son implantation à Lyon en 1695, jusqu’à sa consécration
(1716-1732).
Additional information is available from the exhibition brochure (PDF).
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Catalogue: François Marandet, Daniel Sarrabat, 1666-1748 (Saint-Étienne: I.A.C. Éditions d’Art, 2011), 128 pages, ISBN: 9782916373478, $42.50. [Available from Artbooks.com]
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