The Burlington Magazine, August 2025
The long 18th century in the August issue of The Burlington:
The Burlington Magazine 167 (August 2025) | Decorative Arts
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• Studying the Decorative Arts, p. 755.
The serious study of the decorative arts and the pleasures that derive from it have been an important feature of The Burlington Magazine since the early twentieth century. But how healthy is this field of research today? Arguably, it remains a specialised endeavour rather than holding a very prominent place in the mainstream of art-historical studies; and although there are some brilliant advocates for it and encouraging developments, an uncertain future is the key concern, as is the case with so many areas of scholarship in universities, museums and the market.
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• Philip McEvansoneya, “Lefèvre in Ireland,” pp. 756–57. Response to Humphrey Wine’s article in the May issue, “Napoleon Crossing the Alps: British Press Reaction to the London Exhibitions of David, Lefèvre, Wicar, and Lethière,” pp. 450–59.
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• Annabel Westman, “Peter Dufresnoy, Fringe and Lacemaker Extraordinaire,” pp. 758–75.
The French fringe and lacemaker Peter Dufresnoy excelled at his craft and trade in Restoration London. A close study of written sources and surviving works by him facilitates a reconstruction of his brilliant career. His patrons included the Duke of Lauderdale (Ham House), Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk and 7th Baroness Mordaunt (Drayton House), the Earl of Exeter (Burghley House) and the Dowager Queen Catherine of Braganza.
Roll-top desk. France, ca.1790, mounted with 16th-century Japanese lacquer, wood, black lacquer, gold and silver lacquer, mother of pearl, leather and gilt metal mounts, 110 × 95 × 55 cm (Royal Collection Trust; © His Majesty King Charles III 2025). The desk was acquired by the Prince of Wales (the future George IV) from Harry Phillips.
• Helen Jacobsen, “Harry Phillips and the Development of the London Decorative Art Market, 1796–1839,” pp. 776–91.
Analysis of sale catalogues assists in an assessment of the career of Harry Phillips, the least known of London’s significant Regency auctioneers. He specialised in decorative arts sales and his clients included William Beckford, the Prince of Wales and the Earl of Yarmouth. Notable works acquired at his auctions are now in the Royal Collection and the Wallace Collection, London.
• Brendan Cassidy, “John Udny and the ‘Battle of Pavia’ Tapestries, 1762–74,” pp. 792–99.
To commemorate Emperor Charles V’s victory at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, a set of seven tapestries illustrating key moments in the conflict were presented to the emperor by the Netherlands in 1531. They are now in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, and their provenance between 1762 and 1774 is established here by connecting them to John Udny, a Scottish diplomat, art collector and dealer.
• Romana Mastrella, “Two Monumental Maiolica Amphoraefrom the Papi Workshop: New Insights and Contexts,” pp. 800–05.
Recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, two large ‘istoriato’ maiolica vases [1670] featuring scenes from Torquato Tasso’s poem ‘Gerusalemme Liberata’ illustrate the continued presence of pottery workshops in seventeenth-century Urbania. Two previously unpublished documents help to contextualise their maker, Pietro Papi, as well the Papi family workshop, within the social and economic dynamics of central Italian ceramic production.
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• Christopher Baker, “New Collection Displays at the National Gallery, London,” pp. 806–15.
In May 2025, as the final part of its bicentenary celebrations, the National Gallery, London, unveiled extensive new displays of its paintings. Juxtaposing the familiar and the unexpected, they provide fresh perspectives on its outstanding and expanding collection.
• David Pullins, Review of the newly renovated Frick Collection in New York, pp. 816–19.
• Nicola Ciarlo, Review of the exhibition Giovan Battista Foggini: Architetto e scultore granducale (Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence), pp. 824–27.
• Charles Saumarez Smith, Review of the new V&A East Storehouse in London, pp. 837–39.
• Kirstin Kennedy, Review of Peter Fuhring, The French Silverware in the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2023); and Charissa Bremer-David, with contributions by Jessica Chasen, Arlen Heginbotham, and Julie Wolfe, French Silver in the J. Paul Getty Museum (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2023), pp. 840–42.
• Humphrey Wine, Review of Nicolas Lesur, Pierre Subleyras (1699–1749) (Arthena, 2023), pp. 848–49.
• Françoise Barbe, Review of Marco Spallanzani, Otto studi sul vetro a Firenze, Secoli XIV–XVIII (Edifir Edizioni, 2024), pp. 849–50.
• Marika Sardar, Review of Sonal Khullar, ed., Old Stacks, New Leaves: The Arts of the Book in South Asia (University of Washington Press, 2023), 850–51.
Exhibition | Giovan Battista Foggini (1652–1725)
Closing soon at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi:
Giovan Battista Foggini: Grand Ducal Architect and Sculptor
Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, 10 April — 9 September 2025
Curated by Riccardo Spinelli
Florence celebrates the artistic genius of Giovan Battista Foggini (1652–1725) with a monographic exhibition, promoted by the Metropolitan City of Florence and organised by the Fondazione MUS.E. Curated by Riccardo Spinelli, it marks the third centenary of the artist’s death, presenting the extraordinary figure of a man who, through his ‘interdisciplinary’ work, shaped the artistic language of late-Medicean Florence. This unique opportunity will showcase the design, stylistic, and technical prowess of Foggini, highlighting the breadth of his interventions and the distinctive signature that set a standard in Florence. His grand and eloquent style quickly gained recognition, earning the admiration of the Medici and his contemporaries, while also inspiring younger artists, who saw in him a brilliant master with an almost inexhaustible creative imagination.
Through a selection of sculptures, drawings, and artefacts, the exhibition traces Foggini’s career, from his training in Rome at the Medici Academy, founded by Cosimo III de’ Medici, to his return to Florence, where he became the Grand Ducal sculptor, court architect, and director of the Galleria Manufactories. These workshops, commissioned by the prince, were dedicated to the production of marvellous inlaid works in hard stones and precious metals. Foggini’s style, characterised by a late-Baroque language influenced by Roman art yet distinctly original, defined the image of late 17th-century Florence, paving the way for future generations.
Riccardo Spinelli, ed., Giovan Battista Foggini: Architetto e scultore granducale (Florence: Edifir Edizioni, 2025), 336 pages, ISBN: 978-8892802964, €40.
Exhibition | An Ecology of Quilts
Opening next month at the American Folk Art Museum:
An Ecology of Quilts: The Natural History of American Textiles
American Folk Art Museum, New York, 26 September 2025 — 1 March 2026
Wholecloth Quilt, England or United States, 1785–90, cotton and linen, 96 × 93 inches (New York: American Folk Art Museum, Gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson in honor of Laura Fisher, 1995.13.3).
An Ecology of Quilts: The Natural History of American Textiles brings together approximately 30 examples, spanning the 18th to 20th centuries, from the Museum’s rich collection of more than 600 quilts and presents them from an ecological perspective, tracing patterns of relationships between the environment and traditional quilting practices. This groundbreaking exploration of the natural history of American textiles proposes an eco-critical inquiry into the many facets of global material culture that emerged in the early American republic through the 20th century.
Looking beyond the quiltmaker, An Ecology of Quilts is centered around the origins of textile production and how it informs the artistry of quiltmaking, exploring the environmental and social impact of cultivating and harvesting raw materials; the networks of overland and ocean trade required to transport dyestuffs, fibers, and fabrics; and the technologies and industrial techniques developed to process them, such as the cotton gin—all of which allowed quiltmaking to flourish as a quintessential American art form. As the exhibition documents, textiles represent an intricately woven web of environmental resources, craft and scientific knowledge, global movement, and creative collaboration. Speaking not only to the work of individual American quilters but also to the contributions of countless artisans and laborers around the globe, quilts survive as powerful material metaphors for human relationships and entanglements within the natural world.
Exhibition | In Vino Veritas, 1450–1800
Abraham Bosse, The Prodigal Son: Riotous Living, 1635, etching, platemark: 26 × 32.5 cm
(The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1929.560.2)
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Opening next month at The Cleveland Museum of Art:
In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth)
The Cleveland Museum of Art, 7 September 2025 — 11 January 2026
For millennia, wine has played a significant role not only in the human diet but also in cultural myths, rituals, and festivities. As a result, wine—its ingredients, making, drinking, and effects on the human body and mind—has been a constant muse for artistic creation. The exhibition In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth), a phrase coined by the Roman polymath Pliny the Elder, celebrates the presence and meaning of wine in prints, drawings, textiles, and objects made in Europe between 1450 and 1800. Drawn from the museum’s collection, more than 70 works by artists from throughout Europe explore wine’s myths, symbols, and stories. These images reveal how diverse cultures and religions ascribed meaning and transformational properties to the so-called nectar of the gods.
Marcantonio Raimondi, after Raphael, The Wine Press, ca. 1517–20, engraving, sheet: 18.6 × 14.7 cm (The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1922.479).
The ancient Greeks believed that the god Dionysus (in Rome, Bacchus) lived within wine: to drink wine was to partake of the god’s power. Fascinated by ancient culture, Italian Renaissance artists, such as Andrea Mantegna and Raphael, imagined scenes of boisterous festivals, or bacchanalia, along with the exploits of Bacchus and his coterie of satyrs, nymphs, and fauns. In Northern Europe, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and later Jean-Honoré Fragonard, transformed bacchanalia into raucous peasant festivals and sensuous garden parties fueled by wine, at times tinged with moral judgment. Simultaneously, wine played a critical allegorical role in images made within the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Old Testament and Hebrew Bible traced wine’s invention to Noah. Numerous stories from these texts, portrayed by Lucas van Leyden and others, leveraged wine as an important plot element, with the ability to unify and enlighten, or to incapacitate and deceive. Many artists, such as Albrecht Dürer, used wine, grapes, and the vine to symbolize the Catholic rite of the Eucharist and its origin in Christ’s Last Supper. Throughout the exhibition, wine appears in scenes of devotion, harvest, celebration, music making, and transgression, signaling community cohesion as well as the pleasures—and hazards—of surrendering to one’s senses.
Exhibition | Framed! European Picture Frames
Willem van de Velde the Younger, Two Dutch Vessels Close-Hauled in a Strong Breeze, 1672, oil on canvas (Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection, 1917, Cat. 591).
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Now on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Lynn Roberts includes a helpful interview at The Frame Blog with the show’s curator Tara Contractor and conservator Nicolette Absil) . . .
Framed! European Picture Frames from the Johnson Collection
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 21 December 2024 — November 2025
Curated by Tara Contractor
The installation highlights picture frames as works of art in their own right, exploring their shifting forms and functions from the altar-like frames of the Renaissance to the experimental, artist-designed frames of the late 1800s. It includes thirteen frames from the Johnson Collection, which, together, express the craftsmanship and variety of European frames through the centuries.
The Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust, Summer 2025
The Decorative Arts Trust has shared select articles from the summer issue of their member magazine as online articles for all to enjoy. The following articles are related to the 18th century:
The Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust, Summer 2025
• “Time Travel in the Thames Valley: Ham House and Osterley Park” by Megan Wheeler Link»
• “Whose Revolution at the Concord Museum” by Reed Gochberg Link»
• “Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence” by William A. Strollo Link»
• “Decorative Arts Shine at the Reopened Frick” by Marie-Laure Buku Pongo Link»
• “A Room of Her Own: New Book Explores the Estrado” by Alexandra Frantischek Rodriguez-Jack Link»
• “Luster, Shimmer, and Polish: Transpacific Materialities in the Arts of Colonial Latin America” by Juliana Fagua Arias Link»
The printed Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust is mailed to Trust members twice per year. Additional membership information is available here.
Pictured: The magazine cover depicts the Entrance Hall at Osterley Park showcasing Robert Adam’s signature Neoclassical style. The apsidal end features plasterwork by Joseph Rose and contains statues of Apollo and Minerva. The marble urns are attributed to Joseph Wilton. Decorative Arts Trust members visited the house during the Thames Valley Study Trip Abroad tours in May and June 2025.
Exhibition | Fighting for Freedom
Now on view at the DAR:
Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence
Daughters of the American Revolution Museum, Washington, DC, 25 March — 31 December 2025
Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, Summer 2026 — Spring 2027
Historic New Orleans Collection, Summer — Fall 2027
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Winter — Spring 2028
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester, Summer — Fall 2028
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Museum is proud to present the exhibition Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence, in collaboration with the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive. This exhibition seeks to embrace the stories of all those who pursued independence by centering on the lives and experiences of Black craftspeople and artisans from the 18th and 19th centuries. It highlights the creations, contributions, and legacies of African Americans as they fought for freedom from the earliest calls for American independence and beyond. Fighting for Freedom spans the war years of the Revolution through the present, as African Americans have sought to pursue agency and liberty through craft. The underpinning idea of African American craft as a catalyst for freedom-seeking displays itself in a host of ways in this exhibition, encompassing furniture, metals, ceramics, textiles, art, tools, and personal accessories.
The Founders’ cries for liberty from tyranny and oppression resonated with African Americans and were embraced by Black craftspeople, both free and enslaved. “The Founding Fathers, while enslaving tens of thousands of people, unintentionally created a ripple effect,” states exhibition co-curator and founder of the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive Dr. Tiffany Momon, “and we hope that visitors will see just how important those cries for liberty were to Black craftspeople and how they pursued it despite being marginalized.”
Fighting for Freedom features more than 50 objects from public and private lenders and includes objects made by both free and enslaved craftspeople. With artifacts from the 18th, 19th, and 21st centuries, this exhibition tells the stories of countless known and unnamed figures whose skills and commitment created not only objects but independence in many forms.
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From UNC Press:
Torren L. Gatson, Tiffany N. Momon, and William A. Strollo, eds., Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2025), 176 pages, ISBN: 978-1469686257, $35. Contributors include Lauren Applebaum, Robell Awake, Lydia Blackmore, Aleia M. Brown, R. Ruthie Dibble, Philippe L. B. Halbert, Jennifer Van Horn, Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, and Susan J. Rawles.
Delving into diverse narratives of creativity, resilience, and triumph in the quest for freedom, this book underscores the evolution of freedom through the lens of material culture—by exploring how the very concept of freedom was shaped and redefined by enslaved and free craftspeople who relentlessly fought for their rights and the recognition of their humanity. Featuring ten essays by leading historians, museum curators, and material culture scholars and more than seventy color photographs of Black artistry, including paintings, metalwork, woodwork, pottery, and furniture, this book vividly illustrates how Black men and women persistently sought tangible expressions of liberty which have endured as symbols of their creators’ legacies in the ongoing struggle for freedom.
The Burlington Magazine, July 2025
The long 18th century in the July issue of The Burlington:
The Burlington Magazine 167 (July 2025)
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Maria van Oosterwijck, Vanitas stilleven, ca. 1675, oil on canvas (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum).
• “The Gallery of Honour,” p. 635. The gallery of honour in the heart of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, has recently welcomed an impressive painting to its walls: Vanitas still life by Maria van Oosterwijck (1630–93). In a compelling sense the artist has long had a place in galleries of honour, as works by her were acquired by Emperor Leopold I, Louis XIV of France, and Cosimo III de’ Medici of Tuscany.
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• Christian Scholl, “Germany’s Celebration of Caspar David Friedrich’s 250th Anniversary,” pp. 694–701.
In Germany, the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich’s birth was celebrated with a series of exhibitions. Key among them were those organised by the three museums with the most extensive holdings of the artist’s work: the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden. All three focused on stylistic, iconographic and technical aspects of the artist’s work rather than on Friedrich’s life, and each in its own way has thrown fresh light on his complex and enigmatic art.
Luis Egidio Meléndez, Still Life with Figs, ca. 1760, oil on canvas (Paris: Musée du Louvre, on view at the Musée Goya, Castres).
• Robert Wenley, Review of the exhibition Wellington’s Dutch Masterpieces (Apsley House, London, 2025), pp. 713–15.
• Christoph Martin Vogtherr, Review of the exhibition Corot to Watteau? On the Trail of French Drawings (Kunsthalle Bremen, 2025), pp. 715–18.
• Elsa Espin, Review of the exhibition Le Louvre s’invite chez Goya (Musée Goya, Castres, 2025), pp. 718–20.
• John Marciari, Review of the exhibition Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2025), pp. 720–22.
• Kee Il Choi Jr., Review of the exhibition Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, pp. 722–25.
• Deborah Howard, Review of Mario Piana, Costruire a Venezia: I mutamenti delle tecniche edificatorie lagunari tra Medioevo e Età moderna (Marsilio, 2024), pp. 732–33.
• Isabelle Mayer-Michalon, Review of Christophe Huchet de Quénetain and Moana Weil-Curiel, Étienne Barthélemy Garnier (1765–1849): De l’Académie royale à l’Institut de France (Éditions Faton, 2023), pp. 737–39.
Exhibition | The Grand Tour: Destination Italy
Pompeo Batoni, Portrait of Thomas William Coke, 1774, installed at Holkham Hall.
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From the press release (3 July) for the exhibition:
The Grand Tour: Destination Italy
Mauritshuis, The Hague, 18 September 2025 — 4 January 2026
The Grand Tour: Destination Italy features masterpieces from three of the UK’s most esteemed stately homes: Burghley House, Holkham Hall, and Woburn Abbey. The art in this exhibition was collected on tours in the 17th and 18th centuries, when young British aristocrats finished their education by spending several years travelling in continental Europe. The highlights will include an impressive portrait of Thomas William Coke by Pompeo Batoni (Holkham Hall), work by Angelica Kauffman (Burghley House), and two grand Venetian cityscapes by Canaletto (Woburn Abbey), all of them on display in the Netherlands for the first time.
Burghley House: Great Collectors
Visitors will encounter two extraordinary travellers from the Cecil family: John Cecil, the 5th Earl of Exeter, and Brownlow Cecil, the 9th Earl. In the 17th century John and his wife made four tours of Europe, collecting pieces for their stately home, Burghley House. They purchased all kinds of things, including furniture and tapestries, but above all they purchased lots of paintings for their grand house. Their trips were far from easy. The couple travelled with their children, servants, and dozens of horses. Grand Tours were not without their challenges. Sick servants would have to be left behind, horses died in the heat, and carriages broke down.
Nathaniel Dance, Portrait of Angelica Kauffman, 1764 (Burghley House).
Angelica Kauffman: Beloved, Talented, and in Demand
In the 18th century their great grandson Brownlow left for Italy after the death of his wife. He had a particular favourite, Angelica Kauffman, a Swiss-Austrian painter who worked in Italy for many years and was the star of her age beloved, talented, and in demand. The exhibition will include a magnificent portrait of her by Nathaniel Dance that shows her looking straight at the viewer. For many, meeting Kauffman was the highlight of their Grand Tour. Vesuvius can be seen in the background of her portrait of Brownlow. No visit to Naples was complete without a climb to the top of this volcano, which was a popular destination in the 18th century—the earliest example of ‘disaster tourism’. Pietro Fabris painted a detailed image of the eruption of Vesuvius in 1767, with a crowd in the foreground watching the awesome power of nature.
Holkham Hall: Home of Art
Thomas Coke, the 1st Earl of Leicester, was just fifteen when he embarked on his six-year Grand Tour (1712–1718). He travelled with a clear goal in mind: to collect art for the future Holkham Hall, which he had built after his return, in Palladian style, with Roman columns, façades resembling temples and strict symmetry. His artworks were displayed to their best advantage in his palatial country home. During his travels, he collected paintings, drawings, sculptures, books, and manuscripts. Coke was regarded as one of the most important 18th-century collectors of the work of Claude Lorrain, the French master of Italian landscapes, including the fabulous View of a Seaport and Amphitheatre. The top item in the exhibition is an impressive portrait of his great nephew Thomas William Coke, painted by Pompeo Batoni, a typical Grand Tour portrait with a Roman statue from the Vatican in the background.
The cover of the catalogue includes a detail of Canaletto’s View of the Grand Canal in Venice, Looking West, with the Dogana di Mare and the Santa Maria della Salute, ca.1730–40 (Woburn Abbey).
Woburn Abbey: Obsession with Venice
The Grand Tour is synonymous not only with Rome, but also with Venice. John Russell, who became the 4th Duke of Bedford in 1735, visited the city on his Grand Tour (1730–31). Like many young aristocrats, he wanted a permanent memento to take home with him, and what could be more appropriate than a cityscape by Canaletto, the leading painter of 18th-century Venice? Eventually, John Russell commissioned an entire series comprising more than 24 paintings, the largest series of Canalettos still in existence. The paintings normally hang in the dining room at Woburn Abbey, the ancient family seat of the Russells.
The Grand Tour
These days many youngsters take a ‘gap year’ after high school, but a Grand Tour could easily last several years. Italy was the ultimate destination, with Rome, Florence, Naples, and Venice as the absolute highlights. En route, travellers would learn about art, architecture and culture, and collect artworks for their stately homes in England, just as we take back souvenirs nowadays. Yet these trips were not always innocent and high-minded. They are also known for their less salubrious distractions, including gambling and lustful pleasures. To keep the young men on the straight and narrow, they would be accompanied by chaperones. Such a ‘private tutor’ would mockingly be known as a ‘bear leader’. From the 18th century onwards, women also increasingly did the Grand Tour, sometimes with their entire family. The Napoleonic Wars (1803–15) brought the tradition of the Grand Tour to an end. In the 19th century, the advent of the steam train changed travel for good.
The catalogue is distributed by ACC Art Books:
Ariane van Suchtelen, The Grand Tour: Destination Italy (Waanders & de Kunst Publishers, 2025), 112 pages, ISBN: 978-9462626461, $45.
Exhibition | L’étoffe des Lumières
Now on view at the Musée Jean-Jacques Rousseau:
L’étoffe des Lumières: Vêtements et accessoires au XVIIIe siècle
The Fabric of Enlightenment: Clothing and Accessories in the 18th Century
Musée Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montmorency, 5 April — 26 October 2025
Antoine Vestier, Portrait de femme, 1750–90, oil on canvas (Paris: Musée Cognacq-Jay).
Réalisée en partenariat avec La Dame d’Atours, spécialiste de la reconstitution historique, cette exposition met en lumière les transformations vestimentaires de l’époque à travers une sélection de costumes, d’accessoires, de gravures et de peintures. Reflet d’une société en pleine mutation, la mode du XVIIIe oscille entre luxe aristocratique et quête de simplicité, en écho aux idéaux de Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Philosophe des Lumières, à la fois familier des salons et critique des artifices, il prône un retour à l’authenticité qui inspire encore aujourd’hui. Les costumes raffinés de La Dame d’Atours dialoguent avec des œuvres prêtées par le Musée Cognacq-Jay et les collections montmorencéennes, offrant une immersion inédite à la croisée de l’histoire sociale, de la mode et des arts. Ce parcours enrichi de dispositifs ludiques invite petits et grands à découvrir cette époque fascinante sous toutes les coutures.
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