Enfilade

Press release (29 January 2014) from the Museum of London:

Frozen Thames: Frost Fair 1814 and Frozen Thames: Frost Fair 1684 open at the Museum of London Docklands and Museum of London respectively, from Wednesday 29 January to Sunday 30 March 2014. The mini-exhibitions feature objects, paintings, keepsakes, engravings and etchings from the collection.

Why did the Thames freeze?

The Thames could freeze over not necessarily because it was colder these years, but because the river was much more sluggish and slow flowing than today. There was no embankment and the arches of the former London Bridge was much wider and protected by floating pontoons in front of them which impeded the current. Evidence for this is that after 1831 the old London Bridge—resting on its twenty solid piers—was demolished, and replaced with a new bridge with just five arches. No further Frost Fairs have been recorded since. Narrower and with fewer obstacles, the Thames now flows too fast to freeze, and the Thames Frost Fair is a spectacle we will probably never see again.

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From the Handel House:

Handel and Charles Clay’s Musical Clocks
Handel House Museum, London, 20 November 2013 — 23 February 2014

In the 1730s Handel provided music for a series of clocks created by watch and clockmaker Charles Clay. These beautiful machines, which incorporated automata, paintings, sculptures, furniture and gold and silver work by some of the finest artisans in London, also included chimes and pump organs that played extended musical excerpts from popular operas and sonatas.

This exhibition provides the opportunity to view a Clay clock from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in an intimate Georgian setting which recalls the context in which such new inventions were originally viewed in the clockmaker’s own home. It will be joined by a gilt bronze relief from another Clay clock on loan from the V&A, and a manuscript of Handel’s clock tunes from the British Library. In addition, a recording of the music from a Clay clock in a private collection demonstrates the earliest ‘recordings’ of Handel’s music made during his lifetime.

For more information about the Kensington Palace clock, view a video here. For details of the Windsor clock, click here.

The exhibition is kindly supported by the A.C.H.Crisford Charitable Foundation.

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Additional information and images are available from the Handel House; also see a posting at the Antiquarian Horological Society’s blog The Story of Time.

From the exhibition press release (20 November 2013). . .

Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast
RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, 17 January — 6 July 2014

Organized by Judith Tannenbaum

Arlene Shechet, Asian Vase, 2013.

In the first U.S. exhibition of her one-of-a-kind Meissen sculptures, Arlene Shechet presents works she produced during a recent artist residency at the world-renowned German porcelain manufacturer. Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast is a two-part exhibition on view at the RISD Museum from January 17 to July 6, 2014. It is the utilitarian factory casts behind fine porcelain production, rather than the ornate ceramic confections, that inform Shechet’s ‘Meissen’ series. Her range of sculpture brings to the fore the seams, plate impressions, indentations, inventory numbers, and other evidence of the industrial process that an 18th-century Meissen craftsman would have sought to erase. Almost every sculpture on view in the Museum’s Upper Farago Gallery is derived from one or more of 47 historic Meissen mold patterns, reconceived in unanticipated combinations of forms and scale. Shechet’s complete reinstallation of the Museum’s historic Meissen collection of figurines and tableware in the Porcelain Gallery completes the two-part show, connecting the past and present, fine arts, and decorative arts.

“The Museum is excited to present this compelling new work by RISD alumna Arlene Shechet,” says John W. Smith, director of the RISD Museum. “Meissen Recast extends the Museum’s long and groundbreaking tradition of encouraging artists to use the collection, dating from Andy Warhol’s Raid the Icebox (1970) to Spencer Finch’s Painting Air exhibition (2012). By moving some of RISD’s Meissen figures, including the famous Monkey Band, from their normal location in the Porcelain Gallery to the contemporary Upper Farago Gallery and, conversely, inserting her own porcelain sculptures into the cases of the more traditional, wood-paneled room, she heightens our awareness and appreciation for the refined historical pieces and her own more organic, intuitive approach.” (more…)

This posting depends upon the terrific communication channels maintained by an impressive network of people: Courtney Barnes of Style Court, Emile de Bruijn of Treasure Hunt for the National Trust, and the UCL-based project team for The East India Company at Home, 1757–1857. Anyone interested in participating should follow these links to contact the relevant parties. -CH

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From the latest East India Company at Home Newsletter (January 2014). . .

On 28 January [2014] Helen [Clifford] assisted with the Chinese Wallpaper Study Day held at the National Trust Office at Grosvenor Gardens, London. This event was organised as a means of drawing together those who are active in the Chinese Wallpaper Study Group, begun by Emile de Bruijn, to exchange information and help plan for a major international conference on the subject which we hope will be held this summer. Over 25 attendants included academics, students, curators, conservators, entrepreneurs and property managers.

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From Woburn Abbey:

Peeling Back the Years: Chinese Wallpaper at Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey and Gardens, Bedfordshire, opens 11 April 2014

Curated by Her Grace, The Duchess of Bedford and Lucy Johnson

Chinese white male pheasant on a rock amongst tree peonies; detail from Chinese wallpaper hung in the 4th Duke of Bedford’s private bedchamber at Woburn Abbey, 1752 by Crompton & Spinnage

This exhibition tells the fascinating history of a decorative element with which we all live, in its most inventive and luxurious form. It begins by following one room’s story from the height of opulence in 1752 as the 4th Duke of Bedford’s private bedchamber, to its changing status as the housekeeper’s room, visitor entrance, tribute to the 4th Duke and current exhibition room.

Explore Woburn’s two distinct periods of Chinoiserie in both the house and garden. The recently discovered mid-18th-century wallpaper fragments in the family, private and State apartments were amongst the earliest Chinese wallpapers made for the European market and have not been seen since these rooms were redecorated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The second wave of Chinoiserie decoration in the early 19th century shows how taste and designs changed. The V&A has loaned a wallpaper photographed in Lady Ermyntrude’s sitting room in January 1884 and Endsleigh House Hotel, a wallpaper hung when Endsleigh was built as a family fishing lodge. Woburn is also collaborating with the National Trust Wallpaper Trail, and comparisons will be made with related wallpapers at Belton House, Felbrigg Hall, Ightham Moat, Penrhyn Castle, Saltram and Uppark.

A trail of artworks in the collection will show how the passion for Chinoiserie influenced the collecting taste of the Dukes of Bedford. A second trail of Chinoiserie features and Oriental plants will explain how this influence extended into the gardens, winner of the 2013 Georgian Group Architectural Award for Restoration of a Georgian Garden or Landscape.

Experience the processes which allow us to unravel a room’s history. Inventories and invoices show how these wallpapers were discovered, purchased and hung. Watch the story of the discovery, conservation and recreation of the wallpaper found in the 4th Duke’s private bedchamber unfold. See and handle materials used to make and conserve Chinese wallpapers and understand how we care for them today. Peeling Back the Years: Chinese Wallpaper at Woburn Abbey is included within the price of a standard admission ticket to Woburn Abbey and Gardens. Events for all age groups will be held throughout 2014 where visitors can meet the experts and engage in creative design.

From the exhibition press release:

Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 17 January — 11 May 2014

Curated by Edward Payne

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It was traditionally assumed that Spanish artists rarely drew, but recent research has demonstrated that drawing was, in fact, central to artistic practice in Spain. Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings explores the shifting roles and attitudes toward the art of drawing in Spain, as well as the impact of the Catholic Church and the nightmare of the Inquisition on Spanish artists and their work. It is the first exhibition of Spanish drawings ever to be held at the Morgan Library & Museum, whose holdings in this area are relatively small but strong.

On view in the Clare Eddy Thaw Gallery through May 11, the exhibition features more than twenty drawings spanning the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Works by well-known artists such as José de Ribera, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and Francisco Goya are presented alongside sheets by equally talented but less familiar artists, including Vicente Carducho, Alonso Cano, and Eugenio Lucas. Complementing the drawings is a display of contemporary Spanish letters and volumes, notably a lavish 1780 edition of Cervantes’ Don Quixote.

“With one of the world’s most important collections of master drawings, the Morgan is committed to developing exhibitions that explore important subjects that may be less familiar or have been overlooked,” said William M. Griswold, Director. “The practice of drawing in Spain is relatively unexplored, by comparison to that in Italy or France, but the extraordinary works in this show demonstrate an artistry and themes unique to their country of origin.”

Among the drawings in the exhibition is one of many sheets preparatory for a series of fifty-six paintings that Vicente Carducho designed for the Charterhouse of El Paular. In the foreground, Father Andrés is tortured using a device called la garrucha; the background reveals his subsequent murder by a mob. Squared for transfer to the oil sketch that preceded the final painting, the drawing bears an inscription by the patron indicating that the suspended figure should be larger and more centrally placed. Carducho incorporated this correction into the finished canvas.

José de Ribera was drawn to violent subjects—notably, the flaying of St. Bartholomew and his pagan counterpart, Marsyas, a satyr who challenged Apollo to a musical contest. As punishment for losing the competition and for his sin of pride, Marsyas was tied to a tree and skinned alive. This drawing depicts the bound satyr screaming, his skin still intact. In a variation on the theme, Ribera portrays Marsyas with human (rather than goat) legs, thus connecting this mythological subject to the artist’s numerous other drawings of bound figures.

On view are three drawings by Alonso Cano, including his masterpiece on paper: a monumental design for the altarpiece of the Chapel of San Diego de Alcalá. Composed of seventeen joined sheets, the work is highly finished, indicating that it was a presentation drawing, offering the patron different options to consider. King Philip IV became patron of the chapel in 1657; his coats of arms appear at the lower left and right of the drawing.

Renowned for his paintings of religious themes, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo made this preparatory drawing for one of his many versions of the Immaculate Conception. The loose, sketchy handling of this sheet is typical of the artist’s later style. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception—the belief that the Virgin was born free of original sin—was especially popular in seventeenth-century Spain. Here the abstract ideal is embodied by the figure of the Virgin standing on a crescent moon.

Visions and Nightmares includes four drawings by Francisco Goya. Toward the end of his life, the artist drew increasingly for his own pleasure, executing eight albums now lettered A through H and variously named. Pesadilla (Nightmare)—one of two drawings on view from the so-called Black Border Album—depicts a disheveled woman astride a flying bull, her eyes bulging as she screams in terror. Although the image of a woman and bull traditionally personified the European continent, Goya’s drawing seems to symbolize the turmoil in Spain following the Peninsular War.

Eugenio Lucas’s ominous drawing depicts Death reading from an oversized book supported by the back of a kneeling man who serves as a human lectern. Moody and macabre, this sheet recalls the threat of the Inquisition. Also on view is another sheet by Lucas, which depicts a figure shrouded in white, its arms extending toward the top of the page. The latter drawing may be seen as the pendant to Death Reading from a Human Lectern—the two works representing death and resurrection, respectively.

Visions and Nightmares also includes items from the Morgan’s collections of printed books, letters, and music manuscripts. One highlight is a deluxe edition of Don Quixote, commissioned by the Royal Spanish Academy and printed in Madrid in 1780. In addition to lavish engravings, the volume includes editorial revisions to the text, a biography of Cervantes, and the first map to chart Quixote’s itinerary. Also on view is a letter written by Goya to his lifelong friend Martín Zapater, in which he relates the exciting news that he was appointed painter to the Spanish king Charles III, the most prestigious position for an artist in Spain.

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P U B L I C  P R O G R A M S

Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings
Friday, February 7, 6:30 pm
An informal tour with exhibition curator Edward Payne, Moore Curatorial Fellow, Drawings and Prints. Free with museum admission.

Blancanieves (2012, 104 minutes) Director: Pablo Berger
Friday, February 28, 7 pm
“Snow White” is retold in 1920s Seville, with imagery inspired by Francisco Goya. Spain’s Academy Awards submission for Best Foreign Film in 2013, starring Maribel Verdú and Daniel Giménez Carlos. In Spanish with English subtitles. Free with museum admission.

From Inquisition to Enlightenment: Drawing in Spain
Wednesday, March 5, 6:30 pm
Edward Payne, the Morgan’s Moore Curatorial Fellow, will lead this discussion on Spanish drawings with Jonathan Brown, the Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Fine Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, and scholar Lisa Banner. They will explore how new research has altered the perception of the role of drawing in Spain from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, a period that witnessed the horror of the Inquisition, the rise of the Catholic Church, and the intellectual curiosity of the Enlightenment. The exhibition Visions and Nightmares will be open at 5:30 pm for program attendees. Tickets: $15; $10 for members; and free for students with valid ID; 212-685-0008 x560; themorgan.org/programs.

From the museum’s press release:

Love & Play: A Pair of Paintings by Fragonard
Toledo Museum of Art, 24 January — 4 May 2014

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The original wardrobe malfunction might have originated more than 250 years ago, at the hands of a 20-something Frenchman named Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Fragonard was only beginning to discover his niche as a portrayer of thinly veiled eroticism when he painted an errant body part peeking out from his subject’s frilly 18th-century dress. The resulting work of art, Blind Man’s Buff, and its companion, The See-Saw, comprised a pair of paintings that must have delighted his patron with symbolic depictions of seduction.

The two works will be reunited for the first time in 25 years in a special focus exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art titled Love and Play: A Pair of Paintings by Fragonard, on view January 24 until May 4, 2014 in Gallery 28. It’s the first in the Museum’s Encounters series, concentrated shows and installations that pair exceptional works of art in new or interesting ways.

Blind Man’s Buff, part of the Museum’s collection, and The See-Saw, on loan from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, will be displayed alongside two engraved copies of the paintings, a terracotta sculpture by Clodion and a small selection of French decorative arts of the period.

“They’re risqué, they’re provocative—and the artist intended these canvases to be seen together,” said Lawrence W. Nichols, William Hutton senior curator of European and American painting and sculpture before 1900. “So to reunite these two very important paintings by one of the most significant French artists of the 18th century is quite an exciting opportunity.”

Painted in Paris in the first years of the 1750s, they were likely commissioned by Baron Baillet de Saint-Julien and subsequently passed through the hands of private 18th-century collectors, a Parisian comte and a Rothschild. When they came onto the open market in 1954, they were finally separated. (more…)