At Mallett | Great English Furniture
As noted at ArtDaily (the brochure from Mallett is available as a PDF here) . . .
Great English Furniture
Mallett, London, 21 May — 1 June 2013
A major exhibition of English furniture which has been in important American private collections for many years is to be held by Mallett, one of the world’s leading antique dealers, at Ely House, 37 Dover Street, London W1 from 21 May to 1 June 2013. Great English Furniture will celebrate the skills of some of the best furniture makers in history and also provide an opportunity for collectors to buy pieces which have not been on the market for at least a quarter of a century.
Highlights of the exhibition will include a magnificent Master’s Chair, probably made for an anti-French society in the 18th century and one of only two known examples, an exceptional giltwood trophy attributed to Sefferin Nelson and made for the Prince Regent’s opulent home at Carlton House in London, a rare William and Mary cocus wood cabinet and an elaborately carved Chippendale period carved giltwood mirror. The majority of the pieces in the exhibition are 18th century and have been sourced by Mallett from private collections in the United States.
One of the most fascinating pieces in the exhibition is a rare George II Master’s Chair, almost certainly made for the Anti-Gallican Society, founded in 1745 when Britain and France were at war. “For our Country,” the motto of the Society, is inlaid on the imposing walnut armchair, which is almost six feet high. It would have been made ca. 1750 for use in a dining club of the Anti-Gallican Society, which aimed to deter what it called “the insidious arts of the French nation.” Like many 18th-century clubs, its members combined the pursuit of convivial pleasure with promoting a cause – in this case opposing French influence and Anglo-French trade. The chair has broad sloping shoulders ornamented with carved and gilt acanthus and scroll-shaped terminals. The arms end in finely carved lions’ masks. The only other such chair known is in the collection of Temple Newsam, the great country house near Leeds. The price of this rare and historic chair will be in the region of £125,000.
Another highlight of the Mallett exhibition with a fascinating history is an exceptional giltwood trophy, representing the victory of peace over war, attributed to Sefferin Nelson ca. 1795. Nelson worked at Carlton House, the London residence of the Prince Regent, later George IV, as a carver gilder and frame maker. Henry Holland, the architect who turned the house into a palatial home for the heir to the throne, designed a set of giltwood trophies for the throne room at Carlton House. He commissioned them from the famous marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, who had the order completed by Nelson. Four of these trophies are now in the throne room at Buckingham Palace, where most of the contents of Carlton House were taken after the latter’s demolition in 1825. These are of the same dimensions and decorated with similar carvings and motifs to the one in the exhibition at Mallett. It will be priced in excess of £100,000.
Great English Furniture will also include a very rare William and Mary cocus wood cabinet on a stand, made in England ca. 1700. This oyster-veneered cabinet has a rectangular top above a moulded cornice and a pair of doors enclosing a fitted interior. Inside are two drawers around a central door with a row of pigeonholes on top. The whole piece stands on barley-twist turned legs joined by a waved stretcher and ending in bun feet. The cabinet will be on sale for more than £100,000.
A fine Chippendale period carved giltwood mirror will be another highlight of the exhibition. The elaborately carved mirror of Rococo design, made in England ca. 1765, has a central cartouche with foliate C-scrolls and bell flowers, elaborately pierced with an unusual double-layered cresting, flanked by hoho birds. This will also be priced in excess of £100,000. A fine Queen Anne double back walnut settee of rich colour and patination made in England ca. 1720 and a rare late 17th-century William and Mary desk decorated with ‘seaweed’ marquetry inlay, primarily in holly, are among the many other magnificent examples of furnituremakers’ art in the exhibition. Both will be on sale for a price in the region of £50,000.
Note (added 13 July 2013): The Master’s Chair sold at Masterpiece London (27 June — 3 July 2013) , as reported here»
Reviewed | Taking Time: ‘Chardin’s Boy Building a House of Cards’
Recently added to caa.reviews:
Juliet Carey, with essays by Pauline Prévost-Marcilhacy, Pierre Rosenberg and Katie Scott, Taking Time: “Chardin’s Boy Building a House of Cards” and Other Paintings (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2012), 160 pages, ISBN: 978-1907372339, £30.
Reviewed by Paula Rea Radisich, Department of Art and Art History, Whittier College; posted 16 May 2013.
‘Taking Time: Chardin’s “Boy Building a House of Cards” and Other Paintings’ is the catalogue accompanying an exhibition mounted at Waddesdon Manor, the country house in Buckinghamshire, England, built in the nineteenth century for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. Today the manor is run jointly by the National Trust and a charitable Rothschild Family Trust headed by Jacob Rothschild, 4th Lord Rothschild. In 2007, the trust purchased Jean-Siméon Chardin’s ‘Boy Building a House of Cards’ (1735). ‘Taking Time’ celebrates the arrival of Chardin’s painting to Waddesdon Manor, where it joins another famous genre painting by Chardin, ‘Girl with a Shuttlecock’ (1737), on loan from the Rothschild Collection, Paris.
As Lord Rothschild notes in his foreword to the catalogue, this is the first time Waddesdon has organized an exhibition consisting of loans from other countries. The curatorial premise of the show was to display the Waddesdon ‘House of Cards’ with Chardin’s other versions of the same subject belonging to the Louvre, the National Gallery in London, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. . . .
The full review is available here» (CAA membership required)
Exhibition | Disegno & Couleur: Dessins italiens et français
From L’Officiel Galleries & Musées:
Disegno & Couleur: Dessins italiens et français du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 27 November 2012 — 17 February 2013
Musée des Beaux-arts, Tours, 16 March — 27 May 2013
Musées Royaux des Beaux-arts de Belgique, Brussels, October 2013 — January 2014
L’exposition présentée par le musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours réunit 75 dessins italiens et français réalisés du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle et appartenant aux musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, à Bruxelles.
Certaines de ces œuvres n’ont jamais été présentées en France et proviennent de la prestigieuse collection Jean de Grez (1837-1910), offerte à l’état belge en 1911. Ces dessins ont été créés à Florence, à Bologne, à Rome, à Venise et ont permis la réalisation de grands projets comme le Palazzo Vecchio à Florence.
Vous pourrez également découvrir des feuilles d’artistes français rendues à Jean Cousin, Claude Déruet, Laurent de La Hyre, Eustache Lesueur, Charles Le Brun, Antoine Watteau, Joseph Benoit Suvée.
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From ArtBooks.com:
Stefaan Hautekeete, ed., Disegno & Couleur: Dessins italiens et français du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle (Milan: Silvana Edoriale, 2012), 256 pages, ISBN: 978-8836623716, $65.
Les Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique organisent depuis 2001 d’importantes expositions de dessins autour des chefs-d’œuvre de leur collection : Dessins de Rembrandt et ses élèves en 2005, Dessins du Siècle d’or hollandais en 2007. La troisième manifestation réunira les plus belles feuilles françaises et italiennes du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, provenant essentiellement de la prestigieuse collection Jean de Grez (Breda, 1837- Bruxelles, 1910) donnée à l’Etat belge en 1911.
Le musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, première institution française à être associée à ces projets, réunira les plus belles feuilles françaises et italiennes du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, provenant essentiellement de la prestigieuse collection Jean de Grez (Breda, 1837- Bruxelles, 1910) donnée à l’Etat belge en 1911. Le public tourangeau découvrira 75 feuilles exceptionnelles d’artistes italiens qui ont participé à la décoration de grands projets de décoration à Florence (Palazzo Vecchio), à Rome (salles du Vatican), à Venise….tels que Paolo Farinati, Giovanni Stradano, Frederico Zuccaro, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, dit Le Bernin, Tiepolo…. ainsi qu’une sélection française opérée par Pierre Rosenberg, où seront présents les grands noms de la peinture, Jean Cousin, Claude Déruet, Eustache Lesueur, Charles Le Brun, Antoine Watteau… A cette occasion, une vingtaine de dessins français et italiens de la collection du musée de Tours seront confrontés à ces œuvres, notamment ceux de François Boucher, Louis-François Cassas, Jean Cousin, Jacques-Louis David, Prospero Fontana, Augustin-Alphonse Gaudar de Laverdine, Claude Vignons, mais aussi les nouvelles découvertes : Baglione, Bolzoni..
Exhibition | Trapani Coral
From the exhibition:
I Grandi Capolavori del Corallo: I Coralli di Trapani del XVII e XVIII Secolo
Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino, Catania, Sicily, 3 March — 5 May 2013
Museo Pepoli, Trapani, Sicily, 18 May — 30 June 2013
Il Museo Pepoli di Trapani ospiterà una grande mostra sui coralli trapanesi realizzati dai maestri artigiani della citt siciliana tra il XVII e XVIII secolo. Simbolo della bellezza e perfezione del creato, materia prima con l’oro per meravigliosi oggetti di culto, arredi sacri e profani, il corallo al centro di una grande mostra. Esposti per la prima volta capolavori provenienti da collezioni pubbliche e private che testimoniano come la lavorazione di questo straordinario materiale, in Sicilia e in particolare a Trapani, sia assurta a vera e propria arte.
In mostra oltre 120 preziosi manufatti di inestimabile valore selezionati con grande attenzione: gioielli e arredi sacri (calici, ostensori, crocifissi, reliquiari, rosari e presepi) e ancora calamai, saliere e raffinatissimi elementi darredo come specchiere, cornici, tavoli da gioco, scrigni e monumentali stipi destinati a case principesche e regge.
Si tratta di oggetti di grande valore artistico, realizzati con materiali pregiati per essere donati, tra il 500 e il 600, a principi e regnanti. Naturalia e Mirabilia erano esposti nelle Wunderkammer settecentesche, le cos dette stanze delle meraviglie, dove lappassionato collezionista raccoglieva oggetti della natura arricchendoli con materiali preziosi finemente cesellati in base allestro dellartista, filigrana d oro e d argento, splendidi oggetti destinati al godimento di pochi eletti nelle proprie dimore, piccoli musei ante litteram.
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From ArtBooks.com:
Valeria Patrizia Li Vigni Tusa, Maria Concetta Di Natale, Vincenzo Abbate, I grandi capolavori del Corallo: I coralli di Trapani del XVII e XVIII secolo (Milan: Silvana, 2013), 192 pages, ISBN: 978-8836625888, $65.
Il catalogo presenta ai lettori una rassegna di capolavori in corallo provenienti dalla Sicilia, regione dove la realizzazione di meravigliosi manufatti in questo materiale ha raggiunto nei secoli l’apice della bellezza e della maestria artigianale. Il corallo ha visto fiorire intorno a sè infinite credenze popolari, legate soprattutto alla sua forma e al suo intenso colore: carico di valenze apotropaiche, usato in passato anche in medicina, il corallo è soprattutto simbolo della bellezza e perfezione del Creato e per questo divenne la materia prima, insieme con l’oro, per la produzione di meravigliosi oggetti di culto e arredi sacri. Fra le opere qui documentate, tutte realizzate con il corallo raccolto a Trapani, lungo i fondali delle Egadi e intorno all’isola di Tabarca, spiccano sia gioielli, sia ostensori, crocifissi, reliquari, presepi, nonché elementi di raffinato arredo: specchiere, tavoli da gioco, cornici, scrigni, fino a monumentali trumeaux destinati a case principesche. Queste opere testimoniano la ricchezza e la qualità di alcune collezioni considerate fondamentali nel settore, ovvero quelle della Banca di Novara, del Museo Pepoli di Trapani, della Fondazione Whitaker e del Museo Diocesano di Monreale, qui documentate insieme a singoli pezzi di inestimabile valore apparteneti a raccolte private italiane e straniere.
Exhibition | Revisiting the Picture Gallery of Frederick the Great
From the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation (SPSG):
The Most Beautiful Gallery: Revisiting the Picture Gallery of Frederick the Great
Sanssouci, Picture Gallery, Potsdam, 9 May — 31 October 2013
As for the gallery, after St. Peter’s in Rome, it is undisputedly the most beautiful thing there is in the world. –Marquis d’Argens to Frederick the Great, 1761
The Picture Gallery in Sanssouci Park ranks among the first and most magnificent buildings in Europe to be erected specifically for an art collection. Together with the paintings and sculptures selected by Frederick the Great, the building, adorned with portrayals of the arts and precious materials, constitutes a unique overall work of art. As a fitting expression of connoisseurship and education, at the same time it pointed to the importance of the Kingdom of Prussia. 250 years after it was first opened, visitors are now being invited to view through the eyes of Frederick this ‘queen’ of all gallery beauties.
The Picture Gallery was finished in 1763, and the cabinet was hung with paintings in 1764. Many of the masterpieces – for example, by Peter Paul Rubens and Carlo Maratta as well as by sculptors such as Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne and Louis-Claude Vassé – still hang here today. The collection of more than 180 paintings and sculptures has undergone powerful changes since its founding, however. The Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg is now re-introducing the Gallery in a way that corresponds to the original furnishing concept of its royal builder.
For the first time since 1830, antique sculptures, on loan from the Collection of Antiquities and the Sculpture Collection at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin as well as the Muzeum Narodowe in Poznan, are coming to Sanssouci, where they may be admired in the Gallery once again. Among the pieces is the famous statuette of the Girl Playing Knucklebones. The Frederician manner of hanging paintings has been visualized in a photograph presentation. Particularly distinctive is the new hanging of the paintings in the small cabinet: With the return of works in 2010 that were long thought to be war losses, a closer approximation to the historical wall-to-wall hanging has been achieved. Thus, it is now possible to experience the overwhelming gallery rooms in a completely new manner as architecture, painting, and sculpture engage with one another in a unique dialogue.
Catalogue: Die Schönste der Welt: Eine Wiederbegegnung mit der Bildergalerie Friedrichs des Großen (Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2013), 144 pages, ISBN 978-342207184, €15.
Additional information is available at ArtDaily»
Exhibition | Raynal: Un regard vers l’Amérique
From the Bibliothèque Mazarine:
Raynal: Un regard vers l’Amérique
Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris, 13 June – 15 September 2013
Curated by Gilles Bancarel and Patrick Latour
Le nom de Guillaume-Thomas Raynal reste attaché à son œuvre majeure, l’Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes. Cette compilation à visée encyclopédique, l’un des grands succès de librairie de la fin du XVIIIe siècle, suscita autant de critiques que d’éloges de la part de ses contemporains. Elle apparaît comme pleinement représentative d’un paysage éditorial marqué par l’évolution du simple récit de voyage vers la réflexion philosophique sur le rôle de l’Europe dans le monde, particulièrement sur le continent américain.
Le tricentenaire de la naissance de l’abbé Raynal (1713-1796) est l’occasion de mettre en valeur la singularité du regard porté par un homme des Lumières sur l’Amérique, regard plongé dans l’actualité du moment – la guerre d’Indépendance dont il se fait le chroniqueur – mais aussi annonciateur des profondes transformations politiques et sociales qu’engagera la Révolution française, notamment l’abolition de l’esclavage. Ce regard est aussi le reflet des lectures multiples dont s’est nourri un auteur qui n’a lui-même jamais
traversé l’Atlantique.
Autour de différentes éditions de l’Histoire philosophique des deux Indes, l’exposition présente les ouvrages emblématiques de la riche production livresque consacrée, du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, au Nouveau Monde : récits de la découverte et des premiers établissements, relations de colons ou observations de voyageurs. La guerre d’Indépendance, la condition des esclaves dans les colonies européennes, la diffusion et la réception des thèses de Raynal y sont appréhendées par les témoignages, manuscrits ou imprimés, des penseurs des Lumières. Livres rares, journaux, documents d’archives ou simples brochures illustrent ainsi la place éminente occupée depuis 1492 par l’Amérique dans le débat d’idée européen et l’imaginaire collectif.
Exhibition | Home, Land, and Sea: Art in the Netherlands
From the Manchester Art Gallery:
Home, Land, and Sea: Art in the Netherlands, 1600-1800
Manchester Art Gallery, 24 May 2013 — 23 May 2014
Curated by Henrietta Ward
Aelbert Cuyp, River Scene with a View of Dordrecht, oil on panel (Manchester Art Gallery)
Home, Land, and Sea: Art in the Netherlands, 1600-1800 is a new exhibition which brings together over 50 paintings from Manchester City Galleries’ exceptional 17th- and 18th-century Dutch and Flemish collection, one of the most important in the country. It includes exquisite paintings of everyday life, portraiture, landscapes, seascapes, and still lifes by Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch, Jacob van Ruisdael and many more. Some of these paintings have not been on display for tens of years, while others have benefited from recent conservation treatment.
For the first time these paintings will be juxtaposed with works by major contemporary artists such as Mat Collishaw’s Last Meal on Death Row, Texas series, sculptures of gnawed apples by Gavin Turk, and Rob and Nick Carter’s homage to Ambrosius Bosschaert: Transforming Still Life Painting. Alongside the seascapes will be Bachelor Machines Part I, a film by 2013 Northern Art Prize nominee Rosalind Nashashibi that focuses on the lives of an all-male crew on board the Gran Bretagna, a modern-day cargo vessel. This exhibition has been curated by Henrietta Ward, The National Gallery Curatorial Trainee supported by the Art Fund.
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From Hettie Ward’s blog for the exhibition, Manchester’s Dutch and Flemish Collection:
February’s Painting of the Month — Innocent Nostalgia or Outright Fraud?
Willem van Mieris, Woman Pulling on a Dog’s Ear,
16 x 12.5 cm (Manchester City Galleries)
This month’s painting is an extension of my previous post which looked at the fineness that can be found in Dutch paintings, particularly the fijnschilders, such as Willem van Mieris (1662-1747). We have 2 works by Willem van Mieris in the collection: Interior with a Cavalier and Lady and the Painting of the Month: Woman Pulling on a Dog’s Ear, which both came to the Gallery through the Assheton Bennett bequest. Woman Pulling on a Dog’s Ear is miniscule and only measures 16 x 12.5 cm (27 x 23.4cm framed) and is so intricately painted that you can’t make out a single brushstoke.
The painting is a portrait of the artist’s mother, Cunera van der Cock, but it is actually a copy of a painting by his father, Frans van Mieris (1635-1681). The original is in the collection of Worcester Art Museum, USA, along with its companion piece A Soldier Smoking a Pipe, or self-portrait of the artist. The Worcester pair dates to 1662 and both measure 14 x 11cm. You can see them here. Willem van Mieris also made a copy of the companion piece, now in a private collection.
Willem’s painting is an incredibly good copy, and whilst the initial reaction is to dismiss Manchester’s version as being just that, there is actually a lot more to it which touches on elements of fraud — to a certain extent — and brings into question the whole value of a fake. It is with great thanks to the recent research of the art historian and academic Junko Aono that this painting can be reassessed and valued in terms of the 18th-century revival of the Dutch Golden Age, and turns it from being an interesting copy to a fascinating bit of history. Much of what I have learnt about this painting has come from her article ‘Reproducing the Golden Age: Copies after Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century’ in Oud Holland Vol. 121, 2008, no. 1, and I urge you to read it yourselves if you can get hold of a copy. . . .
Read Ward’s full posting here»
Conference | A Window on Antiquity: The Topham Collection
From the conference progamme:
A Window on Antiquity: The Topham Collection at Eton College Library
The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 17 May 2013
In collaboration with the University of Buckingham and Eton College, to accompany the exhibition Paper Palaces: the Topham Drawings as a Source for British Neo-Classicism (Eton College Library, Verey Gallery, 3 May–1 November 2013)
The Topham Collection
Consisting of 37 volumes and more than 3,000 items, the collection amassed by Richard Topham (1671-1730) is one of the most significant resources for the history of antiquarianism and for the culture and industry of the Grand Tour in Europe. This collection of drawings, watercolours and prints after antique sculptures and paintings in Rome and Italy is the largest of its kind assembled in England, surpassing in both scale and breadth those collected by other celebrated antiquarians such as John Talman, Dr Richard Mead or Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester.
Since its arrival at Eton in 1736 the Topham Collection has fascinated and served archaeologists, researchers investigating collections of antiquities and scholars of the history and reception of the classical tradition. The drawings have also attracted the attention of art historians, as Topham managed to assemble an extraordinary range of works by some of the best Italian draughtsmen of the first half of the eighteenth century, such as Pompeo Batoni, Giovanni Domenico Campiglia and Francesco Bartoli, or by artists who later excelled in other fields, including the architect William Kent. More recently it has also emerged that Francesco Bartoli‟s drawings of ancient ceilings and wall elevations in the collection were extensively copied and re-adapted by neo-classical architects such as Robert Adam, James Wyatt and Charles Cameron, becoming one of the most important sources for a decorative language that would spread over Europe.
However, despite the growing body of scholarship on the Topham Collection produced in recent decades, notably the work of the late Louisa M. Connor Bulman, a comprehensive study of the whole collection and of its role in eighteenth-century antiquarian and artistic culture is still wanting. This conference wishes to indicate new avenues of research and is intended as the first step towards an online catalogue of the whole collection.
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P R O G R A M M E
Abstracts are available here»
9:00 Registration
9:30 Lucy Gwynn (Eton College Library), Opening address and welcome
Session 1: The Topham Collection and Its Context: Antiquarianism and the Grand Tour Market
Chair: Ian Jenkins (British Museum) and Lucy Gwynn (Eton College Library)
9:50 Cinzia Maria Sicca (Università di Pisa), The Mind behind the collection: John Talman, antiquary and advisor to Richard Topham and Henry Hare, 3rd Baron Coleraine
10:20 Eloisa Dodero (Royal Collection Trust, Windsor Castle), Did Topham know of the ‘Museo Cartaceo’? The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo and the Topham Collection of drawings
10:50 Novella Barbolani (Università di Roma La Sapienza) and Valentina Rubechini (Università di Firenze), Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri, John Talman and Richard Topham: artistic exchanges between Florence and Britain
11:20 Tea and Coffee
11:40 Bruno Gialluca (Independent Scholar), William Kent’s drawings after the Antique in the Topham and Holkham Collections
12:10 Lucia Faedo (Università di Pisa), The Topham Collection and the Roman palaces: British visitors to the Palazzo Barberini
12:35 Discussion
13:00 Lunch
Session 2: The Topham Collection and Its Archaeological Value
Chair: Helen Whitehouse (University of Oxford)
14:15 Mirco Modolo (Università degli Studi di Roma Tre), From philology to the market: the archaeological value of Francesco Bartoli’s drawings in the Topham Collection
14:45 Delphine Burlot (Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art-INHA, Paris), Forgeries of ancient paintings in the Topham Collection
Session 3: Richard Topham: His Library, Legacy and Influence
Chair: Richard Hewlings (English Heritage)
15:15 Paul Quarrie (Maggs Bros Ltd; Eton College Librarian 1977-1994), Richard Topham and his library
15:45 David Noy (University of Wales Trinity St David), Richard Topham’s will: a collector plans for the future
16:15 Adriano Aymonino (University of Buckingham), The Topham Collection as a source for British eighteenth-century classicism
16:40 Discussion
17:00 Drinks Reception
Exhibition | Des couleurs et du papier: France, Allemagne, Italie
From the Bibliothèque Mazarine:
Des couleurs et du papier: France, Allemagne, Italie (1700–1850)
Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris, 2 April – 7 June 2013
Curated by Nadine Férey-Pfalzgraf, Florine Levecque, and Marc Kopylov
À la croisée de l’imagerie populaire et des papiers de tenture, un foisonnant univers graphique a vu le jour dans les ateliers des cartiers, dominotiers et graveurs d’images entre 1700 et 1850.
Les papiers dominotés imprimés à la planche de bois et rehaussés au patron, ont souvent servi de couverture d’attente aux livres brochés ; aussi, éphémères et fragiles, sont-ils rarement parvenus jusqu’à nous, quelques objets attestant également de leur utilisation dans les arts mobiliers ou décoratifs. En revanche, les papiers dorés gaufrés ou dorés vernis d’outre-Rhin, appréciés des relieurs pour habiller les gardes des livres de grande valeur, ont été plus largement conservés, protégés à l’intérieur des volumes.
Fort prisés au 18e siècle, ces papiers assuraient le succès des artisans les plus talentueux, qui n’hésitaient pas à signer leur production, cas rare à une époque où l’anonymat était de rigueur dans les petits métiers : on connaît ainsi les ateliers Sillé au Mans, Sevestre Leblond à Orléans, « Les Associés » à Paris ; Leopold à Augsbourg et Eckart à Nuremberg ; Bertinazzi à Bologne et Remondini à Bassano, qui finit par occuper une position de quasi monopole en Italie.
Panorama significatif des productions françaises, allemandes et italiennes au 18e siècle, l’exposition présente une sélection de papiers provenant des fonds de la Bibliothèque Mazarine et de la Médiathèque Louis Aragon du Mans, complétés par des prêts de collectionneurs privés. Elle prolonge et illustre les travaux pionniers d’André Jammes, et les recherches récemment publiées par Christiane et Marc Kopylov (Éditions des Cendres). Elle doit aussi susciter de nouvelles découvertes.
Exhibition | La Tauromaquia: Carnicero, Goya, and Picasso
Press release for the current exhibition at Penn:
La Tauromaquia: Carnicero, Goya, and Picasso
Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19 April — 28 July 2013
Antonio Carnicero, Colleción de las principals suertes de una corrida de toro, plate IV, 1790 (Arthur Ross Foundation)
In celebration of the Arthur Ross Gallery’s 30th anniversary, La Tauromaquia: Carnicero, Goya, and Picasso presents 70 master prints collected by the Arthur Ross Foundation. The prints explore the long-revered tradition of the Spanish bullfight by featuring the works of three extraordinary artists: Carnicero, Goya and Picasso, who interpreted this popular entertainment in very different ways. This is the first time all 70 prints are on display in a single exhibition, which runs from April 19 through July 28, 2013.
In the eighteenth century, the bullfight was both a sport and an entertainment in Spain, democratically beloved from royalty to the lower classes. A skilled matador often became a famed national hero, and his fighting in the corrida was considered a fully developed art form. As Ernest Hemingway wrote: “Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor.” Antonio Carnicero’s (1748-1814) seven etchings and title sheet from Colleción de las principals suertes de una corrida de toros (Collection of the main actions in a bullfight), executed in 1790, illustrate the highly ritualized stages of the bullfight. In 1816, at the age of 70, Francisco Goya published the first edition of 33 prints on La Tauromaquia in Madrid. His daring compositions and dramatic chiaroscuro accentuate the drama that unfolds in the ring. A century later, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), turned to bullfighting for his subject matter. In a single afternoon in 1957 he completed 26 plates for La Tauromaquia, o arte de torear, Pepe Illo’s treatise, for the Ediciones La Cometa specialist collection.
La Tauromaquia: Carnicero, Goya and Picasso is the culmination of exhibitions celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Arthur Ross Gallery. The Gallery was the brainchild of Penn President Emeritus Mr. Martin Meyerson and Mr. Arthur Ross. In 1983, they established the Arthur Ross Gallery on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania for the benefit of the Philadelphia and University communities. It has since expanded to a much broader focus, embracing an eclectic program of changing exhibitions in all fields of the visual arts and cultural artifacts from around the world.
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