Canaletto’s Venice
From the Ringling Museum website:
Venice in the Age of Canaletto
John and Marble Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 8 October 2009 — 10 January 2010
Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, February 14 — 9 May 2010
Curated by Stanton Thomas and Alexandra Libby
Edited by Alexandra Libby and Stanton Thomas (Prestel) ISBN: 978-3791380001, $60
Venice in the Age of Canaletto is a collaborative project between The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art that will consider Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto in a Venetian context. In particular, it focuses upon the contrast between the artist’s paintings and the works of his contemporaries also active in the city. Canaletto’s vedute, or view paintings, were arguably the most familiar artistic products of eighteenth-century Venice; yet, for all their ability to reproduce immediately recognizable views of the city, they are curiously devoid of the exuberance, sensuality, and rich coloring of most Venetian art of the period. When Canaletto’s paintings are compared with the works of Giambattista Tiepolo, Francesco Guardi, and Sebastiano Ricci, they are revealed as beautiful but rather anomalous creations. The exhibition explores the strange tension that exists between Canaletto’s austere, seemingly realistic cityscapes and the exuberant, pastelline fantasies, religious pictures, and historical dramas of the Venetian Rococo.
Venice in the Age of Canaletto considers a span of approximately 100 years, beginning in 1697, the year of the artist’s birth, and ending in 1797, the year that Napoleon invaded the city and brought the Venetian Republic to an end. This period captures the fascinating social, religious, political, and artistic evolution that precipitated the end of the Republic. The exhibition focuses upon a time when Venice, perhaps more than any other European city, cultivated an elusive civic image of pleasure, fantasy, and escapism. (more…)
‘Masterpieces’ from Ponce, Puerto Rico in Memphis
From the Brooks Museum of Art website:
Masterpieces from Museo de Arte de Ponce
Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, 3 October 2009 – 10 January 2010
Organized by Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico
Joseph-Marie Vien,"Greek Lady at the Bath," 1767
Comprising 60 world-class European paintings from the 14th through 19th centuries, Masterpieces from Museo de Arte de Ponce offers a remarkable opportunity to view iconic works by major Italian, British, French, Dutch, Spanish, and German artists. The exhibition includes paintings by famed Pre-Raphaelite visionaries Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as well as pictures by the renowned Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens, the darkly romantic Francisco Goya, and the great belle-époque painter, James Tissot. . . .
The works included in Masterpieces from Museo de Arte de Ponce largely reflect the vision and generosity of Luis A. Ferré (1904–2003). An industrialist, philanthropist, classically trained pianist, and former governor of Puerto Rico, Ferré founded the museum after his first trip to Europe in 1950. Working with a limited budget and relying upon the expertise of famous art historians, he sought out paintings of high quality and exceptional beauty, rather than pictures defined by the prevailing tastes and fashions of the time. For instance, instead of buying popular (and expensive) Impressionist and Modern works, Ferré collected Victorian paintings, which were considered old-fashioned at the time. As a result, the museum he founded possesses an extraordinary collection of Pre-Raphaelite canvases, works that are today unanimously hailed as artistic treasures.
Pompeo Batoni, "Antiochus and Stratonice," 1746
At the same time, Ferré astutely purchased works by major Old Masters that had been largely forgotten by the 1950s. These acquisitions enriched the Ponce collection with a wealth of monumental Baroque canvases from France, Spain, and Italy. In selecting paintings for Ponce, Ferré sought out works that would communicate a sense of wonderment to scholars, artists, and especially the public. Indeed, to him the museum he founded was more important than all his other accomplishments and philanthropic efforts.
The exhibition marks the first comprehensive presentation of the collection in the United States.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Eighteenth-century paintings in the exhibition include:
- Pompeo Batoni, Antiochus and Stratonice, 1746
- Johan Georg Platzer, Continence of Scipio and Alexander the Great and Queen Thalestris of the Amazons, mid-eighteenth century
- Jean-François de Troy, Susanna the Elders, 1748 and Lot and His Daughters, 1748
- Joseph-Marie Vien, Greek Lady at the Bath, 1767 (commissioned by Étienne-François, duc de Choiseul)
- Angelica Kauffman, Judgment of Paris, 1781
- Benjamin West, Resurrection, 1782
- Goya, Portrait of Martin Zapater, 1790
Also in Virginia: Pirates . . . with a ‘Buccanneer Ball’ to Boot
Designed as a crowd-pleasing exhibition with children particularly in mind, the following show on pirates, currently in Norfolk, looks like immense fun. It certainly would have stolen my heart as a nine-year old. At a more critical level, the exhibition perhaps belongs in a discussion of how the eighteenth century is presented (and marketed) to a popular audience. But that can wait (here I’m reminded of the ability of the brilliant Medievalist Michael Camille to find pleasure even in the ersatz historical theme park ‘Medieval Times’ for an episode of This American Life). From the website of National Geographic:
Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship
Nauticus, Norfolk, Virginia, 21 November 2009 — 4 April 2010
Model of the "Whydah," shown here decked out in her pirate colors after being captured by Samuel Bellamy. Matthew Prefontaine © Arts and Exhibitions International
Organized by National Geographic
The slave ship Whydah began her short life in London, England, in 1715. Less than two years later, now a pirate ship, she sank to the ocean floor off Cape Cod. Using artifacts recovered from the wreck, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship reveals the true story behind this vessel—a story more compelling than anything dreamt up by Hollywood. From the team behind Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, this new exhibition tells the story of the crew of a real pirate ship that started as a slave ship—and gives some insights into the violence and idealism of early eighteenth-century piracy.
The exhibition features real stories of the people who populated the Atlantic world in the age of slavery and piracy: artisans and traders from West Africa, slave ship captains and their captives, Native American boat pilots, impoverished sailors from all over Europe, and pirates—including women pirates and John King, a boy no more than 11 years old, who “went on the account.” Guests see more than 200 actual Whydah artifacts recovered by underwater explorer Barry Clifford, such as treasure from more than 54 ships, gold and silver coins from all over the world, Akan gold jewelry, cannons, swords, pistols, personal belongings, leg iron moldings from shackles, the ship’s bell and its massive anchor! Kids also learn about the exciting world of nautical archaeology and the many technologies that have been developed to allow scientists and historians to unlock the clues embedded in these 300 year old “treasures.” Discover how high-powered digital x–rays of mysterious underwater concretions can reveal the artifacts hidden within.
Visitors return to a time when the cities of North America were still small towns with few interconnections. It was the Caribbean, with its enormous sugar plantations, that made up the dynamic center, drawing vast quantities of money, goods, and people from all corners of the Atlantic. Some people came by choice. But most were transported to this world against their will: men, women and children from across Africa who were kidnapped and sold to slavers; Native Americans bound into slavery from colonial North America; South American natives enslaved in Spanish mines; and indentured servants shipped from Europe.
Slave ships were perfect prizes for pirates: easy to maneuver, unusually fast, and armed to the hilt. After the Whydah‘s human cargo was unloaded in the West Indies, the ship was captured by notorious pirate Sam Bellamy and his motley crew. These pirates created an outlaw life within the brutal realities of the European and Caribbean world. Hailing from many nations, they included ordinary seamen, free black men, political dissidents, escaped slaves, indentured servants, Africans freed from slave ships taken at sea, Native Americans, and runaway plantation workers.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
And for those who find themselves in Norfolk on New Year’s Eve, there’s a Buccaneer Ball to ring in 2010 (pirate costumes optional, though I’m not sure why one would go in anything but fancy dress). Additional information about the show can be found at the exhibition website. Happy New Year!
A Christamas Toast: To Handel
Ed. by Donald Burrows and Rosemary Dunhill (Oxford University Press, 2002)
‘I was much pleased this year with our exhibitions, and though I fear we shall never overtake Italy, ‘tis some praise that we begin to think, that, both in painting and in music, tis worth following’.
–James Harris in Salisbury to William Hamilton in Naples, 15 September 1774 (BL Add MS 42069, folios 94-5)
I’m not sure about the specific items included in the exhibition now on display at the Handel House Museum in London, but the book detailing the Harris collection of manuscripts is certainly fascinating. In assessing the volume for the English Historical Review 118 (April 2003): 446-48, William Weber suggests that
the letters and diaries of James Harris, his family and friends, between 1732 and 1780 take us close into the life of England’s elites, from theatres and assembly rooms in Salisbury, to concerts at Almack’s or the King’s Theatre in Westminster, and to court life in Spain, Germany, and Poland as seen through a diplomat’s eyes. Browsing through the 1068 pages of carefully annotated documents instils a highly nuanced sense of how such
people lived, and what music meant to them.
Handel House Museum, 25 Brook Street (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
From the museum’s website:
Mr Handel’s Friends
Handel House Museum, London, 10 November 2009 — 28 February 2010
Curated by Donald Burrows and Rosemary Dunhill
Handel had many friends and admirers in London who collected, played and promoted his music, entertained him in their homes, and supported him in difficult times. Through the private letters and diaries of the Harris family this exhibition explores these relationships and shows the many sides of the famous composer’s character and fortunes.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
And if the holiday season has the Messiah running through your head, then you might enjoy Jonathan Kandell’s profile in The Smithsonian Magazine. In
the eighteenth century, the oratorio wasn’t tied to Christmas but was a feature
of the annual concerts held to benefit the Foundling Hospital (another
outstanding small museum in London). 2009 marks the 250th anniversary of
Handel’s death.
–Craig Hanson
Study in Contrasts: Mather Brown and Benjamin West in London
Yankees in King George’s Court: Mather Brown and Benjamin West
Burlington House (Library Print Room), London, 13 October — 24 December 2009
Thomas Park after Mather Brown, "Mr. Holman and Miss Brunton in the Characters of Romeo and Juliet," published in 1787, mezzotint. Photo: R.A./Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd. ©Royal Academy of Arts
This display of engravings and archive material drawn from the Academy’s collections contrasts the fortunes of two expatriate American artists working in Britain during the second half of the 18th century. Benjamin West (1738–1820) left Pennsylvania to travel, via Italy, to Britain, where he achieved great success. Following the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1792, he became the second President of the Royal Academy. Boston-born Mather Brown (1761–1831) arrived in London in 1781. The ambitious young artist worked in West’s studio and studied at the RA Schools, but never gained the recognition he hoped for. A series of letters in the display tells the story of the breakdown of his relationship with the Academy of which he longed to become a member. The display is timed to coincide with the conference on Trans-Atlantic Romanticism organised by University College London in association with the Royal Academy of Arts, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
A Glimpse of Sun for the French Winter
From the website of Versailles:
Louis XIV: The Man and the King
Château de Versailles, 20 October 2009 — 7 February 2010
Curated by Nicolas Milovanovic and Alexandre Maral
For the first time, a major exhibition is devoted to Louis XIV, the king’s personality, his personal tastes. This exhibition, Louis XIV: The Man and the King, brings together more than 300 exceptional works coming from collections all over the world and never shown together before. Paintings, sculptures, objets d’art and furniture will be exhibited. These masterpieces, some of which have never been presented in France since the days of the Ancien Régime, will enable visitors to get to know the famous monarch better in both his personal tastes and through his public image.
The King’s Public Image
The richness of the image of Louis XIV has no precedent in history: Louis XIV is the Sun King, i.e. Apollo as the sun god. Fashioned by the king himself and his counsellors, this image constantly evolved to convey emblematic figures of the royal power: the king of war leading his troops, the patron king and protector of the arts, the very Christian king and Defender of the Church, the king of glory, an image constructed for posterity. This visible glory, given mythical proportions, which was constructed during his lifetime, took shape thanks to the excellence of the artists chosen, such as Bernini, Girardon, Rigaud, Cucci, Gole, Van der Meulen and Coysevox who set out to sublimate the royal portrait, which the exhibition allows the visitors to rediscover.
The King’s Taste
He saw himself as a king who was the protector of the arts and a collector, competing with other sovereigns of Europe who were also genuine connoisseurs. Benefiting from the example of Mazarin, Louis XIV formed his taste in direct contact with artists, and through the personal relations that he established with them: Le Brun and Mignard in painting, Le Vau and Hardouin-Mansart in architecture, Le Nôtre in the art of gardens, Lully in music, and Molière in theatre. By assembling the works appreciated by the king, a genuine portrait emerges of a passionate lover of the arts and a man of good taste through the jewels, cameos, medals, miniatures and objets d’art, as well as the paintings and sculptures that he loved to surround himself within the Petit Appartement in Versailles.
Accompanying the show is a tapestry exhibition, Royal Pomp, Louis XIV’s Tapestry Collection, at the Gobelins Gallery in Paris.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Reviews and notices of the exhibition can be found at Newsweek, the Telegraph, and The New York Times. The catalogue, Louis XIV, l’homme et le roi (Skira-Flammarion, 2009; ISBN: 9782081228108) is available through Michael Shamansky’s artbooks.com.
Margaret Grasselli Speaks on Sunday
This Sunday at 2pm, in conjunction with the exhibition of French drawings in Washington, Margaret Grasselli will deliver the lecture Playing Favorites: A Personal Selection of French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art. For details of the exhibition, Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500–1800.
For more information, click here»
Trompe l’oeil in Florence
From the Palazzo Strozzi’s website:
Art and Illusions
Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 16 October 2009 – 24 January 2010
Curated by Annamaria Giusti
Sebastiano Lazzari, "Still Life with Peaches and Armillary Sphere on 'Trompe l’oeil Board' Ground," second half of the 18th century (Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia)
From ancient Greco-Roman mosaics and frescoes to European masterpieces of the 1300s to today, two hundred works from Italian and international museums and private collections tell the intriguing and spectacular history of trompe-l’oeil, the art of deceiving the eye. The theme of deception, illusion, and the eternal tension between fiction and reality is shown not only in painting, but in the richness it has always enjoyed: sculpture, intarsia, scagliola, pietre dure, porcelain, etc. Examples exhibited include faux armoirs, half-open, with books inside, wood intarsia of small Renaissance studios, scagliola tabletops and stones portraying seemingly prehensile objects, soup tureens and table furnishings in the shape of vegetables, anatomical and botanical wax models.
The exhibit also dedicates a significant amount of space to wall decorations and interiors (detached frescoes from Ancient Rome, where the theme of deception gave life to a school) and to Flemish artists and their innovations in the trompe-l’oeil genre. . .
Section 4: Paperwork
Giuseppe della Santa “‘Deception’ with Papers, Cameos, and a Medal,” 1777 (Florence: Fondazione Longhi)
The popularity of paper objects in trompe l’œil was due both to their two-dimensional nature, which increased their effectiveness as illusions, and to their being such a normal part of daily life, where paper was essential for study, messages, business, art and games. This varied paper repertoire which was part and parcel of the daily experience of clients, collectors or more simply the public at large, lent itself to fanciful combinations and painterly simulation, from the mastery of Gijsbrechts’ grand Letterboard to the meticulous 18th-century compositions by the Florentine Della Santa family comprising engravings, printed paper and stucco bas-reliefs. Nor does it come as a surprise that this favourite theme found an even more realistic home on table surfaces displaying collections of paper objects designed to deceive both the eye and the touch, or that paper fleetingly came to rest on porcelain plates, just waiting for a hand to pick it up. . .
Section 6: Three-Dimensional Deception: Plastic Art between Realism, Artifice, and Instruction
Waxworks Workshop of the Imperial and Royal Museum of Natural History and Physics of Florence, “Model of a ‘Persica flore magno’ (prunus persica, or ripe and juicy peach),” late 18th century, polychrome wax, wood
Sculpture, too, allowed itself to be seduced by the idea of perfecting its potential for illusion, favoured by its true three-dimensional nature and rendered even more realistic by the use of colour. On the other hand, sculpture’s physical quality also limited the game of allusion and illusion on which trompe l’œil’s intellectual and technical appeal was based, keeping it pegged to the threshold of hyperrealism down the ages. Thus we move from the poignantly realistic polychrome terracotta work of Guido Mazzoni, to the Baroque artifice that produced unsettling and vaguely grotesque “clones” in the field of portraiture, foreshadowing the irony in the contemporary versions of this ancient genre, manufactured using plastic resin. Wax’s tried and tested potential for imitation was exploited for educational purposes from the 18th century onwards, to produce study aids that conjugate scientific clarity with artistic mastery in the anatomical waxworks from La Specola, while it provides the added value of individual pieces of décor in the botanical waxworks contained in false books or in real porcelain cachepots. . .
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Rachel Spence reviews the exhibition for the Financial Times (28 October 2009). Andrea Gáldy’s review (excerpted below) appears in the December issue of Apollo Magazine:
Magdalena Margrethe Bärens, “Melon,” embroidery on fabric, mounted on cardboard, second half of the 18th century (Copenhagen: National Museum of Denmark)
Trompe l’oeil is art that willingly deceives the senses, most of all the eyes. It plays with its audience and invades their space. There are different kinds of trompe l’oeil, ranging from depictions so naturalistic that one could take them for the real thing to familiar objects made of unexpected materials, such as a convincing-looking melon, lent by the National Museum of Denmark, that is actually made from card and embroidery (1737-1808). The exhibition is challenging in more than one sense: it invites you to look, think and be deceived, to look once again, and finally to get the joke (which is firmly on the spectator).
The art displayed is a manifestation of the artifex ludens, the artist at play. . . This exhibition includes some 150 works of art, from classical antiquity to the present day, in media that range from needlework to holograms. This startling profusion reveals that trompe l’oeil is an important as well as a neglected genre. . .
Gáldy’s full review can be found here»
Lost and Found
From the website of Sue Bond, Public Relations: Specializing in Fine Art, Antiques, and Cultural Events:
Burlington House Commodes Return after 150 Years
Royal Academy of Art, Burlington House, London, 27 July — 31 December 2009
John Mayhew and William Ince, attributed
Securely recorded in the collection of the Hon. Charles Compton Cavendish (1793-1863), later 1st Lord Chesham, who inherited Burlington House in 1834, the commodes were almost certainly made for his father, Lord George Cavendish (1754-1834), later 1st Earl of Burlington, who moved to Burlington House following his marriage in 1782 and who is known to have commissioned a quantity of related satinwood and marquetry furniture at this period. There is also evidence that the commodes were specifically altered as part of the remodelling of the state apartments at Burlington House for Lord George Cavendish in the early 19th century, having added side panels of that date which are shaped to match the re-configured profile of the walls and skirting in these interiors.
Removed from Burlington House when it was sold in 1854, the commodes remained in the Cavendish family at Latimer, the family seat in Buckinghamshire, until they were sold by John Compton Cavendish (1894-1952), 4th Baron Chesham, at Sotheby’s in 1945 when it was clearly stated in the catalogue that they came from Burlington House. The commodes then entered the collection of the 2nd Lord Glenconner who sold them at Christie’s in 1957 (£5,040) when the Burlington House provenance was overlooked and the connection was lost and not recovered when they were sold again at Christie’s in 1984 (£59,400). It is only thanks to Joseph Friedman who spotted a label on the reverse of one of the commodes that their history has again come to light. (more…)
Finding the Perfect Gift
Edited by Maureen Cassidy-Geiger
Just Published
The Court Historian 14.2 (December 2009), published by The Society for Court Studies
Special Issue: Gift-Giving in Eighteenth-Century Courts — Papers from the conference Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for European Courts, c. 1710-1763, held at the Bard Graduate Center, New York, 17 November 2007, in conjunction with the eponymous exhibition (reviewed at artnet by N. F. Karlins).
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Table of Contents
Andrew Morrall (Bard Graduate Center), Introduction- Cordula Bischoff (State Art Collections, Dresden), Complicated Exchanges: The Handling of Authorised and Unathorised Gifts
- Christopher M. S. Johns (Vanderbilt University) The ‘Good Bishop’ of Catholic Enlightenment: Benedict XIV’s Gifts to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Bologna
- John Whitehead, Royal Riches and Parisian Trinkets: The Embassy of Saïd Mehmet Pacha to France in 1741-42 and Its Exchange of Gifts
- Michael Yonan (University of Missouri-Columbia), Portable Dynasties: Imperial Gift-Giving at the Court of Vienna in the Eighteenth Century
- Guy Walton, Emeritus (New York University), Ambassadorial Gifts: An Overview of Published Material
- Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (Cooper-Hewitt Museum/Parsons School of Design), Afterthoughts on Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for European Courts, c. 1710-1763
- Book Reviews / Exhibition Reviews
leave a comment