Exhibition | New London County Quilts & Bed Covers, 1750–1825
The exhibition closed earlier this month, but there is an excellent virtual tour still available; from the Florence Griswold Museum:
New London County Quilts & Bed Covers, 1750–1825
Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, 12 February — 1 May 2022
Curated by Lynne Bassett
Attributed to Jerusha Foote Johnson (1755–1831), Colchester, bed rug, 1782, wool (Collection of Rick and Susan Copeland).
The domestic textiles produced in New London County from the mid-18th to early 19th century stand out today as masterpieces of American needle craft. Curated by independent scholar Lynne Z. Bassett, New London County Quilts & Bed Covers, 1750–1825 examines the artistic excellence of these pieces within the context of design inspiration drawn from an array of transatlantic sources and explores the question of how the county fostered such exceptional work.
Quilted petticoats with maritime motifs, bold geometric patterns on bed rugs, sophisticated feathers and fruit stitched on elegant whitework quilts, and patriotic appliqués reveal the range and accomplishment of New London County women. The exhibition unites for the first time examples by these makers, whose names are only sometimes known, but whose textiles survive as evidence of the network of connections between teachers, students, and family members.
Exhibition | Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear
Press release for the exhibition now on view at the V&A:
Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 19 March — 6 November 2022
Curated by Claire Wilcox and Rosalind McKever
Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear is the first major V&A exhibition to celebrate the power, artistry, and diversity of masculine attire and appearance. The show traces how menswear has been fashioned and refashioned over the centuries, and how designers, tailors, and artists—together with their clients and sitters—have constructed and performed masculinity, and unpicked it at the seams.
Fashioning Masculinities will present around 100 looks and 100 artworks, displayed thematically across three galleries. Contemporary looks by legendary designers and rising stars will be displayed alongside historical treasures from the V&A’s collections and landmark loans: classical sculptures, Renaissance paintings, iconic photographs, and powerful film and performance. From looks by Harris Reed, Gucci, Grace Wales Bonner and Raf Simons, to paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola and Joshua Reynolds, contemporary artworks by Robert Longo and Omar Victor Diop, to an extract from an all-male dance performance by Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, the exhibition will showcase the variety of possible masculinities across the centuries from the Renaissance to the global contemporary. Outfits worn by familiar faces will be interspersed throughout, from Harry Styles, Billy Porter and Sam Smith, to David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich. Innovative creations and diverse representations will highlight and celebrate the multiplicities of masculine sartorial self-expression, dressing beyond the binary.
Claire Wilcox and Rosalind McKever, co-curators of Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, said: “Masculine fashion is enjoying a period of unprecedented creativity. It has long been a powerful mechanism for encouraging conformity or expressing individuality. Rather than a linear or definitive history, this is a journey across time and gender. The exhibition will bring together historical and contemporary looks with art that reveals how masculinity has been performed. This will be a celebration of the masculine wardrobe, and everyone is invited to join in.”
Fashioning Masculinities opens with a Craig Green SS2021 ensemble of a deconstructed suit, alluding to the construction and deconstruction of both the masculine body and conventions of masculinity, a central theme throughout the show. The three main galleries—’Undressed’, ‘Overdressed’, and ‘Redressed’—follow, with the exhibition design by JA Projects. ‘Undressed’ explores the male body and underwear in a utopian dreamscape, whilst ‘Overdressed’ takes visitors into the elite masculine wardrobe in a sumptuous, immersive space with courtly grandeur, featuring oversized silhouettes, abundant colour, and lavish materials. The third section, ‘Redressed’, explores the construction and dissolution of the suit, with the exhibition design conveying the idea of an urban reawakening.
‘Undressed’ explores the male body and underwear, looking at how classical European ideals of masculinity have been perpetuated and challenged over the centuries. Plaster casts of the Apollo Belvedere and the Farnese Hermes—which highlight a tradition of depicting idealised male bodies draped in textiles that reveal more than they conceal—are juxtaposed with modern and contemporary representations of the body, from prints and photography by David Hockney, Lionel Wendt, Zanele Muholi, and Isaac Julien, to a Calvin Klein advertisement.
Also on display is a film of Matthew Bourne’s Spitfire (1988) performed by New Adventures dancers, which takes place in the world of men’s underwear advertising and mail order catalogue photography, whilst contemporary ensembles highlight how designers are appropriating sheer fabrics to create ensembles, alluding to a new honesty about menswear. Fashion’s fascination with the body has seen it support changing masculine ideals from evoking classical drapery, to sculpting flesh—as seen in garments by Jean-Paul Gaultier and A- COLD-WALL*—to celebrating body diversity. This is exemplified in the exhibition by excerpts of Arrested Movement by Anthony Patrick Manieri, an inclusive portrait series and awareness initiative celebrating and promoting positive body image. ‘Undressed’ ends with Auguste Rodin’s Age of Bronze sculpture, and Tiresias, a performance by Cassils, in which the artist melts a neoclassical torso carved in ice with their body heat.
Installation view, V&A.
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The second gallery, ‘Overdressed’, explores the elite masculine wardrobe, epitomised by oversized silhouettes, lavish materials like silks and velvet in daring colours, and symbolic patterns to express status, wealth, and individuality. Drawing synergies across the centuries, the section will feature armoured breastplates to silky smoking suits, sweeping capes to ribbons and lace, including Grinling Gibbons’ wooden carving imitating a Venetian needlepoint lace cravat, displayed alongside real lace, and a Dolce & Gabbana cape juxtaposed with a Sofonisba Anguissola painting. The section also includes grooming, with makeup and shaving equipment.
Historically, menswear was full of pattern and colour, and a section on scarlet and pink highlights the return of this masculine colour to popularity. Aristocratic sitters in oil paintings by Joshua Reynolds and Jean-Baptiste Perronneau are displayed alongside pink ensembles by Harris Reed and Grace Wales Bonner among others. Nearby, a custom Randi Rahm ensemble—a suit and full-length embroidered cloak with a hot pink lining—worn by Billy Porter at the Golden Globes in 2019, complement the selection. Internationally traded textiles, imported silks, and floral patterns reflect their wearers relationship to the world. Through the lens of contemporary fashion, from Kim Jones for Fendi and Alessandro Michele for Gucci to Rahemur Rahman, Ahluwalia and Orange Culture, ‘Overdressed’ shows how historic ideas begin to shift, with a full rainbow of masculine outfits on display.
Left: Harris Reed Fluid Romanticism 001 (Courtesy Harris Reed; photo by Giovanni Corabi). Right: Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellamont (1738–1800), in Robes of the Order of the Bath, 1773–74 (Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland).
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The third gallery, ‘Redressed’, pieces together the modern masculine uniform of the suit, from Beau Brummell to the contemporary runway. ‘Redressed’ opens with a reflection on English country tailoring and the origins of the suit—with historic garments from the V&A collection shown alongside contemporary reimaginings, including a kilt by Nicholas Daley—before exploring how military attire influenced civilian dress.
In the twentieth century an abundance of mass-produced suits bred creativity as Mods, Teddy Boys, and all manner of subcultures looked to define their styles through tailoring, explored in the exhibition through garments and photography. A section on leather shows how designers like Tom Ford for Gucci and Donatella Versace took their interest in leather to a new place, whilst a series of frock coats from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day include examples by Prada, Alexander McQueen, and Raf Simons. ‘Redressed’ also includes paintings as well as extensive photography showing changing styles and attitudes, from Oscar Wilde, Claude Cahun, and Cecil Beaton to The Beatles and Sam Smith.
Robert Longo’s 1981 drawing from the series Men in the Cities introduces the final part of the section about the dissolving of the suit. A new wave of fashion designers from Rick Owens to JW Anderson to Comme des Garçons to Lesiba Mabitsela are slashing away at conventions, both for menswear and masculinity.
Claire Wilcox and Rosalind McKever, eds., Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear (London: V&A Publishing, 2022), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-1838510114, $60.
Catalogue cover image: Jean-Baptiste Belley, by Omar Victor Diop, 2014, pigment inkjet print on Harman by Hahnemühle paper (Courtesy MAGNIN-A Gallery, Paris © Omar Victor Diop).
Sneak Preview | Seven Works from the Van Caloen Collection
On view this week in Bruges:
Seven Works from the Van Caloen Collection
Groeninge Museum, Bruges, 17–22 May 2022
François Boucher, Young Woman with a Lace Cap, 24 × 18 cm (Musea Brugge, 2022.GRO0326.II).
On 17 May, the Jean van Caloen Foundation transferred the administration of 1,920 drawing masterpieces and 25 sketchbooks by world famous artists like Michelangelo, Jordaens, and Boucher to the Bruges Print Room. To celebrate this exceptional transfer, we are exhibiting seven top works from the collection during an exclusive sneak preview in the Groeninge Museum together with the Caloen Foundation.
Discover The Priest’s Blessing by Jacques Jordaens and a fine depiction of a young woman by the French master François Boucher. The highlight of the collection is the magnificent Stoning of St. Stephen by Michelangelo Buonarotti. The only drawing of the celebrated Italian Renaissance artist currently held in Belgium, it is a remarkable piece, not least because it is a composition study: a drawing in which Michelangelo set down some of his ideas on paper. Drawings of this kind were used by artists as preparatory sketches for larger final works, such as paintings or sculptures.
The works will be on display from 17 to 22 May, after which they will be given a place with all the collection’s other works in the Bruges Print Room. Once there, they will be registered and digitalized in high resolution, before being made freely available to the public via Musea Brugge’s digital collection database. We will also thoroughly investigate and study the drawings. This research will result in the publication of a scientific catalogue for the collection and an exhibition of works from the collection in the new exhibition space at BRUSK.
Exhibition | Les Planches de l’Encyclopédie
Opening this month at the Mazarin Library in Paris:
Les Planches de l’Encyclopédie: Sources et Polémiques
Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris, 21 May – 3 September 2022
Curated by Emmanuel Boussuge with Florine Lévecque-Stankiewicz and Marianne Besseyre
Entreprise emblématique des Lumières, l’Encyclopédie (1751–1772) doit une bonne partie de son formidable écho à sa composante technologique, illustrée à une échelle jusque-là inconnue. Les 11 volumes de planches, publiés à partir de 1761, proposaient la plus vaste collection d’images relatives aux « arts mécaniques » jamais rassemblée. Diderot entendait bien mettre en valeur cette part souvent méprisée de l’activité humaine, qu’il fallait envisager « comme la branche la plus importante de la vraie Philosophie ». Il dut renverser les préjugés, rassembler une vaste documentation complétée par de nouvelles enquêtes, s’entourer de collaborateurs aptes à dominer l’étendue des domaines embrassés, se coordonner avec des dessinateurs experts, et travailler en bonne intelligence avec les artisans du livre, notamment graveurs et imprimeurs.
Mais l’Encyclopédie n’était pas la première grande enquête sur les arts et métiers. Sous l’égide de l’Académie des Sciences, un projet de description complète avait été lancé dès 1693. Visant cependant un public restreint, il était en voie d’abandon dans les années 1740. De nombreuses gravures avaient été exécutées depuis les années 1690, mais elles restaient inexploitées. Diderot retrouva leur trace en 1748 et s’en servit de modèle général comme de sources pour la première mouture des planches de l’Encyclopédie. Cet emprunt fournit matière à scandale en novembre 1759. Ce fut « l’affaire Patte », qui touchait l’Encyclopédie alors qu’elle était déstabilisée par l’interdiction du Parlement, la condamnation du Conseil du roi et sa mise à l’index. Les encyclopédistes, avec le soutien de Malesherbes, surent une nouvelle fois se rétablir, mais il leur fallut réorganiser l’ensemble des planches, qui tripla presque de volume.
Filiations cachées, réemplois ou démarquages ostensibles, retombées polémiques croisées… la relation entre les planches de l’Encyclopédie et celles de la Description des Arts et Métiers de l’Académie des sciences constitue un vaste territoire d’investigation.
Commissariat: Emmanuel Boussuge, chercheur sur contrat rattaché (CELLF – Sorbonne Université-CNRS), avec la collaboration de Florine Lévecque-Stankiewicz (Mazarine) et de Marianne Besseyre (bibl. de l’Institut)
Autour de l’exposition: Les planches de l’Encyclopédie en lumière: Mises en perspective et recherches sur le Recueil de planches (1762–1772) de l’Encyclopédie de Diderot et D’Alembert (Colloque international, 19–21 mai 2022)
Exhibition | The Belvedere in Vienna
Salomon Kleiner, View of the Gardens of The Belvedere, detail, ca. 1731
(Vienna: Bibliothek des Belvedere)
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Opening in December at The Belvedere:
The Belvedere in Vienna: 300 Years a Place of Art
Lower Belvedere, Vienna, 2 December 2022 — 7 January 2024
It took more than a decade to build the summer residence of Vienna’s most famous general, Prince Eugene of Savoy. In 1723, construction of the upper palace drew to a close and the Belvedere estate was finally completed. The 300th anniversary of this event presents the perfect occasion for the museum to reflect on its history. Both as a museum and a landmark building, the Belvedere has stood for power and prestige throughout the ages, serving as the setting for courtly festivities, at times as a royal residence, and as the venue for the signing of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955. In an extensive exhibition, the museum will examine the building’s changing roles.
The show will mark the Belvedere’s 300th-anniversary year of 2023. Presented as a homage to an institution dedicated to the arts throughout the centuries, the exhibition casts a critical eye on historical developments and institutional changes. It illustrates the abundance and diversity of the museum, highlighting the collection’s evolution and the role of the holdings as symbols of power.
In 1777 when Marie Theresa opened the Imperial Picture Gallery in the Upper Belvedere to the public, she made a groundbreaking decision heralding a new age of enlightened absolutism: the collections would no longer be limited to courtly representation but would also serve to educate the general public. The Belvedere thrived during the succeeding centuries as both a place for the arts and a scene for glamorous events such as Marie Antoinette’s wedding. It was also the residence of the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand, and the site where the Austrian State Treaty was signed. All of which is mirrored in its building and collection history.
The importance of the Belvedere as an art nexus over the centuries is examined in detail based on the rich holdings of the collection: they reflect the institution’s changing thematic concerns. The circulation and transfer of objects—additions and disposals of works from the collection due to museum reforms and barter transactions—provide further clues. This is particularly evident during the period from 1938 to 1945, when the museum was an agent and beneficiary of the Nazi state’s looting and cultural exploitation policy. Numerous works acquired after 1933 have been returned to the rightful heirs of the former owners since the enactment of the Austrian Art Restitution Law in 1998—the most notable example being Klimt’s Woman in Gold in 2006.
The Belvedere gallery and its collections reopened after World War II, once the damaged buildings and gardens were restored to their former glory. In 1955, the Austrian State Treaty was signed in the Upper Belvedere and presented to the public from the palace’s balcony.
The exhibition covers the period from the completion of the upper palace in 1723 to the present day, and illustrates the Belvedere’s role as a museum that honors the past, reflects on the present, and looks toward the future.
Display | Bedford Square: Creating Social Distance
Alison Shepherd, Drawing of ‘First’, ‘Second’ and ‘Third Rate’ Houses, in John Summerson, Georgian London (Yale University Press, 2003), figure 54, image courtesy of Alison Shepherd / Trustees of the Estate of John Summerson..
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Now on view at the Paul Mellon Centre:
Bedford Square: Creating Social Distance
Drawing Room, Paul Mellon Centre, London, 31 January — 9 September 2022
Curated by Martin Myrone with Bryony Botwright-Rance
Bedford Square has always been acclaimed as an outstanding piece of urban planning. Built between 1775 and 1782, the fifty-three houses of the square—all but one arranged in apparently symmetrical order, in four ‘palace-fronted terraces’ around a gated, landscaped garden—are considered exemplars of Georgian architecture. The arrangement of the buildings remains intact, and many original architectural details and even interiors are preserved along with much of the character of the private garden, making Bedford Square one of the most complete survivals of Georgian London. Through literature on Bedford Square’s architectural history and records of its inhabitants, this Drawing Room display at the Paul Mellon Centre highlights the way that classic Georgian architecture created forms of social distancing: in its physical form; in creating closed and exclusive urban sites; through its internal spaces which separated inhabitants and allocated roles in highly predictable ways; and its aesthetic values which lay claim to supposedly timeless and universal principles of classical design and geometrical order.
The accompanying exhibition pamphlet by Martin Mryone is available for download at the PMC.
Exhibition | Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings
Thomas Gainsborough, Cornard Wood, near Sudbury, Suffolk, 1748, oil on canvas, 122 × 155 cm
(London: The National Gallery, NG925)
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Now on view at the National Gallery of Ireland:
Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings
York Art Gallery, 1 October 2021 — 13 February 2022
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 5 March — 12 June 2022
Nottingham Castle Museum, 2 July — 25 September 2022
Thomas Gainsborough, Study for Cornard Wood, ca. 1748 (Royal Collection Trust).
In 2017 an exciting discovery was made among the drawings in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. The art historian Lindsay Stainton identified an album of 25 drawings—previously anonymous—as the work of the young Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), one of the greatest British painters of the eighteenth century. Sketched in the countryside around his native Suffolk or conjured from his imagination, these beautiful drawings from the late 1740s shed new light on our understanding of the artist’s early career. The drawings will be presented alongside paintings and works on paper borrowed from collections across the UK and Ireland, including the National Gallery’s recently conserved masterpiece Cornard Wood (1748). Together, they will shed new light on Gainsborough’s early landscape practice and the techniques that made him one of the country’s most significant and influential artists. In addition to the drawings from the Royal Collection Trust, the exhibition is supported by generous loans from the National Gallery, London; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; and Colchester and Ipswich Museums.
The wall labels from the York installation are available for download here»
Exhibition | La Chine
Closing this weekend in Dresden at the Kupferstich-Kabinett:
La Chine: The 18th-Century China Collection in the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett
Residenzschloss, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 19 November 2021 — 8 May 2022
In the early eighteenth century, when the legendary art collection of August the Strong (1670–1733), came into being, Asia was viewed with excited fascination in Europe.
In addition to today‘s world-famous porcelain wares, more than 1100 Chinese drawings and watercolour paintings on paper and silk, as well as woodcuts and coloured prints, were brought to Dresden. This important collection, along with 850 chinoiserie prints, is preserve in the Kupferstich-Kabinett of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. In the first inventory of the Kupferstich-Kabinett, drawn up in 1738, the objects were listed under the categories ‘La Chine’ and ‘La Chine européenne’.
An outstanding feature is the large collection of Chinese popular prints. In China itself, such New Year pictures, congratulatory leaflets, and theatre scenes were considered mere commodities, so that hardly any have been preserved. The prints were cheap to buy. With their wideranging symbolism, usually promising good fortune and prosperity, these sheets were hung up in homes for the New Year or passed on as a blessing, for example, and usually were not preserved. In Europe, Chinese folk art was seen as documenting the costumes and customs of distant lands. In the courtly sphere, the sheets were used as wall decorations, for example. They also served as models for chinoiserie prints. These provided motifs for decorations on buildings and furniture, as well as for porcelain painting.
Ines Beyer, Transformation
The first copperplate prints created in China were made by Matteo Ripa in collaboration with artists from the court painting workshops, on commission to the Kangxi Emperor, after woodcuts illustrating the Emperor’s own poems. The work by Ines Beyer entitled Transformation, based on the eighth view in the series, creates a link to the present day.
Cordula Bischoff and Petra Kuhlmann-Hodick, La Chine: Die China-Sammlung Des 18. Jahrhunderts Im Dresdner Kupferstich-Kabinett (Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2021), 256 pages, ISBN: 978-3954986286, €38.
Exhibition | Bestowing Beauty
Inkwell, Pakistan, Sindh, eighteenth century, steel, overlaid with gold (koftgari) (Houston: Hossein Afshar Collection at the MFAH). This inkwell is dedicated to Mir Fateh ‘Ali Sarkar-i Khan Talpur (r. 1783–1801/2), chief of the Talpurs, a tribe that conquered and ruled Sindh, in present-day Pakistan, from 1783 until 1843. The slit in the inkwell’s base, which makes it possible for a belt to pass through, suggests its portability and importance as part of courtly attire. The gold overlay, delicate decoration, and dedicatory inscription emphasize the power and prestige of the written word.
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From the Toledo Museum of Art’s press release for the exhibition:
Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 19 November 2017 — 11 February 2018
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 12 December 2020 — 18 April 2021
Toledo Museum of Art, 23 April — 17 July 2022
Curated by Aimée Froom
This spring and summer the Toledo Museum of Art offers a spectacular exhibition of more than 100 objects drawn from one of the most significant private collections of Persian art. Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands showcases the artistic inventiveness of Persian culture across different media, featuring a broad array of textiles, ceramics, metalwork, lacquer, paintings, jewelry, and manuscripts from the Hossein Afshar Collection. Historically Persian lands—a wide swath of territory that at various times spanned from Cairo to Delhi, with its heart in what is now modern-day Iran—saw centuries of conquest and globalization. The art that resulted both reinforced Persian culture and assimilated these cross-cultural exchanges.
Woven throughout the stories of these extraordinary objects are experiences, ideas, and emotions shared by cultures across the globe. By evoking universal themes of love, loss, conflict, and spirituality the exhibition brings to life the rich heritage and enduring beauty of Persian art.
“Celebrating the cultural heritage of Iran at the Toledo Museum of Art with Bestowing Beauty represents a rare opportunity for our audiences to experience the grandeur and beauty of these objects in person,” said Diane Wright, the Museum’s senior curator of glass and contemporary craft. “An important area of trade and migration, Persian lands served as critical centers of artistic production and influence for centuries, which the exhibition brilliantly highlights through these extraordinary works of art.”
The visual and literary arts have held a privileged place in Iranian civilization for centuries. The Hossein Afshar Collection, which embraces a diverse range of treasures from the eve of Islam’s arrival in the seventh century to the end of the 19th century, was assembled to preserve and share Persian art and culture today and for future generations. The exceptional objects in Bestowing Beauty embody the history of trade and migration found in Persian art, as well as map the legacy of artistic and technological advancements across the region.
Signed ‘Ali-Quli’, Common Green Magpie, 1746–47, ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper (Hossein Afshar Collection at the MFAH).
The exhibition is divided into six sections:
Banquets and Battles features the exuberance of palace feasting and fighting, quintessential aspects of Persian kingship and perennially popular subjects in Persian art and literature. Feasts are portrayed across media, such as a 19th-century painting of a female juggler accompanied by a cat, and the exhibition also includes lavishly decorated serving vessels and utensils fashioned from metals and ceramic.
Faith and Piety explores how, after the advent of Islam, words from the Qur’an became paramount as a mode of expression. Exquisitely penned and sumptuously illuminated Qur’an manuscripts were produced across the Islamic world. Calligraphers also copied a variety of texts in addition to the Qur’an, such as sayings from the Hadith, Shi‘a invocations, literary manuscripts and poetry, all of which are included in the exhibition.
Art of the Word, the third section, delves into the different developments, styles and uses of calligraphy, enhancing the aesthetic form and rhythmic beauty of calligraphy. Words were woven into textiles, engraved onto metalwork, painted on ceramic objects and enamels, and carved into wood.
In Persian literature, love finds expression as a profound human connection and metaphor for a yearning for unity with the divine. Love and Longing traces how calligraphers and painters brought to life the rich corpus of Persian literature, from the exquisite miniature paintings from the Shahnama (Book of Kings), the Persian national epic, to couplets of lyric poetry and a pair of tightly embracing lovers on a slim lacquer pen case.
Kingship and Authority explores the kingly ideal, which figures prominently in Persian visual and literary culture. In addition to the Shahnama—the masterpiece that reflects the legends and virtues of Persian dynasties—court painters in the 19th century captured portraits of royalty and the ruling elite. This section also incorporates monumental silk carpets of the 16th and 17th centuries and an exquisite 19th-century pendant of gold, pearls, and gemstones.
The concluding section, Earth and Nature, examines the manifestations of flora and fauna that abound in the art of Iran. Its people were among the earliest civilizations to cultivate gardens. The garden’s symbolism—of paradise, of the promise of spring, of renewal—permeated Persian culture and can be seen in the exhibition through glorious depictions of lions, falcons, nightingales, roses, and fruit.
“The significance of Persian lands geographically, culturally and politically cannot be overstated,” said Sophie Ong, Hirsch curatorial fellow at the Toledo Museum of Art. “Bestowing Beauty draws attention to the splendor and complexity of Persian art, continuing TMA’s enrichment of the medieval world and beyond.”
Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Aimée Froom, ed., Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands—Selections from the Hossein Afshar Collection (New Haven: Yale University Press, with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2021), 304 pages, ISBN: 978-0300247022, $85. With contributions by Walter Denny, Melanie Gibson, David Roxburgh, Robert Hillenbrand, Mary McWilliams, Janet O’Brien, Marianna Shreve Simpson, Eleanor Sims, Margaret Squires, and Julie Timte.
Exhibition | Louis Chéron (1655–1725)
The exhibition closed last month, but the catalogue is still available:
Louis Chéron: L’ambition du dessin parfait
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen, 4 December 2021 — 6 March 2022
Curated by François Marandet
Le musée des Beaux-Arts propose la première rétrospective consacrée à Louis Chéron, au travers d’une soixantaine d’œuvres issues de collections françaises et anglaises, couvrant une large période, de 1678 jusqu’aux années 1720.
Né à Paris en 1655, Louis Chéron quitte la France pour l’Angleterre en 1683. C’est à Londres qu’il vivra pendant trente ans, occupant là une place centrale au sein de la scène artistique. Les études académiques, les dessins d’invention, les projets d’illustration, les programmes pour de grands décors peints et les rares tableaux de chevalet conservés permettent de découvrir un artiste prolifique et précurseur. Contemporain de Louis Laguerre et de James Thornhill, à cheval sur deux siècles et deux nations, Cheron, souvent considéré comme un « suiveur de Charles Le Brun », reflète l’esprit classique français. Il annonce également, par ses dessins d’invention et sa peinture de chevalet proprement fantastiques, l’art de la génération suivante. En 1720, il crée sa propre école d’art à Londres, dont l’originalité est l’introduction de femmes nues comme modèles. Un peintre aussi célèbre que William Hogarth y suivra des cours.
The press packet is available as a PDF file here»
François Marandet, with prefaces by Emmanuelle Delapierre and Robin Simon, Louis Chéron (1655–1725): L’ambition du dessin parfait (Ballan-Miré: Illustria Librairie des Musées, 2022), 288 pages, ISBN: 978-2354040956, 30€.
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