15th Century And Earlier
Sleeper Alert!
January 13 2025
Picture: clarkeny.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News on social media (spotted via @mbrehe) that the following picture catalogued as 'FLORENTINE SCHOOL (POSSIBLY 14TH/15TH CENTURY)' sold for $230,000 over its $3k - $5k estimate at Clarke Auctioneers in NY yesterday.
Funded PhDs for Medieval Art in Italy
January 10 2025
Picture: University of Salerno
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The University of Salerno in Italy is receiving applications for 2 funded PhDs in Medieval Art.
According to the page linked above:
The StoryPharm project, which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action – Doctoral Networks – Grant Agreement 101169114 (https://www.ucy.ac.cy/storypharm/). The focus of the project will be on premodern narratives and images involving medicine, health, and healing. These will be studied from a transdisciplinary and comparative perspective, across linguistic and cultural borders.
A place on the project will come with a rather generous €3,311 per month plus mobility allowance of €600. Applications must be in by 17th February 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Curate Illuminated Manuscripts at The British Library
January 6 2025
Picture: jobs.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The British Library are hiring a Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts.
According to the job description:
The British Library has an internationally renowned collection of illuminated manuscripts made in Britain and Europe before 1600. We have an exciting opportunity for a permanent Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts, based in the Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts team.
You will help to develop, manage and interpret the Library’s collection of illuminated manuscripts. You will be responsible for cataloguing these manuscripts and presenting them to a variety of audiences, through online resources, writing blog posts, answering specialist enquiries, and contributing to exhibitions and the public programme. You will oversee digitisation projects, including the selection of manuscripts to be digitised. You will also contribute to fund-raising initiatives, and strategic communications with our stakeholders.
The job comes with an annual salary of £34,608 per annum* and applications must be in by 9th February 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
______________
* - I don't usually comment on salaries for jobs I posted here, but I'm rather baffled exactly how one of the world's greatest collections of manuscripts can value a position like this so lowly. In comparison a 'Product Manager' role (something vaguely tech related that doesn't require a degree let alone the 'doctoral degree' required for the curator position) at the BL received a salary of up to £40,950.
Upcoming: A New Look at Cimabue - At the Origins of Italian Painting
January 3 2025
Picture: Louvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre in Paris will be opening their latest Old Master Paintings exhibition on 22nd January 2025. A New Look at Cimabue - At the Origins of Italian Painting has been organised to celebrate both an acquisition and restoration of works by the artist.
According to the museum's website:
For the first time, the Musée du Louvre is dedicating an exhibition to Cimabue, one of the most important artists of the 13th century. The exhibition is the product of two ‘Cimabue-centric’ events of great importance for the museum: the restoration of the Maestà and the acquisition of a heretofore-unseen Cimabue panel, rediscovered in France in 2019 and listed as a French National Treasure: Christ Mocked.
These two paintings, whose restoration was completed in 2024, provide the starting point for this exhibition, which, by bringing together some forty works, aims to illuminate the extraordinary richness and undeniable innovation of Cimabue’s art. Cimabue was one of the first to open Western painting to naturalism, seeking to represent the world, objects and bodies as they truly existed. With him, the conventions of representation inherited from Eastern art, so highly valued until this period, gave way to an inventive art of painting seeking to evoke a three-dimensional space, bodies in volume shaped by subtle shading, articulated limbs, natural postures and human emotions.
The show will run until 12th May 2025.
Capodimonte Museum acquires two works by Colantonio
December 12 2024
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Capodimonte Museum in Naples has acquired two works by the fifteenth century master Colantonio, who is most famously known for being the master of Antonello da Messina. The paintings of the Franciscan figures Morico and Leone join two others already within the museum's collection which were once part of the same polyptych that was dismantled in 1639.
Vatican Restores Apollo Belvedere
December 12 2024
Video: AZ News
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little late to the news that the Vatican have recently unveiled their famous Apollo Belvedere statue after a 5-year restoration project.
According to Reuters:
Restoration experts spent years working on the "Apollo Belvedere", repairing fractures in its knees and legs, cleaning the entire cream-coloured statue with lasers, and installing a carbon fibre pole anchored to its base to increase stability.
"This type of restoration... is the expression of what we want the Vatican Museums to be," said Barbara Jatta, the Museums' director. "A balance of tradition, linguistics and study, with a gaze that looks to the future."
Ashmolean raise £4.48m to keep Fra Angelico Crucifixion in UK
November 8 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford have successfully raised £4.48m to keep Fra Angelico's Crucifixion in the UK. Readers will remember this painting from July 2023, when it was sold from the collections of the Marquess of Northampton at Christie's London.
According to the museum's press release:
The magnificent work, which has been in the UK for about two centuries, was sold to an overseas buyer and was at risk of leaving the country. Due to the work’s value and importance to the nation, the Reviewing Committee on the Exports of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, which is supported by the Arts Council, recommended that the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport put a temporary export license stop - known as a deferral - on the work. In January 2024, the export deferral was announced, allowing the Ashmolean nine months to express interest in acquiring the work and raise the necessary funds to keep the painting in the UK. [...]
There are very few paintings by Fra Angelico in British public collections – a fact noted by the Reviewing Committee when considering their recommendation. Outside of London, it is only the Ashmolean that is fortunate enough to preserve a work by the master and his studio in its collection. This work, a hinged triptych that depicts the Virgin and Child with angels and a Dominican saint flanked by Saints Peter and Paul, is currently on display in the Museum’s gallery of Early Italian Art. The Crucifixion will soon hang alongside the later work, allowing visitors to appreciate both how the artist’s style developed over the course of his career and the extent to which his delicate, emotive approach was already established by the 1420s.
Botticelli sent to Milan
September 6 2024
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Botticelli's The Adoration of the Magi is being lent to the Carlo Maria Martini Diocesan Museum in Milan this winter for a special exhibition. One of the treasures of the Uffizi in Florence, the loan will last from 29th October 2024 until 2nd February 2025, a perfect reason to visit Milan at Christmas I think!
Memling in Bruges
September 5 2024
Video: smarthistory
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new collaboration between VISITFLANDERS, Smarthistory and the Center for Netherlandish Art at the MFA Boston has produced the following video on Hans Memling's Triptych of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist from the Museum Saint John's Hospital in Bruges. Featured within are the voices of Dr. Anna Koopstra, Curator of Early Netherlandish painting, Musea Brugge, Bruges and Dr. Steven Zucker.
New Catalogue for Gemäldegalerie's Netherlandish and French Paintings 1400-1480
September 2 2024
Picture: Gemäldegalerie Berlin
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (the association of curators of Flemish and Dutch art) have drawn attention to the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin's new catalogue for Netherlandish and French Paintings 1400-1480. Edited by Katrin Dyballa and Stephan Kemperdick, the publication examines 69 paintings in 52 catalogue entries including works by Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Jean Fouquet, Albert van Ouwater and Hugo van der Goes.
Holbein the Elder in Augsburg
July 31 2024
Picture: kunstsammlungen-museen.augsburg.de
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Collections & Museums of Augsburg have just opened a new exhibition dedicated to Hans Holbein the Elder (1465–1524). Scheduled to coincide with the 500th Anniversary of his death, the show is supported by major loans from museums across Europe and will run until 20th October 2024.
Madonna del Pantheon Conserved
July 10 2024
Video: MiC_Italia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Rome that the so-called Madonna del Pantheon, an incredibly ancient religious painting possibly dating to the 7th century, has been conserved. The 8-month project, which included scientific analysis, was funded by the Italian fashion house Bulgari.
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno acquire Giovanni di Corraduccio
July 9 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno in Italy have announced their acquisition of a triptych by Giovanni di Corraduccio. The work was acquired from the recent Evening Auction at Sotheby's London where it sold for £348,000 (inc. fees) over its £200k - £300k estimate. The foundation expressed that it is committed to to the recovery, protection and enhancement of the local historical and artistic heritage of Foligno in Perugia and the work will soon go on display at the Palazzo Cattani.
Duecento painting: The art and technique of Margarito d’Arezzo and his contemporaries
July 4 2024
Picture: Museo Nazionale d'Arte Medievale e Moderna di Arezzo
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A call for papers has been issued for a collaborative conference on the subject of Duecento painting: The art and technique of Margarito d'Arezzo and his contemporaries.
According to the link above (in translation):
This interdisciplinary convention invites colleagues working on all aspects of thirteenth-century painting, from art-historical studies to scientific analysis, technical research and conservation. The conference aims to provide an exceptional opportunity to share and discuss the artworks of Margarito d'Arezzo and his contemporaries.
Submissions covering a wide range of topics will be considered, including works on panel, sculptures, wall paintings, textiles, and miniatures, as well as art history and the history of collecting. We expect that the conference will stimulate studies in this area, so proposals may also include information on ongoing research, without detailed results.
The conference will take place in October 2025 and abstracts will need to be submitted by 20th September 2024.
The Torlonia Collection at the Louvre
June 25 2024
Picture: presse.louvre.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new display of classical sculpture from the Torlonia Collection will be opened tomorrow at the Louvre in Paris. It will be the first time the collection has been exhibited outside of Italy.
According to the press release:
The Paris show is intended to display the Torlonia Collection, little known in France, in a setting steeped in the history of museums of ancient sculpture. It will offer an intimate archaeological and aesthetic look at the extraordinary Torlonia marbles as they engage in dialogue with the artworks in the Louvre’s own collection.
It will be held in the summer apartments of Anne of Austria and in the adjacent ‘Salle d’Auguste’ , where Roman sculpture has been displayed in the Louvre since 1798. These spaces have been completely renovated as they will later be home to a newly designed display of the Louvre’s Roman collection.
The exhibition will run until 11th November 2024.
15th Century Flemish Paintings in the Prado
June 21 2024
Picture: tiendaprado.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado Museum in Madrid have just published a new catalogue of their 15th Century Flemish Paintings (spotted via @MarteVelazquez on 'X'). The volume, which was written by José Juan Pérez Preciado, includes vast descriptions of works by the likes of Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, The Master of Flémalle, Dirk Bouts, Hans Memling and Hugo van der Goes.
Recent Release: Painting Architecture in Early Renaissance Italy
June 20 2024
Picture: brepols.net
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Harvey Miller Publishers are set to release the following book this month. Painting Architecture in Early Renaissance Italy: Innovation and Persuasion at the Intersection of Artistic and Architectural Practice has been written by the scholar Livia Lupi whose work has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the Warburg Institute.
According to the publication's blurb:
Why did artists include prominent architectural settings in their narrative paintings? Why did they labour over specific, highly innovative structural solutions? Why did they endeavour to design original ornamental motifs which brought together sculptural, painterly and architectural approaches, as well as showcasing their understanding of materiality? Painting Architecture in Early Renaissance Italy addresses these questions in order to shed light on the early exchanges between artistic and architectural practice in Italy, arguing that architecture in painting provided a unique platform for architectural experimentation.
Rather than interpreting architectural settings as purely spatial devices and as lesser counterparts of their built cognates, this book emphasises their intrinsic value as designs as well as communicative tools, contending that the architectural imagination of artists was instrumental in redefining the status of architectural forms as a kind of cultural currency. Exploring the nexus between innovation and persuasion, Livia Lupi highlights an early form of little-discussed paragone between painting and architecture which relied on a shared understanding of architectural invention as a symbol of prestige.
Bellissimo! in Freiburg
June 6 2024
Picture: freiburg.de
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I failed to spot that a new exhibition opened in the Augustinermuseum in Freiburg last month entitled Bellissimo! Italian paintings from the Lindenau Museum Altenburg (via @bastianeclercy).
According to the city's website:
Magnificent golds and bright colors, elegant lines and refined artistic techniques - this is how precious Italian paintings by Fra Angelico, Guido da Siena or Sandro Botticelli inspire. They were created in famous art centers such as Florence or Siena. The exhibition shows the pictorial world of churches and private devotion, but also offers insights into the art of stately courts. The Lindenau Museum in Altenburg owns one of the most important collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the early 16th century abroad. On the occasion of its renovation, the treasures are guests in Freiburg.
The show will continue until 3rd November 2024.
Donatello's Judith and Holofernes Conserved
June 4 2024
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that Donatello's bronze of Judith and Holofernes has been conserved and redisplayed to the public. The sculpture, in the collections of Palazzo Vecchio, has just completed a ten-month conservation project which was funded in part by the Friends of Florence Foundation. Click on the link to see images of the newly restored work.
Fra Angelico at the Palazzo Strozzi
May 31 2024
Picture: palazzostrozzi.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palazzo Strozzi in Florence have released details regarding a major exhibition they are planning in 2025. The show, dedicated to Fra Angelico, promises to be an unmissable event.
According to their website:
The occasion of the exhibition will see the restoration of extraordinary masterpieces and the re-assembly for the first time ever of several of Angelico’s great altarpieces that have been dispersed in museums throughout Europe and North America. This will allow an unparalleled journey, with loans from the most important museums and institutions in the world such as the Louvre in Paris, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Windsor Castle, the Vatican Museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Angelico allows an exploration of the production, development, and influence of Fra Angelico’s art in dialogue with painters like Lorenzo Monaco, Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, Jan van Eyck, and Lorenzo Monaco, as well as sculptors such as Lorenzo Ghiberti, Michelozzo, and Luca della Robbia.
The exhibition will be opening in September 2025!
