16th Century
Seminar Series: Gold and its Uses in Early Modern Painting
December 13 2024
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The French National Institute for Art History (INHA) in Paris is running a very interesting seminar series next year on the subject of Gold and its Uses in Early Modern Painting. The series is the culmination of a research collaboration which was begun in 2021 by the AORUM project (Analysis of Gold and its Uses as a Painting Material). Click on the links above to find out more about the series which will run from January until June 2025.
New Paintings catalogue for Catedral de Segovia
December 13 2024
Picture: Catedral de Segovia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Catedral de Segovia in Spain has just released a new catalogue on its collection of paintings. The Cathedral is home to 39 important works of art, mostly drawn from Flemish and Castilian artists from the 15th - 17th centuries. The catalogue contains contributions from 11 different authors and scholars and is available for purchase through the link above.
Experience Raphael in Lille
December 12 2024
Video: France 3 Hauts-de-France
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I failed to spot that an interesting exhibition on Raphael opened at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Lille earlier this autumn. Entitled Experience Raphael, the show is the first time that the museum's collection of 40 drawings by the artist have been put on display in their entirety alongside loans from institutions across Europe.
The show will run until 17th February 2025.
Prado acquires Pedro Machuca from Christie's Sale
December 12 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that the Prado in Madrid have acquired Pedro Machuca's Baptism of Christ from the recent Christie's London Old Masters Part II sale. The painting had sold for £63,000 over its £25k - £35 estimate. It had previously come up at Sotheby's in 2023 but failed to find a winning bid.
Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo Catalogue Raisonné
December 4 2024
Picture: Soncino
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I seemed to have missed news last year of a new catalogue raisonné dedicated to the sixteenth century painter Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo (c. 1480-1548). The volume, written by Alberto Maria Casciello, contains a full list of the artist's work alongside a thorough biography.
As usual with such projects, this will earn Casciello a place in the much-coveted Heroes of Art History section of this blog.
Elizabeth I soars at Christie's Paris
November 26 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The following Portrait of Elizabeth I soared past its 20,000 - 30,000 EUR estimate at the Christie's Paris online sale the other day to realise an impressive 176,400 EUR (inc. premium). The painting had formerly been in the collection of the Dukes of Westminster until it was sold in 1992.
Rosso Fiorentino at Sotheby's
November 26 2024
Video: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's have published the following video on Rosso Fiorentino's The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist which is being offered in their upcoming London Old Master Paintings Evening sale. In addition to this, the auction house have produced the following video describing Artemisia Gentileschi's Mary Magdalene in Meditation which is being offered in the same sale.
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael at the Royal Academy
November 18 2024
Video: Euronews
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A quick reminder that the Royal Academy's winter exhibition, entitled Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504, has just opened in London. It will run until 16th February 2025.
Tiziano, Crivelli, Lotto, Guercino e Ciccarello - in Rome
November 18 2024
Picture: Musei Capitolini di Roma
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musei Capitolini in Rome will be opening a new temporary exhibition of six masterpieces on loan from the Pinacoteca Civica di Ancona later this November. The works will include paintings by Titian, Crivelli, Lotto, Guercino and Ciccarello, a loan which has been made possible due to a renovation project being undertaken on their usual home.
The display will run from 25th November 2024 onwards.
Hever Castle acquires Cromwell Portrait
November 18 2024
Video: BBC South East
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Hever Castle in Kent, one of the former homes of Anne Boleyn, have acquired and redisplayed a portrait of Thomas Cromwell.
The acquisition had caused some conflicting feelings for assistant curator Dr Owen Emmerson as he explains:
He said: “When I first saw this painting listed at auction back in 2020, I thought twice about suggesting the purchase, for fear of what Anne Boleyn would have thought of us hanging a portrait of the man who orchestrated her downfall in her home.
"However, I remembered that before Anne’s downfall, she had threatened Cromwell with his life, telling him that she wanted his head off his shoulders, and I then reasoned that, since the portrait only shows his head, we were, in a way, fulfilling her wishes."
The painting was acquired from Christie's London in 2020 for £11,875.
Upcoming Release: Bruegel's Three Soldiers
November 18 2024
Picture: Frick Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Frick Collection's latest publication as part of their Diptych series is due out in January 2025. This upcoming volume will focus on the collection's (fairly) recently acquired Three Soldiers by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and is written by Anna-Claire Stinebring.
According to the blurb found online:
One of the greatest Netherlandish painters of the sixteenth century, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525−1569) is best known for his landscapes and peasant scenes. One of only three signed works by Bruegel in the United States, The Three Soldiers was once in the celebrated collection of Charles I of England. The small panel in grisaille (shades of gray) represents a trio of Landsknechte, the mercenary foot soldiers whose flamboyant costumes and poses were a popular subject for printmakers of the period. This volume considers the artistic and political environment of the time and investigates how a colorful subject is transformed by its translation into monochrome.
Designed to foster critical engagement and interest specialist and non-specialist alike, each book in this series illuminates a single work in the Frick's rich collection with an essay by an art historian paired with a contribution from a contemporary artist or writer.
Exciting news too, that the newly rennovated Frick Collection will reopen in April 2025!
Jewellery Painting Soars!
November 15 2024
Picture: Van Ham
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The following painting catalogued as 'Lavinia Fontana - The Choice of Jewellery. Lady by the Toilet.' soared to 607,200 EUR (including premium) over its 8,000 - 10,000 EUR estimate at Van Ham in Cologne yesterday. Let's wait and see if it turns up anywhere interesting!
Update - the curious thing about this lot (writes Bendor) is that it was catalogued as by an unknown artist at first. Perhaps just to get all our hopes up!
Spanish State Insure €134m worth of El Grecos for 2025 Prado Exhibition
November 14 2024
Picture: Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Toledo
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's an interesting story which has made the headlines in Spain (spotted via @MarteVelazquez), and a part of the loan exhibition world you usually don't often hear much about publicly. The Spanish Ministry of Culture has disclosed that it has insured €134m worth of paintings by El Greco for an upcoming exhibition at the Prado in 2025. This tremendous sum is for the loan of a total of four works, three from the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo (pictured), Spain, and one from the Art Institute in Chicago.
This is in preparation of an exhibition in Madrid which will focus on the works commissioned for the aforementioned Church in Toledo and is set to run from February to June 2025.
Sleeper Alert!
November 14 2024
Picture: Pandolfini
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Quite a few accounts on social media have pointed out the phenomenal 290,000 EUR this drawing made at Pandolfini in Florence yesterday. The work, catalogued as 'Artist of the 18th century', soared past its 1,000 - 1,500 EUR estimate. Several accounts have pointed towards the sheet possibly belonging to a 16th century German hand.
Video Tour: Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350
November 11 2024
Video: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little late to this video tour of the MET in New York's recently opened exhibition entitled Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350.
The show will run in NYC until 26th January 2025 and will then head to the National Gallery in London in March 2025.
Barocci altarpiece sent to the Palazzo Marino for Christmas
November 11 2024
Picture: comune.milano.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palazzo Marino in Milan is being lent The Madonna of San Simone by Federico Barocci for the Christmas period. The picture, usually found within the collections of Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino, will be part of a free display which runs from 4th December 2024 until 12th January.
Italian Renaissance Drawings from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen at the Fondation Custodia
November 11 2024
Picture: Fondation Custodia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This autumn seems to be the season for Old Master Drawings exhibitions! The Fondation Custodia in Paris opened a new show last month dedicated to Italian Renaissance Drawings from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
According to the museum's website:
The aim of the exhibition is to reveal those talented draughtsmen whose artistic innovations were at the core of the Italian Renaissance. Pisanello, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Veronese, Correggio... Thanks to recent research carried out at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, in collaboration with international experts and the Fondation Custodia, a number of important discoveries have been made regarding the drawings and some have been re-attributed to leading artists including Pontormo, Federico Zuccari, Aurelio Lomi and Pellegrino Tibaldi.
Drawings made by some of the early fifteenth-century precursors of the Italian Renaissance, today of the greatest rarity, are one of the salient features of the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Several studies by Pisanello, Parri Spinelli and Benozzo Gozzoli open the exhibition in an impressive way. From then on, the pre-eminent centres of Florence and Venice take over. These were the principal hubs of artistic creation at the time and indeed dominate the Rotterdam collection. The museum is famous for its exceptional collection of 400 drawings by the Florentine painter Fra Bartolommeo, thirteen of which are presented in Paris. Venice is not far behind and the exhibition contains work by its greatest representatives: Vittore Carpaccio, Gentile Bellini, Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto and their workshops, as well as that of the Bassano family.
The exhibition will run until 12th January 2025.
Girolamo Genga Altarpiece Conserved
September 23 2024
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
More news from Italy that Girolamo Genga's The Cesena Altarpiece has been restored after a three-year conservation project. Painted between 1513 and 1518, the project was undertaken onsite at the Church of Sant'Agostino and consisted of various scientific scans alongside the work undertaken on the painting itself.
A few weeks left of Barocci in Urbino
September 23 2024
Video: Tele 2000
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
One exhibition that seems to have received a lot of positive reviews on social media and elsewhere is the aforementioned Barocci exhibition at the Palazzo ducale in Urbino. The show runs until 6th October 2024, so only a few more weeks to catch it if you can!
Il Cinquecento a Ferrara
September 16 2024
Picture: ferraratoday.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new exhibition focusing on the art of Il Cinquecento in Ferrara will be opening at the Palazzo dei Diamanti on 12th October 2024. With around 220 works on display, the exhibition will draw particular focus on the likes of Mazzolino, Ortolano, Garofalo and Dosso Dossi. The show will then run until 16th February 2025.
