17th Century
Guido Reni acquired by Palazzo Spinola, Genoa
February 10 2026
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palazzo Spinola in Genoa will be unveiling their recently acquired Lucretia by Guido Reni to the public tomorrow evening. The work, dated to c. 1638, has been identified in the collections of the Balbi family in the 17th century and descended with them until coming into the possession of 'its previous owner'.
Artemisia acquired by NGA
February 9 2026
Picture: nga.gov
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. announced their acquisition of Artemisia Gentileschi's Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy last week.
According to the gallery's website:
Featured in numerous publications and exhibitions since its rediscovery in 2011, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy is widely considered by art historians to be one of Gentileschi’s greatest works, making it one of the most prominent recent additions to the nation’s art collection. Before its acquisition by the National Gallery, the painting spent centuries in a private collection and disappeared from the public record. It resurfaced in the south of France in 2011 and was acquired by a private collection during a Sotheby’s auction in 2014 [where it made €865,000].
The Sun King's Carpets at the Grand Palais
February 2 2026
Video: GrandPalais
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Grand Palais in Paris have just opened a rather magnificent looking exhibition featuring monumental carpets woven at the Savonnerie Manufactory for the Grand Gallery of the Louvre.
According to their website:
In 1668, as King Louis XIV prepared to make the Louvre his royal residence, he entrusted his First Painter, Charles Le Brun, with a bold and magnificent commission: the creation of 92 carpets, woven at the Savonnerie Manufactory, to adorn the floor of the palace’s most majestic gallery. Each carpet, nine meters wide, was meant to form a spectacular decorative ensemble, one of the most ambitious ever conceived for a royal palace.
Fate, however, took a different course. Never installed in the Louvre, these treasures crossed the centuries through revolutions, sales, and dispersals. Today, 41 original carpets remain in the collections of the National Manufactories, 33 of which are complete.
Brought together for the first time beneath the glass roof of the Grand Palais, alongside a carpet designed for the Galerie d’Apollon, they offer a display of rare magnificence. A unique and historic event, lasting just one week, inviting visitors to discover these jewels of French heritage in a setting worthy of their splendor.
The exhibition only runs for a week, so you have until the 8th February to catch it!
Rediscovered Guido Reni Revealed Today
January 30 2026
Picture: C2RMF
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The aforementioned rediscovered and restored Guido Reni of Atalanta and Hippomenes will be unveiled to the public today at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Libourne. It seems that an official photograph of the painting after restoration is yet to emerge. More news as and when it arrives.
Dresden Rubens to be restored with TEFAF Fund
January 28 2026
Picture: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Rubens' The Boar Hunt, located in the collection the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, has been announced as the recipient of this year's TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund (TMRF). The restored painting is expected to be unveiled at the forthcoming 2027 exhibition entitled Rubens in Dresden.
According to Artdaily.com's article linked above:
With TEFAF’s funding, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister will restore The Boar Hunt (1616-18), a monumental painting by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). This work was most likely acquired directly from the artist in 1627 by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, before becoming part of the imperial collection in Prague. In 1749, it entered the collection of Frederick Augustus IIof Saxony and has remained in Dresden ever since, surviving wartime displacement to the USSR in 1945, a decade in storage in Moscow, and eventual return to Dresden in the mid-1950s.
The Boar Hunt is obscured by a thick, darkened multi-layered varnish (likely 19th-century) that mutes Rubens’ original palette. Technical imaging has also confirmed the presence of an upper extension into which the original underdrawing does not continue, raising key questions about when the extension was made and by whom. Early evidence suggests the addition may have been made under Rubens’ direction, while ongoing research will explore possible contributions from artists in his circle, including Jan Wildens, Lucas van Uden, or Anthony van Dyck.
Luca Giordano Sketch acquired by Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao
January 27 2026
Picture: Magna Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain (spotted via @Boro_RR) that the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao have acquired Luca Giordano's sketch entitled the Allegory of the Consulate of Bilbao. The work was acquired in December last year at Magna Art Auctions for €12,000.
Bernini e i Barberini at the Palazzo Barberini
January 19 2026
Picture: barberinicorsini.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palazzo Barberini in Rome will be opening a new exhibition on 12th February dedicated to exploring the relationship between Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII. The exhibition also coincides with the 400th anniversary of the consecration of the new St. Peter’s Basilica.
Give Van Dyck back to Church in Palermo, says Group
January 16 2026
Picture: Wikipedia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that a group of citizens and experts in Sicily have been calling for a version of Van Dyck's Madonna of the Rosary to be permanently restituted to the church of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria in Palermo. The artwork was removed from there in 1922 for storage and display in the Palazzo Abatellis. It has been allowed to return to the church twice in every year for the Christmas period and in May.
___________
As it happens, I had a quick flick through the 2004 Van Dyck catalogue raisonné for this very picture and couldn't find it.* The composition appears to have been partly borrowed from the more famous Madonna of the Rosary located in the city's Oratorio del Rosario.
* - I'm sure a reader will get in touch in case I've been negligent here.
Update - A reader has kindly been in touch with the following link to another version which sold in Sweden in 2024. The catalogue note provides further details on the composition.
Attributed to Rubens Head with Second Face
January 14 2026
Picture: artnet.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Artnet.com have published a story relating to a head study of an Old Man attributed to Rubens which is being unveiled at the BRAFA fair in Brussels by dealer Klaas Muller. Acquired at auction a few years ago for €100,000, the head study (which relates to a finished Rubens in the Prado and is often repeated by other hands) curiously features another face which was painted over during the process of its creation. Click on the link to read the full story.
Rembrandthuis borrow Rembrandt from Rijksmuseum
January 12 2026
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam have shared news on Instagram that they will be borrowing Rembrandt's preparatory oil study for Joseph relating his dreams to his parents and brothers from the nearby Rijksmuseum. The painting will be on display for their latest exhibition Rembrandt's Masterclass which opens at the end of this month.
According to their post:
The great sadness of the Rembrandt House Museum is that it has never managed to acquire a painting by Rembrandt, despite the fact that he made over 100 paintings in the world-famous studio on the Jodenbreestraat. Within the current art market, a museum like ours can only display a Rembrandt painting as a loan or acquire it thanks to a donation. Therefore, we are delighted with the generous loan from the Rijksmuseum and the support of Vereniging Rembrandt. They are helping us to continuously display a Rembrandt painting in the coming years and to make this important piece of Dutch heritage accessible to a wide audience.” Milou Halbesma, Director of the Rembrandt House Museum.
''The intimacy of the scene in a room perfectly complements the domestic setting of the Rembrandthuis. The painting provides a fascinating insight into Rembrandt's working methods. The painter at work. It is wonderful that visitors will be able to see it permanently on this special site.” Taco Dibbits, Genral Director of the Rijksmuseum.
Luca Giordano Soars
January 6 2026
Picture: Abalarte Subastas
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm slow to news (via Drouot) that the following Battle of the Amazons by Luca Giordano soared to past its starting estimate of €180,000 to achieve €854,000 (inc. commission) at Abalarte Subastas in Spain at the end of December. This is apparently the second highest price at auction for the artist.
Ignacio Iriarte landscape acquired by Museo Bellas Artes de Sevilla
January 6 2026
Picture: arsmagazine
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via the Artsmagazine in Spain that the Museo Bellas Artes de Sevilla have acquired a Landscape with St Jerome by the 17th century Spanish artist Ignacio Iriarte. The work was acquired from a Spanish collection, where it had previously been considered Flemish, for €42,000.
El Greco thieves escape with copy instead of original
December 29 2025
Picture: abc.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Spanish media have reported on news that thieves who attempted to plunder El Greco's Penitent Magdalene from the parish church of San Eutropio in Paradas, Seville, walked off with a reproduction instead of the original painting itself (spotted via @currmon on 'X'). The break-in, which happened on 24th December, was foiled (it appears) due to the original being kept behind a fence and alarm. It seems that the thieves were content to take a copy instead.
Museo de San Isidro acquires 17th century Isidore the Labourer painting
December 29 2025
Picture: Mutualart
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain (via @Boro_RR on 'X') that the Museo de San Isidro in Madrid have acquired an anonymous 17th century painting of Isidore the Labourer Feeding Doves. It was acquired earlier at auction where it was catalogued as 'Madrid School, 17th century'.
Frans Francken II acquired by Art Institute Chicago
December 24 2025
Picture: CODART
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from CODART that the Art Institute Chicago have acquired Frans Francken II's Queen Esther before her husband, the Persian king Ahasuerus. The painting is apparently 'the first Flemish early modern painting to be acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in nearly fifteen years.' The work had previously been with the dealers Salomon Lilian.
Sustermans Cosimo III de’ Medici being Conserved
December 23 2025
Picture: phoebusfoundation.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Phoebus Foundation in Belgium have published an interesting article on the conservation of Justus Sustermans’ Portrait of Cosimo III de’ Medici as a Child. For more information and pleasing mid-clean photos click on link above.
Cornelius Jonson at the Stadsmuseum Zierikzee
December 23 2025
Picture: WBOOKS / Stadsmuseum Zierikzee
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Stadsmuseum Zierikzee in the Netherlands will be opening a new exhibition on Cornelius Jonson van Ceulen on 15th January 2026. The show, which has been curated by Karen Hearn, will feature loans from major European museums including Tate, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden, and the Rijksmuseum. In fact, the Mauritshuis have cleaned their painting of Jan Beck and his five children (from which the detail in the image above is taken) especially for the exhibition.
The exhibition, for which a full printed catalogue (with an English version available too) has also been published, will run until 14th June 2026.
Recent Release: Final Volume of Rubens Drawings Catalogue
December 22 2025
Picture: Brepols
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm late to news that the final volume of the Critical Catalogue of the drawings of Rubens was published this autumn. This third volume covers the years 1621-1640 and was edited by Anne-Marie Logan and Kristin Lohse Belkin.
According to the publisher's website:
This is the final volume of the catalogue raisonné of the drawings by Peter Paul Rubens, covering the years 1621–1640. The project is a collaboration between Anne-Marie Logan, to whom belong all the Rubens attributions, and Kristin Lohse Belkin. It is the first publication that presents the artist’s entire drawn oeuvre in chronological order, previous such publications containing only selections of drawings. Accordingly, Volume III consists of the drawings from 1621 to the artist’s death in 1640.
The first decade is characterized by Rubens’s first foreign commission, the paintings for the Luxembourg Palace, Marie de’ Medici, the Queen Mother’s new residence in Paris, and by the demands of the artist’s diplomatic missions to the courts of Madrid and London. In contrast to the works requested by Rubens’s official duties, especially portraiture, a subject not of primary interest to the artist before, are the paintings and drawings of the second decade, predominantly inspired by the elderly painter’s marriage to the young Helena Fourment and the love and deep affection for his wife and her children. Court portraits are replaced by images of his family à trois crayons, Rubens preferred medium in these years. Helena in disguise appears in the artist’s religious, mythological and genre paintings, most gloriously in the series of drawings for The Garden of Love. Commissions for altarpieces continue but unlike the black chalk anatomical studies of the 1610s, preparatory drawings now consist of head studies in black and red chalk, the latter used for the capture and color of skin. At the same time, images of domestic bliss are accompanied by drawings of the Flemish countryside, especially after Rubens’s purchase of the seignorial estate “Het Steen” in 1635.
Prado acquire Juan Bautista Maíno Visitation
December 19 2025
Picture: arsmagazine.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
More acquisition news from the Prado that they have acquired Juan Bautista Maíno's Visitation. The work, dated 1636 and exhibited at the 2022 edition of TEFAF, was acquired from dealer Jaime Eguiguren's gallery for €375,000.
Caravaggio in Goa
December 17 2025
Video: National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru via Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A collaborative project between the Embassy of Italy in India and the Consulate General of Italy in Mumbai has seen the loan of Caravaggio's Magdalene in Ecstasy to the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa. The same painting had been displayed in the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art earlier this year. Here's a video of Dr. Jayaram Poduval's take on the work.
