17th Century
New Release: Salomon Mesdach
January 13 2025
Picture: wbooks.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new monograph on the Zeeland painter Salomon Mesdach (1575/80-ca. 1628) is set to be released on 15th January 2025. The publication is the work of the scholar Carla van de Puttelaar and is the first to carve out the small but distinctive oeuvre of the artist. It contains 170 illustrations, within its 128 pages, and is supported by technical as well as art historical research.
Uffizi acquire Salvator Rosa Witch
January 7 2025
Picture: Nicholas Hall
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The New York dealer Nicholas Hall has announced on Instagram that the Uffizi Galleries in Florence have acquired Salvator Rosa's La Strega (The Witch).
To quote part of their catalogue note written for the picture:
In the twenty-first century Western imagination, the word ‘witch’ conjures a variety of figures, from the Puritans of Salem, to Snow White’s transforming evil stepmother, to the seductive temptresses of 1970s B-films. For the early modern European, the idea of a witch was similarly varied—corroborated by the numerous and diverging pictures and descriptions that crop up in demonological texts, mythological narratives, court documents and images of artistic fantasy. In this milieu, the notoriously audacious Neapolitan artist Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), famed for his sublime landscapes and esoteric philosophical subjects, fashioned a specific stereotype of witches in his paintings of black magic. Made during the 1640s and 1650s between Florence and Rome, Rosa’s pictures drew on a wide variety of sources, including popular superstitions, literary characters, demonological treatises and the rich visual tradition crafted by Renaissance artists.
No picture captures the qualities of the ‘Rosian witch’ as explicitly as the painting La Strega. Towering over two meters tall, it features a naked witch thrashing alone in the middle of a shadowy, cavernous space. While the painting is atypical of Rosa’s approach to depicting witchcraft (in that it is both structurally simple and physically large), it nevertheless foregrounds Rosa’s paradigmatic witch. This ‘hideous hag’ is an explicitly old, naked woman—a grotesque character. I purposefully employ the term ‘grotesque’ in order to lay bare the inherent misogynistic intentions behind creating this character and in her reception by an early modern audience, as well as to relate this witch directly to the Bakhtinian concept of the grotesque body—open, excessive and tangibly debased.[1] But rather than dismissing Rosa’s witch as simply stereotypical or sexist, investigating her attributes and sources reveals how Rosa created a terrifying, electrifying and ambitious character. In so doing, he cemented stereotypes of the witch that share a direct line to the ideas of witches—and women—today.
Matthias Stomer Rediscovered in Genoa
January 3 2025
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I failed to spot this news from Italy at the end of last year that an Adoration of the Shepherds by Mattias Stomer had been rediscovered in the collection of the Diocese of Genoa. The discovery was made by Giacomo Montanari who spotted the picture whilst on a visit to the Diocesan archives. The canvas, which is in a less than perfect state, has been redisplayed in the Diocese Museum in the city.
Massimo Stanzione's Presentation of the Virgin Conserved
December 21 2024
Picture: sabapmetropolitanana.cultura.gov.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that Massimo Stanzione's Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, a painting which had originally formed part of a cycle in the chiesa dell’Annunziata di Giugliano in Campania, has been conserved and put on view for the public. Dating to 1618, the work will be featured in a special display at the Palazzo Reale in Naples. Alas, I can't find a good picture of the whole canvas, so, this will have to do for now!
New Release: Frans Hals Iconography – Technique – Reputation
December 21 2024
Picture: Amsterdam University Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Amsterdam University Press has just released a new volume of essays entitled Frans Hals Iconography – Technique – Reputation.
Remarkably, the collection has been published as Open Access, meaning that it is completely free to download!
According to the blurb:
Frans Hals (1582/83-1666) is rightfully considered one of the most important seventeenth-century Dutch painters. His portraits are admired for their virtuoso brushwork and their seemingly spontaneous character. This volume, with fourteen contributions by twenty-six specialists on Hals’s paintings and his artistic network in Haarlem and beyond, presents a rich palette of new research.
The authors introduce subjects such as the artist's clientele - from clergymen and fellow painters to governors of charitable institutions - as well as stylistic and technical aspects of individual paintings. Results of recent restorations are discussed, but also how advanced digital technologies contribute to our understanding of the painter's style and artistic development. A final section is dedicated to the rediscovery of Frans Hals in the second half of the nineteenth century and to the following art historical debate among connoisseurs about the artist’s oeuvre.
Nicolaes Gillis Catalogue Raisonné
December 12 2024
Picture: primaverapapers.nl
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that a new monograph and catalogue raisonné on the still life painter Nicolaes Gillis has just been published. Written by Alexander Thijs, the book is the first publication to define the artist's small but distinctive oeuvre.
As is the custom on this blog, this effort will win Thijs a spot in the prestigious 'Heroes of Art History' section on AHN.
Rediscovered Ter Brugghen Soars
December 6 2024
Picture: Ivoire
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A rediscovered painting of Esau selling his birthright by Hendrick Ter Brugghen made 1,150,000 EUR over its 200k - 300k EUR estimate at the auction house Ivoire in France yesterday. The work, dated to roughly 1627, was last at auction back in 1918 (according to the catalogue note provided by the auction house).
Carlo Maratta and Portraiture
December 6 2024
Picture: barberinicorsini.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palazzo Barberini in Rome have just today opened a new exhibition dedicated to Carlo Maratta's portraiture.
According to the gallery's website:
In order to mark the 400-year anniversary of the birth of Carlo Maratti (Camerano 1625 – Rome 1713) and the release of a critical catalogue of his works, the exhibition “Carlo Maratti and Portraiture: Popes and Princes of the Roman Baroque” by Simonetta Prosperi, Valenti Rodinò and Yuri Primarosa, showcases a little-known feature of this Marche artist’s production: his portraiture of the Roman nobility.
Although today he is mainly known for his paintings of religious subjects and his decoration of Roman churches, Maratti was famous throughout Europe for his portraiture. His studio rose to prominence also thanks to his drawn and painted effigies, securing Maratti’s place as a trendsetter of taste on the Roman art scene for over half a century.
The show will run until 16th February 2025.
Orazio Gentileschi conserved at The National Gallery
December 6 2024
Video: The National Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London have just today published the following video presenting new insights into Orazio Gentileschi's The Finding of Moses resulting from recent conservation and cleaning.
Luisa Roldán at the Museo Nacional de Escultura
December 2 2024
Picture: Museo Nacional de Escultura
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid, Spain, has recently opened an exhibition on the female sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652–1706). Known for having received the patronage of Philip V and Charles II for her works, she was the first Spanish artist to gain entry to the Academy of St Luke in Rome. Click on the link above for more information, including downloadable gallery guides.
The show will run until 9th March 2025.
In the studio of Guido Reni
December 1 2024
Picture: Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans opened their latest exhibition yesterday entitled In the studio of Guido Reni.
According to the museum's website:
In recent years, renewed interest in the artist has led to a fresh look at the multiple in the painter's studio. While the contemporary view of artistic creation most often leads to a pyramidal vision centered on an original and copies, the reality is very different. Reni's main biographer, Malvasia, reports that the painter's studio could gather up to 60 or even 200 people from all over Europe. The exhibition in Orléans presents the workings of the studio in all its richness and multiplicity, with several paintings studied in a new light thanks to reflections on the painter's production and restorations. An important section of the presentation will be devoted to David Contemplating the Head of Goliath by Reni and his collaborators, exploring the birth, development and legacy of a composition that was one of the most influential in 17th-century Western European art .
The show will run until 20th March 2025.
Gentileschi and Van Dyck in Turin
November 28 2024
Picture: Gallerie d'Italia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Gallerie d'Italia in Turin have just yesterday opened a new temporary exhibition focusing on two paintings loaned from the Corsini Gallery in Rome. The works on display are Orazio Gentileschi's Madonna and Child of c. 1610, and Anthony Van Dyck's Madonna of the Straw dated 1625-27.
According to the museum's website:
Approximately ten years separate the two paintings, which are two different interpretations of the so-called "Madonna of the Milk", a highly successful iconography that was created to tangibly visualise Mary's role as the mother of Christ.
Gentileschi's painting bears witness to the novelty of Caravaggio's revolution and of painting "from nature", which transforms the sacred theme into an intimate, everyday moment. [...]
Van Dyck, on the other hand, following in the footsteps of the great masters of the Italian Renaissance, reinterprets the theme with a strong symbolic density, placing it in the context of the Nativity. [...]
The pair will be on view in Turin until 12th January 2025.
Ribera's St John the Baptist Conserved
November 28 2024
Video: Patrimonio Nacional
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that the Real Monasterio de la Encarnación in Madrid have recently conserved Jusepe Ribera's St John the Baptist. As the video explains, the removal of much yellowed varnish has revealed many hidden details particularly in the background of the painting.
Flower Tunnel to Celebrate Rachel Ruysch Opening
November 28 2024
Video: Flower Council of Holland
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Alte Pinakothek in Munich have celebrated the recent opening of their new exhibition Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art by created a 'Flower Effect Tunnel' in their entrance hall. Unlike Ruysch's paintings, the tunnel of flowers is rather more transient - so you'll only have until tomorrow to see it!
Prado sends Queen for Californian Holiday
November 27 2024
Picture: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado in Madrid are sending Diego Velázquez’s Queen Mariana of Austria to the Norton Simon Museum in California for a new exhibition which opens in December. The show is part of a loan exchange programme between both of these art institutions.
According to the museum's website:
The exhibition seeks to show how the dynamic interrelationship between art and life not only inspired Velázquez’s dazzling and enigmatic portrait of Mariana but also shaped the worldview of the queen as she fashioned her new political role. Exhibited on the West Coast for the very first time, Velázquez’s monumental image will be installed alongside an international group of artists whose works were collected by the Habsburg court. Paintings by Nicolas Poussin, Guido Reni and Peter Paul Rubens, all highlights of the Norton Simon Museum’s collections, evoke Mariana’s quotidian access to remarkable works of art, and they invite comparisons between Velázquez and artists he knew and admired. Mariana: Velázquez’s Portrait of a Queen will be displayed in proximity to the Museum’s paintings by Jusepe de Ribera, Bartolomé-Esteban Murillo and Francisco de Zurbarán, offering a rare opportunity to experience this essential quartet of 17th-century Spanish painters under one roof.
The show will run from 13th December 2024 until 24th March 2025.
Ribera at the Petit Palais
November 26 2024
Video: Petit Palais
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I failed to mention that the aforementioned monographic exhibition dedicated to Ribera opened at the Petit Palais in Paris earlier this month. From all the posts I've seen on social media, it appears to be rather spectacular! The show will run until 23rd February 2025.
Van Dyck's Andalusian Horse at Christie's
November 25 2024
Video: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's have published the following film providing an interesting overview of Sir Anthony Van Dyck's Andalusian Horse which is coming up in their December sales in London.
New Artemisia Gentileschi Play
November 25 2024
Picture: primarystages.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
For those readers in the New York City, a new play based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi is currently in production. Written by Kate Hamil, and produced by the theatre company Primary Stages in association with the Chautauqua Theater Company, there are still a few dates left in November and December for those who might be interested.
According to the theatre's website:
At the height of the Italian Renaissance, artists are reshaping the very image of humanity. Artemisia Gentileschi wants to become one of the great painters...but women are not thought capable of true artistry. With persistence and bravado she quickly establishes a groundbreaking perspective, but just as her career begins to gain momentum, a series of devastating betrayals crack the foundation of her life and art. Told through her piercing point of view, The Light and The Dark (the life and times of Artemisia Gentileschi) weaves a magnetic and empowering tapestry of art, ambition, rage, and resilience.
From Kate Hamill, the playwright behind Primary Stages’ critically acclaimed adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Little Women, comes a new play about how Gentileschi transcended trauma to become one of the most successful artists of her time and an inspiration for women throughout the ages.
Here's a theatrical trailer, providing an idea of the visuals of the play.
Caravaggio's Maffeo Barberini at the Palazzo Barberini
November 22 2024
Video: Il Sole 24 Ore
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that Caravaggio's Portrait of Maffeo Barberini has gone on display at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Maffeo, who eventually became Pope Urban VIII, was a considerable patron of Caravaggio and the arts in general. Curiously, news reports have pointed out that the painting is rarely on public display and that only 'five or six specialists' have seen it (click on the link to read more).
The painting will be on display in Rome until 23rd February 2025.
Spanish Embassy Berninis on loan to Vatican
November 21 2024
Picture: vaticannews.va
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Spanish Embassy to the Holy See have loaned their two famous busts by Bernini to the Vatican Museums for a special exhibition. The two works, depicting the Blessed Soul and Damned Soul, will be the focal point of a display prompted by the current Pope's interests in combining faith and culture. Funds raised by the sales of their catalogue will be donated to help victims of the recent flooding in Spain.
The display will run until 31st January 2025.
