Category: Research
Rembrandt Reunited in Denmark
September 6 2024
Video: RKD
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Nivaagaard Collection in Nivå, Denmark, have just this week opened their latest exhibition Rembrandt Reunited. The show investigates the relationship between two paintings by the Dutch master which survive in separate collections, however, may have once been pendants. Head to the RKD's YouTube channel to see a few other short videos on the subject.
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.
Rare Lely Sketch Unveiled at Dickinson
September 5 2024
Picture: @milo.dickinson via Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The London dealers Simon Dickinson have unveiled on Instagram their discovery of a rare sketch by Sir Peter Lely.* In this video, presented by Milo Dickinson, the significance of the sketch, sitter and 'another face' lurking in the background is explained!
* - The painting has already been sold, as you might imagine!
New Release: British Miniatures from the Thomson Collection
September 4 2024
Picture: Ad Ilissvm
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new book has been published this month on the British Miniatures from the Thomson collection housed in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. The publication was written by Susan Sloman and spans over 300 pages including 250 illustrations.
According to the book's blurb:
Using this collection housed at the Art Gallery of Ontario as a case study, the catalogue discusses the function of miniatures, their material presence, the circumstances in which they were made and aspects of their later history. The homes and studios of the most successful painters, as sumptuous as those occupied by oil painters, often passed from one generation to another: here, one key property in Covent Garden is described and illustrated. In this book, for the first time, a number of specialist artists’ suppliers are identified, showing where ivory could be obtained and enamel plates prepared and fired. The links between enamelling for clock and watch faces and enamelling for miniatures are demonstrated. The illicit practice within the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century art trade of duplicating old miniatures, a topic generally avoided in the literature, is addressed here. Miniatures are difficult to display in museums, but recently-developed photographic methods of identifying pigments are also proving to be a way of introducing a new audience to this multilayered subject. Eighteen years after Ken Thomson’s death, there could not be a more opportune moment to highlight his collection.
Free Lecture - On Objects and Objectivity: New insights on Rubens's Medici cycle
September 2 2024
Picture: General Representative of Flanders in the United Kingdom
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Trinity Hall Cambridge will be hosting a free lecture organised in association with the General Representative of Flanders in the United Kingdom later in October. Professor Dr. Nils Büttner, of the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart & Centrum Rubenianum, Antwerp, will be presenting a lecture on the subject of On Objects and Objectivity: New insights on Rubens's Medici cycle.
The free talk will take place on 28th October 2024. Registration is required (via the link above).
The Rainbow Portrait Conserved
September 2 2024
Picture: Hatfield House
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Hatfield House are putting on a special event on 20th September to celebrate the recent conservation of the famous Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I.
The evening event will feature a range of talks from experts in Tudor history, fashion history, Tudor paintings and paintings conservation. The speakers lined up include Stephen Alford, Dr. Susan North, Karen Hearn FSA and Nicole Ryder.
Tickets cost a mere £45 per person (includes champagne reception!).
Free Lecture - The Body of the Maharani: Portraiture, Gender and Empire at the Royal Academy 1791–1865
September 2 2024
Picture: The Gianfranco Ferré Research Center
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The MET's associate curator for European Paintings, Adam Eaker, will be presenting a free lecture in October on the subject of The Body of the Maharani: Portraiture, Gender and Empire at the Royal Academy 1791–1865. The talk, hosted by the Paul Mellon Centre in London, will take place on 23rd October 2024 and will be published online afterwards too.
According to the talk's blurb:
As the British expanded their territorial control and economic exploitation of the Indian subcontinent over the course of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, portraits of Indian sitters became increasingly visible in London’s exhibitions.
In responding to such portraits, critics gave voice to imperial anxieties around race, colonisation and gender. Because most elite Indian women lived in seclusion shielded from public view, their portraits acquired a special charge of voyeuristic allure, just as accounts of visiting the zenana or women’s quarters provided a centrepiece of much British travel writing.
This lecture explores two portraits of upper-class Indian women that were exhibited at the Royal Academy during this period: Francesco Renaldi’s Portrait of a Mughal Lady (painted in 1787, exhibited in 1791), and George Richmond’s Maharani Jind Kaur (painted 1863, exhibited 1865).
Bookending a seventy-year period of immense political upheaval, these portraits and their reception reveal the transformation in the relationship between British colonisers and Indigenous elites, as expressed in the popular fascination with the lives of upper-class Indian women.
Focusing on debates around adornment, visibility and women’s political power, a paired analysis of these two portraits offers a new vantage point on the development of both British and Indian art under colonialism.
Burlington - Art in Italy
September 2 2024
Picture: burlington.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Burlington Magazine's September issue is dedicated to the theme of Art in Italy.
Here's a list of the main articles found within:
Two unpublished portraits by Lavinia Fontana - By Antonio Ernesto Denunzio
The ‘Madonna del Baraccano’: Francesco del Cossa’s reworking of a miraculous fresco - By Julie Hartkamp
Guercino’s ‘Moses’: a recent addition to the artist’s ‘prima maniera’ - By Letizia Treves
New documents for Vincenzo Foppa and Ludovico Brea in Liguria - By Michela Zurla
Leonardo da Vinci’s Burlington House Cartoon: a new hypothesis - Shorter notice by Per Rumberg
Parmigianino, Damiano Pieti and the beauty of architecture in the ‘Madonna of the long neck’ - Shorter notice by Mary Vaccaro
A newly discovered Anguissola portrait - Shorter notice by Emanuele Lugli
Even more about the Andrea Vendramin collection - Shorter notice by Lauren Murphy
Oliver James Watson (1949–2023) - By Mariam Rosser-Owen
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.
British Pictures at Witt Library Website Live!
August 3 2024
Picture: courtauld.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Courtauld Institute in London have just gone live with their latest digitisation of the British Picture cards from the Witt Library (thanks to Neil Jeffares for altering me to this). This first collection of photographs and clippings from old auction, exhibition and historic photos contains over half a million objects, which is staggering.
The opening of this resource is going to change picture research forever, I think. A seminal moment for both academia and the art market. I can't wait to see the discoveries start pouring in.
More national schools are on the way, it's time to get hunting!
Upcoming: Samuel van Hoogstraten online catalogue raisonné
July 31 2024
Picture: RKD
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Terribly exciting news that Samuel van Hoogstraten online catalogue raisonné is being developed by the RKD and the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam. It appears that over 500 works will be included alongside a selection of essays by Stephanie Dickey, Leonore van Sloten, Michiel Roscam Abbing and David de Witt.
Here's an article from CODART requesting information on missing works by the artist.
The online catalogue will be published in April 2025.
Government of Flanders supports 3 Year Project with Rubenshuis and Trinity Hall, Cambridge
July 31 2024
Picture: Government of Flanders
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that the Government of Flanders will be supporting a new 3 year collaborative art history project between Rubenshuis in Antwerp and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
According to the press release which I have been forwarded:
The Government of Flanders is pleased to announce funding for the first year of a 3 year new collaboration in the field of art history between the Rubenshuis in Antwerp and Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge. This partnership will further strengthen the bonds between our institutions and promote a deeper understanding of our shared cultural heritage. The substantial funding supports the study of Renaissance and Early Modern Flemish Art in the form of research workshops, visiting postdoctoral researchers, visiting postgraduate students, lectures by senior scholars, and summer schools in Antwerp and Cambridge.
The collaboration, which commences in August 2024, will be led by Dr. Bert Watteeuw, Director of the Rubenshuis, and Prof. Alexander Marr, Professor of Renaissance and Early Modern Art; Fellow, Trinity Hall; and incoming Head of the Department of History of Art, Cambridge. The programme of work will be co-ordinated by Drs. Justin Davies, Fellow Commoner at Trinity Hall and Visiting Fellow of the Rubenshuis.
More news in due course.
Materiality and Medicine in Hans Rottenhammer’s Painted Bodies
July 31 2024
Picture: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a new article which sounds interesting. The journal German History have just published a new article by Amelia Hutchinson on the subject of ‘Very Full of Details and Excellently Executed’: Materiality and Medicine in Hans Rottenhammer’s Painted Bodies.
According to the abstract:
This article explores the relationship between skin, materiality and medicine in the early modern German-speaking lands. It focuses on the understudied artwork of the Munich-born artist Johann Rottenhammer (1564–1625), demonstrating that his painted bodies were related to medical understandings of skin. Skin was a mediating boundary between inside and outside: the colour and texture of skin carried meanings about the internal state of the body. In this period, ‘exploration’ beyond Europe was destabilizing the definition of ‘good’ or ‘normative’ skin. The appearance of healthy or unhealthy skin was expressed in contemporary northern European artistic theory, for example in Karel van Mander’s Book on Painting. This article contributes to the growing literature on materiality and medicine by demonstrating their indelible impact on the artist’s project. Medical histories of the sixteenth century have traditionally positioned the Galenic and Paracelsian medical traditions as diametrically opposed. This article observes, however, key areas of similarity—the origin of curative materials, and the relationship between the internal body and the external natural world—and considers how they were present in early modern German understandings of skin.
Click on the link above to read this free open access article!
Sotheby's are Hiring!
July 16 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's London are hiring a Global Head of Restitution (Senior Vice President). This post will cover the role formerly occupied by Lucian Simmons, who is now Head of Provenance Research at the MET.
Here are the key responsibilities for the role:
- Drive the strategy for the Restitution Department Globally, managing the team.
- Oversee and direct workflow of Sotheby’s Global Restitution department’s research to prevent stolen objects from circulating in the art market and, in particular, resolving provenance issues of any item with ownership claims from the Nazi-era.
- Collaborate with business getters and cataloguers in each affected expert department to vet and research artworks being appraised, prospected or sold.
- Provide guidance and training to art specialists and other colleagues at Sotheby’s on policies surrounding stolen art and objects with Nazi-era provenance.
- Represent Sotheby’s and Sotheby’s Restitution as an ambassador at events including lectures and conferences globally.
- Organize Sotheby’s hosted events and educational seminars focusing on the nuances and scholarship in this area.
- Develop and maintain relationships with relevant lawyers, researchers and government bodies in the restitution field.
- Generate incremental business through research and contacts, specifically lawyers, heirs, museums and researchers.
- Publish articles in relevant magazines and be a recognised expert in the field.
- Work directly with clients and their advisors to navigate and resolve claims.
- Facilitate settlements between consignors and claimants and lead any sale claims management.
- Partner with colleagues to oversee compliance around source of funds.
- Act as a member of the Sotheby’s Ethics Committee.
The website provides no details in regard to salary or application deadlines.
The Hood Museum's Portrait of Madame Aignan de Sanlot
July 12 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
One story that seemed to escape the art press in 2022 (as far as I can tell) was The Hood Museum of Art's acquisition of Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun's Portrait of Madame Aignan de Sanlot. The work was sold at Sotheby's Paris in 2022 where it made €85,650 over its €25k - €35k estimate. Curator Elizabeth Rice Mattison has had an article published on the pastel in the most recent issue of Notes in the History of Art in case you'd like to read more.
Christie's Hiring Restitution Researcher
July 10 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's are hiring a Restitution Research Associate for their office in Vienna.
A list of the jobs associated with the role:
o Executing due diligence checks on consigned property; including cross-referencing databases, maintaining record, checking archives and library work
o Supporting and executing in-depth research into collectors, collections and objects to support future sales and claims discussions, as needed and directed
o Researching and inputting into restitution databases; maintaining integrity of information
o Assisting in preparation of client facing materials, management reports as directed
o Maintaining departmental library and materials
o Contributing to training programs
Job applications must be in by 14th July 2024 and no salary is indicated.
Good luck if you're applying!
Frans Hals and Workshop - RKD Studies
July 9 2024
Picture: rkdstudies.nl
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The RKD in the Netherlands have finally published their Frans Hals and Workshop RKD Study online. This comprehensive study of all of Hals' paintings, undertaken by Prof. Dr. Claus Grimm, is presented in a new online form and draws great attention to the process of the artist alongside new considerations of his studio practise and collaboration with other named artists (see this article for an example of this new approach). There are many pieces of text which explain the visual analysis undertaken to identify the nuances outlined above.
_______________
There is no doubt that this is a very exciting and important resource in regards to the future of catalogue raisonné projects. However, it is also bound to be controversial. Without pointing out any examples in particular, a quick surf through these pages will show that several rather famous paintings (including ones hanging in important museums and private collections) have been slightly (or significantly) downgraded and in some cases completely demoted to 'Workshop' in attributional terms. In fact, as the catalogue points out itself, there are some examples of paintings featured within that have appeared as recently in the 2023/24 London and Rijksmuseum shows as Frans Hals in full, however, have in his study been allocated to followers of completely different artists altogether. Having compared the websites of several museums and private collections to the attributions found in this study, it's clear that these institutions haven't budged just yet. We shall wait and see if and how the art world will respond in due course.
Ralph Sheldon's Portrait of Henry VIII Reidentified
July 8 2024
Picture: Warwick Shire Hall via ArtUK
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I published a short blog over the weekend regarding an accidental discovery I made of a missing Portrait of Henry VIII. Having spotted it in the background of a photograph posted on 'X' / Twitter, I managed to work out that this distinctive arched topped portrait (now hanging in Warwick Shire Hall, owned by Warwickshire County Council) was originally part of the famous set assembled by Ralph Sheldon (c.1537–1613) in the 1590s for Weston House in Warwickshire. Fortunately, the portrait is housed in the same carved medallion frame as other surviving examples from the set, and the very same composition of Henry holding a sword is found in a later engraving of the Long Gallery at Weston.
Update - Click here for relevant articles from the BBC, CNN, The Times and The Smithsonian Magazine.
Click here to watch a YouTube video of BBC Midlands Today's coverage of the story.
Burlington Magazine - July 2024
July 4 2024
Picture: burlington.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Burlington Magazine's July edition focuses on the 'Art of Northern Europe.'
Here's a list of the main articles listed within:
The ‘Balbi’ children identified: a proposal - BY GREGORY MARTIN,ANNA ORLANDO
A reverse-glass painting by Gerhard Janssen in the Valtice Palace - BY ZDEŇKA MÍCHALOVÁ,ZUZANA MACUROVÁ
‘The abduction of Europa’ by Paulus Potter: a mythological painting rediscovered - BY JOLIJN SCHILDER,MUIRNE LYDON,LIZZIE MARX,NATALIA MACRO,ABBIE VANDIVERE
The oculi of Notre-Dame, Paris - BY ARNAUD YBERT,BRUNO PHALIP,DYLAN NOUZERAN
Charles XV’s ‘Norwegian landscape’ in the Museum Gustavianum, Uppsala - BY EVA-CHARLOTTA MEBIUS
The earliest documented work of Marinus van Reymerswale - BY MANUEL PARADA LÓPEZ DE CORSELAS,CHRISTINE SEIDEL
The missing woman: the reunion of a family portrait by Cornelis de Vos -BY ANGELA JAGER,JØRGEN WADUM
A history painting by Willem van der Vliet - BY TOMMASO BORGOGELLI
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.
