Category: Research
Caroline Campbell on 'The Power of Art'
November 13 2023
Picture: The Bridge Street Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Caroline Campbell, the Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, wrote an extended piece this weekend for the Belfast Telegraph. The article explains her reasons for writing her new book The Power of Art: A World History in Fifteen Cities, a publication which was released last month. Amongst the paragraphs that struck me was the following:
Art undeniably gains its power from its ability to fuel and drive our feelings. Because it is able to appeal to our inner beings, it can give solace and connection, linking us to lives and experiences far removed from us by time or distance. Just as potently, it can foment difference and dissent, intensifying our sense of dislocation, rage, or violence. Growing up in Belfast during the Troubles particularly sensitised me to this issue. Art is dangerous, and it can influence us in eloquent and sometimes uncontrollable ways. But it is also uniquely able to connect us to the peoples and worlds of the past.
The publication is out and available now.
Lucas Achtschellinck (1626-1699) Online Catalogue
November 8 2023
Picture: lucasachtschellinck.net
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (International network for curators of art from the Low Countries) has shared news that a new online catalogue project has been published dedicated to the Brussels landscape painter Lucas Achtschellink (1629-1699). AHN applauds all attempts for such projects, no matter how well-known or obscure the artist!
According to the CODART article:
About 300 works (paintings, drawings and tapestries) are included on lucasachtschellinck.net, along with a biography of the artist, as well as lists of public and private collections, related auctions, art dealers, exhibitions and a bibliography. The site is produced by Emmanuel de Cannart d’Hamale in collaboration with art historian Philippe Dellis and historian Erik Wauters.
The website seems very straightforward and easy to use. Congratulations to all involved!
Marcus Richard Fitzroy Thomas Renamed
November 6 2023
Picture: yale.edu
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a fascinating piece of research from last year that I believe was missed from this blog. It concerns to reidentification of a boy featured in the Yale Center for British Art Joshua Reynolds’s Portrait of Charles Stanhope. Due to some incredible sleuthing by Alice Millard and later Victoria Hepburn, the identity of this unknown sitter was tracked down via baptismal records and Reynolds' sitters book. An interesting read, giving hope to paintings researchers out there who are endlessly met with dead-ends!
Update - Apologies, I've been corrected that the discovery was actually initially made by the archivist Alice Millard, who wrote a blog about her journey which can be accessed here!
Burlington November Issue
November 2 2023
Picture: burlington.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This month's edition of The Burlington Magazine is dedicated to sculpture and three-dimensional works of art. The magazine's free editorial on History of art after Brexit is also well worth the read.
Here's a list of the articles in the November edition:
A medallion of Abbess Jacqueline de Lalaing of Flines - BY ANNA KOOPSTRA,MICHAEL CARTER
Silvio and Vincenzo Cosini in Venice and the altar of Girolamo Priuli in S. Salvatore - BY ANNE MARKHAM SCHULZ
A 1550 ‘double Jubilee’ medal by Alessandro Cesati - BY GIULIA DANIELE
George I’s Kensington Palace: the sculptural dimension - BY JONATHAN MARSDEN
Michael Kauffmann (1931–2023) - BY PAUL WILLIAMSON
Recent Release: Aniello Falcone e i pittori della sua cerchia (1625-1656)
November 1 2023
Picture: silvanaeditoriale.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Neapolitan specialist and scholar Nicola Spinosa has recently had a new book published on the artist Aniello Falcone, most famous for his paitings of battle scenes. Alongside a description and catalogue of his works, chapters are also dedicated to the artists in his orbit, including Agostino Beltrano, Carlo Coppola, Andrea de Lione, Domenico Gargiulo, Marzio Masturzo, Salvator Rosa and Giuseppe Trombatore.
Upcoming Release: A Delicate Matter - Art, Fragility, and Consumption in Eighteenth-Century France
October 31 2023
Picture: Penn State University Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Penn State University Press will be releasing a very intriguing book in January 2024. A Delicate Matter: Art, Fragility, and Consumption in Eighteenth-Century France is the latest publication to investigate the history of 'unstable' art.
According to the book's blurb:
Eighteenth-century France witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of materially unstable art, from oil paintings that cracked within years of their creation to enormous pastel portraits vulnerable to the slightest touch or vibration. In A Delicate Matter, Oliver Wunsch traces these artistic practices to the economic and social conditions that enabled them: an ascendant class of art collectors who embraced fragile objects as a means of showcasing their disposable wealth.
While studies of Rococo art have traditionally focused on style and subject matter, this book reveals how the physical construction of paintings and sculptures was central to the period’s reconceptualization of art. Drawing on sources ranging from eighteenth-century artists’ writings to twenty-first-century laboratory analyses, Wunsch demonstrates how the technical practices of eighteenth-century painters and sculptors provoked a broad transformation in the relationship between art, time, and money. Delicacy, which began the eighteenth century as a commodified extension of courtly sociability, was by century’s end reimagined as the irreducible essence of art’s autonomous value.
Innovative and original, A Delicate Matter is an important intervention in the growing body of scholarship on durability and conservation in eighteenth-century French art. It challenges the art historical tendency to see decay as little more than an impediment to research, instead showing how physical instability played a critical role in establishing art’s meaning and purpose.
Sotheby's publishes Rembrandt Catalogue Online
October 30 2023
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's London have published a full PDF of its 58+ page catalogue dedicated to Rembrandt's The Adoration of the Kings in their upcoming December sale. The catalogue contains vast amounts of research, both art historical and technical, which explains how and why work has been upgraded to the master in full.
Download the Getty's 'Conserving Canvas' for free!
October 24 2023
Picture: Getty Publications
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Getty publications posted some interesting news on 'X' concerning their recent publication Conserving Canvas as open content. This means that the entire publication, which is currently available to purchase as a hard-copy, can be accessed or even downloaded as a PDF or EPub for free.
The publication, edited by Cynthia Schwarz, Ian McClure, and Jim Coddington, contains vast amounts of papers delivered at a conference in 2019 on the subject of past and present practises in relation to the conservation of canvases.
New Release: Van Dyck in Italy - Technical Studies
October 24 2023
Picture: Il Geko Edizioni
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Italian website Finestre sull'Arte have published an extended article on a new book dedicated to technical analysis of Van Dyck's Italian period. The publication by Michela Fasce examines sixteen works by the artist, and investigates exactly how and with what materials Van Dyck was producing paintings during this time of his career.
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As an aside, it is a recurring feature that many of his Italian period paintings don't tend to age very well. Apart from the usual damages from overcleaning, many of his canvases have suffered greatly from losses and degradations of colour and vibrancy. I wonder if this might be explored in the book too...
The British Art Journal to Cease?
October 24 2023
Picture: britishartjournal.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Some rather sad news to report that The British Art Journal (BAJ) will cease publication on 31 December of this year.
According to the journal's website:
We very much regret having to announce that The British Art Journal will cease publication on 31 December this year, 2023, with the publication of Volume XXIV, No. 3, owing to the retirement of the editor. It may well start again under new management, but nothing has yet been decided.
In the circumstances, we are not accepting any new subscriptions.
This is genuinely sad news, as the journal has over the years been instrumental in publishing cutting edge research relating to the art of these isles. Indeed, the journal has always been a welcoming place for budding scholars, with many of them publishing their debut articles there (myself included). This has had much to do with the boundless energy and enthusiasm of its long-time Editor, Robin Simon, who will be a very hard act to follow.
I sincerely hope that a new editor is found in due course, to lead this vital British art publication into this new age.*
* - Maybe the present (woefully underqualified) writer of this post feels morally obliged to put his hat in the ring for the job!
Update - Bendor here, to add: first, that I can vouch for Adam's excellent and highly qualified editing skills; second that Robin Simon and the BAJ have been an extraordinary force for good in promoting British art history for the last few decades, and it has been a pleasure to be both a subscriber and occasional contributor; third, that British art history really needs a journal where people of all backgrounds can contribute, and not be excluded by the gatekeeping that afflicts some other publications.
But this shouldn't stop us celebrating Robin's achievements at the BAJ. Many years ago, when I was more diligent on the blog, I began a category called 'Heroes of Art History'. I hereby nominate Robin for AHN immortalisation - hail, Robin!
Upcoming Release: François Le Moyne Catalogue Raisonné
October 23 2023
Picture: silvana editoriale
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that in January 2024 a new catalogue raisonné for François Le Moyne (1688-1737) will be published. The catalogue was edited by Professor Jean-Luc Bordeaux and (if my French is correct) has added 140 paintings and 250 drawings to his oeuvre.
For those who want to preorder their copy, the publisher's website has a very generous discount on at the moment of 30 euros off!
Dieric Bouts - Creator of Images
October 20 2023
Picture: mleuven.be
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This autumn the M Leuven are celebrating the creative genius of the early Netherlandish artist Dieric Bouts (c.1415–1475). This is being marked by both an exhibition and a new publication on the artist (pictured) as part of the 'New Horizons | Dieric Bouts Festival'.
According to the museum's website:
The concept of this exhibition is definitely radical: we are not allowed to look at Bouts as an artist. The image we have today of the artiste peintre did not exist in the 15th century. Dieric Bouts was not a romantic genius or brilliant inventor, he was an image-maker. He painted what was expected of him and excelled at it, just think about master pieces such as ‘The Last Supper’ and ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus’. That is why it makes sense to confront him with today's image-makers of sports photographers, filmmakers and game developers. M places them side-by-side with the old master.
The exhibition opened today and will close on 14th January 2024.
The RKD are Calling for Stamps and Brands!
October 20 2023
Picture: codart.nl
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (International network for curators of art from the Low Countries) have shared news that the RKD in the Netherlands are calling for photographs of makers stamps and brands for a brand-new digital database. As all picture researchers will know, this information can prove vital in assessing the origin, dating and significance of a work of art.
According to the article linked above:
In the project Marks on Art, the RKD works in close collaboration with Prof. em. dr. Jørgen Wadum. The starting point is Wadum’s unique dataset of thousands of marks, collected since the 1980s during visits to collections and auction houses. By January 2025, the RKD aims to present this dataset in its sustainable and freely available database infrastructure, permitting cross-linking between artwork, artist, and technical research data such as dendrochronological research results. In addition, a revised and expanded version of Wadum’s 1998-article ‘The Antwerp Brand on paintings on panel’ will be published in the open access publication platform RKD Studies. This project received a generous grant from the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) providing Wadum with a three-month Conservation Guest Scholarship, as well as a Digital Art History Grant to the RKD from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Details of how to get in touch with the relevant researchers can be found via the link above.
Upcoming Botticelli Drawings Exhibition & Symposium
October 20 2023
Picture: famsf.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Legion of Honor Museum at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will be opening a major exhibition next month dedicated to Botticelli Drawings. Said to be the first exhibition of its kind, the show will also include a significant symposium on the subject which will be held on 18th November 2023.
A description of the upcoming exhibition:
Botticelli Drawings is the first exhibition ever dedicated to the drawings of Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli (ca. 1445 – 1510). Exploring the foundational role drawing played in Botticelli’s work, the exhibition traces his artistic journey, from studying under maestro Fra Filippo Lippi (c. 1406 – 1469) to leading his own workshop in Florence. Featuring rarely seen and newly attributed works, the exhibition provides insight into the design practice of an artist whose name is synonymous with the Italian Renaissance. Botticelli’s drawings offer an intimate look into the making of some of his most memorable masterpieces, including Adoration of the Magi (c. 1500), which will be reunited with its preparatory drawing, surviving only in fragments. From Botticelli’s earliest recorded drawings through expressive designs for his final painting, the works on display reveal the artist’s experimental drawing techniques, quest for ideal beauty, and command of the line.
The show will run from 19th November 2023 until 14th February 2024.
Free Lecture: Women, Water, and Materiality in the Early Modern Genoese Garden
October 19 2023
Picture: warburg.sas.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Lovers of Rubens' and Van Dyck's Italian period might find the following free lecture of great interest. In a few days time the Warburg Institute in London will be hosting a free online lecture on A Material World - 'Women, Water, and Materiality in the Early Modern Genoese Garden', which is presented by Ana Howie of Cornell University.
According to the talk's blurb:
Early Modern Genoa was renowned for its pleasure gardens, filled with fountains, scherzi d’acqua, artificial lakes, and grottoes, which celebrated the wonders of water. In the early seventeenth century, Flemish painters Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck sojourned in the wealthy port city and painted magnificent portraits of the city’s noblewomen embedded in garden settings. In these portraits, water splashes across the canvas and threatens to soak their sitters and beholders; this lifelike substance is at once erotic, affective, visionary, and poetic. This paper investigates the aesthetics of water in Rubens’ and van Dyck’s portraits to uncover the plurality of meanings that water, in all its forms, held for an elite Genoese audience.
The free talk will be held online on 23rd October 2024, although booking is essential.
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Although I am by no means an expert in this area, fountains appear constantly in and around Van Dyck's English period too (1) (2), and it taken on later by Sir Peter Lely also (1). A most interesting topic, it seems.
Ancient Acheulean handaxe Identified in Melun Diptych
October 19 2023
Picture: cambridge.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I recently came across an article promoting this fascinating research paper that was published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal earlier this summer. The article by Alastair Key, James Clark, Jeremy DeSilva and Steven Kangas discusses their identification of an ancient Acheulean handaxe in Jean Fouquet's Melun Diptych in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.
Here's the paper's abstract:
Handaxes have a uniquely prominent role in the history of Palaeolithic archaeology, and their early study provides crucial information concerning the epistemology of the field. We have little conclusive evidence, however, of their investigation or societal value prior to the mid seventeenth century. Here we investigate the shape, colour and potential flake scarring on a handaxe-like stone object seen in the Melun Diptych, painted by the French fifteenth-century artist Jean Fouquet, and compare its features with artefacts from diverse (including French) Acheulean handaxe assemblages. Commissioned by a high-status individual, Étienne Chevalier, Fouquet's work (Étienne Chevalier with Saint Stephen) depicts an important religious context, while the handaxe-like object points to the stoning to death of an important Christian saint. Our results strongly support the interpretation that the painted stone object represents a flint Acheulean handaxe, likely sourced from northern France, where Fouquet lived. Identifying a fifteenth-century painting of a handaxe does not change what we know about Acheulean individuals, but it does push back the evidence for when handaxes became a prominent part of the ‘modern’ social and cultural world.
The article is free to read via the link above.
Conference: Women in Art and Music
October 18 2023
Picture: nga.gov
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that in two days time a conference will be taking place on the subject of Women in Art and Music: An Early Modern Global Conference. The two-day conference will be held on Friday 20th October 2024 at The Julliard School in New York, and on Saturday 21st October at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
According to the conference's blurb:
Presentations and performances will think more broadly about early modern women as creators, as part of the cultural and global economy, and as experts in their chosen fields of art.
The entire conference is free and will be livestreamed via the website above (registration is required).
New Journal for Irish Heritage Studies
October 17 2023
Picture: gov.ie
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news from Ireland that a new journal called Irish Heritage Studies has been established by the Office of Public Works there. This look like a brilliant opportunity for any scholars or enthusiasts interested in the historic collections and patronage connected with the country.
According to the OPW's press release:
Published in association with Gandon Editions, the journal will showcase original critical research rooted in the substantial portfolio of material culture in the care of, and managed by, the OPW: built heritage; historical, artistic, literary and scientific collections; the national and international histories linked to these places and objects; and its own long organisational history. Journal articles will contribute to a deeper understanding of this remarkable collection of national heritage, and investigate new perspectives on aspects of its history.
The journal is currently inviting submissions for the first volume, and deadlines for abstracts is 15th December 2023.
PhD Scholarship: Medieval Painting and the End of Life: From the Monumental to the Personal
October 13 2023
Picture: visitchurches.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
North Eastern University, London and the University of Kent are advertsing a fully-funded PhD scholarship on the subject of Medieval Painting and the End of Life: From the Monumental to the Personal. The supervisors for candidates will be Dr Niamh Bhalla (Northeastern University London) and Dr Emily Guerry (University of Kent), and will focus heavily on themes relating to medieval visual and material culture.
According to the advert:
Areas identified as being of particular interest by the supervisors are:
- The monumental: Medieval wall paintings concerning death and judgement in Europe – an area of great interest that is currently underdeveloped in scholarship. A comparative approach concerning wall paintings of judgement in eastern and western Europe from the tenth to the fourteenth century may be beneficial to exploring the movement of people and the exchange of ideas in the Middle Ages, specifically shared understandings and uses of images that were implicated in the end-of-life process across various regions.
- The personal: Images pertaining to death and the afterlife in manuscripts and on other portable objects where the encounter with the imagery was more personal and the theological treatment of death sometimes different to that of public images. Again, a culturally comparative approach between East and West would be encouraged in this regard. Preference should be given to objects that facilitate access to the experiences of persons often omitted from mainstream historical record.
Applications for the scholarship must be in by 31st October 2023.
Good luck if you're applying!
Online Database: Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture at the Louvre
October 13 2023
Picture: dfk-paris.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
There are few more exciting things for me in than browsing online paintings databases, especially ones with good images. The DFK in Paris (Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte) have just published a free-to-use online database of the collections of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. Based on the inventories of Nicolas Guérin (1715) and Antoine-Nicolas Dezallier d'Argenville (1781), this resource will be of great interest to anyone studying or researching French art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
