Little Beasts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
February 18 2025
Picture: nga.gov
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. will be opening their latest Old Masters exhibition in May 2025 entitled Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World (spotted via CODART).
According to the gallery's website:
Art played a pivotal role during the dawn of European natural history in the 16th and 17th centuries. Advancements in scientific technology, trade, and colonial expansion allowed naturalists to study previously unknown and overlooked insects, animals, and other beestjes, or “little beasts.” Artists such as Joris Hoefnagel and Jan van Kessel helped deepen and spread knowledge of these creatures with highly detailed and playful works that inspired generations of printmakers, painters, decorative artists, and naturalists.
A delight for all ages, this exhibition features nearly 75 of these paintings, prints, and drawings in a unique presentation alongside specimens and taxidermy from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Learn about the rich exchange between artists and naturalists that sparked a fascination with earth’s living creatures, big and small. See how this intersection of art and science continues to inspire us today in a new film by artist Dario Robleto.
The show will run from 18th May until 2nd November 2025.
Witt Italian Pictures are Live!
February 18 2025
Picture: courtauld.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that the Italian pictures of the Witt Library are now live and free to browse online! There are exactly 349,029 cards in this national school, with some exciting discoveries to be made I am certain! Happy browsing.
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As a small aside, this resource is proving to be something of a treasure-trove for misattributed pictures, and the system generally makes sweeping through artists very efficient (more so than it was for opening endless stacks of boxes, it's true). Here's a harmless rediscovery I made just last week, a self-portrait by my favourite minor Georgian artist John Westbrooke Chandler (left) which had been parading as a work by John Opie in the 1950s (compared to another self-portrait by him which was sold by Christie's a few years ago(right)). I wonder where it is now.
Do get in touch if you make any of your own discoveries that you're willing to share.
Restored 'Botticelli' Teased before Redisplay in Naples
February 18 2025
Picture: ilcorrierino.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Regular readers might remember a story from November 2023 regarding the rediscovery of a lost 'Botticelli' by the Italian police. The painting (left) was found in a private home in Naples and had at the time been connected to a work which went missing from Santa Maria delle Grazie over half a century ago. The Italian press (spotted via. @Mweilc) have just shared very blurry images of the now-restored work (right) before it goes on display in an unspecified museum in Naples. The work was undertaken by Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence. More news and photos when they appear...
How to be a Tudor player at the Folger Shakespeare Library
February 18 2025
Picture: Folger Shakespeare Library
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. are about to open a very intriguing exhibition entitled How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition.
According to the library's website:
Social climbing was a competitive sport in Tudor England, requiring a complex range of skills, strategies, and techniques. How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition invites you into a world of lace ruffs, jousting, hawks, bad handwriting, scandal, and political factions. Experience the playbooks, the people, and the spectacular fails, as courtiers tried to navigate the minefield of working for a boss who could shower you with riches or chop off your head.
The exhibition features more than 60 objects from the Folger’s collection to demonstrate the “rules” for how to be a successful courtier. They show how historical and literary figures ranging from royal advisors to household staff used cunning, cutthroat, and creative means to acquire power and curry favor with the Tudor monarchs.
The show will open on 21st February 2025.
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Henry Moore Foundation
February 18 2025
Picture: Henry Moore Foundation
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Henry Moore Foundation are inviting applications for a Postdoctoral Researcher.
According to the advert:
This is an excellent opportunity that will enable a recent PhD graduate or Early Career Researcher to gain experience in a thriving cultural and research institution, as well as the opportunity to develop their own research portfolio in a supportive and well-established research environment.
The successful candidate will be a pro-active and knowledgeable postdoctoral researcher, whose expertise in the histories of sculpture will complement that of the Research Team at the Henry Moore Studios & Gardens, and will form a key element of our public programmes.
The position comes with an annual salary of £25,600 (£32,000 FTE) and applications must be in by 31st March 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Restoration Studio assembled in Museo di Capodimonte
February 17 2025
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo di Capodimonte in Naples is the latest museum to set up a conservation studios in their galleries to allow visitors to peer in to the process of restoring pictures. The project will examine roughly twenty works mostly from the Bourbon collection from the 14th - 16th centuries. Click on the link above to find out which works will be included.
Tintoretto's Crucifixion Unveiled after Conservation Project
February 17 2025
Picture: savevenice.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Venice that Tintoretto's famous Crucifixion for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco has been unveiled to the public after a long restoration project. Discoveries made during treatment include evidence that the artist used complex grids to organise the spatial relationships between figures. Click here to read more from the organisation Save Venice on the specifics of the project.
Louvre acquires Pierre Puget St John the Baptist
February 17 2025
Picture: Louvre via Nicolas Milovanovic
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre's curator Nicolas Milovanovic has shared news that the museum has acquired Pierre Puget's The Head of St John the Baptist. Although Puget is more widely known as a sculptor, this rare example of him working in oils had recently been with the dealers H. W. Fichter Kunsthandel of Frankfurt (according to a Google search).
Split Manets to be reunited in May 2025
February 17 2025
Picture: Oskar Reinhart Collection / National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that two paintings, which were original one until their creator Edouard Manet decided to split them into two, will be reunited at the National Gallery in London later in May. This is the first time in 150 years Au café and Corner of a Café-Concert will be displayed together, thanks to a temporary loan from the Oskar Reinhart Collection (who own the canvas depicted on the left, above). The temporary exhibition will run from 27th May 2025 until 15th December 2025.
Big Turner Show at YCBA in March 2025
February 14 2025
Picture: YCBA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Yale Center for British Art are opening a sizeable show on JMW Turner on 29th March 2025 entitled J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality. The exhibition will contain no fewer than 75 paintings and prints by the artist.
According to the press release:
This exhibition will draw from the Center’s rich holdings of the artist’s work, encompassing all media and phases of his nearly sixty-year career. This is the first show at the YCBA to focus on Turner in more than thirty years, displaying the complete arc of his radical artistic evolution. The exhibition will examine the contradictory nature of this revolutionary figure, who was as inspired by the past luminaries of the European landscape tradition as he was determined to surpass their greatest achievements.
“We are thrilled to welcome visitors back to the museum to reconnect with our extraordinary collections,” said Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director. “Turner is an artist whose groundbreaking works continue to inspire. His work has long been a cornerstone of our collection and we are excited to show our returning and new visitors the full range of our Turner holdings.”
The exhibition will run from 29th March until 10th August 2025.
Prado Publishes Goya Printed References Online
February 13 2025
Picture: museodelprado.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado in Madrid have announced that they have published their latest online digital project. Repertorio de referencias impresas. 1771-1828 brings together all the printed references on Goya published during his lifetime. Containing 30,000 works, this digital project seems to set the bar for what is achievable in relation to providing original source material online (relating to a single artist) for art researchers and enthusiasts!
Courtauld scan reveals figure under Picasso
February 13 2025
Picture: courtauld.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Courtauld Institute in London has shared news that x-ray and infra-red scans undertaken within its conservation studios have revealed a figure (or 'mystery woman') underneath Pablo Picasso's 1901 Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto.
According to the institute's website:
Conducted in collaboration with the Oskar Reinhart Collection, ‘Am Römerholz’, Switzerland, the unknown artwork was discovered when The Courtauld took x-ray and infrared images of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto – a portrait depicting Picasso’s sculptor friend painted in 1901 and one of the earliest examples of the artist’s Blue Period – ahead of its display as part of the upcoming The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Goya to Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection, opening 14 February.
The Courtauld’s analysis of the painting reveals it played an important role at a crucial stage in the young Picasso’s stylistic development, at a time when he was moving away from colourful, Impressionistic paintings towards a distinctly more melancholy artistic style which became the defining phase of his career known as his Blue Period.
Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz gift AI of Chicago 2,000 Works
February 13 2025
Picture: Artnet
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the US that collectors Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz have gifted 2,000 works to the Art Institute of Chicago. Containing works that span from the 16th - 19th centuries, press reports suggest it 'will allow the museum to provide a “300-year panorama of French art” that is unique outside of France.' The gift includes works by François Boucher, Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Théodore Géricault, and Charles Le Brun, Marie-Gabrielle Capet, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Anne Vallayer Coster, and Élisabeth Vigée Lebrun, Jacques Bellange, Reynaud Levieux, and Nicolas Prevost.
Sir William and Lady Hamilton at the Gallerie d'Italia - Napoli
February 13 2025
Picture: Gallerie d'Italia - Napoli
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm rather disappointed with myself for having failed to spot this exhibition which opened at the end of last year. The Gallerie d'Italia - Napoli are currently running a show dedicated to Sir William and Lady Emma Hamilton, whose influence on the arts both in Naples and Britain is very widely known.
According to the gallery's website:
In the wake of the important studies by Carlo Knight (who recently passed away) and the great exhibition at the British Museum in 1996, the Gallerie d'Italia - Naples is dedicating its 2024 autumn exhibition to William Hamilton, His British Majesty’s ambassador at the court of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon and his wife Maria Carolina of Hapsburg. Diplomat, antiquarian and volcanologist, Hamilton, with his multifaceted personality, found fertile ground in the “Enlightened” Naples of the second half of the 18th century to affirm and develop his great passions, antiquity and science.
The sections through which the exhibition will unfold will highlight his great interest in volcanology, landscape painting, music, and collecting, as well as the role he played in Neapolitan society of the time, amplified by the sometimes legendary figure of Lady Emma Hamilton. In reconsidering and promoting the extraordinary human, political and intellectual story of a man who was undoubtedly one of the greatest interpreters of his time, leaving a profound mark on the city, the exhibition will also trace the fruitful cultural and artistic exchanges that took place between Italy and the United Kingdom at a key moment in European history.
The exhibition runs until 2nd March 2025.
University of St Andrews are Hiring!
February 13 2025
Picture: University of St Andrews
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The University of St Andrews are hiring a Lecturer in Early Modern Art History (1400-1800).
According to the job description:
You will be required to contribute lectures and tutorials on our first-year survey modules. You will also be expected to offer attractive and accessible research-led undergraduate courses, giving students as much first-hand experience of works as possible. For the Academic Year 2025-26 you will be required to teach two of our current available modules. These include: AH3106 Experiencing Sculpture in the Early Modern World; AH3107 Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasties from a Global Perspective; AH3235 Spanish Painting in the Age of Velázquez; AH4176 Early Modern Cities; AH4182 Principles and Protagonists of Italian Renaissance Architecture; AH4183 The Senses, Objects, and Buildings in Early Modern Europe; AH4185 Michelangelo: Sculptor, Painter, Architect; AH4206 Raphael and His Reception; AH4222 Art, Theatre and Performance in France 1600-1800; AH4236 Images of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe; AH4241 Leonardo da Vinci, 500 years later. [...]
The job comes with an annual salary of £46,735 per annum and applications must be in by 28th March 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
The Farnese in Sixteenth-Century Rome
February 11 2025
Picture: Capitoline Museums
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Capitoline Museums in Rome have just today opened an exhibition exploring the history of The Farnese in sixteenth-century Rome. The show draws together one hundred and forty masterpieces including ancient sculptures, bronzes, paintings, drawings, manuscripts, gems and coins, all of which tell the story of the collection and the various figures who contributed to it.
The exhibition will run until 18th May 2025.
The Fitzwilliam Museum are Hiring!
February 11 2025
Picture: Fitzwilliam Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge are hiring a Curator, Historic & Modern European Paintings and Drawings (Maternity Cover).
According to the job description:
We are now looking for a fixed-term curator to work with our outstanding collection of European historic and modern paintings and drawings, ranging from the 12th century to the early 20th century. You will contribute to the overall care of, and public access to, the collections through display and interpretation, teaching, and public engagement, in support of the Museum's Mission and Vision. They will work with wider curatorial colleagues on changes to the collection displays, enhancing documentation, enable research access and other curatorial duties. The role may include supporting the acquisition of new artworks and objects in line with the Collections Development Strategy.
The job comes with an annual salary of between £41,421 - £55,295 and applications must be in by 21st February 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Burlington Magazine - Latest Issue
February 11 2025
Picture: Burlington
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The February edition of The Burlington Magazine has just been published.
Here's a list of the main articles in this month's edition:
An Islamic tent in S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara - By Federica Gigante
Lucchese patronage in Papal Avignon: the chapel of Carlo Spiafame in Notre-Dame-des-Doms - By Geoffrey Nuttall
Two paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi in the Potsdam collection of Frederick the Great - By Franziska Windt
The elder sisters of the ‘The Campbell sisters’: William Gordon Cumming’s patronage of Lorenzo Bartolini - By Lucy Wood & Timothy Stevens
‘Victory at San Pietro in Casale’ in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome - By Stephanie C. Leone & Alessandro Serrani
Ménage de Pressigny and his art collection - By Yuriko Jackall
Lusieri’s mysterious ‘Wooded lake’ identified- By Dyfri Williams
Funded PhD to Study Angelica Kauffman Prints and Material Culture
February 10 2025
Picture: wrocah.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities at the University of Leeds and The National Trust are inviting applications for a funded studentship / doctoral award on the subject of At Home with Angelica Kauffman: The Material and Print Culture of an Eighteenth-Century Artist.
According to the project summary:
Angelica Kauffman was one of the most renowned and recognizable artists in the eighteenth century. Her oil paintings, prints, and engravings were widely reproduced for and by British consumers. This project seeks to reexamine the reproduction, retranslation and consumption of Kauffman’s visual artworks, focusing on three-dimensional, small-scale works including ceramics, needlework, textiles (embroidery and needle pictures), and fans, among others. Drawing on the National Trust's extensive collections, including print and manuscript sources, the project will show, for the first time, the rich and varied depth of Kauffman's influence on aesthetics and the domestic interior.
The studentship comes with an annual maintenance grant of £20,780 and applications must be in by 5th March 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Portrait found underneath Ecce Homo
February 10 2025
Picture: news.artnet.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Artnet have published a rather interesting news story regarding a piece of scientific research undertaken on an Ecce Homo by the Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Laboratories in Cyprus. Surprisingly, x-ray results have shown that the composition, a version of Titian's famous Ecce Homo (or Christ Shown to the People) of c.1565-70 which exists in Saint Louis and the Prado, was painted on top of a portrait.
The question remains as to why this occurred and how this affects its dating (although, I think costume historians will be able to work out what has happened here with relative ease), yet, according to the article:
Bakirtzis [APAC director Nikolas Bakirtzis] added that Titian effectively painted the new composition directly onto the portrait, which he said, “points to an experienced, confident artistic hand.”
The tone of the two paintings is markedly different. One is a portrait of an unknown professional man, and the other is a narrative scene from a known episode from the passions of Christ.
“They were intended for different clients and audiences. Unfortunately, this is as far as we can go until further research allows us to either identify the depicted man or we find ways to date the paintings,” Bakirtzis said. “We cannot really estimate how much earlier the first painting is. Any suggestion remains hypothetical and based on stylistic observations.”
The painting and results are on display at the Limassol Municipal Arts Center in Cyprus until 10th March 2025, in case you'd like to go and have a look for yourselves.
