Tag: Italian Art

EVCS: Mark Shepheard, ‘Pompeo Batoni and his Roman Sitters: Portraits of the Sforza Cesarini’

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Mark Shepheard ‘Pompeo Batoni and his Roman Sitters: Portraits of the Sforza Cesarini.’   This paper examines Pompeo Batoni’s two portraits of members of the Sforza Cesarini family: the portrait of Duke Gaetano II in Melbourne and that of a woman traditionally identified as Gaetano’s wife, which hangs today in Birmingham. It readdresses the question of the identity of the sitter in the Birmingham portrait, and explores the social function of portraiture within the Sforza Cesarini’s extensive art collection and the likely place of Batoni’s two portraits within that collection.The paper concludes with a discussion of Batoni’s portraits of Roman sitters and questions the oft-repeated view that the paucity of such portraits was the result of the low esteem in which portraiture was traditionally said to be held in eighteenth-century Italy. This paper is the result of research carried out…

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Lecture | The People’s Doge: The Cultural Milieu of the Grand Chancellors of Venice – Deborah Howard

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The People’s Doge: The Cultural Milieu of the Grand Chancellors of Venice Professor Deborah Howard, The University of Cambridge and Macgeorge Fellow at the University of Melbourne This lecture explores the cultural significance of the Grand Chancellors of  Venice in the age of Titian. The Grand Chancellor was the head of the  chancery, or professional civil service, in the Doge’s Palace – the one  occupation strictly reserved for members of the cittadino class. Yet  surprisingly, unconventional family set-ups were no embarrassment, because success as a cittadino rested on individual merit rather than pure lineage. Educated, wealthy and ambitious, these high-ranking figures in the Venetian Republic used art and architecture ostentatiously for their personal  self-advancement . Professor Howard is Professor of Architectural History in the Faculty of Architecture and History of Art and a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. A graduate of Cambridge…

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Symposium on Italian Renaissance Art at The University of Melbourne

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Symposium on Italian Renaissance Art at The University of Melbourne A symposium is to be held on 9th and 10th of March 2012 on recent research on Italian Paintings in the exhibition Renaissance currently at the National Gallery of Australia, from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo on to be held in the Public Lecture Theatre, Old Arts Building at the University of Melbourne. Morning Session Chaired by Dr Christopher Marshall, The University of Melbourne 10.00 – 10.20am  Professor Jaynie Anderson, The University of Melbourne ‘Why and what did Giovanni Morelli collect in Renaissance Art?‘ One of the major collectors, whose works are in Canberra for the Renaissance exhibition, is the politician, writer and connoisseur Giovanni Morelli (1816-1891).  Morelli is celebrated for the fact that he invented connoisseurship for the modern world and for the fact that Sigmund Freud claimed to have invented psychological…

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Review | Raffaello incontra Raffaello, Palazzo Barberini, Rome – Monique-Louise Webber

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Exhibition Review Raffaello incontra Raffaello. Il Ritratto di giovane del Museo Thyssen Bornemisza e la Fornarina Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, 3 November 2011 – 29 January 2012 Reviewed by Monique-Louise Webber Aptly described as a ‘piccola mostra’ or ‘little exhibition’ in the wall text, Raffaello Incontra Raffaello, at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome (closed 29 January) invites reflection upon the nature of Raphael’s portraiture, and our response to it, through the comparison of two works. These are Portrait of a Young Man (c.1515) (Fig. 1), which has been attributed jointly to Raphael and an unknown assistant, and La Fornarina (1520) (Fig. 2). The juxtaposition of these works—the former owned by the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid and the latter by the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica—was made possible by the temporary exchange of Tintoretto’s…

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Public Lecture | Between Heaven and Earth: paintings from the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo on show at the National Gallery Australia

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Between Heaven and Earth: paintings from the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo on show at the National Gallery Australia Dr Claire Renkin Art historian Dr Claire Renkin lectures in spirituality of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, at Yarra Theological Union. In this lecture she examines certain themes of Renaissance paintings with special reference to the exhibition showing at the National Gallery of Australia. Date: Monday 20 February 2012, 5–6pm Venue: The Oratory, Newman College, University of Melbourne, 887 Swanston Street, Parkville Bookings: Email agehrig@newman.unimelb.edu.au Online http://www.trybooking.com/20360 Phone 9342 1614 Lecture Presented by The University of Melbourne and the Allan and Maria Myers Academic Centre – Newman College and St Mary’s College.  

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Dr Gerard Vaughan – Collecting Correggio

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Collecting Correggio Dr Gerard Vaughan Join NGV Director Dr Gerard Vaughan to hear the stories behind the NGV’s recent acquisition, Renaissance masterpiece Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist by Correggio. Date: Thursday 8th December, 2011, 6:00pm for a 6.30pm start. Venue: Clemenger BBDO Auditorium, NGV International (enter North Entrance, via Arts Centre forecourt) Cost: $20 NGV Member / $25 Adult (includes glass of sparkling wine on arrival) Bookings: Ph +61 3 8662 1555, 10am-5pm daily Event code M1159 Website: http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/programs/public-programs/ngv-members-collecting-correggio

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Book Launch – Lucio Fontana: Between Utopia and Kitsch by Anthony White

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Book Launch LUCIO FONTANA: Between Utopia and Kitsch by Anthony White MIT Press The book will be launched by Dr Ted Gott, Senior Curator International Art, National Gallery of Victoria Date: 3pm, Wednesday, 30th November, 2011 Venue: Level 1, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd About the book In 1961, a solo exhibition by Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana met with a scathing critical response from New York art critics. Fontana (1899–1968), well known in Europe for his series of slashed monochrome paintings, offered New York ten canvases slashed and punctured, thickly painted in luridly brilliant hues and embellished with chunks of colored glass. One critic described the work as ‘halfway between constructivism and costume jewelry,’ unwittingly putting his finger on the contradiction at the heart of these paintings and much of Fontana’s work: the cut canvases suggest avant-garde iconoclasm, but…

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EVCS: Callum Reid ‘Annibale Carracci’s Holy Family at the National Gallery of Victoria’

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Callum Reid ‘Annibale Carracci’s Holy Family at the National Gallery of Victoria’ This paper examines the little- studied Holy Family by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), which hangs in the National Gallery of Victoria, and discusses its style, iconography and position within the artist’s oeuvre. The subject of the ‘Holy Family’ was repeated several times during the artist’s transition from a Bolognese to a Roman style, and it provides a means of studying this development closely through a comparison between each painting: the constancy of theme and figures serves to highlight the critical changes in style. This paper presents the Melbourne Holy Family within the context of these smaller devotional works, considering both the social and personal transitions that they represent. It also brings to light new documents concerning the painting’s provenance and artistic reception. Date: Monday 5th September, 2011, 6:30pm. Venue: Rm 150, Elisabeth Murdoch Building, the University of Melbourne, Parkville. All Welcome. Drinks and nibbles provided (gold coin…

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John Weretka – Review: Pastel Portraits: Images of Eighteenth Century Europe. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 17 May 2011 – 14 August 2011

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Exhibition Review Pastel Portraits: Images of Eighteenth Century Europe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 17 May 2011 – 14 August 2011 Reviewed by John Weretka The eighteenth-century pastel portrait is the subject of a compact show of about forty images from 1711–1801 being hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (17 May 17–18 August 2011).  Too often derided as a minor art, placing it on a level with other domestic entertainments such as the silhouette, pastel is revealed in this show as a highly nuanced, delicate and beautiful art form that in a sense has suffered by being too closely allied to the tastes of its own time.  In fact, as the inclusion of pastels by artists working elsewhere in oils shows, pastel was a worthy subject of attention for artists who would otherwise make themselves known…

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Call for Papers: Johan Zoffany and his international contexts

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Call for Papers Johan Zoffany and his international contexts Conference, 14 May 2012, at the Royal Academy of Arts and Geological Society, London The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, will be co-hosting a conference on Monday 14 May 2012 to accompany a major exhibition on the eighteenth-century Anglo-British artist Johan Zoffany (1733-1810). The exhibition, Johan Zoffany RA. Society Observed, is curated by Martin Postle (Paul Mellon Centre) with Gillian Forrester (Yale Center for British Art), and MaryAnne Stevens (Royal Academy), and will be held at the Yale Center for British Art from 27 October 2011 to 12 February 2012, and at the Royal Academy of Arts from 10 March to 10 June 2012. Born in Frankfurt in 1733, Johan Zoffany trained as an…

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Exhibition Review: Lorenzo Lotto, Rome Scuderie del Quirinale, until 12 June. David R. Marshall

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Exhibition Review Lorenzo Lotto Rome Scuderie del Quirinale, until 12 June Reviewed by David R. Marshall The last big Lotto show was in 1998, but I suspect this one doesn’t quite match it. The illustrations to the introductory essays in the catalogue indicate the ones that got away. But even so, this is an impressive exhibition, mainly for the altarpieces. For those who do not know the Scuderie, it is the old papal stables on Piazza del Quirinale. It has two long and wide floors that once housed horses. It is one of the best Roman venues, as these spaces are roomy and flexible, although the transition between levels can be awkward. In this case the lower floor is devoted to large altarpieces. These are mounted above altar-table like structures on a plinth, which sets them at a good height…

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Review ‘Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals’

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Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals The exhibition finished at the National Gallery, London, on 16 January 2011. It runs at the National Gallery, Washington, from 20 February to 30 May 2011. Reviewed by David R. Marshall Canaletto is synonymous with Venetian view painting, and when you enter this exhibition you can see why: it looks like room after room of Canalettos. But gradually this impression resolves itself into several different painters and manners. Some have lamented the lack of the chronological organisation that informs most recent Canaletto and Bellotto exhibitions, but that would miss the point: this is an exhibition about comparisons, and the curator, Charles Beddington, has set up many interesting ones. However, when I saw it, on a Sunday morning near the end of its run, the crowds made it hard to see many of them: you were…

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Call for Papers: Vasari Quincentenary: A Re-evaluation of his Work

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Call for Papers Vasari quincentenary: a re-evaluation of his work Deadline: June 1, 2011 2011 sees the fifth centenary of Vasari’s birth. To mark the event, the Journal of Art Historiography calls for articles, documents and reviews to celebrate the event. While there has been an enormous secondary literature on Vasari, much of it has been driven by a desire to use his work to find facts about his artists. Little has been written on the overall structure of his Lives, his purposes in publication, the orality of his society and the way in which the distinctiveness of his education affected his writing. He seems to have been treated as an ‘Artist’ who simply cobbled together a set of lives relying on the literary intelligence of others, with their mountains of classical  sources. There has been no Anglophone translation of the 1550 edition of his Lives nor any complete modern…

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John Weretka – Giuseppe Maria Crespi ‘Ecstasy of St Margaret of Cortona’

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What are you looking at? John Weretka Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Ecstasy of St Margaret of Cortona, 1701. Museo Diocesano, Cortona. If Crespi is remembered at all today, it must be for his genre paintings, the subject of an exhibition (Giuseppe Maria Crespi and the emergence of genre painting in Italy) in 1986. Crespi’s The flea hunt (Louvre; probably late 1720s – link) and A courtyard scene (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale; probably 1730s) are probably his two best known genre pictures, while his series of the Seven sacraments (Gemäldegallerie, Dresden; c. 1712) and the superb St John Nepomuk confessing the Queen of Bohemia (Turin, Galleria Sabauda; 1743) are among his best known sacred works. Born in 1665 in Bologna, Crespi’s early study included periods with Angelo Michele Toni, Domenico Maria Canuti and Carlo Cignani. He also appears to have made an intense study…

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News | Kenneth Reed Bequest for the Art Gallery of New South Wales

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Kenneth Reed Bequest for the Art Gallery of New South Wales Katrina Grant Kenneth Reed, a Sydney-based lawyer, has announced that  he will bequeath a substantial collection of old master paintings, as well as collections of Italian Maiolica and eighteenth-century European porcelain to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. There are more than 70 items in total and the bequest will represent a significant addition to the gallery’s European collection. The paintings include a large number of landscapes – including view paintings and architectural capricci – several portraits and several religious a scenes. The most significant is perhaps the fully finished sketch or modello by the seventeenth-century painter Andrea Camassei ‘St Peter in prison baptising Saintss Processus and Martinian’ (c. 1630-1), which he painted in preparation for an altarpiece in fresco at St Peter’s in Rome. The fresco was…

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