Sunday, February 22, 2015

Bartholomeus Spranger: Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague

What a title and the show at the Metropolitan Museum totally lived up to it.  Unfortunately, I saw the show in its last week but I want to tell you about it anyway.

Bartholomeus Spranger , was born in Antwerp in 1546 and died in Prague in 1611 and this is the first monographic exhibition dedicated to him, which is surprising when you realize what a great artist he was.  We always hear of the artists that were not appreciated in their own time, however, Spranger was celebrated and then forgotten. He was not an overnight success, however.  When he went to Milan he thought that clients would flock to him but they did not. Then he had the bad luck of having a colleague steal what little money he had so he took the hint and left!  He lived in Rome for a decade and worked under the patronage of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and Pope Pius V appointed him as Court painter in 1570.  The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II summoned him to Vienna where he arrived in 1576 but unfortunately the Emperor died soon thereafter.  He had the good fortune that Maximilian’s successor, Rudolf II, also wanted Spranger’s services and appointed him Court painter in 1581.  He moved to Prague where the Holy Roman Emperor was then situated and worked there until he died.

The guest curator of this amazing show was Sally Metzler and she was able to get loans from 14 countries.  Interestingly, she states in her introduction that she “met” Spranger in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.  One of the pictures that caught her eye took me by surprise in the exhibition.  It is a very small picture without wall power in the usual sense.  But when you get close to this small copper representing “The Lamentation of Christ” that Spranger painted for Maximilian in 1576 it jumps out at you as if it were 3 dimensional.  Unfortunately, it does not come off as such in an illustration but take my word for it.  It is luminous and in a non-sexual way it is a very sensuous image.  Spranger is a great Mannerist artist and the twisted figure of Christ is certainly a fine example of the style.


Rudolf II was not a very successful politician and his enemies blamed his antics and interest in the occult and the arts for bringing the Empire into the Thirty Years War.  His love of the arts, however, gave rise to a surge of creativity at his court and Spranger might be said to have led the way.  The Emperor commissioned a great deal of erotic art and Spranger was a master in that area.  Possibly the sexiest image in the show, though there are a number to choose from, is a large image of “Jupiter and Antiope” 1595-97 from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.  Jupiter is holding Antiope under her arm and around her breast while Antiope caresses Jupiter’s leg.  This is a time long before the ideal woman became anorexic and therefore there is plenty of flesh for the artist to embellish on.


I want to share with you Ariella Budick’s introduction in the Financial Times to her review of the Spranger show, “Imagine a 16th-century version of an adult website, with lithe bodies tangled in impossibly acrobatic poses, lissome limbs, lustrous flesh, supple skin, all elaborately arranged in dances of erotic abandon."

In an extremely erotic image borrowed from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Satyr Mason pulls back the curtain on Venus who is in an extremely suggestive position.  Mason has dropped a string, a plumb line, between her legs, which swings back and forth and up and down in a metaphor for intercourse.  The Metropolitan Museum was kind enough to supply the other images but this one was reproduced by me from the catalog.


Spranger drew and doodled on every surface he could find and was a natural draughtsman as well as a print maker.  The 380 page catalog that accompanies the show by Dr. Metzler is not only a catalog raisonné of the paintings but also the drawings, etchings and related engravings.

The most impressive installation in the show is an entire wall representing a Kunstkammer.   Although a kunstkammer is literally an art room it included wonders of nature as well as of man.  It is what preceded the museum in the wealthy families of the court.  All sorts of  curiosities could be found there often including scientific instruments.  The Met has recreated a kunstkammer on a single wall showing paintings and drawings by Spranger along with bird taxidermies and skeletons.  Rudolf II had a lathe workshop in Prague Castle where he made turned objects himself, so the technical feat of an ivory turned in the form of a crooked standing cup is also included.


Reviewing it here I keep wishing it would still be up.  A bit like seeing a play that you can’t go back to.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Fate

I looked up the definition for the fickle finger of fate, a term sometimes used in humor but with origins that are serious and profound. 1. An unseen and unforeseeable force that controls the direction of all living things, 2. A series of very unlucky or unfortunate events.

This Missive is about definition #2.  As most of you probably know by now, Walter Liedtke, curator of Dutch and Flemish art at the Metropolitan Museum died on February 3, 2015.  He lived in Bedford Hills New York with his wife, Nancy, who raised horses.  He took the 5:45 pm on the Metro-North line out of Grand Central Station and chose the first car because it was often designated as the quiet car.  In a freak accident the train hit a car stuck on the tracks and six people on the train died as a result.  It happened in Valhalla (according to Norse mythology the destination of soldiers who died in battle).

Photo Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

I had heard about the crash on the late night news and figured that less than 1% of the people on that train were killed and I could not think of anyone who commuted on that route.  The fact is I knew at least three Met curators who did and I know one decided to take the next train out.

We each learn from our significant other and it often comes together on some level.  With Walter Liedtke it was his book, “The Royal Horse and Rider:  Painting and Sculpture and Horsemanship 1500-1800” which was published in 1989 and won the C.I.N.O.A. Prize from the International Confederation of Art Dealers on whose board I served, also as President, for many years.  The prize was to help defray the costs of publication of an art history book that this body, involving associations in over 20 countries, found worthy of promoting.  It was published on the 20th Anniversary of the day he met his wife, who so loves horses and he dedicated the book to her.

Walter loved to write and share his knowledge.  Just five years after arriving at the Met he wrote the catalog of the Museum’s Flemish Paintings.  In our library alone we have that catalog, three of his exhibition catalogs and the book mentioned above.  In 2007 he published the catalog of Dutch painting in the museum’s collection and was beginning work on the Spanish paintings.

Photo Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

I cannot say that we were close to Walter, but he arrived at the Metropolitan during Penelope’s tenure there and he was always so nice and generous with his time and knowledge.  Funnily enough he could give the appearance of being aloof, but the minute you spoke to him he was quite the opposite.  He did little things like offer us early entrance into one of his blockbuster exhibitions so that we could see it quietly without jostling with the crowds that would arrive shortly thereafter.  Somehow we stayed in touch. 

His interests were broad and last year after I wrote a Missive on Pinhole photography he wrote, “Dear Gerald, I’m delighted to be receiving your missives and this one is especially interesting. Well done! Walter”.  It wasn’t his field, I did not even realize that he was interested in photography but that was part of Walter’s generosity of spirit.  Walter made you feel you were his friend.  Needless, to say many of my museum and art friends on Facebook posted notices and tributes.  What surprised me was that a museum friend here in Santa Fe said that many of his friends, artists or others involved in the Native American art world also posted expressions of sadness on Facebook.  They most probably had never met Walter but his reach went way beyond those in his own field.

Of course, we ask why, and can’t understand a fate that takes one so talented and who has contributed so much, but destiny is something we have no control over and must learn to live with.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

How to Close Down a City and Lose a Fortune!

I was in New York for Master Drawings Week and the Old Master sales and “the worst winter storm the city has ever seen” was the promise from Mayor de Blasio.   Governor Cuomo announced that Mass Transit would be totally shut down and there would be a curfew for all non- emergency vehicles.  I don’t remember this ever happening, before hardly any snow had fallen.  The promise was that by 11pm the storm would be in full force.  The warnings were so severe that I decided not to go to a benefit dinner and a couple of openings that night being concerned about not getting transportation back to the Princeton/Columbia Club where I was staying.

Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” joked on his pre-recorded broadcast that if you were watching at the time he went on air, New York City probably no longer existed!  When I woke up briefly at 3AM I looked out the window and figured the storm hadn’t really started yet.  That was true, and at least for the city proper, it never really did.  The worst report I heard was one foot of snow and that was at LaGuardia airport.

Can you imagine?  All the theaters, and even opening nights, that were cancelled, the museums and businesses that were closed the following day because of the dire warnings.  The financial losses must have been colossal!  It was unheard of.  Of course, some years ago, everyone blamed then Mayor Bloomberg for flying to Bermuda on his own plane just before a bad storm hit New York leaving the city unprepared.

More the fool was I because most of my colleagues ignored the warnings and they were right.  We had a snowfall like we do every year at this time.  My Club, managed to stay open, clean the rooms and serve 3 meals.  Many local restaurants also remained open.  Some of the large shops opened, if a bit late.  The roads were plowed and while there was snow piled around and slush, I have seen so much worse!

What did yours truly do?  Admittedly, it was not a day to rush out first thing in the morning but I did call old friends who were in town and we had a lovely leisurely lunch at their Club, the Yale, that is in the same neighborhood. Then I headed uptown and managed to visit half a dozen dealers who were exhibiting in the annual Master Drawings New York event where individual galleries have exhibitions in their own premises or one of their colleagues.  Also, others took advantage of the opportunity and did exhibitions as well.  I was in New York for Master Drawings Week and the Old Master sales and “the worst winter storm the city has ever seen” was the promise from Mayor de Blasio.   Governor Cuomo announced that Mass Transit would be totally shut down and there would be a curfew for all non- emergency vehicles.  I don’t remember this ever happening, before hardly any snow had fallen.  The promise was that by 11pm the storm would be in full force.  The warnings were so severe that I decided not to go to a benefit dinner and a couple of openings that night being concerned about not getting transportation back to the Princeton/Columbia Club where I was staying.

Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” joked on his pre-recorded broadcast that if you were watching at the time he went on air, New York City probably no longer existed!  When I woke up briefly at 3AM I looked out the window and figured the storm hadn’t really started yet.  That was true, and at least for the city proper, it never really did.  The worst report I heard was one foot of snow and that was at LaGuardia airport.

Can you imagine?  All the theaters, and even opening nights, that were cancelled, the museums and businesses that were closed the following day because of the dire warnings.  The financial losses must have been colossal!  It was unheard of.  Of course, some years ago, everyone blamed then Mayor Bloomberg for flying to Bermuda on his own plane just before a bad storm hit New York leaving the city unprepared.

More the fool was I because most of my colleagues ignored the warnings and they were right.  We had a snowfall like we do every year at this time.  My Club, managed to stay open, clean the rooms and serve 3 meals.  Many local restaurants also remained open.  Some of the large shops opened, if a bit late.  The roads were plowed and while there was snow piled around and slush, I have seen so much worse!

What did yours truly do?  Admittedly, it was not a day to rush out first thing in the morning but I did call old friends who were in town and we had a lovely leisurely lunch at their Club, the Yale, that is in the same neighborhood. Then I headed uptown and managed to visit half a dozen dealers who were exhibiting in the annual Master Drawings New York event where individual galleries have exhibitions in their own premises or one of their colleagues.  Also, others took advantage of the opportunity and did exhibitions as well.  Over the time I was in New York, I visited about 22 of the 34 exhibitors plus others.  It was a busy week.

The Pandora Gallery, with offices in Milan and New York had one of the most intriguing and in some ways funny, images.  In 1939 there were discussions between the German Foreign Minister Adolf Hitler and the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov to bring Russia into the Axis powers.  In this watercolor caricature, the recto and verso show the before and after of this meeting.  The latter after Germany invaded the Soviet Union.  The artist who created the caricature is Giovanni Costetti (1874-1949).

\



Who knows why an image intrigues but this profile head by Pietro Fancelli (1764-1850) took my notice.  The sitter is anonymous but is thought to be a cleric.  The artist is known to have collaborated with local artists on the decoration of a number of palaces.  It was being exhibited by Richard Berman.  He lives and works uptown near Columbia University and a mid-town dealer, Kraushaar Galleries, is always kind enough to give over it’s space for this annual event.



At Jill Newhouse Gallery I found a set of drawings, which were being sold as one, by Charles-François Daubigny (1817–1878), a member of the Barbizon School, much admired by Van Gogh.  I am afraid that though he is considered a great landscape painter I could never warm up to his paintings.  These small sketches, however, I found wonderful.  The purpose of the drawings was to transfer them to etching plates and create prints.  Prints could be used to spread the artist’s work far and wide and they were also less expensive for the collector to acquire.



At the drawing dealers Nissman, Abromson, also showing at the Newhouse Gallery, I found a drawing that I am quite crazy about.  I loved it immediately and was surprised to learn it was by the Czech photographer, František Drtikol (1883–1961).  He is one of my favorite photographers that I could not afford when I was collecting in the field.  The artist did portraits to keep body and soul together but was known for his lyrical nudes with chiaroscuro shadows that gave an exciting and mysterious air to his photos.  There is always something new to learn and that someone I knew as a photographer was also a fine draughtsman was one of many take aways for the week.



This was my first visit to New York for old masters week without my own gallery.  I wanted to see old friends for fun and business and to keep in touch with my earlier fields of interest.  It was exciting to be in The Big Apple again and I have more tales to tell, but I was very happy to fly home out of the snow in New York and into the snow in Santa Fe!

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Masterpieces from the Scottish National Gallery

The Frick Collection in New York essentially gave a preview to a larger exhibition showing 10 out of the 55 paintings that will go on tour.  From New York the show will go in its entirety to The Art Museums of San Francisco and then on to the Kimbell in Fort Worth.

It is not just paintings that move around but curatorial personnel as well.  Colin Bailey currently the Director In San Francisco was, curator at the Kimbell and then Deputy Director at the Frick.  The show was conceived when he while he was still at the Frick and he was on the selection committee to choose the pictures from Edinburgh.  Michael Clarke is today Director of the Art museum in Edinburgh though when I last saw him there, some years back, he was curator of French painting and Colin Bailey is also an specialist in that area.  So it is no accident that there is a great French 18th Century painting in this exhibition--- making me very happy!

It amused me that the morning of the day that I went to the Frick to see the exhibition I had been at Sotheby’s for a stand up brunch and a preview of the Old Master sales for the week.  Before the brunch they had a lecture on food and art, a subject I had never given much thought to but was quite interesting.   One of the members of the panel mentioned that there were very few early images of the kitchen because usually food is celebrated in the eating not the creation of the meal.  

The first painting in this small sampling at the Frick is a wonderful Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) of a “Woman Cooking Eggs” of 1618.  The artist was still a very young man and this was probably part of his recent life’s experience.  In the painting it appears that the woman’s son is watching and tasting because she is looking at him expectantly.



In the room next to the exhibition is an even smaller show of El Greco at the Frick, which is being done in conjunction with a show at the Metropolitan Museum. But you don’t have to leave the Edinburgh paintings room to see a great El Greco (1541-1614).  Although El Greco was born in Greece by 1577 he was already working in Spain and there was known as The Greek.  El Greco is certainly easier than his given name, Domenikos Theotokopoulos!  The painting presented here is “An Allegory (Fábula)”, 1585–95.  It’s a complicated story from classical antiquity which can be found abbreviated on the Frick website, but what is so enticing is the way El Greco works with the light.  The only source being the boy blowing on the fire.



If this is not enough for one wall in between these two amazing pictures is Sandro Botticelli’s (1444/1445-1510) “The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child” of 1485.  What a masterpiece.  Botticelli doesn’t get any better than this.






Of course, we have the Scottish and English pictures including a wonderful Gainsborough, Ramsay and Reynolds with a John Singer Sargent in homage to the Colonies!

The final picture in the show, if you go through counter clockwise, as I did, was in some ways the most exciting.  It is Jean-Antoine Watteau’s (1684–1721) Fêtes Vénitiennes”, 1718–19.  This was probably a prime model for the popular subject of the Fête champêtre, freely translated as a garden party.  Both his student Jean-Baptiste Pater (1695-1736) and his great admirer Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743) are well known for similar subjects.  Many of the paintings seem rather turned out to make a buck but this one has wonderful painterly qualities that show the real master.




Senior Curator at the Frick, Susan Grace Galassi, is responsible for the coordination of the show at the museum and the great hang from my point of view.  As I have said before, I prefer to see just the best rather than more, and this exhibition truly delivers.