Artworks

On Saturday, The Wall Street Journal published my latest entry in its Saturday Masterpiece column, about Enguerrand Quarton’s Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, and all I can say is that we picked the right artwork this time, for sure, based on the feedback I’ve received so far. Many people–not art historians, of course, but art lovers nonetheless–have told me that they’ve never noticed the work in the Louvre. Yet is it a large work, more than 5 by 7 feet.

That’s a detail of Mary Magdalene at left, one of Mary at right, and the whole work below, all courtesy of the Louvre.

As I told one friend, I blame its placement, up to a point. It’s in the French paintings galleries on the second floor and it’s one of the first paintings you see. But it is in a little room that seems like an entryway to larger galleries. While I was there in February, almost everyone gave it a quick glance and proceeded to the next room, which contained many more pictures.

Also, as I explain in my piece, ‘This [pieta]…would surely be as celebrated [as others] had it not been hidden in a dark, provincial chapel, its creator unknown and then disputed, for so long.” Quarton’s restraint in painting a work of such poignancy and pain makes it rise above other depictions of this scene.

A fascinating aspect of the story is that it was

discovered in 1834 by a young inspector of historical monuments named Prosper Mérimée—later the author of “Carmen,” the novella that inspired Bizet’s opera. Mérimée found it in a church in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, a little town on the Rhone opposite Avignon.

Charles Sterling, a curator at the Louvre and later at the Metropolitan Museum, is also a hero of this story–he made the attribution to Quarton.

Aside from this work, only two other paintings are known to exist now by Quarton, the Virgin of Mercy in the Musée Condé in Chantilly, and the Coronation of the Virgin in a hospice in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon–but we know that he made others, because the documents detailing six commissioned works can be found in French archives.

Obviously, American museums own no paintings by Quarton, but he was also an illuminator, and the Morgan Library owns one page, on which he did the miniature, and two others that are attributed to him. Here is the first:

Tipped off by none other than Philippe de Montebello, who read my review of Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe, I learned a fascinating fact about one of the pictures in the exhibition: Canaletto’s The Procession on the Feast Day of Saint Roch is a milestone for contemporary art.

If you look closely at the painting, you’ll see about ten paintings hanging against the the facades of the buildings. I had noticed them, but had not known that “This is one of the first recorded exhibitions of paintings, usually held on a feast day. The pictures would have been removed the next day. And they are contemporary art,” PdM wrote to me. “I use the picture in my history of museums class,” which of course he teaches at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts.

Here’s a large copy of it:

At the Getty, the label references the paintings:

The procession on the feast day of Saint Roch, who was invoked against the plague, commemorated the end of a devastating outbreak in Venice in 1576. After Mass, the doge and senators (in red togas) leave the church of San Rocco as spectators draw near to watch. Members of the doge’s entourage carry the accoutrements of his office—a ceremonial stool, cushion, and sword. Many participants hold sprigs of flowers, believed to ward off disease. On this annual occasion, an exhibition of paintings was held outside the Scuola di San Rocco.

The National Gallery in London owns the painting, and records the scene this way, adding a line about Titian:

In Venice the feast day of Saint Roch on 16 August commemorated the end of the terrible plague of 1576 (in which Titian died). On this day the Doge would hear mass in San Rocco where Saint Roch was buried, to celebrate his intercession in bringing the plague to an end. Canaletto’s painting shows the grand procession of state dignitaries and ambassadors emerging from the church. The participants all carry nosegays, which were presented to them on arrival as a memorial of the plague. The Doge carries a parasol and wears gold and ermine ceremonial robes. Awnings give protection from the sun.

An exhibition of paintings was traditionally held at the Scuola di San Rocco, which dominates this painting, on Saint Roch’s feast day. The pictures decorating the Scuola here have not been identified.

All intriguing to me, making one of my favorites in the show, even more special. (I love the structure of the painting, bisected by that canopy, and Canaletto’s use of sunlight and shade, along with everything else.)

Speaking of the exhibition, I’ve heard from a few people who said they knew nothing of “view” paintings, though they know about Canaletto and Panini. The other painters in this exhibition are Carlevarijs, Claude Joseph Vernet, Bernardo Bellotto, Antonio Joli, Francesco Battaglioli, Guardi, and Hubert Robert–they were the best of the view painters. With their works, the exhibition takes us to Venice, Naples, Rome,  Siena, Warsaw, Dresden and Madrid.

I should also add that this show will travel to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Getty

By tradition, every year about this time I post a nativity scene here, for your enjoyment and contemplation while I am away with family for Christmas. There’s no shortage of possible choices. This year, reminded and inspired by my review of the Giovanni di Paolo exhibition at the Getty, I’ve chosen one by the artist who perhaps most inspired Giovanni: Gentile da Fabriano.

Here is his Adoration of the Magi, dated 1423. It’s in the collection of the Uffizi.

Here’s what the Uffizi says about it:

The work was commissioned by a wealthy banker and intellectual Palla Strozzi for the family chapel in the church of Santa Trinita.

This is one of the greatest masterpieces of international gothic style, with its elegant and fairy tale atmosphere and figures in sophisticated poses.

The Adoration of the Magi theme was common since it allowed to hint at the economic prosperity and cultural superiority of who commissioned the work.
The procession of the Magi fills the whole composition and is a chance to flaunt plushy clothes and golden decorations. Behind the three Magi we can recognize the portrait of Palla Strozzi in the man with the falcon.

The sumptuous clothes of the characters, the refined harnesses of the horses, the description of the landscape and the even more magnificent carved wood frame make this work a veritable masterpiece.

In years past, I have shown nativities by Botticelli, Fra Agelico, Petrus Christus and others–but this one is pretty hard to beat for sheer glory!

Have a wonderful holiday.