Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Another “Gift” From Rome’s Mayor

If you’re in the neighborhood of Malibu, Ca., you may want to stop in at the Getty Villa one day soon. There’s you’ll find an ancient statue on loan from Rome’s mayor, part of his “The Dream of Rome” project through which he’s sending masterpieces from the Eternal City to American museums.

Last December, I wrote about Bernini’s Medusa, which was sent to the Legion of Honor branch of the Fine Arts Museums sof San Francisco, and  now Lion Attacking a Horse, which dates to the fourth century B.C., is at the Getty Villa.

Since its arrival in Rome from Asia Minor at some point before 1300 A.D.,  Lion Attacking a Horse has never before left the city. As I wrote in a brief article in today’s Wall Street Journal:

In 1300, the piece is mentioned in archival documents and located in the Piazza del Campidoglio on the Capitoline Hill – the first piece of ancient art in what became Europe’s oldest public art museum. By 1347, it had moved to the steps of the Palazzo Senatorio in the piazza, where it dominated an area used for the administration of justice and capital executions.

As a result, this dramatic depiction of a fallen horse being devoured by a ferocious lion came to symbolize the city of Rome.

There is stayed until about 1925, when it inexplicably went into storage. Now restored, it’s on loan to the Getty.

You may know this piece, however, because as Pat Wengraf, the London dealer, told me:

Probably the earliest reinterpretation of the antique marble in the Capitoline Museum is found in bronze group now in the Detroit Institute of Arts, which is signed by Antonio Susini (who worked for Giambologna circa 1580-1600). Susini’s bronze probably dates from circa 1580 -1590.  However, many replicas of the ancient marble were reproduced in bronze on a much smaller scale particularly for the Grand Tourists who visited Italy from the late 17th century.  Susini’s model of a “Lion attacking a Horse” is often found paired with a group of a “Lion attacking a Bull” – more usually on a small scale in bronze, but sometimes on a larger scale in marble. 

Photo Credt: Courtesy of the Getty

 

 

More Women Artists “Rediscovered” In New Hampshire

Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote an article for Smithsonian and a post here about the “rediscovery” of the women artists who were part of the Hudson River School of artists and who, during their time, were even accepted by some of their brother-artists and made a living at art.

Now, the artists whose work was shown then in Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site are being joined by women who painted alongside and in the style of the male artists of the mid-19th century who made up the “White Mountain School” of painting. Their work — admittedly a small body of it — will be on view at the Museum of the White Mountains, which is now under construction at Plymouth State University in Concord  Plymouth, N.H. [See comment below, and thank you, Barbara] It’s set to open in February.

Who were the women? Their names include Maria a’Becket, Susan Ricker Knox and Lizzie Stevens, according to a recent article published by the Associated Press, which said:

The paintings are similar stylistically to those produced by the more well-known male artists of the mid-19th century “White Mountain School” of painting, but the women often were overlooked, said Catherine Amidon, the museum’s director [above with some of the paintings]. Some of the women didn’t sign their paintings because the work wouldn’t sell as well if they identified themselves, she said.

The fledgling museum acquired the collection from Frances MacIntyre, who wrote her master’s thesis at Dartmouth College about female artists of the White Mountains. She later collected their work, and has donated the 19 paintings, which depict “mountain views, pastoral valley scenes and detailed renderings of the mountain flora,” the AP said.

The museum will be housed in a former church on the Plymouth campus.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Plymouth State University

“Where There’s A Mill, There’s A Way”

That’s the clever headline on an article by me in tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal. I didn’t write the hed; Adrian Ho, an editor at the Journal, did, and I thank him.

It refers, of course, to the situation in the Detroit area. Next Tuesday, voters in the three counties whose residents most use the Detroit Institute of Arts will vote on whether or not to levy a tiny millage tax — $15 per $150,000 worth of property value — to support the museum. If not, director Graham Beal (left) told me, the museum will go into “a death spriral.”

Ordinarily, Beal would be blamed for letting the museum get so close to the brink, but no one I know or talked with about it would do that. Rather, some of his colleagues see his tenure there as rather heroic. Despite a deteriorating city around him and the worst economic conditions in Michigan in more than 50 years, the DIA has been operating in the black and has no debt.

And, as Samuel Sachs II, who preceded Beal as the DIA’s director, noted, “If you visit the museum, you don’t know it’s undergoing tough times. If a museum starts looking shabby, it’s really in trouble.” I didn’t go to Detroit for this story, but last year, when I was there, I would have agreed — the DIA looked splendid. When I told Beal about Sam’s comment last Friday, he complimented his “very stressed” staff. (Sorry, Sam, this was in the WSJ story but got cut.)

Still, as the article says, the DIA is at a point where it needs to ask donors, each year, for gifts to cover more than its operating funds, a model that’s simply not sustainable. I laid out the economics fairly succinctly, but if you would like to see it graphically, take a look at the charts published by the Detroit Free Press. The Free Press published its own narrative of the story, with much more detail, on July 22.

I can honestly say that I can’t think of what else the museum could be doing either, other than asking for public support — which the DIA has chosen to do with a millage tax. Today’s Free Press carried an exclusive poll showing that 69% will vote for the tax — but pollsters interviewed just 237 adults. True, Aug. 7 is a primary, so a small number of people are likely to vote, but still…

The DIA has made a gutsy move, and I just hope it works. It would be a tragedy to see that museum go into decline.

Here’s the link to my piece.

UPDATE: I can’t resist adding this piece on MLive, which in the process of reporting a rally on the millage, tells the tale of two kids who sold lemonade to raise money for the DIA. They took in $22.50 in 45 minutes.

 

Breaking Now: Poland’s Raphael, Feared Destroyed, Is Rediscovered

This will be short, as I’m busy writing articles — but I can’t let go the breaking news coming from The Art Newspaper:

Poland’s long-lost Raphael found

According to the article, posted online, Portrait of a Young Man, dated to around 1513-1514, from the Czartoryski family collection in Crakow, has been discovered in a bank vault.

It had been taken by the Nazis in 1939 for Hitler’s Führermuseum, Linz, and it had disappeared from view in 1945 shortly before the end of the Second World War.

More details at that link, but many more should be coming out in future months.

Hat tip to Paul Jeromack, who pointed out the article.

A Match? Dallas Museum of Art + Leonardo — UPDATED

Art in America magazine has a scoop: Dallas Museum of Art Director Max Anderson apparently wants to buy the Leonardo, Salvator Mundi, that has resurfaced over the last year and was exhibited at the National Gallery of London’s Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan last year. 

The price tag would be about $200 million.

According to the article, published online:

Jill Bernstein, the museum’s chief communications officer, confirmed to A.i.A., “We have brought Leonardo da Vinci’s recently re-discovered masterpiece Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) to the DMA. We are actively exploring the possibility of acquiring it.” Measuring about 26 by 18 inches, the painting shows Christ holding a glass orb in his left hand, with his right hand raised in benediction.

Anderson sees the painting as a “destination painting,” the story notes. And who wouldn’t? Only one other painting by Leonardo is on public view in the United States — Ginevra de’ Benci, which is in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.

Where will Dallas get the money? And is the painting worth $200 million, given its condition? It was heavily overpainted and then cleaned too aggressively.

Some of Leonardo’s hand is evident, however, in the orb and the raised hand, and people may well flock to see the picture.

UPDATE: Robert Simon, one of the dealers who is handling the painting, sends a statement about the “overcleaning” remarks made by some people:

There is no doubt that the painting had been heavily overpainted — probably in the seventeenth century. That is essentially the reason why Leonardo’s authorship was not recognized until recently. But the statement that the painting was cleaned too aggressively is misleading. As Dianne Modestini (who cleaned and restored the Salvator Mundi) indicated in public presentations given at the Leonardo conference held at the National Gallery in January and at the Institute of Fine Arts in February (and soon to be published), damage to the painting was largely limited to the narrow areas along two very old cracks in the panel –neither of which go through the head of Christ. While there was localized paint loss there and some scattered abrasions elsewhere, the paint surface of the painting remarkably retains much of its original glazing — a fact confirmed by recent technical analyses. The removal of overpaint in the recent cleaning was undertaken delicately and at the highest level of conservation standards.