The Burlington Magazine

21/09/2024

In the background of the famous so called ‘Madonna of the long neck’ rises a massive unfluted column without a capital, its elongated cylindrical form echoing the Virgin Mary’s divine neck. The lone column was not intended to be freestanding, but rather part of a larger temple. Before his unexpected death interrupted the picture’s completion, Parmigianino (1503–40) meticulously depicted the base of a foreshortened octastyle colonnade and stereobate, leaving a reserve for the rest of the building that is still visible in the exposed priming layer of the painting. Drawings suggest that he introduced the architectural backdrop at a late stage in the design process and experimented widely with its appearance. ⁠
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Read Mary Vaccaro’s shorter notice ‘Parmigianino, Damiano Pieti and the beauty of architecture in the “Madonna of the long neck”’ in our September issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202409?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo&fbclid=IwY2xjawFGsqdleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaC-s-kDggihXOPzmHo-5g8LDmrF0EAYPd7ep5w0ghqe2vhyjGUAc72BMg_aem_4vCk9KMFRLu_bzF9keglUw

Image: Detail of ‘Madonna of the long neck’, by Parmigianino. c.1534–40. Oil on panel, 216.5 by 132.5 cm. (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence; Bridgeman Images).

19/09/2024

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17/09/2024

In 2022 Guercino’s striking image of the Old Testament prophet Moses was rediscovered after having been lost since the end of the eighteenth century. It is placed here within the context of Guercino’s much-admired early style and the collecting practice of the D’Este family in Rome and Modena from the 1620s. ⁠
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Read Letizia Treves’s article 'Guercino’s "Moses": a recent addition to the artist’s “prima maniera”’ in our September issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202409?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo&fbclid=IwY2xjawFGsqdleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaC-s-kDggihXOPzmHo-5g8LDmrF0EAYPd7ep5w0ghqe2vhyjGUAc72BMg_aem_4vCk9KMFRLu_bzF9keglUw

Image: ‘Moses’, by Guercino. c.1618–19. Oil on canvas, 72 by 63 cm. (Rothschild Foundation, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire; photograph Moretti Fine Art).

16/09/2024

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2024 Burlington Contemporary Art Writing Prize.⁠
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This year’s Prize was judged by the scholar and author Julia Bryan-Wilson and the artist Trevor Paglen. The Prize was awarded to Grace Tomlinson, who chose to write about Rheim Alkadhi’s solo exhibition 'Templates for Liberation' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (ICA). ⁠
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The judges were impressed by Grace’s examination of the show, which ‘immediately draws the reader into the work with careful attention to material properties and astute visual description. Using language that is clear without sacrificing complexity, the writer demonstrates respect for how Alkadhi's art engages with the collision of history and the present moment’.
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The judges also highly recommended a review by Chiara Haefliger of Arjuna Neuman and Denise Ferreira da Silva’s exhibition 'Ancestral Clouds Ancestral Claims' at Kunsthalle Wien. ⁠

Read Grace's winning entry here: https://contemporary.burlington.org.uk/reviews/reviews/rheim-alkadhi-templates-for-liberation?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=CAWP24+winning+entry
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Thank you to everyone who entered the Prize this year. We had our largest number of submissions to date and each was read with great care and interest. ⁠Entries will open for the next Prize in April 2025. ⁠
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The Burlington Contemporary Art Writing Prize is generously funded by the Thistle Trust.

15/09/2024

In 1939 Kenneth Clark discussed the two versions of the 'Virgin and Child with St Anne' by Leonardo da Vinci: the painting at the Musée du Louvre, Paris (c.1501–19), and the cartoon in London, then still at the Royal Academy of Arts in Burlington House and now at the National Gallery. He concluded: ‘By common consent the Burlington House cartoon is one of Leonardo’s most beautiful works, and it is even excluded from Mr Berenson’s anathema’. Despite this ‘common consent’, the origin and date of the Burlington House Cartoon, as it has since become known, has puzzled scholars for generations.
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Read Per Rumberg’s shorter notice ‘Leonardo da Vinci’s Burlington House Cartoon: a new hypothesis’ in our September issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202409?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo&fbclid=IwY2xjawFGsqdleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaC-s-kDggihXOPzmHo-5g8LDmrF0EAYPd7ep5w0ghqe2vhyjGUAc72BMg_aem_4vCk9KMFRLu_bzF9keglUw

Image: ‘Virgin and Child with St Anne and the infant St John the Baptist (the Burlington House Cartoon)’, by Leonardo da Vinci. c.1506–08. Charcoal with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 by 104.6 cm. (National Gallery, London).

13/09/2024

The first work that greeted visitors to the iteration of ‘Harriet Backer (1845–1932): Every Atom is Colour’ at Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, is her ‘Blått interiør (Blue interior)’, painted in Paris in 1883. It was a fitting opening, not only because it is the most famous painting by Backer (1845–1932) and especially beloved in her native Norway, but also because it seems to epitomise her artistic practice, which is characterised by a constant exploration of light effects on interiors and their colours. To its right was Backer’s portrait of her colleague and life companion, Kitty Lange Kielland (1843–1914) – also painted in Paris in 1883 – prominently placed next to the doorway to the following room. It is a pleasure to see Kielland given a place of honour in Stockholm, for reasons that will be discussed. ⁠
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Read Knut Ljøgodt’s review of the show, exhibited until 18th August 2024, in our September issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202409?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo&fbclid=IwY2xjawFGsqdleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaC-s-kDggihXOPzmHo-5g8LDmrF0EAYPd7ep5w0ghqe2vhyjGUAc72BMg_aem_4vCk9KMFRLu_bzF9keglUw
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Image: ‘Blått interiør’, by Harriet Backer. 1883. Oil on canvas, 84 by 66 cm. National Museum, Oslo; exh. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm).

11/09/2024

In 1932 Tancred Borenius published an article in this Magazine about the collection of Andrea Vendramin (c.1565–1629), a member of an illustrious Venetian family that included an elder Andrea (1400–78), Doge of Venice from 1476 to 1478, and Gabriele (1484–1552), a prolific patron who amassed a substantial collection of paintings, sculptures, coins, drawings and other works. This shorter notice introduces additional works to the known corpus.⁠

Read Lauren Murphy’s shorter notice ‘Even more about the Andrea Vendramin collection’ in our September issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202409?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo&fbclid=IwY2xjawFGsqdleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaC-s-kDggihXOPzmHo-5g8LDmrF0EAYPd7ep5w0ghqe2vhyjGUAc72BMg_aem_4vCk9KMFRLu_bzF9keglUw
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Images: ⁠
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‘Mula salvatica’, fol.19r of ‘De Rebus Indicis & ex aliis mundi regionibus, tam Orientalibus quam Occidentalibus, valde curiosis & visu dignis’, by Andrea Vendramin. 1627. Ink on paper, approx. 23 by 16.5 cm. (© British Library Board; British Library, London). ⁠
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‘Capra di Cipro’, fol.21r of ‘De Rebus Indicis & ex aliis mundi regionibus, tam Orientalibus quam Occidentalibus, valde curiosis & visu dignis’, by Andrea Vendramin. 1627. Ink on paper, approx. 23 by 16.5 cm. (© British Library Board; British Library, London).

09/09/2024

‘Bonifacio de’Pitati’ is a triumph of scholarly persistence and dedication. It effectively transforms our understanding of the importance of the Veronese painter Bonifacio de’Pitati (1487–1553) for the wider progress of Venetian Renaissance painting in its golden age. Cottrell and Humfrey’s new study provides a clear and convincing account of Bonifacio’s oeuvre and development, following centuries of art-historical confusion and misunderstanding. ⁠
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Read Tom Nichols’s review of this publication in our September issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202409?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo&fbclid=IwY2xjawFGsqdleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaC-s-kDggihXOPzmHo-5g8LDmrF0EAYPd7ep5w0ghqe2vhyjGUAc72BMg_aem_4vCk9KMFRLu_bzF9keglUw
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Image: ‘Virgin and Child with saints’, by Bonifacio de’Pitati. c.1527. Oil on panel, 155 by 205 cm. (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

06/09/2024

The discovery of two impressive works by Lavinia Fontana in a Neapolitan private collection adds significantly to our understanding of her accomplished portrait practice and the circle of learned, Counter-Reformation patrons – with their distinctive views on the decorous role of art – for whom she worked. ⁠
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Read Antonio Ernesto Denunzio’s article ‘Two unpublished portraits by Lavinia Fontana’ in our September issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202409?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo&fbclid=IwY2xjawFGsqdleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaC-s-kDggihXOPzmHo-5g8LDmrF0EAYPd7ep5w0ghqe2vhyjGUAc72BMg_aem_4vCk9KMFRLu_bzF9keglUw

Images: ⁠
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'Carlo Sigonio', by Lavinia Fontana. 1581. Oil on canvas, 87 by 70 cm. (Private collection; photograph Archivio dell’Arte; Luciano and Marco Pedicini).⁠
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'Federico Pendasio', by Lavinia Fontana. 1581. Oil on canvas, 87 by 70 cm. (Private collection; photograph Archivio dell’Arte; Luciano and Marco Pedicini).

05/09/2024

02/09/2024

New perspectives on familiar masterpieces and fascinating discoveries feature in the September issue of The Burlington Magazine, which has a strong Italian flavour.

Why did Leonardo da Vinci create his magnificent ‘Burlington House Cartoon’ (National Gallery, London)? Per Rumberg offers a persuasive proposal. And why did Parmigianino place a column so prominently in the background of his splendid ‘Madonna of the long neck’ (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence)? Mary Vaccaro provides a compelling explanation.

We also publish previously unknown portraits by sixteenth-century women painters. Two by the Bolognese artist Lavinia Fontana dating from the early 1580s are in a Neapolitan private collection; they were discovered by Antonio Ernesto Denunzio and expand our understanding of the learned patrons for whom Fontana worked. Another portrait from the 1550s in the Museo d’arte della città di Ravenna by the family of the Cremonese artist Sofonisba Anguissola is discussed for the first time by Emanuele Lugli.

Exhibitions and openings covered in the September issue include the Federico Barocci show in Urbino and the Museo Internazionale del Tappeto Antico in Brescia. Meanwhile, Venetian art features strongly amid book reviews, where Tom Nichols considers Bonifacio de’Pitati’s paintings, Stéphane Loire assesses the extent of the frescos in the city’s palazzi, Dora Thornton discusses the international taste for Venetian cristallino and Deborah Howard writes on the Villa Barbaro.

Finally, moving away from such sunlit idylls, Sarah Whitfield praises Richard Dorment’s new investigative book on the very murky business of authenticating the works of Andy Warhol.

Discover the full list of content: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202409?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo

September's Editorial: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/editorial/turner-250?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo

This month's free review: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/book-review/warhol-after-warhol-power-and-money-in-the-modern-art-world?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Sept+24+issue+promo

30/08/2024

‘Without contraries is no progression’, William Blake (1757–1827) observed in his book 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell', written in 1790–1793. Two extremely different but complementary exhibitions held in 2023–24, along with their catalogues, offer insights into the visionary work of this poet, printmaker and self-defined prophet. ‘William Blake: Visionary’ at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (closed 14th January), curated by Julian Brooks and Edina Adam, revelled in the artist’s English eccentricity. It drew from and summarised the substantial catalogue of the last retrospective of Blake, a major exhibition including three hundred works held at Tate Britain in 2019–2020. In contrast, ‘William Blake’s Universe’, curated by David Bindman and Esther Chadwick, which travelled from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (closed 19th May) to the Hamburger Kunsthalle (14th June–8th September), has a more ambitious aim. It uses texts, images and the artist’s biography to redefine his lifelong radical activism as expressions of (early) Romantic discontent, connected to northern European and German movements.

Read Elizabeth Savage’s review of these publications in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202408?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Aug+24+issue+promo

Image: Title page of ‘Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion (1804–20)’, by William Blake. 1804–20. Relief etching printed in orange ink with watercolour, pen, black ink and gold on paper, 34.3 by 26.4 cm. (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven).

28/08/2024

The astonishing career of André Masson (1896–1987), which spanned three wars and included countless shifts of location and some major artistic innovations, is comprehensively narrated in ‘André Masson: Il n’y a pas de monde achevé’ at Centre Pompidou-Metz. The exhibition meanders through a dozen interconnected sections in the irregular exhibition spaces of Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines’s regional branch of the Pompidou, which opened in 2010. One sees Masson’s early engagements with Cubism alongside pen-and-ink drawings that announce his virtuosic ability with the wavering graphic line.

Read Brandon Taylor’s review of the exhibition, showing until the 2nd of September 2024, in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202408?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Aug+24+issue+promo

Image: ‘Louis Aragon’, by André Masson. 1924. Ink on paper, 43 by 34.5 cm. (Private collection; exh. Centre Pompidou-Metz).

26/08/2024

João V of Portugal acquired works of art from Rome and Paris; analysis of diplomatic correspondence illustrates how he also commissioned objects from Britain in the 1720s, notably spectacular examples of silverware. These included an exceptionally large and renowned silvergilt bath by Paul Crespin, the Huguenot silversmith who lived and worked in Soho, London. ⁠
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Read Teresa Leonor M. Vale’s article ‘Eighteenth-century English silver for King João V of Portugal’ in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202408
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Image: ‘Paul Crespin’. British. c.1726. Oil on canvas, 114 by 90 cm. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).

23/08/2024

The publication of ‘Sublime Ideas’ coincided with the exhibition of drawings by Piranesi at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York (closed 11th June 2023). Its author, John Marciari, was also the curator of the exhibition. The book is not a systematic exhibition catalogue, with entries on each of the drawings on display, but rather a broader look at Piranesi as a draughtsman, discussing many drawings not in the exhibition. This is a welcome decision as our knowledge of the artist’s drawings has significantly expanded since the last studies to take the measure of him as a draughtsman, published decades ago by Hylton Thomas and Andrea Bettagno. ⁠
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Read John A. Pinto’s review of this publication in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/current-issue
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Image: ‘Church interior with tombs, urns and a freestanding monument’, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. c.1742– 43, with later reworking. Pen, brown ink, brown and grey wash and black and red chalk on paper. 18.7 by 24.6 cm. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York).

21/08/2024

Feted and endlessly scrutinised, Leonardo da Vinci’s 'Mona Lisa' has a peculiar status. Paying homage to the painting as a talisman of Renaissance culture and a link to the mind of the man who created it, millions visit the Musée du Louvre in Paris every year and trudge through its galleries to get not very close to the picture and often be very disappointed. The process is akin to an odd and most unsatisfactory secular pilgrimage. ⁠
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In this month's Editorial, our Editor Christopher Baker discusses the prospect of a new and hopefully more serene, quieter space in which to view the prima donna of old master painting.⁠
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Read for free in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/editorial/an-enigmatic-smile?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Aug+24+issue+promo+-+editorial
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Image: Detail of 'Mona Lisa', by Leonardo da Vinci. c. 1503–19. Oil on wood panel, 77 by 53 cm. (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

19/08/2024

A fine Valencian lustreware dish in the Wallace Collection, London, is here connected with John the Fearless, the Valois Duke of Burgundy. It is used to explore cultural connections and the trade in luxury goods between Southern and Northern Europe in the early fifteenth century.⁠
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Read Susannah Kingwill’s article ‘A Valencian tin-glazed and lustred dish for the Duke of Burgundy’ in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202408

Image: Dish with the arms of the Duke of Burgundy. Valencian. 1404–29. Tin-glazed earthenware decorated with cobalt and lustre glazes, diameter 38.1 cm. (Wallace Collection, London).

17/08/2024

In July 1715 Augustus the Strong of Saxony-Poland received a splendid present from the Sun King: a team of six Spanish stallions, each equipped with embroidered trappings and a pair of elaborate flintlock holster pistols. Documents published here for the first time help establish the gift’s political context and chronology and provide detailed insight into the payment and the identity of all the craftsmen involved.⁠
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Read Stefano Rinaldi’s article ‘Six horses for the king of Poland: making and staging a diplomatic gift at the court of Louis XIV’ in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202408

Image: Details of a pair of flintlock pistols, by François Laurent (called Languedoc). c.1695– 1700. Barrels, locks and mounts: partially gilt and gold-damascened steel; thumbplates: partially gilt silver; stocks: walnut inlaid with silver thread, 50.7 cm. (total length), 1080 / 1075 g. (weight) (Rüstkammer, Dresden, inv. nos.J 644 and J 645; photograph Jürgen Karpinski).

15/08/2024

It is rare for an exhibition to present a truly unknown artist, but ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story’ at Charleston, Lewes, does just that. Whereas Patricia Preece (1894–1966) will be familiar to some as the second wife of Stanley Spencer and the model for his famous n**e double portrait, Dorothy Hepworth (1894–1978) is probably a new name to many. With an explicitly feminist agenda, this well-researched exhibition aims to tell the remarkable story of these two women’s lives, secret collaborative practice and romantic partnership.

Read Helena Anderson’s review of the exhibition, showing until the 8th September 2024, in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202408

Image: ‘Still life with fruit and white vase’, by Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece. c.1930. Oil on canvas, 51 by 61 cm. (© Dorothy Hepworth Estate; private collection; exh. Charleston, Lewes).

13/08/2024

‘Gustave Moreau: Le Moyen Âge Retrouvé’, a sumptuous, lavishly-illustrated and beautifully produced catalogue of an exhibition held at the Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris (closed 12th February), focuses on the fascinating engagement of Gustave Moreau (1826–98) with all things medieval. Drawing on the vast resources of the museum which, in addition to some eight hundred oil paintings and watercolours and more than fifteen thousand drawings, include the artist’s library, autograph manuscripts, correspondence and an extensive collection of photographs and prints, it offers valuable and stimulating insights into a significant aspect of Moreau’s artistic endeavour. ⁠
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Read Peter Cooke’s review of this publication in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/back-issues/202408
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Image: ‘Ange Voyageur’, by Gustave Moreau. Watercolour on vellum, 31 by 24 cm. (Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris).

11/08/2024

Few sixteenth-century Netherlandish artists have received more sustained scholarly attention in recent decades than Maarten van Heemskerck (1498– 1574). Despite these efforts, no major retrospective has been dedicated to Heemskerck until now, and the artist has remained largely unknown to the general public. Marking the 450th anniversary of Heemskerck’s death, ‘The Allure of Rome: Maarten van Heemskerck Draws the City’ at Kulturforum, Berlin, organised by the Kupferstichkabinett, in collaboration with the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome, is the first of a number that aim to boost his visibility. This exhibition, however, opens the season with a more focused exploration of Heemskerck’s Roman sojourn, which is more than appropriate given the impact of this period on the artist’s later production.

Read Austėja Mackelaitė’s review of the exhibition, showing until the 4th of August, for free in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/exhibition-review/the-allure-of-rome-maarten-van-heemskerck-draws-the-city

Image: Detail of ‘View of the Forum Romanum’, by Maarten van Heemskerck. c.1532–36. Preliminary drawing in lead stylus, pen and brown ink, greybrown wash, 21.6 by 55.5 cm. (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett; exh. Kulturforum, Berlin).

09/08/2024

In 1696 the 1st Duke of Devonshire purchased two beds that had belonged to Mary II, one of which was made by Louis XIV’s upholsterer, Simon Delobel. Documents and fragments of its crimson velvet embroidered hangings record a lost example of Stuart state furniture of the highest quality. ⁠
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Read Lucy Wood and Olivia Fryman’s article, ‘The 1st Duke of Devonshire’s ‘Queen Mary’ beds at Devonshire House, Chatsworth and Hardwick Hall’, in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/current-issue
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Image: ‘The High Great Chamber at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire’, attributed to W.H.L. Price. ?1838. Watercolour, ink and gouache on paper, 46 by 61 cm. (sight size). (National Trust, Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, NT 1130055).

07/08/2024

The subtitle of this absorbing exhibition is a clue to its approach. The first historical show to be held in the main exhibition space of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) after its reopening in 2023, 'Six Lives: The Stories of
Henry VIII’s Queens' prioritises narrative over aesthetic qualities and presents a series of stories through a rich range of material culture. The stories are those of the six women who were successively the wives of Henry VIII (reg.1509–47). The focus is on them, rather than, as in previous studies, on the monarch. Indeed, although a full-length portrait of Henry attributed to the workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger (c.1537; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) hangs at the entrance to the show, not far from his imposing steel tournament armour of c.1540 (Royal Armouries, London), the king himself is surprisingly little represented.

Read Karen Hearn’s review of the exhibition, showing until the 8th of September 2024, in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/current-issue

Image: ‘St Mary Magdalene Reading’, by the Master of the Female Half- Lengths. 1520–30. Oil on panel, 61.5 by 48.2 cm. (National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; exh. National Portrait Gallery, London).

03/08/2024

Two porcelain trays set into a Rococo table in the early 1760s, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, are reassessed and here confirmed as Sèvres. Their subjects are probably the family of the Marquis de Courteille, Louis XV’s representative at the porcelain factory, and their intimate representation in this manner is almost unique in eighteenth-century Sèvres.

Read Rosalind Savill’s article ‘From storeroom to stardom: the revelations of two Sèvres porcelain trays’ in our August issue: https://www.burlington.org.uk/current-issue

Image: Detail of the bottom tray of Worktable mounted with two trays, attributed to Bernard II van Risenburgh. Table c.1761–63; trays c.1761. Table: wood, green varnish and gilt-bronze mounts, 68.6 by 36.8 by 30.5 cm.; trays: Sèvres soft-paste porcelain, green ground, enamel colours and gilding, 32 by 26 cm. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

01/08/2024

The splendour of 'ancien régime' court culture dominates research in this month’s issue. In 1696 the 1st Duke of Devonshire acquired two magnificent beds that had belonged to Mary II, one of which was made by Louis XIV’s upholsterer, Simon Delobel; Lucy Wood and Olivia Fryman publish their analysis of the documents and fragments of rich hangings that allow us to study this important, although now dismantled, state furniture.⁠
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In 1715, the last year of Louis XIV’s life, he sent a magnificent gift of Spanish stallions and embroidered trappings, along with flintlock pistols, to Augustus the Strong of Saxony-Poland. Stefano Rinaldi’s article considers the political context for this munificence and indentifies all the craftsmen who contributed.⁠
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Rosalind Savill’s latest research is a salutary reminder that scholars should be open to revising their opinions. Savill revisits two porcelain trays she previously dismissed as fakes. The trays are set into tables in the collection of the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; now confirmed as Sèvres, they are shown to feature very rare and intimate representations of the family of the Marquis de Courteille, Louis XV’s representative at the factory. ⁠
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Books reviewed include major maiolica catalogues assessed by Timothy Wilson and John Mallet, a study of American Grand Tourists by Clare Hornsby, and a survey of Surrealist Sorcery by Michael Richardson. Exhibition catalogues on William Blake, Goya and Gustave Moreau are all discussed in detail, as are exhibitions on Henry VIII’s Queens, by Karen Hearn, and André Masson, by Brandon Taylor.⁠
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Discover the full list of content, plus this month's free content: https://www.burlington.org.uk/current-issue

31/07/2024

A previously unknown and unusually large seventeenth-century reverse-glass painting of St Philip’s baptism of the eu**ch has been discovered in the Valtice Palace in the Czech Republic. Its artist is identified in our July issue as Gerhard Janssen, copying a print by Jan Gillisz. van Vliet after a lost painting by Rembrandt. It is probably a work recorded as being offered by Janssen to Prince Karl Eusebius of Liechtenstein in 1677.⁠
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Read Zdeňka Míchalová and Zuzana Macurová’s article, ‘A reverse-glass painting by Gerhard Janssen in the Valtice Palace’, in our July issue: https://bit.ly/TBMJULY24
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Image: ‘The baptism of the eu**ch’, here attributed to Gerhard Janssen. 1677. Pigment and gold leaf on glass, 56 by 52 cm. (Valtice Palace, National Heritage Institute; photograph Martin Kučera).

29/07/2024

In preparation for a catalogue of Dutch and Flemish paintings at the often-overlooked Nivaagaard Collection near Copenhagen, a surprising discovery was made regarding the monumental ‘Portrait of a father and son’ by the Flemish artist Cornelis de Vos (1584– 1651). An article in our current issue presents the research that led to the discovery of its matching fragment, a portrait of a woman, and investigates the questions that remain: when was De Vos’s family portrait divided into two, and who was responsible for the separation?⁠
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Read Angela Jager and Jørgen Wadum’s shorter notice, ‘The missing woman: the reunion of a family portrait by Cornelis de Vos’, in our July issue: https://bit.ly/TBMJULY24
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Image: Reconstruction showing two works by Cornelis de Vos reunited. Left: 'Portrait of a father and son' during conservation in 1966. 1626. Oil on canvas, 138 by 119 cm. Right: 'Portrait of a woman'. 1626. Oil on canvas, 57.5 by 48.7 cm. (The Nivaagaard Collection).

08/01/2024

The study of artists working in Avignon around 1500 was for long hampered by the difficulty of attributing specific works to painters mentioned in the documentary sources. The attribution by Charles Sterling of two series of panels, a Life of the Virgin and a Life of St Sebastian, to Josse Lieferinxe, who came from Hainaut and was active in Marseille has been much debated. Recent discoveries and new stylistic analysis suggest that the panels were in fact painted by Jean II Changenet, who came from Burgundy and was active in Avignon.⁠
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Read Frédéric Elsig’s article ‘Avignon around 1500: the workshop of Jean II Changenet’ in our January issue: https://bit.ly/TheGoldenAgeofAvignon
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Images:⁠
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'St Sebastian destroying the idols', here attributed to Jean II Changenet. c.1490–95. Oil on panel, 81.6 by 54.6 cm. (Philadelphia Museum of Art).⁠
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'St Sebastian pierced by arrows', here attributed to Jean II Changenet. c.1490–95. Oil on panel, 82.5 by 55.7 cm. (Philadelphia Museum of Art).⁠
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'Death of St Sebastian', here attributed to Jean II Changenet. c.1490–95. Oil on panel, 82.4 by 55.5 cm. (Philadelphia Museum of Art; Bridgeman Images).⁠
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'St Sebastian before Diocletian and Maximian', here attributed to Jean II Changenet. c.1490–95. Oil on panel, 81.5 by 55.7 cm. (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg; Bridgeman Images; Fine Art Images).

06/01/2024

A vivid photograph of a lotus pond ushers visitors into the ambitious exhibition ‘China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta’ on the arts and culture of Jiangnan at Cleveland Museum of Art. Lying to the south of the Yangtze – its name literally means ‘south of the river’ – this part of China includes such major cities as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou. Curated by Clarissa von Spee, Chair of Asian Art and the James and Donna Reid Curator of Chinese Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), this is the first exhibition outside China to present an encyclopaedic view of the cultural history of this historically affluent region.

Read Lihong Liu’s review for free in our January issue: https://bit.ly/ChinaSouthernParadise

Image: Detail from ‘Spring in Jiangnan’, by Wen Zhengming. 1530. Handscroll, ink and colour on paper. (Shanghai Museum; exh. Cleveland Museum of Art).