Showing posts with label Renaissance sculpture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Renaissance sculpture. Show all posts

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Spain's Renaissance sculptor leaves Washington

From the exhibition: "This is Berruguete’s earliest surviving sculpture, which comes from a monastic church near Valladolid, the town in central Castile where the artist moved in 1522. Depicting the bound and tortured Christ as he is presented to jeering crowds on the way to his crucifixion, the figure is likely to have stood on an altar, perhaps as the central figure in a retablo (altarpiece). Berruguete’s treatment of the subject was unconventional in Castile. Instead of following tradition and covering Christ’s body with scourge marks and blood, Berruguete elicits sympathy from the viewer through other means. The cross-legged pose, slender limbs, and unsupported arms create a sense of unbalance that conveys Christ’s helplessness. The solution reflects works of art that Berruguete would have studied in Italy."

Alonso Berruguete, Ecce Homo, c. 1524, painted wood with gilding and silvering, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain)/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Alonso Berruguete, Ecce Homo, c. 1524, painted wood with gilding and silvering, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain) /Photo by Patricia Leslie
Alonso Berruguete, Ecce Homo, c. 1524, painted wood with gilding and silvering, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain)/Photo by Patricia Leslie
 Spanish (Castile), The Miracle of the Palm Tree on the Flight to Egypt, c. 1490-1510, painted walnut with gilding, lent by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Artists in Castile, such as Berruguete, often turned for inspiration to Northern artists, such as Martin Schongauer whose work is below/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Martin Schongauer, The Flight into Egypt, c. 1470-1475, engraving, Natioonal Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection 
From the exhibition: "Painted by Alonso Berruguete’s talented father, Pedro, this exquisite scene of the Virgin and Child shows the enduring influence of Flemish painting on the arts of Castile. [The son] Berruguete must have started his career in command of a similar style of painting — now called the Hispanoex-Flemish style."

Pedro Berruguete, The Virgin and Child Enthroned, c. 1500, oil on panel, Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Museo de San Isidro, Los Orígenes de Madrid. 
Alonso Berruguete, Calvary Group, Crucified Christ Flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, from the retablo mayor (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Alonso Berruguete, Calvary Group, Crucified Christ Flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, from the retablo mayor (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain)/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Alonso Berruguete, Calvary Group, Crucified Christ Flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, from the retablo mayor (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Alonso Berruguete, detail from the Calvary Group, Crucified Christ Flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, from the retablo mayor (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid/Photo by Patricia Leslie
 
Alonso Berruguete, Saint John the Evangelist (Calvary group), from the retablo mayor (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid/Photo by Patricia Leslie
From the exhibition: "One of Berruguete’s most celebrated sculptures, this group depicts the moment when Abraham is about to sacrifice his son Isaac on God’s orders. As the anguished Abraham looks heavenward in disbelief, his terrified son kneels and awaits his fate. Before Abraham could carry out the act, however, God appeared and offered him a ram to sacrifice instead."

Alonso Berruguete, The Sacrifice of Isaac, from the retablo mayor (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain);/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Alonso Berruguete, The Entombment of Christ, 1540s or 1550s. Because of the distance, transportation, and cost to carry marble from Italy, alabaster was used for The Entombment of Christ. The "frenetic energy" displayed suggests the influence of Donatello whom Berruguete would have studied in Florence.
From the exhibition: "This is one of only a handful of paintings that survive from Berruguete’s time in Italy. It depicts Salome, who ordered Saint John the Baptist’s beheading. Here she holds his head on a silver platter. Her long fingers, elegant pose, demure gaze, and idealized features are consistent with mannerism, a style of art that was becoming fashionable in Florence during the 1510s. Berruguete was in the vanguard of the movement. Like other mannerist artists, he favored exaggerated forms and complicated poses over the restrained beauty of earlier Renaissance art."

Alonso Berruguete, Salome, c. 1514–1517, oil on panel, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence.


About 45 works by Alonso Berruguete (1488 or 1490 -1561), the Spanish sculpture icon, are on display for one day more at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the first time his works are the subject of an exclusive exhibition outside Spain.

He was, says Wikipedia, "the most important sculptor of the Spanish Renaissance."

Sculpture, paintings, and works on paper comprise the show which includes one of Berruguete's earliest recorded works, Salome, dating from 1514-1517 which he made while studying for 13 years in Italy.

After the death of his father, Pedro Berruguete, an artist in his own right (who also has a painting in the show, The Virgin and Child Enthroned), Berruguete moved to Italy in his late teens.


In Italy Alonso studied under Michelangelo, and learned to draw, becoming the first Spanish artist to "create a recognizable body of drawings," many which are included in the exhibition. (About 25 of his drawings are known to exist.)

After finishing Salome, Alonso returned to Spain the next year, and was appointed court painter to Charles I (later, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V).

Following Spain's tradition, Alonso crafted wooden sculptures and altarpieces, retablos, which form the basis for the exhibition here.

His long, slender figures and sharp angles compare to those of El Greco (1541-1614) whom Alonso predated by 53 years.

From Washington Berruguete moves to the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas where the show will open March 29 and close July 26 this year.

The curators, C.D. Dickerson III of the National Gallery of Art and Mark McDonald of the Metropolitan Museum of Art edited the catalogue* which is the first comprehensive Berruguete study in English. The Meadows' curator was Wendy Sepponen.

Organizers of the display are the National Gallery and the Meadows, in collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid,
 

The people of the United States and visitors are grateful to the Buffy and William Cafritz Family Fund and the Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art for sponsoring and making the presentation possible.

*Available in the shops: $55; 244 pages, 175 illustrations, hard cover

What: Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain

When: Now through February 17, 2020. The National Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and on Sunday, 11 a.m.- 6 p.m.

Where: The West Building at the National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.

How much
: Admission to the National Gallery of Art is always free.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information:
202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com

Friday, April 6, 2012

Antico's bronzes close Sunday at the National Gallery of Art


Antico
Young Man, c. 1520
bronze with silvering
overall with base: 54.6 x 45 x 22.3 cm (21 1/2 x 17 11/16 x 8 3/4 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles



As the National Gallery's director, Earl A. Powell III described the show:  "It is one of the most beautiful exhibitions we will ever see."

The glorious reign on the ground level of the East Building is the first monographic exhibition in the U.S. devoted to the Italian sculptor and goldsmith,  Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico (c. 1455–1528*), the elegant re-creator of classical models and a pioneer in replicating bronzes.

About 75 percent of Antico's extant works or 37 medals, reliefs, busts, and statuettes of bronze and gild are displayed in the exhibition.   Some works by Andrea Mantegna,  Giovanni Bellini, and others are included. 

Mantuan 15th Century
The Entombment, c. 1470 - 1480
bronze with gilding and silvering
24.4 x 44.9 x 0.2 cm (9 5/8 x 17 11/16 x 1/16 in.)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Kunstkammer

Andrea Mantegna
Battle of the Sea Gods [left half], c. 1485/1488
engraving on laid paper
sheet (trimmed within plate mark): 28.6 x 42.6 cm (11 1/4 x 16 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund




Strangely, Oliver Cromwell plays a role in the show.

If he had not executed King Charles I (1649), who owned many of Antico's works, and sold the king's possessions, some of which found their way to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna,  there may not have been an Antico exhibition in Washington.  (Also starring in this production:  the renovation of a portion of the Kunsthistorisches.)

Said Director Powell:  "We owe Oliver Cromwell a debt of gratitude."

One of Antico's finest works, Seated Nymph (1503) with gilded, silvered and patinated surfaces, was made for the private study of the Marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d'Este, where four other bronze statuettes in the exhibition (Hercules and Antaeus (1519), Pan (post-c. 1519),  Atropos (post-c. 1519), and Hercules (post-c.1519) also likely stood.  For the first time the four reunite with Nymph

Pier Jacopo Alari-Bonacolsi called Antico
Seated Nymph, model created and cast probably 1503
bronze with gilding and silvering
Robert H. and Clarice Smith


A viewer is left with a sense of awe and incredulity at the sculptor's artistry and by imagining the placements of the bronzes in a room.  What room would be adequate to house them all?  (The Marchesa's apartments in the Ducal Palace in Mantua have been restored where one may imagine more vividly.) 

Antico
Hercules, model created by 1496, cast possibly by 1496
bronze with gilding and silvering
overall without base: 34.57 cm (13 5/8 in.) with base: 38.42 cm (15 1/8 in.)
The Frick Collection, New York, Gift of Miss Helen Clay Frick Copyright The Frick Collection


For models Antico (whose nickname derives from the Italian word for "ancient") based two of his works on ancient sculptures which are part of the show.  One is a marble Roman bust of a young man (c. AD 140-150)  which Antico refashioned into his Young Man (c. 1520). 

Antico's strange use of silver-inlaid eyes of many subjects is haunting and disconcerting, but check them out for yourself, please.

Antico
Cleopatra, c. 1525
bronze with traces of gilding
overall without base: 64.4 cm (25 3/8 in.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Francis Warden Fund Photograph (c) 2011 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
(Can you find the serpent and do you know why it is associated with Cleopatra?)


He was the son of a butcher and was probably born in or near Mantua where he spent most of his entire life.  He devoted his career to three generations of the Gonzaga family which the Marchesa joined by marriage in 1490.

The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Robert H. Smith, the Gallery's former president,  whose vision and guidance have made the National Gallery of Art "a leader in the study of Renaissance bronzes," Mr. Powell said.

Available for purchase is a catalogue of more than 200 pages and 150 color illustrations which is the only available English-language monograph on Antico, and includes a series of essays and chronology of his works, techniques and relationships.

From Washington  the exhibition moves to the Frick Collection in New York where it opens May 1 and closes July 29, 2012.

* The J. Paul Getty Museum, a lender for the exhibition, and Wikipedia both say Antico was born c. 1460.

What:  Antico:  The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes
When:  10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday through April 8
Where:  Ground level, East Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets in between Constitution Avenue NW and the National Mall
Admission:  No charge
Metro stations: Smithsonian, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza and/or ride the Circulator
For more information: 202-737-4215 patricialesliexam@gmail.com