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

Italian embassy hosts monastery and mosaic lecture

St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt/Wikimedia 2011

At the Italian embassy last week, guests packed the auditorium to hear a lecture about the restoration of a sixth century mosaic at one of the holiest places on earth, "the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery" in the world, one which has never been damaged by war.

Emperor Justinian I ordered the construction of St. Catherine's Monastery which dates from 560 CE. It stands on the slope of Mt. Sinai in Egypt, the place where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and spoke to him from the Burning Bush which, miraculously, still stands.

Copyright, 2003, Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai

And the speaker brought photos to prove it.

St. Catherine's in 1852 by Leavitt Hunt, the first American photographer to visit and photograph the Middle East/Wikimedia

Roberto Nardi, archaeologist and founder of the Center for Archaeological Conservation, described the monastery's sixth century mosaic, the Transfiguration of Christ, and his team's delicate work over five years to replicate the mosaic's original luster and beauty.

John Watson, Tour Egypt

At the monastery the mosaic can be found in the basilica at the sanctuary apse.

It is named after Catherine of Alexander, a Christian martyr who was sentenced to death "on the wheel," but when that did not work, she was beheaded (Wikipedia).  Angels carried her remains to Mt. Sinai where monks found them. (Later, she was one of the saints who helped guide Joan of Arc.)

Every day about 1,300 people visit St. Catherine's which is filled with thousands of candles, chanting monks, and "the best collection of early icons in the world," some which date to the sixth, and possibly fifth, centuries (Wikipedia).

 Catherine the Great of Russia and Napoleon were two world rulers especially interested in St. Catherine's, said Dr. Nardi, and other leaders associated with it, according to the monastery website, include Empress Helena, Mohammed, and the Sultan Selim I.

The monastery "has been revered not only by Christians, but also by Muslims and Jews and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for cultural and scenic significance," says the website.

Dr. Nardi said he was recruited by the Getty Conservation Institute in 2000 to visit the monastery and the mosaic which was "about to fall down." Funding from the Getty Foundation enabled the project to move forward.

Cataloging of the cathedral's collection is an "ongoing project," underway for more than 50 years, he noted.

 Dr. Nardi's next project is in Syria where a new team is being trained to preserve antiquity. He said Syria presents "some difficulties, but we are going ahead."

Another project lies in an "old convent" 50 miles north of Rome where frescoes and mosaics need rescue.

Dr. Nardi's presentation was made possible by the joint efforts and collaboration of the embassies of Egypt, Greece, and Italy in Washington.

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Japanese bird-and-flower paintings up for one month at the National Gallery of Art

At the opening of the exhibition/Patricia Leslie

Śākyamuni Triptych, c. first half of the 1760s ink and colors on silk, Jōtenkaku Museum, Shōkokuji Monastery, Kyoto/Patricia Leslie

Nandina and Rooster, from Colorful Realm of Living Beings, set of 30 vertical hanging scrolls, c. 1757–1766
c. 1761-1765 ink and colors on silk

142.6 x 79.9 cm
Sannomaru Shōzōkan (The Museum of the Imperial Collections), The Imperial Household Agency, Tokyo


For the first time, large scrolls of 18th century bird-and-flower paintings owned by the Japanese Imperial Household have left that nation. The purpose?  To travel to Washington, D.C. on a special trip in honor of the month-long 100th anniversary of the planting of 3,000 cherry trees which the Japanese gave to the U.S. in 1912.

On the first day of the new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, 7,000 came to see Colorful Realm of Living Beings, "widely considered the greatest work of bird-and-flower painting in Japanese art."

Two years ago the ambassador of Japan approached the National Gallery of Art to discuss an elaborate commemoration in honor of the centennial, said Earl A. Powell, III, director of the National Gallery, at the press unveiling of the exhibition. From that discussion came the presentation of the 30 silk scrolls now on distinguished display until April 29 on the ground level of the West Building.

Not only is it the first time the scrolls have been outside Japan, but it is the first time they have been on display since their six-year restoration and only the second time in more than 100 years that the scrolls and the Buddhist triptych* have been shown together.

Itō Jakuchū
The Buddha kyamuni, from Śākyamuni Triptych, c. first half of the 1760s ink and colors on silk
142.4 x 79 cm Jōtenkaku Museum, Shōkokuji Monastery, Kyoto

The painter was Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800), one of the most inventive artists of the Edo period (1615-1868), whose creativity may be partially explained by his lack of affiliation with traditional art institutions. He was from a wealthy merchant family whose business Jakuchu abandoned in 1755 to pursue Zen Buddhism and painting. Only two years later he began work on these masterpieces which took him a decade to complete.

Jakuchu donated his scrolls and the Buddhist triptych to a major Zen monastery in Kyoto, Shokokuji, whose superintendent priest, Reverend Raitei Arima, spoke at the official Washington unveiling.

In 1889 the monastery transferred the scrolls to the Japanese imperial family but kept the Sakyamuni Triptych which it displays every June 17 as part of a repentance ritual.

At the National Gallery, the scrolls, which are protected by glass or plastic cases, are presented the way the painter intended them, according to the Nikkei Weekly, a Japanese English language newspaper. The three Buddhist paintings stand in the center, surrounded by the 30 scrolls, which is the likely original order of the display at the monastery.

To accompany the display, the National Gallery has scheduled talks, concerts, lectures, films, a public conference, and activities for children. A stunning catalogue with color photographs and detailed close-ups of the scrolls and the triptych on most of its 200-plus pages is available for purchase. 

The people of the United States have the following sponsors to also thank for the once-in-a-lifetime show: Toyota, Nikkei Inc., Airbus, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Daikin Industries, Ltd., Ito En, Ltd., Mitsubishi, and Panasonic.

Itō Jakuchū
Old Pine Tree and Peacock, from Colorful Realm of Living Beings, set of 30 vertical hanging scrolls
c. 1757–1766, c. 1759-1761 ink and colors on silk, with gold

142.9 x 79.6 cm
Sannomaru Shōzōkan (The Museum of the Imperial Collections), The Imperial Household Agency, Tokyo

A huge number of Japanese press covered the exhibition's introduction when eight representatives, from the ambassador of Japan to major sponsors, a monk, the Harvard curator,and the National Gallery director briefly spoke words of welcome and description to communicators.

The only unidentified speaker was a single woman who translated two of the speakers' remarks.

Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, welcomes distinguished guests to the exhibition/Patricia Leslie

His Excellency Ichiro Fujisaki, ambassador of Japan, welcomes visitors/Patricia Leslie

Kazuhisa Sato, treasurer, the Imperial Household Agency/Patricia Leslie

Reverend Raitei Arima, superintendent priest, Shokokuji Monastery, said in translated remarks that he hopes as many people of the U.S. see the exhibition as possible/Patricia Leslie

Yoshimi Inaba, president and COO, Toyota Motor North America, Inc. Colorful Realm marks Toyota's first sponsorship of an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. The institutions celebrate 75th birthdays this year.  Inaba said Toyoto employs 200,000 in the U.S./Patricia Leslie

Fuminari Tanaka, Nikkei, Inc./Patricia Leslie

T. Allan McArtor, chairman, Airbus Americas, Inc. welcomes another sponsorship at the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie

Yukio Lippit, guest curator, Harvard University/Patricia Leslie

At the press opening/Patricia Leslie

(* A triptych is a picture or relief carving on three panels which usually hang together vertically and is often used as an altarpiece.)

What: Colorful Realm of Living Beings: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Ito Jakuchu

When: Now through April 29, 2012, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: The Ground Level, West Building, National Gallery of Art, closest to the Seventh Avenue entrance

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information:  202-737-4215

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Ambassador Gnehm talks Persian Gulf monarchies at GWU

'The Louvre' at the National Gallery of Art

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831–1833
oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

A small portion of the collection from the Louvre may be found in one large painting at the National Gallery's West Building closest to the Fourth Avenue entrance, steps from the tranquil East Garden Court, in a hall gallery all by itself.  It is entitled Gallery of the Louvre.

The painter was Samuel Morse (1791-1872), yes, that Samuel Morse, the same person who developed the Morse Code for telegraphs and a co-inventor of the telegraph itself, who began his adult life as a painter. 

Have your seen this marker on the side of a building in downtown Washington?  Where is it? /Patricia Leslie

Like so many artists of varying genres, Morse had to fund his passion of composing historical painting by doing what comes financially rewarding, in his case, making portraits.  While working on one of the Marquis de Lafayette in Washington in 1825, Morse received the chilling news that his wife was ill in New Haven.  By the time he reached home, Lucretia Pickering Walker was dead. 

A central figure in the Gallery of the Louvre which Morse painted a few years after Lucretia's death may indeed be she.

The large painting is filled with Morse's recreation of 38 masterpieces found at the Louvre which he "re-hung" in one of the Louvre's grandest galleries, the Salon Carre.  Morse made his Louvre piece into a workshop where students studied and copied paintings, much like they do today at the National Gallery of Art
 
His painting of the paintings is not drawn to scale, said tour leader Peter John Brownlee, the associate curator for the Terra Foundation for American Art, chief sponsor of the exhibition and the owner of the work. 

A viewer will immediately wonder about the yellow veil which covers the painting, caused, said Mr. Brownlee, by resinous materials Morse used to produce richer colors, and by the layers of varnish the artist applied for quicker drying.

Morse did not identify any of the people in the painting, however, the experts have.  The couple in the center is likely the artist resting his arm on his daughter's shoulder, and to the right of them, a solitary woman, perhaps the deceased Mrs. Morse or a student. In the left corner are, most likely, Morse's friend, James Fenimore Cooper and Cooper's wife and daughter, and in the left foreground, another artist friend, Richard Habersham.

Standing in the center background at the entrance to the Grand Hall with a little girl and talking to another artist friend, Horatio Greenough, is an unidentified woman who bears resemblance to Marge Simpson with upswept hair, fashioned pyramid-style. (Homer would be proud Marge made it to the walls of the National Gallery of Art.)

Some of the works Morse copied were drawn by Claude Lorrain, Raphael, Titian, Antoine Watteau, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Simone Cantarini.  It is a totally stunning work which I have been to personally visit only three times, and I always make sure to chart Gallery on my daily (well, almost) walks through the National Gallery to see what new details I can uncover.  There are many!  And it is fun.

Mr. Brownlee describes Gallery of the Louvre in a handsome eight-paged color brochure provided by Terra Foundation and available at no charge in the gallery.

Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

What:  Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

When:  Now through July 8, 2012, every day from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., Sunday

Where:  West Building, National Gallery of Art, Fourth through Ninth streets, NW, on the Mall

Admission:  No charge

Metro stations:  Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information: 202-737-4215

(Update) A "must have" for Morse fans:  Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention, edited by Peter John Brownlee, Terra Foundation for American Art, distributed by Yale University Press, 2014

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Ladies: Do not change your name

Rose Sanderson trumpets independence on February 10, 1913/Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress

Eight years! Eight years it took to get my birth name back. Today is a red-letter day!

It was harder for me to get my name back than to get a divorce (amicable) or get married (amicable).

Hallelujah!

Bring on the champagne. I could have drunk a bottle and danced on the counter top at the DMV, I was so happy.

Hours and hours it took; papers and papers, but the DMV supervisor approved everything at last, after my near meltdown when my birth certificate, my new Social Security card, the court papers, were almost rejected because they were not "official" enough.

What?  

Not "official enough"?

What's wrong with this picture? It took lots of time to assemble all those documents, return to the court in another state, write for an official copy of my birth certificate in another state, and put them all together.

But there was the official stamp on the back of the court document which saved me, and I was good to dance.

Ms. Thompson, the wonderful DMV agent, never married (we talked), never knowing what it's like not to have your own name, never knowing the time and headache of trying to get your name restored, looked shocked when I suggested a toast and a jig to independence on her counter top.

For my new driver's license picture, I could not mask my constant smiles which required about 15 shots before one finally popped up with a blank stare and eyes open wide. (The mental light from the prospect that I was mere seconds away from becoming officially ME was dazzling.)

The whole scenario reminded me of my hours-long trip to the Social Security office, and the waiting, waiting, waiting, worrying, worrying, worrying, that all my paperwork would be insufficient to convince that office that my name change was sanctioned by the court, and I could officially get my birth name back on my Social Security card. The young SS woman did not hesitate a second before she stamped "approved," and I beamed joy and wanted to leap across the desk and kiss her on her cheek.

I used to tell my daughter: "Do not ever change your name." (She didn't listen.)

I used to tell my daughter: "Do not ever get married until you are 30." (She listened.)

On the campaign trail in West Virginia in 2004 when I was an organizer for John Kerry, I worked with a young woman, Caroline Rose. Have you ever heard a more beautiful name? I used to tell her: "Caroline, don't ever change your name."

Bring on the champagne! Celebrate and drink a toast to us. I am free to be.

Free at last, free at last
I thank God I’m free at last
Free at last, free at last
I thank God I’m free at last

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The Pentagon Memorial is a sad and lifeless monument

The Pentagon Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Have you been? Is there any memorial which is more uninspiring? 

What is the difference between a memorial and a cemetery? The Pentagon Memorial dedicated to the 184 victims of the September 11 plane crash at the Pentagon is certainly not a place to visit for hope or encouragement.

It is not a structure which adequately pays tribute to and memorializes those who died on that wrenching day.

It is a monument with no link to the strong and energetic nation which briefly united and came together to work to fight evil.

When you stand and look at the Pentagon wall which the American Airlines jet struck, the memory of the photograph forever etched on your mind comes into immediate view: the firemen and rescue workers unfurling the gigantic American flag down the side of the building.

Where is that spirit that energized the nation?

It is not to be found at the stone and gravel heap which sits below the once damaged wall.

The Pentagon Memorial is a cemetery on a faraway, barren planet.

 

The Pentagon Memorial looking toward Crystal City/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Rather than celebrating the lives of those who died in the Pentagon crash, its effect leaves a visitor dispirited and unmoved.

What a contrast to the arrival of springtime in Washington, D.C. with colors bursting out all over the city.

What a contrast to Arlington Memorial Cemetery with its evergreens and grass.

What a contrast to the soaring Air Force Memorial on the hill nearby which lifts a viewer higher and higher into the great beyond of exploration and wonder until the mind returns to earth and realizes the ground beneath is a paved graveyard on a desert of brown and grey pebbles.

In the distance (center) is the Air Force Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Air Force Memorial/Wikimedia Commons/User.Noclip

A stainless steel bench, a "memorial unit," not intended for seating, is dedicated to each victim. The benches are built over small rectangular pools of flowing water and pointing in one of two confusing directions. Their design suggests buried tails or rudders of airplanes. A suitable reminder? 

The Pentagon Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Depending upon whether the victim was at the Pentagon that day, a bench with the victim's name points towards the building, and if the victim was on the plane, the bench points to the plane's path into the Pentagon.  The names of family members who also died at the Pentagon September 11 are listed at each bench, but their names are obscured by scattered pebbles which have been kicked and blown into the water.

Family members of Zoe Falkenberg whose names are obscured by pebbles, all September 11 victims of the Pentagon crash/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Years of birth segregate the victims (aged 71 to three years). How are their ages related to the events of September 11, 2001? They didn't die based on their ages.

This memorial seeks to accomplish too much and fosters confusion.

Of 20 or so area residents I queried about trips to the memorial, only one area resident had visited, and her assessment matched ours ("bland" and "lifeless"). Remarks at Yelp show some of the same impressions. Compare residents' lack of interest in the Pentagon Memorial to those who have visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial which opened last fall, more than three years after the dedication of the Pentagon Memorial on September 11, 2008.

It is time to change the ineffectual design and make it more than the concrete cemetery it is now.

The Pentagon Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie

How much would it cost to change the pebbles for grass which would not hide family names and would offer a respite of color?

How much would it cost to plant flowers?

Private donations could fund expenses. Rather than dead bushes and trees which show no life for much of the year, what about evergreens which are...ever green?

Eighty-five trees, dedicated to no one, says an information sheet, will eventually provide a canopy of shade over the site, but for now, they are long sprouting sticks in a grey, monotonous mass of desolation.

Perhaps the only time to visit this memorial is at night when darkness hides the drab grey and brown landscape, and reflected light offers glimmers of life

beyond.

The "Memorial Unit" or bench dedicated to Zoe Falkenberg, age 8/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the entrance to the Pentagon Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The September 11, 2001 victims of the Pentagon crash/Photo by Patricia Leslie

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