Displaying items by tag: louis xv

The Dallas Museum of Art acquired a marble head of Herakles, the Greek hero the Romans called Hercules, at a Sotheby’s, New York auction of Egyptian, Classical, and Western Asiatic Antiquities in June. The marble head is from the late 1st century A.D. and is set upon an unrelated bust from the mid-2nd century A.D. This ensemble was composed by the 18th-century French sculptor Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700–59), who created sculptures for King Louis XV of France and Frederick the Great of Prussia.

The acquisition is a gift of David T. Owsley through the Alvin and Lucy Owsley Foundation, and strengthens the Museum’s collection of ancient art of the Mediterranean, of which a selection is on view in the Museum’s Level 2 Classical galleries.

Cervantes’s "Don Quixote" is considered by many to be among the greatest works of fiction ever written. From the publication in 1605 of the first of two volumes (the second followed ten years later, exactly 400 years ago), the novel enjoyed immense popularity. Reprints and translations spread across Europe, with the adventures of the knight Don Quixote and his companion, Sancho Panza, captivating the continental imagination and influencing both the performing and visual arts.

"Coypel’s Don Quixote Tapestries: Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France" is devoted to a series of tapestries by Charles Coypel (1694−1752), painter to Louis XV, which illustrates twenty-eight of the novel’s most celebrated episodes and woven at the Gobelins Manufactory in Paris. The exhibition includes three Gobelins tapestry panels from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and two Flemish tapestries inspired by Coypel from The Frick Collection, which have not been on view in more than ten years.

On November 2, 2013 Oprah Winfrey will auction the contents of her 23,000-square-foot mansion in Montecito, CA with the help of Beverly Hills-based Kaminski Auctions. Offerings include a marble-topped Louis XVI chest stamped by the maker “Boudin” (estimate: $30,000-$50,000), a set of Louis XV armchairs in hand embroidered yellow silk upholstery (estimate: $20,000-$40,000), and various works of fine art as well as English antiques and furnishings.    

Winfrey purchased the 42-acre estate in 2001 for $50 million and hired well-known designer Rose Tarlow to overhaul the house’s interior. All proceeds from the sale will benefit The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation College Fund. A public preview will be held from October 30 through November 1 at the grounds of the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club.