Displaying items by tag: Baroque

From April 25 through April 27, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, will host its 33rd annual Fine Art & Flowers show. The event will feature around 50 floral arrangements, each inspired by a specific painting from the museum’s collection. Florists, garden clubs, and interior designers from all over New England will participate in the highly-anticipated event.

Paintings in this year’s show include everything from Baroque masterpieces to contemporary works. All proceeds from the Fine Art & Flowers event will benefit the Wadsworth’s special exhibitions, educational programs, and operating expenses. Visitors are invited to nominate their favorite floral display for the People’s Choice Award.

The Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the United States and boasts one of the most extensive European art collections in the country, with exceptionally strong Old Master and Impressionist holdings. The museum is in the midst of a $33 million renovation and plans to reinstall its collection of European paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts before the restoration concludes in September 2015.

The Musée Picasso in Paris has postponed its reopening after announcing in February that it would open to the public in June. The museum has been closed for nearly five years for a renovation and expansion. Since the museum is under the stewardship of the French government, the Culture Ministry is responsible for determining an official reopening date.

The Musée Picasso, which holds one of the most comprehensive collections of Pablo Picasso’s work, initially closed for a two-year refurbishment, but once underway, the scope of the project expanded. Except for a few minor technical details, the renovation, which cost around $71 million, is complete.

Prior to the renovation, the Musée Picasso could only display a fraction of its 5,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and documents. The project nearly doubled the institution’s exhibition space, allowing the museum to display more of its illustrious collection. The museum will also be able to accommodate more guests than ever before and annual admission figures are expected to rise from 450,000 to 850,000.

The museum, which is located in a 17th-century Baroque mansion in Paris’ historic Marais quarter, first opened to the public in 1985. Most of its collection was left to the French state upon Picasso’s death in 1973. A number of works were also donated by the artist’s family, including his widow Jacqueline.

The Musée Picasso plans to reopen to the public by the end of the year.

Italy’s heritage police, global experts in finding stolen artworks, have launched a smartphone app that encourages the public to help solve art-related crimes. Users who come across artworks they suspect have been stolen can take a photograph of it and send it directly to the police who check in real-time whether it matches any of the missing works listed in their archives. Users are also encouraged to add any artwork they may own to the database so they can be readily tracked down if stolen in the future.

The app, which is named iTPC with “TPC” being the Italian acronym for “Protection of Cultural Heritage,” will be available to download from AndroidMarket and AppleStore. Users will also have access to information on artworks that the police are actively searching for as well as a list of heritage police offices for those looking to report a crime or submit a claim for an artwork in person.

Italy’s heritage police manage the largest database of stolen art in the world, with details on approximately 5.7 million objects. The special department opened in 1969 and is headquartered in a Baroque palace in Rome.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, has acquired a rare self-portrait by the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who is widely regarded as the most important female artist before the modern period. The institution purchased “Self-Portrait as a Lute Player” from Christie’s New York using funds from the recently established Charles H. Schwartz Fund for European Art. It is the first painting by a female artist of the Baroque period to enter the Wadsworth Atheneum’s permanent collection.

“Self-Portrait as a Lute Player” is one of only three uncontested self-portraits by Gentileschi that are known to exist. The work was most likely commissioned by the Grand Duke Cosimo II de’Medici and was recorded in the Medici collection as early as 1638. The painting’s whereabouts remained a mystery until it surfaced in a private collection in 1998. It was subsequently featured in major Gentileschi exhibitions around the world. The Wadsworth’s recent acquisition expands the museum’s already-stellar collection of Baroque masterpieces, which includes works by Caravaggio, Claude Lorrain, and Nicolas Poussin.

“Self-Portrait as a Lute Player” will make its public debut alongside works by Fra Angelico, Caravaggio, Artemisia’s father Orazio Gentileschi, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 2015 following a reinstallation of the museum’s European collections in the Morgan Memorial Building, which is undergoing an extensive renovation.

This June, the Picasso Museum in Paris will reopen following a five-year renovation. The institution, which holds one of the most comprehensive collections of Pablo Picasso's work, initially closed for a two-year refurbishment, but once underway, the scope of the project expanded. The renovation cost around $71 million to complete.

Prior to the renovation, the Picasso Museum could only display a fraction of its 5,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, photographs, and documents. The project nearly doubled its exhibition space, allowing the institution to exhibit more of its illustrious collection.  The museum will also be able to accommodate more guests than ever before and annual admission figures are expected to rise from 450,000 to 850,000.

The museum, which is located in a 17th-century Baroque mansion in Paris' historic Marais quarter, first opened to the public in 1985. Most of its collection was left to the French state upon Picasso's death in 1973. A number of works were also donated by the artist's family, including his widow Jacqueline.

In mid-2015, The Picasso Museum will begin holding one major exhibition each year. The first annual show will be in collaboration with New York's Museum of Modern Art and will focus on Picasso's sculpture.

A painting featured on the BBC television program ‘Antiques Roadshow’ has been deemed an authentic work by the 17th century Flemish Baroque master, Anthony Van Dyck. The portrait, which was purchased by Father Jamie MacLeod for $660, is estimated to be worth over $660,000.

Fiona Bruce, the host of ‘Antiques Roadshow,’ suspected that the painting was a Van Dyck during taping. After undergoing a cleaning and restoration, the work was authenticated by Van Dyck expert, Christopher Brown.

Father MacLeod plans to sell the painting and will use the profits to buy new bells for his church. 

In honor of the holiday season, the Art Institute of Chicago is exhibiting a recently acquired Neapolitan crèche (a set of statues depicting the scene of Jesus Christ’s birth) from the mid-18th century. The Art Institute’s crèche features over 200 intricately carved figures, animals and items of food and drink set in an ornate 14-by-15¼-foot Baroque cabinet with an elaborately painted backdrop. The work is one of the very few examples of its kind found outside of Naples.

Crèches date back to 4th century Rome, but it wasn’t until the 13th and 14th centuries, in part due to their association with Saint Francis of Assisi, that such scenes became a permanent feature of Neapolitan churches. During the 18th century, crèches took on a more dramatic, theatrical style and were often commissioned by churches, wealthy citizens, and members of the nobility.

The Art Institute of Chicago acquired the crèche from a Neapolitan collector in April. The work will be on view through January 8, 2014 and is slated to be shown once a year for six weeks during the holiday season.

On January 28, 2014, the Hill Collection of Renaissance and Baroque bronzes will go on view at the Frick Collection in New York. The Frick will be the only venue for the first public exhibition of the figurative statuettes, which span the 15th through the 18th century. The Hill Collection is exceptional in that it contains a number of rare, autograph masterpieces by Italian sculptors such as Andrea Riccio, Giambologna, and Giuseppe Piamontini.

In an unexpected twist, the show will juxtapose the bronzes alongside modern masterpieces from the Hill’s collection including works by contemporary artists such as Cy Twombly and Ed Ruscha. Collectors Janine and J. Tomilson Hill have spent around 20 years amassing their holdings -- a mix of Renaissance sculptures and works by postwar artists, specifically Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, Lucio Fontana, Brice Marden, Ruscha, and Twombly.

The Hill Collection will be on view at the Frick through June 15, 2014.       

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hardford, CT announced the appointment of Oliver Tostmann as the institution’s new Susan Morse Hilles Curator of European Art. Tostmann, who previously served as a curator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, will officially assume his position at the Wadsworth on October 28,2013.

An expert on Renaissance and Baroque artists, Tostmann has lectured extensively throughout the United States and Europe and his writings have been widely published. He will oversee the Wadsworth’s comprehensive European art collection, which includes 900 paintings, 500 sculptures, and 3,500 works on paper. Tostmann said, “I am delighted and honored to work in such a renowned institution. To explore the Wadsworth’s collection of European art is simply irresistible, and I embrace its commitment to scholarship.”

The Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest free public art museum in the United States and boasts an impressive collection of baroque paintings, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, modernist masterpieces, and extensive holdings in early American furniture and decorative arts.  

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will present Diego Velázquez’s (1599-1660) Portrait of Duke Francesco l d’Este, one of the most important portraits by the Spanish painter, through July 16, 2013. The painting is on loan from Italy’s prestigious Galleria Estense in Modena and has never traveled to the United States before. The exhibition, Velázquez’s Portrait of Duke Francesco l d’Este: A Masterpiece from the Galleria Estense, Modena, will coincide with the opening of the Met’s renovated New European Painting Gallery, 1250-1800.

Velázquez, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV, painted d’Este, the Duke of Modena and Reggio Emilia, while he was visiting Madrid in 1638 to meet with King Philip and ask for his support. The commanding portrait of the 17^th century ruler is a key work of baroque portraiture as well as a prime example of Velázquez’s artistic contribution to Spanish diplomacy.

The Galleria Estense acquired the portrait of d’Este in 1843 where it joined works by Tintoretto (1518-1594), El Greco (1541-1614), and Paolo Veronese (1528-1588). The museum also boasts a strong collection of decorative works, musical instruments, archaeological material, and sculptures. The Galleria was damaged in 2012 when a series of earthquakes struck the region of Emilia-Romagna. Restoration of the building has begun but will require years of repair. In the meantime, while many of the museum’s works are being held at the Ducal Palace in Sassuolo, Velázquez’s portrait will make a highly anticipated appearance to New York.