TURIN, MUSEI REALI
Sale Palatine della Galleria Sabauda
16 November 2018 – 17 March 2019
A unique exhibition on Anthony van Dyck, the great Flemish
painter who revolutionized 17th-century portraiture, opens in Turin.
Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo;
On 16 November 2018 an extraordinary show devoted to Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp, 1599–London, 1641) opened to the public, in the Sale Palatine of the Galleria Sabauda at the Musei Reali in Turin. Van Dyck was Rubens’ star pupil and one of the greatest exponents of 17th-century European art, revolutionizing the portraiture of the period. He was also an internationally famous personality, refined gentleman, charming conversationalist, brilliant artist and official painter to the most important European courts.
The exhibition Van Dyck. Pittore di corte (“Van Dyck, Court
Painter”) aims to reveal the exclusive relationship the artist enjoyed with
Italian and European courts, through the four sections comprising it and 45
canvases and 21 engravings on display. The artist painted masterpieces whose
formal development, quality of colour, elegance and painstaking detail were
unique. This enabled him to satisfy the ruling classes’ need for status symbols
and prestige, from the Genoese nobility to the Savoy family, from Archduchess
Isabella to the courts of James I and Charles I of England.
Van Dyck’s works allow us to enter the sumptuous world of
the 17th century, to discover the ambitions of the personages who had
themselves painted by the “glory of the world”– as Charles I described the
Flemish master – in order to boost their court’s image and standing.
Van Dyck spent six years in Italy, from 1621 to 1627,
visiting various cities and studying Italian art and especially that of the
Veneto. Here he established contacts with the Genoese aristocracy, the royals
in Turin and the dukes of Florence, who commissioned works and led him to
specialize in portraiture. By basing himself on Titian’s models and fulfilling
the celebratory needs of his clients, Van Dyck developed a completely personal
genre, characterized by great formal perfection.
Works like
Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo;
Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio;
Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Savoy;
Archduchess Isabella Dressed as a Nun;
Tomaso Francesco of Savoy, Prince of Carignano,
and Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria
are supreme examples of his portraiture which, due to their naturalness and spontaneous gestures, the meticulously rendered precious silks and lace, and the imperceptible brushwork that creates vibrant and seductive atmospheres, still exert an irresistible fascination today.
Works like
Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo;
Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio;
Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Savoy;
Archduchess Isabella Dressed as a Nun;
Tomaso Francesco of Savoy, Prince of Carignano,
and Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria
are supreme examples of his portraiture which, due to their naturalness and spontaneous gestures, the meticulously rendered precious silks and lace, and the imperceptible brushwork that creates vibrant and seductive atmospheres, still exert an irresistible fascination today.
Some large and important canvases are also devoted to
mythology – whose tales were so fashionable in the iconography of the period –
such as
Jupiter and Antiope,
Amaryllis and Mirtillo,
Vertumnus and Pomona
and Thetis Receives the Arms and Armour for Achilles from Hephaestus (Venus at the Forge of Vulcan).
Jupiter and Antiope,
Amaryllis and Mirtillo,
Vertumnus and Pomona
and Thetis Receives the Arms and Armour for Achilles from Hephaestus (Venus at the Forge of Vulcan).
The Musei Reali in Turin and Arthemisia are devoting to the
artist an important exhibition centring on his vast output of portraits and
more: the 45 paintings and 21 engravings come from the most prestigious Italian
and foreign museums and collections, such as the National Gallery of Art,
Washington; Metropolitan Museum, New York; National Gallery, London, and
British Royal Collection; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; Museo
Thyssen-Bornemiza, Madrid; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Alte Pinakotek,
Munich; Kromeriz Castle, Prague; Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence; Musei
Capitolini, Rome; Ca’ d’Oro, Venice, and Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola,
Palazzo Reale and Musei di Strada Nuova, Genoa. These works create a dialogue
with the large nucleus of masterpieces in the Galleria Sabauda.
The exhibition was organized by the Ministry for Cultural
Heritage and Activities – Musei Reali of Turin and Gruppo Arthemisia, under the
patronage of the Piedmont Region and City of Turin.
It is curated by Anna Maria Bava and Maria Grazia
Bernardini, in collaboration with a prestigious scientific committee composed
of some of the most prominent Van Dyck scholars, namely Susan J. Barnes, Piero
Boccardo and Christopher Brown.
The catalogue is published by Arthemisia Books.