MASTER OF THE BRUGES
LEGEND OF SAINT URSULA, CIRCA 1480-1485 | MADONNA AND CHILD, HALF
LENGTH, WITH AN EXTENSIVE LANDSCAPE SEEN THROUGH TWO WINDOWS BEYOND
LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER |
THE LEFT AND RIGHT INTERNAL WINGS OF THE FEILITZSCH ALTARPIECE:
SAINT PETER WITH A DONOR, PROBABLY JOBST VON FEILITZSCH; SAINT PAUL
Giovanni
Battista Tiepolo, Madonna of The Rosary with Angels. Signed and dated
on the pedestal: JOA. BATTA: TIEPOLVZ.F. / ...1735, oil on canvas, 96¾
by 61½ in.; 246 by 156 cm. Estimate in excess of $15 million. Courtesy
Sotheby's.
Sotheby’s
announced that one of the greatest works by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
remaining in private hands will be offered as the headline work in their
Master Paintings Evening Sale in New York on 29 January 2020. Painted
in 1735, The Madonna of the Rosary with Angels is an important early
work by the great Venetian artist, dating from a period that is
considered one of the artist’s most significant and one that brought him
recognition as among the greatest painters of 18th-century Europe.
Other Tiepolo altarpieces from this time hang in prominent churches and
museums throughout the world, establishing the forthcoming auction as a
rarified event. Estimated to achieve in excess of $15 million, the
monumental painting is one of the rarest and most significant works by
Tiepolo ever to come to market.
Tiepolo is widely regarded as Venice’s foremost artist in the
18th-century, whose decorative and imaginative style not only had a
profound and lasting impact on Italian art, but was also a vital
precursor to Romanticism and the Belle Époque movements. Major works of
such astounding quality by Tiepolo are rare on the international market,
for much of his work was carried out in frescoes and altarpieces that
remain in situ. The present work last appeared at auction at Sotheby’s
in 1989, where it made a record £1.3 million / $2.1 million.
Christopher Apostle, Head of Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings
Department in New York, said: “Tiepolo is one of those seminal figures—
so imaginative and innovative – to have completely transformed the way
we view art. An artist rooted in the tradition of his Venetian
predecessors Titian and Veronese, he was at the same time incredibly
modern, able to tailor his works to suit the tastes of the time. Proof
of his genius is in the painterly ability to express beauty, from
highlighting the sensual apparel and fabrics of silk and satin,
transforming painted figures into three dimensions, to his bold
application of color and treatment of light.”
Signed and dated 1735, the altarpiece is a work of his early
maturity, a period in which Tiepolo fused the dramatic composition,
grand scale and bold coloring of his Italian Renaissance paintings with
the fantastical, theatrical elements of the Grand Manner. In the present
altarpiece, the Virgin holds a rosary in her outstretched left hand as
if offering the beads to a devotee, and she wears the less typical red
cloak that associated her with royalty, as well as the roses that each
prayer in the rosary symbolizes. The gold brocade hanging behind the
Madonna recalls early Venetian masters like Giovanni Bellini, and the
attendant angel kneeling in the left foreground echoes the placement of
similar figures in the works of Mannerist painters Correggio and
Parmigianino.
The overall emotion and grandiosity of the Venetian
masters Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese is evident in Tiepolo's works
from the 1730s, and paying homage to these artists was likely encouraged
by his patrons. Further, the work bears stylistic similarities with the
artist’s Adoration of the Christ Child, which is presently displayed in
St. Mark’s, Venice. Both paintings are boldly composed and colored and
demonstrate Tiepolo’s theatrical flair.
Despite the artist’s prominent signature and date, as well as the
monumental size of the canvas, the original location of the altar where
the painting resided has yet to be determined. It was most likely
commissioned for a Dominican church, which was the order that is most
closely associated with promulgating the Rosary throughout Europe.
Tiepolo would have been aware of the popular devotional practice, as it
enjoyed renewed emphasis during the papacy of the Dominican Pope
Benedict XIII (1724 –30).
Prior to 1735, Tiepolo had received no major commissions for church
altarpieces in Venice, the demand for such work there in the 1730s
having slackened considerably. Instead, it may have been produced for
some ecclesiastical site in or near Udine, where Tiepolo was employed at
the time.
By the early nineteenth century, Tiepolo’s altarpiece had made its
way to England, and the first documented owner of the painting was John
Webb, Esq., who amassed an impressive collection of Old Masters,
including works by Raphael, Giulio Romano, Caravaggio, David, Greuze,
Rembrandt, and Velazquez. The next owner of the illustrious altarpiece
was Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, called Munro of Novar, a close friend
and patron of J.M.W. Turner who also owned Tiepolo's Martyrdom of St.
Agatha (circa 1755), now in Berlin's Gemäldegalerie.
Both works by
Tiepolo were sold by Munro's heirs in 1878 and purchased by Galerie
Sedelmeyer, and both later entered the collection of Sir Joseph
Robinson, South African gold and diamond magnate and politician.
Robinson purchased Dudley House in London in 1894 and began collecting
to fill his 80-foot picture gallery. At the age of eighty-five, in 1923,
he took the decision to sell his collection at Christie’s. However,
upon arriving at the auction rooms the night before, wheelchair-bound,
in order to say a final goodbye to his beloved pictures, he fell in love
with them all over again and proceeded to apply prohibitively high
reserves on the lots so that, in the end, just twelve of the one hundred
and sixteen lots found buyers, and the remainder, including the present
Tiepolo, returned to store. The Tiepolo and much of the collection
passed to Robinson's daughter, Ida Louise, who married Conte Natale
Labia, Italian ambassador to South Africa (d. 1936), and remained in the
family until their two sons sold some of the paintings, including this
one, at Sotheby’s in 1989.
Sotheby’s
has also announced that Sir Peter Paul Rubens’ The Virgin and Christ Child, With
Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist will be offered as a highlight of
Sotheby’s Masters Week in January 2020, marking the first appearance of
the work at auction since 1946, where it is estimated to achieve $6/8
million. The annual week of auctions at Sotheby’s New York features
masterworks spanning six centuries of the pre-Modern period, including
impressive Old Master Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture and 19th Century
European Art.
Sir
Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - 1640 Antwerp), The Virgin And Christ
Child, with St. Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist. Oil on panel, 47⅞ by
37⅝ in.; 121.6 by 95.5 cm. Estimate $6/8 million. Courtesy Sotheby's.
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640) is one of the most well-known
and revered artists of the Flemish Baroque style that flourished in the
early 17th century. Though he resided in Antwerp, Rubens traveled
throughout Europe and his influence was for felt for generations. The
present painting is a large-scale work on panel depicting the popular
subject of the apocryphal meeting of the Christ Child and young John the
Baptist, which is believed to derive from the Meditationes Vitae
Christi, attributed to St. Bonaventure. The scene was particularly
common in Italian paintings of the time, and Rubens would have drawn
inspiration for his work from Leonardo’s well-known depiction of the
subject as well as a version by Guilio Romano, which was acquired as a
Raphael in 1604 by Rubens’ Italian patron, the Duke of Mantua.
While
the present painting was studied by renowned Rubens’ scholar Ludwig
Burchard just after the end of World War II, it was not widely known to
other by scholars and researchers. Having remained in private
collections since it was last sold at auction in 1946 at Sotheby’s
London, and only publicly exhibited once in 1951 in New York, the
painting was unseen by the scholarly community until it was brought to
the attention of Sotheby’s Chairman George Wachter and Senior Vice
President for Old Masters, Otto Naumann.
Working with Rubens scholars Fiona Healy and Arnout Balis, Naumann
concluded that the present painting is indeed the prime version of the
composition, and that other previously known examples are either copies
or can be attributed to his workshop. Notable among these is a
well-known version from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection in Madrid,
which is presently on long-term loan to the Museum of Catalan Art in
Barcelona, It was most recently attributed in a Thyssen Collection
catalog as an “autograph replica c. 1618…possibly executed with studio
assistance.”
Naumann’s research of the present painting included
independent scientific examination including dendrochronological
analysis (tree-ring dating) of the painting’s wooden panels by Professor
Peter Klein, which concluded the painting could have a plausible
creation as early as 1610. With the aid of scientific dating, Naumann’s
research positions the present painting as the earlier and original
edition from which all other known examples were based, and it was
likely executed three to six years after Rubens returned to Antwerp from
Rome in 1608.
The Thyssen version, which has been dated to circa 1618, also bears
significant stylistic differences to the present painting, which can be
attributed plausibly to the introduction of Anthony van Dyck into
Rubens’ studio around 1614. Van Dyck’s elegant manner of painting and
his characteristic quality of grace are apparent in the Thyssen version,
which is notably softer in the faces of the Virgin and St. Elizabeth,
and in the sculptural folds of Mary’s red robe. These changes, among
others, demonstrate that the Thyssen version is an artful
reinterpretation of the present original.
The timely rediscovery of this masterpiece and the dedicated
research spearheaded by Otto Naumann and his colleagues have resulted in
its planned inclusion in a forthcoming volume by Fiona Healy of the
Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard dedicated to The Holy Trinity: The
Life of Virgin, Madonnas, The Holy Family.
Recently
rediscovered drawing for his famed series The Triumphs of Caesar.
Estimated to achieve in excess of $12 Million. Courtesy Sotheby's. |
Sotheby’s
will offer one of the most art-historically important
drawings ever to appear at auction: Andrea Mantegna’s only known
preparatory drawing for one of the canvases in the Triumphs of Caesar,
the Italian Renaissance artist’s most influential and revered work.
Recently rediscovered, the masterwork will headline Sotheby’s Old Master
Drawings auction in New York on the 29th of January 2020, when it is
estimated to fetch in excess of $12 million.
Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431-1506) was one of the most innovative,
influential and celebrated artists of the Italian Renaissance. His
importance was very recently underscored by the major exhibition,
Mantegna and Bellini, dedicated to his work and that of his
brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini, held at the National Gallery, London,
and the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Approximately 20 drawings by Mantegna
are known, all except two (including the present work) are in the
collections of major museums, such as the British Museum in London. The
sale of this drawing is of enormous significance: only two other
drawings by Mantegna have appeared at auction in the last half century.
Dated
to the late 1480s, the drawing is the only known preparatory study for
Mantegna’s famed and celebrated masterpiece, the Triumphs of Caesar – a
series of nine monumental paintings depicting the triumphal procession
of Julius Caesar and his army through ancient Rome. The paintings are
part of the British Royal Collection at Hampton Court Palace, where they
have resided since they were acquired by King Charles I in 1629. The
King bought the paintings directly from the Gonzaga family, Dukes of
Mantua, who were Mantegna’s most important patrons.
The present pen and ink drawing is a study for ‘The Standard Bearers
and the Siege Equipment,’ which is the second canvas in the Triumphs
series. The drawing theatrically recreates a section of the processional
that includes gigantic statues on carts, a model of the tower of
Alexandria, and oversized siege weapons.
Though sold as an autograph work by Mantegna in 1885, the drawing
subsequently disappeared into private collections, and was totally
unknown to scholars until shortly before the Mantegna and Bellini
exhibition in London and Berlin. Its inclusion in that exhibition
caused much excitement, but only since the exhibition have other
extremely significant aspects of the drawing been identified, following
further careful research by Cristiana Romalli, Senior Director and
Italian specialist in Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings Department. On the
basis of new technical analysis using infrared photography, performed by
Sotheby’s Department of Scientific Research, Romalli was able to
establish that the main figure on the left side of the composition was
altered very significantly during the process of the drawing’s creation.
Underneath the figure of Aesculapius, the Greek god of medicine, which
appears in the finished drawing and the final painted version, there is
actually another entirely different figure, identified by Romalli as
Helios, the Roman god of the Sun, which the artist chose to obliterate
and replace as he developed his composition.
This change conclusively proves that Mantegna himself was the author
of the drawing, and this remarkable and unexpected discovery sheds
exciting light on Mantegna’s restless working method, in which he
continued to edit, refine and perfect his compositions, even in the
final stages. Moreover, it is unquestionable proof that this is the
only known surviving preparatory study for the Triumphs.
Speaking of the drawing, Cristiana Romalli said: “The discovery of a
previously unseen underdrawing, more than five hundred years after it
was made, is a moment of considerable importance for the study of this
complex, intriguing and highly influential master of the early Italian
Renaissance. By examination under special filtered infrared light, we
were able to detect the hidden figure of Helios, revealing a major
change in the composition that proves Mantegna’s authorship. This change
in fact defined his whole approach to the finished painting that we see
today. The exceptional and rare opportunity to bring to light this
news, obscured for centuries, is what defines the excitement and thrill
of the drawings market. It is a great privilege to be handling the sale
of a drawing of such extraordinary importance and rarity.”
|
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