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Friends of Museums, London (2025)

02/04/2024

Sculpture work Pietà
Artist Antonio Bonazza (1698 – c. 1762) was an Italian sculptor of the Rococo.
Created the second half XVIIII century
Material White marble
Dimensions 220 cm

La composizione è aperta e calibrata secondo studiate direttrici che misurano e determinano lo spazio circostante. La Vergine è in piedi accanto al corpo inanime del Figlio ed è colta in un atteggiamento quasi di indugio mentre compie un gesto di amorevole compassione.
La forza drammatica dell'insieme e l'attenta definizione naturalistica del corpo di Cristo, le cui membra sono ancora contratte dagli spasmi della sofferenza, sono poste in risalto dallo scorrere della luce.
L'opera rappresenta uno dei capolavori della produzione a carattere sacro della maturità dell'artista.

The composition is open and calibrated according to studied guidelines that measure and determine the surrounding space. The Virgin is standing next to the lifeless body of her Son and is caught in an almost hesitating attitude while she makes a gesture of loving compassion.
The dramatic force of the whole and the careful naturalistic definition of the body of Christ, whose limbs are still contracted by the spasms of suffering, are highlighted by the flow of light.
The work represents one of the masterpieces of the sacred production of the artist's maturity.
Source https://padovamusei.it/it/musei/museo-arte-medievale-moderna/collezioni/scultura/pieta

01/03/2024

Artwork Pan and Syrinx
Artist François Boucher (1703–1770)
Created 1759
Movement style Rococo
Dimensions 324 mm x 419 mm
Medium Oil on canvas
Location The National Gallery, London
Photography ©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography

This small and intimate painting is a cabinet picture intended for private domestic display rather than public exhibition. It illustrates a story from Metamorphoses, the epic poem by the Roman poet Ovid. The wood nymph Syrinx is chased by the god Pan to the river Ladon, where she begs one of the river nymphs to disguise her by changing her shape. The river nymph, with her back towards us, obliges by transforming Syrinx into reeds.

Boucher uses fluid brushstrokes to create a surface that has an almost jewel-like brilliance. The blues and greens complement the fleshy pinks of the women, who seem to glow against their dark surroundings. The painting’s mix of hedonism, overt eroticism and ambiguous sexuality may have particularly appealed to the libertine tastes of the royal court before the arrival of a more moralising tone in both art and art criticism in the 1760s.
The National Gallery, London
The National Gallery, London
London

29/02/2024

Artwork The Vendramin Family
Artist Titian
Genre Group portrait
About Early 1540s
Medium Oli on canvas
Dimensions 185 cm × 202 cm (73 in × 80 in)
Location National Gallery of London
Photography ©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography

The Vendramin Family Venerating a Relic of the True Cross (also, Portrait of the Vendramin Family) is a large painting by the 16th century Venetian master Titian and his workshop, executed in the early 1540s, and now in the National Gallery in London.
Wikipedia

This is Titian’s largest group portrait. The man in a red robe is probably Gabriel Vendramin (1484–1552). The man holding the altar may be Gabriel’s brother, Andrea Vendramin (1481–1547), and the boys are his seven sons. On the altar is a reliquary of the True Cross that their great-great-grandfather, an earlier Andrea Vendramin, had received on behalf of the Scuola Grande di S. Giovanni Evangelista in 1369. The relic was the confraternity’s greatest treasure and of great importance to the Vendramin.

The portrait was made for a specific place in the family’s Venetian palace, most likely the central hall. During painting, it was cut down on the left, probably because the patron changed the intended location. The three boys on the far left and two boys on the far right were late additions, possibly painted by an assistant.
National Gallery https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-the-vendramin-family

27/02/2024

Artwork: Madame Moitessier
Artist: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Genre: Portrait
Created: 1856
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 120 x 92 cm
Location: National Gallery, London, UK
Photography by at
“Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), a pupil of Jaques-Louis David, painted some of the world’s most memorable and admired portraits, yet as an academician he considered the genre inferior to history painting. He wrote that expression on painting demands a great science in drawing, and believed that the best way to achieve this skill was to copy from classical sources and continue in the tradition of Raphael. This set him against the artists such as Delacroix, who beloved in expression through color. For Ingres there should be not visible brushstroke; the paint should be “as smooth as an onion skin.” This portrait of Marie-Clotilde-Inès Moitessier, the wife of a banker, was begun in 1844. It did not leave his studio until many years later, during which time her clothing changed several times. The pose is taken from a Roman wall painting in Herculaneum. The huge mirror is a statement of wealth, along with the vase, the furniture, and the sitter’s jewelry and sumptuous dress. It is also a technical device to create depth, and to recreate Madame Moitessier in profile. Ingres frequently framed women with mirrors, displaying them as beautiful, decorative objects. This doubling also enabled him to demonstrate his skills by painting the reflected image. Many nineteenth-century painters such as Whistler and Manet adopted this device for different reasons. Ingres’s successor was Degas, who admired and emulated his skills of draftsmanship. Matisse and Picasso took his legacy into the twentieth century.” WO

🇬🇧art

27/02/2024

Virgein and child | DOMENICO VENEZIANO |
15th century | tempera on panel | 80.8 cm (31.8 in); width: 53.2 cm (20.9 in) | National Museum of Art of Romania | Italian Renaissance | Religious art
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Domenico Veneziano (1410–1461)
Little is known of his birth, though he is thought to have been born in Venice, hence his last name. He then moved to Florence in 1422–23 as a boy, to become a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano. He is said to have worked with Pisanello in Rome around 1423–1430. His work was influenced by the style of Benozzo Gozzoli.

In a letter from him to Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, dated from Perugia in 1438, where he likewise resided for many years, he mentions his long connection with the fortunes of the Medici family, and begs to be allowed to paint an altarpiece for the head of that house. He was a contemporary with Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi, since those two artists and himself are known to have valued the frescoes of Buonfigli at Perugia. Between 1439 and 1441 he painted a masterpiece of the Adoration of the Magi, a round panel which was probably commissioned for the palace of the wealthy Medici family and is now in Berlin. Another masterpiece is considered to be the Santa Lucia de' Magnoli Altarpiece (c. 1445–1447), originally in Santa Lucia dei Magnoli, Florence and now in the Uffizi. Painted in tempera on panel, the altarpiece displays such an unusual palette for this period that Vasari wrote that it had been painted in oil. He influenced Andrea Mantegna.
For more visit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenico_Veneziano
Photo ©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography

22/02/2024

ADAM and EVE
Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)
active 1508; died 1532

Created: 1525
Genre: Christian art
Period: Northern Renaissance

Jan Gossaert, sometimes called Mabuse after his birthplace Maubeuge, is more correctly named as Jean Gossart, following his own signature and his origins in French-speaking Hainault.

He may have begun his career in Antwerp, but by 1508 he was almost certainly in the service of Philip of Burgundy and evidently accompanied him to Rome where, in 1509, he drew some of the antiquities. On his return he apparently continued to work for Philip in Brussels and at Souburg in Zeeland. In 1517 Philip became bishop of Utrecht and Gossart followed him there. After Philip’s death in 1524 he worked for Adolf of Burgundy, Lord of Veere, but also had many other noble patrons.

For Philip, Gossart made in 1516, a painting of Neptune and Amphitrite now in Berlin, featuring full-length life-size nudes in a classically inspired architectural setting. He also painted large altarpieces and a number of notable portraits, of which the Gallery has a fine and varied group.
Source https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/jan-gossaert-jean-gossart
Photo ©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography

17/02/2024

Erasmus (Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam)
Hans Holbein the Younger

Erasmus (1466/9 - 1536) was one of the most famous writers of his day and one of the most admired humanist scholars. In this portrait the artist has tried to surround the sitter with items which reflect his interests and profession. This idea was developed further in Holbein's 'The Ambassadors'. A Latin couplet on the book on the back shelf, perhaps by Erasmus himself, praises Holbein's skill: 'I am Johannes (i.e. Hans) Holbein, whom it is easier to denigrate than to emulate.
Source https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gallery
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Hans Holbein the Younger painted the Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam several times, and his paintings were much copied, at the time and later. It is difficult to disentangle Holbein's original work from that of his workshop and other copyists. Possibly five largely original versions survive, as well as a number of drawings made as studies.
Source https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Erasmus_of_Rotterdam
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German: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; c. 1497[6] – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German-Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire, and Reformation propaganda, and he made a significant contribution to the history of book design. He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father Hans Holbein the Elder, an accomplished painter of the Late Gothic school.
Source https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Holbein_the_Younger
1️⃣ZebraPhotography

14/02/2024

Artwork The Circumcision
Artist Luca Signorelli

Luca Signorelli (c. 1441/1445 – 16 October 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painte from Cortona, in Tuscany, who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescos of the Last Judgment (1499–1503) in Orvieto Cathedral are considered his masterpiece.

Created c. 1490–1491
Medium Oil on panel transferred to canvas and then to panel
Dimensions 259 cm × 180 cm (102 in × 71 in)
Location National Gallery, London

The Circumcision is a painting of the Circumcision of Jesus by the Italian Renaissance painter Luca Signorelli, in the National Gallery in London, dated to c. 1490–1491.

The Circumcision was also the occasion of the naming of Jesus, and by this period the emphasis of Catholic devotion was on the Holy Name of Jesus. The work was commissioned by the local Confraternity of the Holy Name of Jesus for the altar of the Circumcision Chapel in the church of San Francesco, Volterra, where Signorelli was working for the Medicis. Like many Renaissance versions of the subject it conflates it with the Presentation of Jesus by including at the rear Simeon. The Renaissance art historian and artist Giorgio Vasari saw the painting and described it as damaged by humidity, the Child having been repainted by Il Sodoma. The painting was acquired by the National Gallery in 1882.
Source https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circumcision_(Signorelli)
Photo ©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography

11/02/2024

Italiano 🇮🇹 TIZIANO
Pieve di Cadore c. 1485-1576 Venezia
Noli me tangere, c.1514
Olio su tela, 110,5 x 91,9 cm
Lascito di Samuel Rogers, 1856
NG270

TIZIANO RITRAE MARIA MADDALENA nel momento in cui ella riconosce Cristo risorto nel giardino che la ingiunge di non toccarlo: "Noli me tangere". L'artista aveva iniziato la sua carriera un decennio prima come pittore di paesaggi e di soggetti umani. Qui il paesaggio integra, bilancia e ripete le azioni delle figure, attirando l'attenzione sul teso e toccante incontro di sguardi. La linea della schiena e l'inclinazione della testa del Cristo continuano nel profilo della collina sulla destra, mentre l'albero alle sue spalle contrasta con tale movimento insieme al braccio e alla gamba destri. La linea dell'albero continua tuttavia quella della schiena della Maddalena e unisce i suoi occhi con quelli del Salvatore, così come la modanatura delle finestre congiunge lo sguardo della Vergine a quello dell'Arcangelo Gabriele nella tavola di Duccio di due secoli prima (v. pagg.
Il cespuglio dietro la donna imita la sua forma inginocchiata e le fronde agitate fanno da eco al suo tremore.
Questa drammatica interazione fra alberi e figure diverrà una caratteristica in Martirio di San Pietro Martire di Tiziano, da tempo considerato la sua miglior pala d'altare, ma andata distrutta in un incendio nel XIX secolo, e delle acclamate tele di soggetti ovidiani da lui realizzate per il re di Spagna, in particolare Diana e Atteone (NG6611).
Source details National Gallery, London
English ⬇️
TITIAN
Pieve di Cadore c. 1485-1576 Venice
Noli me tangere, c.1514
Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 91.9 cm
Bequest of Samuel Rogers, 1856
NG270

TITIAN PORTRAYS MARY MAGDALENE at the moment in which she recognizes the risen Christ in the garden who orders her not to touch him: "Noli me tangere". The artist had begun his career a decade earlier as a painter of landscapes and human subjects. Here the landscape integrates, balances and repeats the actions of the figures, drawing attention to the tense and touching meeting of gazes. The line of the back and the inclination of Christ's head continue in the profile of the hill on the right, while the tree behind him contrasts with this movement together with the right arm and leg. The line of the tree, however, continues that of the Magdalene's back and unites her eyes with those of the Savior, just as the molding of the windows connects the gaze of the Virgin to that of the Archangel Gabriel in Duccio's panel from two centuries earlier.
The bush behind the woman mimics her kneeling form and the waving foliage echoes her trembling.
This dramatic interaction between trees and figures would become a feature of Titian's Martyrdom of St. Peter the Martyr, long considered his best altarpiece but destroyed in a fire in the 19th century, and of his acclaimed canvases of Ovidian subjects. for the king of Spain, especially Diana and Actaeon (NG6611).
Photo ©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography

11/02/2024

The Virgin and Child Enthroned
Cosimo Tura

The Virgin Mary sits on a high marble throne with a curved back, the naked Christ Child asleep in her lap. An eagle crowns the throne. It – like the winged lion, bull and reading man – symbolises one of the authors of the Gospels. The Old Testament is evoked by the stone tablets to either side of the Virgin, carved with the Ten Commandments in Hebrew text.

This is the central panel of an enormous altarpiece made for the church of San Giorgio in Ferrara. It was commissioned by the Roverella family to commemorate Lorenzo Roverella, who had been Bishop of Ferrara from 1460 until his death in 1474. Our panel was flanked by two side panels and crowned with a lunette (a semi-circular panel) which shows the lamentation of Christ’s dead body (Louvre, Paris) – a stark contrast to the lively and colourful central image. A row of smaller images would have run along the bottom edge.
Source details: London, National Gallery
Photo ©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography

09/02/2024

Artwork A Muse (Calliope?)

Calliope is featured in Greek mythology. She was the muse of epic poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne and thought to be Homer's muse. The Italian Renaissance painter Cosimo Tura (1430-1495) most likely painted this Muse for a study in the home of the d'Este family and was most likely hung high up on the wall.

Artist Cosimo Tura
Movement Quattrocento or early-Renaissance

Cosmê Tura (c. 1430 – 1495), also known as Il Cosmè or Cosimo Tura (Italian pronunciation: [koˈzmɛ tˈtuːra]), was an Italian early-Renaissance (or Quattrocento) painter and considered one of the founders of the School of Ferrara. Wikipedia
About c. 1460
Location London, National Gallery

Note from National Gallery of London
Tura was employed as court artist at the d'Este court of Ferrara, first by Borso d'Este and then by Ercole I. He was the first great Ferrarese artist. His highly decorative style emerges from what is known as International Gothic, modified by the sculptural qualities of North Italian art. He was especially indebted to Andrea Mantegna.

Nothing is known of Tura's artistic education; the influence of Piero della Francesca has sometimes been detected in his pictures. Tura was one of the first painters in Italy to master the oil technique of the Netherlandish painters, such as Rogier van der Weyden, whose work was known in Ferrara. His closest affinity is with the group centred on Padua, and trained by Squarcione or deeply indebted to his art, such as Mantegna. Tura may have been in Padua in the years 1452-6(?).
Source:
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/cosimo-tura-a-muse-calliope
Photography ©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography

06/02/2024

Artist: Antonello da Messina (1430-1479)
Artwork: Portrait of a Man
Created: between 1475-76
Medium and Support: on
Dimensions: 25.5 cm × 35.5 cm (10.0 in × 14.0 in)
Location: National Gallery London, United Kingdom

The work is one of twelve surviving portraits by Antonello, all bust-length head-and-shoulders views of men and mostly against dark backgrounds. The painting was bought by the National Gallery, London, in 1883. X-ray analysis has shown that the eyes originally looked in a different direction. It was at one time considered a self-portrait, but that is no longer believed to be the case. The work may once have included a parapet with a signature, similar to several of Antonello's other portraits, but which was cut off later. It has been suggested that this late work could be a self-portrait.

Source photography and text, Wikipedia

About artist:
Antonello da Messina, properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio, but also called Antonello degli Antoni and Anglicized as Anthony of Messina (c. 1430 – February 1479), was a Sicilian painter from Messina, active during the Early Italian Renaissance. His work shows strong influences from Early Netherlandish painting, although there is no documentary evidence that he ever travelled beyond Italy. Giorgio Vasari credited him with the introduction of oil painting into Italy. Unusually for a south Italian artist of the Renaissance, his work proved influential on painters in northern Italy, especially in Venice.

01/02/2024

Artwork Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saints and Angels
Artist Raphael (March 28 or April 6, 1483-April 6, 1520)
Created between 1502–1503
Medium Oil on poplar
Dimensions 283.3 cm × 167.3 cm (111.5 in × 65.9 in)
Location National Gallery, London
Photo by me (©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography

The Mond Crucifixion or Gavari Altarpiece is an oil on poplar panel dated to 1502–1503, making it one of the earliest works by Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, perhaps the second after the c.1499-1500 Baronci Altarpiece. It originally comprised four elements, of which three survive, now all separated: a main panel of the Crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary, Saints and Angels which was bequeathed to the National Gallery, London, by Ludwig Mond, and a three-panel predella from which one panel is lost; the two surviving panels are Eusebius of Cremona raising Three Men from the Dead with Saint Jerome's Cloak in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon, and Saint Jerome saving Silvanus and punishing the Heretic Sabinianus in the North Carolina Museum of Art.
Source description Wikipedia

23/01/2024

Attributed to Jan van Mekeren
Cabinet with marquetry
Amsterdam, c. 1690-1710

Jan van Mekeren (Dutch, ca. 1658–1733 Amsterdam)

This cabinet, with its fairly broad shape and long legs connected by a crossbar, is a typical late 17th-century Dutch piece. One striking feature is the areas which have remained flat and smooth, with few projections, focusing attention on the floral decoration. Composed of different kinds of wood cut into patterns and glued onto the flat surface, the bouquets on the doors have much of the quality of painted still lifes, with perspective and shad-ing.
The maker was probably Jan van Mekeren, a renowned specialist in floral marquetry.
Cabinets with floral motifs in veneer were very expensive and only wealthy families could afford them.
Source my book 📖 Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Source photo rijksmuseum.nl ⬇️

23/01/2024

Attributed to André-Charles Boulle (11 November 1642 – 29 February 1732)
Cabinet with floral marquetry
Paris, c. 1670-1680

André-Charles Boulle, le joailler du meuble, became the most famous French cabinetmaker and the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry, also known as "inlay". Boulle was "the most remarkable of all French cabinetmakers".
Wikipedia

This cabinet is full of little drawers and secret spaces for storing objets d'art. It is probably an early piece by the famous cabinet-maker André Charles Boulle, who was appointed as court artist of King Louis XIV of France in 1672.
The cabinet is a masterpiece, mainly because of its exquisite marquetry decoration, made of small pieces of contrasting varieties of wood and other materials sawn into pat-terns. Both the outside and the inside of the cabinet are covered with it. In this skilful and sophisticated marquetry, the golden and brown hues of the woods, which are both native and exotic, harmonize beautifully with the gilded bronze of the fittings.

23/01/2024

Johan Gregor van der Schardt
Self-portrait
Vienna, c. 1573

Johan (or Jan) Gregor van der Schardt (c. 1530/31 in Nijmegen, Netherlands – after 1581 in Denmark) was a sculptor from the Northern Renaissance.

This striking self-portrait was made by the sculptor Johan Gregor van der Schardt from Nijmegen when he was about 45 years old and at the peak of his fame. At that time he lived in Nuremberg and worked for the Austrian emperor Maximilian II, but he also made sculptures such as bronze statues and portraits in terracotta for private clients.
This bust is one of the sculptor's earliest self-portraits, and is exceptional in form, size and technique. It is half life-sized (23 cm high) and made of white clay which was painted in naturalistic colours after being fired. Van der Schardt has shown himself naked, without any indication of his social position. This shows the influence of classical sculpture. The self-assured air is mainly a result of the fact that the head is looking side-ways.( )

Source photo https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/BK-2000-17⬇️

23/01/2024

Wenzel Jamnitzer

Wenzel Jamnitzer (sometimes Jamitzer, or Wenzel Gemniczer) (1507/1508 – 19 December 1585) was a Northern Mannerist goldsmith, artist, and printmaker in etching, who worked in Nuremberg. He was the best known German goldsmith of his era, and court goldsmith to a succession of Holy Roman Emperors.
Wikipedia

Table ornament Nuremberg, 1549
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Standing on a rock covered with grass and plants, Mother Earth is carrying a dish on her head. The dish is decorated with the products of nature: flowers, leaves, twigs, insects and even tiny lizards. The whole piece is made of silver; parts of it are gilded and enamelled, originally including the flowers and animals.
Because of the natural colours the decorations would have looked very real, as well they might; in fact they are casts of real plants and animals. Wenzel Jamnitzer, the maker of the table ornament, was famous for the perfection of his technique. The huge dish - a metre high - was ordered as a gift for Emperor Charles V. It is one of Jamnitzer's most important works.
Source photo https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/BK-17040-A

29/12/2023

The Virgin of the Rocks 🪨 painted by Leonardo da Vinci, in circa 1491/92 and August 1506.
Medium
oil on poplar wood (cradled panel)
Dimensions
height: 189.5 cm (74.6 in); width: 120 cm (47.2 in

There are two versions of Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks (the version in the Louvre was painted first). These two paintings are a good place to start to define the qualities of the new style of the High Renaissance. Leonardo painted both in Milan, where he had moved from Florence.

The Virgin of the Rocks' was produced by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci and was part of a large altarpiece made for the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan. It was commissioned to celebrate the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary; the moment baby Christ was conceived. The painting includes Mary with Saint John the Baptist, Christ's cousin and an angel who all kneel to the infant Christ. Da Vinci used innovative painting techniques to give the impression that the figures were emerging from the darkness.

Source: London, National Gallery
Photography ©️1️⃣ZebraPhotography and me Constanta-Liliana Dinescu