Nicolas Poussin, detail from the Adoration of the Golden Calf, 1633-34 (Photo © The National Gallery, London)
Two more art-related headlines out of Britain:
Art in the News
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Monthly Archives: July 2011
New Collections in ARTstor
Four new image collections have just been released in ARTstor. Click on the links below for further information about each collection:
- Contemporary Architecture in Shanghai, from ART on FILE (including Expo 2010 Shanghai China)
- Smith College Museum of Art (one of the best college art museums in the United States)
- Dura-Europos and Gerasa Archives at the Yale University Art Gallery (excavations from ancient sites in Syria and Jordan)
- Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings (additional images)
One Last (Virtual) Visit to the Barnes Foundation
Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania (image from www.nytimes.com)
The Barnes Foundation just closed its longtime suburban Philadelphia home in preparation for its upcoming move to a new building in Center City. The New York Times pays tribute to the original Merion museum in a fun interactive feature that lets you take a virtual tour of several of its rooms.
You can read a related article about the Barnes Foundation here.
New Website for the Ghent Altarpiece
Infrared detail of an angel in the Ghent Altarpiece, showing the underdrawing (IRR assembly from vaneyck.kikirpa.be)
Belgium’s Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels has created a new website for images of the Van Eyck brothers’ celebrated Ghent Altarpiece, one of the most important works of Northern Renaissance art.
Only a preview version of the site is currently available, and its images are limited to infrared reflectography made during the recent restoration of the altarpiece. Infrared reflectography (IRR) is a tool in the technical examination of a painting to reveal the preliminary sketches, or underdrawings, that lie beneath the paint surface. These underdrawings often provide clues to the artistic process, such as what changes the artist made along the way, or even who the artist was.
The full site is expected to launch in January 2012, and it will presumably also contain full-color views and details of the altarpiece.
You can read a description of the project here, or visit the preview site at vaneyck.kikirpa.be.
Art in the News
A few more art-related items in the recent headlines:
- An obituary for Cy Twombly, 1928-2011. The American artist, best known for making paintings that look like blackboard scribbles, died on July 5th at age 83.
- An architectural review of Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House in China.
- An article on Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre. The painting, currently on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, is one subject in David McCullough’s new book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris.
A New Leonardo da Vinci?
The Salvator Mundi, newly attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, as it appears after restoration (photo from Mail Online)
The appearance of the Salvator Mundi before restoration (photo from Mail Online)
Is this a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci? Some experts say it is.
It has long been known that the famous Renaissance artist painted a picture of Christ as the Savior of the World (Salvator Mundi), but while many copies and emulations by Leonardo’s followers have survived, the master’s own original was presumed lost.
After a recent cleaning (left), several Leonardo scholars now think that one of these supposed “copies” is in fact the original. Its authenticity, they believe, was obscured by centuries of retouching and overpainting (right).
The newly unveiled “Leonardo” will be exhibited at the National Gallery in London later this year. You can read more about the painting in Mail Online and Art News.
What do you think? Is this really a long-lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci?