Musée Jacquemart-André
From 13 September 2019 to 20 January 2020
In autumn 2019, the Musée Jacquemart-André will be focusing on the Alana Collection, one of the most precious and little-known private collections of Renaissance art in the world, which is currently located in the United States. Echoing its exceptional collection of Italian art, the Musée Jacquemart-André will hold an exhibition of more than seventy-five masterpieces by the greatest Italian masters, such as Lorenzo Monaco, Fra Angelico, Uccello, Lippi, Bellini, Carpaccio, Tintoretto, Veronese, Bronzino, and Gentileschi. This exhibition will give visitors a unique chance to admire for the first time pictures, sculptures, and objets d’art that have never been exhibited to the general public.In the tradition of all the greatest American collections, the Alana Collection is the fruit of a passion for art and an intensive selection process, adopted over several decades by Alvaro Saieh and Ana Guzmán; the combination of the couple’s forenames make up the name of the Alana Collection. Over the years, their passion has been transformed into a veritable fascination with Gothic art and the Italian Renaissance and has gradually led them to focus on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century paintings.
These masterpieces have been exceptionally loaned to the Musée Jacquemart-André due to the two collectors’ passion for this period of art. The exhibited works attest to the enduring taste for the Italian Renaissance, considered as a founding stone of Western civilisation. They provide a comprehensive overview of one of the greatest collections of private art, from thirteenth-century painting to Caravaggesque works.
Details:
The Musée Jacquemart-André will be focusing on the Alana collection, one of the most precious and little-known private collections of Renaissance art in the world, which is currently located in the United States. Echoing its exceptional collection of Italian art, the Musée Jacquemart André will hold an exhibition of more than seventy-five masterpieces by the greatest Italian masters, such as Lorenzo Monaco, Fra Angelico, Uccello, Lippi, Bellini, Carpaccio, Tintoretto, Veronese, Bronzino, and Gentileschi. This exhibition will give visitors a unique chance to admire for the first time pictures, sculptures, and objets d’art that have never been exhibited to the general public.
The Musée Jacquemart-André was a model for collectors who, in turn, established collections that largely focused on the Italian Renaissance. The collection assembled by Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart inspired the most prestigious American collectors, who built up considerable collections of works. In keeping with the original aims of its founders, the Musée Jacquemart-André will be presenting for the first time in the world a selection of masterpieces from the Alana collection. Although art historians are familiar with the collection it remains unknown to the general pubic, because it has never been exhibited.
In the tradition of all the greatest American collections, the Alana collection is the fruit of a passion for art and an intensive selection process, adopted over several decades by Àlvaro Saieh and Ana Guzmán; the combination of the couple’s forenames make up the name of the Alana collection.
These masterpieces have been exceptionally loaned to the Musée Jacquemart-André due to the two collectors’ passion for this period of art. The exhibited works attest to the enduring taste for the Italian Renaissance, considered as a founding stone of Western civilisation. They provide a comprehensive overview of one of the greatest collections of private art, from thirteenth-century painting to Caravaggesque works.
SECTION 1. A COLLECTOR’S DAZZLING CHOICE
Recognised by specialists as one of the largest collections of ancient Italian art in private hands, the Alana collection is not only distinguished by the quality of the works in it, but also by their presentation, designed by Mr Saieh himself. In the spaces where the works are located, the collection - which cannot be visited – is hung in a very dense manner, in the tradition of the great classical collections and the Art Exhibitions of the 18th and 19th centuries. The paintings form aligned groups, in a set of perpendicular straight lines with a surprising geometric rigour. True to this spirit, which is reminiscent of the style of Nélie Jacquemart in the Italian rooms of the museum, the layout of the first room evokes the extraordinary scenography of the Alana collection. At odds with the current taste for a certain stripping down, the hanging, of a dizzying profusion, reflects the passion of the collectors for Italian art.
On the first two walls, works from the 14th and 15th centuries are presented, all examples of the artistic effervescence that Italy experienced during the Renaissance. On the gold-backed panels, in the continuity of the gothic style, one can already glean the stylistic innovations specific to Trecento and Quattrocento: the subtle work with gold, the refinement of details and above all the new attention paid to figures, as much in their facial expressions as their postures. Architectural elements are emerging and becoming more complex as artists seek to experiment with new representations of space. The third wall mainly contains works from the 16th century, a period that constitutes a more recent focus for the collectors. While testifying to the stylistic variety of the different Italian pictorial schools, these works attest to the same tase for the finesse of execution and the virtuoso treatment of shapes and colours. They thus reveal, in filigree, the common denominator presiding over the development of the collection.
1. Nardo di Cione,(Florence, active from about 1343 to 1365), The Annunciation, circa1350-1355, Tempera and gold on panel, 35 x 23 cm each panel, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
2. Guariento di Arpo, (Padoue, 1338 - 1370), Trittico. Crocifissione con i santi Giovanni Battista, Bartolomeo, Andrea e Caterina [Triptych with the Crucifixion and St. John the Baptist, St. Bartholomew, St. Andrew and St. Catherine], circa 1360, Tempera and gold on wood, 71 x 58.5 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
SECTION 2. THE GOLDS OF THE ITALIAN PRIMITIVES, AT THE DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE
If the hanging of the first room mimics that of the collectors, the exhibition then follows a chronological path that reflects the strengths of the Alana collection. The second room, which brings together major works from the 13th and 14th centuries, evokes the beginnings of a revival of painting on a golden background. In the 13th century, cultural influences become intertwined: painters were inspired by stylized Byzantine art (Eight Scenes from the Life of Christ, a 13th century Roman painter), while paying attention artistic innovations (Madonna and Child, Master of the Magdalen). Their works reflect the same desire, that of finding a more direct relationship with God and telling the story of men, the faith that animates them and the love of nature that surrounds them.
The 14th century paintings and sculptures in the Alana collection reflect the variety of figurative languages on the peninsula. The largest Tuscan art centres are represented, first and foremost Florence through the refinement of Bernardo Daddi and the sumptuousness of Niccolo di Pietro Gerini. Also documented is the art from Pisa, with the splendid Saint Catherine of Alexandrie painted by Francesco Traini, as well as the art from Siena, with the delicate works of Pietro Lorenzetti and Luca di Tommè. The array of these masterpieces offers a remarkable insight into Tuscan art at the dawn of the Renaissance
1. Master of the Magdalen (Filippo di Jacopo?), (Active in Florence, circa 1265 -1290), Madonna and Child enthroned with two haloed figures; The Annunciation; Two crowned saints (two martyred virgins of Saint Ursule?); Christ’s Baptism; St Dominic or Fra Gherardo ?, circa 1285-1290 Tempera and gold on wood, 36.8 x 31.8 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
2. Roman Painter of the 13th Century, (Third Quarter of the 13th Century), Eight Scenes of Christ’s Life: The Annunciation, the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi; the Presentation in the Temple; Christ’s baptism; The Last Supper; Prayer at the Olive Garden; Arrest; Flagellation, Third quarter of the 13th century, Tempera and gold on wood, 56 x 79 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
13 Luca della Robbia, (Florence, 1399/1400 - 1482), Madonna and Child, circa 1440, Terracotta and painted and gilded wood, 37.2 cm in diameter, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
Luca della Robbia, (Florence, 1399/1400 – 1482), Madonna and Child, circa 1440, In the centre of a wooden tondo with a gilded and moulded frame, the Madonna, whose torso is slightly inclined, is holding the Child with her left arm, while affectionately caressing one of his feet with her right hand. The Son, who is facing her, has grasped part of her light veil, revealing her hair.
The two figures, characterised by great tenderness, stand out against a blue background adorned with red rays. The relief is part of a very successful series produced by the artist in a variety of forms in the 1440s, with some variations (for example, in the framing) and in various materials: glazed terracotta, painted terracotta, cartapesta (papier-mâché), stucco, marble, and polychrome majolica. The wide dissemination of reliefs of Madonnas, which were carved or modelled in Luca della Robbia’s studio—due to their production using the technique of moulding and the ease with which they could be transported—attests to the importance of an image around which a popular cult had developed, and which was ideally suited to the decoration of homes and private chapels, and also places of worship. The Alana tondo, characterised by its high artistic quality and its distinct wooden support, depicts the Marian theme via a composition that is both studied and natural, in which the gestures express the emotional and human bond between the mother and child, and the sense of melancholy and conscious sorrow that can be discerned in the Madonna’s gaze.
SECTION 3. THE FIRST FLORENTINE RENAISSANCE, A NEW CONCEPTION OF ART
Florence’s economic influence is growing at the beginning of the 16th century, relying on an oligarchy of powerful merchant families that, like religious congregations, became major patrons for artists. In this climate of effervescence also marked by the rediscovery of ancient thought and art, the masters of the First Renaissance create large-scale works, an exceptional sample of which can be found in the Alana collection. At the dawn of the 15th century, Lorenzo Monaco was the greatest painter in Florence. Taught in the Giottesque tradition, he abandoned this convention in favour of the sinuous and elegant style of international gothic. His Annunciation gives an extraordinary interpretation, both by the richness of the colours and by the softness of the gestures.
1. Paolo Uccello, (Florence, circa 1397-1475), Madonna and Child, circa 1433-1434 Tempera and gold on wood, 45.1 x 30.8 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, UNITED States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
2. Lorenzo Monaco, (Active in Florence, 1389 - 1423/24), The Annunciation, circa 1420-1424 Tempera and gold on wood, 169.6 x 120.7 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, USA, Photo: ©
In parallel to these modern and imaginative variations of the gothic style, a new pictorial trend emerges, reflecting the innovations of Florentine sculptors. Painters developed a growing interest in the plasticity of forms, as shown by Paolo Uccello’s Madonna and Child and the St. John the Evangelist of the young Filippo Lippi, a quasi-sculptural figure marked by a poignant expression of suffering. Its silhouette, shaped by light, testifies to a spatial mastery also at work in Fra Angelico’s St. Sixtus. This research is accompanied by a gradual appropriation of the principles of perspective, a pictorial translation of contemporary esthetical and cultural advances. New subjects, inspired no longer by religious history but by ancient texts, are emerging. The Scheggia panel depicts an episode in the history of Coriolanus, a legendary figure of the Roman Republic, in a narrative scene that evokes the Florentine bourgeoisie’s taste for ancient history.
Filippo Lippi, (Florence, circa 1406 - Spoleto, 1469), St John the Evangelist, circa 1432-1434, Tempera and gold on panel, 42.8 x 32 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
Lorenzo Monaco, The Annunciation, circa 1420-1424 Lorenzo Monaco was the greatest painter in Florence at the dawn of the 15th century. Trained by Agnolo Gaddi in the Giottesque tradition, he abandoned it in favour of the sinuous and elegant style called international gothic. Here, the archangel Gabriel, with brightly coloured wings, kneels before the Virgin and announces that she will bear the Son of God. Disturbed by the arrival of the angel, Mary drops her psalter and raises her hand in a gesture of surprise. The dove of the Holy Ghost descends from the upper left. Between the two figures is a vase of lilies, a symbol of Mary’s purity. The painting is part of a long tradition of Florentine painted altarpieces representing the Annunciation. The composition is partly inspired by one of the earliest examples: the central panel of the triptych executed by Taddeo Gaddi in the 1340s for Santa Maria della Croce al Tempio (Bandini Museum of Fiesole). Parallels can also be drawn with one of Lorenzo Monaco’s first altarpieces on the same subject, the large triptych painted around 1415 for the Florentine church of San Procolo (Florence, Accademia). For this Alana panel, the artist adapted Gabriel and Mary’s upper body from this earlier work. The dramatic acuity that permeates the altarpiece of San Procolo, where the suspended angel rises towards the Virgin retreating in her seat, however, diminishes in this painting, which seems on the contrary to favour the exaltation of its humility, suggested by the posture of the angel on his knees - and the establishment of a bond between Mary and the viewer, through her outward-facing gaze.
Lorenzo Monaco, (Active in Florence, 1389 - 1423/24), The Annunciation, circa 1420-1424 Tempera and gold on wood, 169.6 x 120.7 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, USA, Photo: © Allison Chipak
Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi, known as Lo Scheggia, The Story of Coriolanus (in front of a cassone), circa 1460-1465 This panel was originally the front of a cassone, these wedding chests usually made in pairs. The chosen topic underlines the importance of family ties. The scene tells the story of the Roman military leader Gaius Marcius Coriolanus who, condemned to exile, switches to the enemy’s side and becomes a general in the Volscian Army. After winning several battles, he reached the gates of Rome and set up his encampment close to its walls. He rejected the delegations sent by the Senate with disdain until a group of Roman women appeared before him, including his mother and wife, accompanied by his two children. At their sight, Coriolanus finally renounces the attack on Rome. In the painting, the protagonist appears twice in the Volscian Camp, dressed as a Renaissance condottiere, first sitting and then standing kissing his mother. The painter proposes a kaleidoscopic representation of reality, multiplying the meticulous observations he organises in a huge panorama. The far-reaching views of the landscape recall the birth plateau (desco da parto) commissioned for the birth of Lawrence the Magnificent (New York, Metropolitan Museum) and painted by Lo Scheggia in the style of Domenico Veneziano and Pesellino. There is also an obvious reference to Paolo Uccello in the imposing red walls of Rome, which help to circumscribe the immense landscape, albeit only in part. Uccello also inspired the pattern of the spears, raised above the heads of the fighters or broken on the ground among the corpses.
Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi, known as Lo Scheggia,(San Giovanni Valdarno, Florence 1406 - Florence,1486), The Story of Coriolanus: a cassone front, circa 1460-1465, Tempera and gold on wood, 43 x 155 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
SECTION 4. FLORENTINE SPIRITUALITY AT THE END OF THE 15TH CENTURY
]The rediscovery of ancient heritage allowed Florentine painting to free itself from the medieval vision that prevailed until then to give way to a new expression of religious fervour. In the 1470s, the iconography of the Virgin and Child standing on an architectural element was highly appreciated in Florence, both in sculpture and in painting. The studio and the entourage of Andrea del Verrocchio, a leading sculptor but also a painter, gave very elaborate versions. The panel presented in this room evokes this studio practice and the variations proposed by young artists from compositions particularly appreciated at the time. The Florentine spirituality at the end of the century is dominated by the figure of Savonarola, a Dominican brother, preacher and reformer, who established a form of theocratic dictatorship between 1494 and 1498. Echoing these political upheavals, a new artistic sensibility developed, reflecting the climate of fervent penitential devotion that prevailed in Florence at the time. Christ on the Cross by the Master of Gothic Monuments, Botticelli’s collaborator, offers an interpretation of the new aesthetic ideal preached by Savonarola, which finds its full expression in the Christ Depicted as the Man of Sorrows by Cosimo Rosselli. His meticulous execution and realism foster a compassionate meditation on Jesus’ sufferings. These images, no doubt intended for private devotion, show all facets of Florentine art throughout the 15th century, and confirm that the Alana collection combines the pleasure of the collector with that of the historian. 1 2 1. Entourage of Alessandro Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli (Master of Gothic Buildings), (Active from the late 15th to the beginning of the 16th century), Christ on the Cross worshipped by saints, early 1490s, Oil on Panel, 76.2 x 91.4 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison Chipak 2. .Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507), Christ depicted as The Man of Sorrows, circa 1490, Tempera and gold on wood, with original gold mouldings, 47 x 38 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, UNITED States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
SECTION 5. THE GREAT VENETIAN PAINTINGS
The Alana collection has recently expanded its chronological and geographical boundaries by housing works from the 16th century. Within this new corpus, the paintings of northern Italy, and in particular of Venetia, constitute the most important group after that of Florentine painting, with the intention of documenting the variety of Italian figurative languages. Towards the end of the 15th century, painters gradually abandoned tempera (egg painting) for oil painting and also changed support, with wooden panels giving way to canvases. These technical developments have a major impact on pictorial practice in Venice, which in the 16th century was distinguished by an approach centred on colour rather than drawing. At the beginning of the century, a certain luminism, typically Venetian, already emerged from the Crucifixion by Savoldo, although very marked by a Nordic influence. It was during the second half of the 16th century that Venetian painting is experiencing a real golden age. In the lineage of Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and Jacopo Bassano multiply the effects from their brush on their canvases, with great freedom of craftsmanship. There is an intense emulation between these artists who compete for inventiveness and thanks to which the Venetian school reaches its apogee. These three artists are passionate about the rendering of light, but each give a special atmosphere to their compositions: Bassano appropriates the pastoral genre and introduces everyday life into his religious scenes (The Adoration of the Shepherds), Tintoretto likes dramatic effects (Episodes from a Battle), while Veronese plays on the contrasts between shadow and light(Saint Peter and Saint Paul).
Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo (circa 1480 - 1548), Crucifixion, circa 1510-1515, oil on wood, 94 x 71.8 cm Alana Collection, Newark, DE, USA, Photo: © Allison Chipak
Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto, Episodes from a Battle (previously known as Battle between the Philistines and the Israelites), circa 1575-1580 Until recently, the scene was identified with an episode of the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines, spotting on the right of the canvas the murder of Goliath by David. Despite the disproportion between the two figures - the older victim appears gigantic compared to the young man who pierces his throat with a spear - the iconographic attributes and clothing of the two characters do not match those described in the Bible. According to Samuel XVII, David, having renounced all armour, kills the giant with a slingshot - a weapon absent from the scene - and then slices Goliath’s head, usually depicted in armour, with a sword. This episode was never depicted in parallel with the clashes between the two armies, since the duel between the champions had replaced the battle. Here, however, the vast landscape, extraordinarily varied and defined, hosts several fights between small groups of figures, which continue among the hedges and along a stream, while in the background appears a camp with camels and elephants next to the tents, in front of which small figures armed with spears seem to be fighting. If identifying the subject of this great battle scene may seem difficult, the presence of elephants in a landscape that is not exotic but planted with plant species similar to ours could be a reference to Hannibal and the Punic wars. Stylistically, this large canvas seems close to the warrior triumphs of the Gonzaga family painted by Tintoretto between 1578 and 1580 for the Marquis Hall at the Ducal Palace of Mantua, now preserved at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich - works for which Jacopo Tintoretto received the help of his son Domenico and his studio.
Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto (Venice, 1518-1594), Episodes from a Battle, circa 1575-1580, Oil on canvas, 146 x 230.7 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, ©Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo/ HEMIS.
Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese, (Verona, 1528 - Venice 1588), The Symbols of The Four Evangelists, circa 1575, Oil on canvas, 88 x 171.5 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, UNITED States, Photo: © Allison Chipak Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese, The Symbols of The Four Evangelists This canvas represents the symbols of the four evangelists. The very unbalanced perspective reveals a view from the bottom up suggesting that the painting was executed for the ceiling of a chapel or a small sacristy. The lion of St. Mark, emblem of the Serenissima, the eagle of St. John and the ox of St. Luke stand out on the dark sky. The only chromatic element, the angel of St. Matthew, almost in the centre of the scene, is dressed in a purple tunic and holds an open Gospel on his leg. The pre-eminence accorded to Matthew’s book could be an allusion to the patron which still eludes us. The representation of the evangelists by the symbols gathered here has its origin in certain passages of the Bible (Ezekiel I, 1-14; Ezekiel X, 1-22; and Revelation IV, 6-9) which describe a heavenly vision in which God the Father is accompanied by these figures. The sober naturalism of the scene, where each animal is depicted according to its character, is enlivened by a painting animated by the tone of the angel’s clothes, with well-defined folds and enhanced with deep shadows, consistent with works painted towards the middle 1570s.
SECTION 6 ET 7. SPLENDOUR AT THE MEDICI COURT, THE MODERN «BEAUTIFUL WAY»
After the death of Savonarola in 1498, the city of Florence is undergoing a major transformation with regard to political and cultural issues. The moral values defended during his theocratic government remained important in the decades that followed, as evidenced by the portable altar of personal devotion made by Franciabigio. It was not until 1512 that the Medici, who had fled in 1494, were allowed to return to Florence. Their political reconquest took place in several stages, but their dynasty finally prevailed in 1530. In these troubled times, the arts retained a major place in Florence. The genre of portraiture is particularly highlighted and allows some painters to give the full measure of their talent. Pontormo’s talent is thus highlighted in the Portrait of a Lute Player, both in the virtuoso treatment of his coat and in the expressiveness of his face.
Francis of Cristofano Giuducci, known as Franciabigio, (Florence, 1484 – 1525) Autel portable avec reliques, peint sur les deux faces, avec l’Annonciation, la Nativité et des Scènes de la Passion [Portable altar with relics, painted on both sides, with the Annunciation, the Nativity and Scenes of the Passion], 1510, Oil on parchment mounted on wood, 21 x 29 cm (open set), Alana Collection, Newark, DE, UNITED States Photo: © Allison Chipak
Back in power, the Medici set their authority by designing a clever policy of legitimisation by the image that reached its apogee with Cosimo 1st. Bronzino was entrusted with the task of designing the new pictorial language of the duchy. He develops it in his religious paintings such as Saint Cosmas, whose profile evokes that of Cosimo 1st, but also in the official effigies of the Duke, of great majesty.
The Medician splendour was also put forward by Giorgio Vasari, who joined Cosimo 1st in 1554 and played a central role in Florentine artistic production. He is known for his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, a founding work in the history of Renaissance art, in which he exalts court paintings, elegant and precious, superior to nature and ancient models. An accomplished artist, he is, together with Pontormo and Bronzino, one of the greatest representatives of this «maniera moderna» at work, evident in his Salvator Mundi and his Allegory of Autumn Fruits .
Agnolo di Cosimo, known as Bronzino (Florence, 1503-1572), Saint Como, circa 1543-1545, Oil on Panel, 73.5 x 51.3 cm (81 x 56.2 cm with modern additions), Alana Collection, Newark, DE, UNITED States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
Orazio Gentileschi, (Pise, 1563 - London, 1639), The Annunciation, circa 1600-1605 Oil on slate-mounted alabaster, 49.5 x 38.5 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, USA, Photo: © Allison Chipak
SECTION 8. THE BAROQUE, A PICTORIAL REVOLUTION
The mannerism advocated by Vasari came to an end at the end of the 16th century. The Council of Trent (1545-1563), convened by Pope Paul III to answer the questions raised in the context of the Protestant Reformation, gives a new role to artistic creation. Works must no longer only be a medium of devotion, but also of teaching, which will promote the emergence of a new aesthetic. One of the first artists to apply the principles of the Council of Trent was Annibale Carracci. Together with his brother Agostino and his cousin Lodovico, he formalised the first features of an artistic movement that would be called the Baroque. Based on the search for expressive realism, this pictorial style plays on dramatic effects, the exaggeration of movement, the exuberance of shapes and colours, characteristics at work in Carracci’s The Annunciation and more in the one painted on alabaster by Orazio Gentileschi.
Annibale Carracci, The Annunciation, circa 1582-1588
The Carracci brothers, Annibale and his elder brother Agostino (1557-1602), as well as their cousin Lodovico (1555-1619), founded in Bologna, around 1582, one of the first academies in Italy, the Accademia dei Desiderosi, where the first features of an aesthetic and philosophical upheaval were formalised which, before the Caravaggio revolution, laid the first milestones of classicism and baroque. However, in the 1580s, the three artists collaborated closely and their style was, in those years, very similar. The attribution of certain paintings to one or the other of the three artists may therefore fluctuate. This work was first considered a work by Lodovico, then recognised as a youthful painting by Annibale only in 1994, an identification that is now a consensus among specialists. The composition is clearly incomplete in the upper part, where the dove of the Holy Ghost and probably other cherubs, perhaps also on both sides, were to be found, as it seems to have been narrowed. It depicts the Virgin on the left and the archangel Gabriel on the right, in an inversion to the medieval tradition increasingly common in 17th century Italian painting. Its elegant and monumental aesthetic, vibrant lighting and warm and natural colours mark a complete break with the unreal world of the last Bolognese mannerists, such as Lorenzo Sabatini or Orazio Samacchini. Its spectacular luminism also testifies to a Venetian influence, which can be explained by one of Annibale’s trips to Venice, made in the 1580s.
Annibale Carracci (Bologna, 1560 - Rome, 1609), The Annunciation, circa 1582-1588 Oil on canvas, 134.6 x 98.4 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
Bartolomeo Manfredi, Tavern Scene with a Lute Player, circa 1619-1620
Manfredi’s Lombard origins may not be for nothing in his encounter with his compatriot Caravaggio in Rome in the 1600s. He quickly adopted his powerful chiaroscuro and, with Jusepe de Ribera, became one of the first Caravaggios. To describe his paintings, the historiographer Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688) invented the idea of a manfrediana methodus, a combination of certain themes, genres and scenes, taken from the early works of Caravaggio, using his style later developed. These are mostly scenes of gambling houses, as here, where the characters, shown in mid-body, grouped around a table, play cards, make music, drink... They had, more than the paintings of Caravaggio himself, a considerable impact on many artists who, like Valentin de Boulogne, Ribera, Tournier and Vouet, multiplied these representations of the «lower depths of the Baroque» paradoxically intended for Rome’s most prestigious galleries. There is a tension in this joyful scene that can be read in the dark expression of the characters, dramatised by the violent chiaroscuro that pulls them out of the shadows. A very nice copy of the painting, usually attributed to Nicolas Tournier (1590-1638), is kept in the Tessé Museum in Le Mans. It differs little from its model, in fact only by one detail, the direction of the looks of the two young men at the centre of the composition. Turned backwards in the Alana painting, towards the eater in the background, on the left, they are clearly oriented towards the lute player in the Le Mans painting. This change makes the composition’s scenography more natural, but it also reduces its instantaneousness and its brilliant quirkiness.
Bartolomeo Manfredi, (Ostiano, 1582 - Rome, 1622), Tavern Scene with a Lute Player, circa 1619-1620 Oil on canvas, 132.5 x 197.2 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, United States, Photo: © Allison
Orazio Gentileschi, The Madonna and Child, circa 1610-1612
Although it may have been suggested that the painting may be by Artemisia, the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, the technique as well as the tender, intimate, extremely familiar and sentimental inspiration of the image are perfectly consistent with Orazio’s style. As in the Madonna and Child of Bucharest, the religious content is not striking at first, and the group might as well represent a simple motherhood without the presence of the two very discreet haloes. At the beginning of the 17th century, Georges de La Tour sometimes went even further with the absence of religious attributes in works of the highest spirituality (The Newborn, Rennes, Museum of Fine Arts). The semi-nudity of the Child might seem shocking, but thanks to the publication of Leo Steinberg’s now classic book, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion (1983), we can better understand these «impudent» paintings in which the Virgin seems to expose the very sex of the Child, proof of the dual nature of the God made man, integral embodiment of the Divinity. If the density of matter and the luminous naturalism refer here to a certain clear Caravaggism, derived from the first Roman works of Caravaggio, those of the years 1592-1598, the pyramidal composition and the use of the three primaries denote in Gentileschi a search for classicism. The works that Gentileschi painted during his stay in Paris, during 1624-1626, thus affect several French painters, such as Laurent de La Hyre or Le Nain, who sometimes seek the same formal effects.
Orazio Gentileschi, (Pisa, 1563 - London, 1639), The Madonna and Child, circa 1610-1612 Oil on Panel, 91.4 x 73 cm, Alana Collection, Newark, DE, UNITED States, Photo: © Allison Chipak
Curatorship
> Carlo Falciani, an art historian, exhibition curator, and professor of the History of Modern Art at the Accademia di Belle Arte in Florence.
> Pierre Curie, curator at the Musée Jacquemart-André and a specialist in seventeenth-century Italian and Spanish painting.
Preview the exhibition below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here
Saint Ubald and Saint Fridianus (1496), Filippino Lippi. Alana Collection, Newark
Eight Scenes from the Life of Christ (13th century), Roman painter. Alana Collection, Newark
Annunciation (n.d.), Lorenzo Monaco. Alana Collection, Newark
Saint John the Evangelist (c. 1432–34), Fra Filippo Lippi. Alana Collection, Newark
The Martyrdom of Saint Apollonia (c. 1614), Guido Reni. Alana Collection, Newark