Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR), Brussels, 29 January – 25 May 2014. Transferred from the Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara. It is the first large exhibition (12 rooms) on the artist to be held outside Spain since the 1988 survey shown in New York and Paris. It displays several major works from private collections and a newly discovered painting Saint Anthony of Padua (1635-40), which was formerly in the nineteenth-century collection of the British vice-consul in Seville, Julian Williams, before it was presented by a later owner to the parish church of Étréham in Normandy, where it was recently discovered and conserved for display in the exhibition for the first time. Other important loans include Ashur and Levi, two of the sons from the series of Jacob and his Twelve Sons, from the display at Auckland Castle, which will join Benjamin lent by the anonymous family member of Willoughby de Eresby of Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire. Another discovery is The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1638-40) which was presented to Seattle Art Museum in 2012 and a late Saint John the Baptist (1659) from a Spanish private collection, which is now accepted as fully autograph by Odile Delenda, author of Zurbarán’s catalogue raisonné. Also included are two still-lifes by Francisco de Zurbarán’s son Juan, who died of the plague in 1649, one formerly owned by the British art historian and Apollo Magazine editor Denys Sutton and now owned by the Moscow collector Inna Bazhenova, who publishes The Art Newspaper Russia. A downloadable 15-page leaflet-guide to the exhibition is available online at www.bozar.be.
Joana Vasconcelos, Manchester
In Manchester UK the city’s Manchester Art Gallery has been taken over to display (free) numerous sculptural, ceramic and textile interventions across the permanent collection displays and in the 3-storey atrium by the contemporary Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos as well as a paying exhibition entitled Time Machine of some five works, 15 February – 1 June 2014. Many of the works are newly or recently made and are being shown in the UK for the first time
Contemporary art responses to El Greco, Toledo
Contemporary art responses to El Greco: Cristina Iglesias will install a sequence of sculptures around Toledo in celebration of the artist and Elena Ochoa Foster has organised an exhibition of photographers’ responses to the city of Toledo in the city’s Centro Cultural San Marcos, 21 February – 14 June.
ARTES Lecture, 10 July 2014. Ronda Kasl: ‘The Sum of Virtues: Sovereignty and Salvation at the Cartuja de Miraflores’
To conclude ARTES’ 2014 AGM, Ronda Kasl, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, will give a lecture at the Courtauld Institute at 5pm on 10 July 2014: The Sum of Virtues: Sovereignty and Salvation at the Cartuja de Miraflores
In 1442 Juan II of Castile gave the royal palace of Miraflores, near Burgos, to the Carthusian order and designated the new monastery as his burial place. Ten years later, and just two months before the king’s death, Miraflores burned to the ground. Construction of the royal monastery, which languished during the troubled reign of Enrique IV, resumed with some urgency after his half-sister, Isabel, consolidated her claim to the throne in 1476. Notwithstanding the queen’s pious motives, the decision to finish the project was not without political utility. As a dynastic monument, built in the aftermath of a civil war, Miraflores functions in an important sense as an assertion of Isabel’s legitimacy. The queen’s involvement intensified in 1486 as the monastic church neared completion and plans were commissioned from Gil de Siloe for the tombs of her parents and brother. Siloe’s alabaster tombs, finished by 1493, not only distinguish and exalt the queen’s lineage, they affirm the legitimacy of the Castilian monarchy itself. The tombs are marked by astounding formal and conceptual innovations that will be considered in light of the religious, commemorative, and political motives that animated Isabel’s efforts a Miraflores.
The Greek of Toledo, Toledo
The Greek of Toledo, 14 March – 14 June 2014, Museo de Santa Cruz and other venues across Toledo including the Cathedral Sacristy, Chapel of San José, the monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, church of Santo Tomé and the Tavera Hospital. The lead exhibition is curated by Fernando Marías, Professor of Art History at the Autónoma University of Madrid and author of the recently published El Greco: Life and Work – A New History (Thames & Hudson, 2013). ARTES members may have heard him speak at the recent El Greco symposium on 28 February organised by ARTES. The exhibition is the largest on the artist, displaying over 100 works, and the first in Toledo to cover his entire career from Candia/Crete to Toledo and all forms of his activity including portraiture, sculpting and architecture.
El Greco’s Library, Prado
El Greco’s Library, Museo del Prado,1 April – 29 June 2014.
Reconstructs the literary and theoretical roots of El Greco’s art via the books he owned according to the inventories produced by his son in 1614 and 1621. Of the 130 books owned by the artist the Prado has brought together about 40 books from its own holdings and those of the Biblioteca Nacional and other Madrid libraries. The exhibition includes the two editions of Vasari and Vitruvius annotated by El Greco with his comments on painting and architecture, a rare letter from the archives of the Italian city of Parma and nine prints, which provided the artist with compositional inspiration.
Rubens, Madrid and Los Angeles
Rubens: The Triumph of the Eucharist, 25 March – 29 June 2014, Prado; and travelling to the Getty, Los Angeles in 14 October 2014 – 4 January 2015.
Display of six recently conserved panel paintings which Rubens painted as modelli for The Triumph of the Eucharist part of the series of 20 tapestries commissioned by Philip III’s sister the Infanta Clara Eugenia in 1625 to decorate the convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, to which the Infanta intended to retire. Four of the tapestries will also form part of the exhibition to illustrate the artistic process from Rubens’ initial painted designs to the finished tapestries woven in 1628 by the Geubels’ family workshop. Other tapestries from the series will remain on display in the convent, which is also open to the public as part of the Patrimonio Nacional.
1st ARTES Coll & Cortés Scholars announced
ARTES is delighted to announce the winners of the 2014 ARTES Coll & Cortés scholarships. Out of a very strong field the following awards were made:
ARTES Coll & Cortés PhD Scholarship for students at a UK University
This was awarded to Kathryn Santner, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, to support her study of the paintings in the Convent of Santa Catalina de Sena, in Arequipa, Peru.
ARTES Coll & Cortés Scholarships for PhD or post-doc students in Spain, Portugal or Latin America
This was awarded to Ana Hernández Ferreirós, a doctoral student at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, for her research on the twelfth-century bibles of San Isidoro de Leon and San Millan de la Cogolla.
ARTES Coll & Cortés Travel Scholarships
These were awarded to Costanza Beltrami, a 3rd-year undergraduate student at the Courtauld Institute, for a research trip to Spain to visit buildings associated with the fifteenth-century architect Juan Guas. Another scholarship was awarded to Matilde Grimaldi, a PhD student at the Courtauld Institute, for a research trip to Tortosa to study the city’s twelfth-century cathedral (now largely destroyed), and its treasury.
ARTES extends its warmest congratulations to the 2014 scholars, and thanks Coll & Cortés once again for their generous support.
International Seminar on Polychromed Wooden Altarpieces in Southern Europe 2 & 3 October 2014/ Seminario internacional – retablos de escultura policromada en el sur de europa – 2 & 3 octubre de 2014
Internships at Coll & Cortés, dealers in fine arts
Coll & Cortés Fine Arts, dealers in Hispanic, Latin American and Italian art, are offering internship opportunities at their London offices. These internships are unpaid, but interns will have opportunities to gain valuable experience with major London dealers, with picture research likely to be a significant part of the role.
Internships will be offered on a competitive basis. Applicants are expected to hold a degree in Art History (or be in their final year of a BA) and will need at least a reading knowledge of Spanish. Internships are offered throughout the year (except July and August), for a minimum of 4 consecutive weeks. Coll and Cortés regrets that it cannot assist in funding transport or accommodation costs for interns.
Applications should be sent to CollCortesinternships@gmail.com by 2nd April 2015. Applicants should not expect notice of receipt; successful candidates will normally be notified by the end of May. Applications should include the following:
1) a covering letter (max 2 pages), including a description of suitability and dates of availability over the next 12 months; and a CV (max 2 pages), emphasising educational or professional experience of particular relevance. These should be sent in a single MS Word document. Applicants are strongly encouraged to research on the Coll and Cortés website in order to tailor their application, paying particular attention to Coll and Cortés’ highly respected catalogues.
2) An academic or professional reference, sent directly to CollCortesinternships@gmail.com by the referee.
Please note that ARTES assists only in recruiting candidates for these internships and accepts no legal responsibility to any applicant or third party arising from this notice, or the award or otherwise of a internship. Coll & Cortés and ARTES reserve the right to make no awards in cases where they deem that applications are not of satisfactory quality. Coll & Cortés and ARTES will not enter into correspondence with unsuccessful applicants or their academic advisors regarding its decisions.
ARTES 