Lot 55. Bol en Grès émaillée, Jizhou, Dynastie Song. Estimation: 2,000 — 3,000 €. Photo Sotheby's

de forme conique, reposant sur un léger pied non-émaillé, les bords intérieurs soulignés d'un ressaut large et plat, le centre d'un bourrelet circulaire en léger relief, recouvert d'une glaçure noire brillante, ponctuée de gris-beige à l'intérieur orné de quinze fleurettes, accidents et restaurations, D.W.1604  Diam. 11,2 cm; 4 1/2  in.

A 'JIZHOU' BOWL, SONG DYNASTY 

Sotheby's. Trésors de la Chine ancienne de la collection David David-Weill, Paris, 16 Dec 2015, 10:30 AM

Lot 52. Bol en Grès émaillée, Jizhou, Dynastie Song. Estimation: 2,000 — 4,000 €. Photo Sotheby's

en forme de cône tronquéà la base, le pied non-émaillé simplement signalé par un léger bourrelet en relief, recouvert d'une couverte brune brillante, l'intérieur moucheté de brun et de jaune et orné de simples branchages fleuris, restaurations, D.W. 1606 - Diam. 12,1 cm; 4 3/4  in.

Provenance: Discovered in Jiangxi province (according to David-Weill's notes).

A 'JIZHOU' BOWL, SONG DYNASTY 

Sotheby's. Trésors de la Chine ancienne de la collection David David-Weill, Paris, 16 Dec 2015, 10:30 AM

Jérôme Bosch, Hellelandschap (Paysage de l’Enfer).

Un dessin jusqu’alors anonyme, intitulé Hellelandschap (Paysage de l’Enfer), a été identifié par les experts du Bosch Research and Conservation Project (BRCP) comme étant une œuvre authentique de Jérôme Bosch. Il est jusqu’à présent toujours restéà l’abri du public, au sein d’une collection privée et sera exposé pour la première fois au grand public à l’occasion de la grande rétrospective de l’œuvre du maître néerlandais, organisée au Noordbrabants Museum à partir du 13 février 2016.

Le dessin « Un Paysage de l’Enfer » dont il est aujourd’hui clair qu’il s’agit d’une œuvre authentique de Jérôme Bosch, illustre un tableau bizarre peuplé de gnomes et de monstres fantastiques. Compte tenu de la taille du tableau et de la richesse de la représentation, le dessin constitue un ajout extrêmement important au corpus de dessins du maître. On sait très peu de choses du dessin : mis aux enchères en 2003 par un inconnu, il fait partie d’une collection privée. À ce jour, le dessin n’a encore jamais été exposé dans un musée, ce qui en fera assurément l’un des points forts de l’exposition Jérôme Bosch – Visions d’un génie, où il sera présenté en première mondiale au printemps 2016.

Le paysage de l’Enfer

Le paysage de l’Enfer est agité et chaotique, menaçant et angoissant, comme Bosch se le représentait. Au centre de la composition, d’innombrables âmes perdues sont capturées dans un grand filet avant d’être acheminées via une roue à aubes jusqu’à la gueule d’un monstre diabolique. Des figures humaines servent de battants aux cloches, tandis qu’un dragon crache des âmes dans une marmite, que des pécheurs nus rampent sur le tranchant d’un couteau et qu’un gnome s’enfuit sous la forme d’un tonneau sur pattes. C’est le spectacle visuel boschien par excellence, que nous retrouvons dans d’autres œuvres de Bosch intégrant des scènes de l’enfer, comme le Jardin des délices et le triptyque du Jugement dernier.

Bosch Research and Conservation Project

Le Bosch Research and Conservation Project (BRCP) est une ambitieuse étude internationale de grande envergure, dans le domaine de l’histoire de l’art, mise sur pied conjointement par la fondation Stichting Jheronimus Bosch 500, le musée Noordbrabants et l’université Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. Ces six dernières années, une équipe d’experts internationaux dirigée par Jos Koldeweij et Matthijs Ilsink a utilisé les techniques les plus récentes pour étudier et documenter l’œuvre quasi complète du maître Bosch de manière intensive et systématique. L’étroite collaboration avec les différents musées concernés a grandement contribuéà la réalisation de l’exposition qui sera accueillie au musée Noordbrabants. Les résultats tant attendus du BRCP font partie intégrante de la rétrospective de Bois-le-Duc.

Publication scientifique

Les résultats complets de l’étude seront publiés en janvier 2016, en marge de l’exposition Jérôme Bosch – Visions d’un génie, sous la forme d’une monographie en deux volumes qui approfondira l’étude du génie artistique de Bosch et d’autres aspects tels que la signature du maître et la pratique en atelier. Parallèlement à cette monographie, un catalogue sera également publiéà l’attention du public, ainsi qu’un site web très complet et convivial réunissant toute la documentation du BRCP.

Jérôme Bosch – Visions d’un génie, Noordbrabantsmuseum, Bois-le-Duc. Du 13 février 2016 au 8 mai 2016.

Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572), Allegorical Portrait of Dante, 1532-1533. Oil on canvas, 51 x 53 in. (130 x 136 cm) Private collection, Florence.

NEW YORK, NY.- On the occasion of the 750th anniversary of Dante Alighieri's birth (1265-1321), the Italian Cultural Institute wishes to honor Italy's greatest poet by presenting, for the first time in the United States, Dante's Portrait, a masterpiece by mid-16th-century painter Bronzino; and by holding a continuous reading of the Divine Comedy's first Cantica, the Inferno. 

American-Italian actor, writer and director John Turturro will open the night, by reading the first Canto. 

The Italian Cultural Institute wishes to celebrate Dante not only as the father of the Italian language and literature but also as the writer who ceaselessly pursued knowledge of what it is to be human. 

To stress Dante's universal appeal, the 34 cantos narrating his journey through hell will be read by 34 different readers, 17 in the Italian and 17 in translation, each in a different language. 

"When I was appointed Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, I felt it was necessary to bring something that represented the best of my country and also of Florence, my city. At the Uffizi Gallery I saw Dante's portrait painted by Bronzino, and I thought there was no better way of remembering the Sommo Poeta's 750th birth anniversary, as well as presenting this extraordinary work of art to New York, where Italian culture is so much loved and appreciated". Giorgio Van Straten, Director. 

According to Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1568), around 1532, the Florentine merchant and banker Bartolomeo Bettini commissioned Agnolo Bronzino to paint the portraits of poets who sang about love in the Tuscan vernacular, as part of the decoration of a camera (room) in his Florentine residence, where the celebrated Venus and Cupid painted by Jacopo Pontormo, based on Michelangelo's cartoon, was to be placed. Bronzino's tribute to Dante, in a robe and crowned with a laurel wreath, celebrates the love for poetry, and alludes to the defense of the Tuscan vernacular as the language of Italy in the debates of contemporary erudite circles in which the artist - a poet himself and an ardent admirer and scholar of Dante- held a privileged place. 

Bronzino focused the viewer's attention on Dante's famous face seen in profile, which displays his notable aquiline nose and prominent chin. The poet's powerful figure is portrayed in a perspective as if seen from below; his statue-like posture echoes Michelangelo's marble sculptures. The Mount of Purgatory is carefully represented in the background, and Dante holds a copy of the Divine Comedy open to Canto XXV of Paradise. There, the poet expresses his longing for his city and his desire of returning from exile, a desire which, both, Michelangelo and Bettini, fervent champions of the Florentine Republic against the tyranny of the new duke Alessandro de' Medici, must have shared.

Amalia Lindegren, Study of a man in Turkish dress, 1854. Photo: Anna Danielsson/Nationalmuseum.

STOCKHOLM.- Nationalmuseum has acquired a study of a man in Turkish dress by Amalia Lindegren, a significant addition to the museum’s collection of works by female artists. The painting was a prize in a Christmas lottery run by the Swedish Association for Art in 1854 and was won by Fredrik Bergwall, a manufacturer from Norrköping. Until now, it has remained in his family’s possession. 

To bolster its collection of works by female artists, Nationalmuseum has acquired a fine head study by Amalia Lindegren (1814–91). During her lifetime, Lindegren enjoyed great success as an artist, known chiefly for her portraits and genre paintings. She has been represented in Nationalmuseum’s collection for over 160 years. Girl with an Orange, painted in 1855, was one of four works purchased when the Swedish government first allocated funding to Nationalmuseum for new acquisitions – exemplifying the contemporary art of the time. 

In Lindegren’s youth, women still had no access to advanced artistic education in Sweden. In 1847, she was granted a special dispensation to study classical art at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. It would be another decade and a half before women were accepted as regular students. Then, in 1850, Lindegren became the first Swedish woman to receive a government scholarship to pursue art studies abroad. Her main destination was Paris, but she also spent some time in Munich, an artistic metropolis associated especially with historical painting. 

One of the paintings she produced in Munich in the spring of 1854 was this head study of a man with a large, grey-flecked beard, wearing a turban and a green kaftan edged in a gold pattern. The subject is looking down with an introspective gaze. Lindegren wrote to the Academy of Fine Arts that she had completed a painting “depicting a man in Turkish dress (head and shoulders)”, and the head study was sent back to Stockholm. Keeping in touch by letter was not enough to ensure an extension of the government scholarship; it was necessary to show tangible results in the form of artworks. On 22 December 1854, under the title Turk’s Head, this painting was offered as a prize in a Christmas lottery run by the Swedish Association for Art. The winner was Fredrik Bergwall, a manufacturer from Norrköping, and the painting has remained in his family’s possession until now. 

In her letter to the Academy, Lindegren also mentioned that she was working on a painting of Saint Matthew the Evangelist. The present whereabouts of that work are unknown, but the motif is not far removed from this head study. A man wearing a turban and kaftan would also be relevant in a biblical context. In both Old and New Testament scenes, artists often depicted people in the Middle Eastern forms of dress found in the Holy Land. It is not known whether Lindegren had an oriental or biblical motif in mind when she painted this study. Nevertheless, the painting has several noteworthy qualities. It is a subtle human portrait with some reflective, melancholic touches. 

Unlike in 1855, Nationalmuseum today has no budget allocation from the government for new acquisitions, relying instead on gifting and financial support from private funds and foundations to enhance its collections of fine art and craft. The purchase of this work was made possible by a generous donation from the Hedda and N.D. Qvist Memorial Fund.

Gown in dark-green Gros de Tour brocade, England, 1730-1740. This gown with adjusted back is typical of English ladies’ fashion during the 18th century and is outstanding in the quality of its stiff, beautifully brocaded silk, with its pattern of tulips and chrysanthemum flowers. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. 

Jacket ca. 1750. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Bodice, ca. 1750. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Robe à la française, ca. 1770-75. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Robe à l’anglaise retrouseée, 1770-80. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Robe à l’anglaise retroussée, ca. 1780. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Men suit, German, 1785. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Robe à l’anglaise, ca. 1780. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Men's suit consisting of coat, breeches and vest, made of green-brown velvet and silk, with emb. vest in white silk, France, around 1790. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Dress made of fine cotton in tabby weave and embroidered with white cotton yarn. Embroidered fabric probably from India, dress England, 1785-1800. Collection Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin. ©Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Photo: Stephan Klonk

Dress, 1805-10. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Green poke hat, made of silk satin, trimmed with silk cord and stiffened with white linen, England, around 1820. Collection Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin. ©Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Photo: Stephan Klonk

Walking dress, 1820, England, composed of skirt and spencer, in light brown silk with fine pattern and voluminous trimming in silk satin. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Dress, ca. 1875. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Worth, housedress, ca. 1882. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Women’s costume in white linen, USA/Europe, around 1895. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Jacket, ca. 1895. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Worth, evening dress ca. 1895. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Doucet, evening cape, ca. 1895. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Ball gown, Jeanne Paquin, 1895, France. Silk, imitation pearls, sequins, lace. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Walking dress, ca. 1900. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Callot Soeurs, evening dress, ca. 1908. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Mariano Fortuny, deux robes "Delphos". Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Evening dress by Jeanne Paquin, spring-summer collection, Paris, 1912. This dress in pastel shades combines a tunique in light green silk in tabby weave with a skirt made of cream silk satin. The rose red corset belt accentuates the high waist. Collection Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin. ©Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Photo: Stephan Klonk

Worth, evening dress ca. 1912. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

"Ver Luisant", Evening gown, Paul Poiret, Autumn-vinter 1921-1922. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Evening gown with horse motif, n°1113 by Madeleine Vionnet, France-USA, 1921-1924. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Evening dress designed by Paul Poiret, 1925. Photo Stephan Klonk, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Dancing dress, made of black crêpe georgette, completely embroidered with sequins in silver, grey, gold, rose, blue and black, Paris, around 1925. The sequins made of plastic material make the dress surprisingly light. Collection Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin. ©Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Photo: Stephan Klonk

"Sorrente", dance gown, Jeanne Lanvin, autumn-winter 1927-1928. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin 

Molyneux, evening dress, ca. 1932. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Gold lamé evening gown, Elsa Schiaparelli, Paris, 1933. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

“Cyclone” by Lanvin, 1939. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Brown turban, by “Davis“, Paris, 1940-1945, France - During the Second World War women started to wear turban-like arranged scarfs. The Parisian milliner Davis created a fixed turban form using woollen felt. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Coat dress, Christian Dior, Paris, 1948. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

“Artemise” by Yves Saint Laurent for Dior, Fall-Winter 1959. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Afternoon dress, Gérard Pipart pour Jacques Fath, Paris, Printemps-Eté 1955. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Cocktail dress with collar, Cristòbal Balenciaga, Paris, 1959. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Ballon dress with pink polka dots, Cristòbal Balenciaga, Paris, 1954. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Evening dress by Cristòbal Balenciaga, made of rose red silk in tabby weave, Paris, Spring-Summer 1955. Collection Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin. Staatliche Museum zu Berlin, Photo: Stephan Klonk

Yellow evening ensemble, Cristòbal Balenciaga, Paris, 1966-67. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Evening cap trimmed with black ribbons, Cristòbal Balenciaga, 1955. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Evening cap with feather trimming, Cristòbal Balenciaga, about 1960. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Red Turban, Cristòbal Balenciaga, Spain, about 1955. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Minidress with sculptural hemline, Pierre Cardin, Paris, about 1970. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Cocktail dress "Rib Cage" designed by Pierre Cardin, ca.1970. Photo by Stephan Klonk. Collection Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Evening skirt with embroidery tunic, Madame Grès, Paris, 1979. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Madame Grès, evening dress, 1973.  Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Madame Grès, evening dress, 1973 (detail). Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Chain with green druze, E.R. Nele Richter, Frankfurt, 1976. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

"Frogs" chain, Dorethea Prül, Halle, 1986. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Installation views. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Circle of Ercole de’ Roberti (about 1450-96), The Adoration of the Shepherds, c.1480s. Oil on panel. Promised gift from the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Collection, 2016. Photo: Bob McNair.

HAMILTON.- The Art Gallery of Hamilton is presenting the special viewing of a painting by the 15th-century Italian court artist Ercole de Roberti. Born in 1450, Roberti was a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli and was well known in his time. 

Entitled The Adoration of the Shepherds, the painting unites three events central to the story of Christ’s birth: the nativity in the manger, the adoration of the shepherds and that of the three kings. Painted nearly 600 years ago, the condition of the work is exceptional. 

“This is a rare and significant acquisition for a Canadian public institution, and the condition of the work, along with the provenance is extraordinary,” said Shelley Falconer, President and CEO, Art Gallery of Hamilton. “An exquisite example of early Renaissance painting, Roberti’s work will help bolster the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s position as an important repository of European art. We are delighted and enormously grateful to the Tanenbaums for their tremendous wisdom and foresight in strengthening and supporting the depth and breadth of the AGH collection.” 

Previously owned by Bernard Berenson, one of the most famous and influential authorities on Italian Renaissance paintings and drawings, the painting hung for years in the study of his Tuscan villa, I Tatti. It was subsequently purchased by art collectors and AGH benefactors, Joey and Toby Tanenbaum, who were among the five Canadian individuals and couples named in ARTNews magazine’s most recent list of the top 200 art collectors in the world. Since 2002, the Tanenbaums have donated more than 400 works of art to the AGH, including The Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Collection of 19th-century European art, which is among the finest in the world. 

Adoration of the Shepherds is on view until March 20, 2016, on Gallery Level Two, where admission is free, courtesy of Orlick Industries Limited. 

Six assiettes avec représentation des mois, atelier de Jean I ou Jean Limosin, Limoges, première moitié du XVIIe siècle. Émail peint sur cuivre. Inv. K 4999-K5004. Kunsgewerbemuseum, Berlin. 

Halston, Red evening gown, silk jersey, c. 1976. © Chicago History Museum

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Roy Halston Frowick came to Chicago to attend the School of the Art Institute. He opened a millinery studio in the early 1950s and later moved to New York to launch his dressmaking career. Halston soon became known for his classical designs in silk jersey and Ultrasuede.

This gown is one of more than 60 couture pieces featured in the exhibition Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum.

Christian Dior, Evening ensemble, 1954-55, Paris, V&A Museum

Coco Chanel, Evening Cape, 1927. The Museum at FIT

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel (French, 1883-1971), Dress, 1926. Crystal beads on silk chiffon. Arizona Costume Institute

Mademoiselle Chanel loved bright red, which she used for day and evening wear. 

Christian Dior (French, Granville 1905–1957 Montecatini), Evening dress, fall-winter 1957–58, silk. Gift of Madame Walther Moreira Salles, 1969. C.I.69.39. © 2000–2015 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Conceived as a sarong, this is a more formal version of a dress style that had been offered in earlier collections. The fabric is wrapped from a back seam with an asymmetrical hem. Dior resolved the asymmetry of the hem but, in doing so, lost the width of fabric required to continue the side drape. As a result, an extra is gathered into the side seam to form a free-flowing train. The appearance is of continuous fabric but, in fact, Dior had to concoct the process.

Christian Lacroix Haute Couture Automne 2002

Christian Lacroix Haute Couture Automne 2002

Madonna photographed in Christian Lacroix haute couture, Fall 2002 by Steven Klein for W.

Lycus sanguineus

Dictyoptera pyropterus

Japanese Maple - Erable palmé (Acer palmatum)