School of Nicola Pisano, 1260-70 (?), Virtue (Faith?), marble, 95 x 22.5 x 16.5 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Sculptures, inv. RF 1493, donated by a group of friends of the Louvre, 1909 © RMN-GP (Musée du Louvre) - Hervé Lewandowski

Palazzo Strozzi will present The Springtime of the Renaissance. Sculpture and the Arts in Florence, 1400-1460, an exhibition which sets out to illustrate the origin of what is still known today as the “miracle” of the Renaissance in Florence predominantly through masterpieces of sculpture, the form of figurative art in which it was first embodied. Following its debut in Florence, where it will be on view from 23 March to 18 August 2013, the exhibition will be shown at the Musée du Louvre in Paris from 23 September 2013 to 6 January 2014.

The lengthy preparation that has gone into the staging of the exhibition, which is curated by Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, director of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, and Marc Bormand, curator-in-chief of the Département des Sculptures in the Louvre, has been accompanied by an extensive restoration campaign in both Italy and France with joint funding from the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Louvre. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to admire many Renaissance masterpieces, including works by Ghiberti, Donatello, Dello Delli, Filippo Lippi, Nanni di Bartolo, Agostino di Duccio, Michelozzo, Francesco di Valdambrino and Mino da Fiesole, in their newly-conserved splendour.

One of the most significant projects undertaken for this exhibition is the conservation of Donatello’s imposing bronze statue depicting St Louis of Toulouse, 1425, from the Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce where it has been throughout the restoration in a workshop especially set up in the museum and open to the public. The conservation was entrusted to Ludovica Nicolai, who was responsible for restoring Donatello’s David in the Bargello, with the assistance of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure’s scientific laboratory. The procedure was directed by Brunella Teodori, Soprintendenza Speciale PSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze.

The exhibition will be presented in ten theme-based sections.

Section I: The Legacy of the Fathers will open with an intriguing overview of the rediscovery of the classical world with some splendid examples of the 13th and 14th century works by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo, Giotto, Tino di Camaino and their successors, who also assimilated the expressive richness of the Gothic style, in particular from France.

Section II: Florence 1401. The Dawn of the Renaissance 
The ‘new era’ coincided with the start of the new century and is represented in the exhibition by two panels depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi from the Baptistry doors, and Brunelleschi’s model for the cathedral dome. At that time, the writings of the great Humanists, singing the praises of the Florentine Republic’s political achievements, its economic power and its social harmony, were spreading the legend of Florence as heir to the Roman Republic and as a model for other Italian city-states.

Section III: Civic and Christian Romanitas
Monumental public sculpture, through the masterpieces of Donatello, Ghiberti, Nanni di Banco and Michelozzo, created for the city’s major construction sites – the Cathedral, the Bell Tower, Orsanmichele – is the first and loftiest expression of the transformation under way and of the triumph of Florence and its civilisation.

Section IV: “Spirits” Both Sacred and Profane; Section V: The Rebirth of the Condottieri
The exhibition also sets out to illustrate the other themes of classical antiquity that were assimilated and transformed through sculpture in this new Renaissance language, which lent its voice not only to the city’s creative fervour but also to its spiritual and intellectual mood.

Section VI: Sculpture in Paint
Sculpture, and more especially statuary, was thus to have a tremendous impact on the painting of the leading artists of the time, men such as Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, Filippo Lippi and Piero della Francesca.

Section VII: History “in Perspective”
The search for a “rational” space and Brunelleschi’s discovery of perspective were implemented in the most advanced forms in the art of sculpture, in Donatello’s bas-reliefs – for instance in the predella of his St George from the Bargello or in his Herod’s Banquet from the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille. This echoed well into the middle part of the century in the work of Desiderio da Settignano and Agostino di Duccio in an ongoing dialogue/debate with painting, including that of the classical era.

Section VIII: The Spread of Beauty
From the 1420s onwards, the new standards of sculpture perfected by the great masters and illustrated in the exhibition by several masterpieces such as Donatello’s Pazzi Madonna from Bode Museum in Berlin, the Kress Madonna from the National Gallery in Washington, and the Madonna from the Diocesan Museum of Fiesole attributed to Brunelleschi, spread out via a seemingly endless output of bas-reliefs for private devotion (in marble, stucco, polychrome terracotta and glazed or “Della Robbia” terracotta), which fostered the widespread propagation of a taste for the ‘new’ beauty in every level of society. 

Section IX: Beauty and Charity
At the same time, the most prestigious artistic commissions in Florence, which were almost always from public entities, began to focus on venues of solidarity and of prayer (churches, confraternities and hospitals), where sculpture once again played a primary role. 

Section X: From City to Palace. The New Patrons of the Arts 
Thus, arranged around the city’s absolute symbol – the wooden model of Brunelleschi’s Cupola for Santa Maria del Fiore – the exhibition offers a retrospective of themes and types of sculpture that were also to have a crucial impact on the development of the other figurative arts, in a direct debate with their classical predecessors, from the tombs of the Humanists, to the inspiration provided by ancient sarcophagi, to the rebirth of the equestrian monument and the carved portrait. The carved portrait, which became popular towards the middle of the century – in the marble busts of Mino da Fiesole, Desiderio da Settignano, Antonio Rossellino and Verrocchio – heralds the transition from the fiorentina libertas, represented by public patrons, to the private patronage that already bore the mark of the Medici family’s impending hegemony. This transition is effectively captured in the culmination at the end of the exhibition with the Wooden Model of Palazzo Strozzi, the most illustrious private residence of the Renaissance. 

The exhibition is promoted and organised by the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, the Musée du Louvre, the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (in particular, the Museo Nazionale del Bargello – Soprintendenza PSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze), with the participation of the Comune di Firenze, the Provincia di Firenze, the Camera di Commercio di Firenze and the Associazione Partners Palazzo Strozzi. 

Numerous leading museums in Europe and the United States have been immensely generous in terms of the magnitude and importance of the loans that they have granted (particularly the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Bode Museum in Berlin and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, in addition to the Louvre), as indeed have the institutions, churches and museums of Florence – not only the Museo Nazionale del Bargello but also the Opera e Museo di Santa Maria del Fiore, the Opera di Santa Croce and the Museo di Orsanmichele, in particular – which will also provide visitors to the exhibition with the opportunity to prolong their exploration of the history and art of the Early Renaissance in Florence. 

The catalogue, edited by Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi and Marc Bormand and jointly published by Mandragora Editore Firenze and the Editions du Louvre in Italian, French and English, will contain contributions from many of the leading Italian and foreign experts in the field of Quattrocento art, with numerous theme-based essays and with scholarly entries for each of the exhibits.

This first joint venture between the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Musée du Louvre confirms the international reputation for excellence successfully built up by Palazzo Strozzi and its exhibition programme.

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), 1401, The Sacrifice of Isaac, gilt bronze, 41.5 x 39.5 x 9 cm. Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, inv. 209, Bronzi

Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378 or 1381-1455), The Sacrifice of Isaac, 1401; gilt bronze, 44 x 38 x 10.5 cm. Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, inv. 203, Bronzi

Michelozzo (Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi) (1396-1472), An Adoring Angel, 1427-38; one of a pair, marble, 97.2 x 100.3 x 36 cm. London, Victoria and Albert Museum; inv. 934-1904

Michelozzo (Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi) (1396-1472), An Adoring Angel, 1427-38; one of a pair, marble, 96 x 97 x 32.2 cm. London, Victoria and Albert Museum; inv. 934A-1904 

Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi) (c. 1386-1466), St. Louis of Toulouse, 1422-5, gilt bronze; enamels and rock crystals (tiara), 310 x 94.5 x 81 cm. Florence, Fondo Edifici di Culto – Ministero dell’Interno, Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce, M 101

Andrea del Castagno (Andrea di Bartolo) (c.1421-1457), Queen Tomyris, 1448-9, detached fresco, 245 x 155 cm. Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, inv. San Marco e Cenacoli 168 

Florentine goldsmith, c. 1450-60, Christ Casting Out a Demon, plaque: silver; frame: silver gilt; translucent enamels on a repoussé relief, 15 x 18.7 x 0.45 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Objets d’art, inv. OA 5962

Gentile da Fabriano (c. 1370-1427), 1423, Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, tempera and gold on wood, 26.7 x 62.5 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures, inv. 295

Desiderio da Settignano (c. 1429-1464), Marietta Strozzi, c. 1464, marble, 52.5 x 47.8 x 23.8 cm. Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Bode-Museum, inv. 77.

Ecole vietnamienne, circa 1950, "Personnage assis". Photo Hôtel des Ventes de la Seine

panneau laqué et doré, 60 x 40 cm (usures). 

Hôtel des Ventes de la Seine. SAMEDI 12 JANVIER à 11 H 00. 40 rue Victor Hugo 76000 ROUEN. Tél. : 02.35.88.60.64 - Fax : 02.35.88.60.64 - Email :  hdvs@bbox.fr

Mai Trung Thu (1906-1980 - Vietnamien) Femme à l'enfant. Photo QUAI DES ENCHERES 

Lithographie sur tissu rehaussé ?? signé, porte le timbre rouge et numéroté 15/50 en haut à gauche. A vue : 14x19 cm. Estimation : 200/300€

QUAI DES ENCHERES sarl. SAMEDI 26 JANVIER à 14 H 30. 1 avenue Edouard Herriot 71000 Mâcon. Tél. : 03.85.38.75.07 - Fax : 03.85.38.65.54 - Email : contact@quaidesencheres.fr

Dovima wearing cloche by Balenciaga, photo by Avedon, Cafè des Deux Magots, Paris, August 1955

Lisa Fonssagrive in Balenciaga, taken by Irving Penn, 1950

Sir Peter Lely (Soest, Westphalia 1618-1680 London), Portrait of a gentleman in black, bust-length. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013

oil on canvas, 29¾ x 25 in. (75.5 x 63.5 cm.). Estimate $50,000 - $70,000

Provenance: On the New York art market. Mr. Leo Meyer, Los Angeles.

Literature: E. Larsen, 'A presumed portrait of John Milton by Anthony Van Dyck', Pantheon, XXIV, Jahrg. V., September-October 1966, p. 288 ff., as 'Anthony Van Dyck'.
E. Larsen, L'Opera completa di Van Dyck 1626-1641, Milan, 1980, pp. 122-123, no. 926, fig. 926.
E. Larsen, The Paintings of Anthony Van Dyck, Freren, 1988, I, p. 266, fig. 404; II, p. 355, as 'Anthony Van Dyck'.

Notes: Previously attributed to Sir Anthony van Dyck (E. Larson, op. cit.), this subtle and engaging portrait has recently been recognized as an early work of the late-1640s by his natural successor in portrait painting, Sir Peter Lely. As the preeminent portrait painter 'in large' in England at the time of the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Lely was appointed Principal Painter to Charles II in 1661 and thus achieved the status that van Dyck had enjoyed before the Civil Wars.

Having trained in Haarlem under Frans Pietersz. de Grebber, Lely's decision to move to London in the early-1640s may in fact have been prompted by van Dyck's death in 1641. In contrast to the environment in which van Dyck's career had flourished, Lely had to establish his reputation and practice at a politically, socially and financially volatile moment, in a country torn by Civil War and in a capital abandoned by the Court. Despite these challenging circumstances, Lely was able to take advantage of the fact that there were no serious rivals in the field of portraiture in the capital: William Dobson, the most gifted native artist, had followed Charles I's Court to Oxford in 1642 and Cornelis Jonson had left London for The Netherlands in 1643. Lely negotiated the turbulent waters of the English Civil Wars and their aftermath in London in the late 1640s with great skill and diplomacy, since his early patrons included gentry and aristocrats of opposing political allegiances. Lely secured the patronage of a closely related group of aristocratic families -- the 'noble defectors' Northumberland, Leicester, Salisbury and Pembroke -- who had been prominent at the Court before the Civil War and remained in London during the conflict, while also petitioning Parliament to commission a series of paintings of its greatest achievements for the Palace of Whitehall (1653), and executing a portrait of Oliver Cromwell (1654; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery).

It is less surprising that this portrait was once confused as a work by Lely's celebrated predecessor, when one considers the immense impact that van Dyck's work played on Lely's own painting at this date. Both Northumberland and Pembroke had been important patrons of van Dyck, and Northumberland commissioned portraits of members of his family from Lely to hang as sequels to the portraits van Dyck had painted for him some ten years earlier. Lely drew from van Dyck's repertory of designs and accessories, and the scale of this portrait as well as the sitter's pose, with his face in three-quarter view and his right hand raised to his chest, is closely comparable to van Dyck's Portrait of Thomas Cromwell of 1638 (S.J. Barnes, et al., Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven and London, 2004, p. 493, no. IV.81). Becket records a number of portraits of this format and design by Lely dating from the mid-to-late 1640s, including portraits of the Hon. Leonard Grey, Sir John Holland, Philip Sidney, 3rd Earl of Leicester of c. 1645, and Nathaniel, 3rd Lord Crewe of c. 1647 (R.B. Beckett, Lely, London, 1951, nos. 223, 255, 290 and 142 respectively). While the pose of this portrait is likely to have been adopted from van Dyck, the handling is arguably more spontaneous; most notably in the highlights on the nose, lips and lower eyelids, which give life to the sitter's face, and in the light, flickering highlights used to describe the sitter's flowing locks of hair. The more somber tonal range, with the rich black mantle, white lace collar and creamy flesh tones set against a plain background, is reminiscent of such Dutch artists as Bartholomeus van der Helst, Jacob van Loo and Jacob Adriaensz. Backer. By the late 1650s, Lely had attained an even greater synthesis between his own, essentially Dutch, abilities as a painter, and his reinterpretation of the elegance he admired in van Dyck.

We are grateful to Diana Dethloff and Catharine MacLeod for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs and for dating the portrait to the 1640s.

Christie's. Old Master Paintings Part I. 30 January 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza

Agnolo Bronzino (Florence 1503-1572), Portrait of a young man with a book. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013

oil on panel, 37 x 30¾ in. (94 x 78 cm.). Estimate $12,000,000 - $18,000,000

Provenance: Corsini Collection, Palazzo Corsini, Florence, by 1842.
Private collection. 

Notes: This arresting Portrait of a young man with a book constitutes a remarkable new addition to the oeuvre of Agnolo Bronzino, considered one of the greatest portrait painters of the Italian Renaissance. Bronzino's first biographer, Giorgio Vasari, singled out his portraits of Florentine citizens and the Medici family for particular praise, writing in 1568 that "they were all very natural, executed with incredible diligence, and finished so well that nothing more could be desired" (G. Vasari, Le vite de'più eccellenti pittori, scultori, et architettori, eds. R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi, Florence, 1966-1987, VI, p. 232). Bronzino's portraits were much sought after from early in his career, and by the beginning of the 1540s he had become the leading portraitist in Florence. In 1540, Cosimo de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, appointed Bronzino official court painter, a post he held for most of the rest of his career. Among the best-known works painted for the Duke and his wife, the Duchess Eleonora, are the decorations of the Eleonora chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, with scenes from the Old and New Testament (1540-1545), and the great allegory, Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, (c. 1544-1545), now preserved in the National Gallery, London. However, it is Bronzino's cool, stylized, and technically dazzling portraits of the Duke, Duchess, and members of the court that are most celebrated, and, indeed, exerted a profound influence on European court portraiture for over a century. His classic formulations held a special fascination for later famed practitioners of portraiture as well, including Ingres and David in the 19th century, and Frida Kahlo, Picasso and Matisse in the 20th.

Recently rediscovered, the Portrait of a young man with a book is among Bronzino's earliest known portraits, datable to the time he was most closely associated with his teacher, Jacopo Pontormo, (1494-1557). Much inspired by the muted elegance of Pontormo's private portraiture but already highly accomplished in its own right, the Portrait of a young man with a booktestifies not only to the close relationship between two great masters of the Florentine Renaissance, but also serves as an eloquent prelude to Bronzino's brilliant career in this genre. Quintessentially Florentine, this rare survival from the early cinquecento is among the most important Renaissance portraits remaining in private hands.

We are grateful to Dr. Carlo Falciani for having furnished the following essay on the picture, translated from the Italian.

This Portrait of a Young Man with a Book is mentioned in 19th-century guides to the Corsini Gallery in Florence, beginning with that of Federigo Fantozzi, who in 1842 listed it as by Andrea del Sarto, an attribution repeated by Giuseppe François in his 1853 guide to the city. Ulderico Medici was the first to ascribe the portrait to Pontormo in his catalogue of the Corsini Gallery of 1886. But apart from these brief references, intended for visitors to the only private art gallery in Florence capable of vying with the famed Medici Collections, the portrait enjoyed little critical acclaim, and art historians only heard of it again recently. All of this is confirmed by the fact that no critics, among the few who studied the work after Gamba in 1921, report having physically seen the painting. They only knew a black and white picture taken by Alinari at the beginning of the 20th century and used in a few ensuing publications. The only explanation for such oblivion is that maybe, some time after 1921, when Bernard Berenson discovered a second version of the painting, the original left the Galleria Corsini and disappeared into other private collections, where it was considered relatively unimportant.

Clapp was the first critic to study the painting. However, he rejected the traditional attribution to Pontormo and, in his 1916 monograph on the artist, it is "ascribed to Pontormo, but neither the colouring, nor the modelling, nor yet the morphology of the figure are his. A copy of this portrait, identical in size, passed from the Lanfranconi Collection, which was sold in Cologne in 1895, into the Sedelmeyer Collection". In the catalogue entry there is a reference to Alinari picture no. 4198. According to Clapp, the second panel, which was previously in the Lanfranconi Collection, was "a late sixteenth century copy of the portrait erroneously ascribed to Pontormo in the Corsini Collection in Florence". (Clapp, op. cit., pp. 202-203; for the ex-Lanfranconi painting, see the catalogue of the Dayton Art Institute, Fifty Treasures of The Dayton Art Institute, op. cit., p. 168).

As mentioned above, the Florentine panel was published by Carlo Gamba in 1921 in his brief monograph on Pontormo in Alinari's Piccola collezione d'arte (illustration n. 45). However, Gamba does not mention the painting in his brief introductory essay, and the attribution is confirmed only by the presence of the picture in the plates; in addition, there are no notes explaining the reasons which led the critic to accept the traditional attribution to Pontormo. In the Alinari picture published by Gamba, we can see that the panel is split right down the middle: the crack, previously reported by Clapp, is clearly visible as it runs from top to bottom through the left cheekbone. This crack, along with certain formal differences, distinguishes this panel beyond all reasonable doubt from that of Lanfranconi version, where the man has a rounder face and the rendering of his eyes is softer.

Jean Alazard discussed the painting in the Corsini Collection in his book Le portrait Florentin de Botticelli à Bronzino, of 1924. He rejected the attribution to Pontormo and highlighted the fact that, in his opinion, the "faiblesse du modèle de la figure et des mains et le coloris disgracieux du visage semblent indiquer une oeuvre d'école" (Alazard, op. cit., p. 177. n. 2). By general consent, the painting was no longer attributed to Pontormo and art history seemed to forget about it until the 1950s, when Carlo Gamba wrote about it again, although he did not publish a new picture of the painting because he preferred the Lanfranconi version, which in the meantime had passed into an American collection. Gamba wrote:

in the Piccola collezione d'Arte I ascribed to Pontormo a portrait in the Corsini Collection generally not accepted as his by art critics. Many scholars say that it is in the tradition of the northern school: they mention different portraits relying on the same stylistic features as examples. Nevertheless, the rendering of the eyes, the mouth and the folds in the clothing are compatible with Jacopo's style around 1535, and in particular with his style in the beautiful portrait of a young man that passed from Rinuccini to Trivulzio and which can be now admired in the Castello Sforzesco [the reference is to the Portrait of Lorenzo Lenzi, now attributed to Bronzino; fig. 1]. Here too, the uniform greenish background shows how Pontormo's portraiture had been inspired by models from northern Europe. I reproduce here a second version of it, which is to be found in the Booth Tarkington Collection, Indianapolis. B. Berenson was so kind as to give me the picture of it. We should see the two paintings side by side in order to choose the best version (Gamba, 1956, op. cit., p.16).

Gamba emphatically uses the 'past' and 'conditional' tenses -- 'I ascribed', 'we should see them' -- as though the comparison he yearned to make was no longer possible owing to the fact that one of the paintings was nowhere to be found. (Costamagna, on p. 311 of his monograph on Pontormo, says that the painting under discussion was no longer in the Corsini Collection after the Second World War.) And sure enough, Gamba publishes only the picture of the (formerly Lanfranconi, subsequently) Tarkington panel. In addition, he does not say if the portrait is still to be found in the Corsini Collection; he only says that he published this work in 1921 when it was in the collection. This statement should be intrepreted also in the light of the absence of the painting or any mention of it in subsequent monographs and exhibitions devoted to Pontormo, particularly the exhibition, Pontormo o del primo manierismo fiorentino, curated by Luciano Berti in 1956, where numerous works from Florentine private collections were put on public display, but the Corsini painting was neither exhibited nor mentioned. Nor, indeed, was the painting among those chosen to represent the 16th-century Tuscan school in the famous exhibition held at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence in 1940, Mostra del Cinquecento Toscano. We can only presume once again that the reasons underlying its obscurity are to be found in its fate at the hands of unknown collectors; the painting had lost its appeal and so it was assigned less importance and downgraded to the rank of a work by a member of Pontormo's workshop. No other study on Pontormo mentions the portrait until the monograph by Philippe Costamagna in 1994. Like Gamba, he admits that he could not see the painting. The only trace we can find of it, and then only as a reminder of its troubled attribution, is in the catalogue of the collection of the Dayton Art Institute, which had acquired the other version of the painting (the Lanfranconi-Tarkington version). The author of the entry rejects the attribution of the Corsini painting to Pontormo, confining himself to reproducing the Alinari picture and the same information as that published by Gamba in 1921 (Fifty Treasures, op. cit., p. 70).

Philippe Costamagna chronicled the many different phases of the painting's critical history in his study on Pontormo in 1994. He agreed with what Gamba had previously said and, once again, published only the Lanfranconi version as he considered it to be of higher quality than the Corsini painting. However, Costamagna rejected the attribution of both paintings to Pontormo and ascribed the Lanfranconi version to Bronzino, while writing that the Corsini panel is not only lost, but a copy of the Lanfranconi version (Costamagna, op. cit., pp. 310-311). In any event, Costamagna draws attention to the fact that he could not see the two paintings physically because all trace of them had been lost (the Lanfranconi version had entered the Dayton Art Institute in 1949 and had been downgraded in the meantime to the status of a work by an apprentice; it was auctioned by Christie's on 18 January 1984).

Between 2010 and 2011, I had the opportunity to examine the painting under discussion on fully three separate occasions. I saw it in New York and again while it was being cleaned in a conservation laboratory in Figline Valdarno in December 2010. I also had the good fortune to compare it with other works by Pontormo and Bronzino while I was arranging the exhibitionBronzino. Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici. This series of coincidences helped me to analyze the painting in some depth. It also led me to draw different conclusions from those of the critics who had only studied the painting in the old photograph, without having had a chance see it.

The painting depicts a young man dressed in black secular garb, sitting at a worktable covered with a green cloth. The fingers of his left hand are leafing through the pages of a hand-written book while he holds a quill in his right hand, his pose appearing to suggest that he has just finished writing. The pages of the book are written in ink as though it were a notebook of some kind, but they are quite unusual: some sentences seem to be crossed out while others appear to have been rewritten, and there are words written crossways on the page as though to suggest a gloss added as an afterthought. In portraits with books, the painter usually depicts printed books or headed writing paper but in this case, since we cannot read the individual words, the book probably hints at his profession: a man of letters or a civil servant versed in the use of coded writing. The short, reddish beard of his young face suggests that he is probably aged between 20 and 30, and even if it is not possible to establish his true identity, we may assume that he is a Florentine intellectual of the same period as the painter who portrayed him, a conjecture suggested both by the friendly tone of his pose and gaze, and by the rapid brushwork. The paintwork, still in perfect condition, was originally applied in a very thin layer with a firm and rapid hand. The only visible sign of deterioration is the vertical crack that caused the panel to divide into two pieces. The crack has been successfully restored by simply repairing the wood and making good the painted surface. The sitter's eyes are truly alive and the painting is both of exceptionally high quality and, at the same time, surprisingly severe in its reduced palette. The artist's choices are very clearly in evidence and the style is of such a high standard that the painting cannot be attributed to a mere follower of Pontormo. In fact, it is possible to identify its author with greater certainty.

The first obvious stylistic reference is to Pontormo, as we can see in the structure of the portrait, in the influence of the northern European school and in the ovoid silhouette of the face with the wide-open, sparkling, rounded eyes that are another of the characteristic features of Pontormo's style. One has but to compare it with the faces in the fresco in Poggio a Caiano or with the tondi painted for the Capponi Chapel in Santa Felicita. The depiction of the soft, tapering hands with their small, oval nails also echoes Pontormo's style, as does the manner in which the black tunic is rendered, the differences in the grain of the fabric being portrayed with small black-on-black brushstrokes with tiny variations of shade reminiscent of the coat worn by Alessandro de' Medici in Pontormo's portrait of him in the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art. The elegantly tapering hands recur in such works as the Visitation in Carmignano, or again in the Philadelphia Portrait of Alessandro de' Medici, where we can also detect a similar tendency to cause the figure to emerge from an almost monochrome black background, an expedient invented by Leonardo to which Pontormo resorted in many of his works, the most representative of which is the double portrait now in the Fondazione Cini in Venice.

Yet in this Portrait of a Young Man with a Book there are other elements which are unknown in Pontormo's work and which point us in the direction of his most famous pupil, Agnolo Bronzino, whose style, Giorgio Vasari tells us, was not easy to distinguish from that of Jacopo Pontormo in the years when master and pupil were working together on the Evangelist tondi for the Capponi Chapel in Santa Felicità. Vasari was writing about the years between 1525 and 1528, before Bronzino's departure for Pesaro in 1530. Sure enough, while it is difficult to tell the two artists' styles apart in the Capponi Evangelists, Bronzino's painting tended thereafter to become increasingly polished and compact, the artist focusing increasingly on rendering the tactile evidence of nature as revealed to the senses. The Portrait of Lorenzo Lenzi (fig. 1), a young poet who was a friend and pupil of Benedetto Varchi, is generally dated to shortly before Bronzino's journey to Pesaro, although it has been attributed to Pontormo in the past, and even Gamba himself, believing it to be by Pontormo, compared it to the portrait under discussion here in 1956. In his Portrait of Lorenzo Lenzi, Bronzino embarks on a style of painting capable of rendering the tactile nature of the tunic's fabric and a clarity in the modelling of the face, the most direct precedent for which is to be found in this Portrait of a Young Man with a Book.

In this panel too, the face is defined, albeit more rapidly, with a style of painting that imparts solid and luminous volume to it -- a feature that most readily distinguishes Bronzino's painting from that of Pontormo. Also the tapering and supple hands with their soft, wavering, cylindrical fingers, while based on Pontormo's style, are almost identical with the hands of the sitter in thePortrait of Guidobaldo della Rovere in the Galleria Palatina di Palazzo Pitti in Florence, which Bronzino painted at the end of his stay in Pesaro in 1532 (fig. 2).

Yet the comparison with two earlier works by Bronzino is necessary to approach the dating of this portrait. Specific similarities both in the rapid yet soft brushwork and in the way the faces are drawn are also to be found in the Holy Family with St. Elisabeth and the Infant St. John the Baptist of c.1526-1528 in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (fig. 3). In particular, the Infant St. John's face is painted with the same confidence as we see in this portrait, with the same determination to impart fleshy brilliance to the surface of the eyelids and to the sitter's lineaments. Also identical are the vibrant, liquid brushstrokes defining the pages of the book -- as soft as wax -- in this portrait and St. Elisabeth's lined skin in the Washington Holy Family.

Further comparisons may be made with the Lamentation over the Dead Christ in the Uffizi (fig. 4), which Bronzino painted around 1529, where the Magdalene's oval face has the same polished surface over which the light flows with intense clarity, defining the purity and fullness of her cheeks and eyes.

In conclusion, all of the above features come together to suggest the attribution of this outstanding portrait, which has finally come to light again after decades of oblivion, to take up its rightful place at the heart of the study of Florentine 16th-century painting, to the hand of Agnolo Bronzino, who must have painted it in strict adherence to Pontormo's style between 1525 and 1527.

Carlo Falciani. Firenze, 20 Maggio, 2012

Christie's. Old Master Paintings Part I. 30 January 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza.

Scipione Pulzone, called Il Gaetano (Gaeta 1544-1598), Portrait of Jacopo Boncompagni, three-quarter length, in armor. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013

signed, dated and inscribed 'Scipio. Caietano faciebat. 1574/Illm o. et. Ecc.sm o S.or Jaco.' (lower center, on the paper), oil on canvas, 48 x 39 1/8 in. (121.9 x 99.3 cm.). Estimate $1,500,000 - $2,500,000

Provenance: (Possibly) Patrizi family, Florence (according to the 1910 sale catalogue of the James Henry Smith collection, see below).
with Haskard & Son, Florence, where acquired, 30 June 1898, by Agnew.
with Agnew's, London, where acquired, 4 July 1899, by
William Collins Whitney, New York; (+), 1904, from whom acquired by
James Henry Smith, New York; (+), American Art Association, New York, 18-22 January 1910, lot 197.
Private collection, Mexico, by 1987, whence acquired by the following
with Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York.
with Hazlitt Gooden & Fox, London, from whom acquired circa 1989 by the family of the present owner.

Literature: A. Venturi, Storia dell'Arte italia na IX. La Pittura del Cinquecento VII, Milan, 1934, p. 780, note 1.
A. Vannugli, 'Giacomo Boncompagni duca di Sora e il suo ritratto dipinto da Scipione Pulzone,'Prospettiva, LXI, January 1991, pp. 54-66.
Z. Wazbinski, Il Cardinale Francesco Maria Del Monte (1549-1626), Florence, 1994, II, pp. 524, 525, fig. 19.
P. Leone De Castris, 'Le Cardinal Granvelle et Scipione Pulzone,' in Les Granvelle et l'Italie au XVI siècle: Le mécénat d'une famille: actes du colloque international organisé par la Section d'italien de l'Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, 2-4 October, 1992, Besançon, 1996, p. 183, fig. 3.
A. Dern, Scipione Pulzone (ca. 1546-1598), Weimar, 2003, pp. 31-32, 110-111; fig. 20.
J.-A. Godoy et al., Parures Triomphales. Le maniérisme dans l'art de l'armure italienne, exhibition catalogue, Geneva, Musée Rath, 2003, pp. 19, 478, under no. 74; p. 18, fig. XIV (entry by J.-A. Godoy).
M. Scalini, 'Parures Triomphales. Le maniérisme dans l'art de l'armure italienne,' exhibition review in Kunstchronik, LVI, 6, June 2003, pp. 271-272.

Exhibited: London, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Twenty Selected Pictures by Italian Masters on Exhibition at the Galleries of Thos. Agnew & Sons, June-July, 1899, no. 9, 'Nobleman in richly damascened Armour. Signed and dated 1574'.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 1989 - June 1994, on loan.
Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, From Raphael to Carracci. The Art of Papal Rome, 29 May - 7 September 2009, no. 97.

Notes: Signed and dated in 1574, this superb picture of a nobleman attired in richly decorated parade armor is among the finest portraits painted by Scipione Pulzone, the most celebrated portraitist of his generation in Italy. His portrait style was influenced by that of Raphael, and was informed as well by the international style of portraiture emanating from the Hapsburg court, in particular as elaborated by the Fleming Antonis Mor (circa 1517-1577), who had visited Rome in the early 1550s. Pulzone was also inspired by Titian in his use of a rich, vibrant palette and in the trenchant psychological characterization of his sitters.

Pulzone's ability to create a lifelike sense of his sitters' presence and extraordinary skill in recording the textures and minute details of their costumes made him the most sought-after portraitist in Rome. Writing in 1584, Raffaello Borghini declared Pulzone 'very excellent in painting portraits [which] seem to be alive' ('che paiono vivi'). Thus, Borghini observes, his portraits were sought after by the 'most important gentlemen of Rome and all of the beautiful women' ('Signori principali di Roma, e tutte le belle donne'). (R. Borghini, Il riposo, Florence, 1584, p. 578). Though Pulzone worked primarily in Rome, his fame as a portraitist spread throughout Italy, and he was summoned in this capacity to the Aragonese court in Naples in 1584 and later to the Medici court in Florence. His sitters were among the most wealthy and eminent individuals of the time, and included Popes Pius V and Gregory XIII, Cardinals Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle and Alessandro Farnese, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Marie de' Medici, Queen of France.

In the present portrait, the sitter is shown three-quarter-length, dressed in magnificent ceremonial armor of the latest fashion. Above the gorget, a ruffle of delicate white lace sets off the sitter's elegant features; his voluminous trunk-hose are of satin embroidered with gold. His gauntlet and helmet are arranged on a red velvet-covered table at lower left, which is balanced at upper right by a gold-trimmed and tasseled blue velvet drape, an illusionistic device which alludes to the Renaissance custom of covering paintings with curtains. He holds a cylindrical document case in his left hand, and in his right, a letter. The inscription at the top of the letter, which signifies 'Most illustrious and Excellent Signor Jacopo,' identifies the sitter as Jacopo (or Giacomo) Boncompagni, the natural son of Pope Gregory XIII and future Duke of Sora, Aquino, and Marquess of Vignola.

Jacopo was born in Bologna in 1548 to Ugo Boncompagni (then a simple cleric) and his mistress, Maddalena Fulchini. Far from denying his paternity, Ugo legitimized Jacopo the year he was born, and throughout his pontificate (1572-1585) would advance his son's social, political, and financial interests with surprising openness in post-Tridentine Rome. Such ambitions are reflected in Jacopo Zucchi's altarpiece, The Mass of Saint Gregory the Great, painted in 1575 for the church of the Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, Rome, in which Jacopo's likeness appears among the congregants surrounding the celebrating Pope, who bears the features of his father. Several years earlier, the newly-elected Pope had appointed his son keeper of the Castel Sant'Angelo and captain general of the pontifical troops, sending him in 1573 to Ancona to fortify the coastal areas against the Ottoman threat, and in the following year to Ferrara to greet Henri de Valois, soon to be crowned Henri III, King of France.

Around this time, King Philip II of Spain, an ally of Pope Gregory, named Jacopo commander-in-chief of the Spanish armies in Lombardy and Piedmont, and soon thereafter, Knight of Calatrava and the order's Grand Chancellor. In 1576, Gregory arranged for his son an advantageous marriage to the beautiful Costanza Sforza, daughter of the Count of Santa Fiora; the ceremony was attended by the entire College of Cardinals. Subsequently Gregory financed Jacopo's acquisition of the fiefdoms of Vignola, the Duchy of Sora, and the Duchy of Aquino and Arpino, thus making him vastly wealthy. After his father's death in 1585, Jacopo left the pontifical states, never to return. Following a sojourn in Milan, where Philip II had called him to service as general of the Spanish army, Jacopo retired to Isola del Liri near Sora, where he died at the age of 64 in 1612.

Highly erudite in literature, philosophy and the arts, Boncompagni was a patron and protector of the poet Torquato Tasso, the philosopher Francesco Patrizi, and Pierluigi Palestrina, the celebrated composer of sacred music. He also encouraged the architect Jacopo Vignola, who dedicated his Due regole della prospettiva pratica to Boncompagni, published in 1583. Andrea Palladio's edition of the Commentaries of Julius Caesar, published in Venice in 1575, was dedicated to him as well. From 1574, Boncompagni assembled a vast scholarly library, among the most important in Rome, which was greatly enriched by that of his friend, the eminent Italian humanist Carlo Sigonio, after the latter's death in 1584.

In the present portrait, the handsome Boncompagni, aged 26, is shown in splendid military armor, signaling not only his prodigious wealth, but also his role as commander of the Papal army. His mission as defender of the Church is specifically referenced by the figure of victorious St. Michael, leader of God's army, in the oval at the center of the breastplate, and by the decoration on the helmet, which shows a chained infidel seated below a figure of Mars. The cylindrical document case which Boncompagni holds may refer to the ambassadorial mission on which he was sent by his father in 1574, the very year the picture was painted, to greet Henri de Valois, the future King of France, in Ferrara (Vannugli, op. cit., p. 58).

The armor is painted with the meticulous attention to minute detail and skill at rendering textures for which Pulzone was renowned. Embossed, blued and exquisitely gilded and damascened, it shows the love of lavish ornament, artistic sophistication, and extraordinary technical virtuosity of late Renaissance armorers in Italy. Exceedingly costly, such elaborately decorated armors were rare in the 16th century, as are the portraits in which they appear. Although the armor cannot be attributed to a specific master, its style relates to that of Lucio Marliani, called Piccinino (1538-1607), one of the great armorers of the Renaissance, who was active in Milan in the last quarter of the 16th century. The closest surviving armor to that in our portrait is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. 29.150; fig. 1). Produced in Milan around 1575, the Metropolitan armor shows a very similar design on the breastplate, consisting of symmetrical vertical bands of embossed ornament which narrow as they converge in the lower center.

The decorative motifs on Boncompagni's armor are adapted from the classical repertory, and reflect in particular the Renaissance fascination with grotesque ornament all'antica. Arranged in vertical sequences en candelabra, the motifs include putti blowing trumpets of fame or holding up crowns of Victory, Roman military trophies, fantastic beasts and hybrid sea monsters, swags of fruit, mascarons, and anthropomorphic lions' heads, symbolic of the military might of ancient Rome. In the Renaissance, such armorial decoration all'antica was meant to associate its wearer with the glories and virtues of the ancient Roman military heroes, a flattering comparison which Boncompagni--as the newly-appointed commander of the Papal troops--would surely have welcomed.

Pulzone's Portrait of Jacopo Boncompagni builds on a tradition of Renaissance three-quarter-length, three-quarter-view military portraits which was established by Titian in the 1530s as seen, for example, in his Portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino of 1536-38 (fig. 2; Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi). Its most immediate model, however, was likely Siciolante da Sermoneta's Portrait of Francesco II Colonna of 1561, which Pulzone would surely have seen in the collection of the Colonna family in Rome (fig. 3; Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica). While following the general format of the Colonna portrait, Pulzone has eliminated the imposing architectural setting, isolating the figure against a neutral dark background. His head is set lower within the painted field, which, in conjunction with his direct gaze at the viewer, makes him seem more humanly accessible. While the almost uncanny effect of a living, breathing presence inhabiting this portrait reflects the influence of Titian, it is also surely due to the close personal relationship between artist and sitter: in 1574, the very year the portrait was painted, Pulzone named his first-born son Giacomo, and Boncompagni became his godfather (Dern, op. cit., p. 32).

This portrait first came to light in 1899, when exhibited at the London gallery of Thos. Agnew & Sons, from whom it was acquired in that year by the financier William C. Whitney (1841-1904), founder of the New York branch of the prominent Whitney family. A major investor in thoroughbred horseracing, he was the breeder of twenty-six American stakes winners, and helped establish the 'Winter Colony', an exclusive equestrian community in Aiken, South Carolina. He was also an important American political leader, serving as Secretary of the Navy in the first Cleveland administration. In the mid-1890s, Whitney commissioned McKim, Mead and White to remodel his palatial mansion at 871 Fifth Avenue in the Italian Renaissance style, and from 1899, the Portrait of Jacopo Boncompagni was displayed there with Whitney's extensive collection of early Italian pictures, portraits by Van Dyck, tapestries, and architectural carvings from European palaces and cathedrals. Upon Whitney's death in 1904, his mansion, along with its furnishings and art, was purchased by James Henry Smith, one of the most colorful figures on the New York social scene at the turn of the 20th century. In 1899, Smith, a modest, obscure Wall Street bachelor, inherited from an eccentric uncle a fortune of $50,000,000. His rise within New York society was meteoric. With Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish as his social mentor, he held a constant series of grand dinners, concerts and balls at his Tuxedo Park mansion and his New York residence at 871 Fifth Avenue. In 1907, while honeymooning in Japan with his bride, the former Mrs. Rhinelander Stewart, Smith suddenly died. The New York mansion and its contents, including the Portrait of Jacopo Boncompagni, were auctioned by the American Art Association three years later, after which the picture was lost to notice until the late 1980s, when it re-surfaced in a private collection in Mexico. Shortly thereafter, it entered the private collection where it has remained until the present day.

Two contemporary versions of this portrait are known: the first, bust-length and now lost, was with the dealer Demotte in Paris during the interwar period; the second, from the collection of A.R. Dufty, is currently on display with the Royal Armouries Collection in the Tower of London (fig. 4). Not attributable to the master himself, it shows the sitter with the features of Alessandro Farnese (1545-1592), Duke of Parma and Piacenza, substituted for those of Boncompagni (Vannugli, op. cit., figs. 4-5; p. 64, n. 1). Scalini has pointed to an anonymous half-length portrait on slate of Ottavio Farnese (1525-1586), father of Alessandro, in which the sitter wears the same armor as that in our portrait. Believing this portrait to pre-date the present one, he has speculated that Ottavio, grandson of Pope Paul III, may have given the armor to Boncompagni as a gift (Scalini, op. cit., p. 272).

The present painting has been requested for the exhibition being organized by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Storici Artistici ed Etnoantropologici del Lazio, Scipione Pulzone da Gaeta. Arte e Fede nel Mediterraneo del Cinquecento, Diocesan Museum, Gaeta, 25 May-15 September 2013.

Christie's. Old Master Paintings Part I. 30 January 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza.

François Desportes (Champigneule, Marne 1661-1743 Paris), Le Déjeuner maigre: oysters, bread, wine, peaches, pears, melon, radishes, salt and figs on a table. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013

signed and dated 'Desportes 1739' (lower left), oil on canvas, 29 x 36 in. (73.7 x 91.4 cm.). Estimate $200,000 - $300,000

Provenance: Anonymous sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 8 May 1897, lot 18.
M.L. Levy; (+), Galerie Georges Petit, 18-19 June 1917, lot 13 (3,600 francs).

Literature: G. de Lastic, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné de François Desportes, Ecole de Louvre, 1969, no. 1631.
P. Jacky, François Desportes (1661-1743), Monographie et Catalogue Raisonné, 1999, IV, p. 801.
G. de Lastic and P. Jacky, Desportes, St-Remy-en-l'Eau, 2010, no. P803, p. 223.

Notes: By the time Desportes painted the Déjeuner maigre ('The Fish Repast') in 1739, he had been the leading court painter in France of animals, hunts and opulent tabletop still lifes for almost forty years. Received into the Académie Royale in 1699 as an animalier, he quickly became a favorite painter to Louis XIV and Louis XV, admired and depended upon for his diverse abilities and technical proficiency. Within a few years, his many hunt scenes, trompe-l'oeil trophies, portraits of the king's hounds and studies of the exotic animals in the Ménagerie, were decorating the walls of the royal châteaux of Versailles, Marly, Meudon and Fontainebleau, as well as the hôtels particulier of the Parisian beau monde. Trained in the Flemish tradition of hunt painting by a pupil of Frans Snyders, he introduced the successful formulae of Snyders and Paul de Vos into French art in vast canvases such as the Deer Kill and The Wolf Hunt (Musée de La Chasse, Paris). At the same time, and again taking his lead from Flemish and Dutch precedents, he inspired a renaissance of still-life painting that would continue in France to the end of the century.

Desportes painted a number of pairs of still lifes which contrasted the relative austerity of theDéjeuner maigre ('The Fish Repast') with the heartier breakfast meal of the Déjeuner gras (or 'The Meat Repast'), and the present painting was no exception: it was originally matched withDéjeuner gras au melon entamé (dated 1738), and the two paintings remained together until at least 1917, when they were sold at auction in Paris. (The pendant was sold once again, at Christie's, London, 11 December 1981, lot 23, and is today in a private collection.) Another superb pair of breakfast still lifes, signed and dated 1729, was acquired directly from the artist by the Swedish diplomat, Count Carl Gustave Tessin, and is in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

In Desportes' impressive painting, the various ingredients that compose the Déjeuner maigre are arranged on a rough wooden buffet in what appears to be a stone-walled kitchen or pantry; included are a large basket of oysters, a small basket of peaches, a glass carafe with white wine, and a half-empty wine glass resting on a silver, footed tray of ovoid shape and recent manufacture. In the center of the table is a silver plate with opened oysters, a knife, a loaf of bread, and a beaded silver saltcellar; and on the right are a silver salver with figs, a bunch of radishes, and a cantaloupe that has been sliced open. Hardly a frugal breakfast, it is the absence of meat that defines it as 'maigre'. In its almost microscopic realism, naturalistic play of light and brilliant colors, the Déjeuner maigre reveals its Flemish antecedents, while its calm orderliness, limited range of objects and compositional reserve display an elegant, Gallic sensibility.

A superb oil study of the sliced melon, from several angles, including the one Desportes eventually chose for the finished painting, is on deposit in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans; it is one of the hundreds of oil sketches made from life that the artist's nephew sold to the Manufacture de Sèvres in 1785 (inv. S.171). A variant of the present composition, with weaknesses that suggest the intervention of Desportes' studio, is in a private collection (see Lastic & Jacky, no. P804). In it, the elements of the still life are repeated precisely from the present painting, with the addition of more pieces of silver on the right side of the buffet, and more elaborate wall decor with carved boiserie in the background.

Christie's. Old Master Paintings Part I. 30 January 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza.

Hubert van Ravesteyn (Dordrecht? 1638-before 1691), A Wanli bowl with walnuts, a façon de venise wine glass, an ivory-handled knife, a Delft stoneware jug and a rose on a partially draped marble ledge.Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013

signed in monogram 'H.R.'(lower center, on the ledge) oil on canvas 28 x 23 3/8 in. (71 x 59.5 cm.). Estimate $400,000 - $600,000

Provenance: Anonymous sale; Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 17-18 December 1968, lot 161, as 'H. van Ravesteijn and A. Coosemans'.
with Leonard Koetser Gallery, 1969.
Van Harinxma Thoe Slooten Collection, Friesland, The Netherlands.
with Peter H. Tilllou, Litchfield, Connecticut and London.
Private collection, Brasschaat, Belgium.

Notes: The Dutch painter Hubert van Ravesteyn was baptized in 1638 in Dordrecht, where he was active throughout his career. In 1669, he married Catherina van Meurs, and they lived on the Hofstraat from 1670 until 1672. Van Ravesteyn is known for his rustic barn interiors with prominently featured peasants or animals, and still-lifes of fruit and vegetables set within kitchens or barns. From the 1660s, he began painting more elegant still-lifes featuring velvet tablecloths trimmed with gold, expensive Chinese porcelain bowls and white stoneware vessels, such as those depicted in the present picture. Set against a neutral dark background and illuminated by an unusually cool light, these carefully arranged still-lifes are subdued in mood and reveal Van Ravesteyn's characteristic precision in the rendering of minute details, such as the variegated walnut shells and the woody husk around the meat of the exposed nut. The present work also shows Van Ravesteyn's remarkable skill in capturing the effects of light on various surfaces, such as the subtle play of highlights and shadows on the jug and its silver mount, and the gleaming reflections on the ivory-handled knife. Two Amsterdam artists, Jan Jansz. van de Velde (circa 1627-1672) and Jan Fris (1619/20-1663) were producing similar still-lifes in the mid-17th century, suggesting that Van Ravesteyn may have lived for a period in Amsterdam (Dordrecht 1992, op. cit., p. 261).

Van Ravesteyn typically repeated motifs: the Delftware pitcher, red marbled tabletop and porcelain bowl with walnuts recur, for example, in Still life with smoking paraphernalia, Delft jug and dish with nuts of 1670 in the Dordrechts Museum (inv. DM/981/571) and in Walnuts, a tobacco packet, and a white jug on a table of 1671 in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada. The prominence of the walnuts in both pictures may reflect Van Ravesteyn's awareness of a print in Joris Hoefnagel's Archetypa with the humorous Latin epigram 'Alea parva Nuces, et non damnosa videtur; Saepe tamen pueris abstulit illa nates' (gambling with nuts [often used as dice] is thought a harmless game, but it has also raised welts [like the bumps on the walnuts].) Similarly, the pink rose, in full bloom at the height of its beauty, might have been intended to allude to the transience of earthly things, a common theme in 17th-century Dutch still-life painting. Apparently this rose was not always in fashion, however, as it was over-painted with an orange - now removed - when sold in 1961 (see Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 17-18 December 1968, lot 161). Whether appreciated for their sly iconography or sheer beauty, still lifes of this type were produced by Van Ravesteyn in abundance, suggesting that they were held in high esteem by his Dordrecht clientele.

Christie's. Old Master Paintings Part I. 30 January 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza.

Suite de deux plats en porcelaine bleu et blanc. Chine, Époque Kangxi (1662-1722). Photo Iegor

L'un peint d'une scène de terrasse avec une jeune femme agenouillée devant un officier barbu pendant que deux garçons serviteurs portent des paquets cadeaux, tous devant un écran décoré de vagues sous des nuages et une lune, l'autre peint de deux officiers barbus debout sur un chemin menant à une scène représentant Xi Wang Mu ventilée par un serviteur alors que le lièvre blanc concocte « l'élixir de longue vie », le tout sur fond de nuages et dessous des branches d'un pin émergeant de rochers, les deux plats cerclés d'une bordure aux panneaux figurant les objets précieux en réserve. D: 37cm - 14.75''. Estimation : 3 000 / 5 000 $

Provenance : acquis auprès de Marchant & Son, Londres, le 9 Août; préalablement dans une collection privée du Connecticut; présentée lors de l'exposition « Masterworks from Private Connecticut Collections » au Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, du 31 Octobre 1993 au 2 Janvier 1994; anciennement dans la collection du Duc de Buccleuch qui la mit en vente le 16 Juillet 1973 à Christie's Londres, lot numéro 12.

A SET OF TWO FINE BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN SAUCER DISHES, CHINA, KANGXI PRIOD (1662-1722)

One painted with a terrace scene of a young lady kneeling before a bearded official, while two boy attendants hold cloth covered gifts, all before a screen decorated with waves beneath the clouds and mole lin, the other
painted with two bearded officials standing on a path leading to a scene of Xi Wang Mu being fanned by an attendant while the white hare mixes the “Elixir of Life”, all amongst
clouds and beside an overhanging pine tree emerging from rockwork, both dishes within a border of four panels of precious objects reserved on a diaper ground.

Provenance : acquired from Marchant & Son, London, August 9, 2006, original invoice available upon request; previously in a private collection, Connecticut; exhibited at « Materworks from Private Connecticut Collections », Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, October 31 1993 - January 2, 1994; previously in the collection of The Duke of Buccleuch; sold by Christie's London, January 16, 1973, number 12

Iegor. Samedi 26 janvier 2013. Nouvel Hôtel des Encans - 872 rue du Couvent - Angle Saint-Antoine Ouest - Montréal, Canada. www.iegor.net

Paire de jarres à gingembre en porcelaine bleu et blanc. Chine, Époque Kangxi (1662-1722).  Photo Iegor

Décorée en bleu cobalt sous couverte d'un paysage aux falaises, pins, fleuve et lettrés. Double-cercle en bleu cobalt sous couverte aux revers. Étiquette au dessous d'une. Couvercles ajourés et socles en bois joints. H: 21.5cm - 8.5''. Estimation : 3 000 / 5 000 $

Cette paire peut être avantageusement comparée à celle à décor similaire provenant de la collection du Dr. Lowell Young et reproduite à la page 56 du catalogue « The Dr. Lowell Young Collection », Marchant, Londres, exposition du 1er au 15 Novembre 2012.

Provenance : acquis auprès de Marchant & Son, Londres, le 8 Avril 2005; auparavant dans la collection de Roy Davids

A FINE PAIR OF BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN GINGER JAR, CHINA, KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

Adorned in underglaze cobalt blue with a river landscape with cliffs, pine trees and scholars. Underglaze cobalt blue double-circle on the bottoms. Label on the bottom of one. Wooden reticulated lids and stands included.

This pair can be connected to the one from the Dr. Lowell Young's collection reproduced in the exhibition catalogue “The Dr. Lowell Young Collection”, Marchant, London, exhibition November 1 to November 15, 2013.

Provenance : acquired from Marchant & Son, London, April 8, 2005; previously in the collection of Roy Davids

Iegor. Samedi 26 janvier 2013. Nouvel Hôtel des Encans - 872 rue du Couvent - Angle Saint-Antoine Ouest - Montréal, Canada. www.iegor.net

Paire de jarres à gingembre en porcelaine bleu et blanc décorées de la déesse de la lune. Chine, Époque Kangxi (1662-1722). Photo Iegor

Décorée en bleu cobalt sous couverte d'une scène continue d'une femme debout qu'entourent ses servantes et de trois apprentis approchant parmi les nuages. Double-cerle en bleu cobalt sous couverte aux dessous. Étiquettes aux dessous : « Marchant London ». H: 21.5cm - 8.5''. Estimation : 3 000 / 5 000 $

Cette iconographie est probablement celle de la déesse lune, Chang Er, sise dans le pavillon de la lune avec l'un de ses serviteurs présentant un brin d'osmanthus à un lettré qui vient de passer ses examens.

Provenance: acquis de S. Marchant & Son à Londres le 31 Mars 2006; antérieurement dans une collection française

A FINE PAIR OF BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN MOON GODDESS GINGER JARS. CHINA, KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

Painted in underglaze cobalt blue on the body with a continuous scene with a lady standing with her attendants in a fenced balcony scene with three student scholars approaching in the clouds. Underglaze cobalt blue double circle on the bottoms. Labels on the bottoms: “Marchant London”.

This scene is probably of the moon goddess, Chang Er, in the moon pavilion with one of her attendants presenting an osmanthus sprig to a scholar who has passed his examinations.

Provenance: acquired from S. Marchant & Son in London, March 31, 2006; previously in a French collection

Iegor. Samedi 26 janvier 2013. Nouvel Hôtel des Encans - 872 rue du Couvent - Angle Saint-Antoine Ouest - Montréal, Canada. www.iegor.net

Paire de jarres à gingembre godronnées en porcelaine bleu et blanc. Chine, Époque Kangxi (1662-1722).  Photo Iegor

Décorée en bleu cobalt sous couverte de deux frises comprenant trois des Huits Trésors du Bouddhisme sur l'épaule et le pied, et de trois médaillons aux oiseaux, aux fleurs et aux objets auspicieux sur la panse. H: 18cm - 7''. Estimation : 2 000 / 4 000 $

A FINE PAIR OF RIBBED BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN GINGER JARS, CHINA, KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

Adorned in underglaze cobalt blue with two friezes comprised of three of the Eight Treasures of Buddhim on the shoulder and on the foot, as well as three medallions with birds, flowers and auspicious objects.

Iegor. Samedi 26 janvier 2013. Nouvel Hôtel des Encans - 872 rue du Couvent - Angle Saint-Antoine Ouest - Montréal, Canada. www.iegor.net

Jarre à gingembre au lotus en porcelaine bleu et blanc. Chine, Époque Kangxi (1662-1722).  Photo Iegor

Fine jarre à gingembre ovoïde en porcelaine bleu et blanc, peinte dans des tons brillants de bleu cobalt sous couverte, d'un large lotus Indien aux multiples bourgeons rattachés à une tige feuillagée formant volutes, parmi lesquelles les Bajixiang (« Huit symboles auspicieux du Bouddhisme »). Sous la base et sur l'épaule un décor floral de chrysanthèmes courant sur tout le pourtour, par ailleurs une frise de lotus qui court sous la frise florale cerclant la lèvre. Cercles concentriques en bleu cobalt sous couverte au dessous. Stand en bois joint. H : 28cm - 11''. Estimation : 2 000 / 3 000 $

Pour une jarre similaire, bien que plus petite, se référer au catalogue de l'exposition « Blue Lotus - White Dragon, Blue-and-White Ceramics from Asia and Europe » qui se tint au musée Reitberg de Zürich, du 30 Juin 2006 au 24 Septembre 2006.

Provenance: acquis de Vermeer & Griggs, Pasadena, le 1er Novembre 2006 

A FINE BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN LOTUS JAR, CHINA, KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

A fine blue and white ovoid form ginger jar painted overall in brilliant tones of underglaze blue with large Indian lotus blossoms borne on trailing tendrils with dense foliage, interspersed with the Bajixiang (“Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism”). Above the base and on the shoulder a linked floral chrysanthemum pattern encircled the jar, additionally a ruyi border appears beneath the floral border at the rim. The glazed base bears concentric circles in underglaze blue beneath a clear glaze. Wooden stand included.

For a similar jar, though shorter, please see the catalogue of the exhibition ‘'Blue Lotus - White Dragon, Blue-and-White Ceramics
from Asia and Europe'' which took place at the Reitberg Museum, Zurich, from June 30, 2006 to September 24, 2006.

Provenance: acquired from Vermeer & Griggs, Pasadena, November 1, 2006

Iegor. Samedi 26 janvier 2013. Nouvel Hôtel des Encans - 872 rue du Couvent - Angle Saint-Antoine Ouest - Montréal, Canada. www.iegor.net

Francis Bacon, Three Studies for a Self-Portrait, signed, titled and dated 1980. Oil on canvas, each 35.5 by 30.5 cm.; 14 by 12 in. Estimate: GBP10,000,000 – 15,000,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

LONDON.- In the wake of Sotheby’s third most successful year ever for global auctions of Contemporary Art (2012), which totalled $1.25 billion and saw a new record set for the work of any living artist, the company is delighted to present its February Evening Auction of Contemporary Art. The sale, which will take place at Sotheby’s New Bond Street premises in London on Tuesday, February 12th, 2013, features a select offering of outstanding masterworks by leading Post-War and Contemporary artists, including Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, Mark Rothko and Lucio Fontana, among others. The Evening Auction comprises 56 lots and is estimated to realise in excess of £63 million. 

Reflecting on the market for Contemporary Art and commenting on the forthcoming Auction, Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s Chairman of Contemporary Art Europe, said: “The marketplace and demand for contemporary art has never been stronger or more international – of the top 20 prices achieved by Sotheby’s last year, more than half were post-war and contemporary masterworks. Last year we witnessed intense competition for gold-standard achievements by classic artists who produced works with commanding presence – whether abstract or figural. With Richter setting the record for a work by any living artist, the re-valuation of artworks from the 1980s and 1990s has enabled us to source some extremely strong works from private collections. We’ve tailored our first sale of 2013 in this category with these trends and this reassessment in mind, and assembled a classical auction led by powerful masterworks of extraordinary ‘Wall Power’ by blue-chip artists such as Bacon, Richter and Basquiat.” 

Headlining this season’s Contemporary Art Auction is Three Studies for a Self-Portrait by Francis Bacon (1909–1992), which comes to market from a distinguished European collector. Self-portraiture has played a role of unparalleled importance in the work of Francis Bacon. This oil on canvas triptych, was executed in the artist’s eighth decade at the age of 71 and belongs to a corpus of 11 triptych self-portraits in Bacon’s standard 14 by 12 inch format. Painted in 1980, nine years following the suicide of Bacon’s closest companion George Dyer, these three portraits collectively embody among the most elegiac in this intimate and somewhat commemorative triptych format. The work counts among the ten executed following Dyer’s death, the profound trauma of which precipitated searing self-analyses by Bacon executed across the remaining years of his life. Bacon was an artist for whom the reality of life itself was the subject and nowhere is this more forcefully evident than in the haunting opus of Self-Portraiture. Three Studies for a Self-Portrait significantly preserves the penultimate depiction of Bacon's likeness in this unflinching, intimate and crucial triptych format. Bacon had learned the nuances of re-invention and self-presentation from a young age, spending hours scrutinising and tracing the particularities of his own appearance in the mirror and such a reading of the mirror image is extraordinarily present in the almost 1 to 1 scale of this work. This work will be included in the forthcoming Francis Bacon Catalogue Raisonné, being prepared by The Estate of Francis Bacon and edited by Martin Harrison. Startlingly powerful in execution and psychological effect, Three Studies for a Self-Portrait truly counts as a masterpiece of Bacon’s intimately scaled triptychs and is estimated at £10-15 million. 

Following the recent record set by Sotheby’s London for the work of any living artist with the sale of an abstract painting by Gerhard Richter in October last year, Sotheby’s will offer for sale another magnificent work by the artist, Abstraktes Bild (769-1). The painting is one of the most vivid, superlative and optically commanding works from Richter’s astounding opus of abstraction. Comprising a graphically powerful schema of vertical stripes layered over strident sweeps and fractious linear markings, this work belongs to the cycle of abstracts executed in 1992 in which Richter implemented the squeegee with sweeping pressure. First exhibited in Rome the very same year of its execution in 1992, alongside a concise selection of Richter’s finest work from that year, Abstraktes Bild (769-1) announces the climactic achievement in Gerhard Richter’s spectacular inquiry into the realm of abstract painting – an inquiry initiated in the late 1970s and perfected surrounding the very moment of this work’s creation. The complexity and unparalleled brilliance of Richter’s abstractions of 1992 coincided with a period of personal turbulence for the artist. The jubilant and explosive mood prevalent in Richter’s earlier abstractions, between 1982 and 1983, was linked with the artist’s euphoric mood during the early years of his relationship with fellow artist Isa Genzken. Surrounding their second separation and final split in 1993, the works produced are bestowed with an increasingly complex painterly construction. The exquisite painting is estimated at £7.5-9.5 million. 

Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild. Oil on canvas, 200 by 160 cm.; 78¾ by 63 in. Executed in 1992. Estimate: GBP7,500,000 GBP - 9,500,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

From a distinguished private collection, Gerhard Richter’s oil on canvas Wolke (Cloud), dated 1976 and numbered 413 on the reverse, is a sublime example of the artist’s output of photorealist works. A leading paradigm of Richter’s masterful brushwork, with its formal and imposing beauty, the painting rivals the National Gallery of Canada’s Cloud Triptych (1970), a work that recently formed a centrepiece in the touring Panorama retrospective. Dislocated from terra firma, Richter’s fair weather fragment of sky radiating sunlit hues filtered through soft ephemeral forms is undeniably indebted to a long and familiar legacy of art historical heritage, and is evocative of the Romantic and sublime landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich, the famous cloud paintings by John Constable, and the atmospheric light effects of Turner. Richter’s Cloud paintings, in which he depicts nature’s most abstract form in a photo realist manner, straddle the divide in his oeuvre between the abstract and figurative modes of painting. The present work stands among the most beautiful and stunning of Richter’s career and is estimated at £7-9 million. 

Untitled (Pecho/Oreja) (est. £7-9 million) is one of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s most immediate, arresting and accomplished works. Though executed between 1982 and 1983 when the artist was only 22 years old, it signals the very apex of Basquiat’s powers of artistic expression. Born to Puerto Rican and Haitian parents and brought up in Brooklyn, New York, Basquiat drew from his manifold ancestral background and racial identity to forge a body of work acutely conscious of his contribution to an almost exclusively white Western art history. In this present work, the overlapping themes of black hero worship, anatomy, graffiti, art history and death coalesce to form a cohesive composition rich in cultural commentary and autobiographical narrative. The words Pecho (Chest) and Oreja (Ear) directly allude to Basquiat’s fascination with anatomy which was sparked by a gift given to him by his mother following a childhood accident. As Spanish was also his mother’s native Puerto Rican language, this leads to an intimately personal reading of the work. Previously, Untitled (Pecho/Oreja) was owned by the band U2 who acquired the work in 1989, keeping it in their recording studio where it remained until 2008 when it was sold by Sotheby’s London. 

Continuing Sotheby’s strength in the field of Italian Post-War and Contemporary Art, the auction also features a strong section of works by leading Italian artists, including Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Alberto Burri and Alighiero Boetti. Headlining this section of the sale is Lucio Fontana’s waterpaint on canvas Concetto Spaziale, Attesa, which the artist executed in 1965 (est. £2.2-2.8 million). With its pure white ground surface articulated with a precisely and masterfully incised single cut, and belonging to only ten works created in this grand scale (46½ by 35⅝ inches), the present work counts among the most iconic of the artist’s Concetto Spaziale, Attesa – Fontana’s most revered and instantly recognised body of work. The first tagli dates to the autumn of 1958 and by 1960 Fontana had executed tagli works in an expansive variety of experimental colours. With the tagli, Fontana took great lengths to maintain an immaculately equal paint surface, concentrating all trace of his hand upon the slash. Employing a paint brush and not a roller, this required great craftsmanship and demanded the progressive layering of horizontal and vertical strokes to eradicate inconsistencies and realise a true depth of opacity. This painting exquisitely and forcefully comprises the purest and most absolute essence of Fontana’s art, and as such boasts an impressive exhibition history, starting with Fontana’s show at the Walker Art Center, Mineapolis, in 1966-7, and concluding with his exhibition at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, in Rome, in 1998. 

Magnificent in scope and scale (70 by 40 inches), Mark Rothko’s oil on paper laid down on canvas Untitled from 1969 is one of the most powerful and visually arresting examples of the artist’s extraordinary late works on paper. Impressive in height and monochromatic depth, Untitled represents the work of an artist at the absolute apogee of his creative powers, and is one of the largest works of its kind that the artist painted and the first to appear at auction in almost 20 years. A true masterpiece among Rothko’s late oeuvre, it has remained in the same private Swiss collection for the past 20 years. Rothko considered black to be a crucial member of the chromatic spectrum as opposed to representing an ‘absence’ of colour, a belief expressed with extraordinary care in Untitled - three exquisitely subtle gradations of the hue segue into each other, resulting in a delicate horizontal division. From the summer of 1968 until his death in February 1970, the majority of Rothko’s production was on paper, a medium that he favoured over canvas at that time. Rothko believed that an impressive scale encouraged a greater sense of connection with a painting and with these works sought to break away from the traditional notion that paper was only suited to small-scale work. It is estimated at £2.5-3.8 million. 

The auction will also feature a group of works from an extraordinary Private Swedish Collection of Modern and Contemporary artworks. Assembled by a private Swedish individual from the 1960s onwards, the collection comprises stellar names from the 20th-century art firmament, including Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Henri Laurens, Tom Wesselmann, Alexander Calder, Josef Albers and Natalia Goncharova, among others. The 37 lots will be presented within a series of London sales in February, March and June 2013, including the Contemporary Art Evening Auction and the Surrealist Art Evening Sale (5th February, 2013). Combined, the collection is estimated to bring in excess of £4.5 million. 

Among the works from this collection to be offered in the Contemporary Art Evening Sale is Tom Wesselmann’s oil and mixed media collage on board, Great American Nude No. 5. Created in 1961, the work is one of the earliest examples from Wesselmann’s eponymous series, and was soon after exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1962. Pictured against the Star Spangled Banner with its accompanying window onto ideal surburban America, Wesselmann’s blonde bombshell is a bold vision that unreservedly defines the language of Pop Art. At the time when Great American Nude No. 5 was bought from Sotheby’s in 1973 it set a record for the artist at auction, and it now comes to the market for the first time in 40 years with an estimate of £500,000-700,000. The collection also includes an exquisite selection of works by Alexander Calder that span three decades of the artist’s production. Calder was immensely popular in Sweden during the 1960s and 1970s, which is when these works were acquired, reflecting a growing European awareness of the international importance of the American artist. Highlights of this group include The Red Base, dated 1969 (est. £500,000-700,000); Red Skeleton, a painted metal stabile (est. £150,000-200,000); and Red, Yellow and White and Untitled (each estimated at £150,000-200,000), dated 1945, 1950 and 1954 respectively. 

Jacob Toorenvliet, Man Holding a Jug (Taste), c.a. 1679. Oil on canvas. Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum.

STOCKHOLM.- Nationalmuseum has acquired three important Flemish and Dutch cabinet paintings from the collection of Count Gustaf Adolf Sparre – a landscape by Gijsbrecht Leytens and two genre scenes in smaller format by David Teniers the Younger and Jacob Toorenvliet. The paintings have gilt frames decorated in Gustavian style, with the two latter works bearing cartouches at the top. 

Gustaf Adolf Sparre af Söfdeborg (1746–1794) was heir to one of Sweden’s wealthiest merchant families. His large collection was built up primarily through extensive purchases in the Netherlands and Paris during the later 18th century and was considered one of the best in Sweden after the Royal collection itself. Sparre’s tastes as an art collector were formed during his Grand Tour of England, Holland and Belgium, as well as longer stays in Paris, during the years 1768–1772 and 1779–1780. The majority of the collection comprised small-scale Flemish and Dutch cabinet paintings from the 17th century. During Sparre’s lifetime, the collection was displayed in the gallery that he had set up in an apartment of the Sahlgren Palace on Norra Hamngatan in Gothenburg. In around 1775, Sparre commissioned frames for the paintings to match the rest of the gallery’s décor. These were probably made by the same joiners, including sculptor G. J. Fast, who created the apartment’s mirror frames and panelling. 

Sparre was particularly keen on Dutch and Flemish genre painting, from the simple depictions of drinking and smoking peasants to the richly detailed “fine painting” of the Leiden artists. This was entirely in line with prevailing trends among 18th-century connoisseurs in the Netherlands and Paris where, as graphic reproductions, the works of the Dutch and Flemish artists were widely appreciated. The newly acquired paintings Tavern Interior with Peasant Lighting his Pipe from the 1640s by Antwerp painter David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) – the artist with the largest number of works in Sparre’s collection – and Man Holding a Jug (Taste) from around 1679 by the Dutch “fine painter” Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719) are prime examples of the tastes of the time. 

Another important group in the Sparre collection was landscapes and pastoral scenes. Wooded Mountain Landscape with Waterfall and Travellers is a magnificent fantasy landscape in the Flemish tradition, painted in the first half of the 17th century by the Antwerp painter Gijsbrecht Leytens (1586–c.1642/56), best known for his atmospheric winter scenes. With its characteristic features – an imposing Northern European mountain- and forest landscape combined with fanciful Italianate buildings, pastoral idylls and exotically dressed groups of travellers – the painting is representative of key trends in Flemish landscape painting after the year 1600. 

Nationalmuseum’s acquisition, which was made possible by a donation from the Wiros Fund, forms an important addition to its collection of 17th-century cabinet paintings. At the same time, it provides an insight into patterns of private art collecting in 18th century Europe. 

Gijsbrecht Leytens, Wooded Mountain Landscape with Waterfall and Travellers, first half of the 17th century. Oil on canvas. Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum.

Miroir en bronze argentéà décor de lions et de grappes de raisins, Chine, Dynastie Tang (618-907). Photo Iegor

Finement exécuté, pourvu d'un bouton central formant lion couché qu'entoure une frise de quatre lions passant parmi des grappes de raisin, le cercle extérieur orné d'un décor moulé alternant oiseaux et grappe de vin, l'ensemble cerné d'une frise de petites volutes nuageuses. D: 12cm - 4.75''. Estimation : 3 000 / 4 000 $

Pour un miroir similaire, voir R. KEVERNE, ‘'Chinese Bronze Mirrors, Warring States Period to Tang Dynasty'', Londres, 2009, p.34, cat. Num. 21.
Pour un miroir très similaire, se reporter au lot 4141 de la vente Christie's Hong Kong du 30 Mai 2012.

A SILVERED BRONZE LION AND GRAPES MIRROR. CHINA, TANG DYNASTY (618-907)
Finely cast with a central knob forming a crouching lion, surrounded by further four lions frolicking amidst fruiting grapevine, the outer ring with alternating birds perching on grapevines, all framed within a band of small cloud scrolls.

For a similar mirror, see R. KEVERNE, ‘'Chinese Bronze Mirrors, Warring States Period to Tang Dynasty'', Londres, 2009, p.34, cat. Num. 21. For a very similar one at auction, please see lot 4141, Christie's Hong Kong, May 30, 2012.

Iegor. Samedi 26 janvier 2013. Nouvel Hôtel des Encans - 872 rue du Couvent - Angle Saint-Antoine Ouest - Montréal, Canada. www.iegor.net

Head of Hades, about 400 - 300 B.C. Terracotta and polychromy. Object: H: 27.3 x W: 20.5 x D: 18.5 cm (10 3/4 x 8 1/16 x 7 5/16 in.) Accession No. 85.AD.105. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum announced today plans to voluntarily return a terracotta head to Sicily representing the god Hades and dating to about 400–300 B.C. The Museum acquired the sculpture in 1985. 

Joint research with colleagues in Sicily over the past two years has yielded previously unknown information on the likely provenance of the sculpture suggesting that it was appropriate to return the object. In keeping with the principle of repatriating works when compelling evidence warrants it, the decision to transfer this head is based on the discovery of four terracotta fragments found near Morgantina in Sicily, similar in style and medium to the Getty head. Getty Museum curators initiated discussions with Sicilian colleagues on the possible relationship between the head and the fragments in 2011, and then worked with the director of the Morgantina Archaeological Park to corroborate the identification. These fragments indicate that the original location of the head was the site of a sanctuary of Demeter, which was clandestinely excavated in the late 1970s. 

“The Getty greatly values its relationship with our Sicilian colleagues, which culminated in the 2010 Cultural Collaboration Agreement,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “This collaboration has brought significant opportunities for scholarly dialogue, joint conservation projects, and loans, most notably the ‘Charioteer’ from Mozia that is currently undergoing a thorough seismic conservation assessment and remounting in our conservation studios.” 

According to Enrico Caruso, director of the Parco Archeologico di Morgantina, “Close collaboration with the Getty’s curators and conservators on the examination of the head has allowed us to give a name to the sanctuary shrine where several fragments of its curls of hair were found in 1978, as well as a name to the Getty’s anonymous sculpture. It is Hades, god of morethe Underworld, the terracotta body of which is in the course of an extensive restoration in the Archaeological Museum in Aidone." 

The head will be transferred to the Museo Archeologico in Aidone after it goes on display in the Getty-organized traveling exhibition Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome. The exhibition will be on view at the Getty Villa from April 3 to August 19, 2013, the Cleveland Museum of Art from September 30, 2013 to January 5, 2014, and will end at the Palazzo Ajutamicristo in Palermo from February to June 2014. The head is currently on view at the Getty Villa as part of the special installation The Sanctuaries of Demeter and Persephone at Morgantina until January 21, 2013.