Lot 352. Citrine clip, Suzanne Belperron, 1938. Estimate 5,000 — 7,500 CHF. Lot sold 60,000 CHF. Photo: Sotheby's 2013

The central domed motif, flanked at either side with a double row of collet-set oval citrines, French assay and partial maker's marks. 

Accompanied by a certificate from Olivier Baroin.

Formerly in the collection of the Baroness de Renzis Sonnino

Lot 4. Gold clip, 'Ying & Yang', Suzanne Belperron, circa 1970. Estimate 9,500 — 14,000 CHF. Lot sold 40,000 CHF. Photo: Sotheby's 2013

Formed of lightly hammered gold, French assay and maker's mark for Darde & Fils.

Accompanied by a certificate from Olivier Baroin.

COLLECTION OF JEWELS DESIGNED BY SUZANNE BELPERRON FOR CÉCYLE SIMON

Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels, Genève, 14 mai 2013

Michel Sittow, Mary Rose Tudor (1496–1533), Sister of Henry VIII of England, c. 1514, oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Gemäldegalerie, KHM—Museumsverband

WASHINGTON, DC.- Considered Estonia's greatest Renaissance artist, Michel Sittow (c. 1469–1525) was sought after by the renowned European courts of his day, including those of King Ferdinand of Aragón and Queen Isabella of Castile, Philip the Handsome, Margaret of Austria, and Christian II of Denmark. In celebration of the centennial of the establishment of the Republic of Estonia, Michel Sittow: Estonian Painter at the Courts of Renaissance Europe provides an exceptional opportunity to examine the rare and masterful works attributed to Sittow. The exhibition explores the artist's possible collaboration with Juan de Flandes (1460–1519), his relationship with his Netherlandish contemporaries, and the influence of his likely teacher, Hans Memling (active c. 1465–1494). 

Michel Sittow, the first monographic exhibition of the artist, features some 20 works and brings together most of the artist’s 13 known paintings. The exhibition is on view from January 28 through May 13, 2018, in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and from June 8 through September 16, 2018, at the Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, where it will be on view at the Kumu Art Museum. 

Michel Sittow, A Young Man in a Red Cap, 1490s, oil on panel, overall: 16.4 x 12.9 cm (6 7/16 x 5 1/16 in.), Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Anne and Henry Ford II. Bridgeman Images.

“The first monographic exhibition of Sittow’s work, Michel Sittow: Estonian Painter at the Courts of Renaissance Europe offers an opportunity to celebrate one of the masters of Early Netherlandish art,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, Washington. “We are grateful to our partner, the Art Museum of Estonia, and their team at the Kumu Art Museum, where the exhibition will be on view, as well as to public and private collections in the United States and Europe that have generously lent to this exhibition.” 

Michel Sittow: Estonian Painter at the Courts of Renaissance Europe is the first monographic exhibition devoted to the artist and provides an opportunity for a systematic technical investigation of the works attributed to him. The exhibition includes some 20 paintings from American and European collections, including 13 paintings by Sittow, as well as works by Juan de Flandes, Hans Memling, and Jan Gossaert that provide a context for understanding Sittow's achievement.  

Among the highlights are The Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1500/1504, National Gallery of Art) and The Ascension of Christ (c. 1500/1504, private collection), the only two securely documented works by Sittow. Commissioned by Queen Isabella of Castile, they were among 47 panels of an altarpiece dedicated to the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary. After Isabella's death in 1504, 32 of these panels, including these two and The Temptation of Christ (c. 1500/1504, National Gallery of Art) by Juan de Flandes, entered the collection of Archduchess Margaret of Austria. Depicting Sittow's mastery of color and delicate atmospheric effects, The Assumption of the Virgin has three known copies, and is recognized as an influential source for Joachim Patinir's Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1500–1520, Philadelphia Museum of Art).  

Michel Sittow, The Assumption of the Virgin, c. 1500/1504, oil on panel, painted surface: 21.1 x 16.2 cm (8 5/16 x 6 3/8 in.), overall (panel): 21.3 x 16.7 cm (8 3/8 x 6 9/16 in.), framed: 35.5 x 31.1 cm (14 x 12 1/4 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. 

Michel Sittow, The Ascension of Christ, c. 1500/1504, oil on panel, overall: 21.9 x 16.6 cm (8 5/8 x 6 9/16 in.). Private collection.

Also included is the Portrait of the Danish King Christian II (1514/1515, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen), one of the few works by Sittow that is both firmly dated and in which the sitter’s identity is confirmed; x-rays reveal another portrait, possibly of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, underneath the painting, demonstrating Sittow’s reuse of panels. The exhibition also reunites two panels originally hinged together to form the devotional diptych—Madonna and Child (c. 1515/1518, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin) and Portrait of Diego de Guevara (?) (c. 1515/1518, National Gallery of Art). Other highlights include Portrait of a Man (c. 1510, Mauritshuis, The Hague), as well as two portraits linked to the Tudor court in England: Catherine of Aragon as the Magdalene (c. 1515, Detroit Institute of Arts), and Mary Rose Tudor (1496–1533), Sister of Henry VIII of England (c. 1514, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), previously known as a portrait of Catherine of Aragón, and recently re-identified as the youngest sister of Henry VIII.  

Michel Sittow, Portrait of the Danish King Christian II, 1514/1515, oil on panel, overall: 30.8 x 22.3 cm (12 1/8 x 8 3/4 in.), Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen © SMK Photo

Michel Sittow, Portrait of Diego de Guevara (?), c. 1515/1518, oil on panel, overall: 33.6 x 23.7 cm (13 1/4 x 9 5/16 in.), framed: 54.9 x 46.3 cm (21 5/8 x 18 1/4 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Collection.

Michel Sittow, Madonna and Child, c. 1515/1518, oil on panel, unframed: 33.1 x 25.6 cm (13 1/16 x 10 1/16 in.), framed: 42.9 x 35.4 cm (16 7/8 x 13 15/16 in.), Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Property of Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz Property of Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein. Photo: Jörg P. Anders.

Michel Sittow, Portrait of a Man, c. 1510, oil on panel, overall: 35.9 x 25.8 cm (14 1/8 x 10 3/16 in.). Mauritshuis, The Hague, Purchase made possible by the testamentary disposition of Mr. Volz and with the support of the Rembrandt Association, 1946, Mauritshuis, The Hague. Photo by Margareta Svensson.

Michel Sittow, Catherine of Aragón as the Magdalene, c. 1515, oil on oak panel, overall: 32.1 x 24.6 cm (12 5/8 x 9 11/16 in.), Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund. Bridgeman Images.

Michel Sittow, Mary Rose Tudor (1496-1533), Sister of Henry VIII of England, c. 1514, oil on panel, overall: 29 x 20.5 cm (11 7/16 x 8 1/16 in.), framed: 36 x 27.7 x 5 cm (14 3/16 x 10 7/8 x 1 15/16 in.), Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Gemäldegalerie, KHM - Museumsverband.

Michel Sittow (1469–1525) 
Michel Sittow was born in the Hanseatic port city of Reval, now Tallinn, in Estonia and probably received his earliest training from his father, also a painter and sculptor. Sittow moved to Bruges in 1484 where he presumably apprenticed under Hans Memling, that city’s leading painter. Memling’s influence can be seen in Sittow’s Madonnas and portraits. Sittow did not register as a master with the Bruges guild and his whereabouts are unknown before 1492 when he entered the service of Queen Isabella of Castile, where he was prized as a portrait painter. 

He is known to have collaborated with Juan de Flandes on the series of small panels depicting the lives of Christ and the Virgin for Queen Isabella. He remained in Isabella's service until her death in 1504, but was apparently absent from Spain after late 1502. Suggestions that he visited the courts of Margaret of Austria and Henry VII of England shortly after 1502 remain unsubstantiated, although he was certainly in Brabant at the end of 1505 or early in 1506, working for Duke Philip the Handsome. Sittow returned to Reval in 1506 to settle his inheritance and remained there, receiving membership in the artists' guild late in 1507 and marrying in 1509. He was called away from Reval in 1514 to paint the portrait of Christian II of Denmark, the future husband of Margaret of Austria's niece, Isabella. Sittow then began a second, shorter period of service at the court of Margaret of Austria and her nephew, the future Emperor Charles V, in the Netherlands. This was interrupted by a brief trip to Spain to negotiate the salary still owed him. By July 13, 1518, when he married again, Sittow was back in Reval. He lived there, a prosperous and respected citizen, until his death in late December 1525.

Attributed to Michel Sittow, The Virgin with Child and Apple, 1480s (?), oil on panel, overall: 33.7 x 23.9 cm (13 1/4 x 9 7/16 in.), Szépmüvészetí Múzeum / Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest © Szépmüvészetí Múzeum / Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2017

.

Michel Sittow, Portrait of a Man with a Book, c. 1515, oil on panel, overall: 25 x 16 cm (9 13/16 x 6 5/16 in.), Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), Royal Museum for Fine Arts Antwerp © Lukas-Art in Flanders vzw, photo Rik Klein Gotink.

Michel Sittow, The Portrait of a Man with the Pearl, 1515–1517, oil on panel, overall: 22.4 x 17.8 cm (8 13/16 x 7 in.), framed: 32.5 x 28.5 cm (12 13/16 x 11 1/4 in.). Royal Collection, Patrimonio Nacional, Palacio Real de Madrid © Patrimonio Nacional / photographer Joaquín Cortes.

[Left] Michel Sittow and Workshop, Saint James the Great and the Virgin and Child, c. 1520, oil on panel, overall: 189 x 96 cm (74 7/16 x 37 13/16 in.), Art Museum of Estonia - Niguliste Museum;

[Right] Michel Sittow and Workshop, Saint Adrian and Saint Anthony, c. 1520, oil on panel, overall: 189 x 94 cm (74 7/16 x 37 in.), Art Museum of Estonia - Niguliste Museum.

Michel Sittow, Portrait of a Man with a Rosary, c. 1520, oil on panel, overall: 33.6 x 22.8 cm (13 1/4 x 9 in.), framed: 39 x 28.5 cm (15 3/8 x 11 1/4 in.). Private collection, Courtesy of Het Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

Michel Sittow, Portrait of a Woman, early 16th century, oil on panel, unframed: 22.5 x 15.5 cm (8 7/8 x 6 1/8 in.), framed: 28.8 x 21.7 x 5 cm (11 5/16 x 8 9/16 x 1 15/16 in.), Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Gemäldegalerie, KHM - Museumsverband

Attributed to Michel Sittow, The Nativity at Night, early 16th century, oil on panel (oak), unframed: 38.1 x 30.16 cm (15 x 11 7/8 in.), Upton House, The Bearsted Collection (National Trust), United Kingdom © National Trust

Netherlandish Artist (formerly attributed to Michel Sittow), The Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1500, oil on panel, overall: 24.5 x 18.3 cm (9 5/8 x 7 3/16 in.), Musée du Louvre – Département des Peintures. Photo: Gerard Blot. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

Hans Memling, Portrait of a Man with an Arrow, c. 1470/1475, oil on panel; painted surface: 31.3 x 25.1 cm (12 5/16 x 9 7/8 in.); overall (panel): 31.9 x 25.8 cm (12 9/16 x 10 3/16 in.); framed: 40.2 x 32.7 x 6.4 cm (15 13/16 x 12 7/8 x 2 1/2 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Collection.

Juan de Flandes, The Temptation of Christ, c. 1500/1504, oil on panel, painted surface: 21 x 15.5 cm (8 1/4 x 6 1/8 in.), overall (panel): 21.3 x 16 cm (8 3/8 x 6 5/16 in.), framed: 25.4 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund.

Jan Gossaert, Portrait of a Man, c. 1520/1525, oil on panel, overall: 40 x 27.5 cm (15 3/4 x 10 13/16 in.), framed: 51 x 38 x 7 cm (20 1/16 x 14 15/16 x 2 3/4 in.), Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Gemäldegalerie, KHM - Museumsverband

Lot 190. A blue and white rouleau vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 46cm., 18 1/8 in. Estimate 3,000 — 5,000 GBP. Lot Sold 27,500 GBP. Photo courtesy Sotheby's 2009

the cylindrical body rising from a short spreading foot to a tall ribbed neck with everted galleried mouth, painted around the exterior in rich cobalt-blue tones with figures in a pavilion.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Lot 191. An underglaze blue and red celadon ground yenyen vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 45.2cm., 17 3/4 in. Estimate 4,000 — 6,000 GBP. Lot Sold 5,000 GBP. Photo courtesy Sotheby's 2009

the baluster body rising from a spreading foot to a tall cylindrical neck and flared rim, painted with the 'Eight Horses of Muwang' amongst pine trees and rockwork.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Lot 193. A blue and white moonflask, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795); 24.2cm., 9 1/2 in. Estimate 4,000 — 6,000 GBP. Lot Sold 10,625 GBP. Photo courtesy Sotheby's 2009

the flattened circular body rising from a short spreading foot to a tall trumpet neck flanked by a pair of ruyihandles, moulded in low relief to the front and back face with a peach-shaped panel painted in rich cobalt-blue tones with bats amongst fruiting peach sprays, reserved on a leafy floral scroll ground and similarly decorated to the sides and neck, the foot with a classic-scroll band.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Lot 194. A blue and white soft-paste vase, cong, Qing dynasty, 18th century; 35.5cm., 14in. Estimate 6,000 — 8,000 GBP. Lot Sold 9,375 GBP. Photo courtesy Sotheby's 2009

the square section body moulded to each corner with four square recessed panels enclosing a horizontal rib, reserved on an underglaze blue floral scroll ground, divided by vertical rectangular panels enclosing composite floral scrolls, supported on a short circular foot with a spearhead band, the tapering neck similarly painted with floral diaper and spearhead bands.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Lot 259. A finely painted blue and white bowl and cover, Guangxu mark and period (1875-1908); 27cm., 10 5/8 in. Estimate 3,000 — 5,000 GBP. Lot Sold 3,750 GBP. Photo courtesy Sotheby's 2009

the shallow rounded sides rising from a short tapering foot to an angled flaring rim, the stepped domed cover surmounted by a broad cylindrical knop, finely painted in rich cobalt-blue tones around the body and cover with a large leafy floral spray. Quantity: 2.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

French, 18th century, After the Antique, Bust of Antinous, white marble, on a cippolino marble socle and column; bust: 75cm., 29½in.; socle: 18cm., 7 1/8in.; base: 6.5cm., 6½in.; column: 115cm., 45¼in. Estimate £100,000-150,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s

LONDON.- Artists throughout history have been drawn to the human form. In the second edition of Sotheby’s Erotic: Passion & Desire sale, Pre-Columbian sculpture will be paired with Picasso works on paper; masters of photography from Man Ray to Rankin will be set against 19th century marbles and antique reliefs; Gustav Klimt’s sensual eroticism will jostle with Keith Vaughn’s unrestricted erotic fantasies; each work charting the history of the subject from antiquity to modern day. The exhibition in Sotheby’s New Bond Street galleries, on public view from 7 – 15 February, takes viewers on an art historical journey. Comprising 90 lots with a combined pre-sale low estimate of £3.8 million, this year’s auction will be accompanied by an online sale, presenting an even wider range across continents and centuries. Erotic Art Online will be open for bidding from 2 – 16 February and includes prints, photographs, paintings, sculpture, drawings, Asian works of art and film posters. 

Constantine Frangos, Head of Sale, said: “The story of erotic art is a story from many different times and many different lands, and our second Erotic sale brings together a broad range of artworks and objects which lay bare the history of human sexuality in all its guises. Following the success of last year’s inaugural sale, we’re thrilled to bring together another rich and diverse group, striking in both subject matter and artistic expression.” 

Tania Remoundos, Impressionist & Modern Art Specialist, said: “This auction provides an extraordinary insight into how some of the greatest names in art history engaged with the subject of erotic art. Francis Picabia’s irreverent homage to French wartime glamour magazines is the perfect coverlot for the sale, as the avant-garde artist purposefully sets out to outrage the art establishment with his sun-drenched bathers.” 

Lot 10. Francesco Barzaghi (1839 - 1892), Phryné, 1868, signed and dated: Barzaghi Frañ / 1868, white marble, on a faux marbre, bronze and gilt bronze revolving base; figure: 169cm., 65 3/8 in.; base: 82cm., 32 1/4 in. Estimate £400,000–600,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s

A depiction of the famously beautiful courtesan of fourth century Ancient Greece, Phryné is an exquisite sculpture by Francesco Bazarghi – a leading proponent of the avant-garde Scapigliatura or ‘bohemian’ movement in Milan. Phryné was best known for her trial for impiety before the Athenian judges, where she was accused of the capitol offence of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries. It is said that at the moment of sentencing, her advocate, the orator Hyperides, swept off her clothes – revealing a body so divine-looking that the judges were unable to condemn it to death. It is also thought that she was the model for her lover, the sculptor Praxiteles’ statue of the Aphrodite of Knidos – the first life-sized nude statue of a woman from ancient Greece. 

Lot 15. Francis Picabia (1879 - 1953), Les baigneuses, femmes nues bord de mer, oil on board, 92 by 72.5cm., 29 5/8 by 26 1/3in.. Painted in 1941. Estimate £400,000-600,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s

Picabia was fascinated by the subversive power of eroticism, and in the 1940s his practice took a surprising turn as he began to paint nudes in the style of French glamour magazines. Living in the South of France, his sources included mass-produced erotica, postcards, and photo-novels as he used the traditional medium of oil painting to explore the dichotomy between low and high art. In an exaggerated manner, the artist parodied the ‘high’ genres of allegory, portraiture and mythological scenes. 

Lot 16. Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Homme et femme nus, signed Picasso and dated 29.11.71. III (lower right), brush and ink, wash and pencil on paper, 51 by 66.5cm., 20 by 26 1/8in. Executed on 29th November 1971. Estimate £250,000-350,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s

This work on paper is a powerful example of the extraordinary sensuality and eroticism in Picasso’s late drawing – depicting a woman languorously enclosed within the embrace of a satyr-like male. In Picasso’s works, artistic desire is an extension of an erotic drive, and here the underlying ripples of the struggles and physical hardships facing the ageing painter are given potent expression. 

Lot 37. A Roman Terracotta Plaque with Brothel Scene, circa 1st Century A.D.; 32.5 by 59cm., 12 7/8 by 23 1/4in. Estimate £20,000-30,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s

Testament to how representations of love and sex transcend time, a number of lots stretch back to ancient Rome – asserting the idea that there is no form of modern sexual behaviour that has not already been perfected by our forebears. This ancient Roman plaque is moulded in relief with an apparent narrative unfolding in three scenes from right to left divided by architectural elements, with various encounters between men and women.

One of the most exciting mythological works by Jacopo Amigoni, this magnificent and monumental canvas depicts the Roman goddess of love embracing Adonis – passionately gazing into his eyes and imploring him not to leave on the hunting trip where he would die. By using gentle emotion rather than drama to define the narrative, he has created his most tender and beguiling depiction of the myth. The graceful painting focuses on the carnal relationship between the two protagonists, the lovers physically intertwined in the centre of the canvas. This sensual work was originally part of a pendant pair created during the artist’s English sojourn, its partner now hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In the 1730s, Amigoni found an avid audience in the various courts of Europe, which had developed a taste for the charm of the Venetian Rococo – becoming one of the foremost and highly sought after decorative artists of his generation. 

French, 18th century, After the Antique, Bust of Antinous, white marble, on a cippolino marble socle and column; bust: 75cm., 29½in.; socle: 18cm., 7 1/8in.; base: 6.5cm., 6½in.; column: 115cm., 45¼in.Estimate £100,000-150,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s. 

This rare and superbly carved marble bust depicts Antinous, the male lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who has been celebrated throughout history for his good looks, and has subsequently become a symbol of same sex love. It combines the allure of the biographical portrait with an idealised classical representation of male beauty. In Rome, there was no clear distinction between heterosexual and homosexual love, and the relationship between Antinous and Hadrian – between a younger and an older man – would not have been unusual in Roman society. Antinous was in Hadrian’s retinue by A.D. 130, but their story took a tragic turn when Antinous mysteriously drowned in the Nile at the tender age of 19, plunging the Emperor into prolonged mourning for his favourite. The effect of Antinous’ death on Hadrian was profound – he established a city in Egypt, Antinoopolis, in the Grecian youth’s honour, and even encouraged his veneration as a god. 

Exuding a timeless eroticism, this iconic image was taken during a two hour shoot when Kinski was at the height of her career and Avedon was already a world renowned fashion photographer. Intertwined with a boa constrictor, grappling with temptation, seduction and power, Kinski is clearly referencing deeply rooted concepts in classical art and mythology, most notoriously the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent that tricked Eve to take an apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Commissioned for Vogue, the only fashion emblem present is the Patricia von Musulin bracelet which the editor of Vogue at the time noted she regretted including within the photograph. 

Lot 14. Tracey Emin, R.A. (B.1963), How I Think I Feel, acrylic on canvas, 64.4 by 81.1cm. 25 3/8 by 31 7/8in. Executed in 2007. Estimate £50,000-70,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s 

Powerfully intimate and revealing, How I Think I Feel was one of a small selection of canvases chosen to represent Great Britain at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Not only a striking and sensuous image, it is also a deeply personal and moving insight into Emin’s own psyche. The artist brilliantly employs her draughtsmanship to great effect; urgent brushstrokes delineate a female body to create an image which turns viewer into voyeur. 

Playboy Entertainment for Men Issue #1, [December 1953] (est. £3,000-5,000) 
The most iconic and recognisable first issue of any magazine ever, the inaugural issue of Playboy was published by Hugh Hefner in December 1953. The first issue is not dated, as Hefner was unsure there would be second. 50,000 copies immediately sold (for the price of 50¢ each) and Playboy was born. 

This alluringly provocative painting is exceptionally rare in British art of the 17th century – possibly the only fully nude portrait of a noblewoman painted in England in that century. Though its existence has been known, it is only sparsely documented in the literature and is not thought to have been seen in public since its original creation. Neither simply an allegorical representation of Venus nor an anonymous nude, the picture astonishes for the fact that it is a portrait. ‘The beautiful Lady Cullen’, Elizabeth Trentham, Viscountess Cullen (1640-1713) was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Catherine and a celebrated Restoration Court beauty of equivocal reputation – notorious for her physical charm, her extravagance and her immorality. The Restoration Court of King Charles II, and his brother the Duke of York (later James II), was notoriously licentious, though even by the standards of Restoration England, the painting is exceptional in its overt eroticism. 

Known for his audacious experiments and provocative techniques, Yves Klein produced a series of beautifully poetic and intense works in his trademark ultramarine pigment, International Klein Blue. 

The Sluggard is one of the iconic masterpieces of 19th-century British sculpture, its languid pose capturing the essence of male beauty and the masculine ideal. The subject was inspired when Leighton’s muscular male model, Giuseppe Valone, began slowly stretching after a long sitting. He rapidly captured the pose in clay, which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1886. Originally titled ‘Athlete awakening from sleeping’, The Sluggard was conceived as the pendant to the artist’s earlier masterpiece, ‘An Athlete struggling with a Python’, exhibited at the RA in 1877

VENICE.- The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is presenting the exhibition Marino Marini. Visual Passions, curated by Barbara Cinelli and Flavio Fergonzi with the collaboration of Chiara Fabi. This is the first retrospective dedicated to Marino Marini. The show intends to contextualize Marini’s work in a broader art historical context. More than 70 works are exhibited in the temporary exhibition galleries as well as in the museum’s Project Rooms and the adjoining veranda. Marino Marini. Visual Passions has been overseen by a scientific committee comprised of the curators and Philip Rylands, Salvatore Settis, Carlo Sisi and Maria Teresa Tosi. 

The intimate galleries of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the exhibition’s second venue after Palazzo Fabroni in Pistoia, allow an unprecedented, concentrated and close examination of more than fifty sculptures by Marino Marini. These are exhibited together with twenty additional works ranging from antiquity to the 20th century which lend comparison to Marini’s work. The exhibition allows for an intensive dialogue between Marini’s sculptures and those from the Italian plastic tradition which interested the artist—the great models of the 20th century and important examples of the sculptural tradition from past centuries: Egyptian, ancient Greek and Etruscan antiquities, Medieval, Renaissance and 19th-century sculpture which have never before been exhibited at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni. Such dialogue offers a new and critically innovative point of view on the themes addressed by Marini, moving beyond the limits of chronology, styles and periods. Following Marini’s artistic production from the 1920s to the 1950s, each room displays aspects of this dialogue.  

Marino Marini, Popolo, 1929. Terracotta, 66 x 109 x 47 cm. Museo del Novecento-Coll. Marino Marini, Milano. © Comune di Milano – tutti i diritti di legge riservati.

In the first two rooms early heads and busts are flanked by Etruscan heads and canopies, an ancient Greek head from Selinunte and a Renaissance bust by Andrea Verrocchio; while People, a terracotta work from 1929 which marked a decisive turning point, is exhibited together with the cover of an important Etruscan burial urn. Toward the middle of the 1930s, Marini focused on the subject of the male nude and produced a series of statues destined to leave a mark on European sculpture, as evidenced by the comparison between two great wooden works of his and two significant sculptures on the same theme by Arturo Martini and Giacomo Manzù. During those years and the years to follow, Marini expanded his subjects. Three of his masterpieces—Icarus, a Rider and a Miracle—are reunited in a subsequent room and testify to the surprising range of languages and styles with which Marini, at the height of his expressive abilities, put himself to the test. 

The exhibition continues with a room dedicated to the “Pomonas” and female nudes that Marini created based on an original and modern reworking of post-Rodin classicism. Marini transformed the female body into an abstract form. His nudes are exhibited together with those of Ernesto De Fiori and Aristide Maillol. Some of Marini’s drawings give testimony to the phases of the plastic invention of the female nude; drawing was a medium especially dear to him.  

Marino Marini, Pomona, 1945. Long term loan to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. Courtesy Fondazione Marino Marini, Pistoia. © Marino Marini, by SIAE 2018

Marino Marini, Pomona, 1947. Fondazione Marino Marini, Pistoia. © Marino Marini, by SIAE 2018

Around 1940, while most Italian and European sculptors appear to abandon the lessons of Auguste Rodin, Marini revisited them and began a new season of research that led to confronting the existential form of Germaine Richier. Two small rooms present these comparisons. They are particularly important because in the war years, while exiled in Switzerland, Marini seemed to veer toward a dramatic plastic expressionism. In the post-war years, Marini investigated the theme of the “Horse and Rider” in more abstract forms and created an important body of works, displayed in the following three rooms. These are Marini’s most significant and successful works, they were sought after by international collectors and were decisive in establishing Marini’s prominent position within contemporary figurative sculpture. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection’s notable piece, The Angel of the City (1948), is one of the most iconic works in the collection and is still exhibited where Peggy Guggenheim decided to place it, between the gates of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni overlooking the Grand Canal. Peggy Guggenheim bought the plaster version of The Angel of the City in 1948 and the following year Marini cast the sculpture in bronze, in time to be exhibited in the Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition, curated and organized by Peggy herself in the garden of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni.  

Marino Marini, The Pilgrim (St. James), 1939. Private collection, Milan. © Marino Marini, by SIAE 2018

Marino Marini, The angel of the city , 1948 (fusion of 1950?), Bronze, 175 x 176 x 106 cm. Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. © Marino Marini, by SIAE 2018

The exhibition continues with a gallery dedicated to portraits. Marini reinvented the meaning of sculptural portraiture. Drawing from the past, specifically Egyptian art, he pursued pure monumental volume while at the same time paying close attention to the personality of the subject. A comparison between two Portraits of America Vitali, one by Marini and one by his contemporary Giacomo Manzù, highlight the polarities of sculptural portraiture in Italy before the war. After the war Marini invented a new language for the expressive rendition of the human face. This language looked at Cubist decompositions and Expressionist deformations and made him the greatest portrait-sculptor of the century. 

After 1950 the subject of the unseated “Rider” was the occasion for a purely spatial research. As shown in the last room dedicated to the famous “Miracles", the subject became almost unrecognizable. The series of “Jugglers” is exhibited next to Etruscan bronzes and works by Henry Moore, while the small and large “Warriors” and the “Reclining Figures” of the 1950s and 1960s are compared with the Tuscan tradition of Giovanni Pisano and the more experimental solutions by Pablo Picasso.

Marino Marini, Pugile, 1935. Musée National d'art moderne–Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. © Marino Marini, by SIAE 2018.

Henry Moore, Three Standing Figures, 1953 . Bronze, 73.2 x 68 x 29 cm, including base. Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice 76.2553 PG 194. Reproduced by permission of the Henry Moore Foundation

Lot 405. A large famille verte dish, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 51cm., 20 1/8 in. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 GBP. Lot sold 80,450 GBP. Photo Sotheby's 2009.

elaborately painted to the interior with ladies on horseback in a fenced garden with pine trees and prunus, with three officials watching from a balcony.

Provenance: Sir John Hussey-Delaval, Lord Delaval (1728-1808), thence by descent.

Lot 406. A large famille verte dish, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 51cm., 20 1/8 in. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 GBP. Lot sold 73,250 GBP. Photo Sotheby's 2009.

elaborately painted to the interior in mirror-symmetric counterpart to the previous lot.

Provenance: Sir John Hussey-Delaval, Lord Delaval (1728-1808), thence by descent.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Lot 207. A pair of 'famille-verte' coral ground bowls, Qing dynasty; 19.2cm., 7 5/8 in. Estimate 8,000 — 12,000 GBP. Lot sold 13,750 GBP. Photo Sotheby's 2009.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Lot 26. A 'famille-verte' jar and cover, Guangxu mark and period (1875-1908); 38.5 cm., 15 1/4 in. Estimate 8,000 — 12,000 GBP. Lot sold 10,625 GBP. Photo Sotheby's 2009.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Lot 256. A gilt-decorated blue ground bottle vase, Guangxu mark and period (1875-1908); 38.5cm., 15 1/8 in. Estimate 6,000 — 8,000 GBP. Lot sold 8,125 GBP. Photo Sotheby's 2009.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Lot 257. A gilt powder-blue-ground vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 25.3cm., 9 7/8 in. Estimate 3,000 — 5,000 GBP. Lot sold 3,750 GBP. Photo Sotheby's 2009.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Lot 260. A rare 'faux-bois' and marbled brushpot, Qing dynasty; 16cm., 6 1/4 in. Estimate 3,000 — 5,000 GBP. Lot sold 6,250 GBP. Photo Sotheby's 2009.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 04 Nov 2009

Watchtower, China, Dynasty of the Eastern Han, 25-220 AD. H 57 cm. © Eric Pouillot 

Terracotta with green lead glaze representing a tower and its moat, adorned with a turtle, a frog, ducks and a fish. It has two floors defended by four crossbowmen.

Fat lady on her horse, China, Tang Dynasty, 618-907 AD, 8th century. Terracotta with three colours called Sancaï, blue, cream and amber. H 35.5 cm. © Eric Pouillot 

Fat court ladies, China, Tang Dynasty, 618-907 AD, 8th century. Terracotta salmon under slipware with important traces of pigments and flowers. H 37.5 cm. © Eric Pouillot 

Eric Pouillot at BRAFA, 27 Jan - 4 Feb 2018, Stand 26c. 8 Rue de BeauneFR-75007 Paris. t +33 (0)1 40 20 02 14 - m +33 (0)6 07 03 50 24 - ericpouillot@gmail.com - www.eric-pouillot.fr

August: Reaping Wheat, “Da Costa Hours,” Belgium, Ghent, ca. 1515, illuminated by Simon Bening, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.399, fol. 9v, purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1910. Image courtesy of Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz/ Austria.

NEW YORK, NY.- Before the appearance of the clock in the West around the year 1300, medieval ideas about time were simultaneously simple and complex. Time was both finite for routine daily activities and unending for the afterlife; the day was divided into a fixed set of hours, whereas the year was made up of two overlapping systems of annual holy feasts. Perhaps unexpectedly, many of these concepts continue to influence the way we understand time, seasons, and holidays into the twenty-first century. 

Drawing upon the Morgan’s rich collection of illuminated manuscripts, Now and Forever: The Art of Medieval Time explores how people in the Middle Ages told time, conceptualized history, and conceived of the afterlife. It brings together more than fifty-five calendars, Bibles, chronicles, histories, and a sixty-foot genealogical scroll. They include depictions of monthly labors, the marking of holy days and periods, and fantastical illustrations of the hereafter. The exhibition opened January 26 and continues through April 29. 

“Artists of the medieval period could render the most common of daily activities with transcendent beauty, while also creating a strange, often frightening, afterlife,” said Colin B. Bailey, director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “Their work mirrored the era’s intricate mix of temporal, spiritual, and ancient methods for recording the passage of time. The elaborate prayer books, calendars, and other items in the exhibition provide a rich visual history of a world at once familiar and foreign, from the seasonal work of farmers that would not look unusual in today’s almanacs, to apocalyptic visions of eternity that make Hollywood’s futuristic films appear tame.” 

The Exhibition 
The show is divided into five sections focusing on the medieval calendar, liturgical time, historical time, the hereafter (“time after time”), and the San Zeno Astrolabe. 

I. The Medieval Calendar 
Medieval calendars told time in two ways: through the ancient Roman calendar that Julius Caesar had reformed in 45 B.C. and by the feast (usually a saint’s day) celebrated on the day. They appear odd to modern eyes because they lack our sequential numbering; all medieval calendars were perpetual. But they also contained much useful data. Golden Numbers tracking the year’s new moons and Dominical Letters (A through G) tracking Sundays were both used to determine the date of Easter. Calendars also noted each month’s unlucky days and added astronomical information such as the beginning of the summer’s Dog Days.  

In the Calendar of Ravenna, each month was gorgeously illustrated by its zodiacal sign—the constellation with its composite stars. Not simply aesthetically pleasing, this calendar also tracked the positions of the sun and the moon.  

In addition to the signs of the zodiac, calendars often depicted the labors of each month—for instance, August was dedicated to reaping wheat. By the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, this sole secular element within prayer books was given more focus. In fact, illuminator Simon Bening painted the labors on the folios of the Da Costa Hours as large full-page illustrations.  

August: Reaping Wheat, “Da Costa Hours,” Belgium, Ghent, ca. 1515, illuminated by Simon Bening, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.399, fol. 9v, purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1910. Image courtesy of Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz/ Austria.

II. Liturgical Time 
During this period, Europeans used the canonical hours to tell daily time. The medieval day was marked by eight hours, which the Church sanctified with prayer. The day began in the middle of the night (matins and lauds) and proceeded through the course of the day (beginning at sunrise with prime). The day ended in the evening (compline). The prayers became synonymous with the particular times they were recited. Books of Hours enabled laypeople to imitate the clergy and pray throughout the course of the day. A jewel-like Book of Hours illuminated by French Renaissance artist Jean Fouquet will be open to the Visitation, a scene marking the nighttime hour of lauds.  

Canonical Hour of Lauds (Visitation), “Hours of Antoine Raguier and Jean Robertet,” France, Tours, ca. 1460–65, and Bourges, ca. 1465–70, illuminated for Antoine Raguier by Jean Fouquet and completed for Jean Robertet by Jean Colombe, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.834, fol. 40, purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1950.

Two overlapping systems were used to structure the year: the temporale and the sanctorale. The temporale consisted largely of feasts celebrating events from the life of Christ. Some feasts had fixed dates, like Christmas; others were movable, like Easter. Feasts of the sanctorale were generally saints’ days, commemorating the days upon which the saints died and entered heaven.  

Canonical Hour of Matins (Annunciation), Book of Hours, Italy, Florence, 1490s, illuminated for a member of the Pitti-Taddei de’ Gaddi family by Attavante degli Attavanti, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.14, fols. 19v-20r, purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1902.

Remnants of medieval timekeeping survive today. The medieval vigil, the commencement of an important feast on the evening before, has become today’s eve, such as Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. In The Berthold Sacramentary, a miniature marks Palm Sunday, when the inhabitants of Jerusalem laid cloaks and palms in Christ’s path as he entered the city. Distributing blessed palms on Palm Sunday is a medieval practice that continues to this day. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day all come from the medieval way of keeping time as well.  

Entry in Jerusalem, “Berthold Sacramentary,” Germany, Weingarten, 1215–17, illuminated for Abbot Berthold of Weingarten by the Master of the Berthold Sacramentary, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.710, fol. 37v, purchased by J. P. Morgan, Jr., 1926.

III. Historical Time 
In the Middle Ages, the Bible was both the word of God and the early history of man. It was believed that the Hebrew Bible (the Christians’ Old Testament) chronicled actual ancient events, even if they had occurred long ago. The New Testament related the life and death of Christ and mentioned at times historic figures with known dates. In the sixth century, a new system of dating events was devised: years were described as A.D. or Anno Domini (In the Year of Our Lord), based on the presumed birthdate of Christ. 

Coronation of David; Fall of Troy; Aeneas, Priam, Turcus, and Helenus Set Sail for Europe, from the Chronique anonyme universelle, Northern France, 1473–83, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.1157, detail from section 11, Melvin R. Seiden Collection, 2007.

According to medieval tradition, ancient Troy marked the start of European civil history. When the city fell, the defeated but heroic Trojans sailed off and founded such major European cities as Rome, Paris, and London. The medieval belief that Troy itself was founded by descendants of Noah provided a seamless link between the people and events chronicled in the Bible and the Trojans, the forebears for all of Europe.  

An anonymous compiler covered the six thousand years of history that began with Adam and Eve and concluded with fifteenth-century France as the world’s superpower in a sixty-foot scroll, the centerpiece of the exhibition. With sixty-six miniatures, it is the most fully illustrated copy of this universal chronicle known to exist. Outlining the history of the world from Creation to the reign of King Louis XI of France, it depicts five lines of descent: 1) the popes; 2) the Holy Roman Emperors; and 3) the kings of France, England, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. 

Saul as a Lesson in Kingship, Boccaccio, Cas des nobles hommes et femmes malheureux, France, Tours(?), ca. 1480, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS G.35, fol. 41v, gift of the Trustees of the William S. Glazer Collection, 1984.

V. Time after Time 
Obsessed with the “Four Last Things” (death, judgment, heaven, and hell), people in the Middle Ages believed that time on earth was but a fleeting moment compared to the endlessness of the hereafter. Of those lucky enough to merit heaven, only martyrs or the truly holy might get there immediately after death. The rest detoured through purgatory, a place of temporary punishment, which could mean, however, thousands of years.  

Punishment in hell was imagined to be painful and fiery. In The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, the entrance of hell was depicted as a gaping lion’s mouth opening its batlike lips tipped with talons. Through it, demons cast damned souls. Meanwhile, burning towers heat cauldrons into which mutilated bodies are pitched.  

Hell, “Hours of Catherine of Cleves,” The Netherlands, Utrecht, ca. 1440, illuminated for Catherine of Cleves, duchess of Guelders, by the Master of Catherine of Cleves, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.917/945, III, fol. 168v. Purchased on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund and through the generosity of the Fellows, 1963 and 1970.

The Apocalypse dominated the imagination of what the end of time held in store for humanity. Illustrators of medieval manuscripts portrayed the Beast of the Apocalypse as having seven heads with ten horns and the body of a leopard with bear’s feet, which would make war on the faithful on earth. A False Prophet would order the people of the earth to worship this beast--and also cause great wonders, such as drawing fire from heaven.  

V. San Zeno Astrolabe 
For hundreds of years, an astrolabe hung in the Benedictine abbey of San Zeno in Verona. This extraordinary movable calendar is the only object of its type to survive from the Middle Ages—and is the only loan to the show. For every day of the year, the astrolabe’s three dials were rotated by hand to give a wide-ranging set of information: the date in Arabic numerals, the date according to the ancient Roman calendar, the feast to be celebrated, the zodiacal constellation, the hours of darkness and light, and the age of the moon. In doing so, it helped monks organize their devotional lives.

San Zeno Astrolabe, Italy, Verona, ca. 1455, illuminated for the Abbey of San Zeno by an anonymous Lombard artist, private collection of Michael Stone. Image courtesy of Map & Atlas Museum of La Jolla, Michael Stone, Founder.

Lot 270. A fine archaic bronze ritual food vessel, liding, Late Shang dynasty (c. 1600 BC–c. 1046 BC); height 8 1/4 in., 21 cm. Estimate 50,000 — 70,000. Lot sold 116,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's 2010

standing on three cylindrical legs with steeply rounded sides divided into three lobes, each lobe cast in raised relief with a taotie mask formed from raised bosses for eyes and hooked scrolls accented with intaglio lines reserved on a fine leiwen ground, the lipped rim with two upright loop handles of rectangular section.

Provenance: Old Japanese Collection.