Titian (c. 1488/90–1576), Portrait of a Young Man, detail, ca. 1510. Oil on poplar, 20 x 17 cm, Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum © Städel Museum – ARTOTHEK

FRANKFURT.- The Städel Museum is devoting a major special exhibition to one of the most momentous chapters in the history of European art: Venetian painting of the Renaissance. Entitled “Titian and the Renaissance in Venice”, the show unites more than a hundred masterpieces – In the early sixteenth century, artists of the “City of Water” developed an independent strain of the Renaissance relying on purely painterly means and the impact of light and colour. One of their most important exponents was Titian (ca. 1488/90–1576), who would hold the key position in the Venetian art scene all his life. The Frankfurt show assembles more than twenty examples by Titian alone – and thus the most extensive selection of his works ever before on display in Germany. It also presents paintings and drawings by Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1435–1516), Jacopo Palma il Vecchio (1479/80–1528), Sebastiano del Piombo (ca. 1485–1547), Lorenzo Lotto (ca. 1480– 1556/57), Jacopo Tintoretto (ca. 1518/19–1594), Jacopo Bassano (ca. 1510–1592), Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) and others. 

These works offer comprehensive insights into the artistic and thematic breadth of the Renaissance in Venice and elucidate why artists of later centuries looked back to the art of this time and place again and again for orientation. The exhibition introduces selected aspects of Venetian cinquecento painting in eight sections: for example its atmospherically charged landscape depictions, its ideal likenesses of beautiful women (the so-called “belle donne”), or the importance of colour. The thematically oriented chapters together form a systematic panorama of the extensive material. Apart from the Venetian holdings in the Städel collection – including, Titian’s Portrait of a Young Man (ca. 1510) – the show brings together superb loans from more than sixty national and international museums. 

Titian (c. 1488/90–1576), Portrait of a Young Man, ca. 1510. Oil on poplar, 20 x 17 cm, Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum © Städel Museum – ARTOTHEK

“This powerful theme – an art-historical classic – has recently come more strongly into focus in German museums. It gives us great pleasure to be able to present such a comprehensive, thematically structured panorama of Venetian painting of the Renaissance for the first time ever in Germany here in Frankfurt”, comments Städel director Philipp Demandt. 

Titian’s contemporaries, for example Sebastiano del Piombo or Lorenzo Lotto, were soon spreading the innovations beyond the watery confines of Venice as well. The 1540s saw the emergence of a new generation of highly gifted artists, among them Jacopo Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Bassano, who now likewise competed for commissions. It was Titian, however, who set the standards for his rivals and admirers alike. “Hardly any epoch of art history has known such continual reception. And within that context, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese have been accorded the admiration otherwise reserved solely for Michelangelo and Raphael”, exhibition curator Bastian Eclercy emphasizes.  

A Tour of the Exhibition 
The exhibition begins by taking visitors on a representative tour of sixteenth-century Venice. In the giant woodcut View of Venice (1498–1500; Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum) based on a design by Jacopo de’ Barbari and published by Anton Kolb, the unusual bird’s-eye perspective provides an astoundingly precise impression of the “Serenissima’s” unique topography. 

The prominently placed, large-scale Rest on the Flight into Egypt (ca. 1572; Sarasota, FL, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) by Paolo Veronese ushers visitors directly into the first section of the show, introducing a typically Venetian variation on the depiction of the Madonna, a dominant theme in Italy. In its painterly execution, this exotic altarpiece is considered a magnum opus of the Venetian Renaissance; it also marks both the end and the culmination of the development of a pictorial genre known as the “Sacra Conversazione” (“sacred conversation”). Over the course of the sixteenth century, the motif had been invested with ever greater vividness and interaction between the figures. And particularly in Venice, the traditional subject of the Virgin and Child was often expanded to include further protagonists. 

Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1572. Oil on canvas, 236,2 x 161,3 cm. Bequest of John Ringling, 1936, © Collection of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL, the State Art Museum of Florida, Florida State University

From depictions of the Virgin Mary set in luxurious landscapes, the focus shifts to the genre of landscape painting proper – one of the great achievements of the Venetian Renaissance. Even if it is initially still linked with a figural narrative, landscape now takes centre stage as a signifier of mood. This chapter of the exhibition highlights both the lyrical natural sceneries by the early Titian and the dramatically charged ones by such artists as Veronese or Bassano. Over time, these works would come to serve as the foundation for the establishment of the landscape as a genre in its own right. Especially in their mythological compositions, the painters breathed new life into the idea of Arcadia romanticized by the poets of antiquity as an ideal environment. 

At this juncture, the exhibition rooms open onto an architecture traversed by arcades. Artistic compositions inspired by poetry – already alluded to in the previous section – are featured here as an independent genre. Sixteenth-century Venetian painters of mythological scenes were no longer content with merely illustrating the literary material, but now laid claim to equal rights in the poetic license of invention. Among the examples representing this development are Titian’s Boy with Dogs in a Landscape (ca. 1570–76; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) and Veronese’s Cupid with Two Dogs (ca. 1580; Munich, Alte Pinakothek), which bears a resemblance to the Titian work. Both paintings have continued to defy interpretation to this day.

Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), Cupid with Two Dogs, c. 1580. Oil on canvas, 100 x 134 cm, München, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek ©bpk|Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen

The final section of this first part of the exhibition is like a return to reality – but only at first sight. That is because true-to-life likenesses of women were rare in Venice, whereas “ideal portraits” of beautiful ladies were quite common. Even if they are often classified as portrait paintings, the “belle donne” depicted in these works were presumably not real persons, but poetic ideals of feminine beauty. Within the context of this exhibition, a new interpretation of Sebastiano del Piombo’s fascinating Woman in Blue with Incense Burner (ca. 1510/11; Washington, National Gallery of Art) has led to its identification as an early example of this genre. It exhibits the typical features of the ideal of beauty prevailing in the period in question: a roundish face, voluptuous lips, an enigmatic gaze and dark blond hair. An excursus in this section, based on the costume book De gli habiti antichi et moderni di diverse parti del mondo (1590; Of Ancient and Modern Dress of Diverse Parts of the World) by Cesare Vecellio, a cousin of Titian’s, is devoted to contemporary fashions in Venice and beyond.  

Sebastiano del Piombo (1485–1547), Woman in Blue with Incense Burner, c. 1510/11. Oil on panel transferred to hardboard, 54,7 x 47,5 cm, Washington, National Gallery of Art © Samuel H. Kress Collection

Now the tour continues on the first floor of the exhibition annex. Taking its starting point in the Frankfurt portrait of a young man from Titian’s early period, this chapter explores how the Venetian male portrait came to flourish in the cinquecento – and to exert a lasting influence on European portrait painting. Characteristic examples here are the portraits of casually elegant young men in black, for example by Titian or Tintoretto, based on Baldassare Castiglione‘s Libro del cortegiano (1528; The Book of the Courtier). Yet expensively dressed wearers of ermine and portraits of the doges – the chief magistrates of the Republic of Venice – also contributed to shaping the image of the era. At the centre of the room, visitors encounter three depictions of men in splendid armour. The special degree of mastery such paintings required of their makers is evident, for example, in Sebastiano del Piombo‘s Man in Armour (ca. 1511/12; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art) or Titian’s Portrait of Alfonso d’Avalos (ca. 1533; Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum). With their depictions of the gleaming metallic surfaces, the artists achieved a highly realistic impression of light. 

Titian (c.1488/90–1576), Portrait of Alfonso d’Avalos with Page, circa 1533. Oil on canvas, 110 x 80 cm, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum © Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program

Colour and effects – Unlike the painting of Florence and Rome, which was based more strongly on drawing, the Venetian Renaissance is distinguished above all by the art of colour, called “colorito”. The fact that Venice was a centre of the paint trade will surely have played a role in this phenomenon. The Venetian palette ranged from berry red to gloomy black, from chiaroscuro to brilliant polychromy. Whereas the Florentines favoured smooth, porcelain-like surfaces, the Venetians often left the brushstroke clearly visible as a testimony to the act of painting.  

The second-to-last chapter of the show takes a look at the reception of Florentine art in the Venetian cinquecento. It was particularly the depiction of muscular male nudes as perfected by Michelangelo that impressed the Venetians in the art of Florence. Nude males such as Titian’s Frankfurt Study of St Sebastian (ca. 1520) and his St John the Baptist (ca. 1530–33; Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia), or Tintoretto’s St Jerome (ca. 1571/72; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) bear witness to an indepth artistic study of the great Florentine master’s work and to a reciprocal influence.  

The final section of the exhibition features a number of works representing the long history of its influence. Many of the most prominent artists have schooled themselves on this powerfully colourful painting and exported it – in the case of El Greco, for example, to Spain. The great French painters of the nineteenth century, for instance Théodore Géricault, were likewise among those to learn from Titian and Veronese. And most recently, Thomas Struth made the contemporary musealization of Venetian painting the subject of his photographs, reversing the relationship in the process: in his pictures, the viewers of pictures are now themselves viewed. In this case by the visitors of the Frankfurt Städel.

2/13–5/26/2019

Bartolomeo Veneto (mentioned 1502-1530), Ideal Portrait of a Young Woman as Flora , c. 1520 (?).Oil on poplar, 43,6 x 34,6 cm, Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum © Städel Museum – ARTOTHEK

Titian (c. 1488/90–1576), Portrait of Doge Francesco Venier, 1554 - 56. Oil on canvas, 113 x 99 cm, Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid.

Jacopo Palma il Vecchio (1479/80–1528), Young Woman in a Blue Dress with Fan, c. 1512–14. Oil on poplar, 63,5 x 51 cm, Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie © KHM-Museumsverband

Jacopo Palma il Vecchio (1479/80–1528), Two Reposing Nymphs, c. 1510–15. Oil on poplar, 98,3 x 152,4 cm,Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum © Städel Museum – ARTOTHEK

Titian (c. 1488/90–1576), Madonna and Child, St Catherine and a Shepherd (the “Madonna of the Rabbit”), c. 1530. Oil on canvas, 71 x 87 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures© bpk / RMN - Grand Palais / Michèle Bellot.

Titian (c. 1488/90–1576), Portrait of Clarice Strozzi, 1542. Oil on canvas, 121,7 x 104,6 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie © bpk / Gemäldegalerie, SMB / Christoph Schmidt.

Titian (c. 1488/90–1576), Noli me Tangere, ca. 1514. Oil on canvas, 110,5 x 91,9 cm,London, The National Gallery © The National Gallery, London. Bequeathed by Samuel Rogers, 1856

Lot 807. A rare and finely carved red lacquer mallet-form vase, China, Ming dynasty, 15th-16th century; 6 ¼ in. (15.9 cm.) high. Estimate: USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Carved all over with a graceful and dense design of overlapping peony blossoms and leaves below a band of lingzhi scroll encircling the mouth, the interior and base lacquered black, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Yanagi Takashi, Kyoto, 1993.
The Irving Collection, no. 3840.

A Rare Peony-Carved Red Lacquer Mallet-Form Vase
A Marriage of Form and Design 

This rare vase is a fine example of the centuries-old tradition in the Chinese applied arts of artisans working in one medium looking to other media and periods for inspiration. In the case of the present vase, a Song-Yuan dynasty Longquan celadon shape, the “mallet” vase, has been appropriated for the medium of carved lacquer. 

The "mallet" form, which takes its name from the wooden beater used in fulling cloth, first appears in Longquan celadon wares of Southern Song dynasty date (1127-1279). Most vases of Longquan celadon "mallet" type have a pair of either phoenix or dragon-fish (yulong)-form handles flanking the columnar neck, but a small number without handles exists, such as the vase from the Qing Court collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 33 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 112, no. 100. Another was sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 26 November 2018, lot 8007. Both of these vases exhibit the best features of these Longquan celadon vases, a glaze that is thick and translucent with a texture reminiscent of jade, and a lack of any decoration that would detract from the elegance of the shape and glaze.  

On the present vase, this refined, simple shape has been transformed, not only by being made in lacquer but by having the body carved all over with flower scroll, a decorative motif popular during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, thirteenth-sixteenth centuries, on wares of different media, including blue and white porcelain, cloisonné enamel and carved lacquer. The floral decoration on carved lacquers is more densely arranged than on the contemporaneous porcelain and enamel wares, where there tends to be more visible background. Although most of the lacquer pieces of this date carved with flowers are dishes, there are a few vessels of a different shape. One of these is a zhadou carved with composite flower scroll, dated Yuan dynasty, and signed by Yang Mao, thought to have worked in the late Yuan and early Ming period, in the Qing Court collection, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 45 - Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, pp. 4-5, pl. 2. Also illustrated, pl. 22, is a Yongle (1403-1425)-marked bowl and cover carved with flowers. Another vase, of bottle shape, carved around the bulbous body with flower scroll between petal borders and below a bamboo-ribbed, cylindrical neck, inscribed with a Xuande (1426-1435) mark over a partly erased Yongle mark, is in the British Museum, and illustrated by Derek Clifford in Chinese Carved Lacquer, London, 1992, pp. 34-35, pl. 20.  

Few other carved red lacquer vases of this "mallet" shape appear to have been made. Those that have been published appear to fall into two categories. On the first type, a plain, narrow band separates the flower scroll on the body from that on the neck. Two vases of this type have been published, and on each the decoration is of composite flowers, with a fretwork band encircling the outside of the mouth rim. One of these vases is the well-known example with Yongle mark in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors: Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, pp. 24-25, no. 7. (Fig. 1) The other, also with an incised Yongle mark, and dated early Ming dynasty, 15th century, from the collection of Mrs. M. Legrand (1883-1978), was sold at Christie's, London, 10 May 2016, lot 1.   

Fig. 1 Carved red lacquerware Mallet-shaped vase with floral décor, Ming dynasty, Yongle reign (1403-1424). Diameter at base: 9.2cm Height: 16.3cm. © The Collection of National Palace Museum.

Cf. my post: Carved red lacquerware Mallet-shaped vase with floral décor, Ming dynasty, Yongle reign (1403-1424) 

From the collection of Mrs. M. Legrand (1883-1978). A very rare cinnabar lacquer 'mallet' vase, early Ming dynasty, 15th century; 6 ¼ in. (16 cm.) high. Sold for 698,500 GBP at Christie's, London, 10 May 2016, lot 1. © Christie's Image Ltd 2016

Cf. my post: A very rare cinnabar lacquer 'mallet' vase, early Ming dynasty, 15th century

The Irving lacquer vase is of the second type with the floral decoration continuing from the body onto the neck. One of these, with Xuande mark, which is carved with a similar design of continuous leafy peony decoration, is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors, pp. 44-45, no. 26, where, based on the style of the carving, it is dated to the sixteenth century. The outer mouth rim of this vase is carved with a fretwork band rather than the lingzhi scroll seen on the present vase. The other vase of this second type, which does have the band of lingzhi scroll on the outer mouth rim, is represented by the example in the Museum of Lacquer Art, Münster, Germany, and illustrated by Clifford, ibid., Chinese Carved Lacquer, pp. 34-35, pl. 19. However, rather than only peony decoration, the flowers represent those of the four seasons. The shape of this second type of lacquer mallet-form vase is also slightly different from the first type, in that the body is subtly more rounded, especially at the foot, and the neck is slightly broader. 

Christie's. Lacquer, Jade, Bronze, Ink: The Irving Collection Evening Sale, New York, 20 March 2019

Lot 808. A carved red and black lacquer octagonal box and cover, China, Ming dynasty, Jiajing six-character incised and gilt mark and of the period (1522-1566); 8 1/8 in. (20.6 cm.) wide. Estimate: USD 70,000 - USD 90,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

The cover carved with a five-clawed dragon leaping amidst clouds below a shoumedallion in the center of two interlocking square panels enclosing various auspicious symbols, the sloping sides of the box and cover carved with panels of further five-clawed dragons, and the vertical sides with lingzhi scrolls, the gilt-highlighted reign mark incised in a line in the center of the black-lacquered base.

Provenance: Klaus F. Naumann, Tokyo, 1991.
The Irving Collection, no. 3805.

Note: The choice of decoration on this box is reflective of the Jiajing emperor's keen interest in Daoism and the attainment of immortality, and as such makes use of symbols with Daoist connections. The imperial five-clawed dragon is here shown below a shou (longevity) character carved in simplified seal script. The two are surrounded by various motifs, the Eight Treasures, and on the vertical sides are panels of lingzhi scroll that symbolize immortality. Similar decoration can be seen on a circular covered box, also of Jiajing date, included in the exhibition catalogue, Dragon and Phoenix: Chinese Lacquer Ware, the Lee Family Collection, Tokyo, The Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, 24 March - 24 June 1990, no. 59, subsequently sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2096, where the dragon is shown leaping below a similarly carved shou character and the sloping sides of the cover and box are carved with auspicious symbols supported on lingzhi scroll. 

Lot 809. A rare and finely carved red lacquer Daoist scripture box and cover, China, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795); 13 ½ in. (33.9 cm.) high. Estimate: USD 150,000 - USD 250,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019. 

The sliding cover finely carved through the red lacquer layers to the ochre ground with an intricate scene of an assembly of Daoist immortals, each narrow side carved with a five-clawed dragon pursuing a flaming pearl amidst clouds above a rock formation emerging from crashing waves, the motif repeated on the back where the two dragons flank a central rectangular panel enclosing the partially effaced reign mark, which would have read Da Qing Qianlong nian jing zhi (made with reverence in the Qianlong reign of the Great Qing dynasty) executed in raised characters, all above a waisted rectangular base carved with lotus petals. 

Provenance: Spink & Son, Ltd., London, 1982.
The Irving Collection, no. 835.

A Rare Imperial Red Lacquer Box to Store a Daoist Scripture 

This rare scripture box belongs to a group of similar carved red lacquer boxes that were made during the Qianlong period to store Daoist and Buddhist scriptures. Although the Qianlong emperor was a devotee of Tibetan Buddhism, he followed the tradition of the Qing court in supporting Daoism, as well. During his reign, and that of the other Qing emperors, he participated in annual Daoist rituals and festivities, and elaborate Daoist celebrations were held around his birthday. This fluid boundary between Daoism and Buddhism that had evolved during the centuries since the introduction of Buddhism to China, when Daoism was already well established, also resulted in the intermingling of Buddhist and Daoist imagery, Whether made to store Daoist or Buddhist scriptures, all of the published lacquer scripture boxes of this type are finely carved with similar densely populated assemblies of either Daoist or Buddhist celestial beings. 

The Irving box appears to depict Wenchang, the Daoist god of Literature and Culture, seated holding a hu tablet on a throne at the top. The assembly includes gods dressed as officials holding hu tablets, intermixed with other gods holding discs of the Twelve Animals of the Zodiac, some figures with dragon, bird or animal heads, guardian figures and a central figure of Marshal Wang (Wang Yuanshuai) standing on a flaming wheel. A lacquer box with related decoration of an assembly of Daoist celestial beings, also with a seven-character Qianlong mark, as well as the scripture that it held, the Huangtingjing (Scripture of the Yellow Court), is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in China: The Three Emperors 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, p. 153, no. 60. The catalogue entry notes that the scripture book consists of two volumes with brocade covers and a brocade-covered slipcase that would have been kept in the carved red lacquer box. The back of the box has an inscription, Da Qing Qianlong nian jing zao (Made with reverence in the Qianlong era of the Great Qing). The catalogue entry further notes that the Huantingjing was a fourth-century Chinese meditational text that "encompasses several layers of doctrines and practices in the Daoist cosmology," and that the "duplication of scriptures was considered a meritorious practice in both Buddhism and Daoism." The copy in the Palace Museum collection was executed in the ninth year of the Qianlong emperor's reign (1744), reflecting the "Emperor's interest in Daoist self-cultivation practices." 

Two other lacquer boxes of this shape carved with Buddhist assemblies have been published. One formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Palmer, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is illustrated by R. Soame Jenyns and William Watson, Chinese Art II, New York, 1980 ed., pp. 220-21, no. 47. This box has very similar dragon panels on the narrow sides and a Qianlong mark in green and red lacquer that translates as "Reverently offered to the emperor Qianlong," on the back. The box is described as being decorated with Buddhist saints and defenders presided over by Maitreya, the Buddha-to-come. The authors propose that boxes of this type were used to hold spirit tablets inscribed with the deceased's name and were kept in an ancestral temple. The Palmer box is also published by Michel Beurdeley, The Chinese Collector through the Centuries, Vermont/Tokyo, 1966, p. 235, no. 76. The second box, sold at Sotheby's, Paris, 22 June 2017, lot 122, dated to the Qianlong period, does not have a mark and the dragons on the narrow sides are shown amidst dense clouds. The celestial assembly on this box, like the Palmer box, is identified as being overseen by Maitreya. 

Lacquer box for a spirit tablet, China, Qing dynasty, Qianlong mark and period (1736-95). Height: 34.5 cm, Width: 17.5 cm base, Depth: 8.8 cm base. Given by the Museums and Galleries Commission, from the estate of the late Mrs L. F. Palmer, FE.55-1983. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

A very rare superbly carved cinnabar lacquer 'Soul tablet' box and cover, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795) ; 14 1/2  in. Sold for 571,500 € at Sotheby's, Paris, 22 June 2017, lot 122. Photo: Sotheby's. 

Cf. my post: Jades imperiaux de la collection Monsieur et Madame Djahanguir Riahi, le 22 juin chez Sotheby’s à Paris

A related carved red lacquer box, of almost square shape and somewhat smaller size (28 cm. high), decorated on the front and the sides with similar scenes of celestial beings, in this instance Budddhist, from the Qing Court collection, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 46 - Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 38, pl. 24, where it is described as a sutra container. The Qianlong mark is in a panel in the center of the carved top.

Patricia Curtin
Consultant, Christie’s

Christie's. Lacquer, Jade, Bronze, Ink: The Irving Collection Evening Sale, New York, 20 March 2019

Lot 55. Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), Concetto spaziale, Attese, signed, titled and inscribed Questo quadro è stato finito un sabato mattina on the reverse, waterpaint on canvas, 81 by 65 cm. 31 7/8 by 25 1/2 in. Executed in 1966. Estimate 2,800,000 — 3,200,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

Provenance: Galleria Carlevaro, Genoa 
Sandra Menconi, Turin (acquired from the above in 1966) 
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1980 

Literature: Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures, Sculptures et Environements Spatieux, Vol. II, Brussels 1974, p. 185, no. 66 T 61, illustrated 
Enrico Crispolti,  Fontana: Catalogo Generale, Vol. II, Milan 1986, p. 640, no. 66 T 61, illustrated 
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, Vol. II, Milan 2006, p. 836, no. 66 T 61, illustrated.

Lot 31. Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), Concetto spaziale, New York 8, signed, lacerations and scratches on brass, 62.5 by 62.5 cm. 24 1/2 by 24 1/2 in. Executed in 1962. Executed in 1966. Estimate 1,400,000 — 1,800,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

Provenance: Galleria dell'Ariete, Milan
Collection Attilio Codognato, Venice
Private Collection, Turin
Galleria La Bussola, Turin
Zaira and Marsel Mis, Brussels 
Sotheby's, Paris, Collection Mis, 24 October 2012, Lot 27 (consigned by the above)
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner. 

Literature: Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogue raisonné, Vol. II, Brussels 1974, p. 123, no. 62 ME 5, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo generale, Vol. II, Milan 1986, p. 410 and p. 416, no. 62 ME 5, illustrated in colour
Jean-Louis Ferrier, 'Exposition. Fontana. Centre George Pompidou', Le Point, October 1987, n.p., (text)
Anon., 'Fontana ne previent pas', VSD Paris, October 1987, n.p., illustrated 
Anon., 'Fontana: L'ambigüité du geste', Vogue, Paris, October 1987, n.p., (text)
Daniel Soutif, 'Fontana, grand spatialiste de l'art', Libération, November 1987, n.p., illustrated
Anon., 'Fontana, l'homme de l'espace' Maison Française, Paris, December 1987, no. 412, n.p., illustrated
Giorgio Soavi, 'Il maestro della lama', AD, 1996, pp. 52-54, no. 204, illustrated in colour
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, Tomo II, Milan 2006, p. 597, no. 62 ME 5, illustrated in colour
Barbara Hess, Lucio Fontana 1899-1968: Un fait nouveau en sculpture, Cologne 2006, p. 66, illustrated in colour.

Lot 57. Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), Il Guerriero, signed on the back, polychrome ceramic, sculpture: 107 by 47 by 40 cm. 42 by 18 1/2 by 15 7/8 in. Executed in 1949. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

Provenance: Gino Lizzola, Milan
Galleria Beniamino, San Remo
Alberto Galimberti, Milan
Galleria Arte Borgogna, Milan
Claude Berri, Paris
Thence by descent to the present owner. 

Installation view of the current exhibition Lucio Fontana: On the Threshold at The Met Bruer, New York, held between January - April 2019. Image: © 2019. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. Artwork: © Lucio Fontana/SIAE/DACS, London 2019

Literature: Giulio Bolaffi, Ed., Catalogo Nazionale Bolaffi della Scultura n.3, Turin 1979, p. 119, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Fontana: Catalogo Generale, Vol. I, Milan 1986, p. 94, no. 49 SC 9, illustrated 
Holland Cotter, ‘Fontana’s Post-Dada Operatics’, Art in America, March 1987, p. 81, illustrated in colour
Exh. Cat., Villa Merkel, Galerie der Stadt Esslingen, ZERO Italien: Azimut/Azimuth 1956/60 in Mailand und heute; Castellani, Dadamaiano, Fontana, Manzoni und italienische Künstler im Umkreis, 1995, p. 104, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, Vol. I, Milan 2006, p. 216, no. 49 SC 9, illustrated.

Detail of an important Charles II silver tazza made in London in 1683; Diameter: 42cm, Height 12cm. Asking price in the region of £225,000. © Koopman Rare Art

LONDON.- The highly historic and impressive silver-gilt shield, which bears the Royal Arms of Ernst Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover (1771-1851), will take centre stage on the stand of Koopman Rare Art at TEFAF Maastricht 2019. It is described by Lewis Smith, Director of Koopman Rare Art as “the most spectacular example of Regency silver of all time” and has an asking price in the region of £5 million. 

Alongside the Shield of Achilles, Koopman Rare Art is showing an exceptionally rare group of early antique silver dating from pre 1700. These include the following:  

An important Charles II silver tazza made in London in 1683; Diameter: 42cm, Height 12cm. Asking price in the region of £225,000. © Koopman Rare Art

The centre of this highly ornate tazza is elaborately embossed with a scene of Alexander the Great meeting King Poros of India, while the broad rim has finely wrought scenes depicting Venus, Iris, Pluto, and Neptune in landscape. The round, domed foot bears similarly fine elaborate decoration of garlands of fruit between three oval reserves with amoretti. The maker’s marks are WF, thought to be that of William Fowle. A tazza by the same maker is in the so-called Calverley toilette service, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 

A large Elizabeth I ‘Armada’ dish. Asking price in the region of £160,000. © Koopman Rare Art

Made in London in 1586, this dish is a rare surviving example of the kind of functional, secular plate found listed in late 16th and early 17th century inventories. It is of a similar design to the dishes in the unique set, now known as the ‘Armada Service’, which was purchased in 1992 by the British Museum. Of plain circular form, with a moulded lip and raised centre, it bears the maker’s makr of three trefoils slipped. Although the name of the goldsmith whose mark was 'three trefoils slipped' has been lost, a number of significant examples of silver and silver-gilt bearing this mark have survived. Incredibly plain but striking, dishes like these tended to be melted down when money was required. This must have been made for an important, wealthy household. It measures 42cm in diameter. 

Lot 774. A finely carved white and russet jade archaistic plaque, 18th century; 3 5/8 in. (9.3 cm.) wide. Estimate USD 20,000 - USD 30,000. Price realised USD 50,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014

The plaque is finely carved in openwork on the convex top, which retains areas of russet skin in the white stone, with two chilong confronting each other as they crawl amidst scrolling stems of lingzhi above a plaque on the underside that is carved in the shape of a sword guard with C-scroll decoration. 

Provenance: Albert Young, Philadephia
Dr. Peter M. Greiner (1940-2013) Collection.

Note: Dr. Peter M. Greiner (1940-2013) was a lifelong collector and student of Chinese art. His passion for collecting was sparked by his father, William Greiner, who worked for the French government in Asia in the first half of the 20th century, where Peter was born and spent his early childhood. His family moved to the United States, where Dr. Greiner attended medical school and became a successful surgeon, while continuing to pursue his passion for fine Chinese works of art over nearly fifty years, meticulously amassing a broad collection of Chinese works of art. Dr. Greiner further pursued his studies of Chinese art at the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned his master's degree. He taught Chinese art history as a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University and was a guest curator for numerous museum exhibitions, where he displayed some select pieces from his personal collection. Dr. Greiner was honored to present several times at the International Symposium on Ancient Ceramics in Shanghai, organized by the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics. Over the decades, as Dr. Greiner thoughtfully compiled his collection, he continued to greatly cherish those pieces passed down to him by his father. It gave him great pleasure to watch his collection gradually expand from its beginnings in Asia. The collection reflects his life-long love of art, and the individual works offered in this sale represent a small but significant portion of Dr. Peter Greiner's collection.

 Lot 775. A small yellow and russet jade figure of a recumbent hen, Ming dynasty, 16th-17th century; 2 7/8 in. (7.3 cm.) long. Estimate USD 12,000 - USD 18,000. Price realised USD 68,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014

The plump bird is seated with legs tucked under the body and head turned to the side, and the feathers are well detailed. The stone is of soft yellow color and has areas of pale russet color and russet veins.  

Lot 781. A small white jade rectangularbox and cover, 18th century; 2¼ in. (5.7 cm.) wide. Estimate USD 10,000 - USD 15,000. Price realised USD 75,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014  

The cover is delicately carved in low relief in the center of the top with a flower head within an outer ruyi border, and on the canted shoulder with a ruyi-scroll band. The box is raised on bracket supports. The semi-translucent stone is of even tone with a russet vein, and is finely polished, wood stand.     

Lot 813. A rare gilt-bronze standing figure of an Acuoye Guanyin, China, Yunnan, Dali Kingdom, 12th century; 18 in. (45.7 cm.) high, 18 in. (45.7 cm.) high. Estimate USD 2,000,000 - USD 3,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

The tall, slender figure shown standing with right hand raised in vitarkamudra and left held in varadamudra, the long hair drawn up into a tall coiffure (jatamukuta) bound by a band and elaborately dressed in twisted cords falling in loops around and flanking a central seated image of Amitabha Buddha and falling to the shoulders behind the earring-hung ears, wearing a jeweled necklace and arm bands and a floret-decorated belt worn above the waist and the top of the dhoti secured by a knotted sash, the upper back with a rectangular opening and the back of the upper legs with a square casting patch, lacquered softwood base.

Provenance: Private Collection, United States, acquired in Tokyo in 1946.
The property of a gentleman; Christie’s New York, 6 November 1980, lot 209. 
Robert H. Ellsworth, New York.
The Irving Collection, no. 1949.

Literature: Ann Ray Martin, "American Mandarin," Connoisseur, November 1984, p. 101.

The “Luck of Yunnan” 
Standing Bodhisattva Acuoye Avalokiteshvara 

Termed the “Luck of Yunnan” by American scholar Helen Burwell Chapin (1892–1950), sculptures of this type represent the Bodhisattva Acuoye Guanyin and were produced in the twelfth century in the Dali Kingdom (AD 937–1253), an independent state in southwestern China that was coeval with China’s Song dynasty (AD 907–1279) and more or less congruent with present-day Yunnan province.  

The comparatively large image of a seated Buddha Amitabha at the base of the figure’s high topknot of hair identifies this sculpture as the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion, known formally in Chinese as Guanshiyin Pusa and informally as Guanyin. Considered a spiritual emanation of Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara is the only bodhisattva in whose crown or headdress Amitabha appears, and thus Amitabha’s presence here definitively identifies this figure as Avalokiteshvara.  

Standing upright with his weight evenly distributed on both legs, the bodhisattva holds his left hand in the varadamudra, or gift-giving gesture, in which the hand is lowered, palm outward. (A ritual hand gesture, a mudra symbolizes a particular action, power, or attitude of a deity.) He holds his right hand, raised to chest height, in the vitarka mudra, in which the tips of thumb and index finger touch to form a circle; this mudraemblemizes both intellectual discussion and the transmission of the Buddha’s teachings. Together, the combination of vitarka and varada mudras indicates that the bodhisattva is preaching. 

The Chinese term for this type of Guanyin image, “Acuoye Guanyin”, first appeared in the Nanzhao tuzhuan, a long, illustrated handscroll depicting the history of the Nanzhao Kingdom now in the collection of the Fujii Yurinkan, Kyoto. The scroll, dated by inscription to AD 898, represents the prophecy made by an Indian monk, which predicted the rise to power of the Meng family and the casting of a bronze Acuoye Guanyin modeled on the monk’s mental vision. The Indian monk, who demonstrated various supernatural deeds, was actually a manifestation of Acuoye Guanyin. This leads to one theory that the name “Acuoye” is a transliteration of the Sanskrit term acharya, which means “preceptor”. (See Gong Jiwen, ‘A Fine Arts Anthropology Study on Avalokitesvara Iconography in Kingdom of Nanzhao-Dali’, Ph.D. diss., Yunnan University, 2017, pp. 1 and 156). Other scholars have suggested that the name “Acuoye” may be a transliteration of the Sanskrit term ajaya, which means “all victorious”. Invested with miraculous powers, the sculpture was adopted by the Meng family as its tutelary deity and witnessed the family’s rise to royal status and fostered the establishment of the Nanzhao Kingdom (738–937), which controlled Yunnan during the eighth and ninth centuries. From 937 onward, the same region, by then controlled by the Duan family, became known as the Dali Kingdom (AD 937–1253). While the Chinese emperor based his legitimacy on the Mandate of Heaven, the Yunnan monarchs grounded theirs on the will of Guanyin. The possession of a special image, a palladium in the form of the Acuoye Guanyin, thus conferred legitimacy on the ruler. In that context, a tutelary deity called ajaya, or “all victorious”, stood as an appropriate reference for an icon associated with members of a ruling family. (Adapted from Denise Patry Leidy, Donna Strahan, et al., Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010, pp. 136-38, no. 32.)

Fashioned in gold and backed by an elaborate, openwork mandorla, the eighth- or ninth-century Acuoye Guanyin discovered in 1978 inside the Qianxun Pagoda at the Chongsheng Temple, Dali, Yunnan province, is both the earliest and the most prominent example of the tutelary deity of the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms. (see: Leidy and Strahan, Wisdom Embodied, p. 136, fig. 99) This effigy of Guanyin, which was replicated through successive dynasties, is the model from which derive the several related twelfth-century sculptures including the present example. (See Angela F. Howard, “Buddhist Monuments of Yunnan: Eclectic Art of a Frontier Kingdom” in Maxwell Hearn and Judith G. Smith, eds., Arts of Song and Yuan: Papers Prepared for an International Symposium, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996, pp. 231-45)  

This figure’s slender body, elongated proportions, and distinctive facial features are typical of Dali-Kingdom sculptures, as are the torque, the long earrings that rest on the shoulders, and the arrangement of the hair in an Indian-style jatamukuta. Those features not only distinguish such images from sculptures produced in Song-dynasty China but closely link them to sculptures created in India and Southeast Asia. In fact, the slender body, clinging drapery, and fashioning of the hair in a jatamukuta find parallels in such Buddhist and Hindu sculptures from Indonesia as three seventh-to-ninth-century bronzes in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 2004.556, 1987.142.160, and 1987.218.15. Apart from possible relationships with Indonesian sculptures, elements of the Acuoye Guanyin bear a striking resemblance to those of a ninth-century, sheet gold and electrum sculpture of an Avalokiteshvara from Champa now in the collection of the Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore (See https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/the-new-ancient-religions-gallery-at-the-asian-civilisations-museum-singapore). To wit, the matted hair piled high on the head and bound together with cords in a jatamukuta, the proportionally large image of the Buddha Amitabha set at the base of the jatamukuta, the slender body with a torque embellishing the neck, the scarf tied at either hip and looping below the waist, and the subtle drapery folds that delicately flow over the legs all suggest possible influence from Champa, in present-day central Vietnam, on the sculpture of the Dali Kingdom. (See Albert Lutz and Angela Falco Howard, Der Goldschatz der drei Pagoden: Buddhistische Kunst des Nanzhao- und Dali-Konigreichs in Yunnan, China, 1st ed., Zurich: Museum Rietberg, 1991, pp. 68-74) 

Standing Four-Armed Shiva, Indonesia, 8th–9th century. Gilt bronze, H. 11 in. (27.9 cm); W. 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm). Gift of Nancy Wiener, 2004. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 

Standing Bodhisattva on Tall Base, Indonesia (Java), 9th century. Bronze, H. 5 9/16 in. (14.1 cm). Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Gift of Samuel Eilenberg, 1987. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya or Manjushri(?), Indonesia (Sumatra), late 7th–early 9th century. Bronze. H. 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm); W. 2 3/4 in. (7 cm); D. 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm), Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Ex Coll.: Columbia University, Purchase, Pfeiffer Fund, 1987. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The 88.22-carat, D Colour, Flawless, Type Ila Oval Brilliant Diamond. Estimate HK$88-100 million / US$11.2-12.7 million. Courtesy Sotheby's

Hong Kong– Prized by kings and queens for centuries and across civilisations, coveted by tycoons and moguls of the 20th century, exceptional large diamonds have become the ultimate collectibles for modern day connoisseurs. This spring, a spectacular 88.22-carat, D Colour, Flawless, Type Ila, oval brilliant diamond, perfect according to every critical criterion, will lead Sotheby’s Hong Kong Sale of Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite on 2 April 2019 (est. HK$88 - 100 million / US$11.2 - 12.7 million). This is one of only three oval diamonds of over 50 carats to appear at auction in living memory, and the largest to be auctioned in over five years**.

Patti Wong, Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, said: “When you think that one ton of mined earth yields less than a carat of diamond, and that high quality diamonds over 10 carats are a rarity, the discovery of a 242-carat rough, of gem quality and exceptional size, is nothing short of a miracle. The perfect 88.22-carat diamond is a summary of everything: a wonder of nature, a masterpiece resulting from man’s ability to shape the hardest material on earth into an object of ultimate beauty and the most concentrated form of wealth, as stated by Pliny the Elder almost 2000 years ago. Sotheby’s Hong Kong has had the privilege to bring to the market some of the most important colourless diamonds in the past decade and we look forward to presenting this treasure to the world. ”

Describing the stone, David Bennett, Worldwide Chairman, International Jewellery Division, said: “For those who have had the chance to see the diamond, one adjective comes back: “breath-taking”. Barely any diamonds of this weight are known to possess the same exceptional qualities of purity and perfection as this remarkable stone which is so full of fire and blinding brilliance.”

A Perfect Stone

Perfect according to every critical criterion, the diamond has achieved the highest rankings under each of the standards by which the quality of a stone is judged (‘the four Cs’). The diamond is D colour (the highest grade for a white diamond); of exceptional clarity (it is completely flawless, both internally and externally), and has excellent cut, polish and symmetry.

As with the Koh-i-noor diamond (also oval) and the Cullinan I, which are part of the British Crown Jewels, the stone belongs to the rare subgroup comprising less than 2% of all gem diamonds, known as Type IIa*. Diamonds in this group are the most chemically pure type of diamond and often have exceptional optical transparency.

A Masterpiece of Nature, brought to Life by Human Hand

Finding a rough diamond that allows the cutter to fashion a stone of over 80 carats is a true and very rare discovery. The 242-carat rough stone which yielded the diamond was discovered in Botswana in the mine of Jwaneng, a mine owned in partnership by De Beers and the government of Botswana and known for producing roughs of the highest quality.

Following its discovery, the rough was cut and polished over a period of intense months to produce a symmetrical and striking oval brilliant diamond. Given the elongated shape of the rough the oval shape was chosen to preserve the greatest amount of weight. Great skill and precision was needed to cut a stone of this importance - a level of expertise and craftsmanship possessed by only a small handful of cutters in the world.

88 – A Lucky Number

A symbol of perfection and eternity, often associated with prosperity, the number eight is considered a lucky number in China and other Asian cultures. The Chinese pronunciation of 8 (bā), similar to that of 發 (fā) meaning wealth or fortune, is welcomed as a blessing of affluence. In its duality - 88 – it is believed to bring good wishes in abundance. There is also a visual resemblance between 88 and 囍 (literally: "double joy"), a popular decorative design composed of two stylized characters 喜 ("joy").

The Spectacular 88.22-Carat Oval Diamond. Courtesy Sotheby's

The Market for Exceptional Large White diamonds

Sotheby’s has been at the forefront of selling notable white diamonds of impressive size and superb quality (see list below). The appearance of the 88.22-carat diamond follows a series of landmark sales for ultra-rare white diamonds last year. In April 2018, a private collector acquired - through Sotheby’s Diamonds, a retail boutique specialising in the world’s finest diamonds - an extraordinarily rare 102.34-carat white diamond - the only known round brilliant diamond over 100 carats to have achieved perfection by all critical criteria: colour, clarity, cut & carat.

A month later, in a Geneva auction, two highly impressive white diamonds, also D Colour Flawless and Type IIa - a 51.71-carat round diamond and a 50.39-carat oval diamond - sold above their high estimate for US$9.3 million and US$8.1 million respectively.

Lot 58. Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), Concetto spaziale, signed, waterpaint and pencil on canvas, 60.3 by 73.7 cm. 23 3/4 by 29 in. Executed in 1968. Estimate £450,000 - £650,000. Courtesy Sotheby's

Provenance: Brerarte, Milan, 27 May 1985, Lot 57 
Private Collection, Milan 
Sperone Westwater, New York 
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2005.

Exhibited: Lugano, Galleria Pro Arte , Lucio Fontana: Concetti Spaziali, October - November 1984, p. 15, no. 5 (text) 
Tokyo, Fuji Television Gallery, Lucio Fontana, March 1986, n.p., no. 28, illustrated.

Literature: Enrico Crispolti, Fontana: Catalogo Generale, Vol. II, Milan 1986, p. 514, no. 68 B 15, illustrated 
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, Vol. II, Milan 2006, p. 705, no. 68 B 15, illustrated.

Note: “The discovery of the cosmos is that of a new dimension, it is the infinite: thus I pierce this canvas, which is the basis of all arts and I have created an infinite dimension, an x which for me is the basis for all contemporary art."

Lucio Fontana cited in: Exh. Cat., New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Lucio Fontana, Venice/ New York, 2006, p. 19

Executed in the final year of Lucio Fontana’s life, Concetto spaziale encapsulates the Italian artist’s painterly explorations into the mysterious dimensions of the cosmos. A series of small holes perforates the white, monochromatic expanse of the painting, hinting at a dark abyss of enigmatic space beyond the picture plane. Appearing like a constellation of stars, these holes, or buchi, signify one of the great hallmarks of Fontana’s distinctive visual language. In the present work, they are arranged in structured rows within the confines of an oval outlined in pencil. Fontana began working on this cycle of paintings in 1949, and the buchi continued to preoccupy him for the rest of his prolific career. Stemming from one of the most profound periods of his spatial investigations, the buchi represent both a physical and metaphorical manifestation of the infinitude of the universe. As the artist proclaimed in 1963: “I am seeking to represent the void. Humanity, accepting the idea of Infinity has already accepted the idea of Nothingness. And today Nothingness is a mathematical formula” (Lucio Fontana in conversation with Nerino Minuzzo in: l’Europeo, No. 949, Milan 1963). 

Lucio Fontana in his studio, Milan, 1960. Image: © Photo Ugo Mulas © Ugo Mulas Heirs. All rights reserved. Artwork: © Lucio Fontana/SIAE/DACS, London 2019

By the time Concetto spaziale was painted in 1968, the world had seen a spate of rapid advancements in science and technology. Indeed, over the course of Fontana’s lifetime, Albert Einstein would publish his ground-breaking Theory of Relativity, the first artificial satellite would be sent soaring above the Earth’s atmosphere, and, in 1961, the Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin would become the first human being to journey into the cosmic depths of outer space. Fontana’s practice was deeply influenced by these radical developments in space travel, and the oval form in the present work seems to evoke Gagarin’s orbiting trajectory. Discovering and investigating the great unknown realms of the universe was at once an exhilarating and disturbing prospect for Fontana, and his abstract buchi paintings seek to capture something of this simultaneous sense of euphoria and existential angst. The serenity of the pure white surface is juxtaposed by the violent sequence of holes which perforate the canvas, instilling the work with an intrinsic duality which leaves the viewer “alone in the face of everything, curious about everything, on the edge of everything” (Enrico Crispolti, Ed., Fontana, Milan 1999, p. 14). Placed within the central organic shape, the punctures lead the eye hypnotically across the canvas, forcefully opening its surface up to a multi-dimensional play of light and shadow, space and depth.

Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, La Fine di Dio, 1963. Artwork: © Lucio Fontana/SIAE/DACS, London 2019.

Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), Concetto spaziale, Attesa, signed, titled and inscribed Ciao Mariolina on the reverse, waterpaint on canvas, 35.5 by 27.6 cm. 14 by 10 7/8 in. Executed in 1964-65. Estimate £350,000 - £450,000. Courtesy Sotheby's

Provenance: Provenance: Galerie Rasmussen, Paris 
Private Collection, France (acquired from the above in 1972) 
Sotheby’s, Milan, 25 November 2003, Lot 243 (consigned by the above) 
Galleria Seno, Milan (acquired from the above sale)  
Gladstone Gallery, New York  
Acquired from the above by Marc Jacobs in February 2006.

Literature: Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, Tomo II, Milan 2006, no. 64-65 T 70, p. 743, illustrated.

Note: Embracing the scientific breakthroughs of his day, and challenging the Euro-American status quo that had formed around Art Informel and Abstract Expressionism, Lucio Fontana’s 1964-65 Concetto spaziale, Attesa is an exceptional example of the Italian artist’s period-defining Tagli (cuts) series. Executed in white, the present work expresses the apogee of Fontana’s conceptual endeavor; instrumentalising the advancing field of cosmic exploration, Fontana sought to synthesise a newfound spatiality with the intimate phenomenology of the artistic gesture. What he produced was a paradigm shift in Modernist art practice – a radical incising of the flat picture plane that had been so championed by Jackson Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg. In the present work, Fontana’s artistic project is illustrated with magnificent asceticism – a single cut bisecting a pristine white canvas.

The Spatialist movement, which was initiated in 1947 by Fontana, clearly identified its affinity with science in their ‘Second Spatial Art Manifesto’: “we refuse to think that art and science are two separate things... the artists anticipate scientific gestures, and scientific gestures always stimulate artistic gestures” (Lucio Fontana, ‘Second Spatial Art Manifesto’ in Guido Ballo, Ed., L. Fontana: Idea per un ritratto, New York 1970, p. 206). As the materiality of the gleaming white ground opens onto the depths of the negative space beyond the canvas, Concetto spaziale, Attesa demonstrates with poetic modesty, the theoretical symmetry that Fontana’s investigation of planar space had to the immense advances in cosmic flight that were being pioneered in the 1950s and 1960s. The tension of the monochrome surfaces in the artist’s Concetti spaziali – pierced by Fontana’s virtuosic choreography with a sharp blade, then backed with black gauze – placed painting in dialogue with three-dimensional space. Situating it within the frame of the canvas, Fontana incorporates space as a tactile medium through which he exercises a process of mark-making, or space-creation.

Lucio Fontana cited in: Exh. Cat., New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Lucio Fontana: Venice/New York, 2006, p. 23. 

This radical shift in process defined a seminal break from the New York school, and anointed Fontana as the doyen of European avant-gardism of the period. The artist’s Concetti spaziali emerged at the height of American Abstract Expressionist dominance; Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko and Franz Kline stood at the forefront of advances in contemporary painting in the 1950s. Greenbergian formalism – which affirmed the flat picture plane and the reduction of media to their specific qualities – posed a challenge to Fontana. The vandalistic trace of the artist’s slashes across the canvas, instead, demythologised the artist-gesture, representing painting as a process of mechanical reproduction. Fontana and Pollock have this in common: a gestural performativity that is made automatic through 'pouring' or 'cutting'. It was this new syntax of painterly expression that both great artists pioneered in the middle decades of the Twentieth Century, and what places them at the apex of the Modernist arc.

What materialises in Concetto spaziale, Attesa is an exemplary work that describes, with elegant candor, the lifelong project of Spatialist aesthetics that Fontana dedicated his artistic practice to. In her 1958 work, ‘The Human Condition’, the philosopher Hannah Arendt writes: “For some time now, a great many scientific endeavors have been directed... toward cutting the last tie through which even man belongs among the children of nature” (Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, Chicago 1958, p. 2). Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, Attesa breaks the cultural skin that keeps the animal void at bay; the bright white silence of the tensile surface of the canvas evinces a meditative repose, broken only by the piercing infinity of Fontana’s incision.

Lot 813. A large Longquan celadon carved bowl, Ming dynasty, 15th-16th century; 10 3/8 in. (26.4 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 25,000. Price realised USD 50,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014

The heavily-potted bowl has deep, rounded sides, and is incised in the center of the interior with a chrysanthemum medallion below a band of lotus scrolls in the well. The exterior is similarly carved with further lotus scrolls above a band of key fret on the foot. The bowl is covered allover with a glaze of olive-green tone, except for the unglazed foot rim and an unglazed ring on the base. 

Property from the Collection of Douglas Dean Telfer.

Lot 55. Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), Concetto spaziale, Attese, signed, titled and inscribed Questo quadro è stato finito un sabato mattina on the reverse, waterpaint on canvas, 81 by 65 cm. 31 7/8 by 25 1/2 in. Executed in 1966. Estimate 2,800,000 — 3,200,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

Provenance: Galleria Carlevaro, Genoa 
Sandra Menconi, Turin (acquired from the above in 1966) 
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1980 

Literature: Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures, Sculptures et Environements Spatieux, Vol. II, Brussels 1974, p. 185, no. 66 T 61, illustrated 
Enrico Crispolti,  Fontana: Catalogo Generale, Vol. II, Milan 1986, p. 640, no. 66 T 61, illustrated 
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, Vol. II, Milan 2006, p. 836, no. 66 T 61, illustrated.

Lot 817. A white glazed bowl, Ming dynasty, 16th century; 13½ in. (34.5 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 25,000. Price realised USD 18,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014.

The unusually large bowl has deep rounded sides raised on a slightly tapered foot and is covered overall with a glaze of milk-white color, box.

Provenance: The Richard Eakins Collection, Washington, 2007.
The Dr. Brooks Cofield Collection, Oregon, 2013.

Lot 820. A blue and white dish, Wanli six-character mark within a double circle and of the period (1573-1619); 6½ in. (16.5 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 5,000 - USD 7,000. Price realised USD 6,250. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014.

The interior is decorated in rich shades of cobalt blue with a central medallion enclosing a seated scholar and his attendants below a pine tree, all below a band of peony sprays. The exterior is decorated with prunus blossoms scattered on a band of waves..

Provenance: The Richard Eakins Collection, Washington, 2007.
The Dr. Brooks Cofield Collection, Oregon, 2013.

Lot 825. A small blue and white jar, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1522-1566); 5¾ in. (14.6 cm.) high. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. Price realised USD 8,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014.

The well-potted jar is finely decorated in inky blue tones with lotus plants and water weeds set between double-line and ruyi-head borders encircling the shoulder and a petal-lappet border below, the neck is encircled by a band of key fret, box.

Christie’s. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 – 19 September 2014, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

BRUSSELS.- This spring, as part of the Pieter Bruegel the Elder commemorative year, BOZAR celebrates artistic creation in the hustle and bustle of the sixteenth century. BOZAR presents the doublebill ‘The Age of Bruegel’, two major exhibitions on the Renaissance in the Low Countries: ‘Bernard van Orley’ and ‘Prints in the Age of Bruegel’. 

BOZAR kick-starts the Bruegel Year with one of his forerunners: Bernard van Orley (1488 – 1541), who was one of the key figures in the Brussels artistic scene during the Renaissance. While still a young man he headed up one of the most prominent art studios of his time. His innovative style captured the imagination of the elite of the day, including the courts of Margaret of Austria, Maria of Hungary and Emperor Charles. He was given prestigious commissions for opulent wall hangings, paintings and stained glass windows. 

Bernard van Orley(1488 – 1541), Portrait of Georges de Zelle, 1519. © Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

For the first time ever BOZAR has assembled a hundred or so pieces by the artist Bernard van Orley, on loan from some of the largest collections in the world. A historic opportunity to explore this Brussels master in the town of his birth. 

Bernard van Orley was one of the pioneering innovators of Flemish painting in the sixteenth century. His particular talent lay in the ability to unite different streams of artistic expression in a single, new visual language. Van Orley followed in the tradition of the Flemish Primitives but added new elements. His most crucial influences were his meeting with Albrecht Dürer in 1520 and the art of the Italian Renaissance, to which he was introduced through tapestry cartoons by artists such as Rafaël and Leonardo da Vinci. These cartoons circulated in Brussels, the carpet weaving capital of the world in the sixteenth century. 

Van Orley's unique style was soon noticed among the highest echelons. Margaret of Austria, who ruled the Netherlands from her court in Mechelen, appointed him as a court painter. She commissioned several important portraits, thereby launching his career. This brought him in touch with the cosmopolitan court of Charles V on Coudenberg hill in Brussels, at that time the centre of European power. Bernard van Orley's artworks cemented the image of these rulers. Over time his focus shifted away from paintings and towards tapestries and stained glass windows, which were more highly valued. The real showpieces were his outstanding tapestries. Their huge size, expensive materials (gold, silver, silk) and bright colours created an astounding effect which amplified the splendour and status of the court. 

Besides commissions from the political elite, Van Orley could draw on clients from an extensive network of influential clergymen and humanist intellectuals. To satisfy the huge demand he ran his studio as an artist-cum-entrepreneur. Several of his pupils, such as Michiel Coxcie, Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Pieter de Kempeneer also went on to make a name for themselves.

Bernard van Orley (1488 – 1541), The Birth and Naming of Saint John the Baptist, c.1514-15© The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Photo SCALA, Florence.

The exhibition 
His talent for innovation made Bernard van Orley one of the key historical figures of the art that helped shape the Northern Renaissance. Despite his proven record and his representation in the world's largest art collections, a serious monography of his work has never before been undertaken. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Art & History Museum of Brussels and BOZAR have come together to back this unique project. 

Drawing on a hundred or so of Bernard van Orley's artworks the exhibition sheds light on the vast spectrum of subjects and techniques with which this artist made his name. In addition to the paintings it offers a broad overview of his tapestries, drawings and stained glass windows. The works take us through the different stages of the artist's career, from everyday activities in his studio to his role as court artist. They immerse the visitor in the pomp and circumstance with which the religious, intellectual and political elite were imbued in the sixteenth century, when Brussels was the centre of the world under Charles V.