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Museum and Other News
Antwerp
On January 22, 2010, the Centre for Flemish Art of the 16th and 17th Centuries celebrated its 50th anniversary at the Kolveniershof in Antwerp by holding a seminar at which speakers from Belgium and abroad illuminated the history of the study centre and outlined its expectations for the future.
History of the Centre
Driven by the need for an institution that would carry out and promote in Belgium, the study of Flemish art of the 16th and 17th centuries – the centuries of Bruegel and Rubens – representatives of various Flemish universities and museums founded this specialist centre in November 1959. Set up as a not-for-profit organization, the Centre for Flemish Art has always worked closely with the city of Antwerp, which had already founded the Rubenianum as a by-product of the opening of the Rubenshuis in 1947. In 1981 the Rubenianum – a study centre with an extensive library and photographic material, focusing on the art of the Low Countries from the Middle Ages to the 18th century – and the Centre for Flemish Art were accommodated in new premises adjacent to the historical Kolveniershof.
The Centre’s Aims and Tasks
The Centre seeks to promote the study of Flemish art of the 16th and 17th centuries by producing its own publications (on Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens, for example), by participating in art-historical exhibitions in Belgium and abroad, by organizing conferences, and by setting up research projects financed by the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen (Research Foundation – Flanders), thus furthering the study of Flemish art at the highest level in Belgium. In recent years the Centre and the Rubenianum have developed into an internationally recognized research institution, thereby assuring Antwerp of a central role in the international community studying the art of Flanders. Moreover, the Centre has helped to shape various generations of highly specialized art historians. To this end, it collaborates with the universities of Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Louvain, as well as with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Antwerp and Brussels.
The core aim of the Centre is to publish the complete works of Rubens, which has been appearing in book form since 1968 under the title Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard (Harvey Miller publishers, an imprint of Brepols). The series, which is published in English, is comprehensively illustrated. Ludwig Burchard (1886-1960) was a German art historian who conceived the plan to produce a new Rubens catalogue, since the previous catalogue, by the Antwerp scholar Max Rooses, consisted of only five volumes and dated from 1886-1892. Compiling and editing the material required more time than expected, however, which meant that at the time of Burchard’s death, the new catalogue was still unpublished. In 1963 the city of Antwerp managed to acquire Burchard’s material, on which the new series is based.
Since its acquisition, this material on Rubens has been systematically supplemented by the staff of the Centre and the Rubenianum. It was divided into ninety sections, which in turn have undergone further subdivision. The series will eventually comprise some fifty volumes. Half of these have already been published; the rest are in various stages of preparation. Highly specialized scholars from Belgium and other countries are working on this extensive project, which examines a total of 2,500 compositions by Rubens, whose uncommonly large oeuvre is scattered around the world.
Latest Volume of the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard
The anniversary day saw the presentation in Antwerp of the most recent book in the series: Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part XXVI (2): Copies and Adaptations from Renaissance and Later Artists: Italian Artists 1. Raphael and his School, I-II. The book, which is devoted to Rubens’s copies and adaptations of examples from the school of Raphael, was written by the English art historian Jeremy Wood.
Rubenianum Fund
The extremely long production time of the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard has forced us to redouble our efforts to have the remaining volumes in print by around 2020. Because additional staff is needed, we are launching a new fund-raising initiative: the Rubenianum Fund. The chairman of this fund, which is under the patronage of the King Baudouin Foundation, is Thomas Leysen.
For more information, visit:
Centre for Flemish Art of the 16th and 17th Centuries
Rubenianum
Kolveniersstraat 20, 2000 Antwerp
centrumvlaamsekunst@gmail.com
Click here for Photo Gallery
Amsterdam
- The Rembrandthuis is showing Old Man Wearing a Turban (1627/28) for two years. The painting is on loan from the George and Ilone Kremer collection.
- Ernst van de Wetering and the Rembrandt Research Project have left the University of Amsterdam. To mark the occasion, Professor Van de Wetering will present a lecture titled ‘Molens hebben kleine raampjes. Licht en schaduw bij Rembrandt’ (April 15, 2010).
Bradford-on-Avon (Wiltshire): Church recorder Simon Watney and conservator Kiffy Stainer-Hutchins, who had been called to Holy Trinity Church to examine what might possibly have been a Van Dyck (but turned out to be a later copy) discovered instead a painting by Quentin Massys, Christ Blessing. The panel once formed a diptych with the Virgin in Adoration, now in the collection of Lady Juliet Tadgell. The painting was a prototype that was used in numerous later versions by the artist and his workshop. These include a diptych in the National Gallery, London. The discovery is reported in the February issue of The Burlington Magazine which is devoted to Flemish and Dutch art. (From The Art Newspaper, March 2010)
Bruges: The pre-Eyckian Ursula shrine in the Memling in Sint-Jan Hospitaalmuseum was returned to the museum in October 2009 after lengthy restoration in the Koninklijke Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium in Brussels. It was the centre piece of a special documentary exhibition (closed April 11, 2010). A publication by Dominique Deneffe, De restauratie van het pre-Eyckiaanse Ursulashrijn is available in the museum shop.
The Hague: The Haags Historisch Museum has received a donation of ten paintings by Dutch masters from a private collector. Most are typical Dutch landscapes, such as River Landscape by Jan van Goyen, Beach View by Willem Hendrik Mesdag, River Landscape by Salomon van Ruysdael and Church Interior by Emanuel de Witte. The paintings are on view starting February 5, 2010.
Los Angeles: The Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) will be available free of charge on the Getty Web site at http://library.getty.edu/bha. The database includes the International Bibliography of Art (IBA), covering the years 2008 and part of 2009. The Répertoire de la litterature de l’art (RILA), one of the predecessors of BHA, with records that cover 1975-1989, will be online by May 1.
Maastricht: Bernheimer-Colnaghi celebrates its 250th anniversary this year. Among the Netherlandish and German works brought to Maastricht was Joos de Momper the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder, Spring: A Landscape with Elegant Company on a Tree-Lined Road; Lucas Cranach the Elder, David and Bathsheba (1534); Frans Hals, St. Mark, and drawings by Maarten van Heemskerck (Story of Susanna: As Susanna Is Led Away to Be Put to Death, the Boy Daniel Denounces His Elders), Jan van Goyen (Village Scene with an Open Market) and Cornelis Saftleven (Standing Man from the Rear).
Madrid: Editorial Prensa Ibérica (www.epi.es) has created in Madrid Instituto Moll, Centre for the Investigation and Study of Flemish Paintings, under the directorship of Professor Matías Díaz Padrón. The Centre’s main objective is the advanced investigation of Flemish Old Master paintings, particularly in Spain. Editorial Prensa Ibérica also launched Matías Díaz Padrón’s El siglo de Rubens en el Museo del Prado: catálogo razonado de pintura flamenca del siglo XVII, at a special offer of 180 euros. Originally published in 1996, the book may be ordered directly through www.librosarte.epi.es. Instituto Moll will publish Van Dyck en España by Matías Díaz Padrón at the end of this year.
New York: The Frick Collection celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. There will be a free day on December 16, the anniversary of the museum’s public opening in 1935.
New York: Two new research data bases are available through the Frick Art Reference Library. The Montias Database of 17th-Century Art Inventories (http://research.frick.org/montias/home.php) provides detailed information on ownership of works of art in the Dutch Golden Age. Compiled by late Yale University Professor John Michael Montias, it contains information from 1,280 inventories of goods (paintings, prints, sculpture, furniture, etc.) owned by people living in 17th-century Amsterdam. The Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America (http://research.frick.org/directoryweb/home.php), created by the Center of the History of Collecting in America, helps researchers to locate primary source material about American collectors, dealers, agents and advisors, and the repositories that hold these records.
Urbino: The portraits of famous men in the studiolo of Federico da Montefeltro, attributed in part to Justus van Ghent, may be reassembled, at least temporarily. The frieze has long been split between the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino and the Louvre. Current scientific work is leading to a re-evaluation of how the panels were originally positioned in 1476. This will hopefully encourage the Louvre to lend its 14 portraits to their original home. (From The Art Newspaper, January 2010)
Vienna: The Albertina has completed repairs in its underground storeroom after a disastrous flood in June (see this Newsletter, November 2009). Scholars are again allowed access to the study room.
Databases – Electronic Journals
This is a new feature in the HNA Newsletter. The links given here are also on the Link Page of the website, but new ones will first be mentioned in this column in order to draw attention to them.
www.jhna.org – Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art.
www.opac-fabritius.be/fr/F_database.htm – Fabritius is the on-line database, in French and Flemish, set up by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, to post updated research reports on the works by Rubens and his studio in the Museums collection, which were on show in the exhibition ‘Rubens. A Genius at Work’ (2007; see review by Anne-Marie Logan in this Newsletter).
www.kikirpa.be – Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium - Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
http://www.kmska.be/Templates/content.aspx?id=1858 – This link on the site of the Koninklijk Museum voor Schonen Kunsten Antwerpen is specifically related to the museum's Rubens research projects, including the Getty sponsored examination of its Rubens paintings, and the on-line Rubens Bulletin, edited by Paul Huvenne. The first volume was published in 2007 and includes contributions by Alexis Merle du Bourg and Agnes Tieze, followed by ‘Rubens Revealed: The Prodigal Son by Peter Paul Rubens: Research and Restoration,’ written by various authors involved in the restoration of Rubens’s Prodigal Son painting.)
http://ta.sandrart.net – Teutsche Academie im Volltext.
www.rembrandtinsocal.org – Virtual exhibition of Rembrandt paintings in five Southern California museums: J. Paul Getty Museum, Hammer Museum, LA County Museum, Norton Simon Museum, Timken Museum of Art, San Diego.
www.hoogsteder.com/publications/mercury and Kunstpedia.com – The Hoogsteder-Naumann Mercury digitized
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