In a total art-world turnaround, the Old Master paintings summer sales at both Christie's and Sotheby's did far better than expected, even beating out the dismal totals from the recent impressionist, modern, and contemporary sales.

Big-ticket items included a Willem Heda still life that went for 1.38 million pounds, a newly attributed Frans Hals, and Fra Bartolommeo's Madonna and Child. Could these auction results be evidence of a shift in popularity in favor of Old Master works and away from the modern and contemporary that's dominated the art scene of late? Given the current economic climate, collectors are increasingly careful with their purchases, and Old Masters tend to be a better, more solid investment than whatever is currently hot in the contemporary market.

Interestingly though, as Souren Melikian recently observed regarding the modern art sales, there seems to be a lack of quality art to go around at auctions lately, leading major houses to pad their catalogs. This last round of Old Masters included 19th century works and drawings. Apparently the rush to buy up the last of the "good art" is on.

(And for a little fun, check out these incredible modern "Old Masters")

Art Meets Technology: Peter Greenaway

I'm always interested to see how technology interacts with traditional art, so when the Times reported on Peter Greenaway's exhibit at the Venice Biennale, which is a digitized film-esque version of Veronese's masterpiece, The Wedding at Cana, I was interested.

The traditionalist in me usually is opposed to contemporary artists reusing the work of the masters and billing it as their own, but Greenaway takes a more thoughtful approach (did anyone see the Cezanne wrapped in bubblewrap at the Philadephia show? Now that really boils my blood). First, the piece is being exhibited in the Benedictine refectory on San Giorgio Maggiore, where Veronese's original hung previously. I appreciate the sensitivity to a measure of historical accuracy.

The Wedding at Cana digital project is also one of a series, the 3rd of 9 entitled simply Nine Classical Paintings Revisited. I appreciate the lack of pretention that so often accompanies reused classical art. (Previous work includes digitizations of Rembrandt's The Night Watch and Da Vinci's The Last Supper.)

Greenaway plans to work his digital magic on another Renaissance piece, Michelangelo's The Last Judgment as well as on Picasso's Guernica, a Pollock, some Monet and a Seurat. It makes me wonder if art historians will react differently when Renaissance art is repurposed versus when Impressionist or abstract art is reused. What about the "old masters" makes them untouchable in the minds of art historians?

Greenaway's digitization project is unique to me in that it doesn't disrupt the spirit or impact of the original, but rather enhances it in many ways. It's a way of using technology that doesn't interrupt the original, but manipulates it slightly in a way that is still true to the color and visual dynamism of the original but dazzles all the same.


If you need a hit of more traditional Veronese, check out the exhibiton website for the Rivals in Renaissance Venice show at the MFA in Boston (I'm dying to see it!)

Angels and Demons and the End of Good Taste

Everyone has to go over to my friend Jenn's blog Per Omnia Saecula to read her brilliant review/synopsis of Angels and Demons, which we saw together over the weekend. It is even funnier than the movie, which would be difficult, considering it's probably the best comedy of 2009.

Angels and Demons comes as the follow-up to The DaVinci Code, which taught us that most, if not all, Renaissance art contains some sort of symbolic code, and is more likely than not, connected to a shadowy secret society. If you just can't get enough, Dan Brown's next book The Lost Symbol (which already has a tentative movie release date of 2012) is available for pre-order on Amazon. According to his editor, Dan Brown's new book is "full of surprises." A different secret society? A new sultry, foreign, but ridiculously intelligent love interest? Which well-known Renaissance artist has Brown invented a shadowy past for this time?

Feel free to weigh in on Angels and Demons here!

Another Art History Mystery

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, has just acquired a painting believed to be by a young Michelangelo.

The Torment of St. Anthony, an easel painting, was recently studied in-depth by Keith Christiansen of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He believes that the work is definitively by Michelangelo, and dates to 1487-88, making Michelangelo only 12 or 13 when he completed it.

The NYTimes article presents an interesting mix of opinions from experts who've seen the work from museums and auction houses around the world.

In other news:

-There was another less-than-spectacular Sotheby's sale last night, bringing in only $47 million in total.

-The Eiffel Tower turns 120 years old tomorrow.

Art Links

-Retrace the footsteps of the thieves involved in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist.

-...and what lingering effects the theft had on the museum.

-The Maastricht art fair, going on now in the Netherlands, one of the biggest shows in the world, seems to be doing respectably, despite the scary, scary recession.

-YSL portraits pulled from Andy Warhol show at the Grand Palais in Paris.

-A slide show of highlights from the Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese show at the MFA in Boston.

Exhibition Round-Up

A quick list of everything I want to see that's on right now:

-At the Met, Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, even though French bronzes aren't exactly the most show-stopping of artworks.

-This looks awesome: Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice at the MFA in Boston. Who doesn't love a good Renaissance rivalry?

-The slightly space-age sounding Cezanne and Beyond as well as Henri Matisse and Modern Art on the French Riviera at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

-The early works of Guercino at the Istituto Italiana di Cultura right here on the Upper East Side.

-At the Frick Collection, Masterpieces of European Painting from the Norton Simon Museum.

-At the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Wall Stories: Children's Wallpaper and Books.

-And finally, at the Museum of the City of New York, Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity.

New Leonardo portrait discovered?

A new alleged self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci has been recently discovered by medieval historian Nicola Barbatelli in the archives of a wealthy southern Italian family at Acerenza.

The oil portrait, which would be only the second known self-portrait by da Vinci (the other being a red chalk drawing at the Biblioteca Reale in Turin), was originally though to be a portrait of Galileo. Barbatelli thinks that there are some later additions and some repainting in the work and that "it's date and provenance still have to be established with certainty," but the work will still be exhibited at a show about da Vinci later this month.

I have to say, I'm very skeptical about this. Barbatelli seems to base most of his "discovery" (of an already known painting, I might add) on extremely subjective criteria, saying that "the posture, the sytle and technique were reminiscent of the portrait of Leonardo in the Uffizi." While stylistic analysis is in many cases a necessary evil in determining an attribution, significant futher tests and expertise is needed here. Renaissance artists were skilled copyists, and simply "reminiscent" won't cut it when trying to prove this was actually by da Vinci's own hand. Barbatelli's jump to attribute this painting to such an iconic artist as da Vinci, considering the rarity of self-portraits by the artist, seems like quite a jump.

It will be interesting to see what reaction this gets from art historians and da Vinci experts, and if this yields a closer stylistic analysis, more specific dating, and some concrete evidence of da Vinci's connections to southern Italy. I'll keep my eyes peeled for future developments.

New Exhibition: Heaven on Earth: Manuscript Illuminations from the National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is showing examples from their collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the upcoming exhibition, Heaven on Earth.

The exhibition will feature about 50 decorated leaves and four bound volumes from the museum's permanent collection, primarily drawn from the religious texts in the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection and from all over western Europe, including some examples from less-common manuscript producing areas like Austria and Bohemia. The show covers manuscripts from the 12th to the 16th century. (Opens March 1, 2009 until August 2, 2009)

The National Gallery also has an interesting show on Dutch cityscapes on now through May 3rd, and a show on the intriguing Judith Leyster opening in June.

The Louvre Tries Something Revolutionary?

Just happened upon this article about the Louvre's upcoming exhibition, "The Funeral of the Mona Lisa," which features the work of contemporary artist Yan Pei-Ming. The Louvre will hang Pei-Ming's version of the Mona Lisa, which features a gray Mona Lisa surrounded by skulls. Other works of Yan Pei-Ming's will also be hung in proximity to da Vinci's original.

The Louvre calls the exhibit "part of the Louvre's efforts to bring contemporary art face to face with the masterpieces of old." You might recall an installation of Jeff Koons's work at Versailles, which sparked quite a controversy. I'm surprised at the Louvre's willingness to probably incite outrage among traditionalists, and around what is probably the most famous painting in its collection. It is certainly not the fist time the Mona Lisa has been used as an inspiration for modern art, but putting what Yan Pei-Ming calls both an "homage and a funeral" for the Mona Lisa in such proximity to the original, inviting comparison, interpretation, analysis, and discussion of the Renaissance masterpiece as it relates to contemporary art practice is another thing altogether.

If any of you happen to be in Paris, at the Louvre, I'd love to know what the general reaction is to the exhibit. I'll keep my eyes peeled for further news, and be sure to post it here. My guess is that there will be an official protest, but that it certainly won't dampen the popularity of the Mona Lisa among regular tourist visitors.