The National Gallery Review of The
TH E April – March NATIONAL GALLE Y
NATG028_P0001EDngReview2012_13August.indd 1 14/08/2012 14:22 NATG028_P0002EDngReview2012_21August.indd 2 21/08/2012 09:43 TH E NATIONAL GALLEY April – March
NATG028_P0002EDngReview2012_21August.indd 3 21/08/2012 09:43 Contents
Introduction 5 Director’s Foreword 6 Sir Denis Mahon (1910–2011) 7
Acquisitions 12 Loans 18 Conservation 28 Framing 34 Exhibitions and Displays 38 Education 50 Scientifi c Research 54 Research and Publications 58
Private Support of the Gallery 62 Trustees and Committees of the National Gallery Board 66 Financial Information 66 National Gallery Company Ltd 68 Cracks and Age in Paintings 70
For a full list of loans, staff publications and external commitments between April 2011 and March 2012, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/organisation/ annual-review
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– will be remembered as a historic year for followed by donations to the National Gallery the National Gallery, and not least as the year in from many of our major supporters, whose which we enjoyed our most successful exhibition generosity is acknowledged elsewhere in this to date, in the form of Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at Review. We also acknowledge with thanks the the Court of Milan. The exhibition, which brought contribution of the Duke of Sutherland, who together for the fi rst time Leonardo’s two versions agreed to a reduction in the originally agreed of his great masterpiece The Virgin of the Rocks and price, to make the purchase possible. received almost universal critical acclaim, saw the In order to secure the acquisition, the National public queuing for admittance in Trafalgar Square Gallery Board took the wholly unprecedented step from the early hours of the morning. Much of this of committing £m of the Gallery’s own historic Review of the Gallery’s year is devoted to that reserves to the purchase. This sum largely exhibition. represented bequests made to the Gallery over The year will also however undoubtedly be a period of many decades (and included a legacy remembered as that in which we acquired Titian’s received as recently as ) specifi cally for the great masterpiece, Diana and Callisto, jointly with the support of acquisitions. The Board, while being National Galleries of Scotland. The painting is the acutely aware that committing a sum of this pendant to another of Titian’s great mythological magnitude to the acquisition would severely deplete works, Diana and Actaeon, which the two institutions the funds available for future picture purchases, was acquired in . We announced at that time that nevertheless unanimous in believing that no more we had secured an option to purchase the second worthy use for these funds could be found. painting, and had until the end of to raise the Under the agreement that now exists between money. Thus the successful acquisition represented the National Gallery and the National Galleries of the culmination of four years of close collaboration Scotland, Diana and Callisto and Diana and Actaeon and careful planning by the two galleries. will be displayed together in perpetuity, rotating In , the prospect of having to raise £m between the galleries in London and Edinburgh. for Diana and Callisto seemed daunting – and the It is remarkable to refl ect that an acquisition of challenge increased as the economic situation this importance and value was secured very largely worsened. Nevertheless, the Director and Board through private charitable funding, past and of the National Gallery never doubted that it present; and that the acquisition and other should be an absolute priority to secure the second achievements of the year took place against the painting for the nation. In view of the pressures on backdrop of signifi cant cuts to our Grant in Aid, both public and private funds at this diffi cult time, announced in –. During that year, we not we agreed with the National Galleries of Scotland only lost an initial % of our government funding, that it would be inappropriate to launch a public but were also told that further cumulative cuts fundraising campaign. Instead, approaches were of % in real terms would be made over the made in the fi rst instance to individual supporters following four years to March . The impact and grant-making trusts and these led to a number of those cuts is already being felt, and will become of key pledges of support to the two institutions increasingly severe over the coming years. This from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund underlines the huge reliance which the National and The Monument Trust. These pledges were Gallery places, and will increasingly have to place,
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on private philanthropy, corporate support and () sponsorship, if we are to be able to continue to add to our collection and mount adventurous exhibitions and programmes of the type the public have so enjoyed this year. The Board wishes to thank not only all those generous donors whose support made the acquisition of Titian’s Diana and Callisto possible, but also, as always, the Director and staff of the National Gallery, whose hard work has made this such an exceptional year in the Gallery’s history.
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There never has been a more popular exhibition are heartened to discover that despite the demanding at the National Gallery than the one devoted to character of the exhibition a quarter of those who Leonardo da Vinci. Its curator Luke Syson, came for it found time to look at something else. encouraged by my predecessor, Charles Saumarez The Leonardo show’s popularity placed a great Smith, began planning the exhibition over fi ve strain on staff throughout the National Gallery and years ago and it opened in October . The especially on those who dealt directly with the show’s success depended upon the generosity public. It should be recorded that on more than of the Royal Collection (from which the majority one occasion it was only possible for us to keep the of the drawings were lent) and of other institutions exhibition open because of the loyalty of a group and individuals in the United Kingdom. It also of Gallery Assistants. But it is also true that its success owed much to the special collaboration undertaken has contributed to an improvement in morale, with our colleagues in the Louvre. Further which is still being tested by the economies that encouragement came from Ed Vaizey, the we are obliged, and must continue, to impose. Minister for Art, who communicated his personal Before the exhibition closed, its curator had conviction that support was merited, and there left Trafalgar Square for a senior position at the was indeed a gratifyingly widespread international Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. confi dence in the value of the exhibition. Dr Caroline Campbell has taken up the vacant This ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience will post of Curator of Italian Paintings before . doubtless be long remembered. An account of With it comes the task of working out where and what was learnt from the exhibition about Leonardo how to display most effectively our two great and his circle will be found elsewhere in this works by Leonardo, the understanding of which Review. Research commissioned by our Marketing has been so considerably enhanced, in galleries Department indicates that many who had not visited fi tted with new, energy-effi cient lighting. the Gallery for years found their way back and we
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Sir Denis Mahon inherited a private income, which meant that, in the conventional sense, he never had to work. Nonetheless, he chose to work and did so with an energy that left many of us exhausted, only beginning to slow down a dozen years ago. That private income also enabled him to assemble a great private collection – one of the most remarkable ever formed in this country – but no private collection has ever been less of a personal possession. It never, even in its origin, had an intimate or domestic character. His earliest acquisition (in ) was an altarpiece which could only fi t with diffi culty through the front door of his parents’ London home, Cadogan Square. Furthermore, for half a century, at least, the collection has been promised to public institutions, and over the last quarter of a century, has been on loan to these institutions where it will, we now learn, stay put. No academic-minded curator has ever assembled a group of works for a public institution with more uncompromising purpose or along better defi ned lines. Of course, Denis’s private income gave him some great advantages Sir Denis Mahon in 1996, in front of – it enabled him to travel as far as Russia with A Woman borne off by a Sea God (?) (NG148), a reference library in trunks, carried by porters one of Agostino Carracci’s cartoons for the Farnese Gallery frescoes – but no public servant has ever been driven by a greater sense of dedication. To what was he dedicated? First of all, to Italian painting, especially that of the Bolognese and Roman schools in the seventeenth century, which had been long neglected and ill understood: Carracci, Reni, Poussin and above all his beloved Guercino. Secondly, dedication to very exact scholarship and an exceedingly precise form of connoisseurship involving the reading and rereading of documents, published and unpublished, and the repeated minute examination of visual evidence. Also the ruthless examination of opponents whose errors he not only exposed but also attempted to eradicate with a thoroughness
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which would have been admired by the Inquisition. Denis hated to miss. He was drawn to this Among his many qualities lightness of touch has programme as a huntsman might be drawn to never been numbered – at least not in his dealings the memoirs of an elusive fox. And yet afterwards with scholarly opponents. we all had to admit that Denis was usually right. It should be noted that art history as an academic Right to insist and right to persist. discipline in this country is younger than Sir Denis and Museum Directors, Keepers of Departments, he only benefi ted indirectly from its establishment. Senior Curators, if they are any good, know that And yet he is certainly, as Sir Christopher White has there is a performance review more important than said, a hero of our discipline. He was dedicated to any which they will receive from the Chairman Guercino and the Italian Baroque and to scholarship or the Permanent Secretary. They know indeed and connoisseurship (especially scholarship), but also that there is a tribunal before which they must to the defence of the art museums he intended to eventually appear. Relentlessly enjoined to attend enrich. Denis, joined by Sir Hugh Leggatt, went to the needs of the present, they will be judged in into combat on behalf of the proper funding of the future by their treatment of the past. Those of art museums, proper protection for the heritage, us who had the privilege of knowing Denis Mahon admission free of charge, incentives for philanthropy, have some idea of what the review will be like. funding for acquisitions, encouragement of bequests, He knew that the public institutions were founded exemption from VAT. He loved the National Gallery and then supported by donors who made explicit – he served it as an attaché under Kenneth Clark, as conditions, or who had an implicit understanding, a Trustee and as an unoffi cial adviser – but he could or expressed clear hopes. Perhaps in his own case never trust it wholly. He knew it was vulnerable to he put too much effort into attempting to control its funders in Government and indeed to the Trustees, the future, but he certainly achieved miracles in who were not always trustworthy. He could the service of the deceased, both bringing dead and remember how the Treasury had forced the Gallery neglected artists to life, and acting as an advocate to charge. He could remember how the Trustees had for long-departed donors and benefactors. planned to sell some of the paintings. If there was a In this account, I have emphasised his public British institution in which he did put his faith, and role as an energetic, exact and exacting scholar, from which I believe he drew some of his ideals, as an advocate with inquisitorial zeal, as an ardent it was the Art Fund, which had been founded not huntsman and high-minded crusader. But we all long before he was born and which remains an also remember Denis’s smile, the twinkle in his eye, independent charity. the chuckle. His sense of fun, his relish, his delight Many will recall the tenacity of Denis Mahon would punctuate the polemics and the proof twenty years ago – whether checking footnotes correcting. And how often in recent years have in a proof or ensuring that minutes included every we seen his face beam, acknowledging a friend, subdivision of every point. His epistolary style, or a favourite artist, or the excellent puddings Ciceronian in its elaboration but with well served in Tate Britain’s restaurant. There is much calculated demotic shocks, was distinctive, but it – very much – that we in the art world owe to was the telephone which we most associate with Sir Denis Mahon. We are grateful to him and him. How often have we been tempted not to grateful to the companion who, more than answer it and how eagerly we heard of an infallible anyone, kept him smiling so long.
method of keeping a phone conversation brief – to Originally delivered as an address at the memorial service for Sir reply during the broadcast of Yes, Minister, which Denis Mahon at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, on 21 June 2011
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Chronology of Sir Denis Mahon and the National Gallery 9 October 1958 Confi rms the attribution of a painting to Vouet (NG6292), 8 November 1910 an opinion supported by Anthony Blunt, and the work is John Denis Mahon born. subsequently acquired by the Gallery. 1 April 1935 13 January 1959 Appointed honorary attaché for one year by the Director Accompanies Hendy and other Gallery staff on a visit to Kenneth Clark. Switzerland to inspect Uccello’s Saint George and the Dragon 12 May 1936 (NG6294) and confi rm its authenticity. The Board notes that Mahon was ‘a good scholar, had been for 6 October 1959 some months on leave in Italy working on Guercino, and would With Hendy, inspects Rosa’s Landscape with Tobias and the like to stay on a further year pursuing his study and helping in Angel (NG6298) for purchase at £2,500. the Library’. Reappointed honorary attaché after he had ‘proved a useful and satisfactory volunteer’. 6 November 1959 Lane Agreement regarding the display of the Lane Bequest 13 July 1937 pictures signed. Clark wishes to retain Mahon as an attaché, praising him as ‘one of the best of our young scholars’, but ultimately Mahon fi nds 14 February 1960 a new placement elsewhere. Writes a strong opinion that Gainsborough’s Mr and Mrs Andrews (NG6301) must be secured for the nation. 1955–6 Co-organises an exhibition on the Carracci family to be held in 6 April 1961 Bologna in 1956. Agrees to pay £250 for conservation work on Unsuccessfully supports the acquisition of Caravaggio’s Salome three National Gallery pictures lent to the exhibition (NG9, NG94, receives the Head of Saint John the Baptist (NG6389 – acquired NG198). in 1970) instead of Altdorfer’s Landscape with a Footbridge (NG6320). January 1957 Appointed to the Board of Trustees. At his fi rst Board meeting 1 March 1962 on 10 January, refuses to cast a deciding vote on the purchase Appointed to a sub-committee of Trustees to investigate criticisms of Il Tramonto (NG6307) by Giorgione for £50,000. of the Gallery’s cleaning policy. January–March 1957 4 April 1962 On 25 January, draws the attention of the Director Philip Hendy Supports the acquisition of Pellegrini’s An Allegory of the to Reni’s The Adoration of the Shepherds (NG6270), then in the Marriage of the Elector Palatine (NG6328). Urges its acquisition Liechtenstein Collection. Hendy, Mahon and fellow Trustee John by telegram from France ‘sounds exactly type we should seize Witt visit Vaduz Castle in Liechtenstein to examine the painting opportunity to secure’. on 25 March and recommend its acquisition for £13,945. 17–18 December 1962 21 March 1957 Visits Paris with Sir William Coldstream to see Cézanne’s The ‘Actively assists’ Hendy in the purchase of Van de Velde’s Grounds of the Château Noir (NG6342) and enthusiastically A Winter Landscape (NG6269) for £1,300. advocates its acquisition. During the same visit the two express reservations about the potential acquisition of Vuillard’s October 1957–January 1958 The Terrace at Vasouy, the Lunch (NG6373). Memorandum on the Lane Bequest (‘The Origins of the Lane Problem 1913–1915’ of 10 October 1957 supplemented by a second 4 April 1963 memorandum of December 1957) encourages the Trustees to seek Strongly urges the acquisition of Monet’s Water-Lilies (NG6343). a compromise with Ireland on the display of the Lane pictures in 25 April 1963 accordance with a proposal submitted by Lord Pakenham, acting Advocates the acquisition of Ter Brugghen’s A Man playing as a broker between the British and Irish positions. Despite some a Lute (NG6347) and Crespi’s Saint Jerome in the Desert (NG6345). opposition from fellow Trustees, Mahon’s persistence succeeds in persuading the Board to enter into negotiations. January 1964 Retires as a Trustee. February–March 1958 Draws the attention of the Director to the possible sale by Count 5 May 1966 Lanckoronski of the Villa Aldobrandini frescoes by Domenichino Returns to the Board of Trustees for a second term. (NG6284–6291). The frescoes are acquired for $44,000 after 1 December 1966 inspection at Hohenems Castle, Austria on 29 March 1958 by Unsuccessfully advocates the acquisition of a work by Guardi. Mahon, John Witt and Philip Hendy. 6 November 1969 13 March 1958 Champions the acquisition of Caravaggio’s Salome receives the Reluctantly supports the introduction of entrance fees for the Head of Saint John the Baptist (NG6389) as an autograph work National Gallery if the money is used for acquisitions. against doubts expressed by the Director Martin Davies regarding its quality and attribution.
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4 December 1969 7 March 1985 Supports the acquisition of the Caravaggio (NG6389), asserting Commends a version of Reni’s David with the Head of that ‘this Salome was a very great painting; Caravaggio did with Goliath to the Board. Not acquired. paint what Shakespeare did with words’. Despite the opposition May 1988 of the Director Martin Davies and Keeper Michael Levey, the Campaigns against powers of de-accessioning for museums Board votes by a majority of one to acquire the painting. and galleries. 5 March 1970 2 June 1988 The Board considers the acquisition of Mahon’s Guercino Marriage Contributes towards the purchase of Poussin’s The Finding of Saint Catherine (now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin) but decides of Moses (NG6519), a joint acquisition between the National not to pursue it, preferring other works in his collection such as Gallery and the National Museum of Wales. Elijah fed by Ravens (NG6612), which were not for sale at that time. 28 June 1991 7 May 1970 Exhibition Guercino in Britain: Paintings from British Collections, Advocates an acquisitions strategy that balances masterpieces based on research by Mahon and consisting largely of paintings with contextual works, emphasising the representative nature of from his collection. the collection: ‘he touched on some of the diffi culties encountered by Eastlake when buying pictures that had seemed to someone 6 February 1992 like Peel no more than historical curiosities.’ Lobbies for the transfer of Guercino’s ceiling paintings at Lancaster House, London to the National Gallery. The Gallery prefers 3 December 1970 improved access to the paintings in situ. Strongly urges that the Gallery do everything possible to retain Velázquez’s Juan de Pareja in the United Kingdom. However, February 1992 the Gallery is unable to raise the necessary funds to secure the Lends Guercino’s The Cumaean Sibyl with a Putto (NG6615) to painting and it is sold abroad to the Metropolitan Museum of the National Gallery. Art in New York. September 1992 3 June 1971 Lends Guercino’s Saint Gregory the Great with Jesuit Saints (L603) Argues that the Board should not implement entrance fees unless to the National Gallery. it is legally obliged to do so. 18 February 1997 1 July 1971 Exhibition of three paintings by Poussin, suggested by Mahon. The Board of Trustees decline to acquire Carracci’s The Coronation 26 February–18 May 1997 of the Virgin from Mahon’s collection (now in the Metropolitan The exhibition Discovering the Italian Baroque: The Denis Mahon Museum of Art in New York). Mahon appointed to a sub- Collection attracts 83,000 visitors. committee of Trustees to oversee the acquisition of Titian’s The June 1999 Death of Actaeon (NG6420). Major loan of 28 works from the Mahon Collection to the National 27 February 1973 Gallery, 26 of which will be bequeathed to the Art Fund on his Writing in the Guardian, urges the Government to do more to death for permanent display at the National Gallery. encourage collectors to leave works of art to public collections in 6 November 2000 lieu of estate duty. His major concern is to ensure a guarantee that 90th birthday dinner at the Gallery. testator’s wishes regarding the destination of paintings would be carried out. 7 February 2002 Presents Herschel N. Pollard’s Portrait of Sir Denis Mahon 5 April 1973 to the Gallery’s History Collection. Retires as a Trustee. 2009 21 October 1977 Acquisition of Guercino’s Elijah fed by Ravens (NG6612) Places Guercino’s The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (L34) from the Mahon Collection. on loan at the National Gallery. 8 November 2010 1 March 1979 100th birthday dinner at the Gallery. Raises objections to the National Heritage Fund white paper, which he believes will deter bequests to the Gallery. 24 April 2011 Dies aged 100. 4 October 1979 Confi rms his intention to bequeath a number of paintings to 2011 the Gallery via the National Art-Collections Fund (The Art Fund). Acquisition of Guercino’s The Cumaean Sibyl with a Putto (NG6615) from the Mahon Collection. Detail through the microscope from Sassetta, The Funeral of Saint Francis , 1437–44 (NG4763) (see pp. 70–1)
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Diana and Callisto and Diana and Actaeon belong provenance and literature, can be found in the to a series of six large mythologies inspired by the article on Diana and Actaeon in the – Review. Roman poet Ovid that Titian produced for King The nymph Callisto’s tragic tale, like that of Philip II of Spain between and . The Actaeon, is recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses series evolved in a piecemeal fashion, the artist (Book II, –). She was the favourite of Diana, being allowed exceptional freedom in choosing the virgin goddess of the hunt. Her beauty aroused the subjects. The fi rst two mythologies, Danae (– attention of Jupiter, king of the gods, who seduced ) and Venus and Adonis (about –), were her by taking the form of Diana. Callisto’s variations of pictures Titian had painted before. In pregnancy was discovered when she was forced by , the year Philip was crowned king of Spain, her suspicious companions to strip and bathe after Titian sent him Perseus and Andromeda, to be joined hunting. After Callisto’s son Arcas was born, later by his consummate Rape of Europa (–). Jupiter’s jealous wife Juno transformed the nymph It was at this key moment, spurred on by the into a bear to ensure her husband would not be prestige of royal patronage, that Titian substantially further tempted by her charms. Fifteen years later, raised his game, unleashing all his creativity upon Arcas, out hunting, was poised to kill the bear Diana and Callisto and Diana and Actaeon. Writing when Jupiter at last intervened, and transported to King Philip, Titian referred to his elegiac mother and son to the heavens, immortalising compositions as poesie, the visual equivalents them as the neighbouring constellations, Ursa of poetry. These were works of unprecedented Major and Ursa Minor (the Great and Little Bear). beauty and inventiveness, richer in chromatic Titian ignored the dramatic transformations of the range and compositional complexity than all their story’s prelude and epilogue, focusing instead on predecessors. They show the tragic consequences the moment of Callisto’s humiliating exposure of innocent humans – male in one case, female in and banishment from Diana’s chaste entourage. the other – inadvertently caught up in the affairs of In Diana and Callisto, Titian combined the gods. The two paintings were designed to hang consummate painterly skill with a perceptive grasp facing each other, being lit from opposite sides, of human psychology to create a picture at once and rhyming in their composition and colouring. mesmerisingly beautiful yet also horrifying, as Ovid A fuller account of their history, with details of had done in verse. The naked Diana towers regally
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Titian (active about 1506; died 1576) Diana and Callisto, 1556–9 Oil on canvas, 187 x 204.5 cm Inscribed on the plinth of the fountain: TITIANVS. F. Bought jointly by the National Gallery and National Galleries of Scotland with contributions from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund, The Monument Trust and through private appeal and bequests, 2012, NG6611
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over the scene. The theatrical swathe of damask, National Gallery, and at least two or possibly three slung like a canopy across a branch above her others from his workshop with fair claim to have head is the same ochre colour as Callisto’s dress, been touched by his brush. The addition of these bracketing the two protagonists together in a two supreme mythologies devoted to the story of moment of high drama. Five of Diana’s lovely Diana has unquestionably transformed this already handmaidens, in various states of undress, have rich collection into one of the greatest centres disrobed their mistress for bathing, taking charge for the study and contemplation of Venetian of her lethal javelins, bow and quiver full of arrows. art anywhere, and, as a collection of Titians, The huntress’s two large hounds are still in playful unsurpassed outside the Prado. It is now possible mood, one emerging towards the spectator from to trace the artist’s groundbreaking evolution beneath a discarded tunic, the other panting as a painter of mythologies, religious works thirstily by the water’s edge, his slavering tongue and portraits over his seventy-year career in and powerful haunches a reminder of how he exceptional detail. might spring for his kill. In , the Gallery was able, with the help On the far side of the stream, the unfortunate of Treasury and NACF funds and following a Callisto struggles in vain as four fellow nymphs pin nationwide public appeal, to acquire the Death her to the ground and lift up her dress and chemise of Actaeon, thus preventing its export. This picture, to reveal her pregnant belly. Her head cast into in which Titian presented his own moving shadow and the tears rolling down her fl aming interpretation of Actaeon’s gory end, is the cheeks bespeak her vulnerability and shame, to iconographic sequel to the Diana and Actaeon. which we bear uncomfortable witness. Meanwhile, Titian started work on it as he was fi nishing the her voluptuous nudity is thrown into relief by the other two Diana stories, also with the intention fact that she still wears her scarlet buskins. From of sending it to with Philip II, but for some her rocky throne, Diana gestures imperiously, reason never brought it fully to completion and banishing Callisto from the virginal company. it remained in his studio until after his death. The evening sun, breaking like a lightning bolt It eventually passed by a different route into the through the turbulent clouds, is a poetic reminder Orléans collection where it rejoined Diana and of Jupiter’s part in the innocent maiden’s downfall. Actaeon and Diana and Callisto, already in the The landscape is a magnifi cent tapestry of golds collection since –. The acquisition of and blues, the twilight casting a sensuous glow Diana and Callisto has thus provided the over the nymphs’ soft fl esh and causing glimmering opportunity to reunite three works originally refl ections in the water. One nymph has her foot conceived together and later reassembled in in the stream, making us feel its glacial freshness. one of the greatest European collections. The wittily conceived fountain, with a putto The three Diana paintings and the other pouring water from an amphora, relieves the mythologies made for Philip II are in a category of drama. The falling water echoes the zigzag of picture for which, as we have seen, Titian coined light emerging through the clouds. Beneath the the term poesia, a poetic interpretation of classical sculpture are Titian’s signature, and a relief myth on a grand scale practically invented by him depicting Diana hunting a stag, a thematic link in the cycle of paintings he contributed to Alfonso with the picture’s pendant, Diana and Actaeon. d’Este’s Camerino d’alabastro in the Ducal Palace at Diana and Callisto and Diana and Actaeon join Ferrara in the early s. The National Gallery eleven uncontested paintings by Titian in the owns what is arguably the greatest of these works
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in the form of Bacchus and Ariadne, among the most We would like to thank the following, and others who magical and popular pictures in Trafalgar Square wish to remain anonymous, for their generous support of the acquisition of Titian’s Diana and Callisto: (and rarely without a party of schoolchildren in attendance). To be able to contrast this with the The Art Fund equally exquisite but stylistically transformed poesie Judith Fairhurst J. Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust that Titian produced for a still more powerful and Heritage Lottery Fund exacting patron at the end of his career offers James & Clare Kirkman Gallery visitors the richest experience of his Lord Kerr of Kinlochard Sarah & David Kowitz greatness as a painter. The Monument Trust Patrons of the National Galleries of Scotland Chris Rokos The Rothschild Foundation Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement
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. (–),
Sir Thomas Lawrence (–) was as though in motion, her head turning back acknowledged by Sir Joshua Reynolds as his artistic towards the viewer, her elegant neck adorned heir and came to enjoy an unrivalled reputation with a simple coral necklace. The smaller, more for portraiture through Europe by the close of the human scale of the portrait and the youthfulness Napoleonic wars. His brilliance in the handling of of its subject are expressed in the freedom of paint – as the portrait of Emily Lamb demonstrates Lawrence’s treatment. The background to the – allowed him readily to acknowledge the work fi gure merely hints at sky and landscape, for the of some of the greatest of his predecessors, notably portrait is focused entirely on the sitter. Her simple Van Dyck, but also Rubens and Velázquez, all white dress and the dark hair swept up on top of well represented in the National Gallery. At the her head create an effective foil for her face, which same time his modernity – refl ected in the vivid Lawrence has made vivid and arresting, notably characterisation of his sitters and the unconventional through his deft and confi dent rendering of her and often informal ways in which he composed bright eyes. The portrait superbly illustrates how his portraits – made him a signifi cant infl uence infl uenced Lawrence was by the ideals of Italian on such contemporaries as Goya. His repertoire Mannerist painting, especially by the drawings of ranged from the formal full-length portrait such Parmigianino, of which he had one of the greatest as the Gallery’s Queen Charlotte () to his highly collections ever assembled. In this way the portrait engaging portraits of children and representations connects very well with the Gallery’s great of youthful, feminine beauty such as this. In the collection of Italian sixteenth-century painting. context of the Gallery’s collection it demonstrates Emily Lamb married Peter Leopold Clavering- Lawrence’s pivotal position in the history of Cowper, th Earl Cowper, and their son and heir European painting and portraiture, showing, George Augustus Frederick Cowper, later th Earl for instance, connections between earlier British Cowper, was born three years after this portrait pictures such as Gainsborough’s two portraits was painted. Following the th Earl’s death in of his young daughters, which are painted with she married Viscount Palmerston in . Emily a similar freedom, and later European works Lamb’s brother, William, nd Viscount Melbourne, such as portraits by Delacroix, as well as other was Prime Minister in and from –; his innovative nineteenth-century French painters. wife, Lady Caroline Lamb, was notorious for her A particular strength of the portrait of Emily affair with Lord Byron. It should also be noted that Lamb is its immediacy: the pose is one with a the Gallery already possesses a portrait of Emily long tradition in the history of portraiture, which Lamb’s father, Peniston Lamb, st Viscount Lawrence nevertheless treats with a freshness Melbourne, who is represented in Stubbs’s group refl ected in the informality and economy of his portrait of the Milbanke and Melbourne and brushwork. He depicts the sixteen-year-old sitter families, usually hanging in Room .
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Provenance Commissioned by Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne; Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) his daughter, the sitter, Emily Lamb, Countess Cowper, later Portrait of the Hon. Emily Mary Lamb (1787–1869), Viscountess Palmerston (1787–1869); George Augustus Frederick later Countess Cowper and Viscountess Palmerston, 1803 Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper (1806–1856); Francis Thomas de Grey Oil on canvas, 45.7 x 50.8 cm Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper (1834–1905); by descent to Ettie, wife Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax of William Grenfell, Baron Desborough, and niece of Katrine, and allocated to the National Gallery, 2011, NG6617 wife of 7th Earl Cowper; her daughter Monica Grenfell; her son Julian J.W. Salmond (1926–2006).
Reference Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence: A Complete Catalogue of the Oil Paintings, Oxford 1989, p. 219, no. 462(b).
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In addition to the Landscape with Travellers and has climbed a craggy outcrop and clasps his hands Peasants on a Track, on loan to the National Gallery in prayer – as does a priest in a small skiff coming since , we are very fortunate to be able to show to the rescue. In the distance, the sky begins to two further paintings on copper by Jan Brueghel clear and rays of sunlight break through the dark the Elder. The second son of Pieter Bruegel the clouds overhead. Elder, Jan travelled to Italy around where, The second picture, Harbour Scene with Christ after a short sojourn in Naples, he settled in Rome preaching, signed and dated , was painted before following his most important patron, Cardinal shortly after Jan Brueghel’s return to Antwerp. Federico Borromeo, to Milan. He returned to Here, we are drawn into the composition by the Antwerp in , and both paintings, the Sea Storm two fi shermen sitting at the foot of a tree with their and Harbour Scene with Christ preaching, date from catch laid out in front of them. A third man, his around this period. They are superb representatives back turned to the viewer, directs their attention of the so-called cabinet picture, a small painting to the scene unfolding in the valley below. that one looks into rather than a gallery picture A crowd has begun to gather around one of the that one looks at. Jan Brueghel was perhaps the fi shing boats moored halfway up the coastline. greatest master of this genre and essential to his Bright sunlight illuminates the faces as old and achievement was the ability to condense sublime young are captivated by the words of Christ, phenomena into minimum compass – the vastness who addresses them with outstretched arms. of the ocean, the view of distant landscapes the In , Jan Brueghel repeated the composition spectacular meteorological conditions. on a larger scale in a painting on canvas, now in Probably the earlier of the two, the Sea Storm is the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, but it is the careful one of a small group of marine pictures reminiscent attention to detail and the intricacy of the small- of a work attributed to the painter’s father, Pieter scale version on copper that made his work so Bruegel the Elder, in the Kunsthistorisches sought after by collectors across Europe. In the Museum, Vienna. The sea has been whipped up National Gallery, the two paintings are now by a violent storm and several boats struggle with displayed to either side of the Cognoscenti in a Room the crashing waves, sails and rigging fl apping in hung with Pictures by an unknown Flemish artist the wind. In the foreground, one vessel has struck (NG), representing exactly the type of pictures a rock and the sailors, some of whom have been that were collected in Antwerp in the early thrown overboard, fi ght for their lives. A castaway seventeenth century.
NATG028_P0018EDngReview2012_13August.indd 18 14/08/2012 14:26 Top Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) Above Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) A Sea Storm, about 1595–6 Harbour Scene with Christ preaching, 1597 Oil on copper, 25.5 x 34.5 cm Oil on copper, 26.4 x 35.7 cm On loan from a private collection, L1111 On loan from a private collection, L1112
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Brabant determined to become a professional artist. His chosen subject was the local peasantry who found it hard to resist his insistence that they pose for him. He paid a modest fee, so why not? In a spate of creativity, over the next few months Van Gogh painted some forty portraits of the locals. They follow a format. Sitters, men and women, young and old, are shown from the shoulders up. Some are in profi le. All wear local peasant costume. Backgrounds are uniformly sombre and the heads, full of character and intensity, emerge abruptly from the darkness. Collectively, the Nuenen portraits constitute Van Gogh’s fi rst great achievement as a painter. The present work, which has recently come on long-term loan to the National Gallery, is one of the most appealing of this important group. The sitter, an attractive young woman, confronts her portrayer with a frank, even gaze. More than a peasant ‘type’, she is a vivid personality to whom the artist responds with evident sympathy. Largely Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) unseen in public since it was exhibited in Sweden Head of a Peasant Woman, about 1884 just after the Second World War, the painting Oil on canvas, 40.3 x 30.5 cm On loan from a private collection, L1123 contributes to the National Gallery’s ability to show Van Gogh far more adequately. Previously a central aspect of his achievement had been unrepresented, as none of the Gallery’s Van Goghs By Vincent van Gogh had failed at everything include fi gures. Moreover, all four are late works, he attempted by way of a career, including art painted in Provence and full of sun-blasted colour, dealing, magazine illustration and lay preaching. while this dark early canvas shows Vincent fi nding He had also left behind a long, exasperated wake his way in rain-swept Holland at the dawn of his of alienated friends, lovers, employers, teachers artistic career. It hangs in Room near youthful and family; his was a ‘diffi cult personality’ on an works by his contemporary Paul Cézanne (– epic scale. Late that year the no longer young ), whose early years also were full of diffi culty, Dutchman settled in the town of Nuenen in North doubt and artistic struggle.
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Hendrik Goltzius was one of the most internationally acclaimed artists of his day, and the most important representative of Dutch Mannerism. As his career developed, he moved towards a more classical style based on an intense observation of the natural world, particularly the human fi gure. Goltzius’s oeuvre was exceptionally varied. He was celebrated both for his virtuoso drawings on paper, parchment and canvas, and for his intricate, complex engravings and woodcuts that seemed to transcend the inherent limitations of the medium. In , at the age of forty-two, he abandoned printmaking and embarked on a career as a painter. Just over fi fty paintings are known, encompassing small, fi nely wrought works Hendrik Goltzius (1558–1617) Jupiter and Antiope, 1612 on copper and bigger works on panel and canvas. Oil on canvas, 122 x 178 cm Most are biblical or mythological scenes, focusing On loan from a private collection, L1098 on one or two large fi gures positioned close to the picture plane. They refl ect an amalgam of infl uences from Roman antiquity to the northern Renaissance as well as the work of contemporary The Gallery owns just three Dutch Mannerist artists (most notably Rubens), but are distinguished paintings: two large paintings by Cornelis by their impeccable draughtsmanship and a sensual Cornelisz. van Haarlem, and a small work on regard for the human form. copper by Joachim Wtewael. Goltzius, arguably Jupiter and Antiope is one of several large-scale the most gifted artist of the group, is not pictures of nudes that Goltzius made during his represented at all. Furthermore, the Gallery’s seventeen-year career as a painter. Jupiter, disguised holdings of history paintings, while of superb as a satyr, advances on the sleeping Antiope, his quality, do not fully represent the breadth or lascivious intent unmistakable. The voluptuousness variety of the genre in the Netherlands. The of Antiope’s naked body is accentuated by Goltzius’s opportunity to display Goltzius’s compellingly vivid palette and tactile rendering of surface sensual Jupiter and Antiope within the context of textures, the sculptural quality of the fi gures, and the permanent collection greatly enhance s the the many playful allusions to sex and sensuality Gallery’s ability to convey the rich diversity of scattered throughout the composition. Dutch painting of the Golden Age.
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.. ,
Head tilted back and chin slightly raised, the Portrait of a Woman is a characteristic work by subject of this compelling likeness stares moodily the enigmatic Monogrammist I.S., one of the most into the distance from beneath lowered eyelids. intriguing artists working in Rembrandt’s orbit. Vividly modelled with bold, creamy swirls of paint, A small group of paintings by the artist have been her strong features and ruddy skin suggest a recognised, several of which are signed with the personality that has met life’s challenges with initials ‘I.S.’. Dated paintings range between fortitude and stubborn determination. The painter and . Most depict a single, solemn fi gure at of this small but powerful image clearly shared half- or bust-length, usually wrapped in thick fur- Rembrandt’s fascination with physiognomies lined garments and often wearing exotic headgear: shaped by hardship, deprivation and old age. He typical for a tronie, a type of anonymous character recorded the woman’s weathered features, and study popular in the Netherlands throughout even the growth over her left eye, with precision the seventeenth century. Precise brushwork, and unsparing realism, yet one also senses the painstaking realism and an interest in exotic artist’s deep compassion for his subject. costumes suggest that this unidentifi ed painter was infl uenced by similar paintings made by Rembrandt and Gerrit Dou in Leiden about . In part because of the Slavic features and distinctive garments exhibited by the fi gures in his paintings, it has been suggested that the artist may have come to the Netherlands from Germany or the Baltic states. This penetrating character study by the Monogrammist I.S. adds an exciting dimension to the Gallery’s display of Dutch paintings from the fi rst half of the seventeenth century.
Monogrammist I.S. (active 1633–1658) Portrait of a Woman, facing left, mid-17th century Oil on canvas, laid on wood, 34 x 27 cm On loan from the Daniel Katz Family Trust, L1124
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François Lemoyne (–) was among the According to Saint Luke’s Gospel (: ) leading French artists of his generation. He completed the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would bear The Annunciation in , the same year as he jointly a child who would be called the Son of God. won a prestigious government competition for The subject was common in painting, but an history painting. Given to Winchester College in eighteenth-century French altarpiece in Britain by its then headmaster for the high altar, and of this or any other biblical episode is a rarity. still in excellent condition, The Annunciation was The composition creates a spiral around the recently rediscovered elsewhere in the College by vertical axis of Gabriel’s upraised arm. Within this Christopher Rowell (National Trust) and published spiral is another formed by the body of the angel. in The Burlington Magazine. Balancing this spiritually expressive motion are the verticals and horizontals of Mary’s desk and of the platform on which she kneels. These in turn are softened by the volute at the bottom of the desk and by the scroll of parchment, the wicker basket and cloth to the front of the platform. At the centre of the picture (heavenly) light strikes Mary’s forehead. The balance of shapes is matched by that of the primary colours: red and blue for Mary’s costume, and yellow for Gabriel’s cloak. Lemoyne uses a unifying pale grey-blue for the angel’s belt and the shadows of his costume, and for some of the clouds and fl oor tiles. Mary’s features – slightly slanted eyes, pointed nose and a fi rm triangular jaw – are traits of Lemoyne’s fi gures, but here their delicacy well suits Gabriel’s appellation to her: ‘Hail, full of grace…’ Lemoyne’s Annunciation hangs in Room . Among its more worldly neighbours it reveals a different aspect of French eighteenth-century painting.
François Lemoyne (1688–1737) The Annunciation, 1727 Oil on canvas, 208 x 127 cm On loan from Winchester College, L1122
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The Gallery is fortunate to have received on examination of the painting. David Ekserdjian, long-term loan a small devotional painting by in his recent monograph on the artist, pointed Parmigianino. It shows the Virgin seated in a out that the women’s fl ushed cheeks and the cool verdant landscape with the Christ Child and his metallic hues of their draperies are compatible infant cousin Saint John the Baptist. The young with works of the late s, towards the end female who attends them is Saint Mary Magdalene, of Parmigianino’s short life. identifi able by the miniature scene, top left, representing her Assumption. This event occurred towards the end of her life, after she withdrew as a hermit to Provence in southern France. In the foreground, in what appears to be Christ’s cradle, are attributes also presumably relating to the Magdalene: the discarded pearl necklaces looped over a pointed stiletto (for dressing hair) probably allude to her worldly life as a prostitute, which she renounced after she met Christ. A portion of her elaborately braided tresses, entwined with blue ribbon, cascades about her shoulder, a reminder of her tearful anointing of Christ’s feet, which she dried with her unbound locks. The painting may have been made for a patron devoted to the Magdalene and perhaps even named after her. The picture has a distinguished provenance, having been highly valued in the collection of Cardinal Antonio Barberini (–) and his heirs in Rome. Exported to England in the later eighteenth century, its reputation was quickly forgotten until Clovis Whitfi eld published it as Parmigianino in . Several scholars subsequently argued for an alternative attribution to Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (about – about –), a Parmesan painter who worked in the Parmigianino (1503–1540) studio of Parmigianino’s uncle and married his The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Saint Mary Magdalene, about 1535–40 cousin. However, scholarly consensus in favour Oil on paper on wood, 78.4 x 61.7 cm of Parmigianino has been established by physical On loan from a private collection, L1113
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Following the success in the summer of of Norwegian of his friend and Dresden mentor, the the exhibition Forests, Rocks, Torrents: Norwegian great German landscape artist Caspar David Friedrich and Swiss Landscapes from the Lunde Collection (see (–). In Room the paintings hang beside pp. –), Asbjørn Lunde of New York graciously Friedrich’s Winter Landscape of about (NG). agreed to the Director’s request that four paintings Alexandre Calame (–) was as central to from his collection, two Swiss, two Norwegian, Swiss landscape painting as Dahl had been for the remain on long-term loan at the National Gallery. Norwegians. In the mid-nineteenth century his All four were immediately transferred to Room Alpine scenes established for him a worldwide where they hang now among works by Corot, reputation as the master of mountains par excellence. Courbet, Friedrich and Købke, greatly extending At Handeck of about , small in scale but the Gallery’s ability to represent the modern monumental in conception, depicts a single, European landscape tradition. gnarled pine tree silhouetted against distant peaks, Two of the works are by Johan Christian Dahl the valley fl oor far below, like nothing so much as (–), the father of modern Norwegian a lonely sentinel guarding ancient Swiss freedoms. painting who was previously unrepresented at the Chalets at Rigi of shows simple stone huts high Gallery. The Lower Falls of the Labrofoss of depicts on a mountainside, so worn with age they seem to tumbling cataracts and signs of primitive logging have settled into the landscape like emanations of operations deep in the Norwegian interior. The artist nature itself. In both, the crisp Alpine atmosphere adopts an audacious point of view directly in front is succinctly evoked. of the waterfall, which seems to spill into the viewer’s If these four subtle and accomplished paintings space carrying logs and spray with it. Among much expand the representation of landscape at the else, the painting is evidence of the speed with which Gallery, they also serve as a signal of directions Dahl’s fame spread across Europe in his lifetime, as in which the collection should grow. While the it seems to have been painted for a Mr Bracebridge core of the nineteenth-century collection remains of London, about whom little is known. French, the wider European achievement should The second Dahl, View over Hallingdal, also a scene be more fully represented here as well.
from the Norwegian wilderness, was painted a For reproductions of The Lower Falls of the Labrofoss and generation later, in . Like Labrofoss, it too was Chalets at Rigi see p. 39 executed in Dahl’s Dresden studio, far from Norway but based on studies made on the artist’s many trips home. With its symmetrical composition, moody purple tonalities and subtle use of aerial perspective it also evokes the profound infl uence on the
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– Gallery’s collectionofGermanpaintings. from Cologne,oneofthestrengths in thecontextofotherfifteenth-century pictures in theNationalGalleryallowsittobepresented seen foradecadeinLondon.Itscurrentdisplay Walker ArtGalleryinLiverpool,buthasnotbeen triptych hasbeendisplayedmostrecentlyatthe to theNationalGalleryin.Thereconstituted acquired byEdwardShipperdson,whopresentedit Newcastle merchant,MrDixon,wassubsequently , whilethecentralpanel,originallyboughtbya acquired bytheLiverpoolRoyalInstitutein– interest intheGothicstyle.Theshutterswere paintings weresoldtocollectorstakinganew when Germanchurchesweresecularisedandmany became separatedintheearlynineteenthcentury, altarpiece (nowinAachenCathedral).They anonymous GermanartistnamedaftertheAachen century Colognetriptycharetheworkof The threepanelsofthisimportantlatefifteenth- ;; the altarashecelebratesmass. Christ appearstoPopeGregorytheGreaton Gregory, inwhichthefigure ofthecrucifi ed shutter isdepictedthemiracleofMassSaint may betheirsons.Onthereverseofleft-hand The threeyoungmenlookingthroughascreen praying onthereverseofright-handshutter. Rinck andhiswifeGertrudvonDallemareshown intended forthecity’schurchofSaintColumba. Cologne, whodiedin,anditwasprobably prosperous merchantHermannRinck,Mayorof events beforeandjustafterhisCrucifixion. cross. Similarly,thescenesonshuttersshow on therighthisbodyistakendownfrom Christ carriesthecross,fallingunderitsweight; includes otherepisodesinthestory.Onleft, John standsontheright.Thebusybackground Holy Womenmournthecrucified Christ;Saint The altarpiecewascommissionedbythe In thecentralsceneVirginandthree W National MuseumsLiverpool, Shutters onloanfrom 1847, NG1049 Presented byEdwardShipperdson, The NationalGallery 109.1 x54.2cm;106.854cm Oil onoak,107.3x120.3cm; about 1490–5 The Lamentation(rightshutter), Christ beforePilate(leftshutter), The Crucifixion (centralpanel), 16th century) (active late15thtoearly Master oftheAachenAltarpiece alker ArtGallery, L918.1–2 , London. 21/08/2012 09:47
Detail through the microscope from Quinten Massys, The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Four Angels, around 1495 (NG6282) (see pp. 70–1) NATG028_P0026EDngReview2012_13August.indd 27 14/08/2012 14:27 –
’
The Conservation Department has recently begun be kept fl at while still being allowed to expand and a major project to examine and treat a panel by contract in response to changes in environmental Giovanni Martini da Udine – The Virgin and Child relative humidity. While this occasionally did with Saints George, James the Greater and a Donor occur as envisaged, more often the treatment had (NG; fi g. ), probably dating from the fi rst disastrous consequences. Thinning of the original quarter of the sixteenth century. The work is wooden structure usually resulted in a panel that a notable example of an altarpiece from Friuli was both quicker to respond to changes in in a British collection. Acquired by the National environment and less robust in its ability to Gallery in , the image has been greatly withstand anything constraining its movement. obscured by accumulated layers of grime and Moreover, the applied cradle structure could discoloured varnish, while the panel also suffers cause new structural weaknesses between the from considerable weaknesses in its structure. areas of the panel that were held rigid and those The painting has not been on display in the that were freer in their movement. In this case main fl oor galleries for several decades. the problem was exacerbated by another campaign As usual, before treatment began the panel was of further localised restraining reinforcements thoroughly documented and investigated using applied between the panel joins of the original non-invasive imaging techniques, including cradle structure. The rippled, washboard surface X-radiography and infrared refl ectography, all of the painting, with its many splits and cracks, is of which made clear the nature of the challenges entirely the result of these misguided treatments to be faced in the restoration. Sometime before ( fi g . ). Removal of the injurious cradle is acquisition the panel was drastically thinned and therefore essential for the preservation of the reinforced with an interlocking (theoretically) painting; however, in its present state the original moveable wooden structure known as a ‘cradle’ panel is no longer robust enough to support itself ( fi g . ). This practice was common in the without some sort of auxiliary support. Designing nineteenth and early twentieth centuries across a system that combines the necessary combination much of Europe and North America, employed in of rigidity and fl exibility, while avoiding undue the misguided belief that the thinned panel could restraint, is particularly complicated for large-
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1 Giovanni Martini da Udine 2 The reverse of the panel, (about 1470–5; died 1535) showing the attached cradle The Virgin and Child with Saints George, and other added elements. James the Greater and a Donor, about 1500 (before treatment) Oil on wood, 247.7 x 144.8 cm The National Gallery, London, NG778
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3 The front, seen in raking light, showing the pattern of cracks and rippling caused by the cradling process.
4–5 X-radiography of the angel shows the extent of retouched losses, largely the result of crude earlier structural treatments, which were uncovered during the recent cleaning.
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6–7 Infrared refl ectography has revealed modifi cations in the donor’s portrait, which was fi rst drawn in three-quarter view.
scale thinned panels such as The Virgin and Child preservation than might have been expected, with Saints. with old fi llings and retouchings applied over The earlier panel treatments also included and beyond the damages themselves to cover associated cleaning and restoration campaigns, signifi cant amounts of original paint. The cool, some of which were made necessary by those blonder palette beneath is in keeping with other same crude structural treatments, for example known examples of the painter’s work still the butterfl y-shaped wooden inserts placed across present in Italy (fi g. ). There are also interesting the panel joins, with associated losses of original technical features and problems within the paint (fi gs. –). The X-radiography and infrared paint materials themselves, such as the changed investigation made clear the extent of these losses condition of the Virgin’s blue mantle and the before the beginning of the cleaning process, which presence of degraded orpiment and realgar – was further informed by collaborative investigation relatively unusual pigments that are often of materials and layer structures undertaken with associated with paintings infl uenced by the Scientifi c Department as the cleaning has Venetian practice. The study of Venetian advanced. Infrared refl ectography has also shown painting has recently been identifi ed as a new interesting modifi cations made as the painting area of concentrated research activity across progressed, such as the change in the donor’s the Gallery, and the ongoing investigation into portrait from a three-quarter view to a pure profi le materials and methods undertaken with the (fi gs. –). The cleaning revealed that the original Scientifi c Department will be closely linked paint is generally in a much better state of to curatorial research.
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8 The painting during restoration, showing the cooler palette of the cleaned areas.
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Restoration work on the painting is likely the Virgin and Child with Saints, while undertaken to continue for some years, but progress so far solely by Gallery staff, will in turn stimulate helpful and the larger scope of the project itself also discussion and exchange among those experts. provide a better understanding of the work of the The treatment therefore promises much for Conservation Department as a whole. The newly the Gallery: the painting recovered for the appointed Conservation Fellow, Nele Bordt, is public benefi t and the continued professional leading the practical treatment alongside another development of the conservators involved, the conservator who is primarily responsible for the department as a whole, and the profession in complex structural treatment. The undertaking general. is therefore notable for two aspects beyond the execution of the treatment itself: the inauguration of an advanced fellowship position in conservation, Pictures cleaned and restored in the supported by Sarah and David Kowitz, and the Conservation Department 2011–2012 Bakhuizen A Beach Scene with Fishermen, NG818 department’s participation in an international Bakhuizen Dutch Men-of-war entering programme of collaboration and professional a Mediterranean Port, NG1050 exchange in the fi eld of structural conservation Lippi The Adoration of the Kings, NG1124 Netscher Portrait of a Lady, NG4790 of panel paintings. The Gallery’s new fellowship Poussin The Nurture of Bacchus, NG39 position fulfi ls a long-held ambition to incorporate Attributed to Titian Portrait of a Man advanced conservation training within the (Girolamo Fracastoro?), NG3949 Van de Velde Golfers on the Ice near Haarlem, NG869 workings of the department, and is explicitly Attributed to Venusti The Holy Family (Il Silenzio), NG1227 described within its core strategic planning document as part of its commitment to a ‘full but Other paintings treated Jan Gossaert Hercules and Deianira, X6583, fl exible programme for conservation, supported The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham by objective scientifi c study’. The fellowship will last for two years, and is designed to give Supporters 2011–2012 Sarah & David Kowitz individuals the opportunity to develop their professional skills in the context of the Gallery’s rich tradition of interdisciplinary cooperation between conservators, scientists and curators. The structural treatment will be undertaken in the context of the department’s involvement in the Getty Foundation’s Panel Painting Initiative. Designed to facilitate collaboration and know- ledge transfer in this highly specialised area of conservation, the Getty programme aims ‘to create new avenues for training emerging and mid-career professionals, to notch up advanced practitioners, and to increase knowledge on panel preservation’. Under its auspices, Gallery staff have spent time visiting and working with specialists from the Metropolitan Museum, the Prado and the Opifi cio delle Pietre Dure in Florence. The treatment of
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Only two of the National Gallery’s group of fi ve found that they were an exact fi t for two paintings by the Venetian eighteenth-century artist of the Gallery’s paintings. Pietro Longhi have retained their original frames. The newly acquired frames now frame Among the others is the very popular painting of An Interior with Three Women and a Seated Man Clara the rhinoceros (a great eighteenth-century (NG) and A Lady receiving a Cavalier celebrity in Europe), which was previously displayed (NG), which hang at either end of the group. in an unsuitable nineteenth-century frame. They are unrestored and almost perfectly preserved Longhi’s fi ve paintings of Venetian genre with beautifully accentuated matt and burnished scenes are not part of a series but they usually gilding. The lost inner edge of a further damaged hang together. The frames therefore ought to be frame was re-carved and adapted for the slightly harmonious and similar, but ideally not exactly the smaller format of Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice same. Two of the pictures have original ‘Longhi’ (NG). This seemed the best solution because frames: A Fortune Teller at Venice (NG) and this frame is slightly wider, thus both emphasising A Nobleman kissing a Lady’s Hand (NG). There the most famous painting in the group and are various frame styles named after a particular achieving a unity of the outside dimensions of artist, but most serve only as descriptive shortcuts all fi ve Longhis. The resulting display is not only and are rarely founded on a known connection historically appropriate but also fulfi ls our aim to the artist (Sansovino, Herrera, Salvator Rosa, to achieve harmony without uniformity. Carlo Maratta, Lely and Canaletto for example). The acquisition and restoration of the three However, we are justifi ed in linking this type frames was fully funded by the generous support of frame with Longhi, since two of his paintings of James and Clare Kirkman. We were very are in their original frames. Furthermore, we can fortunate to attract support from individual donors identify an identical frame in the background for several projects this year, some still in progress. of A Nobleman kissing a Lady’s Hand (NG). Over half of the National Gallery’s frame Longhi painted many Venetian scenes of this size acquisitions would not have been possible and when we acquired two ‘Longhi’ frames we without their help.
NATG028_P0032EDngReview2012_13August.indd 34 14/08/2012 14:27 –
Pietro Longhi, Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice, probably 1751 (NG1101), in the new ‘Longhi’ frame
Pietro Longhi, A Nobleman kissing Pietro Longhi, Exhibition of a Rhinoceros a Lady’s Hand, about 1746 (NG5852), at Venice, detail of the new frame detail of the original ‘Longhi’ frame in the background of the painting
NATG028_P0032EDngReview2012_13August.indd 35 14/08/2012 14:27 Pietro Longhi’s fi ve paintings of Venetian genre scenes hanging in Room 39, from left to right: An Interior with Three Women and a Seated Man (NG1100), A Nobleman kissing a Lady’s Hand (NG5852), Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice (NG1101), A Fortune Teller at Venice (NG1334) and A Lady receiving a Cavalier (NG5841).
Paintings reframed in 2011–2012 Supporters 2011–2012 Mr L. Chase Framed with newly acquired antique frames Mr Colin Clark Bilivert Saint Zenobius revives a Dead Boy, NG1282 Mr Juan Corbella Cima The Virgin and Child, NG300 Ms Gabriela Galcerán Montal & Mr Ball Costa Portrait of Battista Fiera, NG2083 Miss Elizabeth Floyd Hobbema The Haarlem Lock, Amsterdam, NG6138 Dr David R. Ives F.R.C.P. Longhi An Interior with Three Women and a Seated Man, Mr & Mrs Robert Johnson NG1100 James & Clare Kirkman Longhi A Lady receiving a Cavalier, NG5841 Sarah & David Kowitz Millet Mountain Landscape with Lightning, NG5593 Walter & Barbara Marais Murillo Self Portrait, NG6153 The Basil Samuel Charitable Trust Poussin The Nurture of Bacchus, NG39 Mr Matthew Santos & Mrs Mary Kuusisto Seisenegger Portrait of a Girl, NG4206 Mr Adrian Sassoon Steen A Young Woman Playing a Harpsichord to a Young Man, Mr Nick Segal & Ms Genevieve Muinzer NG856 Sir Angus & Lady Stirling Uccello Saint George and the Dragon, NG6294 Van de Velde Golfers on the Ice near Haarlem, NG869 Zurbarán Saint Francis in Meditation, NG230
Framed from Gallery stock Longhi, Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice, NG1101 Attributed to Titian Portrait of a Man (Girolamo Fracastoro?), NG3949
Frame reproductions Associate of Leonardo da Vinci An Angel in Green with a Vieile, NG1661 Associate of Leonardo da Vinci An Angel in Red with a Lute, NG1662 Leonardo da Vinci The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant John the Baptist (‘The Burlington House Cartoon’), NG6337 Marco d’Oggiono Portrait of a Man aged 20 (‘The Archinto Portrait’), NG1665 Rembrandt Belshazzar’s Feast, NG6350 Detail from Robert Campin, A Woman , about 1435 (NG653.2) (see pp. 70–1)
NATG028_P0032EDngReview2012_13August.indd 36 14/08/2012 14:27 NATG028_P0032EDngReview2012_13August.indd 37 14/08/2012 14:27 – , , : –
Asbjørn Lunde, a New York lawyer of Norwegian Among them are small-scale works painted descent, began to collect nineteenth-century far from Norway in the dazzling sun of Italy – Norwegian landscape paintings in the late s. the Norwegians were indefatigable travellers He focused his attention on the leading realist – and, in Fearnley’s case, at Derwentwater in masters beginning with Johan Christian Dahl the English Lake District as well. (–) from whom the Norwegian tradition Some twenty-fi ve years later, in the s, largely sprang. Although Dahl spent most of his Lunde, an inveterate mountain walker, began to career in Germany, he returned often to his collect eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Swiss homeland, touring, sketching and collecting landscape paintings, with an emphasis on realistic motifs for ambitious paintings executed back in depictions of Alpine themes. As with his Norwegian his Dresden studio. His Lower Falls of the Labrofoss collection, he sought out works large and small by of , showing a rugged Norwegian landscape the leading masters. These include some sixteen barely touched by the hand of man, was paintings by Alexandre Calame (–), commissioned by an early British admirer. a giant of world art during his lifetime whose Dahl also inspired generations of countrymen reputation had been in eclipse since his death. to take up Norwegian landscape themes, including Lunde cares little for such vagaries of taste and in his greatest pupil, the short-lived Thomas Fearnley his enthusiasm for Calame’s virtuoso technique (–), and the highly original Peder Balke and pantheistic vision, has been at the forefront of (–), long forgotten outside Norway but a revival of interest in the artist. Works range from today increasingly appreciated as one of the most quick oil sketches to simple and arresting depictions original Scandinavian painters of the age. Lunde of Alpine motifs like Chalets at Rigi of , to formed important groups of paintings by these panoramic renderings of mountain torrents and seminal fi gures and others, including no fewer than wind-lashed forests. Calame’s precursors, such as eleven Dahls and an equal number of Fearnleys. Caspar Wolf (–), and followers including
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Left Johan Christian Dahl (1788–1857) The Lower Falls of the Labrofoss, 1827 Oil on canvas, 51 x 66 cm On loan from the American Friends of the National Gallery, London Inc., courtesy of Asbjørn Lunde, L1131
Below Alexandre Calame (1810–1864) Chalets at Rigi, 1861 Oil on canvas, 40.6 x 62.2 cm On loan from the Collection of Asbjørn Lunde, L1128
Johann Gottfried Steffan (–), a brilliant to arise in Europe. Even though the economic, Calame pupil whose subtle sense of colour, however, social and political conditions were very different is entirely his own, are also richly represented. in Norway and Switzerland, each saw artists in the Forests, Rocks, Torrents – the title of the exhibition years around begin to use landscape painting evokes Goethe’s encomium of nature in Faust – as a vehicle to explore their homelands and their brought together fi fty-one paintings from Lunde’s respective places in the world. Three paintings in Norwegian and Swiss collections. The point was the exhibition evoked the resonant moment when not only to celebrate a collector of unique and the two traditions touched; returning from Italy, original sensibility, although that would have been the Norwegian Fearnley spent the summer of reason enough, but also to trace the development in Switzerland painting the distinctive mountains and compare the achievements of two of the and Alpine passes that at the same time reminded earliest traditions of national landscape painting him of his distant northern home.
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The second of the new series of summer evoke the experience of seeing altarpieces inside exhibitions drawn from the National Gallery’s an Italian Renaissance church. The paintings were permanent collection coincided with the Sainsbury illuminated within a darkened space and some Wing’s twentieth anniversary. Devotion by Design were raised up on altar-like structures and even examined Italian altarpieces – the backdrops to furnished with an altar cross and candles. Liturgical church altars – from to , one of the key music was played in the background. Consideration groups of objects that the Sainsbury Wing was built was also given to the history of these objects to house. The outstanding altarpieces in the National following their removal from the churches for Gallery are normally presented as independent which they were made. artworks rather than functional items of devotional Devotion by Design drew on a wealth of scientifi c furniture. As a result visitors have little or no sense and scholarly research produced by the Gallery’s of their original use and setting. To complicate curators, conservators and scientists. In particular, matters further, many of the panels come from it was designed to highlight the work done for the larger but fragmented altarpieces. In these cases magisterial catalogue of the Italian Paintings before the other elements of the structure are either by Dr Dillian Gordon OBE, published during destroyed or dispersed. the run of the exhibition. However, as with every The exhibition, which was supported by The exhibition at the National Gallery, it also posed new Jerusalem Trust with additional support from a research questions, such as those presented by the number of donors, aspired to enable visitors to confusing structure of Saint Paul, by the Master of encounter this part of the Gallery’s collection in a the Pala Sforzesca. During technical examinations new way, and to reach a better understanding of the the current painting support was seen to be inter-related questions of how and why altarpieces composed of two separate wooden panels. A were made. Several examples, including Giovanni conventional X-ray image showed three nails dal Ponte’s Ascension of John the Evangelist, were embedded somewhere in the structure – invisible displayed free-standing, in order that their physical from the front and the back of the panel – and it structures could be examined and appreciated. In was proposed that a CAT scan, which gives X-ray other cases, later frames were removed, revealing images in three dimensions, be carried out. Scans clues as to the intended original appearance or of the picture made at the Princess Grace Hospital setting of panels. Virtual reconstructions of (with the support of General Electrics) clarifi ed the disassembled altarpieces set surviving fragments situation. The nails (the three white dots) are clearly in context. The altarpiece was not a static concept, within the upper (original) wood. They are not and the exhibition also addressed the question original but added as part of a repair before the of its stylistic and technical evolution. second panel was attached. We await further In the central room of the Sainsbury Wing and equally fascinating discoveries. exhibition galleries, an attempt was made to
NATG028_P0040EDngReview2012_21August.indd 40 21/08/2012 09:48 Above Installation view showing Giovanni dal Ponte’s Ascension of John the Evangelist Altarpiece, about 1420–4 (NG580)
Far left Master of the Pala Sforzesca, Saint Paul, about 1490–5 (NG3899)
Left Two CAT scans of the Master of the Pala Sforzesca’s Saint Paul: coronal image, with the nails just visible, and axial image showing the location of the three nails within the original wood.
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The exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the in favour of the model used in the Paris painting. Court of Milan, sponsored by Credit Suisse, has One of the most interesting discoveries revealed been the most popular ever to be mounted in the during the scientifi c symposium Leonardo da National Gallery. Of all the experiences it provided Vinci’s Technical Practice: Paintings, Drawings and none surpassed the opportunity to ponder the Infl uence, organised by the National Gallery confrontation of the National Gallery’s Virgin of (– January ), was the new refl ectography the Rocks with the version from the Louvre in Paris. of the Louvre’s painting. In this picture the angel’s The paintings were displayed facing each other hand, pointing to Saint John the Baptist and in the central room. emphasising his already prominent position, does The story of these two paintings is one of the not seem to be part of the fi rst drawing but was most complex problems in the history of art and probably added when the work was in progress. the public was challenged to discover more about This demonstrates that the two versions depend these images, at once similar and yet so different. on the same original idea and are closer than The fundamental diffi culty is well known. There previously realised. exist two pictures with similar dimensions and Nine of Leonardo’s paintings, all belonging composition, but in the Milanese Confraternity to his fi rst Milanese period, were assembled in of the Immaculate Conception ordered only one this exhibition for the fi rst time, together with painting for their altar in the church of San Francesco many related autograph drawings. But Leonardo Grande. None of the documents found in the was not the only presence, and several of the most Milanese archives helps to answer this question. important works by contemporary painters such The version in Paris is clearly earlier in style than the as Giovanni Antonio Boltraffi o, Marco d’Oggiono, one in London, leading some scholars to propose that Francesco Napoletano and the Master of the there had been a substitution, for various hypothetical Pala Sforzesca were also exhibited. reasons, between the paintings. Others suggested that Boltraffi o has surely been the most interesting Leonardo replicated for the Confraternity a previous rediscovery among the so-called ‘Leonardesque’ invention already used for another commission, artists, and the paintings and drawings on display adding some variations. created a kind of exhibition within the exhibition. After many discussions concerning chronology, His remarkably precise metalpoint drawings style and interpretation of the documents, showed that he was the most skilful of Leonardo’s scientifi c investigations recently conducted in pupils, as well as being the only one able to London and Paris have shed new light on the assimilate this diffi cult technique, which was problem. A few years ago the National Gallery uncommon in Milan at that time. Moreover, discovered that the underdrawing of the London his paintings, both sacred subjects and portraits, version shows a very different composition, demonstrated how his style evolved precociously which was quickly abandoned by Leonardo in response to the innovations of his master.
NATG028_P0038EDngReview2012_13August.indd 42 14/08/2012 14:28 Above Giovanni Antonio Boltraffi o (about 1467–1516) Head of a Young Woman, about 1495–7 Metalpoint heightened with white on grey prepared paper, 15 x 12.4 cm Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 1955.1470
Right Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) The Virgin of the Rocks (detail), 1483–about 1485 Oil on wood, transferred to canvas, 199 x 122 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris, 777
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Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude, supported by (now owned by Tate) in which he dramatised the Corporate Members of the National Gallery, the dashed hopes of the Carthaginian empire was organised in collaboration with Tate Britain against what he himself termed an ‘ensanguined’ and with the Turner expert Ian Warrell. It was the sunset. This was a chance to visualise Turner’s fi rst major exhibition to focus on the relationship initial concept, set out in his will as early as , between the two artists, and provided the that these two Carthaginian paintings should opportunity for the public to gain a fresh insight hang alongside two by Claude; he later changed into the Gallery’s juxtaposition of two paintings his mind in favour of Sun rising through Vapour, by Turner with two by Claude in Room , as also shown in the same room. stipulated by a clause in Turner’s will of . The exhibition proposed that the inspiration The fi rst room of the exhibition enabled the of Claude continued to be in the forefront of viewer to see through Turner’s eyes one of the Turner’s imagination throughout his career. pair of great Claudes acquired by William Beckford This was made most vivid in the main room of in from the Altieri collection in Rome, both the exhibition where the Keelmen heaving in Coals kindly lent from Anglesey Abbey by the National by Night of , generously lent by the National Trust. The sketch Landscape with the Arrival of Gallery of Art, Washington DC, showed Turner Aeneas (Tate), which Turner made on a visit to inverting Claude’s sunshine in favour of cool Beckford’s country house, Fonthill Abbey in moonlight deliberately contrasted with a series Wiltshire, was displayed in a case directly in front of small fi res illuminating men loading coal on of Claude’s painting, its model. It is notable for the the River Tyne. Such a treatment of a modern absence of the boat and fi gures featured in Claude’s industrial subject could not have been imagined composition, demonstrating how Turner informed without the precedent of Claude, and indeed of his understanding of the way in which Claude’s Claude’s own models, the different light sources landscapes were composed through a sequence of recalling works by Adam Elsheimer, which carefully controlled and illuminated vistas. Other Claude might have seen in Rome in the early sketches by Turner were shown in this room and seventeenth century. the next, where a computer presentation allowed The very last room of the exhibition displayed visitors to look at a sequence of pages in an adjacent the small landscape roundel that Turner himself sketchbook and to relate them to paintings on display. owned, and which was then erroneously believed In the second room of the exhibition, the great to be a work by Claude himself. This room told Claude Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of the story of Turner’s bequest to the nation through Sheba, one of the works in the collection of John both images and documents, and included, along Julius Angerstein purchased to found the National with the Gallery’s own copy of his will, the Gallery in was, as usual, shown next to Keeper Ralph Wornum’s diary showing the entry another harbour scene, Turner’s Dido building recording the hanging of the Turners at the Gallery Carthage, in which the later artist mimics the in as well as correspondence between the suffused radiance of the centrally positioned sun. National Gallery and the Tate as recently as . Displayed with Turner’s painting was its pendant
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Top Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) Above Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire, 1817 Carthaginian Empire, 1815 Oil on canvas, 170.2 x 238.8 cm Oil on canvas, 155.5 x 230 cm Tate, London. Accepted by the nation as part The National Gallery, London, Turner Bequest, of the Turner Bequest, 1856, N00499 1856, NG498
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Above François-Hubert Drouais (1727–1775) Le Comte de Vaudreuil, 1758 Oil on canvas, 225.4 x 161.3 cm The National Gallery, London, NG4253
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The Sainsbury Wing exhibition Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude provided the opportunity for a temporary display in Room , the octagonal space usually dedicated to Turner’s Bequest. This centred on the Comte de Vaudreuil (–), portrayed in the National Gallery’s painting by François-Hubert Drouais, and aimed to give visitors a taste of an art collection in Paris in the s. The portrait was accompanied by a selection of the Dutch paintings that once belonged to Vaudreuil, one of the leading collectors of the time – Jan Wijnants (NG), Adriaen van Ostade (NG), Jan Steen (NG), Jacob van Ruisdael (NG) – as well as several works belonging to some of his French contemporaries – Nicholaes Berchem (NG and NG), Aelbert Cuyp (NG), Gabriel Metsu (NG), Willem van de Velde (NG). Vaudreuil gained his prominent position in Parisian society thanks to his aristocratic status and to the wealth he generated from sugar plantations in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). His advancement at court was secured through the purchase of military offi ce and by Installation view of the display: The Comte de Vaudreuil: his friendship with the Duchesse de Polignac, the Courtier and Collector favourite of Queen Marie-Antoinette, and with the Comte d’Artois, brother of King Louis XVI. His fi rst collection, as others in Paris, was assembled with the advice of the dealer Jean- paintings. He acquired both works by fashionable Baptiste Pierre Le Brun and included mostly Dutch contemporary painters, such as the reduced size and Flemish works. As well as their inherent interest version of David’s Oath of the Horatii (Toledo as individual works of art, these paintings had a Museum of Art), and those from the past, such as decorative function, being hung according to size Poussin’s Bacchanalian Revel before a Term (NG). and symmetry rather than by subject or chronology. Overall, the display allowed the National In Vaudreuil became one of the fi rst Gallery to present an example of French collectors’ collectors in Paris to focus entirely on French taste just before the French Revolution.
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Over the past year the National Gallery has any ultraviolet light, which is damaging to installed new LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting paintings and other fragile works of art. LEDs in all of the rooms in the Sainsbury Wing. By have the further advantage of using up to % spring , the Wilkins Building will also have less energy than conventional lighting and also been entirely re-lit by this new method. LEDs are have very extended lifetimes, signifi cantly unlike conventional incandescent or fl uorescent lowering the cost of maintenance. lamps, being solid-state semiconductors that emit The Gallery is one of the fi rst institutions in the light very effi ciently when an electric current is world to use this type of lighting in conjunction passed through them. They are particularly suitable with a computerised system that automatically for museums and galleries since they do not emit adjusts external roof blinds according to the
The new LED lighting installed in Room 6
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amount and angle of incoming daylight. As the LED lamps can be dimmed with no change in – the quality of their light output (that is, whether it is relatively ‘warm’ or ‘cool’ in tone), and as the Take One Picture: A Display of Work by Primary Schools Inspired system is designed slowly to augment the amount by the Workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio’s ‘Tobias and the Angel’ 11 May – 25 September 2011 of light coming through the blinds, the constant Room G and smooth adjustment of daylight and artifi cial Supported by The Dorset Foundation and The Tavolozza light is almost imperceptible. In addition, with Foundation this control system in place, rooms can often Forests, Rocks, Torrents: Norwegian and Swiss Landscapes from be illuminated by natural light alone. the Lunde Collection 22 June – 18 September 2011 As a preliminary to this programme of new Sunley Room lighting, the Gallery’s Scientifi c Department Supported with a gift from Mr Mortis Skaugen in honour of the conducted tests to ensure that LEDs would be Kistefos Museum in Norway and its founder Mr Christen Sveaas safe for paintings. These showed that although Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500 6 July – 2 October 2011 the new lights have a higher blue content than Sainsbury Wing the tungsten–halogen lamps they replace, With support from The Jerusalem Trust the overall exposure of paintings to the light Additional donations from Goldman Sachs Gives, Hugues and Emmanuelle Lepic, José-Ramón & Mantina López-Portillo, energy content is lower than for conventional Walter & Barbara Marais, Mr & Mrs Richard Thornton and illumination. They are therefore a better choice The Weinstock Fund from a conservation point of view. National Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake at the National Gallery Gallery curators, conservators, scientists and 27 July – 30 October 2011 Room 1 lighting experts fi rst made an assessment of LED Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan lighting at the National Portrait Gallery, which 9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012 has installed this system in several rooms; this was Sainsbury Wing followed by experimental trials in several rooms Sponsored by Credit Suisse at the National Gallery. While the energy saving Touring Exhibition: Titian’s Diana and Actaeon and conservation advantages were clear, it was also Liverpool: 13 January – 26 February 2012 Norwich: 3 March – 15 April 2012 fortunate that curators judged the new lighting to Cardiff: 19 April – 17 June 2012
be aesthetically successful. Based on these trials, the Titian’s Diana and Callisto Gallery decided to convert all its rooms in which 1 March – 1 July 2012 pictures are on public view. When the programme Room 1 is complete, the collection will be displayed in The Comte de Vaudreuil: Courtier and Collector 7 March – 12 June 2012 a way that not only uses daylight more fully, but Room 15 also approximates its effects more closely when Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude supplementary artifi cial lighting is required. We 14 March – 5 June 2012 hope this new lighting will improve the public’s Sainsbury Wing enjoyment of the paintings. At the same time, the Supported by the Corporate Members of the National Gallery LED installation will have the important benefi t The National Gallery would also like to thank the Trustees of of reducing the Gallery’s emission of carbon The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation for their generous dioxide by over tonnes each year. support of the 2011–12 Sunley Room Exhibitions Programme.
NATG028_P0044EDngReview2012_13August.indd 49 14/08/2012 14:28 – The evening series of talks, panel discussions and and heart surgeon Francis Wells’s conversation events accompanying Leonardo da Vinci: Painter with Martin Clayton from the Royal Collection at the Court of Milan proved a notable highlight about the anatomical accuracy of some of Leonardo of the year. The programme refl ected Leonardo’s da Vinci’s drawings. The discussion was illuminated relentless curiosity by exploring his life and work by close examination of his ‘composite’ anatomies, from multiple angles. in which human adult organs are combined with One discussion considered the role of biography human foetal and bovine organs. Although these in understanding the work of an artist, focusing look fantastical, they are anatomically and on the diffi culties in overcoming the received analytically accurate. Wells asserted that Leonardo’s wisdom that so often dominates public perception deep appreciation of the anatomy and physiology of of well-known fi gures. Leonardo’s world was the body has often been overlooked, noting that his also explored through dance and music, providing revelatory observation of the way heart valves open audiences with an experiential approach to and close has infl uenced modern-day heart understanding the artist and his work. A historian operations. The breathtaking juxtaposition of of dance, a musicologist, musicians and dancers MRI scans of a beating heart with Leonardo’s helped to recreate some of the rituals and diversions studies of the human heart elucidated the ways of the Milanese court in which he served. in which the artist continues to inspire younger Art met science in artist Deanna Petherbridge generations of scientists and artists.
:
On October over people of all ages, from all sides, imagining the angles that were over half of them families, attended a special not shown in the painting, such as the top or National Gallery event entitled Boxing Clever – profi le of a head. Ten-minute talks were provided part of a whole week of Big Draw activities. on the works by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese Inspired by paintings in the Gallery, participants which served as models for some of these drew sections of fi gures on white cardboard boxes drawings. The exercise with the boxes was and then stacked them to create seemingly cubist accessible to everyone and British sign language or surrealist forms. Visitors with extra imagination interpretation supported all talks and activities were encouraged to draw their chosen subject on the day.
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How can one National Gallery painting ignite the Glass Centre. Next they sandblasted and enamelled imagination and curiosity of young people across their creations, cut dichroic glass (which refl ects the United Kingdom? These iridescent fi sh by different colours) for the eyes, and fi nally fi red pupils at Lingey House Primary School, Gateshead, them. The children described their work as a living on view in the Take One Picture display, were sculpture, as the fi sh were constantly on the move. just some of the many responses to Tobias and the This fl agship programme for primary schools is Angel (–) by the workshop of Andrea del made possible through the generous support Verrocchio. Pupils studied and drew fi sh before of The Dorset Foundation and The Tavalozza reproducing their designs in glass at the National Foundation.
Glass fi sh by pupils from Lingey House Primary School, Gateshead, 2011
NATG028_P0050EDngReview2012_13August.indd 51 14/08/2012 14:29 NATG028_P0050EDngReview2012_13August.indd 52
– with Horsemanand Peasants,about1658–60(NG6522) Detail oftheducksfromAelbertCuyp’s RiverLandscape colours andlightattheNationalGallery. opportunity toexperiencethesoundsandspaces, individual needs,andstudentsaregiventhe workshop. Visitsaretailor-madetothepupils’ investigate howitwasmadethroughapractical a singlepaintingthroughthesensesandto During eachsession,timeistakentoexplore number nowonoffertoschoolsnationwide. the SenseIt!programmeisoneofanincreasing of practicalworkshopsinstigatedbytheGallery. These arejusttwoepisodesthatindicatethesuccess quack ofaduckwhenlookingatthatsamepicture. communicated inanywayfeltabletoimitatethe and anotherstudentwhohadneverpreviously when anadultinstructorproposedtotakeitback Cuyp’s or evenactivegesturereachedoutforacopyof previously beenknowntomakeademonstrative disabilities. Oneyoungmanwhohadnever young peoplewithprofoundandmultiplelearning in theNationalGallerycanhaveonchildrenand It ishardforustoimaginetheeffectthatpaintings Following apilotwithtwolocalschools, River Landscape with HorsemanandPeasants
Tavolozza Foundation Supported byTheDorsetFoundationand Take OnePicture Supported byTheJohnS.CohenFoundation Take Art Supported byMrMarkPigottOBE The PigottEducationCentre Supported byTheJohnEllermanFoundation Outreach Programme andAgeingCreatively Supported byTheErnestHechtCharitableFoundation Myra HessDay Supported byOutsetContemporaryArtFund Magic CarpetStorytelling Supported byTheLankellyChaseFoundation Inside Art Sponsored byCreditSuisse Friday Lates Supported byTheElizabethCayzerCharitableTrust Exhibition Colloquia Supported byDashaShenkman Belle ShenkmanMusicProgramme Supported bytheRootsteinHopkinsFoundation Associate ArtistScheme Supporters 2011–2012 14/08/2012 14:29
Detail from Jan van de Cappelle, A River Scene with a Large Ferry, about 1665 (NG967) (see pp. 70–1) NATG028_P0050EDngReview2012_13August.indd 53 14/08/2012 14:29 –
The National Gallery maintains a well-equipped research for the cultural heritage. Different types scientifi c laboratory designed to carry out research, of collaboration have been pursued in recent years, largely analytical in character, in order to support where the general pattern is for this work to be conservation work on the collection, and to supported by external grant or project funding. provide curators with information on the technical The Gallery is a member of the CHARISMA history of the Gallery’s paintings. Additional areas project (Cultural Heritage Advanced Research of sustained activity in the scientifi c fi eld relate Infrastructures: Synergy for a Multidisciplinary to preventive conservation work for Old Master Approach to Conservation/Restoration; see paintings and development of imaging www.charismaproject.eu) funded by the European technologies. The past few years have seen both Commission, which brings together in a research technical study of works of art and science for partnership twenty-one museums, conservation conservation becoming an increasingly institutes and scientifi c facilities in eleven European collaborative enterprise between museums and countries. It is a successor project to two earlier conservation institutes in Britain and around the consortia, constituted as ‘networks of excellence’, world. The fundamental reason for this is that the in which the National Gallery Scientifi c resources required to pursue new developments in Department also participated. The core purpose instrumentation and analysis have been increasing of CHARISMA is to defi ne and promote best rapidly. The National Gallery has a strategic aim practice in conservation science across Europe, to be at the forefront of these developments, not and to share knowledge and expertise between only to advise and serve the national museum the partners with the aim of wider dissemination community and its public more effectively, but in the conservation community. Funding from the also to play a signifi cant expert role in conservation Commission for the project is intended to develop, science at home and abroad, since the study of Old among other strands of targeted activity, new Master paintings has become as international as instrumentation for cultural heritage analysis, some of the science that underpins materials-based particularly mobile non-invasive technologies;
NATG028_P0050EDngReview2012_13August.indd 54 14/08/2012 14:29 Giovanni Antonio Boltraffi o (about 1467–1516) The Virgin and Child, probably about 1493–9 Oil on walnut, 92.7 x 67.3 cm The National Gallery, London, NG728 Boltraffi o’s connection to Leonardo’s technical infl uence was a subject for discussion at the CHARISMA Conference
NATG028_P0055EDngReview2012_21August.indd 55 23/08/2012 16:01 –
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) Miss Jane Bowles, about 1775 Oil on canvas, 91 x 70.9 cm The Wallace Collection, London, P36
common analytical practices and protocols for based pigments, who have taken advantage the fi eld; and ‘transnational’ research in cultural of Gallery expertise to advance these subjects. heritage involving access to fi xed facility high- Another feature of the CHARISMA partnership is technology instruments, mobile analytical regular programming of meetings for experts to share equipment and wider use of existing technical information on conservation science and cultural documentation of collections. In the last category, heritage technical research. Under this umbrella, the the National Gallery has played host to European Gallery organised in January , with two other researchers working on Uccello, van Eyck, Consortium members (Centre de Recherche et de Memling, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Dutch fl ower Restauration des Musées de France [CRMF] and paintings, Van Gogh, and the history of dyestuff- the British Museum) a successful two-day conference
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entitled: ‘Leonardo da Vinci’s Technical Practice: by the Scientifi c Department with a generous Paintings, Drawings and Infl uence’. Over grant from The Foyle Foundation. The aim, specialists in conservation science, technical imaging, with this technique and others, is to document art history and curatorship, as well as invited students, the material state of each painting and to assess heard eighteen papers over two days by world experts critically its likely response to conservation in Leonardo technical studies. Of these contributions, treatment. In the course of the project, which will nine were the responsibility of partners in the run until November , a thorough overview CHARISMA Consortium. The meeting coincided of Reynolds’s complex painting technique will be with the Gallery’s exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter assembled for publication in a future special issue at the Court of Milan (see pp. –) and provided much of the National Gallery Technical Bulletin (projected new technical information on the artist’s paintings, for ). Both institutions will benefi t from the drawings and those of his associates, as well as results of the project: the Wallace Collection will establishing clear advances for new research on the be able to draw on the Gallery’s state-of-the-art Gallery’s own collection. Our recent conclusions technical examination facilities and expertise for were available in advance to conference delegates Old Master paintings, while the National Gallery in the latest National Gallery Technical Bulletin (Vol. will improve its technical data holdings for British ), which was published conventionally and online eighteenth-century paintings, providing valuable in October , as a special issue devoted to comparative technical information for future ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Pupil, Painter and Master’. care and study of its own collection. In a three-year joint project with a sister Other recent collaborative partnerships, funded institution, supported by funding from the Paul by the AHRC/EPSRC ‘Science and Heritage Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, twelve Programme’ have included: ‘advancing heritage paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds belonging to the science with spectroscopic imaging’ (with Imperial Wallace Collection, London are being intensively College, London and the British Museum) and studied to understand fully their material ‘The next generation of Optical Coherence constitution and varied states of preservation. Tomography (OCT) for art conservation – The aim is to determine the extent to which in situ non-invasive imaging of the subsurface conservation work, particularly cleaning and microstructure of objects’ (with Nottingham Trent restoration, might be feasible and could be carried University, University of Southampton, English out safely on pictures that are known generally Heritage and Gooch and Housego Ltd). to be fragile and sensitive. A conservator employed by the Wallace Collection is working on the Supporters 2011–2012 paintings, which are brought to the National Bruker Hyperion 3000 Micro-ATR-FTIR Imaging System Gallery Conservation Studio. Here they are Supported by The Foyle Foundation examined by a number of techniques, including CHARISMA radiography, infrared imaging and micro- Supported by the European Commission under the photography, and are analysed by members of Seventh Framework Programme the Gallery’s scientifi c staff. A new feature of National Gallery Technical Bulletin these studies on Reynolds is the application of Supported by the American Friends of the National Gallery with a generous donation from Mrs Charles a powerful analytical instrument known as Wrightsman
ATR–FTIR (attenuated total refl ectance–Fourier Research in digital imaging transform infrared spectrometry), recently acquired Supported by Hewlett Packard Ltd
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Research underpins the National Gallery’s The Gallery continues to research and publish ambition to ensure that the study of Western its major series of collection catalogues, generously European painting retains its vital connection to funded by Arturo and Holly Melosi through the today’s intellectual life. The Gallery is recognised Arthur and Holly Magill Foundation. The latest as an Independent Research Organisation by the volume, published in , was The Italian Arts and Humanities Research Council as well as Paintings before by Dr Dillian Gordon OBE, by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research who recently retired as the Gallery’s curator of Council, and much of the work of its curators, Italian paintings before , after a long and conservators and scientists is carried out in distinguished career (see the – Review, partnership with colleagues in universities both pp. –). An extract from the catalogue can in the UK and internationally. be read on the Gallery’s website, as part of its In – the National Gallery was awarded its commitment to publishing a selection of new third AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award together in-depth catalogue entries online. with the University of York, one of its academic In addition the Gallery’s research is directed by partners. The subject of the doctorate, now in three themes: ‘The Meaning of Making’, ‘Art and progress, is ‘The House of the Virgin in Renaissance Religion’, and ‘Buying, Collecting, Display’. This Architecture’ and the student will also gain practical year these were joined by a fourth focus for future experience in the preparation of an exhibition to be research, launched in collaboration with the National held at the Gallery on a related theme. The Gallery Galleries of Scotland: ‘The Centre for the Study entered a partnership with the Barber Institute of of Venetian Art and its History’. With the joint the University of Birmingham in advance of the acquisition of Titian’s Diana and Actaeon and Diana Institute’s celebrations of its eightieth anniversary and Callisto (see pp. –) the Gallery now has in . The partnership will involve a number one of the world’s greatest collections of Venetian of academic exchanges and events, including an painting available for study, and it looks forward exhibition at the Gallery. The fi nal Neil MacGregor to promoting collaborative research in this area. scholarships funded by the National Gallery Trust and The research theme ‘The Meaning of Making’ awarded to support research at the Barber Institute encompasses the Gallery’s collaborative and have enabled new investigations into the historical interdisciplinary work between its own curators, relationship between the two institutions. conservators and scientists and those in museums
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and universities internationally. The results of subject of Christianity and the Arts. some of this work are published annually online A major event in the Gallery’s research efforts free of charge and in hard copy in the National on the theme of ‘Buying, Collecting, Display’ Gallery Technical Bulletin. Further information was the long-awaited publication by the Walpole about this year’s edition, devoted to Leonardo da Society of the Gallery’s archived travel journals Vinci, and about the Sir Joshua Reynolds project of Sir Charles Eastlake, the Gallery’s fi rst Director, in collaboration with the Wallace Collection, the edited by Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, Research Gallery’s participation in the Getty Foundation’s Curator in the History of Collecting and Display. Panel Painting Initiative and in a four-year pan- Dr Avery-Quash also co-wrote with Dr Julie European project known as CHARISMA, as well Sheldon of Liverpool John Moores University a as its collaborative partnerships with universities well-reviewed new biography of Sir Charles and and others in progress under the AHRC/EPSRC Lady Eastlake: Art for the Nation: The Eastlakes and ‘Science and Heritage Programme’ can be found the Victorian Art World, published by the National on pp. –. Gallery. Both the travel journals and the biography The generous institution of the Howard and were published in July to coincide with the Robert Ahmanson Fellowship in Art and Religion Gallery’s Room One exhibition Art for the Nation: will enable the National Gallery to continue to do Sir Charles Eastlake at the National Gallery. Dr much more to further research in this rich area by Avery-Quash has continued to advance the online developing the careers of a series of post-doctoral British sales catalogue project – in researchers based at the Gallery, and by supporting collaboration with the Getty Research Institute. the dissemination of their research. Last year’s free This will greatly augment the one million records summer collection-based exhibition, Devotion by already included in the Getty Provenance Index® Design (see pp. –), provided the opportunity database and provide tools to allow researchers to for much scholarly debate on this theme. Two track patterns of taste, better understand cultural academic seminars were held in the exhibition, transfers, and more fully explore the power of art one of which involved students from two of the markets. A major academic conference is currently Gallery’s academic partners, the University of in preparation. Dr Avery-Quash also co-supervises York and King’s College London. The Gallery the Gallery’s fi rst two AHRC-funded collaborative has continued to collaborate with King’s on the doctoral students with Nottingham University teaching of parts of the very popular MA on the and University College London.
The National Gallery has an active commitment new scheme which will allow regional museums to its national role in support of collections which to nurture the next generation of curators. include Old Master paintings. It has long been Museums were asked to compete to propose concerned about the reduction in curatorial projects with a focus on European paintings pre- expertise in regional museums, and was therefore , and Manchester Art Gallery and Tyne & delighted that the Art Fund agreed to support a Wear Archives & Museums were the successful
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applicants. Henrietta Ward and Philippa important Northern European paintings from Stephenson were then selected as the fi rst two the fourteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, curatorial trainees to work with these museums, and also some signifi cant Italian paintings of a following strong competition for the posts. similar period. The project for Philippa Stephenson The scheme began in September with is to provide new knowledge and interpretation six months of intensive training at the National around these rarely seen paintings, as well as a Gallery, including learning how the technical contemporary perspective. The research will form examination of paintings is carried out, how the basis for an exhibition to be shown at the Laing to give Gallery talks, how to act as courier to Art Gallery which will unlock these collections paintings lent by the Gallery, as well as language for twenty-fi rst-century audiences. training. Henrietta and Philippa were both involved with the exhibition Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude, writing many of the labels Supporters 2011–2012 and witnessing all stages of its installation. Research and Publications They also had the opportunity to start planning Cataloguing and Research Project: Eighteenth-Century and researching their projects using the resources French Painting Supported by the Spencer Hart Charitable Trust available in the Gallery’s library, as well as Curator of Italian Paintings before 1500 elsewhere in London. The Gallery has provided Supported by Mr Stefano Pessina
mentoring and support, which has also involved McCrindle Curatorial Assistant senior curators in visits to the regional museums Supported by the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation
and much discussion of the projects. In April the Myojin Curator of Italian Painting 1500–1600 trainee curators start the next phase of their work at Supported by Horizon Asset Ltd the museums themselves, ending with new displays National Gallery Catalogues series in both Manchester and Newcastle in summer . Supported by Arturo & Holly Melosi through the Arthur and Holly Magill Foundation At Manchester the focus of the traineeship will be a small but important group of over a hundred Pidem Curatorial Assistant Supported by The Pidem Fund Dutch and Flemish paintings dating from the Harry M. Weinrebe Curatorial Assistant seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As this Suppported by The Dorset Foundation group has not been the subject of serious academic study for several decades, Henrietta Ward has National Programmes begun by updating the documentation of each Curatorial Traineeships Supported by the Art Fund work, drawing on the National Gallery’s resources to access the most recent research. She will then Subject Specialist Network: European Paintings pre-1900 work with Manchester Art Gallery’s curatorial Supported by Arts Council England and the Museums, and learning staff to re-present the Dutch and Libraries and Archives Council Flemish collections in a major new permanent display with a contemporary angle. At Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, the three collections of Old Master paintings are based at the Laing Art Gallery and the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne and the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead. Together, the collections contain Detail through the microscope from After Franceso Francia, The Virgin and Child with an Angel, 1840–4 (NG3927) (see pp. 70–1)
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Individual donors, grant-making trusts and national training scheme for young curators the corporate sector have played a vital role was launched in partnership with the Art Fund throughout the National Gallery’s history, and in and regional museums. The West Wing of the the past year they were extraordinarily generous. Wilkins Building underwent major renovation, The contents of this year’s Review are testament to restoring galleries to their original twentieth- the strength of philanthropic and corporate support century splendour. The framing department was from our long-standing friends and new benefactors. able to acquire a beautiful seventeenth-century Thanks to private support, the National Gallery frame for Luca Giordano’s Perseus turning Phineas and National Galleries of Scotland were able jointly and his Followers to Stone. to purchase Titian’s great masterpiece, Diana and Exhibitions attracted a combination of Callisto. The acquisition of this pre-eminent work charitable and corporate support. Individual donors was made possible following a private campaign, and foundations contributed generously towards preceded by the public campaign for that of its the summer exhibition Devotion by Design: Italian companion Diana and Actaeon in . We are Altarpieces before ; corporate members provided profoundly grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the funding for Turner Inspired: In the Light of the Art Fund and The Monument Trust for their Claude; and our corporate partner, Credit Suisse, exceptional contributions and likewise to each helped bring Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of the donors and private trusts who gave so of Milan to a world audience. generously. A signifi cant sum came from the The Gallery values more than ever its unique charitable reserves made up of bequests left to association with Credit Suisse. The fourth year of the Gallery over many years. We remain indebted this partnership saw the continuation of education to members of the public who remembered the initiatives with Credit Suisse’s partner charities. Gallery in their wills, leaving a lasting legacy that We were fortunate to enjoy strong links across the will bring enjoyment to generations to come. corporate sector, and were particularly proud of The Gallery’s capacity for research was our collaboration with GE, helping to promote considerably enhanced thanks to a substantial grant our carbon reduction plan. For six months visitors from Howard and Roberta Ahmanson. The Howard to Trafalgar Square were able to enjoy GE’s ‘Living and Roberta Ahmanson Fellow in Art and Religion Wall’– a recreation of Van Gogh’s A Wheatfi eld, will enable the Gallery, in partnership with other with Cypresses using over , plants in front of research bodies, to develop a greater understanding the Gallery. of the depiction of the Christian tradition in art. We would like to acknowledge the great As in previous years, members of the George generosity shown to the Gallery by lenders, the Beaumont Group, individual donors and grant- general public, individual donors, companies and making trusts funded an array of curatorial, trusts and to express our sincere gratitude for conservation and education activities. A new their ongoing friendship and support.
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Lenders to the National Gallery Mr Henry Angest Mr Mark Pigott OBE The Fagus Anstruther Memorial Trust The Priestley Family The Gallery is pleased to acknowledge all The Art Fund Bridget Riley CH, CBE those listed below, and those who choose Arts Council England Chris Rokos to remain anonymous, who have lent works Andrew Bentley & Fiona Garland Rootstein Hopkins Foundation to the collection between April 2011 and Ms Kate Bingham & Mr Jesse Norman MP The Rothschild Foundation March 2012. The Elizabeth Cayzer Charitable Trust The Basil Samuel Charitable Trust Mr L. Chase Mr Matthew Santos & Mrs Mary Kuusisto Her Majesty The Queen Mr Colin Clark Mr Adrian Sassoon The Warden and Fellows of All Souls The John S. Cohen Foundation Mr Nick Segal & Ms Genevieve Muinzer College, Oxford Mr Juan Corbella Miss Dasha Shenkman The British Museum Dr Peter Corry Mr Mortis Skaugen Andrew Brownsword Arts Foundation Credit Suisse Sir Angus & Lady Stirling Compton Verney House Trust Mr Felix Dennis The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation Dunrobin Castle Collection Department for Culture, Media and Sport The Tavolozza Foundation The Faringdon Collection Trust, Buscot Park The Dorset Foundation Terra Foundation for American Art The Gere Collection The John Ellerman Foundation Mr & Mrs Richard Thornton The Government Art Collection European Commission Mr Guy Voyce Graff Diamonds Ltd Miss Elizabeth Floyd The Walpole Society Sir James & Lady Graham The Foyle Foundation Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement The Earl of Halifax Ms Gabriela Galcerán Montal & Mr Ball The Weinstock Fund HM Government GE Miss Maxine White & Mr James Mortimer The Loyd Collection The J. Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust The Wolfson Foundation The Collection of Asbjørn Lunde Goldman Sachs Gives Mrs Charles Wrightsman The Daniel Katz Family Trust Mr & Mrs Thomas Griffi n Personal Representatives of Sir Denis Spencer Hart Charitable Trust If you would like to support the National Mahon CH CBE FBA The Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation Gallery, please contact the Development Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, Christoph & Katrin Henkel Offi ce on 020 7747 5875, or email The Hague Heritage Lottery Fund [email protected]. The Peter Meyer Collection Lady Heseltine National Museums Liverpool, Hewlett Packard Ltd Walker Art Gallery Corporate Membership The Hintze Family Charitable Foundation National Portrait Gallery, London Horizon Asset Ltd Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam The corporate membership programme Dr David R. Ives F.R.C.P. The Rector and Churchwardens of provides a vital source of income which each The Jerusalem Trust St Mary Magdalene Church, Littleton year helps the Gallery to fund programmes Mr & Mrs Robert Johnson The Society of Antiquaries of London across all areas of activity. We would like to Sir Sydney & Lady Kentridge The Trustees, Stansted Park Foundation thank the following companies for their Mr Jack Kirkland Tate generous and loyal support. James & Clare Kirkman The Master Governor of Trinity Hospital, The John Kobal Foundation Retford Corporate Benefactors Sarah & David Kowitz Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam AlixPartners Lois & Butler Lampson (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) CQS The LankellyChase Foundation The Earl of Verulam Credit Suisse Hugues & Emmanuelle Lepic Victoria and Albert Museum, London Eurostar™ Lady Lever Winchester College Finmeccanica Cecil and Hilda Lewis Charitable Trust José-Ramón & Mantina López-Portillo Grant Thornton UK LLP Hewlett Packard Ltd Major supporters of the Louis Vuitton Océ (UK) Ltd National Gallery Walter & Barbara Marais The Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation The Director and Trustees would like to David M. McKee Corporate Contributors thank the following, and those who wish Arturo & Holly Melosi through the Arthur American Airlines to remain anonymous, for their generous and Holly Magill Foundation Anglo American plc support of the National Gallery during The Monument Trust Apax Partners the period April 2011 to March 2012. Museums, Libraries and Archives Council Ashurst Joy Nalpanis BCL Burton Copeland Mr & Mrs Julian Agnew The National Gallery Trust Bloomberg L.P. Howard & Roberta Ahmanson Outset Contemporary Art Fund BNP Paribas American Friends of the National Gallery, Mr Stefano Pessina Cabot Square London The Pidem Fund
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Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Mr & Mrs Charles Booth-Clibborn Mr & Mrs Henry Cobbe Egon Zehnder Mr Ivor Braka Dr David Cohen CBE Ernst & Young LLP Mrs Deborah Brice Mr Edwin Cohen Farrer & Co. Sir Ronald & Lady Cohen Mrs Veronica Cohen First Reserve Michael & Licia Crystal Mrs Jennifer Coombs G3 Telecommunications Sir Harry & Lady Djanogly Mr & Mrs Rob Cope GE Mr Johannes de Gier Mr Juan Corbella Goldman Sachs International Mme Alice Goldet Mrs Cathy Corbett Kingfi sher Sir Nicholas & Lady Goodison Mr & Mrs Karl Dannenbaum Land Securities Group PLC Mr & Mrs Thomas Griffi n The Countess of Dartmouth Latham & Watkins Sir Joseph Hotung Mr & Mrs Michel David-Weill Lazard Mr & Mrs James Kirkman Mr & Mrs Frank Destribats Linklaters LLP Lady Lever Mr & Mrs Richard Deutsch Macfarlanes Mr Michael Mackenzie Polly Devlin OBE Moody’s Mr Donald Moore The Marquess & Marchioness of Douro Morgan Stanley Mr & Mrs Shigeru Myojin Mr & Mrs Peter Dubens PriceWaterhouseCoopers Miss Araceli Navarro Dame Vivien Duffi eld Quilter Mr Mark Pigott OBE Mrs Maurice Dwek Rio Tinto plc †Mr Leopold de Rothschild CBE Mr Guy & The Hon. Mrs Elliott Russell Reynolds Associates Mr & Mrs Jeremy Sacher Mr Henry Elphick Santander Mr & Mrs John Sacher Mr & Mrs Louis Elson Sarasin & Partners Mr & Mrs Michael Sacher Mr Eric Fellner Schlumberger Mr & Mrs Anthony Salz Mr & Mrs Nicholas Ferguson Shell Mr Adrian Sassoon Sir Ewen & Lady Fergusson Sotheby’s Lord & Lady Sassoon KT Mrs Margaret Floyd, Miss Elizabeth Floyd SportsMark Mr & Mrs Nicholas Stanley & Mrs Caroline Coaker in memory of Towerbrook Capital Partners Sir Hugh & Lady Stevenson Mr Jo Floyd United Utilities The Lady Juliet Tadgell Mr Sam Fogg Weil, Gotshal & Manges Mr & Mrs Richard Thornton Mr & Mrs Michael Fowle Mr & Mrs Michael Zilkha Mr Gerald Fox If you would like to fi nd out more about Mr & Mrs Eric Franck the Gallery’s corporate membership Members Mr & Mrs Andrew Fraser scheme, please contact Phoebe Rouse on Mr & Mrs Julian Agnew Ms Gabriela Galcerán Montal & Mr Ball 020 7747 5871, or email development@ Lady Agnew Lord & Lady Gavron ng-london.org.uk. Mr & Mrs Peter Andreae Mr & Mrs Robin Geffen Miss Vanessa Aubry Mr & Mrs Jonathan Gestetner The George Beaumont Group Sir Nicholas & Lady Bacon Mr Christopher Gibbs The National Gallery extends its sincere Sir Jack & Lady Baer Mr & Mrs Bruce Ginsberg thanks to members of the George Beaumont Mr & Mrs Nicholas Baring Mr & Mrs Stuart Glyn Group for their annual contribution towards The Barness Trust Mr Christophe Gollut the Gallery’s work. Their support is Mr & Mrs Stephen Barry Mr & Mrs Manfred Gorvy invaluable to the Gallery, not least in helping Mrs Mercedes T. Bass Mr Andrew Green QC & Ms Hirschl to preserve our collection. Over the last year Mr Sid R. Bass Mrs Barbara Green we have been fortunate in welcoming new The Duke of Beaufort Mr Jonathan Green members to the group, while our existing Mr & Mrs Charles Beddington Mrs Marilyn Green members have remained as committed and Mr and Mrs Richard Bernays Mr Louis Greig loyal as ever, with many contributing above Mr Elliott Bernerd Sir Ronald Grierson and beyond their annual donation. Mr & Mrs Konrad Bernheimer Dr Bendor Grosvenor We wish to thank Flavia Ormond in Mrs Diana Berry Mr & Mrs Jean de Gunzburg particular, for her work as Chair of the group. Mr & Mrs John Treacy Beyer Mimi and Peter Haas Fund We are grateful to the individuals listed Mr David Borthwick & Mrs Molly Lowell Miss Louise Hallett below and to those who wish to remain Borthwick Lady Hamlyn anonymous, for their support of the Gallery Mrs Miel de Botton Mrs Linda Heathcoat-Amory through the George Beaumont Group over Mr Mark Brockbank Christoph & Katrin Henkel the past year. Mr & Mrs Michael Burrell Mr Jacques Hennessy Mr Charles Cator Mr Roman Herzig Life Members The Marchese & Marchesa Cattaneo Adorno Lady Heseltine Mr & Mrs Marcus Agius The Marchesa Consuelo Cattaneo Mr & Mrs David Heyman Lady Alexander of Weedon della Volta Adorno Mr & Dr Mark Higson Mr & Mrs Harold Blatt Sir Trevor & Lady Chinn Mr & Mrs Charles Hoare
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Mrs Catrina A. Hobhouse Barbara, Lady Poole Howard & Roberta Ahmanson Mr & Mrs Michael Hue-Williams The Countess of Portsmouth Andrew Bentley & Fiona Garland Mr Terry Hughes Mrs Ivetta Rabinovich Mr & Mrs John Treacy Beyer Mr & Mrs Patrick Hungerford Lady Rayne Mr David Borthwick & Mrs Molly Lowell Mrs Jacqueline Hyer Mrs Sarah Ross Goobey Borthwick Mr & Mrs Robin Hyman The Dowager Viscountess Rothermere Mr & Mrs Manfred Gorvy Lady Jacomb Hannah Rothschild Sir Ronald Grierson Mr & Mrs Dudley Johnson Lord & Lady Rothschild Mimi & Peter Haas Fund Mr & Mrs Robert Johnson Mr & Mrs James Sainsbury Mr & Mrs Dudley Johnson Mr & Mrs Paul Josefowitz Lord & Lady Sainsbury Mr & Mrs Robert Johnson through the Robert Mr & Mrs Daniel Katz Sir Timothy & Lady Sainsbury and Sherry Johnson Charitable Trust Sir Henry & Lady Keswick Mrs Coral Samuel CBE Mr Norman Kurland Mr & Mrs Simon Keswick Mr & Mrs Victor Sandelson Lois & Butler Lampson Mr & Mrs Naguib Kheraj Mr Matthew Santos & Mrs Mary Kuusisto Dr Anne Varick Lauder & Mr Adam Bye OBE Mr & Mrs James King Dr Gian Cristoforo Savasta Mr & Mrs Marc Leland Mr Jack Kirkland Mr & Mrs Henrik Schliemann Bradley & Hilary Letwin Mr Christopher Kneale Mr Peter Scott QC CBE Mr Asbjørn R. Lunde Mr & Mrs David Koetser Mr & Mrs Charles Sebag-Montefi ore The Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation Mr & Mrs Norman Kurland Mr Nick Segal & Ms Genevieve Muinzer David M. McKee Dr Anne Varick Lauder & Mr Adam The Countess of Shaftesbury Arturo & Holly Melosi through the Arthur Bye OBE Mr Richard Sharp and Holly Magill Foundation Dr Antony & The Hon. Mrs Laurent Victoria Sharp Mr Mark Pigott OBE Mr & Mrs Peter Leaver Miss Dasha Shenkman Mr Matthew Santos & Mrs Mary Kuusisto The Hon. James & Mrs Leigh-Pemberton Mr & Mrs Michael Simpson Miss Dasha Shenkman Mr & Mrs Marc Leland Mr & Mrs Brian Smouha Mr Peter Soros Bradley & Hilary Letwin Mr Peter Soros Mr & Mrs Charles Wilkes Mr David Leventhal Sir Angus & Lady Stirling Mrs Charles Wrightsman Dr Hilda Lewis PhD Mr Mark Storey Mr Simon Yates Ms Laura Lindsay Mr Peter Stormonth Darling Mrs Nadia Zilkha Viscount Linley Lady Strathmore & Mrs Emma Matthews Sir Sydney Lipworth QC & Lady Mr James Swartz Legacies to the National Gallery Lipworth CBE Mr & Mrs Rhoddy Swire The National Gallery is indebted to those José-Ramón & Mantina López-Portillo Mr John Tackaberry individuals who, over the years, have Mr Asbjørn R. Lunde †Sir Anthony Tennant demonstrated their generosity and Ms Daniella Luxembourg Lady Tennant foresight in remembering the Gallery in Mr Nicholas Maclean & Mr Christopher The Hon. Michael D.D. Tollemache their wills. Legacies left over many years Eykyn Baron & Baroness Willem van Dedem have played a particularly important part Mr & Mrs George Magan Mr & Mrs Johnny Van Haeften this year in helping signifi cantly towards Mr & Mrs Walter Marais Countess Cornelia von Rittberg the acquisition of Titian’s masterpiece, Marina, Lady Marks Mr Edward Wakefi eld Diana and Callisto. Lord & Lady Marks of Broughton Ms Rebecca Wang We would like to express our profound Mr & Mrs James Mayor The Hon. Mrs Simon Weinstock gratitude for the legacies received this year Mr Jamie McAlpine & Ms Hyon Mi Rho Mr Richard West & Ms Shiells from Mr Derek Edwards, Miss Helen Mr Keir McGuinness & Dr Alex Hooi Mrs Mary Weston CBE Fawcett Hughes, Mr Barry Parsons, Lady Mrs Carol Michaelson Miss Maxine White & Mr James Mortimer Mary Barbara Smith and Mr James Francis Mr William Mitchell Mr Nicholas White George Wilson. Mr & Mrs Emmanuel Moatti Mr & Mrs Charles Wilkes Our gratitude to all those who have left Mr Fabrizio Moretti Mr & Mrs John D. Winter a gift in their will to the Gallery is expressed Mr & Mrs John Morton Morris Lady Wolfson of Marylebone in a memorial book of thanks, on Mr & Mrs Steven Murphy Mr & Mrs Henry Wyndham permanent display in the vestibule inside Mr & Mrs Sherif Nadar Mr Simon Yates the Sir Paul Getty Entrance. Mr William Northfi eld Nadia Zilkha If you would like to fi nd out about Mr & Mrs Richard Oldfi eld leaving a gift in your will to the National Mr & Mrs Nicholas Oppenheim Donations to the American Friends Gallery, please contact Marisa Hamilton on Mrs Flavia Ormond of the National Gallery, London Inc. 020 7747 5982, or email development@ Mr Jocelyn Ormond The Director and Trustees would like to ng-london.org.uk. Please be assured that Mr & Mrs Simon Palley thank the following, and those who wish any enquiries will be treated in strict Mrs Kathrine Palmer to remain anonymous, for their generous confi dence. Copies of our legacy brochure Mr & Mrs Roger Phillimore support during the period April 2011 to are also available from Information Desks Mr & Mrs Ugo Pierucci March 2012. within the Gallery.
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Trustees (with dates of appointment) Development Committee Remuneration Committee Mark Getty 1999 (Chair) John Nelson (Chair) Mark Getty (Chair) Lady Normanby 2004 (until February 2012) Timothy Clark Patricia Lankester Professor David Ekserdjian 2005 Carolyn Eadie Caroline Thomson *Patricia Lankester 2007 Michael Hintze Trust Funds Investment Committee Lady Heseltine 2008 James Leigh Pemberton (from May 2011) (disbanded March 2012) Michael Hintze 2008 Hugues Lepic Hugues Lepic (Chair) Caroline Thomson 2008 Charles Miller Smith Mark Getty Hannah Rothschild 2009 Finance Committee David Landau Gautam Dalal 2009 Gautam Dalal (Chair) Professor Anya Hurlbert 2010 National Gallery Scientifi c Mark Getty John Nelson 2010 Consultative Group Nick Land Lance Batchelor 2011 Professor Anya Hurlbert (Chair) Sir Colin Southgate Dexter Dalwood 2011 Dr Andreas Burmester Nominations Committee Professor Richard Evershed *Tate liaison Trustee Mark Getty (Chair) Professor Wendy Hall Audit Committee Professor David Ekserdjian Professor Julia Higgins Gautam Dalal (Chair) Anne Heseltine (from February 2012) Professor Laurence T Maloney Mark Getty Lady Normanby (until February 2012) (from November 2011) Nick Land Hannah Rothschild Professor David Phillips Sir Colin Southgate Dr David Saunders Professor Nigel Weiss Dr Paul Williams
Government Grant in Aid remains the Gallery’s Gallery’s programme of exhibitions, programmes principal source of funds. For the year ended and outreach work. March , the Gallery’s Grant in Aid for Total incoming resources this year, including running costs was £.m, with an additional donations for acquisitions of £m, were £.m grant of £.m restricted to expenditure on compared with £.m in /. Incoming capital, including ongoing essential capital repairs. resources in / were signifi cantly higher than The Gallery faces signifi cant and sustained cuts in previous years because of the acquisition of Titian’s to Grant in Aid over the coming three years, which Diana and Callisto. Self-generated income excluding will make private income even more critical to the donations totalled £.m, higher than the £.m future well-being of the Gallery. Membership, recorded in /, an increase that refl ected the donations and support from the corporate sector, commercial success of the Leonardo exhibition. trusts and foundations, and private individuals are The Gallery’s total charitable expenditure of vitally important for the continued success of the £.m for / was higher than the prior
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year (/: £.m), due in part to the Total Grant in Aid (millions) planned increased cost of the exhibitions (£millions rebased to 2010/11 prices)
programme required to support the Leonardo 31 Capital Resource exhibition. The Gallery continues to focus 29
on maintaining tight budgets and controls and 27
implemented a number of effi ciency measures 25 during the year in order to continue to manage 23 the reduction in public funding. 21 The number of visitors to the Gallery increased 19 again this year, by .% (/: .%) to 17 . million. 15 *2010/11 *2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 (original) (revised)
* The Grant in Aid allocation was reduced during 2010/11. The original and revised allocations are shown for comparative purposes.
Rebased to 2010/11 prices using the GDP defl ator
Income 2011/12 Operating Expenditure 2011/12 (excluding donations for acquisitions)
Donations and legacies £2m Broaden our appeal and provide an Investment income £0.7m exceptional visitor experience £10.6m Grant in Aid £26.7m Preserve, enhance and develop the Other income £7.7m potential of our collections £9.5m Exhibitions £3.1m Inspire learning and engagement £3.6m Cost of generating funds £1.2m Invest in our staff, increase income and care for our physical activities £6.3m Governance costs £0.3m Exceptional item £0.2m
Number of Visitors (millions) Exhibition Attendance 2011/12
Forests, Rocks, Torrents: Norwegian and Swiss Landscapes 5 from the Lunde Collection* 148,408 Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500* 47,793 4 Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake at the National Gallery* 46,440 3 Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan 323,897
2 Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude 73,454
1 Free exhibitions are indicated by an asterisk
0 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12
NATG028_P0062EDngReview2012_13August.indd 67 14/08/2012 14:29 –
It has been a very successful year for the Company. Leonardo postcards and , fridge magnets during The shops took £.m, the highest ever recorded the course of the exhibition. It is a refl ection of the fi gure and % better than the previous year. hard work and forward planning by every member In addition, we achieved record sales from of staff in the Company that we were able to achieve e-commerce of £,, % better than such a good result. /. This success was due in large part to A full list of titles published by the Company is the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the set out opposite. The hardback exhibition book we Court of Milan, more of which below. Overall, produced for Devotion by Design achieved sales % the Company achieved sales of £.m, with better than budget and a conversion rate twice the contributions from external publishing sales, projected %. Forests, Rocks, Torrents delivered sales catering, product licensing and royalties from the of £, with a margin of % and the entire print Picture Library. Net profi t for the year was £.m run sold out. Among our academic titles, Dillian after payments to the National Gallery of £.m. Gordon’s collection catalogue The Italian Paintings The Leonardo exhibition attracted , visitors before published in has generated £, and was hugely successful in terms of trading, to date, while Technical Bulletin , a special Leonardo delivering store sales of £.m. The catalogue volume, sold out, generating sales of £,, at produced for the exhibition was a signifi cant factor % margin in both cases, with full sponsorship. in this success; we reprinted on four occasions and Business through the Picture Library was boosted sold over , copies during the period. The sale by £, of fi lming revenue and ended % up of French rights for paperback and hardback editions for the year, generating income of £,. of the catalogue generated a total of £,. Other Disappointingly, new business and licensing income notable achievements included sales of , was £, less than / despite the
Payments to the National Gallery and National Gallery Trust Revenue Analysis 2011/12
2,000,000
Stores 79.3% 1,500,000 Catering 6.1% Publishing/Trade 4.2% Picture Library 3.3% 1,000,000 E-commerce/Mail Order 6.5% Business Development 0.6%
500,000
National Gallery Trust National Gallery 2008/9 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12
NATG028_P0068EDngReview2012_21August.indd 68 21/08/2012 09:49 –
establishment of new licences. The Gallery’s cafés There were two changes to the Executive and restaurants, operated by Peyton & Byrne, Directors’ team in the year: Louise Rice resigned generated revenues of £m and served over , as Publishing and Merchandise Director on May visitors, delivering a contribution to the Company of , and Judith Mather was promoted to the £, – an increase of % on last year. new post of Buying and Merchandise Director The Company maintained good control of the on January . overhead base with savings against budget of £,. The following titles were published between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012
Exhibition Catalogues Academic Books Trade Titles
Forests, Rocks, Torrents: Norwegian and National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian The Art of Worship Swiss Landscape Paintings from the Lunde Paintings before 1400 Nicholas Holtam Collection Dillian Gordon 200 x 150 mm; 120 pp; 47 colour Christopher Riopelle with Sarah Herring 225 x 93 mm; 568 pp; 652 colour illustrations 210 x 210 mm; 96 pp; 70 colour illustrations illustrations Hardback £12.99, June 2011 Paperback £9.99, June 2011 Hardback £75, May 2011 Supported by the American Friends of the A Closer Look: Techniques of Painting Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces National Gallery with a generous donation Jo Kirby before 1500 from Arturo & Holly Melosi through the 210 x 148 mm; 96 pp; 94 colour illustrations Scott Nethersole Arthur and Holly Magill Foundation and 5 black and white illustrations 270 x 230 mm; 128 pp; 90 colour Paperback £6.99, December 2011 illustrations Art for the Nation Hardback £19.99, June 2011 Susanna Avery-Quash and Julie Sheldon Co-editions and Co-publications 234 x 156 mm; 336 pp (304 pp and 32 pp Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of plate section) Léonard de Vinci: Peintre à la cour de Milan 7 black and white illustrations; 35 colour Milan Luke Syson, with contributions by Larry illustrations Luke Syson, with contributions by Larry Keith, Arturo Galansino, Antonio Hardback £25, July 2011 Keith, Arturo Galansino, Antonio Mazzotta, Minna Moore Ede, Scott Mazzotta, Minna Moore Ede, Scott Nethersole and Per Rumberg National Gallery Technical Bulletin, Nethersole and Per Rumberg 320 x 240 mm; 320 pp; 220 colour Volume 32: Leonardo da Vinci: Pupil, 320 x 240 mm; 320 pp; 220 colour illustrations Painter and Master illustrations Hardback £40 / Paperback £25, November Series Editor: Ashok Roy Hardback £40 / Paperback £25, November 2011 297 x 210 mm; 128 pp; 137 colour 2011 illustrations, 35 black and white Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude (French edition of Leonardo da Vinci: illustrations Ian Warrell, with contributions by Philippa Painter at the Court of Milan published by Paperback £40 and online at http://www. Simpson, Alan Crookham and Nicola Fonds Mercator) nationalgallery.org.uk/technical-bulletin/ Moorby technical-bulletin-vol-32, October 2011 The Usborne Nativity Sticker Book 285 x 245 mm; 144 pp; 120 colour Supported by the American Friends of the Jane Chisholm illustrations National Gallery with a generous donation 300 x 234 mm; 24 pp; 16 pp of colour Hardback £25, March 2012 from Mrs Charles Wrightsman illustrations and 8 pp of colour stickers Paperback £6.99, November 2011 The National Gallery Review of the Year DVDs (Published by Usborne in association with April 2010 – March 2011 National Gallery Company) Take One Picture (2011 revised edition) 245 x 200 mm; 64 pp; 56 colour illustrations Approx 3 hours, £9.99, June 2011 Paperback £7.99, November 2011
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Sir Joshua Reynolds’s robust response to his irregular ‘islands’. The origin is largely the contemporary critics of the deteriorating condition mechanical behaviour and past small movements of his work: ‘All good pictures crack’, is substantially of the underlying gesso ground on a poplar wood true. For those of us at the National Gallery with panel. The detail from Quinten Massys’s plum- a responsibility to care for Old Master paintings, coloured drapery (fi g. ) also shows a highly enlarged updating Reynolds’s view would lead us to state that view of the surface, where a red lake oil glaze, over all pictures crack if they are of any considerable age, a greyish underlayer of lead white and black, has are painted in conventional traditional paint media, been blotted by the painter while still wet with a that is oil or egg tempera, and are on either wood small piece of cloth to provide an even glaze layer. panel or canvas. Although less pithily expressed, the The main underlying cracking pattern has an qualifi cations are necessary in order to understand origin similar to that in Sassetta, although it is more the origin of the cracking that develops in paint rectilinear in form, a characteristic of Northern and varnish on old paintings. European panel paintings on oak with natural Reproduced in this Review are a few examples of chalk grounds. The white headdress from Robert the many types of crack pattern that develop over time Campin’s nearly -year old female portrait (fi g. ) in the surface paint layers of National Gallery paintings. exhibits a classic early Netherlandish craquelure The cause of a specifi c type of cracking on a picture’s in the lead white and oil paint layer, in which old surface is an exceedingly complex matter involving the movements of a close-grained oak panel support mechanical interaction of the main components of have produced a fi ne regular network of cracks paintings and their individual and collective responses in well-dried, brittle paint. Jan van de Capelle’s to ambient environmental fl uctuations. Of relevance sky paint has cracked in a very different, distinctive are the behaviour of supports and their tendency to manner (fi g. ). As this is painting on canvas, movement; the chemistry of drying paint layers over differential movements of the support are more long periods, the properties that result and continue complex than occur with rigid panels, and the paint to develop as the painting ages, as well as the detailed cracks in more chaotic ways. In this case, helical and mechanics of multilayered structures. The material concentric features have developed at various points make-up of pictures, including the character and on the surface and have subsequently coalesced behaviour of canvases and panels, the pigments used into the pattern we see. Over time, a smaller-scale to make paint, the binding media, and the degree to cracking pattern has begun to fi ll in the voids of which paint is applied in multiple layers, all infl uence the helices. Cracking of a paint surface has long how a picture will crack. The material and structural been interpreted as a sign of age, and therefore complexity of these works renders mathematically a temptation to fakers to simulate age through based mechanical modelling of the behaviour of artifi cially cracked paint. The copy of an authentic paintings virtually impossible, and only partially picture by Francesco Francia made in the nineteenth theoretical models can be applied. century (fi g. ), has false cracks inscribed with The example from Sassetta (fi g. ) is a microscopic a stylus in the surface fl esh paint of the Virgin’s surface view of a single egg tempera paint layer hand, the lines of which have been reinforced with containing lead-tin yellow pigment, and a sinuous brownish-black paint to increase their visibility. ochre-coloured brushstroke on top, the main lower There are those who fi nd aesthetic appeal in the layer of which has cracked into a network of tiny patina of age the cracked surface of a picture displays.
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This is an individual choice, but it must be be a precursor of paint loss through fl aking and remembered that cracks are also a sign of age and detachment. Our best protective measure is to ensure deterioration, and not in any way part of the painter’s that frequent independent small movements of the original intention for an image. Continued supports of paintings are kept to a minimum, and this development of cracking is a type of deterioration is best achieved by close environmental control of that those who care for the Gallery’s paintings would picture galleries, particularly the provision of stable like to arrest so far as possible, particularly since it can conditions of relative humidity.
1 Sassetta (active by 1427; died 1450) 2 Quinten Massys (1465–1530) 3 Robert Campin (1378/9–1444) The Funeral of Saint Francis, 1437–44 The Virgin and Child Enthroned, A Woman, about 1435 Egg tempera on poplar, 88.4 x 53.5 cm with Four Angels, around 1495 Oil with egg tempera on oak, 40.6 x 28.1 cm The National Gallery, London. Bought with Oil on oak, 62.2 x 43.2 cm The National Gallery, London, NG653.2 contributions from the Art Fund, Benjamin The National Gallery, London, NG6282 (for detail see p. 37) Guinness and Lord Bearsted, 1934, NG4763 (for detail see p. 27) (for detail see p. 11)
4 Jan van de Cappelle (1626–1679) 5 After Francesco Francia (about 1450–1517/18) A River Scene with a Large Ferry, about 1665 The Virgin and Child with an Angel, 1840–4 Oil on canvas, 122 x 154.5 cm probably second half of the 19th century The National Gallery, London, NG967 Oil on wood, 58.5 x 44.5 cm (for detail see p. 53) The National Gallery, London, NG3927 (for detail see p. 61)
NATG028_P0071EDngReview2012_21August.indd 71 21/08/2012 09:49 © The National Gallery 2012 ISBN 978-1-85709-566-1 ISSN 0143 9065
Published by National Gallery Company on behalf of the Trustees The National Gallery Trafalgar Square London WC2N 5DN
Tel: 020 7747 2885 www.nationalgallery.org.uk [email protected]
Editor: Kate Bell Design: Smith & Gilmour Picture Research: Rosalind McKever Production: Jane Hyne and Penny Le Tissier
Printed and bound in Hong Kong by Printing Express
Key to authors MB – Miranda Baxter CC – Caroline Campbell AC – Alan Crookham SF – Susan Foister AG – Arturo Galansino GH – Gill Hart LK – Larry Keith AJM – Alison Mawle JM – Julie Molloy VN – Virginia Napoleone NP – Nicholas Penny GP – Gregory Perry CP – Carol Plazzotta CR – Christopher Riopelle AR – Ashok Roy PR – Per Rumberg PS – Peter Schade SW – Sarah Ward JW – Jenny Weaver MEW – Marjorie E. Wieseman HW – Humphrey Wine
Photographic credits All images © The National Gallery, London, unless stated below: © National Galleries of Scotland: pp. 2–3, 13, 15; © Johnny Van Haeften Ltd, London. Photo: The National Gallery, London: p. 19 top and above; © Private collection. Photo: The National Gallery, London: p. 20; © Private collection, 2012. Photo: The National Gallery, London: p. 21; © Daniel Katz Family Trust. Photo: The National Gallery London: p. 22; © Winchester College. Photo: The National Gallery, London: p. 23; © Private collection, 2012. Photo: The National Gallery, London: p. 24; © The National Gallery, London and Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool: p. 26; © Courtesy of Asbjørn Lunde: p. 39 above and below; © The National Gallery, London / Courtesy of The Princess Grace Hospital and GE: p. 41 below right and lower right; © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA. Photo by Michael Agee: p. 43 left; © RMN / Franck Raux: p. 43 right; © Tate 2012: p. 45 above; By kind permission of the Trustees of the Wallace Collection, London: p. 56.
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