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april 2020 NEW RESEARCH ON ART AND ITS HISTORY APRIL 2020 British art and collecting Flaxman at Westminster Abbey | The Gainsborough catalogue raisonné | A Burne-Jones sketchbook Van Eyck in Ghent | Berruguete in Washington | George IV in London | Paula Rego in Edinburgh the burlington magazine no. 1405 vol. 162 vol. 1405 no. COVER_APR20.indd 2 17/03/2020 23:19 Exhibitions There is a persistent belief that Frederick John Parsons; see L. Dimier: ‘Les 5. Sacrifice of Although only a selection of the Jan was a faithful copyist of nature. Primitifs français, V, Règnes de Charles VII et Isaac, by Alonso sculptures could be included, the de Louis XI’, Gazette des beaux-arts 6, no.20 Berruguete. Having developed unequalled powers (1938), pp.81–102, at p.94. It was purchased in 1526–33. range of works Berruguete created 1992 for the Lisbon archive from the dealer of observation and unmatched skills Vasco Teles da Gama. E. Dhanens: Hubert and Polychromed for the retablo was fully represented: in reproducing nature in a completely Jan van Eyck, Antwerp 1980, p.133, did not wood with figures from four of its five levels, one believe that the drawing was a copy after Jan’s gilding, height convincing way, he seems to have lost portrait; but compare K. Bauch: ‘Bildnisse 89 cm. (Museo of the gables, a pair of putto reliefs, concluded that he could distort natural des Jan van Eyck (1961)’, in idem: Studien zur Nacional de a powerfully plastic roundel and one Kunstgeschichte, Berlin 1967, pp.79–122; C. Escultura, appearances for his own purposes. As Sterling: ‘Jan van Eyck avant 1432’, Revue Valladolid; of the painted panels. Also shown mentioned above, he gives the sitters de l’art, 33 (1976), pp.7–82, at pp.33–34; B. exh. Meadows was the Adoration of the Magi from the in his portraits narrow shoulders and Fransen: ‘Jan van Eyck and the portraiture Museum, retablo in Santiago Apóstol, Valladolid, of his predecessors’, in S. Kemperdick and F. SMU, Dallas; short arms. His humans are often Lammertse, eds: exh. cat. The Road to Van photograph of the late 1530s, in which Berruguete’s Eyck, Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van far too big for their surroundings Beuningen) 2012, pp.76–79. Javier Muñoz forms become broader and more and he depicts people and angels on 5 G. du Fresne de Beaucourt, ed.: Chronique and Paz Pastor). opulent. His other great installation de Mathieu d’Escouchy (Société de l’Histoire several different scales. In the Ghent de France), Paris 1863–64, II, p.226; repeated in in the choir of Toledo Cathedral, well Annunciation, Gabriel and the Virgin H. Beaune and J.-J. Maulbon d’Arbaumont, eds: illustrated and discussed in an essay Mémoires d’Olivier de La Marche (Société de are contained under an extremely low l’Histoire de France), Paris 1883–88, II, p.372. by Manuel Arias Martínez, can only ceiling, placed there to support the 6 S. Kemperdick: ‘Early texts on some be experienced in situ. prophets and sibyls, who are half the portraits by Jan van Eyck’, in C. Currie et al., Occupying just two rooms, the eds: Van Eyck Studies, Papers Presented at size of the angel and the Virgin. They the Eighteenth Symposium for the Study of display at the National Gallery of Art are smaller than the statues of the two Underdrawing and Technology in Painting, established Berruguete unequivocally Brussels, 19–21 September 2012, Paris, Leuven Sts John, themselves rather smaller and Bristol CT 2017, pp.310–24, at pp.310–13. as one of the sixteenth century’s than the donors, who are slightly 7 M. Martens, T.-H. Borchert, J. Dumolyn, J. De Smet and F. Van Dam, eds: Van Eyck, An 9 less than life-size. The large-faced, Optical Revolution, Veurne and Ghent 2020. narrow shouldered Ghent donors are 8 Exhibition guide: M. Depoorter and L. Van Den Abeele: Van Eyck, An Optical Revolution. cramped into their narrow niches, 112 pp. with numerous col. ills. (Museum voor which are barely plausible spaces for Schone Kunsten, Ghent, 2020), €15. ISBN 9–7890–829713–8. them to occupy. At the same time, Jan 9 M. Postec and G. Steyaert: ‘The Van introduced hardly noticeable spiders’ Eycks’ creative process. The paintings from (under)drawing to the final touch in paint’, webs spun across the visible corners in B. Fransen and C. Stroo, eds: The Ghent of both niches.10 At once extravagant Altarpiece, Research and Conservation of the Exterior (Contributions to the Study of the in his efforts to introduce credible Flemish Primitives, CSFP 14), Brussels 2020, details and highly economical in all pp.194–247, at p.234. Ibid. p.238. other parts of his pictures, he painted 10 spontaneously and at great speed, with delight and with verve. The work of his imitators, even the most accomplished Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor among them, looks laboured in of Renaissance Spain comparison. Although it is relatively Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas easy to distinguish Jan’s work from 29th March–26th July that of his followers, it is less easy to classify their productions, especially by paul joannides when they are painting pastiches based on Jan’s works. The exhibition To consider mounting an exhibition provides an unrepeatable opportunity devoted to Alonso Berruguete (c.1488– to make such classifications; but, much 1561) in the United States, where his more importantly, it offers a unique work is little known, was courageous chance to observe carefully and at close but, fortune favouring the bold, it quarters the genius of Jan van Eyck. has succeeded triumphantly.1 At the National Gallery of Art, Washington 1 For the restoration, see H. Dubois: ‘The Art of Conservation XV. The conservation history (closed 17th February), where it of the Ghent Altarpiece’, THE BURLINGTON was seen by this reviewer, the show MAGAZINE, 160 (2018), pp.754–65. 2 The dates and attributions given in this concentrated on Berruguete’s multi- review are those assigned by the curators of figure, multi-media masterpiece, the the exhibition. 3 ‘Closer to Van Eyck’, http://closertovaneyck. retablo made for the high altar of the kikirpa.be/, accessed 5th March 2020. church of S. Benito el Real, Valladolid, 4 The drawing was discovered by the French art historian Louis Dimier (1865–1943), who in 1526–33. Between 1835 and 1881, bought it, apparently early in 1921, ‘chez the retablo was dismantled and its Parsons’, 45 Brompton Road, London, a business that had been inherited by the elements were taken to the Museo brothers Henry Edwin George Parsons and Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. 332 the burlington magazine | 162 | april 2020 EXHIBITIONS_APR20 FINAL.indd 332 17/03/2020 19:25 Exhibitions presence undiluted, resulting in some Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael, of the most affecting sculptures of the and the left-hand group is as tightly sixteenth century. pyramidal as Raphael’s Canigiani Holy The first room pivoted on Family (1507; Alte Pinakothek, Munich), Berruguete’s astonishing Ecce Homo a compositional type that Berruguete (Fig.7) from the early 1520s, elongated did not pursue in Spain. and fragile with crossed calves and a The accompanying publication stiff angular cloak that El Greco must is not a catalogue but a collection of have noticed. The Ecce Homo fronted essays with a list of exhibits, not all of a neat fictive façade containing a which are illustrated, plus a summary selection of the retablo’s sculptures and catalogue of the artist’s drawings. the painting of St Matthew, loosely Although this is now common practice inspired by Agostino Veneziano’s it seems regrettable, since detailed prints of the Evangelists after Raphael, published in 1518, the year Berruguete left Italy. Other works by Spaniards were displayed to set a context: a small and beautiful St James by Gil de Siloe (1489–93; Met Cloisters, New York); a relief in walnut of the Lamentation (1520; private collection) by Bartolomé Ordoñez, of which an unpublished variant in marble is currently on the London art market; and a marble statuette by Ordoñez of St Sebastian greatest masters. In energy and spatial 6. Salomé, here (private collection; ex-catalogue) inventiveness, crispness and tension identified as which, pace the label, is unrelated to Judith, by Alonso of forms, command of expressive Berruguete. Michelangelo’s Dying slave. Among emphasis and acute characterisation, c.1514–17. the paintings were an Adoration of his work has very few parallels in Oil on panel, 87.5 by 71 cm. the Magi by the Master of Sigena emotional intensity. He studied the (Gallerie degli (c.1519; Meadows Museum) and a statuary and reliefs of Donatello Uffizi, Florence; Weydenesque Virgin and Child enthroned exh. Meadows and gained intimate knowledge of Museum, by Alonso’s father, Pedro (c.1500, Michelangelo’s work in different SMU, Dallas; Museo de San Isidoro, Los Orígenes media, which he had encountered Bridgeman de Madrid). However, there were no Images). by 1508. Like theirs, his imagination Italian works – a Rosso Fiorentino was three-dimensional and figures 7. Ecce Homo, by Alonso would have been welcome company for designed for niches, such as his Sacrifice Berruguete. Berruguete’s so-called Salomé (Fig.6), of Isaac (Fig.5), in which the father’s c.1524. Poly- which should surely be identified as chromed wood agony exceeds the son’s, are even more with gilding, Judith displaying Holofernes’ head on satisfying seen in the round. He was height 146 cm. her return to Bethulia. The rolled-up also a master of silhouette: at the top of (Museo Nacional sleeve is a giveaway, and the severed de Escultura, the retablo, the figures of the Virgin and Valladolid; head rests on a Jewish prayer shawl, St John witnessing the Crucifixion rise exh.