codart Courant 6/June 2003 codartCourant contents Published by Stichting codart P.O. Box 76709 2 A word from the director 6 Estonia, Tallinn, Kadriorg Art Museum nl-1070 ka Amsterdam 2 In memory of Angela Tamvaki 7 Hungary, Budapest, Szépmûvészeti The Netherlands 3 News and notes from around the world Múzeum www.codart.nl 3 Brazil, A very cordial reception for 7 Serbia, Belgrade, National Museum Dutch and Flemish art in Brazil 8 Spain, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Managing editor: Rachel Esner 4 Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Museu Nacional Prado e [email protected] de Belas Artes 8 codart zes: Collecting Dutch and Editors: Wietske Donkersloot, 4 Chili, Santiago de Chile, Museo Flemish art in New England, 16-18 Gary Schwartz Nacional de Bellas Artes March 2003 t +31 (0)20 305 4515 5 Cuba, Havana, Museo Nacional de 17 Website news f +31 (0)20 305 4500 Bellas Artes de Cuba 18 The curator’s bookshelf e [email protected] 6 Czech Republic, Prague, National 28 codartdates Gallery codart board: Henk van der Walle, chairman Wim Jacobs, controller of the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (Instituut Collectie Nederland), secretary-treasurer Rudi Ekkart, director of the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie) Jan Houwert, director of the Wegener Publishing Company Paul Huvenne, director of the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven, member of the Dutch Labor Party faction codartis an international council for curators of Dutch and Flemish art. It supports inter-museum cooperation in the study and display of art from the lowlands through a variety of means, including congresses, study trips, pub- lications and a website (www.codart.nl). The organization was founded and is aided by the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (Instituut Collectie Nederland). It enjoys the generous support of the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Welfare, Health and Culture of the Flemish Community. codartCourantappears twice a year. Contributions are welcome. codartCourant is designed by Typography Interiority & Other Serious Matters, Rotterdam issn1388 9559 codart Courant 6/June 2003 2 A word from the 400th birthday of Rembrandt will be celeb- In memory of rated. At this point it is not clear how the event director will be marked, but we can expect (and stimu- AngelaTamvaki late) afairamount of attention fromthe media. You know codartas an organization that A number of exhibitions are in the make, divides its attention equally between large and though none has so far been announced to the small, near and far. Every museum and public. My impression is that there will be a exhibition on our website is treated on the concentration on focused, thematic exhibi- same terms, whether it is a major Vermeer tions rather than one big Rembrandt show on exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art thestyleofBerlin-Amsterdam-London1991-92. in New York or a (particularly fascinating) one- In the Netherlands, an attempt is being painting presentation of a work by the Master made to coordinate Rembrandt activities for of Frankfurt in the Queensland Art Museum the year 2006. Representatives of museums, in South Brisbane, Australia. All museum government, tourism, cultural organizations curators of Dutch and Flemish art are welcome and universities have joined in an ad hoc as members, whether they represent the committee for this purpose. I have been asked Hermitage in St. Petersburg or its close to participate in these talks, on behalf of geographical neighbor, the Ostrobothnian codart. Museum in Vaasa, Finland. Whether or not the Dutch initiative takes We maintain this policy of institutional on a major international dimension, I bring it and personal equality, which we regard as a to your attention as a stimulus for your own great strength of codart, without thinking about Rembrandt in 2006. With or forgetting the differences in scale and in fame without the support of the group, codart between the museums and the artists with can at the very least offer facilities for which we work. Those differences are a fact of coordinating information concerning life and it would be foolish to ignore them. Rembrandt activities for 2006. For a start, From personal experience, I can report that I have put Rembrandt’s birthday on the writings on Rembrandt tend to be more calendar on our website. widely read than those on less famous artists. Exhibitions, lecture series, commemora- Approaches that I developed in a publication tions, publications, tour routes – however you on Jan van der Heyden, for example, were may choose to mark Rembrandt’s 400th birth- ignored even by colleagues until I day, please let me know what your plans are, subsequently applied them to Rembrandt. even if they are not ripe for public announce- The great public attractions among the ment. We will be looking for ways to derive Dutch and Flemish masters are trump cards added value from cooperation and that we can play in our effort to raise aware- collaboration. ness of the entire school, including minor Forgive me for being crass, but a story Angela Tamvaki (1945-2002) during the codartstudy masters and collections. One of those trumps comes to mind that was told to me by the late trip to Scotland, June 2002. is about to be dealt to us. On 15 July 2006 the Horst Gerson when I was editing his big book on Rembrandt’s paintings in 1967-68, pub- On 28 November 2002 Angela Tamvaki, curator lished on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Western European Painting at the National of the master’s death in 1969. (My, time flies.) Gallery and the Alexandros Soutzos Museum In his younger years, Gerson worked for art in Athens, died. She had been seriously ill for dealers in Berlin. One of his employers liked some time. to take him out to fancy restaurants, always Tamvaki studied Classical Archaeology saying ‘Rembrandt zahlt alles.’ at the University of Oxford. She carried out We can let Rembrandt pay again, if not for extensive research into Mycenaean ceramics, expensive meals, then for the publicity we which resulted in several publications in the need to bring in more people to appreciate the Annual of the British School at Athens (1973 and collections we love. As stingy as he could be, 1974). In the meantime, her interest in I assure you that this is one tab Rembrandt painting began to grow. In 1978 Tamvaki would have been more than happy to pick up. became curator at the National Gallery and Gary Schwartz the Alexandros Soutzos Museum, assigned to research the museum’s collection of Western European painting. From this came a number of publications, among them a study of Lambert Sustris (1999) and a scholarly catalogue of the museum’s holdings entitled Photo Thea Vignau-Wilberg, taken at codart zes. The George Averoff Collection: Western European 3 codart Courant 6/June 2003 painting from the National Gallery, which, almost unknown to the general public in the extent that many frequent visitors to the together with her (unfinished) critical Netherlands, is extremely popular in Brazil, in mnbadid not recognize them at first, asking catalogue raisonné of the Greek National part due to its monumental scale and colorful, about the origin of these ‘loans’. Unfortu- Gallery’s western paintings, she considered imaginative depictions of the many different nately, these installations were only an important achievement. inhabitants of northeastern Brazil. temporary. Many expect the talented and Tamvaki also contributed to the work In the first trimester of this year, four experienced director-curator Paulo Herken- of the National Gallery and the Alexandros major exhibitions of Dutch 17th-century hoff, who took up his post last month, to Soutzos Museum through the organization artists were being held in Brazil. Although attract new, more long-term investments. of exhibitions and lectures. She promoted they fortuitously coincided with the state visit Thanks to A presença Holandesa no Brasil and Dutch and Flemish art in Greece with great by hmQueen Beatrix in March, none were many other events, the mnbahas received no enthusiasm. In close cooperation with the developed at the request of the Dutch less than 30,000 visitors per month since the Dordrechts Museum, in 2000 she realized the government. opening. pioneering exhibition Greek gods and heroes in These privately organized exhibitions On 9 April, the Instituto Ricardo Brennand the age of Rubens and Rembrandt, dedicated to enjoyed a great deal of attention, both from the in Recife (Pernambuco), together with sponsor Dutch and Flemish history painting that dealt public and the media, and resulted in a series abn amro, opened the exhibition Frans Post solely with Greek antiquity. In 2002 she was of ‘Dutch Sundays’ in Rio de Janeiro, during e o Brasil Holandês na coleção do Instituto Ricardo responsible for the exhibition The Golden Age which carioca families could visit three Brennand (Frans Post and the Dutch Brasil in the of Dutch painting from the collection of the downtown exhibitions in a single day, collection of the Ricardo Brennand Institute). The Dordrechts Museum. featuring the work of Albert Eckhout (1610- show has proven extremely popular, with so Tamvaki’s interests were not limited to 1665), Frans Post (1612-1680) and Rembrandt far 150,000 visitors to the institute and her profession. She loved literature as well as van Rijn (1606-1669). exhibition, which comprises paintings and music. With her death we lose a scholar and Albert Eckhout volta ao Brasil – 1644-2003 (The objects such as maps, documents and coins. a warm-hearted, hospitable and charming return of Albert Eckhout – 1644-2003) is the title of After Brasília and São Paulo, the exhibition friend.