Perlove_02_Intro_Layout 1 11/28/14 11:31 AM Page 1 INTRODUCTION Discovering and Rediscovering Gems of the Midwest: Drawings from the Age of Bernini, Rembrandt, and Poussin SHELLEY PERLOVE This collaborative publication is a labor of love with the university museums in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Ken- ambitious aim of presenting, for the first time, a repre- tucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio: the sentative selection of Italian, Dutch, Flemish, and French Allen R. Hite Art Institute (University of Louisville); seventeenth-century drawings from American Midwest- the Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin College); ern collections. This essay describes the content and basic the Art Institute of Chicago; the Cincinnati Art Mu- structure of the catalogue and outlines the history and seum; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Dayton Art underlying goals of the project, from its inception and Institute; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Indiana development to the daunting task of selecting the draw- University Art Museum (Bloomington); the Indian- ings. It also discusses the wide variety of media, tech- apolis Museum of Art; the Mildred Lane Kemper Art niques, styles, subject matter, and functions that inform Museum (Washington University); the University of these drawings and situates the drawings within the Michigan Museum of Art; the Minneapolis Institute larger cultural, historical, and artistic trends of the of Arts; the Museum of Art and Archaeology (Uni- Baroque Age in Italy, the Dutch Republic, the Spanish versity of Missouri-Columbia); the Nelson-Atkins Mu- Netherlands, and France. The conclusion lists and cate- seum of Art in Kansas City; the Saint Louis Art Mu- gorizes the significant discoveries of the project in terms seum; the Snite Museum of Art (University of Notre of issues of attribution, dating, media, function, and Dame); the Spencer Museum of Art (University of iconography. Kansas); and the Thrivent Financial Collection of Re- Seventeenth-Century European Drawings in Midwestern ligious Art (Minneapolis).1 Collections brings together more than one hundred trea - The catalogue presents each of the selected draw- sures of the Baroque age from eighteen municipal and ings in a separate and concise entry, with full scholarly 1. A drawing from the Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art is included in this catalogue (cat. 34) because the gallery is regularly open to the public. For information on this private corporate collection, especially its impressive print collection, see Reiling Lindell, Faithful Impressions. © UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 1 Perlove_02_Intro_Layout 1 11/28/14 11:31 AM Page 2 apparatus.Four essays, by Babette Bohn, George S. Keyes, Domenico Maria Canuti (cat. 8), and Lorenzo Garbieri Kristi A. Nelson, and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., respectively, (cat. 23), along with the gifted female artists Elisabetta introduce the Italian, Dutch, Flemish, and French Sirani (cat. 38) and Giovanna Garzoni (cat. 24). Known schools. The present essay by Shelley Perlove introduces, only to specialists, but worthy of greater attention, are highlights, and offers new insights on the material; it also the Dutch artists Pieter Quast (cat. 63), Jacob van der provides a contextual framework in which to view the Ulft (cat. 74), Pieter Withoos (cat. 81), Jan Philipsz van drawings. The catalogue is designed to have widespread Bouckhorst (cat. 52), and Herman van Breckerveld (cat. appeal for art historians, curators, artists, collectors, and 53). Highly successful French artists of the second tier students, as well as nonacademic readers interested in art include Jacques Stella (cat. 106) and Raymond La Fage and cultural history. As originally conceived, this cata- (cat. 98). Also of interest are drawings by anonymous or logue was intended to accompany a traveling exhibition lesser-known artists associated with more famous mas- of the drawings. Regrettably, due to insurmountable ters, including such members of Rembrandt’s school as logistical issues, the show did not materialize. Seventeenth- Jan Victors and an anonymous follower of Rembrandt Century European Drawings in Midwestern Collections who was influenced by Victors (cat. 69, 79). Others wor- nonetheless provides a unique opportunity to present a thy of attention are an Italian follower of Carlo Maratti substantial and significant corpus of such drawings in (cat. 34); an artist in the circle of Pietro da Cortona, pos- Midwestern collections. It also publicizes the fact that a sibly Giaquinto Gimignani (cat. 18); and two anonymous surprising number of public institutions throughout the Dutch artists (cat. 43, 44). Midwest, both large and small, have acquired distin- guished European drawings from the seventeenth cen- tury, worthy of full recognition by scholars and students Selection of the Drawings as well as by the broader public. This gathering of remarkable European drawings As part of a large, ongoing project to publish European by major seventeenth-century masters features the work drawings in public collections throughout the Midwest, of 84 artists: 33 of the Italian school, 31 of the Dutch, the Midwest Art History Society (hereafter MAHS) em- 4 Flemish, and 16 French. Limited to 109 catalogue en- barked on an extensive survey of European drawings of tries in all, the catalogue cannot possibly convey the full all schools. This task was completed by editors Burton range of seventeenth-century artists represented in the Dunbar and Edward Olszewski in 1996 for drawings of Midwest, but nonetheless it includes such notable Italian the fifteenth century and, more recently, by Olszewski, masters as Gianlorenzo Bernini (cat. 4), Ludovico Car- Dunbar, and Robert Munman for Italian and northern racci (cat. 13), Annibale Carracci (cat. 10, 11), Agostino European drawings of the sixteenth century, resulting in Carracci (cat. 9), Pietro da Cortona (cat. 16, 17), Guer- volumes appearing in 2008 and 2012, respectively.2 The cino (cat. 26, 27, 28, 29), Giovanni Benedetto Cas- board of directors of MAHS then assigned the project tiglione (cat. 14, 15), Stefano della Bella (cat. 2), Vol- to study seventeenth-century drawings in Midwestern terrano (cat. 42), and Salvator Rosa (cat. 37). It includes collections to Shelley Perlove and George S. Keyes, with such famed Flemish artists as Peter Paul Rubens (cat. 87, the subsequent addition of Kristi A. Nelson.3 88) and Jacob Jordaens (cat. 83, 84, 85, 86). The Dutch Shelley Perlove, professor emerita of art history, school is very rich, with sheets by Rembrandt (cat. 64, the University of Michigan, and George Keyes, retired 65, 66, 67, 68), Aelbert Cuyp (cat. 55), Hendrick Aver- chief curator from the Detroit Institute of Arts, selected camp (cat. 46), Adriaen van de Velde (cat. 75, 76), Esaias the vast majority of the drawings and subsequently as- van de Velde (cat. 77), and Jan van Goyen (cat. 59, 60). sumed the roles of co-editors for this catalogue. Perlove Sheets by Nicholas Poussin (cat. 104), Jacques de Bel- wrote entries on Italian, Dutch, and French drawings, as lange (cat. 90), Jacques Callot (cat. 92, 93), Claude Gellée well as the present introduction. She invited esteemed (cat. 94, 95), Michel Corneille the Younger (cat. 96), and specialists in the field of Italian art to participate in the Rigaud (cat. 105) crown the French school. This is an project: Babette Bohn, professor of art history at Texas impressive list, but a main goal of the project was also Christian University, who supplied the essay on the Ital- to include lesser-known artists. Among these are the Ital- ian school; Robert Randolf Coleman, associate profes- ians Giulio Benso (cat. 3), Francesco Brizio (cat. 6), sor at the University of Notre Dame; and Judith W. 2. Dunbar and Olszewski, eds., Drawings in Midwestern Collections: A Corpus (1996); Olszewski, Munman, and Dunbar, eds., Sixteenth-Century Italian Drawings (2008); Dunbar, Munman, and Olszewski, eds., Sixteenth-Century Northern European Drawings (2012). 3. Nelson’s compilation of an invaluable inventory of seventeenth-century European drawings in Midwestern museums formed the initial basis for this catalogue. 2 Introduction © UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Perlove_02_Intro_Layout 1 11/28/14 11:31 AM Page 3 Mann, curator of European art to 1800 at the Saint Clearly, the Art Institute of Chicago far exceeds all Louis Art Museum. Entries on Flemish drawings and other Midwestern museums in the number of Dutch, the introductory essay on that school were entrusted to Flemish, and French drawings in its collection. Dutch Kristi A. Nelson, then associate provost of the Univer- drawings are well represented in the Cleveland Museum sity of Cincinnati. George S. Keyes wrote numerous of Art, and French examples crown the collection of the Dutch entries and the introduction to the Dutch school. Snite Museum of Notre Dame. The Cincinnati Art Mu- Perlove produced entries on the biblical narratives seum lists many French drawings in its inventory. In the of Rembrandt and his followers and also wrote on smaller repositories of seventeenth-century northern the Callot drawings. Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Jeffrey E. Hor- drawings in the Midwest, the Dutch School predomi- vitz Research Curator at the Fogg Art Museum/Har- nates over the French and Flemish. vard University Art Museums, supplied the essay on the While the number of seventeenth-century draw- French school and the majority of the French entries. ings in the Midwest is formidable, many turned out to As the wider MAHS project evolved, and after be too mediocre to warrant serious scholarly investiga- visiting more than forty Midwestern collections, the tion. The research team soon decided that a group of core team realized they were dealing with a corpus of roughly one hundred of the most interesting drawings well over a thousand drawings. A list of the number of high quality would offer a stimulating and diverse ex- of seventeenth-century drawings in Midwestern mu- hibition, capturing the vitality of the Baroque age and seums for each school of art gives a general idea of what showcasing the strengths and highlights of Midwestern these collections possess.