PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/61787 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-09-26 and may be subject to change. Painters of Reality. Cremona and New York Review by: Bram De Klerck The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 146, No. 1216, Collectors and Patrons (Jul., 2004), pp. 489-491 Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20073631 . Accessed: 04/04/2012 08:00 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Burlington Magazine. http://www.jstor.org EXHIBITION REVIEWS Painters of reality Cremona and New York byBRAM DE KLERCK Open University of theNetherlands, andLeiden University a small ALTARPiECE, painted by Lorenzo ' Lotto around 1523 for the church of SS. jt?ESB?r ^???iW??w ^^^^H^S^^^^^R Trinit? in Bergamo, depicts the Holy Trinity an in unusual way (cat. p. 134). Above a land scape, Christ stands on a double rainbow, the dove of the Holy Spirit over his head, wh?e .y .;..?f.T**ri-'r- a ^ft ^F God the Father is represented by vague a cloudy oudine against briUiant yeUow back ground. Lotto clearly took the Old Testament prohibition on making images of God to heart. Oddly enough, this painting, supremely supernatural in effect, is included in the exhi seen bition Painters of Reality, by this reviewer at the Museo Civico Ala Ponzo?e, Cremona, at and currendy the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (to 15 th August).1 How ever, the deta?ed depiction of the nude figure of Christ and of the landscape, with its trees, smaU bu?dings and mountainous view, is the result of Lotto's meticulous study of visible manner reaUty and his particularly direct of to canvas. transferring it It is precisely this 65.T?nzerin, byHans Arp. 1925. kind of keen observation and depiction of the Painted cm. ^^^B^P^A,JHia8^M?^^^^^^^^^^H^H^^^^B?^^^^^^^^Bworld that was in Lombard wood, 146.5by 109 BB^BBHBHHIISIIiflSSfi^^ already recognised even was not (CentreGeorges Pompidou, B^BB|^^BBB|||||H painting, if it always highly Paris; exh. Kunstmuseum ?MIIIIIMIIillllll^^ Basel). appreciated, by sixteenth- and seventeenth century theorists such as Vasari, Ridolfi and in Schwitters's work are or could be navels? If the Kunstmuseum's project benefits Arp Agucchi. As with other such elements in his somewhat more not coUages, than Schwitters, it is only The exhibition in Cremona and the sUght the of such is its of him as senior significance inclusions richly by presentation the partner ly different version in New York present and references to in in their about no masters indeterminable, Arp friendship. Strangely, much of Arp's paintings and drawings by Schwitters's uvre seem to less as overt uvre has never been to same in centres operate subjected the active the leading artistic of M?an, indicators of influence than as of friend of as signs degree critical enquiry his peers. In Brescia, Bergamo and Cremona from the or artistic This contrast to a ship sly commentary. appears continuing flurry of activity early years of the sixteenth century until the to be the case even in ? Schwitters's late sculp around Schwitters the production of a first half of the eighteenth. Starting with several of which echo works multi-volume as as tures, closely by catalogue raisonn? weU Vincenzo Foppa's altarpiece of the Adoration but their ease with an numerous Arp replace graceful exhibitions and scholarly pubUca of Christ (S. Maria Assunta in Chiesanuova, ? almost awkwardness. tions a relative parodie quiet has settled around Arp, Brescia; p.70), chosen for its 'domestic intima The as if there were more to about elegantly accompUshed, seemingly nothing say cy' and 'sense of everyday Ufe', the exhibition inevitable forms of much of him. The contributors moves on to Arp's sculpture catalogue's apdy prove Cinquecento portraiture by such can make Schwitters's assembled work but in as appear otherwise, the strongest proof Ues the briUiant practitioners Giovanni Battista and but Kunstmuseum's of tatty heavy-handed by comparison, presentation Arp's works Moroni and Moretto (Fig. 66), includes reU the sheer of Merz as itwere in a materiaUty also highUghts themselves, engaged Uvely series gious works by sixteenth- and seventeenth of a unexpected aspects Arp's work. The basic of conversations with good friend. century artists such as Lotto and Tanzio da Schwitters had for the respect integrity of the VaraUo, and brings 1 ? together drawings by, as Kurt Schwitters: Merz a Total Vision the picture plane the foundation of his work's Catalogue: of among others, Leonardo da Vinci and Sofo accretions the World. Edited by Annja M?Uer-Alsbach and Heinz coUaged points up frequency nisba Anguissola. Fede GaUzia and Panfilo with contributions Guido with which Arp deUghted in puncturing it. Stahlhut, by Magnaguagno, Nuvolone's st?l Ufes of fruit lead on to Eva Iris Bruderer-Oswald, Karin Orchard, Peter Bissegger, His reUefs feature gaps and holes that subvert risto Baschenis's beautiful paintings of musical Eric Hattan, Beat Wyss, Jakob Kolding, Daniel Spoerri, their and instruments. compositional integrity (Fig.65), Genre painting is represented by Christoph Bignens, Kurt Schwitters, Konrad Klapheck, even when the is not Annibale Carracci's Two children a cat picture plane actuaUy Ralf Burmeister, Klaus Staeck, Thomas Hirshhorn, teasing violated, it is rendered Museum of New arbitrary by repeated Christian Janecke, Jean Tinguely, Juri Steiner and (MetropoUtan Art, York; or as in Dada two or patterning ignored altogether, Karl Gerstner. 264 pp. incl. 157 col. pis. + 77 b. & w. p.240),2 three works by Caravaggio relief (1916; no.7). Sirrrilarly, Schwitters's col ?ls. (Museum Tinguely, Basel, and BenteU PubUshers, (the Cardsharps from FortWorth being shown an context ISBN lages provide interesting for Arp's Bern, 2004), Sw.F.59. 3-7165-1350-4. inNew a handful of of 2 only York), paintings made from Schwitters Edited Fischer outcasts as papiers d?chir?s, coUages ripped Catalogue: Arp. by Hartwig social by Giacomo Ceruti, as weU of his own and as and Sandra Gianfreda, with contributions by Gottfried up pieces coUages drawings, his lovely Girls' school (Fig.67). Ceruti's works, Hubert G?tz-Lothar IsabeUe weU as from the made on Boehm, Damisch, Darsow, a paintings early 1940s together with series of portraits from the Ewig, Hartwig Fischer, Sandra Gianfreda, Bruno Haas, crumpled paper (nos.46, 47, 57, 58, 60, 62, 63, 173os by Vittore Ghislandi, caUed Fra' Gal Isabel Schulz, and Gwendolyn Webster. 265 pp. incl. and Given their active surfaces 65 67). and + take the exhibition weU into the 168 col. pis. 13 b. & w. ?ls. (Kunstmuseum Basel, and gario, eight the contours of the torn eenth rough coUages' Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004), Sw.F.6o. century. one cannot whether The interest in naturaUstic effects edges, help wondering ISBN 3?7204-0152-9. Ava?able in German only. pecuUar here have taken from 3 in scenes so Arp might inspiration H. Fischer: 'GegenUebe. Schwitters und Arp', in and taken from everyday Ufe char Schwitters's creative use of discarded materials. ibid., p.51. acteristic of Lombard painting has attracted THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE CXLVI JULY 2OO4 489 EXHIBITION REVIEWS In the 1920s and 1930s Longhi pubUshed a on series of articles artists he dubbed 'pre caravaggisti' in the beUef that their work, produced in and around the painter's native M?an, helped develop Caravaggio's reaUsm use In and striking of chiaroscuro. Brescia and western Bergamo in particular, outposts of the Venetian RepubUc, he found these char as acteristics in such artists Foppa, Moretto were and Lotto; but equaUy important the brothers Antonio and Vincenzo Campi of Cremona, when Caravaggio, active in M?an in the years after 1584, worked in the studio of Simone Peterzano. FoUowing Longhi, such works as Giovan Paolo Lomazzo's Self-portrait as abbot of the Accademia d?lia Val di Bienio in (Brera, M?an; p.212), and particular Gio vanni Gerolamo Savoldo's magnificent St Matthew and the angel (MetropoUtan Museum of Art, New York; p. 157), have been present as no more ed time and again than the fertile 66. Portrait of a man (1Count Fortunato Martinengo humus from which art Cesaresco), by Moretto da Brescia, c.1542. 114 by 94.4 Caravaggio's grew.5 cm. (National GaUery, London; exh. MetropoUtan In the present exhibition this view is stiU Museum of New new can Art, York). closely foUowed, although directions also be discerned. One important develop ment on much interest in the past few years, as this is the focus the Cinquecento, and the 68. Spray of blackberries, by Leonardo da Vinci, show and its demon inclusion of many works, whereas accompanying catalogue reUgious ci506-08. Red chalk on paper, 18.8 by 16.5 cm. but the theme is much older. The in almost selected strate,3 1953 Longhi exclusively (Royal CoUection, Windsor; exh. MetropoUtan exhibition Ipittori d?lia realt? inLombardia, held portraits, stiU Ufes and genre paintings mosdy Museum of Art, New York).