Old Masters/Renaissance
Following an extensive cleaning and restoration process, the 16th century painting of a bearded man in a fur coat, attributed to a Titian follower and held at London's National Gallery, has turned out to be by the Venetian master himself."[Titian] is thought to have painted the work in the 1520s," said a gallery spokesman. "It has been...
The Silver Altar from the Baptistry of St. John was unveiled to the public this week after six years of intensive, surgically delicate work by the Florentine Office of Precious Stones. Though outranked in popularity by Titian's "Venus of Urbino" or Leonardo da Vinci's "Annunciation," the imposing work of ecclesiastical art (which...
Why is "Mona Lisa" smiling? Because she just found out she's 10 years younger. Indeed, the world's most famous painting was completed a decade later than previously thought. The "Mona Lisa" has long been dated 1503-6, but those dates will now be formally altered to 1503-19, the Louvre has confirmed. The change, reported by The Art...
Guercino: Masterpieces from Cento and RomePalazzo Barberini, RomeDecember 16, 2011-April 29, 2012Although he is probably the most famous cross-eyed painter in the history of art ("Guercino," his nickname, means just this), Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666) is recognized only by avid fans of Baroque painting. Ask a man on the street...
Could a lost fresco by Leonardo da Vinci have remained hidden behind another wall painting in Florence for more than 450 years? It’s a tantalizing idea, and one that Maurizio Seracini has been pursuing since the 1970s. Last December, after receiving permission from Florentine authorities, Seracini and his team drilled six holes in the...
Legend has it that, after slaying Medusa, Perseus attached her head to his shield in order to turn his enemies to stone. Her decapitated, snake-covered head, dripping with blood, was such an over-the-top image that Caravaggio apparently painted it twice. One version hangs in Florence's Uffizi Museum, and the second, in a private...
In the thick foliage of popular and scientific literature on Leonardo da Vinci, Oxford University professor Martin Kemp stands out for several reasons. He is a trained scientist who came to art history later in life, and therefore has a passion for, and understanding of, Leonardo as a scientist that is distinct from the many art...
Newspapers are calling it the case of the “Millionaire Crucifix.” In a year in which the Italian government hopes to sustain an unprecedented level of fiscal discipline, members of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MIBAC) have been slammed by a barrage of criticism about the purchase of a sculpture attributed to...
At Sotheby's $62.1 million sale of Old Masters on Thursday, it was smooth sailing for the highest-estimated works of classic art as a magnificent mid-18th-century Venetian canal scene by Canaletto, "A View of the Churches of the Redentore and San Giacomo, with a Moored Man-of-War, Gondolas, and Barges," sold for $5.7 million (est. $...
Christie's took a different approach than usual for its Old Masters sale on Wednesday, breaking out works by French artists into their own "Art of France" sale immediately following the venerable sale and following that up with a wine pairing — an additional auction of French vintages, that is. The morning sale brought in $34.3...
