Giacobbe Giusti, Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa

 

 

Mona Lisa

This article is about the painting. For other uses, see Mona Lisa (disambiguation).

Mona Lisa

Italian: La Gioconda, French: La Joconde
Artist	Leonardo da Vinci
Year	c. 1503–06, perhaps continuing until c. 1517
Type	Oil
Medium	Populus
Subject	Possibly Lisa Gherardini
Dimensions	77 cm × 53 cm (30 in × 21 in)
Location	Musée du Louvre, Paris

The Mona Lisa (/ˌmoʊnə ˈliːsə/; Italian: Monna Lisa [ˈmɔnna ˈliːza] or La Gioconda [la dʒoˈkonda], French: La Joconde [la ʒɔkɔ̃d]) is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, which has been acclaimed as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world”.^[1]

The painting, thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel, and is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506. Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1797.^[2]

The subject’s expression, which is frequently described as enigmatic,^[3] the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work.^[4]

Title and subject

Main article: Lisa del Giocondo

The title of the painting, which is known in English as Mona Lisa, comes from a description by Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari, who wrote “Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife.”^[5][6] Mona in Italian is a polite form of address originating as ma donna – similar to Ma’am, Madam, or my lady in English. This became madonna, and its contraction mona. The title of the painting, though traditionally spelled “Mona” (as used by Vasari^[5]), is also commonly spelled in modern Italian as Monna Lisa (“mona” being a vulgarity in some Italian dialects) but this is rare in English.^{[citation needed]}

Vasari’s account of the Mona Lisa comes from his biography of Leonardo published in 1550, 31 years after the artist’s death. It has long been the best-known source of information on the provenance of the work and identity of the sitter. Leonardo’s assistant Salaì, at his death in 1525, owned a portrait which in his personal papers was named la Gioconda, a painting bequeathed to him by Leonardo.

That Leonardo painted such a work, and its date, were confirmed in 2005 when a scholar at Heidelberg University discovered a marginal note in a 1477 printing of a volume written by the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero. Dated October 1503, the note was written by Leonardo’s contemporary Agostino Vespucci. This note likens Leonardo to renowned Greek painter Apelles, who is mentioned in the text, and states that Leonardo was at that time working on a painting of Lisa del Giocondo.^[7]

A margin note by Agostino Vespucci (visible at right) discovered in a book at Heidelberg University. Dated 1503, it states that Leonardo was working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo.

The model, Lisa del Giocondo,^[8][9] was a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany, and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo.^[10] The painting is thought to have been commissioned for their new home, and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea.^[11] The Italian name for the painting, La Gioconda, means “jocund” (“happy” or “jovial”) or, literally, “the jocund one”, a pun on the feminine form of Lisa’s married name, “Giocondo”.^[10][12] In French, the title La Joconde has the same meaning.

Before that discovery, scholars had developed several alternative views as to the subject of the painting. Some argued that Lisa del Giocondo was the subject of a different portrait, identifying at least four other paintings as the Mona Lisa referred to by Vasari.^[13][14] Several other women have been proposed as the subject of the painting.^[15] Isabella of Aragon,^[16] Cecilia Gallerani,^[17] Costanza d’Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla,^[15] Isabella d’Este, Pacifica Brandano or Brandino, Isabela Gualanda, Caterina Sforza—even Salaì and Leonardo himself—are all among the list of posited models portrayed in the painting.^[18][19] The consensus of art historians in the 21st century maintains the long-held traditional opinion, that the painting depicts Lisa del Giocondo.^[7]

History

Main article: Leonardo da Vinci

Presumed self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, executed in red chalk sometime between 1512 and 1515

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy.^[20] Although the Louvre states that it was “doubtless painted between 1503 and 1506”,^[4] the art historian Martin Kemp says there are some difficulties in confirming the actual dates with certainty.^[10] According to Leonardo’s contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, “after he had lingered over it four years, [he] left it unfinished”.^[6] Leonardo, later in his life, is said to have regretted “never having completed a single work”.^[21]

In 1516, Leonardo was invited by King François I to work at the Clos Lucé near the king’s castle in Amboise. It is believed that he took the Mona Lisa with him and continued to work after he moved to France.^[18] Art historian Carmen C. Bambach has concluded that da Vinci probably continued refining the work until 1516 or 1517.^[22]

Upon his death, the painting was inherited with other works by his pupil and assistant Salaì.^[10] Francis I bought the painting for 4,000 écus and kept it at Palace of Fontainebleau, where it remained until Louis XIV moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was moved to the Louvre, but spent a brief period in the bedroom of Napoleon in the Tuileries Palace.

During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) it was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal.^[23] During World War II, the painting was again removed from the Louvre and taken safely, first to Château d’Amboise, then to the Loc-Dieu Abbey and Château de Chambord, then finally to the Ingres Museum in Montauban.

In December 2015, it was reported that French scientist Pascal Cotte had found a hidden portrait underneath the surface of the painting using reflective light technology.^[24] The portrait is an underlying image of a model looking off to the side.^[25] Having been given access to the painting by Louvre in 2004, Cotte spent ten years using layer amplification methods to study the painting.^[24] According to Cotte, the underlying image is Leonardo’s original Mona Lisa.^[24][26]

Theft and vandalism

“La Joconde est Retrouvée” (“Mona Lisa is Found”), Le Petit Parisien, 13 December 1913

Vacant wall in the Salon Carré, Louvre after the painting was stolen in 1911

On 21 August 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre.^[27] The next day, painter Louis Béroud walked into the museum and went to the Salon Carré where the Mona Lisa had been on display for five years, only to find four iron pegs on the wall. Béroud contacted the head of the guards, who thought the painting was being photographed for promotional purposes. A few hours later, Béroud checked back with the Section Chief of the Louvre who confirmed that the Mona Lisa was not with the photographers. The Louvre was closed for an entire week during the investigation.

The Mona Lisa on display in the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, 1913. Museum director Giovanni Poggi (right) inspects the painting.

French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be “burnt down”, came under suspicion and was arrested and imprisoned. Apollinaire implicated his friend Pablo Picasso, who was brought in for questioning. Both were later exonerated.^[28][29] Two years later the thief was found. Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia had stolen the Mona Lisa by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet, and walking out with it hidden under his coat after the museum had closed.^[12] Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed da Vinci’s painting should have been returned for display in an Italian museum. Peruggia may have also been motivated by a friend whose copies of the original would significantly rise in value after the painting’s theft. A later account suggested Eduardo de Valfierno had been the mastermind of the theft and had commissioned forger Yves Chaudron to create six copies of the painting to sell in the U.S. while the location of the original was unclear.^[30] However, the original painting remained in Europe. After having kept the Mona Lisa in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was caught when he attempted to sell it to directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery for over two weeks and returned to the Louvre on 4 January 1914.^[31] Peruggia served six months in prison for the crime and was hailed for his patriotism in Italy.^[29] Before its theft, the Mona Lisa was not widely known outside the art world. It was not until the 1860s that some critics, a thin slice of the French intelligentsia, began to hail it as a masterwork of Renaissance painting.^[32]

In 1956, part of the painting was damaged when a vandal threw acid at it.^[33] On 30 December of that year, a speck of pigment near the left elbow was damaged when a rock was thrown at the painting, which was later restored.^[34]

The use of bulletproof glass has shielded the Mona Lisa from subsequent attacks. In April 1974, a woman, upset by the museum’s policy for disabled people, sprayed red paint at it while it was being displayed at the Tokyo National Museum.^[35] On 2 August 2009, a Russian woman, distraught over being denied French citizenship, threw a ceramic teacup purchased at the Louvre; the vessel shattered against the glass enclosure.^[36][37] In both cases, the painting was undamaged.

Aesthetics

Detail of the background (right side)

The Mona Lisa bears a strong resemblance to many Renaissance depictions of the Virgin Mary, who was at that time seen as an ideal for womanhood.^[38]

The depiction of the sitter in three-quarter profile is similar to late 15th-century works by Lorenzo di Credi and Agnolo di Domenico del Mazziere.^[38] Zöllner notes that the sitter’s general position can be traced back to Flemish models and that “in particular the vertical slices of columns at both sides of the panel had precedents in Flemish portraiture.”^[39] Woods-Marsden cites Hans Memling’s portrait of Benededetto Portinari (1487) or Italian imitations such as Sebastiano Mainardi’s pendant portraits for the use of a loggia, which has the effect of mediating between the sitter and the distant landscape, a feature missing from Leonardo’s earlier portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci.^[40]

The woman sits markedly upright in a “pozzetto” armchair with her arms folded, a sign of her reserved posture. Her gaze is fixed on the observer. The woman appears alive to an unusual extent, which Leonardo achieved by his method of not drawing outlines (sfumato). The soft blending creates an ambiguous mood “mainly in two features: the corners of the mouth, and the corners of the eyes”.^[41]

Detail of Lisa’s hands, her right hand resting on her left. Leonardo chose this gesture rather than a wedding ring to depict Lisa as a virtuous woman and faithful wife.^[42]

The painting was one of the first portraits to depict the sitter in front of an imaginary landscape, and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective.^[43] The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her, a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant bridge give only the slightest indications of human presence. Leonardo has chosen to place the horizon line not at the neck, as he did with Ginevra de’ Benci, but on a level with the eyes, thus linking the figure with the landscape and emphasizing the mysterious nature of the painting.^[40]

Mona Lisa has no clearly visible eyebrows or eyelashes. Some researchers claim that it was common at this time for genteel women to pluck these hairs, as they were considered unsightly.^[44][45] In 2007, French engineer Pascal Cotte announced that his ultra-high resolution scans of the painting provide evidence that Mona Lisa was originally painted with eyelashes and with visible eyebrows, but that these had gradually disappeared over time, perhaps as a result of overcleaning.^[46] Cotte discovered the painting had been reworked several times, with changes made to the size of the Mona Lisa’s face and the direction of her gaze. He also found that in one layer the subject was depicted wearing numerous hairpins and a headdress adorned with pearls which was later scrubbed out and overpainted.^[47]

There has been much speculation regarding the painting’s model and landscape. For example, Leonardo probably painted his model faithfully since her beauty is not seen as being among the best, “even when measured by late quattrocento (15th century) or even twenty-first century standards.”^[48] Some art historians in Eastern art, such as Yukio Yashiro, argue that the landscape in the background of the picture was influenced by Chinese paintings,^[49] but this thesis has been contested for lack of clear evidence.^[49]

Research in 2008 by a geomorphology professor at Urbino University and an artist-photographer revealed likenesses of Mona Lisa‘s landscapes to some views in the Montefeltro region in the Italian provinces of Pesaro, Urbino and Rimini.^[50][51]

Conservation

The Mona Lisa has survived for more than 500 years, and an international commission convened in 1952 noted that “the picture is in a remarkable state of preservation.”^[52] This is partly due to a variety of conservation treatments the painting has undergone. A detailed analysis in 1933 by Madame de Gironde revealed that earlier restorers had “acted with a great deal of restraint.”^[52] Nevertheless, applications of varnish made to the painting had darkened even by the end of the 16th century, and an aggressive 1809 cleaning and revarnishing removed some of the uppermost portion of the paint layer, resulting in a washed-out appearance to the face of the figure. Despite the treatments, the Mona Lisa has been well cared for throughout its history, and although the panel’s warping caused the curators “some worry”,^[53] the 2004–05 conservation team was optimistic about the future of the work.^[52]

Poplar panel

At some point, the Mona Lisa was removed from its original frame. The unconstrained poplar panel warped freely with changes in humidity, and as a result, a crack developed near the top of the panel, extending down to the hairline of the figure. In the mid-18th century to early 19th century, two butterfly-shaped walnut braces were inserted into the back of the panel to a depth of about one third the thickness of the panel. This intervention was skilfully executed, and successfully stabilized the crack. Sometime between 1888 and 1905, or perhaps during the picture’s theft, the upper brace fell out. A later restorer glued and lined the resulting socket and crack with cloth.^{[citation needed]}

The picture is kept under strict, climate-controlled conditions in its bulletproof glass case. The humidity is maintained at 50% ±10%, and the temperature is maintained between 18 and 21 °C. To compensate for fluctuations in relative humidity, the case is supplemented with a bed of silica gel treated to provide 55% relative humidity.^[52]

Frame

Because the Mona Lisa’s poplar support expands and contracts with changes in humidity, the picture has experienced some warping. In response to warping and swelling experienced during its storage during World War II, and to prepare the picture for an exhibit to honour the anniversary of Leonardo’s 500th birthday, the Mona Lisa was fitted in 1951 with a flexible oak frame with beech crosspieces. This flexible frame, which is used in addition to the decorative frame described below, exerts pressure on the panel to keep it from warping further. In 1970, the beech crosspieces were switched to maple after it was found that the beechwood had been infested with insects. In 2004–05, a conservation and study team replaced the maple crosspieces with sycamore ones, and an additional metal crosspiece was added for scientific measurement of the panel’s warp.^{[citation needed]}

The Mona Lisa has had many different decorative frames in its history, owing to changes in taste over the centuries. In 1909, the Comtesse de Béhague gave the portrait its current frame,^[54] a Renaissance-era work consistent with the historical period of the Mona Lisa. The edges of the painting have been trimmed at least once in its history to fit the picture into various frames, but no part of the original paint layer has been trimmed.^[52]

Cleaning and touch-up

The first and most extensive recorded cleaning, revarnishing, and touch-up of the Mona Lisa was an 1809 wash and revarnishing undertaken by Jean-Marie Hooghstoel, who was responsible for restoration of paintings for the galleries of the Musée Napoléon. The work involved cleaning with spirits, touch-up of colour, and revarnishing the painting. In 1906, Louvre restorer Eugène Denizard performed watercolour retouches on areas of the paint layer disturbed by the crack in the panel. Denizard also retouched the edges of the picture with varnish, to mask areas that had been covered initially by an older frame. In 1913, when the painting was recovered after its theft, Denizard was again called upon to work on the Mona Lisa. Denizard was directed to clean the picture without solvent, and to lightly touch up several scratches to the painting with watercolour. In 1952, the varnish layer over the background in the painting was evened out. After the second 1956 attack, restorer Jean-Gabriel Goulinat was directed to touch up the damage to Mona Lisa’s left elbow with watercolour.^[52]

In 1977, a new insect infestation was discovered in the back of the panel as a result of crosspieces installed to keep the painting from warping. This was treated on the spot with carbon tetrachloride, and later with an ethylene oxide treatment. In 1985, the spot was again treated with carbon tetrachloride as a preventive measure.^[52]

Display

Mona Lisa behind bulletproof glass at the Louvre Museum

On 6 April 2005—following a period of curatorial maintenance, recording, and analysis—the painting was moved to a new location within the museum’s Salle des États. It is displayed in a purpose-built, climate-controlled enclosure behind bulletproof glass.^[55] Since 2005 the painting has been illuminated by an LED lamp, and in 2013 a new 20 watt LED lamp was installed, specially designed for this painting. The lamp has a Colour Rendering Index up to 98, and minimizes infrared and ultraviolet radiation which could otherwise degrade the painting.^[56] The renovation of the gallery where the painting now resides was financed by the Japanese broadcaster Nippon Television.^[57] About 6 million people view the painting at the Louvre each year.^[18]

Fame

2014: Mona Lisa is among the greatest attractions in the Louvre

Today the Mona Lisa is considered the most famous painting in the world, but until the 20th century it was one among many highly regarded artworks.^[58] Once part of King Francis I of France‘s collection, the Mona Lisa was among the very first artworks to be exhibited in Louvre, which became a national museum after the French Revolution. From the 19th century Leonardo began to be revered as a genius and the painting’s popularity grew from the mid-19th century when French intelligentsia developed a theme that it was somehow mysterious and a representation of the femme fatal.^[59] In 1878, the Baedeker guide called it “the most celebrated work of Leonardo in the Louvre”.^[60] but it was known more by the intellectual elite than the general public.

US President John F. Kennedy, Madeleine Malraux, André Malraux, Jacqueline Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson at the unveiling of the Mona Lisa at the National Gallery of Art during its visit to Washington D.C., 8 January 1963

The 1911 theft and the subsequent return was reported worldwide, leading to a massive increase in public recognition of the painting. During the 20th century it was an object for mass reproduction, merchandising, lampooning and speculation, and was claimed to have been reproduced in “300 paintings and 2,000 advertisements”.^[60]

From December 1962 to March 1963, the French government lent it to the United States to be displayed in New York City and Washington, D.C.^[61] It was shipped on the new liner SS France. In New York an estimated 1.7 million people queued “in order to cast a glance at the Mona Lisa for 20 seconds or so.”^[60] In 1974, the painting was exhibited in Tokyo and Moscow.^[62]

In 2014, 9.3 million people visited the Louvre,^[63] Former director Henri Loyrette reckoned that “80 percent of the people only want to see the Mona Lisa.”^[64]

Value

Before the 1962–63 tour, the painting was assessed for insurance at $100 million. The insurance was not bought. Instead, more was spent on security.^[65] Adjusted for inflation using the US Consumer Price Index, $100 million in 1962 is around US$782 million in 2015^[66] making it, in practice, by far the most valued painting in the world.

In 2014 a France 24 article suggested that the painting could be sold to help ease the national debt, although it was noted that the Mona Lisa and other such art works were prohibited from being sold due to French heritage law, which states that “Collections held in museums that belong to public bodies are considered public property and cannot be otherwise.”^[67]

Raphael’s Young Woman with Unicorn, (c. 1506)

Raphael’s Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (c. 1514–15)

Le rire (The Laugh) by Eugène Bataille, or Sapeck (1883)

L.H.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp (1919)

Legacy

See also: Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations

Before its completion the Mona Lisa had already begun to influence contemporary Florentine painting. Raphael, who had been to Leonardo’s workshop several times, promptly used elements of the portrait’s composition and format in several of his works, such as Young Woman with Unicorn (c. 1506^[68]), and Portrait of Maddalena Doni (c. 1506). Celebrated later paintings by Raphael, La velata (1515–16) and Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (c. 1514–15), continued to borrow from Leonardo’s painting. Zollner states that “None of Leonardo’s works would exert more influence upon the evolution of the genre than the Mona Lisa. It became the definitive example of the Renaissance portrait and perhaps for this reason is seen not jut as the likeness of a real person, but also as the embodiment of an ideal.”^[69]

Early commentators such as Vasari and André Félibien praised the picture for its realism, but by the Victorian era writers began to regard the Mona Lisa as imbued with a sense of mystery and romance. In 1859 Théophile Gautier wrote that the Mona Lisa was a “sphinx of beauty who smiles so mysteriously” and that “Beneath the form expressed one feels a thought that is vague, infinite, inexpressible. One is moved, troubled … repressed desires, hopes that drive one to despair, stir painfully.” Walter Pater‘s famous essay of 1869 described the sitter as “older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in the deep seas, and keeps their fallen day about her.”^[70] By the early 20th century some critics started to feel the painting had become a repository for subjective exegeses and theories,^[71] and upon the paintings theft in 1911, Renaissance historian Bernard Berenson admitted that it had “simply become an incubus, and I was glad to be rid of her.”^[71][72]

The avant-garde art world has made note of the undeniable fact of the Mona Lisa‘s popularity. Because of the painting’s overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures. Already in 1883, Le rire, an image of a Mona Lisa smoking a pipe, by Sapeck (Eugène Bataille), was shown at the “Incoherents” show in Paris. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential modern artists, created L.H.O.O.Q., a Mona Lisa parody made by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and goatee. Duchamp added an inscription, which when read out loud in French sounds like “Elle a chaud au cul” meaning: “she has a hot ass”, implying the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and intended as a Freudian joke.^[73] According to Rhonda R. Shearer, the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modelled on Duchamp’s own face.^[74]

Salvador Dalí, famous for his surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954.^[75] In 1963 following the painting’s visit to the United States, Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of multiple Mona Lisas called Thirty are Better than One, like his works of Marilyn Monroe (Twenty-five Coloured Marilyns, 1962), Elvis Presley (1964) and Campbell’s soup (1961–62).^[76] The Mona Lisa continues to inspire artists around the world. A French urban artist known pseudonymously as Invader has created versions on city walls in Paris and Tokyo using his trademark mosaic style.^[77] A collection of Mona Lisa parodies may be found on YouTube.^[78] A 2014 New Yorker magazine cartoon parodies the supposed enigma of the Mona Lisa smile in an animation showing progressively maniacal smiles.

Early copies

Prado Museum La Gioconda

A version of Mona Lisa known as Mujer de mano de Leonardo Abince (“Leonardo da Vinci’s handy-woman”) held in Madrid’s Museo del Prado was for centuries considered to be a work by Leonardo. However, since its restoration in 2012 it is considered to have been executed by one of Leonardo’s pupils in his studio at the same time as Mona Lisa was being painted.^[79] Their conclusion, based on analysis obtained after the picture underwent extensive restoration, that the painting is probably by Salaì (1480-1524) or by Melzi (1493-1572). This has been called into question by others.^[80]

The restored painting is from a slightly different perspective than the original Mona Lisa, leading to the speculation that it is part of the world’s first stereoscopic pair.^[81][82][83]

Isleworth Mona Lisa

Main article: Isleworth Mona Lisa

A version of the Mona Lisa known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa was first bought by an English nobleman in 1778 and was rediscovered in 1913 by Hugh Blaker, an art connoisseur. The painting was presented to the media in 2012 by the Mona Lisa Foundation.^[84] The owners claim that Leonardo contributed to the painting, a theory that Leonardo experts such as Zöllner and Kemp deny has any substance.^[85]

• 

  Copy of Mona Lisa commonly attributed to Salaì

• 

  The Prado Museum La Gioconda

• 

  The Isleworth Mona Lisa

• 

  16th century copy at the Hermitage by unknown artist

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Isleworth Mona Lisa

Giacobbe Giusti, Isleworth Mona Lisa

 

The Isleworth Mona Lisa is a painting of the same subject as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Though insufficiently examined, the painting is claimed by some to be partly an original work of Leonardo dating from the early 16th century.[1]

Background

Shortly before World War I, English art collector Hugh Blaker discovered the painting in the home of a Somerset nobleman in whose family it had been for nearly 100 years. This discovery led to the conjecture that Leonardo painted two portraits of Lisa del Giocondo: the famous one in The Louvre and the one discovered by Blaker, who bought the painting and took it to his studio in Isleworth, London, from which it takes its name.[2][3]

According to Leonardo’s early biographer Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo had started to paint Mona Lisa in 1503, but “left it unfinished”. However, a fully finished painting of a “certain Florentine lady” surfaced again in 1517, shortly before Leonardo’s death and in his private possession. The latter painting almost certainly is the same that now hangs in the Louvre.[4] Based on this contradiction, supporters of the authenticity of the Isleworth Mona Lisa[who?] claim it is the unfinished Mona Lisa, made at least partially by Leonardo, and the Louvre Mona Lisa a later version of it, made by Leonardo for his own use.[citation needed]

Also, according to Henry F. Pulitzer in his book Where is the Mona Lisa? (1960), Gian Paolo Lomazzo, an art historian, refers in his Trattato dell’arte della Pittura Scultura ed Architettura (1584), to “della Gioconda, e di Mona Lisa (the Gioconda, and the Mona Lisa)”.[5] La Gioconda is sometimes used as an alternative title of the Mona Lisa hanging in the Louvre; the reference implies that these were, in fact, two separate paintings. Pulitzer reproduces the critical page from Lomazzo’s tract in his own book.[6]

Description

The Isleworth Mona Lisa is wider than the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, having columns on either side which also appear in some other versions. The Louvre painting merely has the projecting bases of columns on either side, suggesting that the picture was originally framed by columns but was trimmed. However, experts who examined the Mona Lisa in 2004–2005 stated that the original painting had not been trimmed.[7]

The figure of the Isleworth Mona Lisa closely resembles that of the Mona Lisa, being identically composed and lit. However, the face of the Isleworth Mona Lisa appears younger, leading to speculation that it is an earlier version by the artist. According to Pulitzer, multiple art experts agreed that the neck of the Isleworth Mona Lisa is inferior to the necks of other Leonardo subjects. Furthermore, the background in the Isleworth painting is considerably less detailed than the background in the Louvre painting. For these reasons, several people Pulitzer consulted believed that the hands and face of the portrait were done by Leonardo, but the rest may have been finished by another or others.

Authenticity

Raphael’s drawing, based on the Mona Lisa
The authenticity of the Isleworth Mona Lisa is widely disputed in the art community. Sceptics argue that as Henry F. Pulitzer himself owned the painting in question, a conflict of interest is present. His Where is the Mona Lisa? was published by the Pulitzer Press, a publisher he owned. Pulitzer notes in the book’s introduction that he made a number of sacrifices in order to acquire the painting, including the selling of “a house with all its contents”.[8]

Pulitzer argues in his book that Leonardo’s contemporary Raphael made a sketch of this painting, probably from memory, after seeing it in Leonardo’s studio in 1504 (the sketch is reproduced in Pulitzer’s book; the book says that this sketch is at the Louvre). The Raphael sketch includes the two Greek columns that are found not in the Louvre’s Mona Lisa, but are found in the painting bought by Blaker. Pulitzer presents a few pages of art expert testimonials in his book; some of these experts seemed to believe that Leonardo was the painter, others felt the artist was somebody who worked in Leonardo’s studio, and still others suggested that other artists may have done it. Supporters of the authenticity of the Isleworth Mona Lisa include art collector John Eyre, who argued that the bust, face, and hands are autographed.[9]

Pulitzer also presents laboratory evidence (light to dark ratios across the canvas, X-rays, etc.) that his painting is a Leonardo. However, specific detail on the manner in which these studies were carried out, and by whom, is not provided. He writes: “I have no intention of cluttering up this book with too many technicalities and wish to make this chapter brief”. No independent reports on the painting are cited in his text; he uses the pronoun “we” to refer to the team that conducted the research. As his own Pulitzer Press then published these results, there is a lack of outside corroboration for his claims. A documentary aired by PBS[10] gives the names of the persons doing the scientific studies.[11]

Hidden in a Swiss bank vault for 40 years, this version of the Mona Lisa was unveiled to the public on 27 September 2012,[12] but Professor Martin Kemp of Oxford University immediately raised doubts about the painting’s status.[13]

In October 2013, Jean Pierre Isbouts published a book titled The Mona Lisa Myth[14] examining the history and events behind the Louvre and Isleworth paintings. A companion film was released in March 2014.[15] In July 2014, “The Mona Lisa Mystery” premiered on the PBS television station’s series, Secrets of the Dead. This documentary investigated, at length, the authenticity of the Isleworth painting.[10]

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

Raphael’s drawing, based on the Mona Lisa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isleworth_Mona_Lisa

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Panagyurishte Treasure

Giacobbe Giusti, Panagyurishte Treasure

The Panagyurishte Treasure (Bulgarian: Панагюрско златно съкровище) is a Thracian treasure excavated on December 8, 1949 by three brothers, Pavel, Petko and Michail Deikov who worked together at the region of “Merul” tile factory near the town of Panagyurishte, Bulgaria. It consists of a phiale, an amphora and seven rhytons with total weight of 6.164 kg of 24-karat gold. All of the objects are richly and skilfully decorated with scenes of Thracian myths, customs and life. It is dated from the 4th-3rd centuries BC, and is thought to have been used as a royal ceremonial set by the Thracian king Seuthes III. As one of the best known surviving artifacts of Thracian culture, the treasure has been displayed at various museums around the world. When not on a tour, the treasure is the centerpiece of the Thracian art collection of the National Museum of History in Sofia.

The items may have been buried to hide them during 4th century BC invasions of the area by the Celts or Macedonians. The phiale carries inscriptions giving its weight in Greek drachmae and Persian darics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panagyurishte_Treasure

 

Il tesoro come è conservato nel museo di Sofia

Il Tesoro di Panagjurište è un corredo tracio rinvenuto dai tre fratelli bulgari Pavel, Petko e Michail Deikovs l’8 dicembre 1949, nei pressi della cittadina di Panagjurište, nella Bulgaria nord-occidentale^[1].

Il tesoro consiste di sette rhyta, un’anfora ed una phiale tutti in oro a 23 carati, per un totale di 6,164 kg. Probabilmente vennero eseguiti da artisti traci nei pressi di Lampsaco, dal momento che sulla phiale c’è una misura usata in quella città, e risalirebbero al IV-III secolo a.C.^[2] Vista la fattura, probabilmente appartennero ad un re odrisio, forse a Seute III.

Il tesoro è uno dei massimi esempi di oreficeria tracia e probabilmente venne sepolto all’arrivo dei Celti, nei primi decenni del III secolo a.C. La lavorazione è una combinazione di stile greco e tracio, e fu molto probabilmente una commissione, in quanto i Greci non facevano uso di rhyta con simili caratteristiche, bensì i Traci^[3].

Immagine ravvicinata di un rhyton

I vari pezzi aurei sono^[4] tre rhyta (contenitori per versare liquidi, in particolare vino) a forma di teste di donna (o Amazzoni oppure le dee Era, Artemide ed Atena, con la testa elmata) con lievi differenze e manico terminante in sfinge, alti 20,5, 21,5 e 22,5 cm, per un diametro massimo di 12,5, 13,5, 10,5 cm e pesanti rispettivamente 387, 461 e 467 grammi; ci sono altri quattro rhyta (in questo caso con la funzione di recipienti per bere): due a forma di testa di cervo (alti 12,5 cm e pesanti 689 grammi circa), uno di testa di ariete (alto 12,5 cm e pesante 505 grammi) ed uno, senza manico, di corpo di capra (alto 14 cm e pesante 440 grammi). La phiale (un grande recipiente di uso cerimoniale) ha un diametro di 25 cm, pesa 845 grammi ed ha quattro cerchi di 24 figure ciascuno: gli ultimi tre composti da teste di etiopi e quello interno composto da ghiande; al centro vi è un umbone ed è recato il valore dell’oggetto: 200 stateri, ½ dracma e 1 obolo di Lampsaco. L’anfora ha un’altezza di 29 cm per un peso di 1,69 kg, e raffigura una scena di battaglia; i due manici sono a forma di centauri.

Quando non è esposto in mostre all’estero, il tesoro si trova nel Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Sofia; in precedenza era conservato a Plovdiv.

Mappa del regno trace degli Odrisi, 5°-1° sec AC

 [

Dettaglio dei reperti

Rhyton a testa di daino con scene delle gesta eroiche di Ercole e Teseo.

(# di inventario 3198, Museo di Plovdiv, 689 g, 13 cm di altezza)

La parte superiore del manico è in foggia di leone che appoggia le zampe anteriori sul bordo della bocca del vaso, cesellata con una banda di piccoli scudi; la parte inferiore termina con un volto  femminile. Lo stelo è scanalato verticalmente Ercole è rappresentato con la pelle del Leone Nemeo sulle spalle (ucciso nella prima delle “dodici fatiche”) mentre lotta con la cerva Cerinea dalle corna d’oro (catturata della quarta delle sue “fatiche”), mandata da Artemide per punire il popolo dell’Arcadia. Inseguendo l’animale, l’eroe attraversò la Tracia e giunse sino alla terra degli Iperborei, alle sorgenti del fiume Istros (Danubio).Teseo è rappresentato con una clamys sventolante e con al fianco la sua spada, mentre lotta con il toro di Maratona.

Rhyton a testa di daino con scene delle gesta eroiche di Ercole e Teseo

Rhyton a testa di daino con scene delle gesta eroiche di Ercole e Teseo

Rhyton a testa di daino con scene delle gesta eroiche di Ercole e Teseo

Rhyton a testa di daino con scene delle gesta eroiche di Ercole e Teseo

Rhyton a testa di cervo con la scena del Giudizio di Paride.

(# di inventario 3197, Museo di Plovdiv, 674,6 g, 13,5 cm di altezza)

La forma complessiva è simile al rhyton 3198, ma con differenze importanti. Lo stelo del manico è cesellato in sei timpani decorati con modanature convesso-concave (cyma reversa). Il collo della testa di donna alla base del manico si fonde con la gola dell’animale. I dettagli sono eseguiti con estrema precisione; le corna e le orecchie del cervo sono state modellate separatamente e poi saldate. La scena è composta da Hera, seduta sul trono decorato in postura regale, in posizione centrale, Atena, con elmo e scudo e Afrodite con un elegante himation ricamato a motivi triangolari puntati, siedono ai due lati. Entrambe portano collane con pendente centrale. Paride (Alexander è il nome scritto a sinistra della testa), vestito come un pastore, siede su una roccia e tiene nella mano sinistra il bastone, il braccio destro alzato per proclamare il verdetto. Le dee fissano Paride nell’attesa del giudizio su chi di loro è la più bella. I nomi delle dee sono scritti con lettere puntate a lato del capo.

Brocca rhytonizzata in forma della testa della dea Hera

(# di inventario 3200, Museo di Plovdiv, 460,75 g, 21,5 cm di altezza)

Il boccale fa parte dello stesso set dei due rhyton precedenti, ma lo stile lo fa porre come opera di un diverso orafo. Il manico ha sezione rettangolare ed è sormontato da una sfinge dotata di ali finemente cesellate che indossa collana e orecchini. Il collo della dea porta una collana con pendenti a goccia e un elemento centrale in foggia di testa di leone con la bocca forata, per consentire la mescita del vino. I capelli sono pettinati all’indietro e fasciati da un fazzoletto (kekriphalos) ^[5] annodato sulla fronte, ricamato con motivi triangolari puntati e stelle a cinque, sei e sette raggi e un motivo ondulato ad onde marine alla base. Sul lobo dell’orecchio sinistro è chiaramente visibile il segno in rilievo di un foro, ma non ci sono orecchini. Il volto è rimasto parzialmente schiacciato durante il recupero.

Brocca rhytonizzata in foggia della dea Hera

Brocca rhytonizzata in forma della testa della dea Atena

(# di inventario 3202, Museo di Plovdiv, 387,3 g, 20,5 cm di altezza)

La dea indossa un elmo in foggia di tiara riccamente decorato con due grifoni e due gruppi complessi di palmette in posizione centrale, in mezzo alla fronte. Anche in questo boccale il manico ha sezione rettangolare e la sfinge è praticamente identica a quella di Hera. La collana reca un pendente con foro centrale per la mescita. Gli occhi appaiono cavi, e si può solo apprezzare il profilo dell’iride, dal momento che il materiale usato per la costruzione (probabilmente pasta vetrosa) non si è conservato. È da notare come tra le decorazioni della tomba del re Odriso Seuthes III (scoperta nella regione di Kazanlak, nella cosiddetta “Valle dei Re”), appaia una rappresentazione di Atena molto simile a questa; la somiglianza ha fatto supporre che il tesoro appartenesse a questo sovrano. Il volto e la base sono rimasti parzialmente schiacciati durante il recupero.

 

Brocca rhytonizzata in foggia della testa della dea Atena

Brocca rhytonizzata in foggia della testa della dea Atena

Brocca rhytonizzata in forma della testa della dea Afrodite

(# di inventario 3201, Museo di Plovdiv, 466,3 g, 21,5 cm di altezza)

È complessivamente molto simile al rhyton di Hera, ma realizzato con dettagli diversi. Il fazzoletto che lega i capelli (kekryphalos) è molto più decorato con gruppi di punti e stelle a sei, sette, otto, dieci e undici raggi, in alcuni punti inscritte in una circonferenza di punti; anche in questo caso presenta un motivo ondulato ad onde marine alla base. Decorazioni  praticamente identiche sono state osservate sulla tiara d’oro reperita nella tomba di una principessa Tracia della tribù dei Tribali (tumulo di Mogilanska presso Vraza)^[6] datata al 4° secolo AC. La collana presenta due ordini di pendenti alternati di lunghezza diversa, i più piccoli a forma di cuore, i più grandi di goccia rovesciata. Il pendente centrale forato per la mescita è anche in questo caso, a foggia di testa di leone, ma il profilo della bocca sembra accennare ad un sorriso. Le ali della sfinge sono  parzialmente spezzate nella parte superiore, ma è l’unico danno riportato durante il recupero.

Brocca rhytonizzata in forma della testa della dea Afrodite

Phiale decorato con volti di fattezze etiopi.

(# di inventario 3204, Museo di Plovdiv, 844,7 g, 25 cm di diametro)

Presenta un centro concavo (onfalos), saldato al vaso con un anello d’oro circondato da cinque corone di decorazioni di grandezza crescente. All’interno dell’onfalos c’è una scritta reca il nome della città di Lapsakos, probabilmente la città dove venne cesellato. La prima corona è costituita da dodici rosette, la seconda da 24 ghiande, le successive da 24 teste con tratti etiopi, di grandezza crescente, tutte intercalate da decori a palmette. Il bordo è introflesso, rendendo l’uso del vaso per bere direttamente piuttosto difficile. Secondo i greci, il termine etiopi indicava gli abitanti della parte più meridionale del mondo conosciuto (oikoumene), identificabile come Nord Africa. Nei pressi di Nesebar è stato rinvenuto un frammento di un vaso a figure nere rappresentante la testa di un etiope. La presenza di etiopi in Tracia non deve stupire. Nel poema epico Etiopide, che racconta le vicende della guerra di Troia tra la morte di Ettore e la disputa per le armi di Achille tra Aiace Telamonio e Odisseo, si narra di un contingente di guerrieri etiopi guidati da Memnone, giunti in soccorso dei troiani. Il poema (perduto e noto solo per riassunti posteriori) si stima sia stato composto nel VII secolo AC.

Phiale decorato con volti di fattezze etiopi

Anfora rhytonizzata con manici in foggia di centauri

(# di inventario 3203, Museo di Plovdiv, 1695,25 g, 29 cm di altezza)

Anfora ritonizzata con manici in foggia di centauri

È il vaso più spettacolare del tesoro e non solo per il suo peso. L’intera superficie del corpo ovoidale è decorata da sette figure maschili tra due bande di motivi floreali. Il collo del vaso, più affusolato, è stato saldato separatamente e la saldatura coperta con una cyma Ionica (modanatura convessa); termina con un bordo estroflesso.  I manici rappresentano due centauri con le braccia nella posizione di tendere l’arco. Un rhyton d’argento con manici in foggia di centauri è stato ritrovato vicino al villaggio di Topolchane, Sliven, nel 2007. Il corpo dell’anfora è completamente decorato con una scena costituita da sette figure. La prima figura è quella di un vecchio barbuto che esamina il fegato di un animale per predire il futuro ed è guardato, alla sua sinistra, da un giovane che indossa un mantello allacciato sul petto (chlamys), una corta spada ricurva (sica supina) e ha la mano sinistra su  di un bastone. È la figura centrale ed è la sola ad essere rappresentata con le calzature; queste sono stivaletti bassi senza risvolto che salgono poco sopra la caviglia e serrati da un laccio (endromides, letteralmente “da corsa”), tipiche calzature di Traci e Sciti ^[7] . Esichio di Alessandria nel suo immenso Glossario (Γλώσσαι) le definisce come “calzature adatte agli atleti”; Polluce conferma l’etimologia ^[8] e aggiunge che sono quelle più spesso calzate da Artemide, riprendendo un passo di Callimaco di Cirene che fa dire alla dea” Voglio dei servi che si prendano cura delle mie endromides e dei miei veloci cani”.^[9] Alla sua sinistra, girato di spalle, un araldo suona il corno per chiama quattro guerrieri all’attacco. Uno di questi è di fronte ad una porta e, spada in pugno, sta spingendo uno dei battenti, nello spazio tra i battenti si vedono le mani e la testa di un vecchio barbuto e disarmato. Vi sono diverse ipotesi sul significato della scena: la più diffusa è che rappresenti il mito dei “Sette contro Tebe”, tragedia di Eschilo del ciclo tebano. La parte inferiore dell’anfora reca il bassorilievo di un Sileno barbuto che reca in una mano un flauto a due canne e nell’altra una coppa (cantaros) che si spinge sino ad uno delle due simmetriche bocche di mescita, costituite dalle teste di due etiopi. Sull’altro lato del fondo dell’anfora è rappresentato il giovane Ercole che strangola i serpenti inviati da Hera.

Rhyton con protome di capro

(# di inventario 3196, Museo di Plovdiv, 439,05 g, 14 cm di altezza)

Questo rhyton differisce da quelli della  collezione in quanto non ha il manico e oltre la metà del corpo dell’animale è liscio e privo di decorazioni. L’ugello di mescita è tronco conico; le decorazioni della bocca del vaso sono molto simili a quelle delle brocche ritonate. Lo stile delle figure e le scritte dei nomi dei personaggi sono anch’esse dello stesso tipo ma, diversamente dal rhyton con il giudizio di Paride, il nome di Hera finisce con E invece che con A. La testa dell’animale con parte del collo, le corna, le orecchie e la parte anteriore delle zampe sono state cesellate separatamente. Diversamente dagli altri rhyta, gli occhi sono modellati nell’oro, con bulbi oculari e pupille concave. Hera è al centro della scena, seduta su di un trono, con i piedi appoggiati su di uno sgabello. Con la mano destra mesce una libagione da un fiale, mentre con l’altra mano solleva il bordo del velo che le copre il capo. Gli dei gemelli Apollo e Artemide, con i loro archi stretti nelle mani sinistre siedono ai lati di Hera. Sulla parte posteriore è rappresentata Nike alata, la dea della vittoria; porta i capelli raccolti in un’alta crocchia. Indossa una tunica legata dietro al collo con un nastro che si incrocia in mezzo al seno, dove è fissato con un medaglione rotondo centrato da un disco in rilievo. Hera e Artemide portano chitoni ionici con doppia cinta, ma solo quello di Hera è decorato con motivi a stelle e punti.^[10]

Rhyton con protome di capro

Rhyton in foggia di testa di capretto con scena Dionisiaca

(# di inventario 3199, Museo di Plovdiv, 505,05 g, 12,5 cm di altezza)

Questo rhyton ha molte delle caratteristiche simili a quello a testa di cervo. Il capretto è rappresentato con tratti anatomici molto realistici; il profilo della sclera sinistra è inciso più profondamente di quello destro. I riccioli di pelo sono rappresentati con due piccoli cerchi concentrici. Il giovane Dioniso è seduto al centro della scena. I capelli, lunghi fino alle spalle, sono cinti da una ghirlanda d’edera. La parte inferiore del corpo è coperta da un imation. Nella mano destra tiene un tirso (il bastone con intrecciati pampini ed edera); la mano sinistra è appoggiata sulla spalla di una giovane che gli cinge la vita con il braccio; entrambi portano calzature basse allacciate simili a quelle dell’affresco della volta della Tomba trace di Kazanlak. A due lati sono due menadi che reggono un tirso e un timpano, in posa estatica danzante. I nomi a lato delle teste delle figure sono Dioniso ed Eriope; quest’ultimo è un appellativo di Arianna, abbandonata da Teseo sull’isola di Naxos, dove divenne la sposa di Dioniso. Il nome potrebbe essere una variante di Erigone, figlia di Icaro, di cui si innamorò Dioniso. Come ringraziamento per l’ospitalità data a Dioniso, Icaro ricevette in dono la vite e divenne il primo uomo a produrre vino in Attica. Il culto di Dioniso è molto probabilmente di origine Trace.

Rhyton in foggia di testa di capretto con scena Dionisiaca

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesoro_di_Panagjuri%C5%A1te

Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient bronze sculptures comes to Getty Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient bronze sculptures comes to  Getty Museum

The Pompeii Apollo”

 

 

Kenneth Lapatin, associate curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, gestures toward a sculpture which is part of the “Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of Hellenistic World” exhibit in Los Angeles, Monday, July 27, 2015. (AP / Nick Ut)

John Rogers, The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, July 28, 2015 9:35AM EDT

LOS ANGELES — It’s almost as if the dozens of exquisitely detailed, often perfectly intact bronze sculptures on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum disappeared into an ancient witness-protection program — and decided to stay there for thousands of years.

“Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World,” which opened at the museum Tuesday, brings together more than 50 bronzes from the Hellenistic period that extended from about 323 to 31 B.C.

Many of them, like the life-size figure of an exhausted boxer, his hands still bandaged from a match, brow cut and bruised, are stunning in their detail. So is the “The Medici Riccardi Horse,” a horse’s head complete with flaring nostrils and a detailed mane. “Sleeping Eros” shows an infant sprawled out sound asleep on a pedestal. One arm is draped across the child’s chest, his tousled hair in gentle repose.

Perhaps even more stunning, however, is the fact that any of these things survived.

Thousands of such beautifully detailed bronzes were created during the Hellenistic Age. Larger works were assembled piece-by-piece and welded together by artisans working in almost assembly line fashion and displayed in both public places and the homes of the well to do.

But most, say the exhibition’s co-curators, Kenneth Lapatin and Jens Daehner, were eventually melted down and turned into something else like coins.

“We know Lysippos made 1,500 bronzes in his lifetime, but not one survives,” Lapatin said of the artist said to be Alexander the Great’s favourite sculptor. “They’ve all been melted down.”

To this day, roads, fields and other public places across Greece and much of the rest of the Mediterranean are dotted with empty stone bases where bronze statues once stood, added Daehner during a walk-through of the stunning, hilltop museum ahead of the exhibition’s opening.

Which is why you rarely see more than one or two when you visit most any museum, said J. Paul Getty Director Timothy Potts.

The nearly 60 that will be on display at the J. Paul Getty until Nov. 1 are believed to represent the largest such collection ever assembled. They have been contributed by 32 lenders from 14 countries on four continents.

“Many of these are national treasures,” Potts said. “They are the greatest works of ancient art that these nations possess. So it’s been an extraordinary act of generosity for them to be lent to us.”

Many are completely intact, so much so that several still have their eyes, made of tin and glass. The result, they can stare right back in eerie fashion at museum visitors who go to check them out.

That they survived was in most cases the result of simple good fortune on their part, if not their owners’.

“It’s only through shipwrecks, through being buried in the foundations of buildings, being buried by a volcano at Pompeii or landslides that most of these pieces have survived,” said Lapatin.

“Herm of Dionysus,” for example, was believed to have been commissioned by a wealthy Roman homeowner. The detailed work of a bearded man with hat and animated eyes was found in a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia in 1907.

The sculpture of an athlete raising an arm in victory was uncovered in the Adriatic Sea by Italian fishermen in the 1960s.

“The Pompeii Apollo” was discovered in 1977 in the dining room of a house in Pompeii that had been buried by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

It is believed to have been used, in a very ungodlike fashion, to hold the room’s lights. That’s something that inspired Lapatin to refer to it as the equivalent of a modern-day lawn jockey.

The exhibition featuring it and the other pieces was organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. It opened at the Palazzo Strozzi earlier this year. After it leaves the Getty, will go on display Dec. 6 at the National Gallery of Art.

It will also be the subject of study when the 19th International Congress on Ancient Bronzes convenes in Los Angeles in October.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/ancient-bronze-sculptures-comes-to-l-a-s-getty-museum-1.2490939

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Power and Pathos at the Getty Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Power and Pathos at the Getty Museum

 

The New York Times

In ‘Power and Pathos,’ Faces Frozen in Time and Bronze at the Getty Museum

JULY 29, 2015

Photo

A head of Seuthes III is among more than 50 ancient bronzes at the Getty Museum. Credit Krasimir Georgiev, via National Institute of Archaeology with Museum, Bulgaria

Art

By KEN JOHNSON

More than 2,000 years ago, artists of ancient Greece and Rome created sculptural representations of human beings that remain as striking for their anatomical and psychological realism as anything produced by Western artists since. The public does not often get to see many masterpieces of that time and place together, so “Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World” at the J. Paul Getty Museum (and traveling to the National Gallery of Art in December) will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for comparing and contrasting. The exhibition convenes more than 50 ancient bronzes from the Mediterranean region dating from the fourth century B.C. to the first century A.D. Among them is the famous “Terme Boxer” from the National Roman Museum, a nearly life-size representation of a muscular, bearded athlete seated in a state of exhaustion, his face bruised and bloody, his head turned to his right as if to ask his coach for advice or to plead with the gods for relief from his barbaric plight. (310-440-7300; getty.edu)

Photo

Four of the more than 50 ancient bronzes at the Getty Museum. Credit Clockwise from top left: Marie Mauzy/Art Resource, NY; The Trustees of The British Museum; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worh, via Scala, Firenze; Archaeological Museum of Calymnos and Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, via Archaeological Receipts Fund

A version of this article appears in print on August 2, 2015, on page AR2 of the New York edition with the headline: Faces Frozen In Bronze . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermes tying his sandal

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermes tying his sandal

Bronze original Greek Sculpture

Attributed to Lysippus

4th century BC

Roman sculpture

1st-2nd Cent. AD [?]

Paris, Musée du Louvre

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, The Louvre portrait of Alexander the Great

Giacobbe Giusti, The Louvre portrait of Alexander the Great

Roman marble sculpture

About 1st – 2nd Cent. AA.

From Tivoli, Rome

Original bronze sculpture attributed to Lysippos

About 330 BC.

Paris, Musée du Louvre

 

About 1st – 2nd Cent. AA.

From Tivoli, Rome

Original bronze sculpture attributed to Lysippos

About 330 BC.

Paris, Musée du Louvre

 

https://www.google.it/search?q=The+Louvre+portrait+of+Alexander+the+Great&biw=853&bih=439&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI2L6Pmf7sxgIVxp9yCh0Y4goC#imgrc=e1mHSBHwzXkhmM%3A
http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Horses of Saint Mark

Giacobbe Giusti, Horses of Saint Mark

Bronze. Attributed to the Greek sculptor Lysippos, 4th century BCE.”>

Venice, Basilica of St. Mark
http://ancientrome.ru/art/artworken/img.htm?id=5739
http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Power and Pathos

Giacobbe Giusti, Power and Pathos

First Ever Major Exhibition of Hellenistic Bronze Sculptures Will Travel Internationally

 

MEDIA CONTACT:    
Amy Hood
Getty Communications
(310) 440-6427
ahood@getty.edu

Beginning in March 2015, the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., will present Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, the first major international exhibition to bring together approximately 50 ancient bronzes from the Mediterranean region and beyond ranging from the 4th century B.C. to the 1st century A.D.

“The representation of the human figure is central to the art of almost all ancient cultures, but nowhere did it have greater importance, or more influence on later art history, than in Greece,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “It was in the Hellenistic period that sculptors pushed to the limit the dramatic effects of billowing drapery, tousled hair, and the astonishingly detailed renderings of veins, wrinkles, tendons, and musculature, making the sculpture of their time the most life-like and emotionally charged ever made, and still one of the highpoints of European art history. At its best, Hellenistic sculpture leaves nothing to be desired or improved upon. The 50 or so works in the exhibition represent the finest of these spectacular and extremely rare works that survive, and makes this one of the most important exhibitions of ancient classical sculpture ever mounted. This is a must-see event for anyone with an interest in classical art or sculpture.”

Potts continues: “The Getty Museum is proud to be collaborating on this project with our colleagues in Florence at the Palazzo Strozzi, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana, along with the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C..”

During the Hellenistic era artists around the Mediterranean created innovative, realistic sculptures of physical power and emotional intensity. Bronze—with its reflective surface, tensile strength, and ability to hold the finest details—was employed for dynamic compositions, graphic expressions of age and character, and dazzling displays of the human form.

From sculptures known since the Renaissance, such as the Arringatore (Orator) from Sanguineto (in the collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence), to spectacular recent discoveries that have never before been exhibited in the United States, the exhibition is the most comprehensive museum survey of Hellenistic bronzes ever organized. In each showing of the exhibition, recent finds—many salvaged from the sea—will be exhibited for the first time alongside famous works from the world’s leading museums. The works of art on view will range in scale from statuettes, busts and heads to life-size figures and herms.

Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World is especially remarkable for bringing together works of art that, because of their rarity, are usually exhibited in isolation. When viewed in proximity to one another, the variety of styles and techniques employed by ancient sculptors is emphasized to greater effect, as are the varying functions and histories of the bronze sculptures.

Bronze was a material well-suited to reproduction, and the exhibition provides an unprecedented opportunity to see objects of the same type, and even from the same workshop together for the first time.

The travel schedule for Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World is:

Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
March 14 – June 21, 2015
http://www.palazzostrozzi.org

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
July 28 – November 1, 2015
http://www.getty.edu

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
December 6, 2015 – March 20, 2016
http://www.nga.gov

This exhibition is curated by Jens Daehner and Kenneth Lapatin of the J. Paul Getty Museum and co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; with the participation of Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Bank of America is the National Sponsor of this touring exhibition. The Los Angeles presentation is also supported by the Getty Museum’s Villa Council, Vera R. Campbell Foundation, and the A. G. Leventis Foundation.

http://news.getty.edu/press-materials/press-releases/power-and-pathos-hellenistic-bronze-sculpture.print

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Egyptian hieroglyphs

Giacobbe Giusti, Egyptian hieroglyphs

Name of Alexander the Great in Egyptian hieroglyphs (written from right to left), c. 330 BC, Egypt. Louvre Museum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com