Giacobbe Giusti, Master of Saint Francis, Details of a Crucifix (c.1275-80), National Gallery, London

Giacobbe Giusti, Master of Saint Francis, Details of a Crucifix (c.1275-80), National Gallery, London

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Master of Saint Francis, Details of a Crucifix (c.1275-80), National Gallery, London

The Master of Saint Francis (in Italian Maestro di S. Francesco) was an anonymous Italian painter, perhaps of Pisan origin^[1] though probably trained in Umbria,^[2] working between 1250–1280. His work embodies an important aspect of the contact between Italian and Byzantine art of this period.

Works

A painter of frescoes and panels and, perhaps, designer of stained glass in the district around Perugia, the Master of Saint Francis was given this name by art historian Henry Thode in 1885 and is based on the title of a panel painting, St. Francis with Angels, found in the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi.^[3]

Much of the work attributed to him was part of the early phase in the decoration of Basilica of San Francesco of Assisi, including the fresco cycle in the nave of the Lower Church with five scenes from the Passion of Christ on the right wall and five scenes from the Life of St Francis on the left. (These were damaged by the later opening of the side chapels.) In spite of the obvious participation of assistants, the entire cycle seems to have been planned by a single artist and can be considered as homogeneous and characteristic of his style. The cycle was largely based on the later works of Giunta Pisano but also shows the influence of such Umbrian artists as Rainaldetto di Ranuccio, Simeone and Machilone and of contemporary manuscript illumination, for example the Gospel Book of Giovanni da Gaibena (Padua, Bib. Capitolare). Designs for some of the stained glass windows in the Upper Church are also attributed to him.^[4] In addition, he created a large panel painting (now divided into numerous pieces) for the church of Saint Francis al Prato in Perugia,^[4] and several painted crosses.

Within his works Byzantine elements, particularly of iconography, are found with western forms of ornamentation and a use of colour that is far from Byzantine.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Master of Saint Francis: Crucifix du Louvre (extrait)

MASTER of St Francis

Italian painter, Umbrian school (active c. 1260-1280 in Umbria)

The frescoes in the nave of the Lower Church in Assisi are regarded as the masterwork of the Master of St Francis. Unfortunately, half of each has been destroyed when the walls were broken through. These frescoes initiated the decoration in San Francesco around 1260. Before the eyes of the pilgrims visiting the saint’s tomb in the lower church, a pictorial program of an entirely new kind unfurled, juxtaposing five scenes from the Passion of Christ on the north wall (Preparation for the Crucifixion, Crucifixion, Deposition, Lamentation, Supper at Emmaus) with five scenes from the life of St Francis on the south wall (Renunciation of Worldly Goods, Dream of Pope Innocent III, St Francis Preaches to the Birds, St Francis Receives the Stigmata, Funeral of St Francis.

These murals were executed al secco, on dry plaster, using tempera paints in large sections. The artistic qualities of the paintings are difficult to judge as the works have been largely destroyed.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Franziskusmeister: Der heilige Franziskus predigt den Vögeln, um 1260.

Meister des Heiligen Franziskus von Assisi oder Franziskusmeister (italienischMaestro di San Francesco) wird ein italienischer Maler unbekannten Namens genannt, der Fresken und womöglich Glasbilder im Gebiet um Perugia in Umbrien, Italien kreierte. Er war aktiv zwischen 1260 und 1280.

Namensgebung

Seinen Notnamen erhielt der Franziskusmeister von dem Kunsthistoriker Henry Thode nach einem Bild in der Kirche Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi, das den Heiligen Franz von Assisi mit Engeln darstellt^[1].

Werke und Stil

Werke des Franziskusmeister sind vor allem in der Basilika San Francesco in Assisizu sehen, beispielsweise ein Freskenzyklus im Schiff der Unterkirche mit fünf Szenen zur Passionsgeschichte Christi auf der rechten Seite und fünf Szenen aus dem Leben des Hl. Franziskus auf der linken Seite (diese wurden bei der späteren Öffnung der Seitenkapellen beschädigt).

Trotz der möglichen Assistenz von Fremden bei der Erstellung der Werke, scheinen diese doch von einem einzigen Künstler geplant worden zu sein und zeigen einen einheitlichen Stil. Sie basieren wahrscheinlich auf Nachahmungen des späten Giunta Pisano, aber zeigen auch Einflüsse anderer Künstler Umbriens wie zum Beispiel Rainaldetto di Ranuccio, Simeone und Machilone von Spoleto und Einflüsse zeitgenössischer Buchmalereien wie der Bibel von Giovanni da Gaibana von Padua.

Der Meister des Hl. Franziskus verkörpert einen wichtigen Aspekt der Verbindung italienischer und byzantinischer Ikonenmalerei verbunden mit Detailmalerei und Farben, die dem byzantinischen Stil fremd sind.

Einzelnachweise

1. ↑ H. Thode: Franz von Assisi und die Anfänge der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien. 2. verbesserte Auflage, G. Grote 1904

Literatur

Saskia Esser: Die Ausmalung der Unterkirche von San Francesco in Assisi durch den Franziskusmeister. Bonn 1983 (Bonn, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Diss., 1983).

• Elvio Lunghi: Una „copia“ antica dagli affreschi del maestro di San Francesco. In: Paragone. Arte. Bd. 40, 1989, ISSN 1120-4737, S. 12–29 (italienisch).
• Joachim Poeschke: Der „Franziskusmeister“ und die Anfänge der Ausmalung von S. Francesco in Assisi. In: Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, Bd. 27, H. 2, ISSN 0342-1201, 1983, S. 125–170.
• Jürgen Schultze: Zur Kunst des „Franziskusmeisters“. In: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch. 25, 1963, ISSN 0083-7105, S. 109–150.
• Jürgen Schultze: Die Fresken in der Unterkirche von San Francesco zu Assisi und andere Werke des „Franziskusmeisters“. In: Raggi. Bd. 7, 1967 ZDB-ID 528282-2, S. 44–58.
• Henry Thode: Franz von Assisi und die Anfänge der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien. 2. verbesserte Auflage. G. Grote, Berlin 1904.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maestro_di_San_Francesco

https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/master/francis/index.html

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Cimabue, The Crucifixion, c. 1277-80, fresco. Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi

Giacobbe Giusti, Cimabue, The Crucifixion, c. 1277-80, fresco. Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi

 

 

 

Crocifissione del transetto sinistro

Crocifissione del transetto sinistro
Autore	Cimabue
Data	1277–1283 circa
Tecnica	affresco
Dimensioni	circa 350×300 cm
Ubicazione	Basilica superiore di San Francesco, Assisi

L’immagine al negativo

La Crocifissione del transetto sinistro è un affresco (circa 350×300 cm) di Cimabue e aiuti, databile attorno al 1277–1283 circa e conservato nella basilica superiore di San Francesco di Assisi. La scena è accoppiata simmetricamente alla Crocifissione del transetto destro, dall’altro lato.

Storia

La datazione degli affreschi di Cimabue è piuttosto discorde, sebbene negli studi più recenti si sia assestata a un periodo tra il 1277, anno dell’elezione al soglio pontificio di Niccolò III e il 1283 circa. La zona del transetto sinistro è decorata dalle Storie apocalittiche.

Per questa scena, forse la più notevole dell’intero ciclo, non è mai stata messa in dubbio l’autografia del maestro^[1].

Gli affreschi di Cimabue sono in generale in condizioni mediocri o pessime. Non fa eccezione questa Crocifissione, che dovette essere una delle scene più importanti dell’intero ciclo, e che oggi si presenta sfigurata da abrasioni (in parte colmate dall’ultimo restauro) e con i colori quasi invertiti in negativo, per l’ossidazione della biacca dei colori chiari, diventati oggi scuri. Nella zona inferiore esistono tuttavia alcuni brani coi colori originali ancora visibili.

Descrizione e stile

Possibile autoritratto di Cimabue

Il Cristo

Cristo sulla Croce si erge al centro del dipinto, vistosamente inarcato verso sinistra, come nelle note croci lignee sagomate di Cimabue. La metà superiore, celeste, è affollata d’angeli che manifestano tutto il loro dolore, volando in cerchio attorno al braccio breve della croce, coprendosi il viso piangente, alzando le mani al cielo, e raccogliendo pietosamente il sangue di Gesù con delle ciotole. Questi angeli saranno tenuti ben presenti da Giotto nella sua celebre Crocifissione della Cappella degli Scrovegni. Il capo del Cristo è particolarmente dolente, proteso in avanti anziché adagiato del tutto sulla spalla come nelle croci di Arezzo e di Firenze. Le braccia non sono parallele alla croce, ma se ne distaccano significando tutto il peso del martirio in corso.

Gli astanti

Nella metà inferiore, terrestre, il ritmo è reso altamente tragico dal triangolo di linee di forza, dato dalle pose drammatiche delle due figure ai lati della croce, la Maddalena a destra che distende le braccia e un ebreo che allunga il braccio quasi a toccare il perizoma prolungato di Cristo, che simboleggia il riconoscimento della figura di divina di Cristo da parte di alcuni astanti. Addirittura la Maddalena solleva anche un ginocchio, come se volesse lanciarsi sulla croce accanto a Gesù. Scrisse Adolfo Venturi: «non è più il crocifisso con ai lati le figure simmetriche del portaspugna e del portalancia, né quello con le istorie del suo martirio su un cartellone! Nuova è la scena in cui il dolore e l’odio irrompono da anime forti, le grida contrastano roboanti, i sentimenti si urtano nella tempesta del cielo e della terra». Nella lunga coda del perizoma, una novità iconografica, si moltiplicano le pieghe e le scanalature, con una tendenza al realismo senza schematizzazioni, verso un recupero del classicismo^[1].

Ai lati si distendono due gruppi di figure. Quello di sinistra mostra Maria con la mano al petto, nel gesto tipico del dolente, mentre Giovanni le prende la mano per prendersene cura da allora in poi, secondo un episodio narrato solo nel Vangelo di Giovanni. Seguono le tre Marie e una folla di personaggi in secondo piano, tra cui si riconoscono numerosi uomini col capo coperto, gli Ebrei.

A destra invece si mischiano soldati romani ed ebrei, nelle loro espressioni di perplessità (c’è chi si tocca la barba) e di scherno, ma qualcuno accenna a un ripensamento, portando un dito alla bocca in segno di dubbio, e afferrandosi il polso per indicare l’impotenza. Uno addirittura si batte il petto in segno di pentimento, seguendo un passo del Vangelo di Luca (23, 47). Tra queste figure, il volto giovanile dietro al centurione è pressoché identico a un personaggio nell’Imposizione del nome al Battista nei mosaici del Battistero di Firenze (che per questo fu attribuita a Cimabue). L’ultimo volto a destra in prima fila è molto caratterizzato fisiognomicamente, a differenza degli altri, ed è stato ipotizzato che si tratti di un autoritratto del pittore.

Il pittore mise i personaggi uno dietro l’altro per dare idea di profondità, ma non seppe risolvere il conflitto di come essi poggiassero al suolo: ecco che i pochi piedi dipinti (solo per le figure in primo piano), si pestano uno sull’altro, come nei mosaici bizantini di San Vitale a Ravenna. I pochi colori originari superstiti, sopravvissuti proprio in questa zona, dimostrano una grande raffinatezza, che doveva da un effetto di delicata magnificenza: rosa, ocra, verde marcio, marrone. Qui dopotutto era in corso la realizzazione della “più straordinaria visione di forme e di splendori che artisti siano mai riusciti ad attuare” fino ad allora^[1].

San Francesco

Alla base di questo triangolo sta rannicchiato san Francesco, che è riconoscibile dalle stimmate e che si bagna col sangue di Cristo che scorre sulla montagnola del Golgota fino al teschio nascosto di Adamo. Francesco appare qui come intermediario tra l’evento sacro e il fedele^[2]. La sua presenza è stata interpretata anche come simbolo delle tribolazioni dell’ordine francescano secondo le dottrine apocalittiche di Pietro Olivi e Gioacchino da Fiore, come a dire che far soffrire Francesco e i suoi seguaci è come crocifiggere il Cristo una seconda volta^[1].

Il gruppo di destra (negativo)

Alcuni spiegano così la doppia presenza della Crocifissione nella basilica superiore^[3].

La questione di Longino

L’uomo che riconosce Cristo, col capo velato (quindi ebreo) impugna il bastone del comando ed ha già il nimbo di santo: difficile è capire se è per Cimabue san Longino, oppure se il fiorentino tenga distaccate le figure del centurione illuminato (per quanto ebreo) e di colui che trafisse Gesù con la lancia; dopotutto la raffigurazione esplicita del soldato con la lancia nella Crocifissione del transetto destro è priva di nimbo. Un uomo con la lancia compare però dietro di lui, e gli fa eco tenendo una posizione analoga col braccio disteso: è forse lui Longino o è un inserviente? Le altre due figure ai lati l’uomo con l’aureola, in un elegante contrapposto simmetrico, inoltre impugnano scudo e lancia: sembra che Cimabue abbia voluto disarmare quella figura per sottolinearne agiograficamente la virtù senza impacci guerreschi^[4]. Secondo Chiara Frugoni l’uomo in primo piano è san Longino (che non è infrequente trovare rappresentato ora come ebreo ora come romano), mentre l’uomo che gli fa eco è un altro ebreo che illustra il passo del Vangelo di Luca, in cui si descrive il pentimento di una parte degli Ebrei^[5].

In ogni caso, ammettere un santo tra i giudei che furono responsabili della crocifissione di Cristo (secondo la tradizione antigiudaica da san Giovanni in poi) rappresenta un’apertura verso il mondo giudaico fino ad allora senza precedenti, spiegabile forse con l’opera di redenzione ed evangelizzazione universale portata avanti dai Francescani^[6]. Duccio di Buoninsegna ad esempio, nella Crocifissione della Maestà del Duomo di Siena, copiò la figura del riconoscitore di Cristo da Cimabue, ma ne omise il nimbo, facendolo ripriombare nell’anonimato della folla tumultuante^[6]. A tale ipotesi di accoglienza francescana può legarsi anche scelta di includere la preminenza della figura della Maddalena, la prostituta pentita^[5]. Il messaggio di Cristo sembra così dare i suoi primi frutti già appena dopo la Crocifissione, cone le prime conversioni spontanee, allargandosi poi idealmente nell’espansione della comunità credente attuata tramite gli Evangelisti, poi tramite la Chiesa e infine arrivando a Francesco, il “nuovo evangelista”^[7], raffigurato ai piedi della croce^[8].

Appare quindi un messaggio di speranza, che può riscattare anche chi ha errato, invece di condannarlo insindacabilmente^[9].

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocifissione_del_transetto_sinistro

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Michelangelo

Giacobbe Giusti, Michelangelo

 

Pietà Rondanini by Michelangelo

http://illuminations-edu.blogspot.it/2014_02_01_archive.html
http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, from Leonardo to Jasper Johns

Giacobbe Giusti, from Leonardo to Jasper Johns

http://www.scoopnest.com/user/ngadc/604001702522527744

the guardian

by Laura Cumming

Drawing in Silver and Gold: From Leonardo to Jasper Johns review – sensationally beautiful

British Museum, London
An exclusive preview of a unique show devoted to the lost art of metalpoint reveals works as beautiful as they are technically exacting

Rembrandt is in love with the girl in the portrait – and she with him. Her eyes glow with adoration beneath the brim of a wide straw hat. Her hair is wavy, her lips moist, the cheek resting against one hand is warm and supple and Rembrandt draws the tiny dimple in her chin with infinite tenderness: no mean feat, considering that he is not using fluid ink or soft chalk but a hard silver stylus to commemorate this momentous June day in 1633. Rembrandt and Saskia are now officially engaged.

Rembrandt left only a handful of drawings in metalpoint and they were all made during this three-day betrothal trip to Friesland. He chose a special medium for a precious occasion. Metalpoint involves drawing on parchment or paper coated with a slightly abrasive surface of gum mixed with a substance like ash, ground bone or lead white. It is exceptionally tricky because the fine line created by the sharp metal tip is almost impossible to erase. One mistake and the drawing is spoiled.

If you are going to incise an eyelash or indent the spots on a dragon’s wing, you have to know where the marks will go

But get it right and the effects can be astounding, as this unique exhibition reveals. Drawing in Silver and Gold is the first show ever devoted to the art of metalpoint. It is radical, original and sensationally beautiful, with works by some of our greatest artists, from Dürer and Leonardo to Holbein and Rembrandt, and on to the present exponents of the medium, who include Bruce Nauman and Jasper Johns. The images are intimate, generally small, often surprisingly personal – Dürer’s dog, Holbein’s younger brother – and share the paradoxical quality of metalpoint, which is to appear extremely precise and yet shimmeringly soft.

As the artist draws, the stylus leaves a faint silvery trace on the surface. With time, air oxidises the metal, turning that line to many subtle shades of gold and brown. The first great portrait in this show, by Rogier van der Weyden around 1430, has exactly the hues of a sepia photograph. Indeed the young woman in her elaborate veil emerges from the page with nearly photographic immediacy. Her eyes are wide with concentration and the artist has left a tiny dot of untouched parchment in one, to indicate the glistening tear duct. It is an infinitesimally small but superb calculation.

Metalpoint requires intense premeditation. If you are going to incise an eyelash, sweep in a dynamic profile or indent the livid spots on a dragon’s wing, you have to know exactly where these marks will go in the overall composition because you can’t take them out or move them. And unlike charcoal, chalk or pencil, the artist cannot create darker marks by varying the pressure. Everything – from velvet to steel, from muscular flesh to dewy rose petal – has to be achieved by the exacting touch of the tip.

The high point of the medium is generally held to be Leonardo’s Bust of a Warrior, star of the British Museum’s own collection. This vision of a soldier with a face like thunder, angrier than the raging lion on his breastplate, fiercer than the spiny dragon wings on his helmet, is a marvel of crosshatching, contouring, stippling and shading in minute dashes and loops. Even after the centuries have turned it spectral grey, even though its curlicues may be weightless and fantastical, this masterpiece remains peculiarly frightening.

 

Metalpoint may be extremely difficult but it has certain advantages over other methods of drawing. It doesn’t smudge, there is no need to stop and sharpen the pencil or dip the pen in ink, and it is far less fugitive than charcoal or chalk. It is midway between drawing and etching in terms of durability. Although the origins are obscure – some specialists think metalpoint emerges from medieval illumination – its heyday is mainly in western Europe between the 15th and the 17th centuries, when it was sometimes used to create images for sample books.

A patron might flip though a catalogue of drawings to pick motifs – this head, those pillars, that background field – for an altarpiece. Some of the exhibits in this show are prototypes for existing paintings. But whatever their purpose, they always exceed it in their sheer virtuosity and fascination with the look of life – the intricate brickwork of an Antwerp street, the beauty of an arching eyebrow, the minute phenomenon of tears welling, then bursting the dam of an eyelid to stream down a mourner’s cheek.

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Leonardo does it, but Michelangelo does not. There is some mystery in who chooses metalpoint, in why it appears and then disappears, especially in certain countries.

The Italians, working with flamboyantly coloured surfaces of coral, green and blue, produced magnificent anatomical drawings and studies of airborne saints during the Renaissance, but the method never quite left the workshop to enter their private lives as it did in northern Europe. Flemish artists drew their wives and siblings, their children and pets, the new tobacco plant in the back garden. Dürer’s first self-portrait – in three-quarter view, and pointing rather than drawing, just to make it even harder – was produced at the age of 13, with a silver stylus.

Presumably the mass production of graphite pencils has something to with the decline of metalpoint. But there was a revival in the 19th century when the pre-Raphaelites, among others, consulted some of the very drawings in this show, and in the very same place. By the 20th century, to use metalpoint was to align oneself with a most exacting tradition. One of the most touching images here is Otto Dix’s Self-Portrait As a Draughtsman from 1933, the year he was sacked from his position at Dresden Academy by the Nazis. The medium is the message – Dix declares his affiliation with Dürer, founding father of German art.

But perhaps the most compelling artist in this show is another German-born figure, the bafflingly underrated Hendrik Goltzius, whose metalpoint drawings fairly crackle with life. Intimate views of daily existence flow from his stylus – his pet retriever, his garden, his sister leafing through a book, himself in 1589, light catching the top stitching on the brim of his hat, the hint of a wink in his eye.

Best of all are three drawings of a hawk-nosed man, bony but handsome, a certain dry amusement dawning in his face (perhaps in response to Goltzius’s company). These are studies for a full-dress engraving, elaborate and rigidly formal. But where the print pushes the man straight back into history, the metalpoints draw him into our moment, bringing him back to life.
Drawing in Silver and Gold: From Leonardo to Jasper Johns is at the British Museum, London from 10 September to 6 December

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/aug/30/drawing-silver-gold-leonardo-jasper-johns-review-biritish-museum
http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Botticelli in Berlin

Giacobbe Giusti, Botticelli in Berlin

Raczynski Tondo
Description:

Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi) (1445 – 1510)
Raczynski Tondo
Tempera on panel, about 1481-1483
207 x 148 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany

Exhibitions

The Botticelli Renaissance

from: 24.09.2015 to: 24.01.2016
Gemäldegalerie

http://www.smb.museum/en/exhibitions/detail/the-botticelli-renaissance.html

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Bronze Sculpture Discovered in Georgia Goes on Display in Los Angeles

Giacobbe Giusti, Bronze Sculpture Discovered in Georgia Goes on Display in Los Angeles

An ancient statue dating back to the Bronze Age and discovered in Georgia goes on a display among the ancient world’s masterpieces in Los Angeles.

After the long term collaboration of the Georgian National Museum and J. Paul Getty Museum unidentified bronze statue named Torso of a Youth dated 2nd – 1st century BC, discovered in Vani settlement, wester Georgia were available to go on a display at the exhibition in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

A major exhibition named Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World was open at the Los Angeles Getty Museum on July 28 and will last until November 1.

Before moving to Los Angeles, following exhibition was presented at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and after Getty Museum, exposition will move to the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Other pieces which are exhibited at the Los Angeles Getty Museum are from world’s leading ancient museums, such are the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the Musйe du Louvre in Paris, and the Vatican Museums.

The exhibition in Los Angeles is organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, with the participation of the Tuscany’s directorate general for archaeology and it represents one of the largest expositions of this kind.

National Museum of Georgia is temporary housing of the statue, but as soon as Otar Lordkipanidze Vani Museum-Reserve will finish its large scale reconstruction works in 2016 the bronze torso of a youth will be returned at the original place.

 

 

 

Georgian National Museum currently takes part in one of the most important international cultural event. From 14 March to 21 June 2015, Palazzo Strozzi in Florence is hosting a major exhibition entitled “Power and Pathos”. Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, devised and produced in conjunction with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana, Tuscany’s directorate general for archaeology.  The exhibition showcases a host of outstanding examples of bronze sculpture to tell the story of the spectacular artistic developments of the Hellenistic era (4th to 1st centuries BCE).

The exhibition hosts some of the most important masterpieces of the ancient world from many of the world’s leading archaeological museums including the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Vatican Museums and the Georgian National Museum, which  represented bronze torso of a youth dated 2nd – 1st century BC, discovered in Vani settlement (Georgia).

Participation at the exhibition is due to the long term collaboration of Georgian National Museum and J. Paul Getty Museum. After the exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, all exponents will be showcased at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 2016.

As soon as Georgian National Museum Otar Lordkipanidze Vani Museum-Reserve will finish its large scale reconstructive works, bronze torso of a youth will be returned at the original place.

http://museum.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=72&info_id=13315

http://georgiatoday.ge/news/938/Bronze-Sculpture-Discovered-in-Georgia-Goes-on-Display-in-Los-Angeles

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, TERRANTICA. Faces, Myths and Images of the Earth in the Ancient World

Giacobbe Giusti, TERRANTICA. Faces, Myths and Images of the Earth in the Ancient World

 

 

 

Terrantica, madre, 2800 aC,

Atene Museo dell’Arte Cicladica, Nicholas and Dolly Goulandris Foundation

Colosseo, 5 agosto – 30 settembre 2015

Since April 23, 2015 until October 11, 2015 the coliseum will host in its splendid arches an exhibition dedicated to the worship of the earth, from prehistory to the Roman Empire: Terrantica. Halfway between the human and the divine, the exhibition offers an insight on the strength of Mother Earth, told his visitors through 75 works, including ancient artifacts (statues, vases, reliefs), and contemporary photographs with the theme antiquity, the sacredness of the magic of the Earth. – See more at: http://www.colosseo-roma.com/events/colosseum/exhibition-terrantica-colosseum/en#sthash.NG4pIzTY.dpuf
http://www.colosseo-roma.com/events/colosseum/exhibition-terrantica-colosseum/en
http://segnalazioni.blogspot.it/2015/05/la-rassegna-della-stampa-di-oggi-sara_10.html

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

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

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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

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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

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