Florence

biaf

60 years of dreams

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Next 21st September, the BIAF, the Biennial International Antiques Fair of Florence, will open its doors in Palazzo Corsini. It will be sixty years after the first edition, noticeably in a very different context, compared with when one in whitch the Bellini brothers commenced the adventure.

For two weeks the city will attract, also relying on its charm, as the past,  art dealers and collectors from all over the world. Although the antiquarian sector, and Florence, are no longer those in which, for example, Bernard Berenson lived (and died, unfortunately, the same year of the BIAF first edition).

The seventy-seven galleries participating this year are for example specialized in various sectors, including contemporary art. Unthinkable in the days when “Italian Renaissance painters” of the Lithuanian connoisseur became an international bestseller.

The peculiarity of BIAF remains, however, the promotion of Italian art in the market. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, and all other artworks on display, are made by Italian Masters or by foreign artists who worked in Italy.

Sixty years ago connoisseurs like Berenson, who contributed to raise interest in the Italian old master, were unchallenged authorities in attributions. This too has changed today. In the most prestigious international fairs, artworks are admitted to the sale only after having passed a careful scrutiny, done also by scientific means. It is the so-called “vetting”. The BIAF also has a Vetting committee. Divided into 3 commissions: Painting and Drawings, Sculpture and Furniture and Decorative Arts. They are formed by art historians, and restorers, of international renown, with an undoubted knowledge and an authoritative preparation.
However, scientific diagnostics seems to be still absent from this procedure, which is essential to guarantee buyers.

Notwithstanding, diagnostics offers more than this. As Maurizio Salomon, an art historian and gallery owner, explains in one of the commercials (#amolarteperche) created to promote the fair. The desire to make a discovery is often the drive for the collector. Finding a “pentimento”, a preparatory drawing, or details that are not visible to the naked eye, makes you fall in love. Few occasions allow you to have this kind of feeling, hopes, dreams. And this is still the same as sixty years ago.

biaf
caravaggio perduto

Have we found the Lost Caravaggio?

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In 2006 “Il Caravaggio perduto”, by J. Harr, was published. The volume describes the discovery of a painting by the Italian Master that had been lost for centuries. The protagonists are a great art historian and a PhD graduate, who discovers, in the inaccessible and forgotten archive of the Mattei family, in Recanati, the proof that an original by Caravaggio (the Capture of Christ: Jesus surrounded by soldiers and kissed by Judas) had been sold in 1802, with an incorrect attribution, to a Scottish gentleman. It is not a fiction; it is more or less the chronicle of what happened a few decades ago.

As a consequence, the version now in Dublin became the original Caravaggio, after having entered the collection as Gerrit van Honthorst. A splendid subject of which there are many versions.

One is now exhibited at Palazzo Pitti, and a new volume, The Capture of Christ by Caravaggio – A recovery for the Uffizi Galleries , edited by Sillabe, (for now unfortunately only in Italian) summarises the historical, artistic and scientific studies carried out on the canvas previously in storage at the Baldissera Carabinieri Station in Florence.
Thanks to the accurate provenence research that constitutes the heart of the volume, it was possible to ascertain the origin of the canvas from the Lorraine castle of Commercy, not far from the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Nancy where an Annunciation by Caravaggio is kept, probably commissioned by the Duke of Lorraine.
The same castle from which also other works destined for the Florentine grand-ducal collections arrived in Florence in 1737, when the Habsburg-Lorraine took over the regency of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

Scientific analyses on the painting were performed by Art-Test and generated many interesting surprises, starting with a previous, hidden different version of a soldier, as revealed by the X-ray images.

One thing is certain, we will hear about this painting again. Stay tuned!
caravaggio perduto
Art Diagnostics: The G7 Declaration Of Florence, And Happy Easter!

Art Diagnostics: The G7 Declaration Of Florence, And Happy Easter!

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In the picture the Palmira Arch, destroyed by IS, virtually reconstructed and 3D “printed”. The artwork was exposed before Palazzo Vecchio in Florence during the G7 of Culture Meeting.

Florence hosted the first G7 of culture or the Summit of Ministers of Culture of the seven most developed countries (United States, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Canada). It is in fact the first time (the idea was proposed by Italy and by Renzi government) that in this context culture and heritage are also involved. The ministers of the seven countries signed the Florence Declaration, a “call to all States to adopt strong and effective measures to counter the looting and trafficking of cultural goods from their place of origin, especially from countries in situations of conflict or infighting, identify and prohibit trade in stolen goods that have been unlawfully taken beyond the borders“. The idea of culture as a dialogue tool and the revival of the European spirit have also been emphasized, with Europe wanting to carry on their own values, even against all separatist and fundamentalist movements.

We at Art-Test deeply believe in these values, and we hope that art and science will help beauty to save the world.

Happy Easter!