Galleria Palatina

vasari _bello_streep

A Vasari in the attic

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The picture  from private collection, “The temptations of St. Jerome“, attributed to Giorgio Vasari, a brilliant painter, architect, historian and biographer of the Italian Renaissance, was sold at auction at a world-record price for the artist of 800,000 euros.

A great satisfaction for the auction house, and a supposedly good time for ancient art, even one should consider that this selling price is still around 16% of, for example, the 5 million euros paid for “Black Ground (Deep Light)” by contemporary artist Julie Mehretu. (Don’t you know her?)

Vasari’s painting, on whose autography none appears to have doubts, is accompanied by a free circulation certificate, and therefore can be exported outside Italy. We therefore do not know if it will remain in the country.

The painting is identical in its subject and size to the one exhibited at the Galleria Palatina in Florence, that Art-Test studied in 2010, during its restoration.

Given the almost perfect overlap of the version at auction with that in the public collection, a comparative study would have been interesting, a reflectographic survey, for example, to establish which of the two versions was the first, and to investigate the adherence to the execution methods in which Vasari excelled.

Art-Test, in fact,  had the pleasure of investigating many paintings by this extraordinary artist, and admiring, in addition to his sublime inventions, the extraordinary technical ability of himself and of his atelier.

(AP)
carlodolci

A hidden magician!

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The exhibition dedicated to ‘Carlo Dolci 1616-1687’ is in full swing at the Palatine Gallery in Florence, with about seventy works on display (including many from prestigious international museums, like the British Museum in London, the Musée du Louvre in Paris , and the Alte Pinakothek in Munich of Bavaria) in dialogue with works by other artists of his time and a small group of works of his followers.
For the occasion, the Palatine Gallery in collaboration with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence will dedicate a conference to discuss the important campaign of study and restoration of numerous paintings that preceded the preparation of the exhibition and which has contributed to extend the knowledge of the style and modus operandi of the painter. The central theme will focus on the painting technique of Dolci.
Art-Test will gladly  participate with the restorer Miriam Fiocca with  the contribution “The hidden magician”: key findings emerged about the painting “Madonna tendering the Baby Jesus” (work n.79 int the catalog) that, under radiographic examination, revealed a surprising and substantial modification of the composition.
The event is scheduled for Wednesday, October 7 at the Theater of the Rondo di Bacco, Palazzo Pitti.
An unique opportunity not to be missed!!

Read more at: http://www.unannoadarte.it/carlodolci/main/

IO CARLO

Dolci: sweet name, icy brush

Dolci: sweet name, icy brush

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Carlo Dolci a patient technique

Carlo Dolci, said Carlino, a beloved and acclaimed artist by the critics of his time, considered the greatest Florentine painter of the seventeenth century, contended by European nobility (although he almost never left the Tuscan territory), is now back in the spotlight thanks to the monographic exhibition running until November 15 at the Galleria Palatina of Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The exhibition brings together works from numerous European museums: the British Museum in London, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Staatliche Museen in Berlin, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, the Alte Pinakothek of Monaco Bavaria, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, theAshmolean Museum in Oxford, the Burghley House in Stamford, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brest, the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and the British Royal Collection, reflecting the international scope of his works.

Interior of the exhibition ” Io, Carlo Dolci “, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

The exhibition brings together nearly 100 paintings, of which seventy of Dolci, and the remainings by his contemporaries, to facilitate comparisons and show connections, in a sort of compendium of his descriptive style, rigorous and meticulously attentive to detail, smooth, icy but sensual, which has been called “hyperrealist” before its time. His almost obsessive rendering of details is exemplary: from the soft and almost palpable fabrics of the robes, to the splendid jewels, which, quoting the biographer Filippo Baldinucci, were “imitated in such a gorgeous (and realistic) fashion, that, as much as one touched and retouched the canvas to make sure they were painted, the eye was left in doubt.”
This exhibition has been a precious opportunity to kick off a major campaign of restoration and overhaul of 33 works of the Master, also important for the study of the unique painting technique used, which involved innovative wits to reach the coveted mimesis. Moreover, radiographic analyses have allowed to add completely unexpected insights to the knowledge also of well-known paintings of Dolci’s catalogue, such as in the case of the diagnostic tests on the “Madonna with Child” of the Palatine Gallery (performed by Art-Test, not yet published), which revealed substantial changes to the composition.

“Madonna with the Child”, Carlo Dolci, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

san_francesco_ribera.sito.1

Ribera ..”won back”!

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San Paolo Bank sponsored, this year as well, some restoration works of neglected or needing artworks. Among the most prestigious pieces the “Cristo in meditazione” by Ribera of the Galleria Palatina of Florence was restored by Anna Teresa Monti. The painting with the original signature, was covered by a thick varnish layer and was interested by several past interventions. Art-Test performed the Multilayer acquisition and the IR scanner reflectography, both at regular (on the entire surface) and at quadruple resolution. This last analysis was performed on a relatively small area including the left hand of the saint, where an unclear paint layer had to be further investigated to understand whether it was an original or a restoration layer. To this aim a very new technique was applied: the XRF scanner (in collaboration with S.T.Art-Test). A very high resolution map of the pigment in the investigated area can be achieved this way, and a quantitative analysis performed. This is a revolution in XRF data, since it gives a quantitative insight also in the investigation of the composition of the various superimposing layers. In this case it was possible to conclude not only that the paint layer was original, despite the slightly different colour, but also that the painter carried out the composition, not only the drawing, before deciding to change for a different pose of the hand.
See details at:

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