October 2024
Tuesday, October 1
Trois Crayons (French, "three crayons") The technique of drawing with black, white and red chalks (à trois crayons) on a paper of middle tone, for example mid-blue or buff. It was particularly popular in early and mid-18th century France with artists such as Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. (Clarke, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms)
Coming Up
Dear all,
Greetings from Trois Crayons HQ. For this month’s edition we have an extended exhibition calendar and a discussion of the forthcoming catalogue of the Farnese drawings at Capodimonte with the author, Dr Claire Van Cleave. The ‘Drawing of the Month’ draws on an entry written by Nicholas Turner for an exhibition of 16th century Florentine drawings at the British Museum in 1986. The customary selection of literary and audio highlights is followed, as ever, by the ‘Real or Fake’ section, where you can test your inner connoisseur.
For next month’s edition, please direct any recommendations, news stories, feedback or event listings to tom@troiscrayons.art.
NEWS
September has seen both the ridiculous – news of the London Standard’s intent to reincarnate the voice of art critic Brian Sewell – and the Sublime – a drawing attributed to the 12-year-old Michelangelo on display with Dickinson in Florence at BIAF. The art world has clicked back into gear and the international calendar of exhibitions and fairs is tightly packed for the coming month.
For pure drawings shows, the Courtauld Gallery’s ‘Drawn to Blue: Artists’ use of blue paper’, the Fondation Custodia’s ‘Naissance et Renaissance du dessin italien: La Collection du Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam’, the Städel Museum’s ‘Fantasy and Passion: Drawing from Carracci to Bernini’, the Art Institute of Chicago’s ‘Revolution to Restoration: French Drawings from The Horvitz Collection’, and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium’s ‘Old drawings: From Bruegel to Rubens’ stand out amongst a rich selection. For full listings, see the ‘Calendar’ below. Art fair season has begun in earnest too, with BIAF in Florence currently underway at the Palazzo Corsini. The fair continues until 6 October. In Belgium, Art on Paper Brussels begins this week, running from 3-6 October. In London, Frieze Masters takes place next week and runs from 9-13 October, and LAPADA follows suit from 22-27 October. In Paris, Art Basel Paris runs from 18–20 October, and in New York, The Art Show runs from 30 October – 2 November.
In gallery news, an exhibition of previously unpublished drawings by Jean Daret has just ended at Galerie de Bayser in Paris. The exhibition catalogue, part of the ‘Cahiers du Dessin Français’ series, is still available online. In London, Guy Peppiatt Fine Art is currently hosting a monographic show of drawings and watercolours by William Henry Hunt which runs until October 4, and CASSIUS&Co are hosting ‘André Derain and the Stage’, which continues until October 26.
Peter van Kempeneer, known in Spain as Pedro ed Campaña, (1503 – c. 1580), Allegory of the Triumph of Alexander the Great, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid (image: Martínez Avezuela / Caylus)
In lecture and event news, in Rome, the drawings of the Carracci for the Farnese Gallery will be the focus of two study days from 3-4 October. The full programme can be viewed here, and lectures will be available in person and online. In the Hague, at the RKD, a symposium on the art of paper cutting will take place on 17 October. Registration is available here. In New York, our partner organisation, The Drawing Foundation, is hosting two days of events and conversations in New York among curators, collectors, conservators, dealers, and artists focused on historical, modern, and contemporary drawings. ‘On Drawings 2024’ will take place on 28-29 October. In Cambridge, Professor Dr Nils Büttner will give a lecture on Rubens’ Medici Cycle on 28 October at Trinity Hall.
In literary news, Bendor Grosvenor has announced the dates for the upcoming tour of his new book The Invention of British Art, which is released on October 10. Further information is available here. Another publication of note this month comes from Dr Susan Owens, former Curator of Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum, whose book, The Story of Drawing: an Alternative History of Art, is released today. In Paris, the association Bella Maniera is now receiving applications for a grant to assist in the publication of an article, exhibition catalogue, monographic, or thematic work focused on Old Master drawings. The prize, worth €3,000, remains open until 29 November.
In acquisition news, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art has acquired drawings by Amico Aspertini, from Agnew’s / Day & Faber and Guercino, last seen with W. M. Brady & Co. in 2023. The Prado Museum has acquired a drawing by Peter van Kempeneer from Martínez Avezuela / Caylus, and the Meadows Museum has acquired a collection of late 18th and early 19th century Spanish drawings from Galerie Terrades / Martínez Avezuela. The Musée du Louvre has acquired a self-portrait by Charles Théodule Devéria from Galerie La Nouvelle Athènes showing the artist in Egyptian dress. In Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales has acquired a watercolour by Samuel Palmer. In Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum has acquired a first edition of Maria Sibylla Merian’s ‘Metamorphosis’, and a drawing by Gerrit Pietersz from Nicolas Teeuwisse. In Hagerstown, Maryland, a previously unknown Flemish drawing by Willem Panneels, an artist in the circle of Rubens, has been acquired by the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. In London, the Victoria & Albert Museum has added a miniature portrait of an unknown girl by Nicholas Hilliard to its collection in lieu of Inheritance Tax with additional support from the Hugh Philips Fund.
EVENTS
This month we have picked out a selection of new and previously unhighlighted events from the UK and from further afield. For a more complete overview of ongoing exhibitions and talks, please visit our Events page.
UK
Wordlwide
Demystifying drawings
The Farnese Drawings at Capodimonte
Dr Claire van Cleave
Giovanna Garzoni, Compositon of Flowers and Butterflies, black chalk, tempera, and diluted ink on parchment, 361 x 256 mm, Naples, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, GDS 822.
The House of Farnese is amongst the most culturally prominent in Italian history, boasting a Pope, countless Dukes and Duchesses, and in its subsequent iteration, the house of Bourbon-Parma, Kings and Queens of Spain and Naples. The Farnese name is woven into the fabric of European culture, with monuments such as the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, antiquities such as the ‘Farnese Hercules’ and the ‘Farnese Atlas’, all prefaced by the family name, and a patronage roster that included Michelangelo, Titian, and the Carracci.
What is less widely recognised is that the Farnese also possessed a substantial collection of drawings. What remains of that collection is now housed at the Museo di Capodimonte, the grand palace that Charles of Bourbon built on a hill above Naples to house the vast collections he was given by his mother, Elisabetta Farnese. Dr Claire Van Cleave has spent the last 4 years compiling a new catalogue of the Farnese drawings at Capodimonte, the first to be published in English. Despite the collection’s prestigious heritage, the drawings have largely remained hidden from both scholars and the public. Our editor speaks with Dr Van Cleave about the project to catalogue the drawings, democratise access and digitise the collection.
Francesco Mazzola called il Parmigianino, Cupid drawing his bow (recto), pen and ink on paper, 182 x 132 mm, Naples, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, GDS 1037.
Of all the Farnese patrons and collectors, Pope Paul III and his grandson Cardinal Alessandro are perhaps the most renowned, but who were the primary collectors of drawings in the family? Would it be fair to call the drawings collection at Capodimonte a ‘collection of collections’, or is it dominated by a single collector?
The Farnese drawings collection is without doubt a ‘collection of collections’, which is one of the aspects that has made studying it so fascinating. The drawings amassed in the rarified atmosphere of the Palazzo Farnese were not put together by Paul III, his grandsons Cardinals Ranuccio and Alessandro, or their great nephew Cardinal Odoardo, but by learned men who worked for the family and lived in their palace at the end of the sixteenth century. The key players were the major domo Count Ludovico Tedesco, the artist Giulio Clovio, and the librarian and curator Fulvio Orsini. Closely allied to all three of these men was Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, the recipient of some of Michelangelo’s greatest drawings, whom I consider another one of the personalities who influenced the collecting of works on paper within the Farnese palace.
What is the size and scope of the collection today? How does it compare with the collection at its height? What remains of the original holdings, and are there any particular areas of strength?
At its height, the collection of drawings housed in the Palazzo Farnese included over 850 sheets. The largest contributor to this collection was Giulio Clovio, who bequeathed over 400 of his drawings to Cardinal Alessandro in thanks for employing and sheltering him for over forty years. When Clovio died in 1578, his sheets joined ones purchased by Cardinal Alessandro from the heirs of Ludovico Tedesco. At the same time that these two men were collecting drawings, Fulvio Orsini was amassing an impressive, but small collection of works which he displayed in frames on the walls of the library on the top floor of the palace. When he died in 1600, he left his collection of 47 drawings to the family collection.
Today, the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte houses the remnants of the Farnese drawings collection, which sadly number less than 60 sheets. In the course of my research, I have tried to pinpoint the moments when drawings disappeared from the collection. Some of the stories of the vicissitudes of the Palazzo Farnese after the influence of the Farnese cardinals waned read like the libretto of a dramatic opera, however the fate of the 800+ missing drawings is still largely a mystery. Of the 57 sheets now in Naples, some gems remain: four cartoons related to Michelangelo and Raphael, an impressive collection of sheets by Parmigianino including a hitherto undiscovered dry point print, arguably Sofonisba Anguissola’s most famous drawing, two spectacular works now attributed to Giovanna Garzoni, and many more interesting works, often by Emilian artists. One of the aspects which makes this collection so interesting is the unbroken provenance from the sixteenth century to the present day.
What was the state of affairs - in terms of publication history, digital presence, and conservation - when you arrived at Capodimonte? Why has so historically significant a collection remained as understudied and unexplored as that at Capodimonte?
The Farnese drawings collection has been hiding in plain sight from scholars and enthusiasts for too long. Not many drawings enthusiasts realise that a catalogue of the collection was compiled by Rosanna Muzii and published in 1994 at the back of the Emilian paintings catalogue of the Farnese collection at Capodimonte. The collection has never been published in English, nor is it recorded in any online database. The opportunity to present these drawings to a wider, international audience with new insights to attributions and observations on the history of collecting has been a fantastic and rewarding project.
Dr van Cleave at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte
Given the historic lack of public access and scholarly exposure, I imagine that this project was a simultaneously daunting and exciting prospect. What were the major challenges that you faced, and what surprises emerged during the research process?
Rosanna Muzii’s catalogue was comprehensive, but ignored some publications not written in Italian which are pertinent to advancing knowledge of the collection. As in any good cataloguing project, I have evaluated all recent scholarship on each one of the drawings. This was a challenge at some points during Covid when access to libraries was forbidden, but I am forever thankful to the London Library for posting out books, even all three volumes of A.E. Popham’s seminal work on Parmigianino’s drawings, and for the kind help of fellow scholars such as Achim Gnann who willingly sent me his tomes on Parmigianino, David Ekeserdjian, Hugo Chapman, and others who assisted me along the way. I began this project with the intent to catalogue the collection, but as I learned more about the Farnese family and the circumstances in which the drawings were collected, I was compelled to also research the history of the collection. This aspect of the work has expanded my skills from an expert in drawings to an archivist, which I never expected.
If you had to choose one drawing from the collection to take home with you, what would it be and why?
If I could gaze at any of the drawings from the Farnese collection on a daily basis, it would be Parmigianino’s exuberant drawing of Cupid drawing his bow. Not only is the fluid penwork of the verso a delight, but the recto also reveals the artist’s naughtiest side.
What are your ambitions for the project moving forward? Are we to expect an exhibition of Farnese drawings in future, or is there a new project that you have set your eyes on?
One of the most tragic aspects of the demise of the Farnese drawings collection is the dire state of conservation of most of the remaining sheets. Even in 1800 when the drawings were catalogued after Napoleonic troops sacked Capodimonte, many sheets were described as “molto tarlato”, already in a ruinous state. I would love to find a way to exhibit the Capodimonte drawings, both those at Capodimonte and others which can be identified with a Farnese provenance, alongside better preserved examples by the same artists and use the differences in states of preservation as a learning tool to recount the fate of the collection, but any such exhibition might be too cerebral for most public collections to contemplate mounting.
What are the important dates that readers should mark for their diaries?
The culmination of my research is perhaps better suited to a book than an exhibition, and I am delighted that Editori Paparo in Naples will be publishing The Farnese Drawings Collection this autumn. As I answer these questions, the English edition is going to press. The Italian edition will follow shortly afterwards. As an independent scholar, I am thankful to the institutions and foundations who have assisted me in my journey. This began with the American Friends of Capodimonte, which paid for my initial research on the catalogue to make an online database for the museum, and continued with a grant from the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History which enabled me to work in Rome on the history of the collection. Publication of my book would not have been possible without generous grants from the Tavolozza Foundation and the Wolfgang Ratjen Foundation. I am working on dates to present the book in London later this autumn and also in New York for MDNY in early February – no doubt, we will also loudly celebrate the publication in Naples.
Claire be talking about the Farnese drawings for Paola’s Studiolo on December 7. Email Paola to find out more about the fall program of talks.
DRAWING OF THE MONTH
Alessandro Allori (1535-1607)
Young Woman seated on her Haunches, holding an open Book in her Lap with both Hands
Black chalk, 363 x 245 mm, British Museum, London, 1886-6-9-33
© The Trustees of the British Museum
This is one of the finest and most finished of the artist's surviving drawings and may well have been intended for presentation. It well illustrates the pronounced naturalistic tendency of Allori's mature work. The figure is that of Mary in the altarpiece of Christ in the House of Martha and Mary in the chapel of the Palazzo Portinari-Salviati (now Banca Toscana) in Florence, painted in 1580. An almost identical figure occurs on the extreme left in the carlier Raising of Lazarus painted for S. Agostino at Montepulciano.
Pupil of Bronzino. In 1549 he assisted his master with the production of cartoons for the borders of the tapestries of the Stories of Joseph for the Palazzo Vecchio. He was in Rome in 1554, where he studied the Antique and Michelangelo, returning to Florence in 1559, where he began the altarpiece and frescoes of the Cappella Montauto, SS Annunziata (1559-60). In 1564 he participated in the funeral celebrations for Michelangelo and in c.1570 contributed two paintings to the studiolo of Francesco de' Medici in the Palazzo Vecchio. With the death of Vasari in 1574 he became court painter to the Medici, completing in 1576-82 the salone of Leo X in the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano and taking charge of the Medici tapestries. Although much influenced by Bronzino and Michelangelo, there is a strongly realistic tendency in his work which is transitional between the High Mannerism of the middle of the century and the neo-Naturalism of the end. He was a prolific and accomplished draughtsman.
Real or Fake
Can we fool you? The term “fake” may be slightly sensationalist when it comes to old drawings. Copying originals and prints has long formed a key part of an artist’s education and with the passing of time the distinction between the two can be innocently mistaken.
When Albrecht Dürer met a 93-year-old man on a trip to Antwerp around the year 1520, the man could hardly have imagined that his life’s course had that much longer to run. Dürer gave the man three stuyvers and, in drawing his portrait, the gift of eternal life. The drawing was used as a model for the figure of Saint Jerome in one of Durer’s most successful and widely copied paintings, now in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon. The drawing was equally fabled, rivalled only by the Young Hare and the Praying Hands. Around ten 16th century copies of the drawing are known. But which is the original here, and which is the copy?
Scroll to the end to reveal the answer.
Resources and Recommendations
to listen
The Lives of Stonehenge: Wordsworth and Blake
For the third episode in her short series on Stonehenge, Rosemary Hill is joined by Seamus Perry to experience the stone circle through the mind and eyes of a Romantic, with the likes of Wordsworth, Blake, Turner and Constable. For these poets and artists, Salisbury Plain took on a gloomy and richly psychological presence, lit with intense personal and political drama, and animated with revolutionary thoughts.
to watch
Cézanne and Pissarro: ‘Fake or Fortune?’
Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould head to France on the trail of two of the greatest Impressionist and post-Impressionist artists, Camille Pissarro and his friend and protege, Paul Cézanne.
to read
‘Framing the Drawing’, Catherine Monbeig Goguel. ‘The Frame Blog’
Catherine Monbeig Goguel charts the various historical approaches to preserving, displaying and framing drawings. From the albums and portfolios of the 15th century to the ‘framed’ collages of Giorgio Vasari’s Il Libro dei disegni in the 16th and the eventual framing of drawings as paintings in the 17th and 18th centuries.
answer
The original, of course, is the upper image. The drawing is by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). The lower image is a copy by Hans Hoffmann (1550-1591/2).
Upper image: Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Portrait of a 93-year-old man (study for the painting "Saint Jerome"), Vienna, Albertina
Lower image: Hans Hoffmann (1550-1591/2), Portrait of a 93-year-old man, Vienna, Albertina
Did you get it wrong? Fear not, the copy was believed to be an original into the late 18th century. Fortunately, Christof Metzger, curator of German, Austrian, and Swiss art before 1760 at the Albertina in Vienna and widely acknowledged authority on Dürer has discussed these very drawings in an informative video from 2021.
Metzger notes the copyist’s documentary error, which, as much as the difference in quality between the drawings, betrays the lower drawing as a copy. Both drawings are monogrammed with Dürer’s ‘AD’ trademark. Both are drawn on the same sized sheets of blue paper and both bear almost identical inscriptions. The documentary error is in the copyist’s dating of the drawing. Dürer was not in Antwerp in 1519, as the lower image suggests. His journey was made in 1520-21, as documented by his diary.
So, who made the copy? In the late 16th century, the original drawing was in the celebrated Kunstkammer of Emperor Rudolf II of Prague. Copies were likely made for the collections of the emperor’s friends and as diplomatic gifts. The most renowned of these copyists was Hans Hoffmann, whose copies of this drawing can be found in the Ashmolean, Oxford, and in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin.
To view Metzger’s explanation, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W-o3aZnvoQ&ab_channel=AlbertinaMuseum
