After the contemporary art overload at the fairs, galleries and auction houses the last couple weeks, it was a bit of fresh air to enjoy the Frick Collection's small but important Piero della Francesca exhibition.
The Frick Collection in it's own right, filled with gems by Veronese, Boucher, Vermeer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, El Greco and many other Old Masters, is valuable. As a balance, or measuring stick for the contemporary art world, it is priceless.
The cute room filled with Boucher's paintings of flirtatious, happy, voluptuous, sensual characters in an abundant outdoor and indoor landscape may have been frowned upon in his time, but now give us a warm feeling when we look at them. The provenance alone tells us how important a work of art this is, originating as it did from the Marquise de Pompadour in the 18th Century.
Vermeer's "Girl Interrupted at Her Music" and "Officer and Laughing Girl"are two masterworks the likes of which any museum or collector worth its salt would like to get their hands on.
Veronese's towering monumental paintings, "Hercules Choice/The Choice Between Virtue and Vice" and "Wisdom and Strength", again remind us of the great trends throughout Western art history that have shaped our sensibilities and what we currently value. The Greco/Roman columns, the theatrical setting, the drapery, the twisting winding figures and the view behind them into the far distance, even the title of the work, gives us an idea of the perspective and some of the concerns with which artists at that time were dealing.
It would be great if our contemporary artists could look to art history to inform their work instead of looking to other contemporary work to do so. A new art friend said this about a certain art review in the NY Times that gave a smidgen of credit to the current Koons exhibition at Zwirner: "...Anyone who really thinks any of these sculptures are actually important or remotely approaching great art is too steeped in the contemporary world to distinguish between ubiquitous work and good work."
Piero della Francesca
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Died: October 12, 1492, Sansepolcro
Period: Italian Renaissance
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The Frick Collection in it's own right, filled with gems by Veronese, Boucher, Vermeer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, El Greco and many other Old Masters, is valuable. As a balance, or measuring stick for the contemporary art world, it is priceless.
The cute room filled with Boucher's paintings of flirtatious, happy, voluptuous, sensual characters in an abundant outdoor and indoor landscape may have been frowned upon in his time, but now give us a warm feeling when we look at them. The provenance alone tells us how important a work of art this is, originating as it did from the Marquise de Pompadour in the 18th Century.
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François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
The Four Seasons: Autumn, 1755 oil on canvas 22 1/4 x 28 3/4 in. (56.5 x 73 cm) Henry Clay Frick Bequest Accession number: 1916.1.14
Collections: Marquise de Pompadour. Inherited by her brother, the Marquis de Marigny et de Ménars, in 1764. His sale, February, 1782, Paris, Lot 11, sold for 1,402 livres to Vernier. Nicolas Beaujon, Paris. His sale, April 25, 1787, Paris, Lot 202, sold for 884 livres to Ridgway. Madame Ridgway sale, December 3, 1904, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Lots 4, 5, 6, 7, sold for 360,000 francs to Eugène Fischhof. E.R. Bacon, New York. Mrs. Virginia Bacon. Duveen. Frick, 1916.
Source: Paintings in The Frick Collection: French, Italian and Spanish. Volume II. New York: The Frick Collection, 1968. |
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| Johannes Vermeer (1632 - 1675) Officer and Laughing Girl, c. 1657 oil on canvas (lined) 19 7/8 x 18 1/8 in. (50.5 x 46 cm) Henry Clay Frick Bequest Accession number: 1911.1.127
Currently on View
South Hall (141) |
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| Paolo Veronese (c. 1528 - 1588) Wisdom and Strength, c.1580 oil on canvas 84 1/2 x 65 3/4 in. (214.6 x 167 cm) Henry Clay Frick Bequest Accession number: 1912.1.128
Currently on View
West Gallery (131) |
It would be great if our contemporary artists could look to art history to inform their work instead of looking to other contemporary work to do so. A new art friend said this about a certain art review in the NY Times that gave a smidgen of credit to the current Koons exhibition at Zwirner: "...Anyone who really thinks any of these sculptures are actually important or remotely approaching great art is too steeped in the contemporary world to distinguish between ubiquitous work and good work."
