Wednesday, December 05, 2007
The Master Swindler Of Yugoslavia
Konstantin Akinsha writes about Ante Topic Mimara, Yugoslav mystery man: a collector, dealer, painter, restorer, forger, alleged art thief, and probable spy + the Mimara Museum + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=975
The Road To Venice
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
The Art of Mantegna, Francia, Correggio, Bellini, And Giorgione
It takes nine tailors to make a man. So runs the familiar sayings, but one tailor of Padua in the fifteenth century sufficed to found a school of painting which has won immortal fame. In all the history of art no stranger figure exists than than of Franceso Squarcione, tailor and embroiderer of Padua. He had little to do with painting or painters till he was past forty, and yet this man was the master of 137 pupils and the the ‘Father’ of the glorious schools of Venice, Parma, Bologna, Lombardy, and Ferrara.
Here let us pause to explain tht while the succession of painters known as the Florentine School were perfecting their art, as related in the last chapter, groups of artists had already begun to collect in other Italian cities. So far back at 1375, twelve years before the birth of Fra Angelico, a Florentine painter named Justus had settled in Padua; and when Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452, Padua was already famous as an art center.
But to return to our tailor. To the University of Padua came, at one time or another, all the learned men of Italy. Nothing was heard in the streets but talk of ancient lore and the beauty of ancient art. The astute tailor soon found that a fragment of sculpture or a stone with a Greek inscription brought him more and better customers than the display of the latest fashions. Gradually the tailoring and embroidering became a side-line in his complicated business, and the shop of Squarcione gained much fame as a store house of antique treasures of art. Artists came to him asking to be allowed to draw his fine old statues.
Squarcione had a keen eye to the main chance, and the power to discover and use the talents of others. Whether he himself ever painted is doubtful, but in 1441, when he was a man of forty-seven, he managed to qualify himself for admission to the Guild of Painters at Padua. His business instinct would not allow him to let slip a ready-made opportunity. When students sought to study his unrivalled collection of antique models, they found themselves bound as apprentices to Squarcione; and hence forward—on the strength of their work—Squarcione blossomed into the proprietor of a flourishing art business.
In 1443 he was given the contract to decorate with paintings the Chapel of the Eremitani at Padua, and this contract he fulfilled for the most part by the hand of a boy of twelve, whom two years earlier Squarcione had adopted as his son and pupil. This boy was a nameless orphan, who acquired undying fame as Andrea Mantegna. He was only ten years old when, as the ‘son of Squarcione,’ he was admitted a member of the Padua Guild of Painters, and from this fact alone we can guess his extraordinary precocity. At the age of twelve Mantegna was employed on important paintings for the Chapel of the Eremitani, and it was the reputation of the pupil, rather than that of the master, which brought students in shoals to Padua.
Another great piece of good luck which befell Squarcione was the arrival in Padua of the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400-71), whom the wily contractor inveigled into his business, and there is little room for doubt that Bellini was for many years the actual teacher of painting in the school of the Paduan contractor. Mantegna got his drawing from observing the Greek statues among Squarcione’s antiques, but he learnt coloring from Bellini, who was his true master. But so precocious was the genius of Mantegna that at seventeen he had already formed his style and brought his natural talents to mature perfection. At this age he painted an altar piece for St. Sophia at Padua, a picture which, as the sixteenth century critic Vasari wrote, ‘might well be the production of a skilled veteran and not of a mere boy.’
Success begets success, and at an early age Mantegna was able to set up for himself. Squarcione became still more furious when Mantegna married the daughter of Jacopo Bellini, who had now broken away from the firm and become a rival. Henceforward the old contractor blamed Mantegna’s works as much as he had previously praised them, ‘saying they were bad, because he had imitated marble, a thing impossible in painting, since stones always possess a certain harshness and never have that softness peculiar to flesh and natural objects.’
It is true that Mantegna’s sense of form was severe and his figures often remind us of marble statues, but the envious carping of his old master in no wise injured his reputation. His fame spread throughout Italy, and Pope Innocent VIII invited him to Rome, where he was employed on painting the walls of the Belvedere. The payments for this work were not so regular as the painter thought they should have been, and one day he ventured to drop a hint to the Pope, who had come to look at Mantegna’s paintings of the Virtues.
‘What is that figure?’ asked the Pontiff.
‘One much honored here, your Holiness,’ said the artist pointedly. ‘It is Prudence.’
‘You should associate patience with her,’ replied the Pope, who understood the allusion, and later when the work was completed we are told Mantegna was ‘richly rewarded.’
After painting in various Italian cities, Mantegna returned to Mantua, where he built himself a handsome house, and there in 1506, he died at the age of seventy five. The peculiar qualities of his art, his austere draughtsmanship and compact design may be seen in many works in England, notably in ‘The Triumph of Julius Caesar’ at Hampton Court, and in his ‘Madonna and Child’ and ‘Triumph of Scipio’ in the National Gallery; but the most perfect example of Mantegna’s art is his great picture ‘Parnassus’ in the Louvre at Paris. Here, Mantegna is able to express all his love of Greek art in picturing the home of the Nine Muses, who dance in homage round Venus and Apollo, while Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods, awaits with Pegasus, the winged horse, to bear inspiration from this mythological heaven to the artists and poets of the earth.
The Road To Venice (continued)
The Art of Mantegna, Francia, Correggio, Bellini, And Giorgione
It takes nine tailors to make a man. So runs the familiar sayings, but one tailor of Padua in the fifteenth century sufficed to found a school of painting which has won immortal fame. In all the history of art no stranger figure exists than than of Franceso Squarcione, tailor and embroiderer of Padua. He had little to do with painting or painters till he was past forty, and yet this man was the master of 137 pupils and the the ‘Father’ of the glorious schools of Venice, Parma, Bologna, Lombardy, and Ferrara.
Here let us pause to explain tht while the succession of painters known as the Florentine School were perfecting their art, as related in the last chapter, groups of artists had already begun to collect in other Italian cities. So far back at 1375, twelve years before the birth of Fra Angelico, a Florentine painter named Justus had settled in Padua; and when Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452, Padua was already famous as an art center.
But to return to our tailor. To the University of Padua came, at one time or another, all the learned men of Italy. Nothing was heard in the streets but talk of ancient lore and the beauty of ancient art. The astute tailor soon found that a fragment of sculpture or a stone with a Greek inscription brought him more and better customers than the display of the latest fashions. Gradually the tailoring and embroidering became a side-line in his complicated business, and the shop of Squarcione gained much fame as a store house of antique treasures of art. Artists came to him asking to be allowed to draw his fine old statues.
Squarcione had a keen eye to the main chance, and the power to discover and use the talents of others. Whether he himself ever painted is doubtful, but in 1441, when he was a man of forty-seven, he managed to qualify himself for admission to the Guild of Painters at Padua. His business instinct would not allow him to let slip a ready-made opportunity. When students sought to study his unrivalled collection of antique models, they found themselves bound as apprentices to Squarcione; and hence forward—on the strength of their work—Squarcione blossomed into the proprietor of a flourishing art business.
In 1443 he was given the contract to decorate with paintings the Chapel of the Eremitani at Padua, and this contract he fulfilled for the most part by the hand of a boy of twelve, whom two years earlier Squarcione had adopted as his son and pupil. This boy was a nameless orphan, who acquired undying fame as Andrea Mantegna. He was only ten years old when, as the ‘son of Squarcione,’ he was admitted a member of the Padua Guild of Painters, and from this fact alone we can guess his extraordinary precocity. At the age of twelve Mantegna was employed on important paintings for the Chapel of the Eremitani, and it was the reputation of the pupil, rather than that of the master, which brought students in shoals to Padua.
Another great piece of good luck which befell Squarcione was the arrival in Padua of the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400-71), whom the wily contractor inveigled into his business, and there is little room for doubt that Bellini was for many years the actual teacher of painting in the school of the Paduan contractor. Mantegna got his drawing from observing the Greek statues among Squarcione’s antiques, but he learnt coloring from Bellini, who was his true master. But so precocious was the genius of Mantegna that at seventeen he had already formed his style and brought his natural talents to mature perfection. At this age he painted an altar piece for St. Sophia at Padua, a picture which, as the sixteenth century critic Vasari wrote, ‘might well be the production of a skilled veteran and not of a mere boy.’
Success begets success, and at an early age Mantegna was able to set up for himself. Squarcione became still more furious when Mantegna married the daughter of Jacopo Bellini, who had now broken away from the firm and become a rival. Henceforward the old contractor blamed Mantegna’s works as much as he had previously praised them, ‘saying they were bad, because he had imitated marble, a thing impossible in painting, since stones always possess a certain harshness and never have that softness peculiar to flesh and natural objects.’
It is true that Mantegna’s sense of form was severe and his figures often remind us of marble statues, but the envious carping of his old master in no wise injured his reputation. His fame spread throughout Italy, and Pope Innocent VIII invited him to Rome, where he was employed on painting the walls of the Belvedere. The payments for this work were not so regular as the painter thought they should have been, and one day he ventured to drop a hint to the Pope, who had come to look at Mantegna’s paintings of the Virtues.
‘What is that figure?’ asked the Pontiff.
‘One much honored here, your Holiness,’ said the artist pointedly. ‘It is Prudence.’
‘You should associate patience with her,’ replied the Pope, who understood the allusion, and later when the work was completed we are told Mantegna was ‘richly rewarded.’
After painting in various Italian cities, Mantegna returned to Mantua, where he built himself a handsome house, and there in 1506, he died at the age of seventy five. The peculiar qualities of his art, his austere draughtsmanship and compact design may be seen in many works in England, notably in ‘The Triumph of Julius Caesar’ at Hampton Court, and in his ‘Madonna and Child’ and ‘Triumph of Scipio’ in the National Gallery; but the most perfect example of Mantegna’s art is his great picture ‘Parnassus’ in the Louvre at Paris. Here, Mantegna is able to express all his love of Greek art in picturing the home of the Nine Muses, who dance in homage round Venus and Apollo, while Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods, awaits with Pegasus, the winged horse, to bear inspiration from this mythological heaven to the artists and poets of the earth.
The Road To Venice (continued)
Diamonds Of Fate
Louis Kornitzer's book, Gem Trader, is partly autobiographical and partly woven round the lore of pearls. It's educational + explains the distribution chain of gems, as they pass from hand to hand, from miner to cutter, from merchant to millionaire, from courtesan to receiver of stolen goods, shaping human lives as they go + the unique characters in the industry.
(via Gem Trader) Louis Kornitzer writes:
There is another ‘Regent’ called the ‘Regent of Portugal’ to distinguish it from the Pitt. This again was a Brazilian diamond. It was found in 1775 in Brazil by a poor negro slave to whom it brought more luck than usually accrues to him humble discoverers of great gems. For he was given his freedom and a pension of £50 a year. This round stone, whose original weight is not on record, turned the scale when faceted at 215 carats. I have seen its value given by an ‘authority’ as 396800 guineas, supposedly an expert assessment. He must have been a great authority on diamonds indeed who could with such precision put a value on a gem for which there could at no time exist an open market. Great diamonds have no price. They are, like any gem of the first class, worth what they can bring.
From a stone which bears the name of ‘Sea or River of Light’ we can expect no less than that it should be of the finest water, matchless in luster and of a size comparable with the largest of its kind. Certainly the ‘Darya-i-nur,’ possessing all these qualities, is truly well name. One hundred and eighty six carats of flashing fire, reflected by facets cut rose shape, make this diamond one of the mineral wonders of the world. But it is only one of two, for it is one of a pair of marvelous gems of Hindustan origin which are set in two matchless bracelets owned by the Shah of Persia (or should I say Iran?).
The other stone, the celebrated ‘Taj-e-mah,’ is even finer than its mate, for it is undoubtedly the greatest gem in the Persian collection. It also is rose cut and weighs 146 carats, so that the two stones together in the one pair of bracelets weigh 332 carats. Their value, as near as can be given by anyone (bearing in mind my remark about values above) for two such exceptional values, cannot be short of one million pounds sterling.
The Taj-e-mah was brought away from Hindustan by the Perso-Tartar conqueror Nadir Shah in 1739 amongst other looted treasure, his total bag having been estimated as worth between thirty and sixty million pounds. Nadir Shah’s successor, Shah Rokh, was a spineless ruler who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the resolute Aga Mohammed. Determined not to give up his treasure, which he had had the forethought to hide, Shah Rokh defied the tortures of his implacable enemy and clung tenaciously for a long time to his secret. Hunger, thirst, cold, heat and other intelligent and refined methods of persuasion did Aga Mohammed try upon his luckless victim. Finally he deprived him of his eyesight, and Shah Rokh was persuaded to give up what was left of his inheritance, the great diamond Taj-e-mah amongst the rest. But to Aga Mohammed the stone brought no luck, for he was assassinated.
A stone which is famous for having belonged to Shah Jehan, the builder of the Taj Mahal, to whom it came from Akbar Shah, is called the ‘Akbar Shah’. It is noteworthy for having engraved upon both sides an inscription by which two Moguls hoped to have their names commemorated for ever. The fact that the art of engraving thus appears to have been known at the time might seem to invalidate my argument, in an earlier chapter, against the ‘diamond’ in the High Priest’s breastplate. But the method by which these names were written on the stone was not perhaps true engraving in the technical sense, but done with worms—the juice of certain worms have a unique action upon the incorruptible diamond, or so it was claimed.
Akbar Shah himself had the first writing put upon the diamond:
‘Shah Akbar, The Shah of the World, 1028 A.H’
When it came into the possession of Shah Jahan, he had set upon it these words:
‘To the Lord of Two Worlds, 1039 A.H, Shah Jehan’
But their hopes of immortality were mocked by later events in a world that knows the dead are powerless. The great stone was recut. In Shah Jehan’s time it had weighed 116 carats, but when the two Arabic inscriptions on either side of it had been destroyed, its weight was reduced to seventy two carats. In this state it was purchased by the Gaekwar of Baroda for £35000.
Another great diamond also in the treasury of Baroda is one less well known, but flawless. It is called ‘English Dresden’ after the merchant who sold it and who claimed for it, as another did for the Porter-Rhodes, that it was the most perfect stone for its size in the world. He also claimed that for color it excelled even the Kohinoor. In the rough the English Dresden weighed 119½ carats, but cutting and polishing brought it down to seventy six and a half carats. The Gaekwar of Baroda paid £40000 for it, so it is said.
Diamonds Of Fate (continued)
(via Gem Trader) Louis Kornitzer writes:
There is another ‘Regent’ called the ‘Regent of Portugal’ to distinguish it from the Pitt. This again was a Brazilian diamond. It was found in 1775 in Brazil by a poor negro slave to whom it brought more luck than usually accrues to him humble discoverers of great gems. For he was given his freedom and a pension of £50 a year. This round stone, whose original weight is not on record, turned the scale when faceted at 215 carats. I have seen its value given by an ‘authority’ as 396800 guineas, supposedly an expert assessment. He must have been a great authority on diamonds indeed who could with such precision put a value on a gem for which there could at no time exist an open market. Great diamonds have no price. They are, like any gem of the first class, worth what they can bring.
From a stone which bears the name of ‘Sea or River of Light’ we can expect no less than that it should be of the finest water, matchless in luster and of a size comparable with the largest of its kind. Certainly the ‘Darya-i-nur,’ possessing all these qualities, is truly well name. One hundred and eighty six carats of flashing fire, reflected by facets cut rose shape, make this diamond one of the mineral wonders of the world. But it is only one of two, for it is one of a pair of marvelous gems of Hindustan origin which are set in two matchless bracelets owned by the Shah of Persia (or should I say Iran?).
The other stone, the celebrated ‘Taj-e-mah,’ is even finer than its mate, for it is undoubtedly the greatest gem in the Persian collection. It also is rose cut and weighs 146 carats, so that the two stones together in the one pair of bracelets weigh 332 carats. Their value, as near as can be given by anyone (bearing in mind my remark about values above) for two such exceptional values, cannot be short of one million pounds sterling.
The Taj-e-mah was brought away from Hindustan by the Perso-Tartar conqueror Nadir Shah in 1739 amongst other looted treasure, his total bag having been estimated as worth between thirty and sixty million pounds. Nadir Shah’s successor, Shah Rokh, was a spineless ruler who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the resolute Aga Mohammed. Determined not to give up his treasure, which he had had the forethought to hide, Shah Rokh defied the tortures of his implacable enemy and clung tenaciously for a long time to his secret. Hunger, thirst, cold, heat and other intelligent and refined methods of persuasion did Aga Mohammed try upon his luckless victim. Finally he deprived him of his eyesight, and Shah Rokh was persuaded to give up what was left of his inheritance, the great diamond Taj-e-mah amongst the rest. But to Aga Mohammed the stone brought no luck, for he was assassinated.
A stone which is famous for having belonged to Shah Jehan, the builder of the Taj Mahal, to whom it came from Akbar Shah, is called the ‘Akbar Shah’. It is noteworthy for having engraved upon both sides an inscription by which two Moguls hoped to have their names commemorated for ever. The fact that the art of engraving thus appears to have been known at the time might seem to invalidate my argument, in an earlier chapter, against the ‘diamond’ in the High Priest’s breastplate. But the method by which these names were written on the stone was not perhaps true engraving in the technical sense, but done with worms—the juice of certain worms have a unique action upon the incorruptible diamond, or so it was claimed.
Akbar Shah himself had the first writing put upon the diamond:
‘Shah Akbar, The Shah of the World, 1028 A.H’
When it came into the possession of Shah Jahan, he had set upon it these words:
‘To the Lord of Two Worlds, 1039 A.H, Shah Jehan’
But their hopes of immortality were mocked by later events in a world that knows the dead are powerless. The great stone was recut. In Shah Jehan’s time it had weighed 116 carats, but when the two Arabic inscriptions on either side of it had been destroyed, its weight was reduced to seventy two carats. In this state it was purchased by the Gaekwar of Baroda for £35000.
Another great diamond also in the treasury of Baroda is one less well known, but flawless. It is called ‘English Dresden’ after the merchant who sold it and who claimed for it, as another did for the Porter-Rhodes, that it was the most perfect stone for its size in the world. He also claimed that for color it excelled even the Kohinoor. In the rough the English Dresden weighed 119½ carats, but cutting and polishing brought it down to seventy six and a half carats. The Gaekwar of Baroda paid £40000 for it, so it is said.
Diamonds Of Fate (continued)
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
The Jewels Of Paris
Kate Betts writes about the growing luxury market via emerging markets like China, India, Russia and others + Paris's Place Vendome connection + other viewpoints @ http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1640285,00.html
25 Most Powerful Businesspeople
(via Fortune) Here is a list of the most powerful businesspeople in the world + more.
Companies That Could Change the World
(via The World Economic Forum): Here is a list of startup 'energy' companies that could change business and society:
www.gridpoint.com
www.ls9.com
www.skysails.info
www.nanostellar.com
www.gridpoint.com
www.ls9.com
www.skysails.info
www.nanostellar.com
City Lights
City Lights (1931)
Directed by: Charles Chaplin
Screenplay: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill
(via YouTube): City Lights - S17 Boxing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgAxWIbTqCs
City Lights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpeiPbjDlDs
City Lights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q68ieR7p-p0
Charlie Chaplin City lights scene never added to the film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcLce2QEcmw
A Charlie Chaplin masterpiece + the funny side + his total internal reflections. I enjoyed it.
Directed by: Charles Chaplin
Screenplay: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill
(via YouTube): City Lights - S17 Boxing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgAxWIbTqCs
City Lights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpeiPbjDlDs
City Lights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q68ieR7p-p0
Charlie Chaplin City lights scene never added to the film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcLce2QEcmw
A Charlie Chaplin masterpiece + the funny side + his total internal reflections. I enjoyed it.
Feminism's New Look
Barbara Pollack writes about women artists from countries far from major art centers who have received serious international attention + new geographical open-mindedness + finding the right balance between the traditions and cultures of their birthplaces and the esthetics and politics of the mainstream contemporary art world + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=971
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