On the latest edition of BBC History Magazine they showed this picture suggesting that this man was William Shakespeare, but he was NOT! This is a painting of Sir Thomas Overbury… Hmph!!!
Imagine going to fix a leak in the roof of your house, and finding a lost Caravaggio instead. That apparently is what happened to a French family in Toulouse two years ago. The picture, below, Judith and Holofernes, has been researched by the French art expert and auctioneer Eric Turquin, and he has assembled a number of art historians who have pronounced the picture genuine.
We all know Caravaggio painted a Judith and Holofernes in about 1598/9. That painting (below) is in Rome:
Now apparently Caravaggio had painted another version of Judith and Holofernes because Caravaggio’s contemporary, Louis Finson (a Flemish painter), paints a copy of it when he has the original in his studio in Naples 1607. However how do we know Finson painted a copy of Caravaggio’s second Judith and Holofernes? This letter narrates that the artist Frans Pourbus witness Caravaggio’s second Judith in Finson’s studio, (which is in French, but you can translate it on Google): letter
here’s a video from M. Turquin about the discovery (in French). He says that there is a pentimenti in the hand, where you can see an extra finger (which would be very helpful in proving the picture is not a copy). I’ve taken a screen grab of the area below. But I see no extra finger – it’s just a brush stroke.
The Met has bought a drawing by Jacques Louis David, which according to the video above is one of the artist’s first explorations of The Death of Socrates, a painting the Met owns. I personally love to see the drawings that gave born to the paintings, that first breath, first thought; it makes me feel closer to the “creator” and his/her creation.
Experts used technology to create (or recreate) a new Rembrandt painting. The picture, below, was made by scanning in over 50 Rembrandt portraits, and a computer programme made up a ‘new’ Rembrandt-like face. The result was then printed on a 3D printer:
Even though it wasn’t able to capture Rembrandt’s personality fully, mysterious hints, his ingenious power of expressing a soul and its crisis, and the proportion of the neck is a little off; I still like the result. Modern technology is becoming a big ally for the Art World.
The Frick Collection has announced new expansion plans, its most recent plans created a hoo-ha after it was announced that a small garden would be built over. Read more about it and show your approval: FrickExpansionShowUrApproval
Here’s a trailer for Christie’s new ‘Classic Art Week’ in New York, 12th -15th April, which features all manner of things from clocks to Brueghels, and I am happy to announce that the Old Master paintings are still called ‘Old Masters’.