Art à la française
This month Paris hosts the world’s most beautiful art and antiques fair, the Biennale des Antiquaires. Susan Moore selects some highlights of this great feast of French art and taste.
Susan Moore, Monday, 25th August 2008
Recent decades have seen the finest of French 20th-century furniture and decorative arts appear at the Biennale too. As the best Art Deco becomes increasingly scarce on the market, the 1940s and 50s – even the 1960s – have become more and more visible. Exhibiting galleries include the inimitable Vallois as well as the likes of Arc en Seine, Galerie Downtown and Galerie du Passage. The last brings the work of artists
and designers such as Gio Ponti, represented by his four-piece sculpture Omaggio a Melotti of 1964 as well as a round lacquered metal table made for the Villa Arreaza in Caracas in 1954 (Fig. 5).
Arguably the outstanding presentation of the 2006 Biennale was that of Phoenix Ancient Art. This year, the Geneva and New York-based dealers offer such works as a Greek helmet of Phrygian type dating from the 4th century BC (Fig. 1). The tall ‘Phrygian’ leather pointed cap is here transformed into bronze and iron, its cheek pieces ornamented by a bearded jaw, chin and the half-open mouth of a man topped with a wonderful scrolling moustache. An appliqué above the rim adds a winged striding nude male youth. It appears to be the best-preserved and most complete example of its type. Striking, too, is a Sumerian alabaster statuette of a worshipper, Early Dynastic II, of around 2700-2500 BC. The upper part of his skirt is carved in registers of archaic Sumerian inscriptions and the lower finished with beautifully carved long tips of sheep wool.
Classical Italianate landscapes were the speciality of Pierre Patel (1605-76), who, although it is thought that he never left his homeland of France to travel to Italy, filled his canvases with ancient ruins, shepherds and mythological figures all bathed by the warmest of mediterranean suns. An Italianate Landscape with a Cattle Herder and other Figures by Roman Ruins (Fig. 2) is typical of the 40 or so surviving examples, signed and dated 1656. What gives this one its particular appeal, however, is that it is painted in oil on copper, which not only adds a luminosity to the atmosphere but also allows great delicacy in the handling of detail. Certainly it comes with a distinguished pedigree: a label on the reverse declares that it belonged to the notable collection of Old Masters formed by Lord Northwick in the early 19th century. It can be found on Colnaghi’s stand.
LATEST NEWS & COMMMENT
Manhattan transfer
The Lower East Side, once home to immigrants and aspiring artists, is no receiving the uptown treatment.
Shakespeare in stone
The National Trust's plans to acquire Seaton Delaval Hall are a tribute to a genius who has inspired writers and artists for centuries.
In pursuit of collectors
The Fitzwilliam Museum is celebrating the centenary of the directorship of Sydney Carlyle Cockerell with an exhibition that makes clear that he was in many ways the first modern museum director.
Comments
Post a comment