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October 2013

Vol. 155 | No. 1327

Discoveries

Editorial

Drama in Detroit

Although in times of financial stringency cuts score into every aspect of daily life, the arts are an especially vulnerable target because they are often perceived as being of no use. They are the decoration of life, sources of pleasure and entertainment lightly attached to the hard surface of daily realities. They are not easy to defend in the face of the imperatives of Education, Health, Welfare, Transport etc, all of which have universal, practical visibility. Governments often only attend to the arts if they can be factored into plans for the regeneration of particular areas or harnessed to broader educational needs. 

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Free review

Patrick Caulfield. London

Wedged between two lamps, a corpulent and sweaty Orson Welles addresses Marlene Dietrich (the rather unlikely madam of a brothel) in Patrick Caulfield’s favourite film Touch of Evil. These lamps are not illuminating anything; the light source is low, frontal, throwing strong shadows, and the contrast between bright and dark areas of the set obscures parts of the scene. This is classic use of film noir ‘key lighting’ – a recognised lighting style wherein the key light (the frontal illumination) is much more intense than the fill light, creating artificially strong shadows. Key lighting was also used by Alfred Hitchcock, another Caulfield favourite, who employed wall or table lamps in many of his films, not as direct light sources but as dumb protagonists witnessing an interior drama. Caulfield’s love of film noir and his understanding of this use of contemporary chiaroscuro underpinned much of the sophisticated picture-making that was to inform and drive his later work.

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  • An Unknown early work by Titian

    By Artur Rosenauer

    Publication of ‘The risen Christ’, a previously unknown work by Titian.

  • Titian’s ‘music piece’ re-emerges at the National Gallery, London

    By Jill Dunkerton

    Discusses the restoration and reassessment of a work now attributed to Titian.

  • Guido Reni’s ‘Conversion of Saul’: a newly attributed painting in the Escorial

    By Gonzalo Redin Michaus

    Newly identifies a work at the Escorial to Guido Reni and explores its provenance.

  • MA.OCT.SPINOSA.Fig

    Jusepe de Ribera’s ‘Portrait of the Count of Monterrey’ rediscovered

    By Nicola Spinosa

    A recently discovered portrait by Ribera is identified as that of the Count of Monterrey, a great admirer of Ribera’s work.

  • A newly discovered portrait of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David

    By Simon Lee

    Discusses the various versions of David’s portrait of the emperor, including a previously unknown example.

  • MA.OCT.PACCOUD.Fig

    Ingres’s ‘Aretino and the messenger from Charles V’ acquired by the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon

    By Stéphane Paccoud

    Presents this new acquisition and discusses its pendant and versions.

  • MA.OCT.TILBORGH.Fig

    ‘Sunset at Montmajour’: a newly discovered painting by Vincent van Gogh

    By Louis van Tilborgh,Teio Meedendorp,Oda van Maanen

    Reveals a landscape near Arles painted in 1888.