Burlington Contemporary is the Burlington Magazine’s free online platform for reviews and research on international contemporary art.
Burlington Contemporary is the Burlington Magazine’s free online platform for reviews and research on international contemporary art.
THE 1980s have seen an acceleration of sculptural activity in Britain even swifter perhaps than in previous decades. While painting has languished, sculpture has raced ahead, winning a substantial reputation abroad, from Saio Paulo to San Francisco and from Melbourne to Madrid. But whereas private and public collections in Europe and America have felt incomplete without the new British sculpture, British collectors and curators have been typically cautious or sluggish. While some museums have been eager to show work by Deacon or Wentworth, Woodrow or Cragg, few have been able to acquire examples for their permanent collections. Nevertheless, this year alone has provided ample opportunities to see works by sculptors representative of current tendencies, among them Woodrow, Gormley, Cragg, Deacon and Wilding. Their work has formed the contemporary foreground to some weighty retrospective exhibitions, such as Rodin at the Hayward, Epstein in Manchester and at the Whitechapel, and Gabo superbly installed at the Tate. The death of Henry Moore has prompted notable tributes, particularly the exhibitions at the London galleries of Fischer and Marlborough.
THE recent exhibitions in Florence, La Maddalena tra Sacro e Profano and the nearly concurrent Donatello e i Suoi: Scultura fiorentina del primo Rinascimento, prompted the restoration, display, and a new attribution of a Donatellesque wooden Mary Madgalen from the Pia Casa of the monastery of S. Ambrogio in Florence (Figs. 1-2). Judging from the figure's own distinctive style and the discovery during its restoration of the inscribed date of 'M-D-X-VIIII', hand-written in charcoal (carboncino or inchiostro)in side the front half of the wooden figure, it is our belief that the Pia Casa Magdalen is an early work by Francesco da Sangallo (1494-1576).
THE type of monument that most obviously addresses people from all sections of society is the war memorial on which the names of deceased servicemen are inscribed, or which honour an 'unknown warrior'. It is a modern form, chiefly associated with the Great War, but the exceedingly popular Vietnam Memorial in Washington reveals that it has by no means passed from favour. Many must have wondered when and where the first such memorial was erected. H.W. Janson, in his recent survey of nineteenth-century sculpture, was perhaps the first person to come up with an answer in print.
IN the course of work on a catalogue of the collection of Italian Renaissance bronzes in the Museo Arqueològico Nacional, Madrid, the signature of Antonio Averlino, known as 'Filarete', was discovered on the equestrian statuette of Hector (Figs.23 and 24). Filarete's authorship had already been postulated by Herbert Keutner, who published a brilliant and exhaustive study of this bronze in 1964. At that time however, the signature was neither known nor visible: it is inside the hollow interior of the base, which was completely filled with plaster, possibly at an early date to give it more solidity and weight. Removal of the plaster revealed the following inscription, made with strokes incised in the wax model: 'OPVS ANTONI/1456' (Figs.25 and 26). Immediately following the I of ANTONI is an indistinct stroke which may be intended for another I, or possibly a Y.
IT has long been thought that the two leading members of the Nost (van Ost) family of sculptors, John the Elder and the Younger, died, respectively, in 1729 and 1787. It appears, however, that both these dates are incorrect. In the case of John Nost the Elder, who in fact died before May 1713 and perhaps as early as 1711, this new dating helps to explain what have previously appeared to be stylistic anomalies in the sculpture of his later years and must also lead to the re-attribution of some work.
ONE of the disturbing factors in the London art world today is the increasing number of false Rodin bronzes which are being offered and sold at auction. The authenticity of a painting can be difficult enough to determine if it happens to be a borderline case. Then the attribution must be a matter of personal opinion, but at least it is a question of a work by one hand, whereas the creation of a bronze involves primarily the sculptor, then the founder, and frequently a patinator as well.
