EACH YEAR ANNIVERSARIES of artists’ births and deaths throw together a number of miscellaneous figures united only by the survival of their achievements and a concatenation of dates. Alongside these, of course, there are the somewhat less alluring anniversaries of institutions, museums and societies, but the posthumous fêting of outstanding creative artists provides the public at large with a specific personality on whom to pin their badge of celebration. Exhibition schedules, publishers’ lists and the media in all its variety are frequently planned to reflect these anniversaries. A certain opportunism, even cynical marketing, is combined with a genuine desire to remember the artist concerned. A vivid biographical profile is of help (and can be expressly embroidered for the occasion) but is by no means essential; nor too is an exact date of birth or death. We do not know, for example, the year in which the great Tuscan sculptor and architect Arnolfo di Cambio died (some time between 1301 and 1310) but several beneficial exhibitions in Italy over the last few years (see the review on pp.296–97 below) would almost certainly not have taken place without the prompting of this floating anniversary. So far this year, the sovereign birthday boy of the arts has been Mozart, with Vienna as the epicentre of performances and exhibitions. But Mozart scarcely needs the fillip of an anniversary to bolster his reputation, whereas Shostakovich, born a hundred years ago, is sure to benefit from his centenary.

In the world of art it might also be thought that Rembrandt, born in Leiden in 1606, hardly needs the vast celebratory cake that four hundred candles might suggest. But at the latest count, there appear to be more than seventy shows, current or planned throughout the world, on almost every aspect of his work and legacy. Most of these, it has to be said, constitute a dusting off of well-known prints and a chance for people to see some infrequently exhibited drawings. Several shows look at his workshop; there is one about his mother; in Amsterdam at the moment he is twinned with Caravaggio and another looks at his influence on Van Gogh (both to 18th June); and Toledo OH later this year asks the question, long on our lips: Rembrandt: what was he thinking?. But among the more ambitious and potentially illuminating exhibitions, besides Rembrandt and Caravaggio, are Rembrandt Landscapes in Kassel (23rd June to 17th September) and then in Leiden (6th October to 7th January), Rembrandt: the Quest of a Genius at the Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam (to 2nd July; later in Berlin from 4th August to 5th November), and Rembrandt & Co at Dulwich (7th June to 3rd September) and then at the Rembrandthuis (14th September to 10th December).1 A figure as stupendous as Rembrandt is, of course, always worth looking at and re-examining and this year’s shows, symposia and publications are sure to bring about scholarly reappraisal. This would be particularly beneficial in Rembrandt’s case and has already begun with the timely publication of the latest volume of A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, this one devoted to the artist’s self-portraits.2 The four volumes so far published reflect the volatile state of Rembrandt attributions as well as – even in tandem with – changing critical interpretations. Is there any other artist of comparable stature born after 1600 whose work has been so disputed, wrangled over, promoted and demoted?

The anniversaries of the deaths of two pre-eminent European artists are also marked this year – those of Andrea Mantegna (died Mantua 1506) and Paul Cézanne (died Aix-en-Provence 1906). Nothing obviously connects these two powerful figures beyond their pervasive influence down the years (one remembers Rembrandt’s inventory of 1656 recording his ‘precious book of Andrea Mantegna’) and a decided truculence of personal character. Mantegna’s centrality to the art and culture of Padua, Verona and Mantua in the later fifteenth century is explored in exhibitions in those cities (16th September to 14th January 2007) which will include numerous works by Mantegna and his contemporaries. A compelling international loan exhibition, currently on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (to 7th May), examines Cézanne’s long relationship with his native Provence, looking in turn at his family, models, the Jas de Bouffan and his most frequently depicted motifs which, in his last years, narrowed to the secluded Bibémus quarry and the ghostly château Noir. The show’s only other venue (9th June to 17th September) will be the newly extended Musée Granet in Aix itself, ironically the bastion of anti-Cézannism for many years after the painter’s death. A smaller show at the National Gallery, London, brings together works by Cézanne in public and private British collections (4th October to 7th January 2007); and the artist will be the subject of a special issue of this Magazine in September.

An anniversary that marks a fraction of time – twenty-five years only – but a momentous event is that of the return to Spain in 1981 of Picasso’s Guernica from its forty years in New York. The planned exhibitions in Madrid and elsewhere are also reminders of Picasso’s birth 125 years ago in Málaga. Guernica was first installed in the Casón del Buen Retiro, the annexe of the Prado (of which Picasso was the Director under the Republican government-in-exile), where it was displayed behind bullet-proof glass. Ten years later it was moved to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía where, if it lost some of its dramatic impact as an icon, it has become possible to view it as a painting rather than a tourist attraction. The Reina Sofía and the Prado will hold a two-part exhibition this summer looking at, respectively, Picasso’s social and political awareness in the context of Guernica and at his relation to and continuance of the Spanish tradition. Cardinal works by the artist will be interspersed with paintings in the Prado by Spanish and other European old masters that influenced him throughout his career. There will have been few such extraordinary tributes as this to the former director of any museum.

1  All these exhibitions will eventually be reviewed in this Magazine.
2  See the review by Christopher White in this Magazine, 148 (2006), pp.120–21.