Follower of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Saint Sebastian
Follower of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Saint Sebastian. Photo Sotheby's
oil on canvas, in a carved and gilt wood frame, brushed on the reverse of the stretcher: No 978.duCat. 91 by 73 cm.; 35 3/4 by 28 3/4 in. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 43,250 GBP
PROVENANCE: Anonymous sale ('Property from an English Private Collection'), London Olympia, Sotheby's, 25 April 2006, lot 328 (for £60,000), where acquired by the present owner.
Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Day Sale. 10 Dec 09. London www.sothebys.com
Florentine School, 16th Century. A Vanitas Still life with a Skull
Florentine School, 16th Century. A Vanitas Still life with a Skull. Photo Sotheby's
oil on panel, inscribed: VL/ TIMVM/ TERRI/ BILIVM/ MORS/ +RESPICE FINEM+ and on the reverse: Andrea del Sarto/ Cigoli, 18.5 by 13.7 cm.; 7 1/4 by 5 3/8 in. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 133,250 GBP
Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Day Sale. 10 Dec 09. London www.sothebys.com
Five Buccellati jewelry and a "Printemps" necklace by Gianmaria Buccellati sold @ Christie's NY
A diamond and gold bracelet, by Buccellati. Image 2009 Christie's Ltd
Designed as a wide textured 18k gold hinged cuff, set with a series of circular-cut diamond florets, with engraved foliate detail, circa 1970, 2¼ ins. diameter, 2 ins. width. Signed Buccellati, Italy, no. 24796 - Price Realized $80,500
A diamond and gold bracelet, by Buccellati. Image 2009 Christie's Ltd
The textured 18k gold hinged cuff, centering upon a rectangular-cut aquamarine, within a circular-cut diamond and white gold foliate surround, extending etched gold floral detail, further enhanced by circular-cut diamond and white gold foliate accents, mounted in 18k white and yellow gold, 2¼ ins. diameter, 1¾ ins. width. Signed M. Buccellati for Mario Buccellati, Italy - Price Realized $72,100
A sapphire, emerald and white gold bracelet, by Buccellati. Image 2009 Christie's Ltd
Designed as a brushed 18k white gold hinged cuff, set with a series of oval-cut sapphires, within a circular-cut emerald and gold surround, with engraved foliate detail, enhanced by smaller circular-cut emerald and gold accents, mounted in 18k white and yellow gold, 2¼ ins. diameter, 0¾ ins. width. Signed Mario Buccellati - Price Realized $42,500
A diamond and gold bracelet, by Buccellati. Image 2009 Christie's Ltd
Designed as a textured 18k gold hinged cuff, enhanced by circular-cut diamonds within 18k white gold florettes, trimmed by engraved foliate detail, 2¼ ins. diameter, 0 5/8 ins. width. Signed M. Buccellati for Mario Buccellati, Italy - Price Realized $18,750
A diamond and gold bracelet, by Buccellati. Image 2009 Christie's Ltd
The tapered 18k matte gold cuff designed as two overlapping sculpted leaves, with polished 18k gold veining, 2 ins. diameter. Signed Buccellati, Italy - Price Realized $6,250
A gold and diamond "Printemps" necklace, by Gianmaria Buccellati. Image 2009 Christie's Ltd
The front suspending a detachable cascade of matte 18k gold sculpted leaves with white gold veining, set with two textured white and rose gold flower blossoms, each centering upon a collet-set diamond cluster pistil, to the similarly designed leaf and blossom graduated neckchain, mounted in 18k gold, white and rose gold, 15 ins., may also be worn without the central plaque, 14½ ins.; central plaque may be worn as a brooch, and may also be separated and worn as a smaller brooch; two blossoms detach and may be worn as ear clips, with French assay marks, in a Gianmaria Buccellati gray leather case. Signed Gianmaria Buccellati, no. K5673 - Estimate $50,000 - $70,000. Unsold.
Christie's. New York Jewels. 10 December 2009. New York, Rockefeller Plaza www.christies.com
Zao Wou-ki (né en 1921) Composition en bleu, 1965
Zao Wou-ki (né en 1921) Composition en bleu, 1965
Huile sur toile, signée en bas à droite, resignée et datée 8-1-65 au dos. 46 x 51 cm - Estimation : 60 000 / 70 000 €
Beaussant-Lefèvre - Paris. Collection Jean et Gilberte Lescure. Peintures & Arts Graphiques. Drouot Richelieu - Salles 5 et 6. Pour tout renseignement, veuillez contacter la maison de ventes au 01 47 70 40 00
Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Transforms the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion
The installation "With Milk, Find Something Everybody Can Use" by Ai Weiwei forms part of the series of contemporary installations with the Pavilion as their setting. Photo: EFE/Toni Albir
BARCELONA.- As of December 10 the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion will be the object of an intervention that reflects on the use of buildings and our concept of them as unique, unalterable spaces. The artist Ai Weiwei, one of the leading – and most controversial – figures of Chinese contemporary art, will fill the Pavilion pools with two elements that, though very common in our everyday lives, are totally foreign to architectural construction. He will replace the water of the two pools, one exterior and the other interior, with milk and coffee, respectively.
In the words of the artist himself, ‘my intervention explores the metabolism of a living machine (...). In fact, the building is not static: the content of the two pools is replaced all the time, unnoticed to visitors’. Indeed, it seems that the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion is permanently still, but this is not the case, and Ai Weiwei proffers a reflection on this apparent stillness: ‘Upkeeping the condition of milk and coffee is the same as preserving a body, a demanding effort against light, air, warmth…’. In total, the two pools will be filled with 65 tons of milk and 15 tons of coffee, which will be kept in the open air.
This intervention forms part of a series of installations that a number of plastic artists and architects from all over the world have created and will create for the emblematic Mies van der Rohe building. Essentially short-lived, they propose new ways to perceive the architecture of the Pavilion. The programme of installations is a kind of activity that is unique in the city and based on the exceptional spaces of the Pavilion. Those who have created installations for the Pavilion include Antoni Muntadas; Jeff Wall; Dennis Adams; the architects Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue; and the SANAA team formed by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.
Ai Weiwei, a belligerent artist
Although he doesn’t like to be described as a ‘committed artist’, the fact is that Ai Weiwei is one of the Chinese artists who most discomfort the Beijing regime, especially after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Given the silence on the part of his country’s authorities as regards the number of victims, Ai Weiwei decided to investigate on his own account and opened a blog to recall the dead, which the Chinese government closed when the list exceeded 5.000 names.
For Ai Weiwei (Beijing, 1957) is a belligerent artist, whose works often severely criticise contemporary society. His fighting spirit was aroused long ago: his father, a renowned poet, was sent to a work camp during the Cultural Revolution, where Ai Weiwei himself was interned for a time to be ‘re-educated’.
Ai Weiwei’s career began in 1978, when he enrolled at the Beijing Film Academy together with two of the foremost representatives of Chinese cinema: Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. It was also that year when he founded the avant-garde group The Stars (forerunner to contemporary Chinese art), which broke up in 1983, two years after the artist’s arrival in New York, where he lived until 1993.
In New York, Ai Weiwei studied at the Parsons School of Design, and developed his career based on conceptual art and ‘ready mades’, under the influence of Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp, whose work he has always admired. His oeuvre has invariably been characterised by historical or social criticism: for example, when he smashed a 2,000-year-old Han dynasty vase to ‘free himself’ from the cultural tradition or when he ‘reconverted’ pieces of Ming-dynasty furniture into items thoroughly lacking in logic.
His work embraces art forms such as installations, photography, sculpture and architecture. In the latter discipline he has attained international recognition thanks to his collaboration with the Swiss partnership of Herzog & De Meuron in the design of the Bird’s Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics.
Ai Weiwei has been living in China since 1993, when he returned for personal motives. In 2000 he acted as curator of the exhibition Fuck Off in Shanghai (which was closed by the police, a fact that, paradoxically, earned him more publicity than the authorities anticipated) and founded his REAL/FAKE studio, from which he executes most of his works. His pieces have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Documenta at Kassel, the Haus der Kunst in Munich and elsewhere.
La mort du Caravage enfin élucidée ?
Le Caravage - L'incrédulité de Saint Thomas (1601-1602) - Huile sur toile - 107 x 146 cm - Palais de Sanssouci - Potsdam - Allemagne
ROME - Quelles sont les circonstances de la mort du Caravage, peintre du baroque italien ?
En 1610, l’artiste décide de retourner à Rome. Il accoste sur la côte près d’Ostie alors qu’il est gravement malade. Jusqu’à peu, on pensait qu’il était mort sur la plage de la Feniglia.
La copie d’un certificat de décès, retrouvée récemment, atteste toutefois qu’il a expiré dans un hôpital de Porto Ercole, en Toscane. Il a ensuite été enterré dans un petit cimetière, d’où les corps ont été relevés en 1956 afin d’être ensevelis dans la crypte de l’église du village.
Un groupe de scientifiques italiens a annoncé le lancement d’une recherche de ses restes dans cette église de Porto Ercole. Le but est d’éclaircir les causes de la disparition de l’artiste, mais aussi de lui donner une sépulture en accord avec sa notoriété.
Les travaux des chercheurs, coordonnés par le professeur d’anthropologie osseuse Giorgio Grupponi – qui a participé à la reconstruction du visage de l’écrivain Dante Alighieri –, devront permettre d’identifier les restes d’environ 200 personnes et de confronter leur ADN aux descendants de la famille du Caravage. Copyright Le Journal des Arts www.artclair.com
Rijksmuseum Purchases Most Expensive Furniture Ever : André-Charles Boulle, "Marriage Coffers with ‘Boulle’ Marquetry, 1688
AMSTERDAM.- The Rijksmuseum has acquired two spectacular marriage coffers on stands made by the famous cabinet-maker André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732). They are decorated with so-called ‘Boulle’ marquetry of tortoiseshell and brass. These coffers were not made as useful items of furniture, but as works of art proclaiming the style of the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. Boulle probably supplied them in 1688 to a cousin of the Sun King, the Prince de Condé, who gave them as a wedding present to his daughter, Marie-Thérèse. The marriage coffers are the most expensive pieces of furniture ever bought by the Rijksmuseum.
The marriage coffers are typical of Boulle’s work in every respect, from the sculptured shape reminiscent of antique and renaissance styles to the copper and tortoiseshell ‘Boulle marquetry’ (the technique is named after Boulle) and the magnificent gilded bronze mounts. The coffers had no specific function: they can be used as storage space, but they are above all works of art intended to impart stately lustre, beauty and majesty.
The Rijksmuseum is the only museum in the Netherlands where the public will be able to admire one of the most beautiful international collections of furniture in the world following the reopening of the museum in 2013. The marriage coffers will be one of the items in the ‘Louis XIV gallery’ where the art of the court of Versailles and its influence throughout Europe will be on display.
The coffers had several other owners after the Prince de Condé. The Englishman George Byng (1764-1847) was the last to buy them - from a dealer in Paris - in 1816 or 1817.
