Preface

Richard, Mervin

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Preface

Mervin Richard

Facture: Conservation Science Art History Volume 2: Art in Context

Facture, volume 2, presents great works of art in new contexts. Examining the art of two very different eras — the Italian Renaissance and the twentieth century — the essays in this volume share a common approach...

Author

Mervin Richard

PublisherNational Gallery of Art

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-20061

Preface

Facture, volume 2, presents great works of art in new contexts. Examining the art of two very different eras — the Italian Renaissance and the twentieth century — the essays in this volume share a common approach. They start with meticulous material and analytical study of works of art, then place the findings in a broader historical context, providing new perspectives on well-known works.

Technical study of Giotto’s Madonna and Child, in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, situates this work in the context of the artist’s surviving oeuvre. The painting shares intriguing technical similarities with three other panels by Giotto, new evidence that these works originally formed a much larger altarpiece. Giotto’s use of previously unrecognized art materials may offer further evidence linking the paintings. Another essay considers an autograph bronze relief by Riccio, The Entombment. In this first technical overview of Riccio’s reliefs, the essay considers the National Gallery relief in the context of thirty-two documented and three undocumented reliefs by the artist. The conclusions, which challenge previous proposals on the origins and dating of The Entombment, revise understanding of its place in Riccio’s oeuvre.

Essays on works from the twentieth century include a study of Auguste Rodin’s bronze sculptures that, by focusing on the National Gallery’s Simpson Collection, examines works cast during the artist’s lifetime, under his supervision. Combining archival research and technical analysis of seven bronzes, this article explores Rodin’s close creative exchange with his primary bronze founder and patinator, illuminating his personal aesthetic. Another essay presents John Marin’s choice of watercolor pigments in the context of contemporary color theory. As the authors draw on a wealth of contemporary documentation and extensive technical study, they demonstrate that early in his career Marin employed a severely restricted palette of just three primary colors, recommended by writers influenced by an already old-fashioned color theory. They show that later, Marin’s exposure to new ideas in Paris and in the New York circle of Alfred Steiglitz encouraged a dramatic expansion of his range of pigments. Mark Rothko’s pivotal early works known as multiforms are the subject of another essay. Detailed analysis of the multiforms in comparison with Rothko’s later works reveals not only the birth of Rothko’s abstraction but also creative experimentation with the paint medium that presages the enigmatic paint surfaces of his mature work.

Two shorter “In Focus” contributions arose from unique opportunities for technical study. An exhibition of Andy Warhol’s paintings, Warhol: Headlines, allowed researchers to study select paintings from the exhibition and compare them with a work in the National Gallery’s collection. The authors evaluate Warhol’s early choices of paint medium, revealing previously unrecognized experimentation at the moment of his transition between two artistic contexts: his early work as a commercial artist and the pop art for which he is known today. A second contribution stems from research carried out in conjunction with a major conservation treatment of Bernardino Luini’s Portrait of a Lady. Costume history revealed the restrained opulence of the lady’s garments, technical analysis illuminated the painter’s refined technique as he made delicate variations of tones of black, and conservation treatment uncovered Luini’s subtle modulations of black on black.

With the publication of the second volume of Facture, the National Gallery of Art continues the dialogue among art historians, scientists, and conservators. We are privileged to sustain the conversation.

Mervin Richard

Chief of Conservation

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