Cabinet of Curiosities

December 9, 2011

By Mary Jo Gibson

Alexandre du Sommerard
1779-1842

The first entry of this week’s Cabinet of Curiosities is a true collector.  Alexandre du Sommerard volunteered to serve in the army at the age of 14 and participated in the French Revolutionary wars.  Upon returning to civilian life, he spent his leisure time and modest fortune searching out medieval and Renaissance art projects.  His valiant efforts spared furniture, vases, utensils, intimate objects and decorative pieces from destruction, gaining notoriety for his collection of antiquities, and giving lessons in practical archaeology.

Sommerard devoted himself to art from the Middle Ages through the 17th century, paying particular attention to French connections.  A great influence on his choices came from Alexandre Lenoir (1761-1839), who rescued medieval treasures and monuments from destruction during the French Revolution, later setting up the Musee des Monuments Francais.

Accumulating this large collection, Sommerard purchased the 15th century Hotel des Abbes de Cluny to house the antiquities.  In each room, he arranged furniture, objects, and textiles according to their function or symbolic values in an attempt to replicate the interior spaces of the past.  He published a multi-volume work, Les Arts du Moyen Age, beginning in 1838, as a study of French medieval art.  He felt that history should not rely solely on written sources and that the public needed to comprehend the history of art as well.  The illustrated atlas and album were issued serially, 10 installments in all, each with a beautiful and unique title page.  Inside each installment were large illustrations of medieval buildings and objects.

Upon his death, his collection and building were bequeathed to the state.  His son, Alexandre oversaw the collection while his other son Edmond, became the museum’s first curator.  Subsequently he was responsible for the museum’s acquisition of the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, a treasure beyond compare, still housed at the Hotel des Abbess de Cluny, now known as the Cluny Museum.

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Prosper Merimee
1803-1870

French dramatist, historian, lawyer and archaeologist; friend of Eugene Delacroix, Victor Hugo and Charles Nodier; author of the story ‘Carmen’, the famous opera by Bizet; his writings were a renewal of Classicism in a Romantic age.  However, these are not the achievements that brought him to this week’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Prosper Merimee discovered the famous ‘Lady and the Unicorn’ tapestries at the Chateau de Boussac in 1841.

Appointed to the post of inspector general of historical monuments in 1834, his job was to catalog the treasures of France.  Previous attempts to document and protect the country’s architectural history were either compromised or half-hearted.  The revolution, plagued by vengeful destruction, even while introducing the idea of officially conserving works of art and architecture; this surge of enthusiasm came from several sources, but foremost was the panicked realization that parts of France were being demolished, carted away or broken up.  The hostility of revolutionaries to the property of the aristocracy and church gave way to pragmatic recycling by builders who treated ancient monuments as quarries with antiquarians looting the artistic treasures within for sale abroad.

Saint-Savin

Merimee discovered during his rounds that much of France’s monumental patrimony verged on collapse.  The roof of the Chartres cathedral groaned with age threatening those below; the wall paintings at Saint-Savin were crudely obliterated with whitewash, and inspecting the vice-regent’s tower caused it to simply fall down.  The great abbey church at Vezelay is symbolic of what Prosper Merimee found.  The left tower was toppled by Protestants in 1569; revolutionaries had hacked off offending base-reliefs; the Army Corps of Engineers, engaged in mapping the country, built an octagonal observatory on top of the remaining tower.  Theft, vandalism and self-interested development occurred without thought.  The famous Roman mausoleum outside St. Remy was 18m high, but shortly after inspection ‘an Englishman managed to scale it in the middle of the night and make off with the head of the two draped figures from the very top’.  In Avignon, Corsican soldiers supplemented their pay by chipping off medieval frescoes and selling them.

Inside Avignon

Inside Avignon

In 1840, Merimee wrote that “the job of an inspector of historic monuments is to be a voice crying in the wilderness”; his voice resounded through that century and beyond.  A French critic of the 1920s noted the paradoxical turns of Prosper Merimee’s life, describing him as ”a young man who had put everything into trying to write like Voltaire and dress like Beau Brummell, yet who became the most diligent of bureaucrats and the most zealous of archaeologists.  Thanks to him the cathedrals of Laon and Vezelay and then the Abbey of Saint-Savin are still standing, and towns such as Caen, Avignon, Cunault, Saulie and Narbonne are still dressed in their finery of great monuments.”

Avignon

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Royal Manuscripts

The British Library features an online exhibition sharing their archive of illuminated manuscripts, “Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination.”  Collected by English kings and queens between the ninth and 16th centuries, these illustrations show how the aristocracy looked and behaved during that period.  Details of domestic lives, how they fought battles, the weapons they fought with and the amour they wore are illustrated in meticulous detail on full color illuminated pages.

Heroes of the day, such as Hector of Troy; Charlemagne; and King David are shown with inspirational stories.  The monks and consummately skilled artists painting these miniatures reflected the kingly ideals and military prowess of their patrons unconstrained by historical accuracy.  The pages depict ideals and individuals across the centuries, emphasizing the connection to figures of the past worthy of emulation.

Edward IV is considered the founder of what is now the Old Royal Library, containing the first collection of sumptuous illuminated historical and literary manuscripts.   Many of these items commissioned especially for him, a material record of his intent to create an English court in a golden age of national prosperity.  Books served as expensive status symbols and required the luxury of vellum to provide a smooth surface for the application of paint, gold leaf and color fit for royal consumption.  An investment of six months to a year by artists and scribes allowed several sheets to be worked on consecutively before the pages were beautifully bound together.

Closed away in their bindings from the harmful effects of light, the brilliance of the paintings and the vibrancy of color appear to make the images leap from the page as they did when first created centuries ago.  A statement from an artist of the times, “The beauty of this book displays my genius.” Share the luminosity of these rarely viewed pages at the British Library.  Perhaps having all these archived images available for viewing on line will be their next highlight.

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Uncle Jacob’s statue is here and its lifesize… Wherever shall we put it?

The Getty Museum recently purchased a near life size limewood (Tilia) sculpture of St. John the Baptist by the Master of the Harburger Altar, c. 1515.  Previously a collection piece at the Stuttgart Wurttemberg Landesmuseum, research and documentation proved it to be part of a Nazi era forced sale.

The documented forced sale of September 30, 1937 shows the statue eventually going to a private Swiss collection before sale to the Wurttemberg Landesmuseum, Stuttgart in 1985, restituted to the heirs of Jacob and Rosa Oppenheimer in 2011.  The subsequent auction to the Getty was facilitated by Sotheby’s.

Limewood being a preferred wood for sculpture from the Middle Ages, it is soft and easily worked, very little grain is evident, and the density is 560 kg per cubic meter.  The carved saint is shown with his feet planted firmly on a circular, grassy mound.  His long curled hair and beard frame a face with articulated cheekbones, a furrowed brow and an intense gaze.  The carving of the draped clothing compares to the great limewood sculptors Hans Leinberger and Veit Stoss.

Only a few medieval statues are in the Getty Museum collection, with nothing of this size or notoriety.  The museum says the St. John will be on view early next year, and I hope with a suitable exhibition to compliment the debut.

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Pope Julius II and Raphael

BIG art news from Germany, the Staedel Museum has purchased a painting of Pope Julius II by Raphael and his workshop, dating from 1511-1512.  Two other versions exist in famous museums, the Uffizi in Florence, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.  The new acquisition has been out of public view, with ownership traced to the 1905 auction at the Hotel Drouot in Paris, a part of the Bercioux collection.  Purchased by Arthur Dawson in 1909, who stated his belief in its authenticity.  Sold to another collector in 1914, it was sent to Europe to be compared with the other two paintings. Delayed by the outbreak of WWI it stayed in Europe until being donated to a Viennese banker.

Julius II, Uffizi Gallery

The painting sold after auction in 2007, purported to be the work of an imitator of Raphael, possibly Sebastiano del Piombo.  Purchased by a private collector from Switzerland identified as Ellermann, the selling price has not been released but the Staedel admitted it was well below the auction catalog estimates.  The conjectured provenance of the painting before this thread leads back to the family of Julius II himself.  The historical record is murky at best regarding attribution on this piece.  But the Staedel says it will research the pre-1905 record in time for an exhibition entitled “Raphael and the Portrait of Julius II: Pictorial Propaganda of a Renaissance Pope” scheduled for November 2012-February 2013.

Julius II, National Portrait Gallery

This Staedel version, unlike the Uffizi or National Gallery image, shows “extensive creative changes carried out in the course of the painting’s execution” and “exceedingly free underdrawing” suggesting it was an early version, according to the museum’s statement.  The painting underwent rigorous investigation, including x-ray, infrared reflectography, and microscopic analysis.  The tests showed that the armchair on which Julius sits was initially in another position and that the rendering of his nose and mouth changed during sketching.

According to an archived story in the New York Times from 1910, no less than nine copies of this painting were produced by Raphael and his workshop.  Click the links to read the stories from the NY Times archive, see a picture of Arthur Dawson, and read more of the convoluted ownership of this fabulous ‘discovery’.

“Authorship – towards a unifying framework” from Three Pipe Problem gives an excellent, in-depth explanation on the establishment of provenance through scientific research and hard evidence including all methods that need to be applied to ‘new’ masterwork discoveries.

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Thank you for joining me for this week’s Cabinet of Curiosities.  I hope you have enjoyed the stories I have chosen from history and the current art world.  Look for Museum Monday, when I will focus on one of the museums from this week’s Cabinet. As always, your comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Cheers!

MJ

Museum Monday

Cluny Museum

Musee de Cluny

The Musee de Cluny, officially known as Musee National du Moyen (Museum of the Middle Ages) is located in Paris, France.  Displayed art includes a magnificent collection of medieval art in a 15^th century Gothic mansion.  As an added bonus, underneath the museum are the ruins of ancient Roman baths.  The building is a true relic of the continually changing landscape of the history of Paris.

Stepping into the courtyard onto cobblestones, the noise of the street melts away behind stone walls.  Time is suspended as the architecture of the hotel buildings surrounds you, every surface beckoning your glance with the discovery of some architectural adornment.  Treading across the stones into the medieval structure, you know this to be a special place, the history of past personages permeates the air.

The ruins of the Roman bath date from 200 AD.  The best preserved section is the Frigidarium (cold water bath), with ribbed vaulting resting on consoles evoking ships’ prows.  This unusual motif is explained by the builders of the bathes, who were Paris’ boatmen.  On display is “Pillar of the Boatmen” a column dedicated to Jupiter from 1^st century AD.  It was found beneath Notre Dame’s chancel and is believed to be the oldest sculpture created in Paris.

The building was founded by the rich and powerful 15^th century abbot of Cluny Abbey, Jacques d’Amboise, who constructed his mansion over the ruins.  The Hotel de Cluny hosted other notable residents including Mary Tudor, widow of Louis XII, beginning in 1515.  Seventeenth century occupants included several papal nuncios, including Mazarin.  It was used as an observatory by astronomer Charles Messier, who published his observations in 1771.  The building was seized during the French Revolution; at one point a physician used the magnificent chapel on the first floor as a dissection room; eventually being taken over by Alexandre du Sommerard, an amateur art collector who was fascinated with the Middle Ages.  After his death in 1842, the government bought the building and his collection.

The museum is entered through the cobble stoned Court of Honor, which is separated from the street by high walls and surrounded on the other three sides by the wings of the Hotel.  The exterior of the flamboyant Gothic building includes  many symbols of the Abbot of Cluny’s power, from the crenelated walls to the carved Burgundian grapes.  The scallop-shells on the facade symbolize the great Camino de Santiago’s pilgrimage route, which once began just around the corner and was overseen by the Abbey of Cluny.

The most famous attraction of the Musee de Cluny is the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry, the most acclaimed of its kind.  The six scenes, which cover the walls of the entire viewing room, bring to life romance in the age of chivalry.  The tapestry was designed by French artisans and woven in 1485-1500 in Flanders.  It was discovered in 1841 by Prosper Merimee in Boussac Castle and acquired by the museum in 1882.  Each of the six scenes includes a beautiful lady, a unicorn and a lion.  The animals wear heraldry that identifies the sponsor of the work as Jean Le Viste, a powerful nobleman close to King Charles VII (1422-61).  The backgrounds are filled with woodland creatures, plants and flowers, creating an enchanted landscape.

Five of the scenes illustrated the five senses; sight, touch, taste, smell and sound.  The sixth scene belongs either at the beginning or the end of the series, and is especially beautiful and intriguing.  It is labeled with a banner reading, “to my only desire” and shows the lady placing a necklace in a case held by a servant.

The museum has two exhibition levels above the Roman baths.  The ground floor contains the Tapestry of St. Peter; alabaster plaques from Nottingham; stained glass; the gate of Pierre de Montreuil; and sculptures from Notre Dome Cathedral.  The first floor has the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries; golden Visigoth crowns; choir stalls from Beauvais; the Book of Hours; and the tapestry legend of St. Stephen.

The online collections cover Antiquity to the early Middle Ages; the Romanesque world; Gothic sculpture; paintings, miniatures and stained glass; goldsmith’s work and ivory; tapestries, fabrics and embroideries; everyday life; and loans.

Headless Gallery:

The king’s gallery of statues originally beheaded during the revolution by the citizenry; they were mistaken as statues of royalty, but were the apostles; buried in the basement of the Banque de France, and rediscovered about 15 years ago.

Stall support: Pig Playing the Organ; Beauvais, 15^th century

This support is the underside of a stall leaf for monks to surreptitiously lean on during services while maintaining the appearance of standing straight.  Part of a series of carvings displaying observations from daily life, the sculptor’s imagination in this clownish series exemplifies his wit.

Host mold: France, second half of the 13^th century

Metal molds have been in use to produce the hosts needed for the Eucharist since the 9^th century.  They made of two plates fitted to pliers-like articulated stems.  More common were rectangular plates that allowed cooking many hosts at a time.  The most beautiful molds are engraved with a lightly embossed design.  On one surface of this mold, Christ amidst his twelve apostles, reveals his wounds; on the other, Christ delivering a benediction, framed by scenes of his life.

Stained glass chess game

The game of chess as a metaphor for the ritual of love permeated the culture of the late Middle Ages, both in literature and in the visual arts.  The museum collection contains the most attractive example of this fad in a 15^th century stained glass work.  This ancient, secular stained glass piece shows the art of living as a cultivated elite of the day.  The players wear elegant clothing and extravagant headpieces, as was fashionable in the 15^th century.  The lady is draped in a long gown edged in fur.  The top of her forehead is shaved, in the manner of elegant ladies at the beginning of the 15^th century, and her bicornate hairstyle was known as “split bread”.  Her partner’s headgear is a magnificent chaperon that forms a sort of turban on his head.  Grisaille and silver stain, two techniques marking the preference for painting on glass, this remarkable workmanship has made it one of the best examples of mid-15^th century art in Lyon.

The gold rose in the Cluny museum is the oldest in conservation.  Gold roses are noted in records dating back to the 11^th century.  Hundreds of gold roses created in the Middle Ages as symbols of favor, only three have survived the march of time.  The gold rose ceremony has remained virtually unchanged through the centuries.  Every year on the fourth Sunday of Lent, known as Laetare Sunday, the Pope would offer a gold rose to an important figure whose faith he wanted to proclaim.  This rose is identified by the recipient’s arms, which are added to the foot of the pierce.  Pope John XXII gave it to Rodophe III of Nidau, Count of Neuchatel.  The count had supported the Pope in his terrible battle against emperor Louis of Bavaria.  In addition, the papal books, well preserved from the period when the pontiff resided at Avignon, identify the goldsmith commissioned for this work.  Minucchio is one of many Sienia artists who turned 14^th century Avignon into an artistic melting pot.

The Cluny Museum has a history of exhibitions that highlight the everyday life of the Middle Ages, continuing back to the Roman origins of the area.  ‘The Bath and the Mirror’ from 2009, sponsored by the L’Oreal Corporation highlighted the reopening of the Frigidarium after restoration, demonstrating the importance of cosmetics and body care in antiquity, chemical analysis of ancient cosmetics was provided by the L’Oreal Laboratories.

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Take a look at the street view on Google Maps of the Cluny Museum, great photos of the inner courtyard with 360 degree views.  It truly is a wondrous place, you can almost hear the footfalls on the cobblestones.

I would like to thank Debra Eve at Later Bloomer for the suggestion of the Musee de Cluny.  It was wonderful going to such an interesting museum with so much history.

I will return on Friday with a new Cabinet of Curiosities featuring Alexandre du Sommerard!  Until then,

Cheers!

MJ