DUKE OF WELLINGTON COLLECTION © STRATFIELD SAYE PRESERVATION TRUST
TITIAN, DANAE, PROBABLY 1554–56; © RMN-GRAND PALAIS MUSÉE DU LOUVRE/MICHEL URTADO
LEONARDO DA VINCI, SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST; THE THOMSON COLLECTION AT THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO. © 2018 ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO 2014/1581
PETER PAUL RUBENS, THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS, C. 1610; © SKD, FOTO: KLUT/ESTEL
JOHANNES VERMEER, GIRL READING A LETTER AT AN OPEN WINDOW, C. 1657-1659; © SKD, FOTO: WOLFGANG KREISCHE
VERMEER IN INTERMEDIATE STATE OF RESTORATION, MAY 7, 2019; MADRID, MUSEO NACIONAL DEL PRADO
FRANCISCO DE ZURBARÁN, AGNUS DEI, 1635–1640The Louvre’s highly
anticipated Leonardo da Vinci
exhibition (October
24-February 24, 2020), to mark
the 500th anniversary of the
artist’s death, is likely to be
the blockbuster show of the
season. Ten years in the
making, it is organised around
the ive da Vinci paintings in
the Louvre’s collection, including the Mona Lisa and
Saint John the Baptist (above) and will present
information gleaned from new research and archival
documents. There will be numerous loans from other
museums and collections but, at press time, it was
still unknown if the Salvator Mundi, the painting of
Christ with right hand raised in blessing, which sold
for a record $450million in 2017 at Christie’s New
York, would be among them.The Art Gallery of Ontario in
Toronto has assembled an
impressive array of loans to
survey the early output of
Peter Paul Rubens, the great
Flemish artist so beloved of
kings and noblemen (October
12-January 5, 2020). At the
centre of Early Rubens—
highlighting the work he
produced between 1609 and
1621—is the museum’s own
painting, Massacre of the
Innocents, which was gifted to
the institution by the late
billionaire art collector
Kenneth Thomson who bought
it at auction for £49.5million
in 2002, then a record for an
old master painting.The greatest works of the
Dutch and Spanish Golden
Age will be shown side by
side at Amsterdam’s
Rijksmuseum in Rembrandt-
Velázquez (October
11-January 19, 2020),
marking the 350th
anniversary of Rembrandt’s
death and the 200th
anniversary of Madrid’s
Prado Museum. Canvases by
Dutch artists will be paired
with works by their Spanish
counterparts to explore
surprising artistic dialogues
between two countries at
war. Francisco de
Zurburan’s Agnus Dei (below),
depicting a bound lamb
awaiting its slaughter, will be
placed alongside Pieter
Jansz. Saenredam’s painting
of the stark interior of a
Dutch reformed church—two
dramatically different
compositions, both of which
“express profound religious
sentiments,” explains curator
Gregor Weber.POETRY IN
MOTION
O
ne of the most
spectacular painting
cycles in the history of
art is to be reunited almost in its
entirety for the rst time in 300
years. In 1551, Philip II of Spain
commissioned Titian to create
six large-scale mythological
paintings based on Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, known as the
“poesie”. Two of these—Diana
and Actaeon and Diana and
Callisto—are now owned jointly
by the National Gallery in
London and the National
Galleries of Scotland and will
be shown rst in the former
institution alongside Danaë on
loan from Apsley House; Venus
and Adonis from the Prado
Museum, Madrid, and The Rape
of Europa from the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum,
Boston. Visitors to the National
Gallery’s Titian: Love, Desire,
Death exhibition (March
16-June 14, 2020) can then head
to the nearby Wallace
Collection to see the nal
painting in the series, Perseus
and Andromeda, which never
leaves its home due to the terms
of its bequest. The other ve
Titians will then travel to the
Scottish National Gallery,
Edinburgh (July 11-September
27, 2020), Madrid and Boston.Da Vinci MODE
INNOCENTPARTY
Ê
Earlier this year, conservators at Dresden’s
Gemäldegalerie announced a sensational new
revelation. While restoring Vermeer’s Girl Reading
a Letter at an Open Window (c. 1657), one of
around just 36 paintings attributed to the Dutch
artist, they discovered that a large picture of
Cupid hanging in the background of the
composition, which was overpainted centuries
ago, was not concealed by the artist himself as
had been thought but was covered after Vermeer’s
death. It is therefore likely to have been intended
by the artist as the key to an erotic reading of the
canvas. The fully restored painting with newly
uncovered Cupid is due to go back on display at
Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie in summer 2020.DUTCHCOURAGELove at First Sight
Private View Art News
By Cristina RuizVANITY FAIR ON ART NOVEMBER 2019PAST MASTERS From Leonardo to
Rubens—these golden oldies are sure to draw a crowd11-19-News-Old-Masters.indd 26 19/09/2019 09:10
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