OT: The Virgin and Child with two Angels or The Virgin of the Pomegranate by Fra Angelico

Besides Ingres exhibition, we (Begoña and I) also took the opportunity to see one of the most recent acquisitions of the Prado Museum.

Guido di Pietro, known as Fra Angelico (Mugello, 1390 – Rome, 1455), The Virgin and Child with two Angels or The Virgin of the Pomegranate, c.1426. Tempera on panel, 83 x 59 cm

The Virgin of the Pomegranate is a remarkable work painted at one of the key moments in the history of European art, in early 15th century Florence, by one of its most important artists: Guido di Pietro (Mugello, 1390 – Rome, 1455), better known as the Beato Angelico or Fra Angelico. This panel is also one of the very few masterpieces of this period to remain in private hands, given that since Quattrocento Italian painting first began to attract the attention of critics and art lovers in the early 19th century, it became a coveted field for museums and collectors. In the present day the most important works by Masaccio, Masolino and Fra Angelico are housed in the leading European and American museums. This fact, in addition to the painting’s fine state of conservation, makes The Virgin of the Pomegranate exceptionally important.

Source: [The Museo del Prado acquires The Virgin of the Pomegranate by Fra Angelico from the Alba ducal collection]

OT: Ingres Madrid 24.11.2015 – 27.03.2016

This week Begoña and I have had the opportunity to visit the exhibition Ingres at the Prado Museum, the first monographic exhibition in Spain on the work of the French painter, in collaboration with the Louvre Museum. See my previous post here.  

The work of Ingres, only seemingly rooted in Academic painting, undoubtedly constitutes an important forerunner of the late 19th- and early 20th-century artistic revolutions. The heir to Raphael and Poussin, Ingres’ work anticipates both Picasso and anatomical distortion in art, inspiring the revitalisation of the 19th-century European art schools, particularly the Spanish.

The exhibition, which will be open to the public from Tuesday 24th November 2015 to Sunday 27th March 2016, offers a precise chronological presentation of Ingres’ work but  also pays particular attention to his complex relationship with portraiture (characterised by his simultaneous rejection and admiration for it), which will be juxtaposed with his ongoing aim of being primarily recognised as a history painter. (Source: Museo del Prado)

I collect the following information from the programme:

Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (1780 – 1867) is one of the great masters of the history of art. Inspired by the characteristically Romantic for ideal beauty, which in the case of Ingres arose form the fascination with the grandeur of classical antiquity and the art of Raphael, he broadened the pictorial genres of portraiture, the nude and history painting. Ingres’ remarkable skills as a draughtsman, which reflects his constant aspiration to perfection, also make him outstanding in this field (bold letters are mine).

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres at Wikipedia