Dimanche 24 juin 2018
Last update on 2/11/2016
Last update on 2/11/2016
The latest news in the History of Western Art from the Middle Age to the 1930's
Newsletter 14/04/2009
The Newsletter in english is not yet available. You can subscribe to the Newsletter of La Tribune de l’Art, in French. Send us an e-mail to be informed when the English Newsletter will be (...)
Subscribe to The Art Tribune 14/04/2006
Links to art history websites 14/04/2005
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS (see also in assorted sites by art historians containing articles) Apollo : The current issue of the journal is free online (must sign up) The National Gallery of Canada’s Bulletin and Annual Bulletin (1963-1985) : All the (...)
Michelangelo : The Real Artist behind the Mona Lisa 01/04/2012
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) Oil on panel - 76.8 x 53 cm Paris, Musée du Louvre Photo : C2RMF Gianfranco Salvatori is well aware that he is about to set loose a veritable bomb which will go far beyond the confines of the museum world. (...)
A chronicle of planned acquisitions : Poussin for Montpellier and Ingres for the Louvre 10/11/2009
We have already mentioned several times the Musée Fabre’s project to buy a fragment of a Nicolas Poussin painting for which it already owns the right side, Venus and Adonis. The two pieces had been brought together for the exhibition Poussin and (...)
The Last Night in Troy. History and Violence surrounding Pierre Guérin’s Death of Priam 09/07/2012
Among the restored paintings hung in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Angers for its reopening in 2004, there was a large, unfinished canvas by Pierre Guérin, The Death of Priam Despite its obvious quality and its presence in a public collection since (...)
The restoration of the Hôtel Lambert goes to court before the Tribunal Administratif 06/09/2009
Louis Le Vau Hôtel Lambert, courtyard Photo : SCI Hôtel Lambert / M. Lombard This summer the Hôtel Lambert case took a surprising legal turn. The authorization permit issued by the Ministry of Culture (see news item of 23/6/09) was appealed (...)
The Duke of Luynes’ {Surtout} by Froment-Meurice Acquired by the Louvre 14/06/2013
During the remarkable exhibition at the Musée de la Vie Romantique, in 2003, highlighting the Froment-Meurice family, the Surtout commissioned by the Duke of Luynes from François-Désiré Froment-Meurice was included in the catalogue but not (...)
Frans Hals. Eye to Eye with Rembrandt, Rubens and Titian 19/04/2013
Comparing is not enough. The Haarlem exhibition on Frans Hals, an "adoptive" native son, which attempts to associate the artist with 16th century Venetian painting and also with some of his contemporaries, is a perfect illustration of these (...)
Péristyles, the Journal of the Amis du Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy 13/05/2013
An art history journal, especially one which has been around for some time, is so rare that we would like to point out a very discreet bulletin founded in 1992 which has appeared since then at regular intervals, twice a year. The title of the (...)
Catalogue of paintings at the Musée du Château de Blois. 16th-17th centuries 12/11/2009
The Musée de Blois organized a long-term exhibition at the same time it published its catalogue of 16th to 18th century paintings, starting in late 2008 and continuing until 20 October of this year. This is the perfect chance to discover a (...)
Geneva Purchases a Panorama des Alpes by Gustave Courbet 20/05/2014
The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva recently purchased a large painting by Gustave Courbet representing a Panorama des Alpes, produced late in his life after his exile in Switzerland. The view showing the mountain ranges of the Dents du Midi (...)
The Jabach Family by Charles Le Brun Joins the Met 16/05/2014
This fundamental painting, still lacking seriously at the Louvre, has just joined the Metropolitan Museum. However, the Parisian establishment is not to blame in this case since it was never given the opportunity to purchase this work which (...)
ADMICAL Launches a Petition for Patronage 14/06/2012
We had passed on the information revealed by Vince Noce in Libération here on our site, concerning the French Budget Ministry’s wish to cut fiscal deductions for patronage by half. The news was confirmed today in the same newspaper by Aurélie (...)
A Scholarly Exhibition in Dijon on Gustave Moreau’s Song of Songs 02/11/2011
The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, currently undergoing an extension, is nonetheless partially open to the public and is now offering a scholarly exhibition devoted to one of the establishment’s masterpieces, The Song of Songs by Gustave Moreau. (...)
A Relief by Louis Le Conte Acquired by the Louvre 18/05/2014
The Département des sculptures at the Louvre made this beautiful acquisition at Sotheby’s Paris, purchasing this marble relief last 14 May which had remained unsold after the auction. The work represents Hope, identified by the anchor, and is by (...)
To Save the Church, Press 1 ; to Destroy It, Press 2 12/09/2013
Last Sunday, the village of Plouagat, in the Côtes d’Armor, held a vote asking residents whether or not they wanted their church destroyed or restored. The result is very clear since 80% of those who participated chose the restoration, despite a (...)
Legal Announcement 14/05/2006
Gustave Doré, Born a Painter 14/08/2012
No man is a prophet in his own country. Despite his success as an illustrator, Gustave Doré must have often reflected on this age-old maxim. The artist thought of himself above all as a painter but he was never acknowledged as such in France (...)
The Louvre Invents the Gruyère Museum 03/10/2012
Many of you probably remember the words spoken above by the president of the Louvre during an interview in Le Figaro. We had already pointed out that there was no need to wait for the Louvre-Lens to observe the holes, the Louvre was full of (...)
The destruction of France’s churches 24/05/2007
In November 2006, we spoke out against the demolition of the church in Saint-Georges-des Gardes, in Maine-et-Loire. An article in Le Figaro May 18, 2007 informs us that two other religious buildings are to be destroyed just a few kilometres away (...)
Appointment of Ger Luijten as head of the Fondation Custodia 28/01/2010
Created in 1947 by the art historian Frits Lugt, the Fondation Custodia which is located inside the Institut Néerlandais in Paris, is both a very active research center (publications, exhibitions…) and a museum. Its holdings are made up of the (...)
Symposia 14/04/2006
The Roman Baroque Museum in Ariccia 03/12/2008
Visitors to Rome have so much to see in the Eternal City that they don’t necessarily think of going to Ariccia, a small town located less than an hour by train from the StazioneTermini
Boston Purchases a Masterpiece by Frans Francken II 20/03/2012
On 28 April 2010, a painting by Frans Francken had caused quite a sensation when sold for 7,022,000€ at the Dorotheum in Vienna. Exceptional in every way within the artist’s production, for its size, ambition and quality, it had gone to the (...)
The Dusseldorf School 22/11/2011
When German museums set up an exhibition, they usually do not do things halfway. After the sweeping retrospective on the Master of Naumburg which we discussed here, the current one on the Dusseldorf school, organized by the Kunstpalast which (...)
A Self-Portrait with Lute by Artemisia Gentilischi Acquired by Hartford 03/04/2014
The Atheneum Museum recently purchased, with the intervention of Christie’s New York, a Self-Portrait with Lute by Artemisia Gentileschi. While the paintings attributed to this artist often come under debate among specialists, this one, (...)
Pauline Viardot as Saint Cecilia by Ary Scheffer Pre-empted by the Musée de la Vie Romantique 11/04/2014
Pauline Viardot was a well known figure during the Romantic period in Paris. Initially a pianist, she turned to singing after the death of her sister, Maria Malibran, also composing melodies and operas for private circles. In 1863, following (...)
The "Inexpensive" Beaubourg Circus Is finally... too Expensive 21/05/2013
The Beaubourg Circus is finally over. Alain Seban had once stated that "the structure of the ’Centre Pompidou mobile’ which he [had] set up [was] ’not expensive’". Today he explains that the experiment is ending "for lack of funding needed to (...)
The Coaches from Versailles on View at Arras 24/09/2012
We must admit : at first the partnership between Versailles and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Arras seemed to be a sensationalist operation, presumably useless and prejudicial, as are many of those initiated or approved by the president of the (...)
Reopening of the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence 20/08/2007
The latest trend in inaugurations is doing it twice. The former French Minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, did not hesitate in officially celebrating the opening of empty museums, weeks or even months before the public could gain (...)
Nicolas Régnier 03/12/2008
The Syndicat National des Antiquaires has just awarded its art book prize to Nicolas Régnier by Annick Lemoine. It rewards a remarkable monographic study, both erudite and pleasantly readable, which is the fruit of many long years of research and (...)
Mexico at the Louvre. Masterpieces from New Spain, 17th and 18th centuries. 09/05/2013
Among the positive actions exerted by Henri Loyrette as head of the Louvre there is the undeniable effort to extend the scope of the painting and sculpture collections to previously unexplored territories. This was notably the case first for (...)
A San Giovannino Attributed to Michaelangelo Reconstructed 10/09/2013
Rarely a year, even a month, goes by without the discovery of a so called Michelangelo, be it Buonarroti or Merisi ! The readers of The Art Tribune are well aware as we regularly denounce these media scoops, often concerning works where an (...)
The Tragi-comic Mishaps of the Louvre Abou-Dhabi 16/04/2013
Libération in a byline signed Vincent Noce was the first to break the news. We congratulate him for his investigation on the snags encountered in the Louvre Abou-Dhabi project and for having managed to put his hands on the letter sent by the (...)
The Rijksmuseum Reopens after a Ten-year Renovation 25/04/2013
After closing for ten years, due to various delays in the renovation project, the Rijksmuseum finally reopened its doors to the public on 13 April. Fortunately, it was well worth the wait. When first learning that Wilmotte was in charge of the (...)
The Troglodyte Church of Haute-Isle and its 17th century Furnishings 01/10/2012
We often find fault with mayors who disregard their heritage but do not wish to overlook the many who fortunately assume their responsibilities and fight to protect and restore the historical monuments in their towns. We will attempt to present (...)
A New Feudal System 18/05/2013
Does an elected official have the right to do whatever he likes ? This is in any case the impression given by more and more mayors who deliberately ignore the law and court decisions. The State seems to have patently resigned itself to this (...)
Saint Anne, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Masterpiece 04/06/2012
We generally think that the world’s greatest masterpieces have all been thoroughly studied, leaving nothing more for us to discover. In fact, this is not true as is masterfully demonstrated by the current exhibition now showing at the Louvre on (...)
Cultural Budget : Charge (but flee) ! 04/10/2012
This sidestepping is a first in journalistic history. We thought that the new French Minister of Culture had a certain amount of courage. We were perhaps wrong. For the first time ever, the budget will not be presented to the Ministry during (...)
By De-Regulating Wind Energy, Parliamentarians Are Threatening Heritage 08/10/2012
The new French Minister of Culture had started out her term in what appeared to be a promising way and we had heartily commended her initial decisions. Since then, the announcement of the cultural budget, followed by its detailed presentation, (...)
Budget : François Hollande’s Big Lie 19/09/2012
Who said last 19 January : "I promise that the cultural budget will be entirely protected during the next presidential term." ? The President of the French Republic, elected a few weeks later, François Hollande. Why did the media - and we were (...)
Fra Angelico, the French Wealth Tax and the Collector 03/11/2012
The Musée Thomas-Henry which was attempting to acquire the panel by Fra Angelico auctioned off last Saturday in Marseille by SVV Leclère failed to purchase the work. The painting fragment in fact sold for 445,000€ (552,000€ including charges) and (...)
The ISF and Art Works : A (Poisonous) Sea Serpent 10/10/2012
A bit like the question of deaccessioning museum collections, the proposal on including art works as part of the wealth tax comes up periodically for discussion. This proves, once more, the absolute incompetence of some of our leaders in the (...)
Barocci : Brilliance and Grace 11/04/2013
The "Urbinate" : although this adjective refers to Raphael in the minds of many, it applies almost equally to Federico Barocci. Of these two Renaissance geniuses born in Urbino, the latter spent most of his life there after two stays in Rome (...)
Real ? Fake ? The Italian Primitive Was almost Perfect 14/08/2012
"Raphael did not just suddenly fall down from the sky to honor the century of Julius II and Leo X.". With this assertion taken from his Considérations sur l’état de la peinture en Italie, dans les quatre siècles qui ont précédé celui de Raphaël (...)
Félicie de Fauveau (1801-1886), the Amazon of Sculpture 08/05/2013
We have already spoken on two occasions about the exhibition at the Historial de Vendée on Félicie de Fauveau, one of the best French sculptors of the 19th century. Everyone knows how cinema has helped to make Camille Claudel, another great woman (...)
ENI, vidi, Vinci 03/12/2009
ENI, an Italian firm, is one of the world’s largest petroleum companies. Its turnover in 2008 totaled 108 billion euros resulting in profits of 8.8 billion. ENI, thus has money, lots of it, which it uses at times as an arts patron. Thus the (...)
What Lies in the Future for the Hotel-Dieu in Lyon ? 01/08/2012
The Hotel-Dieu in Lyon, built by Soufflot in the 18th century, though founded in the 12th, is one of the most beautiful and most important monuments in this city but also one of the least well known. The reason for this is that it was (...)
The Burning Bush by Nicolas Froment now restored 10/08/2010
The famous triptych of the Burning Bush by Nicolas Froment, painted in 1475-1476 for the funerary chapel of Roi Rene’ in the church of the Grands-Carmes at Aix-en-Provence, has resided in the Cathedrale Saint-Sauveur since the 19th century. It (...)
