Eye to Eye opens at The Clark

Submitted by Lesley Ann Beck on January 20, 2011 - 4:51pm

Portrait of a Young Man, c. 1613–15, by Peter Paul Rubens, oil on panel, private collection. Photo by Glenn Castellano; courtesy The Clark

A beautiful woman in a lace-edged ruff and a melancholy young man in a frock coat are among the individuals depicted in the magnificent selection of Old Master portraits—twenty-nine paintings and one sculpture, all from a private collection—on view in Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450-1850 at The Clark in Williamstown, Massachusetts, from January 23 to March 27. The exhibition includes works by Memling, Cranach, Parmigianino, Ribera, Rubens, Van Dyck, Greuze, and David, among others; the pieces are from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, and France.

In a 1528 painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, a graceful woman in a large feathered hat and an elaborate brocaded gown offers grapes and apples. An older gentleman with a gray beard rests one hand on an elegant globe in an image painted by Jusepe de Ribera in 1630, and a pink-cheeked young soldier in full-dress uniform gazes out at museum-goers from an 1815 canvas by Antoine-Jean Gros.

Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1564-70, by Giovanni Battista Moroni, oil on canvas, private collection. Photo by Glenn Castellano; courtesy The Clark

Included in the exhibition are a number of little-known paintings, such as the pensive Portrait of a Man by the Mannerist artist Parmigianino, painted around 1530 in Bologna. The compelling Portrait of a Young Woman by Giovanni Battista Moroni—a sixteenth-century artist considered by many as one of the most gifted portrait painters of all time—will be shown publicly for the first time. Dating to the early nineteenth century, two portraits—depicting a husband and wife—painted by Jacques-Louis David while he was in exile in Brussels, also are part of the exhibition.

The one sculpture in the show is a relief portrait attributed to Baccio Bandinelli, a sixteenth-century Italian artist who was strongly influenced by Michelangelo.

Portrait of Count Honore de La Riboisiere, 1815, by Antoine-Jean Gros, oil on canvas, private collection. Photo by Glenn Castellano; courtesy The Clark

Eye to Eye is organized by Richard Rand, senior curator and curator of paintings and sculpture, and Kathleen Morris, director of exhibitions and collections and curator of decorative arts, both at the Clark.

David Ekserdjian, professor of art history, University of Leicester, England, introduces The Clark’s Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450-1850 exhibition on Sunday, January 30, at 3 p.m., with a free lecture. In his talk, Ekserdjian will explore the tradition of portraiture,

The Clark

reet

Williamstown, Massachusetts

www.clarkart.edu.

Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 to 5

Admission is free

Bookmark/Search this post with:

Lesley Ann Beck's blog