Collecting the Painted Netherlands: The Art Collection of Ernest of Austria in Brussels

The (art) collection of Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553-1595) is widely unknown when it comes to early-modern Habsburg collections. Ernest, younger brother of Emperor Rudolf II (b. 1552) and educated at the Madrid court, was appointed Governor-General of the Netherlands by King Philip II of Spain, his uncle, in summer 1593. Ernest relocated his court from Vienna to Brussels in early 1594 and was welcomed there with lavish festivities: the traditional Blijde Inkomst, Joyous Entry, of the new sovereign. Unfortunately, the archduke died in February 1595 after residing in Brussels for a mere thirteen months. This investigation aims to shed new light on the archduke and his short-lived collecting ambitions in the Low Countries, taking into account that he had the mercantile and artistic metropolis Antwerp in his immediate reach. I argue, that his collecting ambitions can be traced back to one specific occasion: Ernest’s Joyous Entry into Antwerp in June 1594. There the archduke received a series of six paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) known as The Months (painted in 1565), hanging today in separate locations in Vienna, New York and Prague. These works of art triggered Ernest’s collecting ambitions and prompted him to focus mainly on works of art and artefacts manufactured at or traded within the Netherlands during the last eight months of his lifetime. Additionally, it will be shown that the archduke was inspired by the paintings’ motifs and therefore concentrated on acquiring works of art depicting nature and landscape scenes from the 1560s and 1590s. On the basis of the archduke’s recently published account book (Kassabuch) and of the partially published inventory of his belongings, it becomes clear that Ernest of Austria must be seen in line with the better-known Habsburg collectors and that his specific collection of “the painted Netherlands” can be linked directly to his self-fashioning as a rightful sovereign of the Low Countries.

Église Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. Un Pilier d'une Colonne de la Nef, considéré comme un Chef-d'oeuvre de Sculpture

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F08028

Église Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. Un pilier d'une Colonne de la Nef considéré comme un chef-d'oeuvre de sculpture, Paris

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F08031

Honble. Miss Frances Harris [Material gráfico] : daughter of the earl of Malmsbury : The last portrait painted by sir J Reynolds

Resumen: Descripción: retrato de niña de cuerpo entero y de frente en un bosque. Con la mano derecha atusa la cabeza de un perro y con la izqda. se recoge el faldón del vestido

The Power of the Placement of Public Sculpture

The Power of the Placement of Public Sculpture explores the aesthetic effects public sculpture has on the environment around it. The work presented includes a discussion of case studies in select American and international communities. Relevance is brought to the topic through the documentation of the placement of a fabricated eight-foot avocado sculpture displayed on the University of Denver campus. Reflection on the experience exposes additional questions and demonstrates the importance of the placement of a public sculpture.

Three Etruscan painted sarcophagi / by F.B. Tarbell -- ; Berthold Laufer --

v.6:no.4(1917)

RELIGIOUS SCULPTURE OF THE CHILOÉ ARCHIPELAGO, FROM THE 17TH TO THE 21ST CENTURY

Despite its central role in religious life of the region, the sculptural tradition of the Southern Chilean Chiloé Archipelago, ranging from the 17th century to the present day, has been vastly understudied. Isidoro Vázquez de Acuña’s 1994 volume Santeria de Chiloe: ensayo y catastro remains the only catalogue of Chilote sculpture. Though the author includes photographs of a vast array of works, he does not attempt to place the sculptures within a chronology, or consider their place within the greater Latin American context. My thesis will place this group of works within a chronological and geographical context that reaches from the 16th century to the present day, connected to the artistic traditions of regions as far afield as Paraguay and Lima. I will first consider the works brought to the Archipelago by religious orders – the Jesuits and Franciscans – as well as influences on artistic style and religious culture throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. I will focus in particular on three works generally considered to be from the 17th and 18th centuries – the Virgin of Loreto at Achao, the Saint Michael at Castro, and the Jesus Nazareno of Caguach – using visual analysis and sifting through generations of primary and secondary sources to determine from where and when these sculptures came. With this investigation as a foundation, I will consider how they inspired vernacular sculptural expression and trace ‘family trees’ of vernacular works based on these precedents. Vernacular artistic traditions are often viewed as derivative and lacking in skill, but Chilote sculptors in fact engaged with a variety of outside influences and experimented with different sculptural styles. I will conclude by considering which aspects of these styles Chilote artists chose to incorporate into their own work, alter or exclude, artistic decisions that shed light on the Archipelago’s religious and cultural fabric.