USA: Rare and forgotton "Old Masters" lead the Winter sales at auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's in New York City

Record ID: 336027

  • Title: USA: Rare and forgotton "Old Masters" lead the Winter sales at auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's in New York City
  • Date: 21st January 2006
  • Summary: (L!WE)NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 20, 2006) (REUTERS) WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF CHRISTIE'S AUCTION HOUSE CLOSE OF CHRISTIE'S SPECIALIST VIEWING MICHELANGELO'S "STUDY OF A MALE TORSO" CLOSE OF "STUDY OF A MALE TORSO" BY MICHELANGELO (SOUNDBITE) (English) WILLIAM O'REILLY, DIRECTOR AND HEAD OF THE OLD MASTER DRAWING DEPARTMENT AT CHRISTIE'S SAYING: "Michelangel
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVAF0U0TSJRLJUJNTRBEE2R58T7F
  • Story Text: Artworks by some of the great "Old Master" artists are in New York City this week waiting to go under the hammer at Christie's and Sotheby's Auction houses.
    On public exhibit for the first time in the United States, a drawing of a male nude by Michelangelo is headlining Christie's Old Master and 19th century drawings winter sale. One of only a handful of Michelangelo drawings still in private ownership, it is expected to realize in the region of four million dollars (USD). It was on the open market only once before in 1976 when it set an auction record for an Old Master Drawing.
    Drawn in black chalk, the piece survives in good condition and dates back to around the 1550s. It is one of a small number of the very late drawings by the artist which seems to relate to the figure of Christ . William O'Reilly, Director of Old Master Drawing at Christie's spoke of how in many respects it represents an accumulation of a life's fascination with the male form.
    "Michelangelo was, was always fascinated by the, the male form, the male form, the male body, as, as, an idea of, as an expression of human kind, and so, "Male Torso", it dates from the very last years of his life and it's, as it were, a summation of all the things he was doing for the previous sixty years," he said.
    Michelangelo, who's most famous works include the fresco ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and "The Conversion of St Paul" in the Vatican's Cappella Paolina, destroyed the majority of his drawings. After a career spanning seven decades, little more than 600 survive, most of which are now in European public collections.
    "Michelangelo drawings are particularly rare, because, he seems to have destroyed the vast majority of them," explained O'Reilly. "Now we don't really know why, because obviously it was a very personal reason, but the, the, the most common suggestion is that he was, he poured so much of himself, so much of his genius into his drawing and concentrated so much in them that he was terrified that it would be obvious on paper what he was doing, what he was thinking and he didn't want anyone else, to steal that, to, to sort sort of cheat and, get the fruit of his work."
    The piece will be auctioned at Christie's on January 24.
    At Sotheby's, a rediscovered painting of an old woman by Dutch master Rembrandt will go on sale next week. Dating from around 1640, the painting has not been illustrated or exhibited publicly since the 1930s.
    The auction house has an estimate of three to four million dollars (USD) for the work, the highlight of its Important Old Master Paintings sale.
    The oil painting was at one point thought to be a portrait of the artist's mother but later research and restoration revealed it was not a formal portrait of a particular person, but a study of the effects of light.
    "According to Ernst van de Wetering, who is the head of the Rembrandt Research Project, this painting was, he, he entitles it "A Study of Light", because he believes that Rembrandt took a household servant and placed her and lit her and did this painting simply to understand how light would look from left to right," explainedGeorge Wachter, Vice Chairman at Sotheby's.
    Among the other lots in the sale is a terra cotta relief of the Madonna and Child by Italian Renaissance master Donatello, dating to around 1450. Known as "The Borromeo Madonna" after the family of art patrons, it is expected to raise from four to six million dollars (USD). The relief was hidden under as many as 10 layers of stucco and paint added over the last 500 years but has now been restored to its original state.
    "Very interesting thing about this piece is that , it is very Donatellesque in nature, there are distinct passages of the sculpture that are signature Donatello. For instance, the way the baby's hair is, is, is made, almost carved, the way the baby's face is also depicted," said Margaret Schwartz, director of European Art at Sotheby's. "The features of the Madonna's face, these very long and elegant hands, with these sunken in finger nails and the delicate lift of the drapery with her pinky down below at the bottom of the relief, are very distinctly him."
    Both the Rembrandt and Donatello will be auctioned on January 26-27 as a part of Sotheby's "Important Old Master Paintings" auction. Works by artists like Jan van Huysum and Bernardo Bellotto will also feature in the sale.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register