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Board of Trustees Henry ClayFrickII Chairman Helen ClayChace President Howard Phipps, Jr. Vice President L.F.BokerDoyle Treasurer Paul G.Pennoyer, Ir, Secretary Peter P.Blanchard III Margot C.Bogert 1.Townsend Burden III Walter Joseph Patrick Curley EmilyT.Frick Nicholas H.J.Hall,ex officia Melvin R.Seiden Council of The Prick Collection Nicholas H.J.Hall Chairman Joseph L.Koerner Vice Chairman JulianAgnew Irene RooseveltAitken JeanA.Bonna W.M.Brady Jonathan Brown VivienR.Clark PeterDuchin Robert Garrett Mauro A. Herlitzka Ion Landau Douglas B.Leeds Diane AllenNixon Richard E.Oldenburg PaulG.Pennoyer,Ir, Marc Porter Samuel SachsII,ex officia MelvinR.Seiden Deirdre C.Stam Wynant D.Vanderpoel III Nina Zilkha The Frick Collection Hours 10:00 TO6:00 Tuesday through Saturday 1:00 TO6:00 Sundays Closed Mondays and holidays Frick Art Reference Library Hours 10:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday 9:30 to 1:00 Saturdays Closed Sundays, holiday weekends, on Saturdays in June and Iuly, and during the month ofAugust PAGE 2 Master Drawings from the Smith College Museum of Art PAGE 6 PERMANENT COLLECTION PAGE 8 Lapis Lazuli Candelabra and The Henrietta E.S.Lockwood Bequest PAGE 9 COLLECTION NEWS The Frick Collection Appoints A New Objects Conservator: Barbara Roberts PAGE 10 EDUCATION Collaboration with Weill-Cornell Medical School Makes Doctors Better 0 bservers PAGE 11 LIBRARY The Frick Art Reference Library Helps Solve Provenance Research Mysteries PAGE 12 MEMBERSHIP EVENTS Young Fellows Host A Tartan BaIl PAGE 14 PUBLIC SERVICES AND PROGRAMS Museum Shop, Lectures, Concerts PAGE 16 EXHIBITIONS EL GRECO: THEMES AND VARIATIONS May 15 through luly 29, 2001 T he Frick Collection's Saint Jerome and The Purification of the Temple com- prise the core of our special exhibition this summer, El Greco: Themes and Variations. Together with fiveloan paintings-all replicas or versions of the two Frick canvases- these works reveal different aspects of El Greco's recycling of his own compositions. Although El Greco was a highly original painter, he frequently made replicas or related versions ofhis own works, at atime when few, if any, major artists did so. This exhibition, organized by The Frick Collection with Guest Curator Jonathan Brown of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, provides visitors with the rare opportunity to explore two instances of this unusual practice. Saint Jerome (born c. 345) was one of the Four Doctors ofthe Latin Church. Here he is represented as a cardinal, an icono- graphie convention that was popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Three of the fiveversions of Saint Jerome asacardi- nal that havebeen attributed to ElGreco are reunited in this exhibition: apainting from the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum ofArt and aversion from a private collection in Madrid will hang alongside the Frick canvas. (The other two are in the National Gallery, London, and the Musée Bonnat, Bayonne). Although represents the Vulgate, his translation of Of asimilar scale and nearly identical is they vary in scaleand reflect changes in the the Bible from Greek to Latin. He greets the very fine version of the Frick painting artist's evolving style over a long period of the viewer with a piercing stare, but his from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, time, allfivepaintings are nearly identical. focus seems inwardly turned, and his lips executed sorne fifteen to twenty years later. Usually dated about 1595-1600, the appear tomove ashefollowsthe notes inthe Shown sidebysideforthe firsttime, the two Frick canvas is the earliest of the versions margin of the text with his slender right paintings challenge the observer to discern and the only one that bears ElGreco's sig- hand. ElGreco endowed the idealized saint the subtle differences between them in the nature. Saint Jerome is depicted half- with such force of character and specificity color of the robe, the distribution of white length in a brilliant red robe, resting his of facial features that the painting was long highlights, brushwork, and treatment of hands on an open book, which probably considered aportrait ofaparticular cardinal. the figure's head, face,and beard. The third 2 The Prick Collection Members' Magazine EXHIBITIONS canvas in the exhibition, from aprivate col- heresy and questionable practices. It evi- lection inMadrid, isasmall-scale replica of dently had special meaning for ElGreco, as the Frickpainting, although itisnot known he painted at least sixsigned versions over for what purpose itwasmade. the course of his career. These fallinto two While in the versions of Saint Jerome distinct types: those that were painted in El Greco repeats a successfulformula, in the Purification of the Temple series,he grapples OPPOSITE: with a complex theme and composition ElGreco (1541-1614), St. Jerome, c.1595-1600, over many decades, making continual oilon canvas,The Frick Collection refinements to achieve greater clarity and THIS PAGE: intensity of expression. ElGreco, Christ Cleansing the Temple, c.1567-70, oilonpanel,National GalleryofArt,Washington, D.C., The story of the purification of the Samuel H.KressCollection temple asrelated in allfour Gospels gained currency during the Counter-Reformation ElGreco, Saint Jerome asaScholar, c.1600-14, oilon canvas,TheMetropolitan Museum ofArt, asasymbol ofthe Church's purging itselfof Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 Spring / Summer 2001 .3 EXHIBITIONS ltaly before 1577and a later type executed in Spain between roughly 1600 and 1614. Four of the versions have been brought together in this exhibition. The small panel painting lent by the National Gallery ofArt,Washington, isthe earliest version in the sequence and was painted during El Greco's short Venetian stay (c.1567-70), not long after his arrival from Crete. Here he positions the dynamic figure of Christ between the agitated mer- chants to the left and the calm apostles on the right. The group is elevated on a step and setagainst amonumental portico in a classicizing style.In this painting, ElGreco hasjust begun to confront elements ofthe new ltalian manner, such as the figural style of Michelangelo and the dramatic perspective ofTintoretto. The canvas lent by The Minneapolis Institute ofArts waspainted in Rome and shows how much ElGreco had assimilated in ashort period oftime. The figures,borrowed from a variety of sources, now emerge from the group with greater clarity and expressiveness. In a touching tribute, he includes inthe lower right ofthe canvas bust-length representations of those who inspired or helped hirn: from left to right are Titian, Michelangelo, Guilio Clovio (a Croatian friend), and possibly Raphael. Itwasnot until after EIGreco had been long established in Spain (he isfirst docu- mented inToledo in 1577)that he returned to this theme and painted four additional ElGreco, Purification ofthe Temple, c.1610-14, oilon canvas,Madrid, Archidi6cesis, Metropolitana Matritense, Parroquia deSanGinés ElGreco, Christ Driving theMoney Changers from the Temple, 1570-76, oilon canvas,The Minneapolis Institute ofArts OPPOSITE: ElGreco, Purification ofthe Temple, c.1600, oilon canvas,TheFrick Collection 4 The Prick Collection Members' Magazine EXHIBITIONS versions, aIl of which are similar. Executed paintings inthe National Gallery in London upward rising energy that characterizes this around 1600, the Frick canvas is small in and in a private collection in Madrid, and final version. -Susan Grace Galassi. scaleand painted with fluid brushstrokes in the third in the Church of San Ginés in glowing color. While echoing the composi- Madrid. The San Ginés canvas, which is tion of the Minneapolis version, here El part of this exhibition, is the last of the Greco intensified the power of the work by known versions of the Purification of the El Greco: Themes and Variations has been compressing the space and placing Christ in Temple that El Greco painted. Here he made possible through thegenerous support of the center. He also has eliminated the steps changed the format from horizontal to Melvin R. Seiden, Lladr6, the Robert Lehman and sorne of the foreground figures, bring- vertical, and, in keeping with his late style, Foundation, theArthur RossFoundation, Iberia ing the viewer closer to the action. In addi- further elongated the figures. ElGreco also Airlines ofSpain, and the Fellows of The Frick tion' the figures are more elongated and transformed the architectural setting into Collection. Forfurther reading, see the booklet dominate the architectural setting. an interior space in which the imposing accompanying the exhibition by Guest Curator The Frick work became the model columns of the sanctuary soar above the Jonathan Brown, with an essaybySusan Grace for three additional versions-two larger figures, contributing to an overall sense of Galassi, available in theMuseum Shop. Spring / Summer 2001 5 EXHIBITIONS MASTER DRAWINGS FROM THE SMITH COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART June 19 through August 12, 2001 S mith College was founded in 1875 to works by Boucher, Cézanne, Degas, De of about 1574(now in The National Gallery, instruct young women invarious fields, Kooning, Gainsborough, Ingres, Matisse, London). Such drawings became highly val- including the "Useful and Fine Arts," as set Tiepolo, and van Gogh.The bestofthesewill ued by collectors in the seventeenth century, forth in the will of Sophia Smith, the bene- be on viewatThe FrickCollection this sum- but evidence suggests that Barocci retained factor of the college.Drawing was a corner- mer,beforetravelingtothe UffiziinFlorence. this example during his lifetime for use in stone of art studies at Smith, and in keeping Among the sixty-eight works featured in the studio, returning to it for the head of a with standard art instruction practices ofthe the exhibition is Federico Barocci's sensi- woman in the Martyrdorn of San Vitale of day,students learned bycopying from paint- tively drawn head of a woman, which has 1580-83 (Pinacoteca diBrera,Milan). ings and sculptures by the great masters. been described asamong the finest and best Also included in the exhibition is Most of the works of art procured early by preserved pastel studies by the artist. In his Jacques-Louis David's small but powerful the college were acquired for this specifie use of colored chalks on blue paper (now study for one of the foreground figures in purpose, but, over the years, philosophies fadedto gray),Barocciapproximates apaint- his The Sabine Wornen (now in the Louvre, changed and they began to be acquired for ing in both coloristic and atmospheric Paris). The painting was conceived during their own merits. Today,the collection con- effects.Barocciusedthisstudyforthehead of his incarceration in the Luxembourg prison tains more than 1,700 drawings, including theVirgin inhispainting Madonna deIGatto in 1794 after the fall of Robespierre, and THIS PAGE: Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), Mother and Child at theFeetofTatius, study forthepainting The Sabine Wornen, 1799, graphite onlaidpaper, Smith College Museum ofArt, Northampton, Massachusetts OPPOSITE: Federico Barocci (1535?-1612), Head ofaYoung Wornan, study for the painting Madonna deiGatto, c.1574, colored chalkson laidpaper, Smith CollegeMuseum ofArt, Northampton, Massachusetts Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1858-1924), South Boston Pier,1896, watercolor and graphite on heavywovepaper, Smith CollegeMuseum ofArt, Northampton, Massachusetts 6 The Prick Collection Mernbers' Magazine EXHIBITIONS completed in the autumn of 1799. Here the return to Boston from a four-year stay in chased by the Smith College Museum of figures are drawn entirely nude, a practice Europe. Like the Impressionists, whose Art,wasreidentified in 1951byaSmith cura- David commonly used to darify the pose work he had seen abroad, Prendergast tor who recognized the distinctive architec- and structure of his subjects. A number of focused on the effects of light and weather ture of Boston's Marine Park pier, designed pentimenti are visible in the drawing, and the leisure pursuits of the middle dass, byFrederick LawOlmsted.-Rebecca Brooke attesting to David's efforts to find the best emphasizing gestures and poses rather than position for the woman's head and weight- individual facesor expressions. In amanner bearing arm, aswell asthe child's arms and characteristic ofhiswatercolor technique at legs. In the finished painting, the woman this time, Prendergast began South Boston This exhibition, organized bytheSmith College dasps the soldier's legwith her right hand, Pier with aloose pencil underdrawing, then Museum ofArt, Northampton, Massachusetts, and the entire figure group ofmother, child, brushed in the background and added fig- ismade possible inpart through the support of and warrior ismore compact. ures in the blank spaces, leaving sparkles of the Fellows of The Frick Collection. The above South Boston Pier byMaurice Prendergast unpainted white paper that suggest wind- essay was adapted from the catalogue that was executed in 1896, the period of the blown movement. The drawing, which was accompanies the exhibition, which isavailable artist's first mature style, shortly after his titled The Pier at Atlantic City when pur- in theMuseum Shop. Spring / Summer 2001 7 PERMANENT COLLECTION Two REDISCOVERED TAPESTRIES FROM THE BRUSSELS WORKSHOP OF PETER VAN DEN HECKE through September 9, 2001 Workshop ofPeter van den Hecke, detail ofSancho Panza's Departure for the Isle ofBarataria, c.1725-5°,wool and silk ThiS summer, visitors to The Frick of Camacho and Quiteria, while the one inventory number corresponding to the Collection will be able to enjoy two illustrated above depicts the peasant servant French royal register. That registry, which eighteenth-century tapestries woven by the Sancho taking leaveofhismaster, the knight still survives, reveals that these were two of Brussels workshop of Peter van den Hecke Don Quixote. Both hangings bear the woven seven Don Quixote hangings belonging to (d. 1752). On display in the Music Room, mark for the city of Brussels (a red shield Louis Xv. Additional documents locate the these rare hangings are important for the flanked by the letter B) and the woven tapestries in the château of Compiègne, exceptional state of their preservation, the signature of Peter van den Hecke in the outside Paris, on the eveof the Revolution. significance of their design, their royal lower-right corner. When they were dispersed from the royal provenance, and the wealth of evidence The tapestries, with their receding pan- collection and whether the other five sur- regarding the identity of their maker and oramas and small-scale figures, reflect the viveisnot yet known. manufacture. northern traditions of landscape and genre Henry Clay Frick bought the tapestries The wool and silk tapestries depict painting as practiced by David Teniers the in 1909 in Granada, Spain, and later gave scenes from Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's Younger(1610-1690), whiletheconfiguration, them to his son, Childs Frick, who dis- comic novel Don Quixote de la Mancha, positions, and costumes ofthe characters fol- played them inhisLong Island home before which for more than two centuries served as Iowa French precedent. The unknown artist bequeathing them to The Frick Collection the literary source for numerous engraved who painted the models for van den Hecke's in1965.The tapestries remained in storage at and painted illustrations, as well as tapes- series"borrowed" the figuresfrom the scenes the Frick until iççç when they were cleaned tries. Van den Hecke's complete set of the ofDon Quixote prepared byCharlesAntoine and treated at the Textile Conservation subject comprised eight scenes, two of Coypel (1694-1752) for the French royaltap- Laboratory of the Cathedral of St.John the which are depicted in the Frick hangings. estrymanufacture located atGobelins. Divine in Manhattan.-Charissa Bremer- The one featured on the covershowsadetail Eachtapestry retains, sewn to itsreverse, David, Associate Curator ofDecorative Arts, of country maidens dancing at the wedding a separate linen rectangle inscribed with an TheiPaul Getty Museum 8 The Prick Collection Members' Magazine