Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture

March 2, 2016 to June 5, 2016
http://www.frick.org

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), one of the most celebrated and influential portraitists of all time, enjoyed an international career that took him from his native Flanders to Italy, France, and, ultimately, the court of Charles I in London. Van Dyck’s supremely elegant manner and convincing evocation of a sitter’s inner life — whether real or imagined — made him the favorite portraitist of many of the most powerful and interesting figures of the seventeenth century. This is the most comprehensive exhibition ever organized on Van Dyck’s activity and process as a portraitist and the first major exhibition on the artist to be held in the United States in over twenty years. Through approximately one hundred works, the exhibition explores the astounding versatility and inventiveness of a portrait specialist, the stylistic development of a draftsman and painter, and the efficiency and genius of an artist in action. Lenders include the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the British Museum and National Gallery in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, and major private collectors such as the Duke of Devonshire and the Duke of Buccleuch.

El Greco at The Frick Collection

www.frick.org
November 4, 2014 to February 1, 2015

Henry Clay Frick had a deep appreciation for Spanish painting, particularly the work of El Greco, the extraordinary Greek artist who, after a brief period in Italy, spent most of his life in Toledo, Spain. Frick traveled to Spain twice and acquired three works by the artist between 1905 and 1913. Here they are displayed side by side for the first time in a presentation organized in concert with El Greco in New York (link is external) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Together, the two exhibitions show all of El Greco’s work in New York public collections and mark the 400th anniversary of the painter’s death.

With this installation, the Frick continues its 2014 focus on the artist, which began with Men in Armor: El Greco and Pulzone Face to Face (August 5–October 26, 2014)

Men in Armor: El Greco and Pulzone Face to Face

August 5, 2014 to October 26, 2014
http://www.frick.org

From 1570 to 1576, El Greco (1541–1614) worked in Rome, where he endeavored to establish himself as a portrait painter. The artist’s magnificent Vincenzo Anastagi ― a full-length standing portrait representing the largest of only three examples of his work in this genre to survive from the period ― offers a vital expression of his ambition and invention. To mark the 400th anniversary of El Greco’s death, the Frick pairs Vincenzo Anastagi, purchased by Henry Clay Frick in 1913, with the rarely seen Portrait of Jacopo Boncompagni by the artist’s Roman contemporary Scipione Pulzone (c. 1540/42–1598), on loan from a private collection. Both subjects are depicted wearing armor, which communicated a complex range of associations with masculinity, military valor, wealth, and social status. Pulzone’s refined portrait of Boncompagni, commander of the papal army during the reign of his father, Pope Gregory XIII, epitomizes the elegant style that dominated high-society portraiture in late sixteenth-century Rome. El Greco’s expressive portrayal of Anastagi, appointed by Boncompagni as sergeant major of Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo in 1575, stands in stark contrast, underscoring the artist’s innovative departures from convention.

The Poetry of Parmigianino’s “Schiava Turca”

May 13, 2014 to July 20, 2014
http://www.frick.org

Born in Parma and known as Parmigianino after his native city, Francesco Mazzola (1503–1540) lived only thirty-seven years, yet his eloquent, innovative art inspired his contemporaries to name him “Raphael reborn” and praise him as one of the greatest painters of his age. During his short life, Parmigianino was especially esteemed for his portraits. Today his Schiava Turca, an exquisite depiction of a young woman, is an icon in the city of Parma and admired as an expression of ideal female beauty in the tradition of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. Rarely seen outside its home institution, the Galleria Nazionale di Parma, this masterpiece crosses the Atlantic for the first time for its presentations in 2014 at the Frick and the Legion of Honor, part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue will offer a fresh interpretation of the identity of the sitter and will be accompanied by a range of public programs.

The Poetry of Parmigianino’s “Schiava Turca” is organized by The Frick Collection with the Foundation for Italian Art & Culture. It marks the two institutions' third collaboration in a series of loans focused on the female portrait in the Renaissance. The series previously featured Raphael’s La Fornarina (Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica) and Parmigianino’s Antea (Naples, Museo di Capodimonte).

The guest curator is Aimee Ng, Research Associate at The Frick Collection and Lecturer in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection

www.frick.org
28th January 2014 - 15th June 2014

The Frick Collection will be the only venue for the first public exhibition of this private collection devoted to the bronze figurative statuette. The nearly forty sculptures included in the show are of exceptional quality and span the fifteenth through the eighteenth century, exemplifying the genre from its beginnings in Renaissance Italy to its dissemination across the artistic centers of Europe. The Hill Collection is distinguished by rare, autograph masterpieces by Italian sculptors such as Andrea Riccio, Giambologna, and Giuseppe Piamontini. Its holding of works by the Giambologna school evokes the splendor of the late Renaissance courts, while the richness of the international Baroque is represented by Alessandro Algardi’s religious sculptures and by a remarkable assemblage of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French bronzes in the classical mode. The Hill Collection reveals the range of artistry, invention, and technical refinement characteristic of sculptures created when the tradition of the European statuette was at its height. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated scholarly catalogue edited by Patricia Wengraf with contributions by Claudia Kryza-Gersch, Dimitrios Zikos, and Denise Allen, organizing curator of the exhibition at The Frick Collection