Pontormo Grisailles in Grey Matters Exhibition
The recently conserved grisaille paintings by Pontormo were featured in Grey Matters, an exhibition of monochromatic works of art built around a nucleus of paintings by the Florentine mannerist artist Pontormo.
The exhibition Grey Matters, presented by Nicholas Hall in New York, created a rare opportunity for three related works by the Florentine mannerist artist Jacopo Carucci - known as Pontormo (1494-1557) - to be simultaneously studied and conserved within the Kress Program. Together for the first time were a group of rare surviving examples of Pontomo grisaille paintings on canvas, including two related paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection and a third privately-owned recent discovery.
Some of these canvases were conceived as ephemera for the Carnival festivities that would be seen at night. But as these paintings lived through the centuries, changes in taste and various interventions have exerted their influence on how these works continue to be seen. The cleaning of Cupid and Apollo (Samek Museum of Art, K1618) led to a dramatic transformation because a tinted varnish had been applied (ca. 1940s) to artificially bring it closer in appearance to Apollo and Daphne (Bowdoin College Museum of Art, K1619). In both instances, the treatment helped recover the sculptural qualities of the figures. We are now able to accurately assess their intended relationship to each other, something that had been largely lost over the centuries.
Grey Matters displayed monochromatic works of art built around a nucleus of paintings in grisaille by Pontormo. The exhibition explores the concept of Paragone - a concept popularised by Leonardo da Vinci that sparked vigorous debates in Renaissance Italy concerning the superiority of painting or sculpture. On the occasion of the exhibition, Nicholas Hall published a digital catalogue featuring new scholarship by Dr. Dennis Geronimus, Professor of Art History at New York University. A livestream event with artist Christian Nyampeta, conservator Shan Kuang and Dennis Geronimus took place at the gallery on 29 Jan 2021. The event, Into the Light, probed into the artistic experience of creation, viewing, and conservation since Pontormo's time.
Pontormo, Cupid and Apollo, 1513, Samek Art Museum, K1618. Canvas at varying stages of conservation treatment: before cleaning, during varnish removal, cleaned state, and after treatment.
Image credit: Shan Kuang
