 |
| Bartolomeo Manfredi, A Drinking and Musical Party, about 1619-20 |
The Getty Museum has acquired
Bartolomeo Manfredi's A Drinking and Musical Party, a well-known work by the Caravaggesque artist. Measuring 51 by 75 in, it went on view today.
Manfredi (1582-1622) was a crucial early adopter of Caravaggio's innovations. Both artists died at about the age of 40, but the younger Manfredi had an extra decade to turn out works in Caravaggio's style, establishing its popularity throughout Europe. Manfredi never signed anything, and his works were confused with Caravaggio's. The fame of
A Drinking and Music Party persisted for over a century, for it rated
a c. 1729 engraving. It was then in the French royal collection and identified as a work of Manfredi. Eventually however Manfredi was forgotten. The Getty painting was attributed to Caravaggio until the 20th-century reconstruction of Manfredi's oeuvre.
 |
| Jean-Baptiste Haussard, after Bartolomeo Manfredi, Seven Men Gathered Around a Table, Drinking and Listening to a Lute Player, about 1729. Metropolitan Museum of Art |
A Drinking and Musical Party is now one of Manfredi's most exhibited and published works. It was included in recent shows of Caravaggisti in London and Paris. Manfredi was especially influential to Northern artists in Rome such as Valentin de Boulogne. LACMA has
a mid-1620s Valentin tavern scene indebted to Manfredi, and the Getty has a Valentin
Christ and the Adulteress.
 |
| Valentin de Boulogne, A Musical Party, about 1623-26. LACMA |
 |
| Detail of Manfredi's Drinking and Musical Party |
Comments
At least the subject matter is different. Maybe they thought they were at risk of having too many Virgin and Child paintings or sitting portraits.
They're circling back to the same garage sale 3 times. But this isn’t the Duke of Sutherland’s collection. They got one great work from this collection which was the Bronzino. But again, another Virgin and Child. That last few announcements have been B level purchases, mainly bargains with likely no demand from other buyers.
It's beautiful and debauched.
So often the Naples Caravaggisti go so dark I'm afraid to look at the scenes for fear my neck will be slit.
This one hits the mark, with ample interior light to savor the exquisite clothing, glass, stone, feathers and wood.
Go Naples!
The Met needs to catch up. Did a condition issue prevent their bidding on this?
> and yet the Getty decides to spend their
> money on this crap. Why?
Who knows? The judgment or decisionmaking skills of experts, academics, the affluent, influencers, etc, sometimes make me go, "huh? what were they thinking?!"
However, the Getty was in really bone-headed shape when it was being overseen by Barry Munitz. I believe he's now connected to the Broad Foundation or museum, so lemons have a way of managing to keep dancing all over society.
As for LACMA, look at all the "huh?" decisions coming out of its director and board of trustees, and LA County's supervisors. And, no, "good intentions" don't make up for poor, dishonest or unethical judgment.
Every era had its "scene" painters. Just ask the curators at the Hilbert Museum, which almost single-handedly created the genre of "scene" painting.
@TedGallager ... The Met has 4 paintings by Caravaggio. Why would the Met be interested in a Baroque "scene" painting?
--- J. Garcin
The purpose of museums is not to display only 25 of the most famous artists' works. Their role is to expand the field of artistic vision for the public. And search out and explain the interstices of history. That's what the Met does, with its countless paintings by artists whose names you've never heard of, or know little about. All of these artists owe a depth to Caravaggio, which they have well repaid...
Georges de La Tour...
Valentin de Boulogne...
Bartolomeo Manfredi...
Artemisia Gentileschi and her father, Orazio...
Rembrandt...
Jusepe de Ribera...
Velazquez...
Carlo Saraceni...
Mattia Preti...
Vermeer...
Bernardo Strozzi...
Tanzio da Varallo...
Hendrick ter Brugghen...
Gerrit van Honthorst...
Simon Vouet...
The list goes on and on.
But for Tanzio [see his masterpieces at Oberlin and Tulsa], the Met owns masterworks by all of the artists, and thank the stars for that.
So, yes, Getty. Keep up the good work.
Since then, they've managed to buy three Manets. At this late stage in the game, collecting pre-1900 art has to be a marathon, not a sprint. I'm pretty sure they'll never buy another Winterhalter, but the one they've got still does what it was intended to do: remind visitors that there's more to 19th-century art than Realism and Impressionism.
The Met also lacks a work by Gerrit van Honthorst, which appalls the lovers of the Met.
[[The Getty is rich with them...
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103JYX
Art history, to my mind, ultimately judges painters on whether they have made an original contribution to the artistic marketplace of ideas.
Winterhalter may not have made a substantial contribution. Quite the contrary, with the Caravaggisti movement.
*
Speaking strictly as an amateur, Caravaggio's contribution to art history in the 17th century matches Picasso's contribution in the 20th century.
You are fooling yourself if you think the Caravaggisti movement created "great" art. It was derivative stylistically. The subject matter was not original. The patrons of these "gallery pictures" were the Hilbert's of the late 16th to early 17th century.
If you are privileged as a museum to own a Caravaggio, you can indulge in acquiring lesser works for the sake of "context."
If you are not, buying a Manfredi is nothing more than a consolation prize.
As promising as that sounds, it also signals that the style had become formulaic, reductive, and standardized for the sake of commerce.
This tends to be the primary condition or eventual fate of any "international" style. See the so-called International Style in architecture.
This is why it is implausible to think that this painting is going to expand anyone's understanding of "artistic" vision. At its inception, the style of and the market for the painting had always already foreclosed on that possibility.
--- J. Garcin
https://www.metmuseum.org/met-publications/going-for-baroque-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-bulletin-v-62-no-3-winter-2005