european painting and sculpture :: essays research papers

European Painting and Sculpture The collection of European painting and sculpture comprises works of art from the twelfth through the early twentieth century. Ranging from paintings in oil on panel, canvas, or onyx through sculptures in alabaster, bronze, terra-cotta, marble, wax, silver, and painted wood, these works of art come primarily from Italy, France, Spain, the Low Countries (Holland and modern Belgium), Germany, Austria, England, and Switzerland. The collection of European painting and sculpture can be found on the first and second floors of the Ahmanson building and in the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden. It includes masterpieces of European art from the Middle Ages through impressionism and the followers of Rodin. Renowned for an outstanding representation of Italian baroque paintings as well as for world-famous masterpieces like Georges de La Tour’s Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (c.1638–40), Rembrandt’s Raising of Lazarus (c.1630), Degas’s The Bellelli Sisters (1862–64), and Cà ©zanne’s Sous-Bois (1894), the collection also boasts paintings by Jacopo Bellini, Rosso Fiorentino, Veronese, Titian, Frans Hals, Rubens, Boucher, Fragonard, Hubert Robert, Tiepolo, Delacroix, Monet, Pissarro, and Gauguin among others. The sculpture collection is shown integrated with the paintings. The museum displays the only collection of medieval sculpture in Southern California and is famed for its Renaissance and baroque polychrome sculptures. Of particular note are the French eighteenth-century terra-cottas, with examples of the work of Tuby, Clodion, Chinard, and Pajou. The nineteenth century is richly represented with sculptures by David d’Angers, Rude, Carrier-Belleuse, Dalou, Falguià ¨re, and above all, Auguste Rodin, to whom an entire gallery is devoted. A selection of approximately 150 medals, from the Renaissance through the 1930s, is a representative group from the 1300 medals and plaquettes in the collection. GEORGES DE LA TOUR atopatop (France, 1593–1652) Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, c. 1638-40 Oil on canvas 46 x 36 1/8 in. (116.8 x 91.8 cm) Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation, M.77.73 Although Georges de La Tour spent his entire artistic career in provincial France, far from cosmopolitan centers and artistic influences, he developed a poignant style as profound as the most illustrious painters of his day. In his lifetime his work appeared in the prominent royal collections of Europe. La Tour's early training is still a matter for speculation, but in the province of Lorraine he encountered the artist Jean Le Clerc, a follower of the Italian painter Caravaggio. From this source likely came La Tour's concern with simplicity, realism, and essential detail. Mary Magdalen was traditionally depicted in her grotto or as an aged woman.