【現地速報】ロンドン・ナイロビ出張(その49) 13日目- 4 おまけのダブリン、"NATIONAL GALLERY of IRELAND"

2020/01/17 - 2020/01/28

ナイロビから、ロンドン経由でダブリンに到着し、ホテルにチェックイン。何はともあれ、”NATIONAL GALLERY IRELAND” へ。

お目当ては、Caravaggioのこの一枚！

エリア ダブリン(アイルランド)

• 旅行の満足度: 5.0

以下、正面からの画像と英文の解説は、National Gallery of Ireland のHPから拝借
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https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/highlights-collection

Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)
c.1670
Size 71.1 x 60.5 cm
Oil on canvas

Vermeer’s work displays an unprecedented level of artistic mastery in its illusion of reality. His figures are often quiet and inactive, contributing to the solemn and mysterious atmosphere of his paintings. This painting is one of the most ingenious compositions of Vermeer’s late career. While a maidservant stares out of a window, her mistress writes a letter. In the foreground on the floor, lie a red seal, a stick of sealing wax and an object which is probably a letter-writing manual, often used for personal correspondence at the time.

'The Taking of Christ' by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
1602
133.5 x 169.5 cm
Oil on canvas

Caravaggio painted this extraordinary work for the Roman Marquis Ciriaco Mattei in 1602. Offering a new visual approach to the biblical story, Caravaggio placed the figures close to the picture plane and used a strong light-and-dark contrast, giving the scene an extraordinary sense of drama.

Judas has identified Christ with a kiss, as the temple guards move in to seize Him. The fleeing disciple in disarray on the left is St John the Evangelist. Only the moon lights the scene. Although the man at the far right is holding a lantern, it is, in reality, an ineffective source of illumination. In that man’s features Caravaggio portrayed himself, aged 31, as an observer of events, a device he frequently used in his paintings.

Numerous pentimenti (changes of mind), now visible due to changes over time in the paint layer, are a reminder of the artist’s unconventional way of posing models in tableaux and altering details as he worked.

The painting was a well-documented commission, and was frequently copied by contemporary artists. By the twentieth century, however, the painting had disappeared, having been sold by the family in 1802, and misattributed to Gerrit van Honthorst, a Dutch follower of Caravaggio. Scholars resumed searching for the original in the 1940s, as many of them no longer accepted the authenticity of a painting in the Odessa Art Museum, now known to be a copy made for another member of the Mattei family in 1626.

The painting has now regained its status as a key work by Caravaggio, completed during the artist’s short, but highly productive, period in Rome. It has all the features associated with his great works: a dramatic story, chiaroscuro lighting, expressive figures, combined with a spiritual dimension and magnificent surface detail.