October 15, 2001

MAJOR BAROQUE PAINTING BY ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI IS PURCHASED BY VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
Director Michael Brand Calls Latest Gifts and Purchases of Art An Important Example of Strong Private Support for Museum

Venus and Cupid, ca. 1625-30, is an oil on canvas by Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652/53). It measures 37 by 56-3/4 inches. (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © 2001 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has purchased Artemisia Gentileschi's Venus and Cupid, an important 17th-century Baroque painting from one of the most crucial periods in the history of Italian art. The museum's board of trustees also accepted the extraordinary gift of a 17th-century rosewater dish and a matching pair of ewers, or pitchers, from Rita Gans of New York. In addition, the board approved the purchase of The Quintet of the Unseen, a 2000 video installation by one of the most significant international video artists, Bill Viola. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director Dr. Michael Brand calls the Gentileschi painting

"a rare and outstanding example of the work of a particularly important artist, one that will further enhance the international stature of our collection.

"The acquisition of this painting at a stroke provides us with a vital representation of a most fundamental period in art history. This is a major work. by one of the most dynamic artists of 17th-century Italy. The fact that Gentileschi was a pioneer woman artist adds even more interest to the acquisition," he says.

"These latest acquisitions prove the fundamental importance to our mission of the strong private support the museum enjoys. The art we purchase is funded by endowments established over the years by generous private individuals, families and corporations. We are also very grateful for gifts of art to the museum, such as Mrs. Gans's, which mean that visitors now and in the years to come will be able to appreciate the breadth of humankind's creative achievements."

Only 53 works from Gentileschi's full career survive today, a mere five of which, including the museum's latest acquisition, are in American public collections.

Painted in oil on canvas between 1625 and 1630, Venus and Cupid measures 56-3/4 inches wide by 37 inches tall. It depicts the goddess of love asleep in her chamber, nude, her head on a velvet cushion. Behind her, Cupid wields a fan of peacock feathers.

Gentileschi (1593-1652/53) was the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, who was one of the closest and most gifted of the followers of Caravaggio, the most original and influential 17th-century Italian painter. Precociously gifted and possessing a formidable personality, she lived a life of independence rare for a woman of her times. She was born in Rome and painted there, in Florence and in Naples. At the age of 19, she was raped by the artist Agostino Tassi, who had been hired by her father to give her lessons. During the legal proceedings, she was tortured with thumbscrews, an early and crude form of lie detector. Tassi was eventually acquitted after serving some time in jail.

The experience may well have influenced the stark course of her art: her paintings include dramatic, nude images of independent women treated badly by the world but famous for their courage and beauty.

Venus and Cupid is on view in Richmond through mid-January. It will then be lent for a major exhibition of works by Gentileschi and her father to be shown at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at the St. Louis Art Museum before returning to Richmond in September. The painting was purchased through the museum's Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund. The silver-gilt rosewater dish and pair of ewers, dated 1699-1700 and carrying the arms of Anthony Grey, 11th earl of Kent, and his wife Mary, were made by English silversmith Benjamin Pyne (ca. 1653-1732). They are believed to have been engraved by the French artist Blaise Gentot (1658-after 1701). Brand says the dish and ewers will "immediately become a focal point of the museum's decorative arts collection and especially the display of silver in the Evans Court." Until the mid-17th century, when the fork came into common use, large basins, or rosewater dishes, with matching ewers were essential for fine dining in England. Since diners were compelled to use their fingers, the basins and ewers were used between courses to rinse their hands.

This silver-gilt rosewater dish and pair of ewers (1699-1700) were crafted by English silversmith Benjamin Pyne (ca. 1653-1732). The engraving is attributed to the French artist Blaise Gentot (1658- after 1701). (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © 2001 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

Pyne was a leading silversmith of his time who worked also for England's Queen Anne and George I. The unsigned engravings on all three pieces have been attributed to Gentot through stylistic analysis. "The intricate design and precise detail render them masterpieces of the art of engraving," Brand says. The three pieces are on view now in the Evans Court.

One of a limited edition of three, Viola's The Quintet of the Unseen will be installed in a specially reconfigured gallery at the museum next spring. Another copy is on view now through Nov. 4 in the 49th Venice Biennale, a major contemporary art exhibition in Italy.

This video still is from The Quintet of the Unseen, a 2000 video installation by American artist Bill Viola (b. 1951). The installation purchased by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is the second of an edition of three. (Photo © 2001 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

Viola (American, b. 1951) began the work in 1998. It grew out of his research into representations of the passion of Christ in Italian and Northern Renaissance art. In the video installation, a group of five people are seen moving in extreme slow motion as they experience a wave of intense emotion that threatens to overwhelm them. They are left drained and exhausted. The image is presented as a rear projection onto a rigid Plexiglas screen measuring 8 feet wide by 4½ feet tall. Brand calls the piece "a cornerstone in the museum's representation of video art and a wonderful complement to the major video exhibition the museum is organizing for early 2002, Outer and Inner Space."

The museum's trustees also approved the acquisition of other works, among them

• Blue Husk, a 2001 video sculpture by Tony Oursler (American, b. 1957), in which an animated face delivering a stream-of-consciousness monologue is projected onto a fiberglass sphere behind a hand-blown blue glass shell. The sculpture will be on view in conjunction with "Outer and Inner Space." It was purchased with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts Fund for American Art.

• A wine-and-spirits cellaret (bottle case) made of walnut and including 12 green blown-glass bottles. The piece was made in the Southern U.S. about 1790-1810. It was shown in the museum's groundbreaking Southern furniture exhibition in 1952 and was given by Elise Power Quimby of Bridgehampton, N.Y., in memory of Raymond C. and Ann Catlett Power. The cellaret is on view now in the American galleries.

• A spectacular pair of candelabra attributed in part to French maker François Rémond (1747-1812). The gilt and patinated bronze candelabra are dated to about 1780 and stand 38-7/8 inches tall. The were given to the museum by the estate of Ailsa Mellon Bruce, John Barton Payne and Mr. and Mrs. K.S. Edwards, by exchange, and the Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund. A date for the installation of the candelabra has not been determined.