This beautiful publication accompanies an exhibition that brings together the only two known self-portraits by Bartolomé Estebán Murillo (1617–1682), one of the finest painters of the Spanish Golden Age. Painted almost twenty years apart, these two remarkable paintings are often overshadowed by Murillo’s more famous religious paintings and genre scenes. This book investigates the two self-portraits side by side, highlighting similarities and differences. While the earlier portrait reflects Murillo’s admiration of antiquity and imitation of classical models, the later one shows a confident, mature artist who was at that time the leading painter in Seville. In addition, the book discusses recent technical analysis, offering a better understanding of how these self-portraits were painted, and provides a rare opportunity to compare how one of the most celebrated and influential European painters chose to represent himself at different stages of his exceptional career.

Murillo: The Self-Portraits

Arts & Photography

Salomon, Xavier F.

Treves, Letizia

History & Criticism

The Frick Collection

<div>Join the curators of the Frick as they present engaging histories of works of art paired with creatively inspired cocktails - a crash course in art history and a delightful introduction to the treasures of the esteemed New York collection. Based on the critically acclaimed video series of the same name,&nbsp;Cocktails with a Curator&nbsp;is a collection of lively and informative essays. Paintings, sculpture, furniture, and porcelain - from medieval times through the glorious Renaissance to the early twentieth century - are discussed for their exemplary status. The creators are some of the greatest artists and include Rembrandt, Vermeer, Whistler, Manet, Velázquez, and Veronese, and the stories (of both artists and subjects) are tantalising. Cocktails, with recipes, are thematically paired with the works: a Jaded Countess (absinthe, vodka, lemon juice, and simple syrup) with Ingres's portrait&nbsp;Comtesse d'Haussonville; a classic Pimm's Cup with Gainsborough's depiction of English beauty Grace Dalrymple Elliott; and a Bloody Mary (named after the last Catholic regnant queen of England) with Holbein's painting of Sir Thomas More, who opposed the Reformation of Mary's father, Henry VIII. The perfect addition to any art connoisseur's library, this book is an innovative and intoxicating way to enjoy the treasures of a world-renowned art collection.</div>

Cocktails with a Curator

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Rizzoli Electa

The twelve silver-gilt cups known as the Aldobrandini Tazze–magnificent examples of 16th-century European goldsmithing in size, design, and quality of execution – feature figures and scenes from Roman historian Suetonius’s classic work The Twelve Caesars, all rendered in minute, intricate relief. Dispersed in the 1860s, the tazze were reunited in 2014 for the first time since the 19th century, each piece newly photographed to highlight the dazzling detail and show the works as they were originally made. The accompanying essays, written by a team of scholars from around the world, explore the persistent questions that swirl around these unique silver dishes, including where, when, and for whom they were originally made, what they were used for, and why the set was separated and scattered.

The Silver Caesars: A Renaissance Mystery

BEARD, Mary

Schroder, Timothy

Bimbenet-Privat, Michèle

Koeppe, Wolfram

Alcorn, Ellenor

Siemon, Julia

Walker, Stefanie

Metropolitan Museum of Art

<ul>
<li>The latest in a run of highly successful books published for the Frick Collection, New York</li>
<li>The first book in English devoted to Cagnacci in almost 30 years</li>
<li>Beautiful images allow unparalleled insight into the work of an idiosyncratic, sensual painter</li>
</ul>Guido Cagnacci (1601-1663) was one of the most original and idiosyncratic painters in seventeenth-century Italy. Trained in Bologna and Rome, he led an extraordinary life, between Romagna, Venice and Vienna. This book examines Cagnacci's life and his eccentric work, from his early religious paintings to the later canvases showing ancient heroines and allegorical and biblical figures, often in defiantly sensual attitudes. This is the first book in English devoted to Cagnacci in almost 30 years and provides an overview of his astonishing artistic achievements. Xavier F. Salomon is Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator at The Frick Collection.

The Art of Guido Cagnacci

Scala Arts Publishers, Inc.

Veronese

Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) was one of the great Venetian artists of the Renaissance, whose works were admired for their rich colors and mastery of theatrical narrative. His paintings ranged from decorative fresco schemes and portraits to allegorical, biblical, and historical subjects, produced for an aristocratic international audience. This definitive reappraisal of the artist also provides a fascinating account of painting and patronage in 16th-century Venice. Xavier F. Salomon traces Veronese’s career from its beginnings in Verona, where he developed an art shaped by the rediscovery of antiquity, to Venice, where he established a successful workshop. Salomon’s discussion of Veronese’s entire output, including his monumental banquet scenes, illuminates the original function of every work, many of them designed for specific locations. Generous illustrations, including numerous details, reveal the distinctive tactile qualities of Veronese’s technique and the beauty of his palette, whether rendering rich textiles, precious metals or female complexions. This splendid book makes a significant contribution to scholarship in the field of 16th-century Venetian painting.

National Gallery London

Hans Holbein’s famous portrayal of Sir Thomas More is one of the artist’s greatest and most popular portraits. In the opening piece of this appealing new volume, “A Letter to Thomas More, Knight”, award-winning author Hilary Mantel vividly imagines the background to the creation of this extraordinary portrait, giving it both historical perspective and immediacy. An insightful, scholarly essay by Xavier Salomon grounds it in the art-historical world.
Hans Holbein (1497/98–1543) painted Sir Thomas More in 1527, having been a guest in More’s house when he first arrived in England. He brilliantly renders his sitter’s rich fabrics and unshaven face with sympathy and perception.
This beautiful book will become both a useful reference for all those interested in Tudor history and art history, and a perfect gift.
Each book in the new Frick Diptych Series pairs masterworks from the Frick with critical and literary essays. This is the first volume in the series.

Holbein's Sir Thomas More (Frick Diptych)

MANTEL, HILARY

Individual Artists

GILES

This fascinating book tells the story of a little-known masterpiece by the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757–1822)—the statue of George Washington for the North Carolina State House, delivered in 1821 and destroyed by fire ten years later. It brings together, for the first time, Canova’s full-sized preparatory plaster model, sketches, engravings, drawings, and a selection of letters about the commission, some of them to or from Thomas Jefferson.
This is a major addition to the current body of published knowledge on the work of Antonio Canova, as well as on the classical revivalist sculpture of the early nineteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic.

Canova's George Washington

Renaissance sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni (ca. 1440–1491) was a student of Donatello, a teacher of Michelangelo, and a favourite of Lorenzo de’ Medici “il Magnifico,” his principal patron. Bertoldo was one of the first sculptors to create statuettes in bronze. With an overview of the artist’s entire oeuvre—including The Frick Collection’s Shield Bearer, the only Bertoldo sculpture outside of Europe—this major scholarly catalogue is the most substantial text on Bertoldo ever produced. Featured are contributions from renowned international scholars who bring into focus the sculptor’s unique position at the heart of the artistic and political landscape in fifteenth-century Italy.

Bertoldo di Giovanni: The Renaissance of Sculpture in Medici Florence

Ng, Aimee

Noelle, Alexander J.

The romantic and enigmatic character of this picture has inspired many theories about its subject, meaning, history, and even its attribution to Rembrandt. Several portrait identifications have been proposed, including an ancestor of the Polish Oginski family, which owned the painting in the eighteenth century, and the Polish Socinian theologian Jonasz Szlichtyng. The rider’s costume, his weapons, and the breed of his horse have also been claimed as Polish. But if The Polish Rider is a portrait, it certainly breaks with tradition. Equestrian portraits are not common in seventeenth-century Dutch art, and furthermore, in the traditional equestrian portrait the rider is fashionably dressed and his mount is spirited and well-bred. The painting may instead portray a character from history or literature, and many possibilities have been proposed. Candidates range from the Prodigal Son to Gysbrech van Amstel, a hero of Dutch medieval history, and from the Old Testament David to the Mongolian warrior Tamerlane. It is possible that Rembrandt intended simply to represent a foreign soldier, a theme popular in his time in European art, especially in prints. Nevertheless, Rembrandt’s intentions in The Polish Rider seem clearly to transcend a simple expression of delight in the exotic. The painting has also been described as a latter-day Miles Christianus (Soldier of Christ), an apotheosis of the mounted soldiers who were still defending Eastern Europe against the Turks in the seventeenth century. Many have felt that the youthful rider faces unknown dangers in the strange and somber landscape, with its mountainous rocks crowned by a mysterious building, its dark water, and the distant flare of a fire.

Rembrandt's Polish Rider (Frick Diptych)

Kalman, Maira

An essay by Xavier F. Salomon, Frick Curator, paired with a contribution by author Francine Prose bring to life one of Titian's most personal and revealing portraits. Author of lives of saints, scurrilous verses, comedies, tragedies, and innumerable letters, Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) attained considerable wealth and influence, in part through literary flattery and blackmail. Little is known of his early years, but by 1527 he had settled permanently in Venice. Among Aretino's friends and patrons were some of the most prominent figures of his time, several of whom gave him gold chains such as the one he wears in this portrait. He was on intimate terms with Titian, who painted at least three portraits of him. Here the artist conveys his friend's intellectual power through the keen, forceful head and his worldliness through the solid, weighty mass of the richly robed figure.

Titian's Pietro Aretino (Frick Diptych)

Prose, Francine

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Books by Salomon, Xavier F.