Hitler kept listings of art stolen in Europe
Hitler kept listings of art stolen in Europe
Two albums documenting works of art and furniture stolen by the Nazis during World War II were unveiled Tuesday after being discovered by a Dallas-based foundation that was contacted by relatives of two soldiers who had taken them from Adolf Hitler’s home.
Robert M. Edsel, founder and president of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, said at a Dallas news conference that the albums are “key pieces of evidence taken from a crime scene that were prized possessions of Adolf Hitler.”
Read the rest of the article at Hitler kept listings of art stolen in Europe – Washington Times.
Story by Jamie Stengle – Washington Times
Hitler’s Art Collection Found in Czech Republic
Hitler art collection unearthed
The long-lost Hitler collection was discovered by a Jiri Kuchar, a Czech historian, tucked away in the depository of the convent in the small town of Doskany, which lies north of Prague.Among the works of art is a massive painting entitled Memories of Stalingrad. Depicting wounded German soldiers sheltering in a trench as battle rages around them, the work of art is believed to be one of Hitler’s favourites despite the catastrophic defeat inflicted on his armies at Stalingrad by Soviet forces.
Read the Full Story at Hitler art collection unearthed – Telegraph.
Story by Matthew Day – Telegraph, Photo by Petr Josek
Archeologists Find Central Europe’s Oldest Painting
Prehistoric art usually creates more questions than it answers. With the discovery of painted stones in Central Europe, there is just too little information to understand why it was created and what was it for. We may not know what the stones painted with red and brown dots were used for, but they are significant by being the oldest known paintings in Central Europe. As reported on Spiegel Online, lead archeologist Nicholas Conard has to admit that they just don’t know what it was use for. I was surprised by Conard’s quote in the story that the stones “might be a form of [an] ice age menstruation calendar” but the story does not go into detail how that hypothesis was put forward.
They may only be a series and red and brown spots, but they still constitute one of the most important works of art ever
made in Central Europe. The spots were discovered on stones in a cave in southern Germany, and are the oldest known signs of painting ever found in the region.
Archeologists discovered the four stones in the Hohle Fels cave near the town of Schelklingen near the southern German city of Ulm. They are around 15,000 years old, according to Tübingen University archeologist Nicholas Conard, and are the first evidence that humans were already painting in Central Europe by the late Paleolithic Age.
“These spots are anything but accidental. It is quite clear they have relevant content,” said Conard. They might have a religious significance, or they might be a form of ice age menstruation calendar — one point for each day. “But ultimately, you have to be humble and admit, we just don’t know,” Conard added.
Read the rest of the article at Stone Age Art: Archeologists Find Central Europe’s Oldest Painting – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.
Photo by Michele Danze of the DPA
Review – Girl in a Green Gown: The History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait by Carola Hicks
Jan van Eyck’s painting known as the Arnolfini Portrait is a beautiful masterpiece. The details of the painting, such as the wooden floor, are astonishing realistic, especially for a time when this type of realism was unheard of. Aside from being a technical marvel, the painting has a mystery behind it that still has not been revealed today. Carola Hicks dives into the mysteries of the Arnolfini Portrait in her new book . As Martin Gayford reveals in his review of Hick’s book for The Telegraph that there is more to the story of the Arnolfini Portrait, then just the painting.
The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck is one of the most extraordinary and enigmatic paintings in the history of Western art.
What it shows seems unremarkable enough: a couple, standing in their home, surrounded by their possessions. Yet it is unprecedented, the first work of art simultaneously to celebrate both middle-class comfort and monogamous marriage. Never before had domestic furniture, fittings and fabrics been depicted with such mesmerising realism.
Van Eyck’s picture is also deeply perplexing. Generations of art historians have failed to establish either who these people are or precisely what they are up to. Nor is it obvious what the prominent inscription right in the middle, usually translated “Jan van Eyck has been here”, actually implies. So the late Carola Hicks had rich material for this book, finished just before her death last year.
On the whole, she is better on the history than the mystery. Almost nothing is known for certain about the circumstances of its creation, beyond the name of the artist and the date – 1434 – on which it was completed, both written on its surface. But an enormous amount of information survives about its subsequent fate.
Read the rest of the review at Girl in a Green Gown: The History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait by Carola Hicks: review – Telegraph.
Leonardo Da Vinci fake is the real thing, British art expert claims
The New York Post reports that a painting described as a fake Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece is actually real. The portrait of a young girl is believed to be Bianca Sforza, the daughter of Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza.
A painting that was once dismissed as a Leonardo Da Vinci forgery has been hailed as genuine by a British expert.
Martin Kemp, emeritus professor of art history at Oxford University, said Wednesday that La Bella Principessa — once deemed to be a 19th century pastiche — is in fact a Da Vinci masterpiece, and he has traced the 15th century book from which he believes the portrait was ripped to prove his claim.
Kemp tracked down a volume of eulogies about Ludovico Sforza, who was the Duke of Milan between 1489 and 1508 and Da Vinci’s patron, and discovered the book had a page missing.
Three stitch holes in the left hand margin where the page had been removed from the book corresponded “very closely” to the holes in La Bella Principessa, he said.
He is convinced that the work, which shows a profile portrait of a young woman in Renaissance costume, is of Bianca, Sforza’s illegitimate daughter.
Read more at Leonardo Da Vinci fake is the real thing, British art expert claims – NYPOST.com.
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