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| Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas Italian, 1570s Kromeriz Castle (Czech Republic) Archepiscopal Palace Picture Gallery |
All summer I have been planning to say something about the
inaugural exhibition at the Met Breuer, the Marcel Breuer building on Madison
Avenue that was formerly the home of the Whitney Museum. However, I have had difficulty organizing my
thoughts about it, so I've been putting it off.
Now, with just two weeks remaining to the show, I feel I must say
something or "forever hold my peace".
And what I have to say is this "GO SEE IT!" The exhibition closes on Sunday, September 4.
One reason
why I have had such difficulty in setting down my thoughts on the show is that
it is, in a certain way, completely overwhelming. First of all, stepping off the elevator on
the third floor, at the beginning of the exhibition, one is immediately
confronted with Titian's huge late work, The Flaying of Marsyas (the half man/half goat satyr who lost his foolish challenge to Apollo, who is shown fiddling on the left side of the picture), on loan from the Czech castle of Kromeriz.
That alone announces the quality of the exhibition. The Met has contrived to blend works from its
own enormous collection with major works from other museums and galleries around the world and has even succeeded in persuading numerous families and private collectors to share their riches. The results are stunning.
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| Jan van Eyck, St. Barbara Flemish, 1437 Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten |
The premise of the exhibition is a meditation on the meaning of an unfinished work of art and how this meaning has changed over time. The exhibition begins with works of the Renaissance period and ends with very contemporary works. Some works were left incomplete because of circumstances: the patron objected, the artist became ill, the subject refused to sit, the artist died. Other works are records of the process by which an artist arrived at the final form for his or her thought, leaving unfinished sketches and drawings as his or her thoughts evolved. Still others were left partially incomplete by artists who wanted to create texture in their works, especially important in an era that expected a high degree of finish for any painting. This latter reason seems to be the reason for the inclusion of Titian’s Flaying of Marsyas, which includes areas of high finish and areas of broad visible brushwork.
I think the exhibition’s greatest strength lies in the
earlier works, which are on display on the third floor of the Breuer building. Indeed, it is the works done before the
middle of the nineteenth century that are the most interesting. With the advent of Impressionism and the
movements that came after it, the focus of the artist changed from the creation
of a somewhat objective view of reality to one dominated by the subjective
attitude of the artist, with the Impressionist artists in the position of
having one foot in both camps. Their
works are, therefore, the dividing line between the two approaches to the
question of when a work of art is "finished".
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| Albrecht Durer, Salvator Mundi German, c.1505 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
That said, it was a revelation to discover that, even in
periods when a high state of finish was common and expected, there was a range
of options for when a work could be considered "finished". The exhibition includes all of these,
including a variety in which some areas of a work, be it painting or sculpture,
could be left in an unfinished state deliberately, a condition called "non
finito".
The first and most obvious meaning to the term
"unfinished" are those works that were abandoned, for whatever
reason, by the artist before completion.
For example, in the second room of the exhibition, a painting of Saint
Barbara, which is the oldest object in the exhibition, shows the incredibly
detailed underdrawing that van Eyck used to achieve the enchanting reality of
his paintings. Other, later works
similarly showing the abandonment of a work before completion are works by Albrecht
Dürer,
Perino del Vaga, Federico Barocci, El Greco, Gonzales Coques, Joshua Reynolds, Anton
Raphael Mengs, Thomas Lawrence, Jean-Louis-Andre-Theodore Gericault and James
Drummond. Very often these works were prized and even collected because of the respect felt for the artists who made them.
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| Perino del Vaga, Holy Family with St. John the Baptist Italian, 1528-1530 London, Courtauld Gallery |
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| Federico Barocci, Assumption of the Virgin Italian, 1604-1605 Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche |
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| El Greco, Vision of St. John Greco-Spanish, c.1609-1614 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of a Young Man English, ca. 1770 Houston, The Menil collection |
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| Sir Thomas Lawrence, Emilia, Lady Cahir, Later Countess of Glegall English, c.1803-1805 Private Collection |
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| Jean-Louis-Andre-Theodore Gericault, Horace Vernet French, 1822-1823 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
The works by Mengs and
Drummond are rather eerie because they present highly polished representations
of the clothing and surroundings of the figures, but these figures lack
faces. Furthermore, the Mengs portrait also leaves an unpainted lapdog-shaped space, presumably for the lady's favorite pooch.
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| Anton Raphael Mengs, Portrait of Mariana de Silva y Sarmiento, Duquesa de Huescar German, 1775 New York, Private Collection |
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| James Drummond, The Return of Mary Queen of Scots to Edinburgh Scottish, c.1870 New York, Private Collection |
No doubt this is a reflection of
the practice of the artist, to paint the figures first and then the faces. On the other hand, the Portrait of
Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra shows the opposite side of the coin. The face and hands are highly detailed, while
the clothing and setting are unfinished.
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| Danele da Volterra, Michelangelo Buonarroti Italian, c.1544 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Perhaps the most interesting example of finished/unfinished in
portraiture is the picture of a man and boy attributed to Gonzales Coques, in which faces
and surroundings are highly finished, but the bodies are merely indicated, presumably to
be completed at a later date, which never came.
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| Attributed to Gonzales Coques Portrait of a man, full-length, handing a letter to a boy, in an interior (The Young Messenger) Belgian, c. 1640s Private Collection |
But, what happens if the figural subject refuses to sit for the
artist? The exhibition includes an example that has a definite historical
interest for Americans. This is the
unfinished group portrait of the American representatives to the Paris peace
talks that ended the American Revolution.
Apparently, the American envoys all showed up for their portrait
sittings, but the British representatives failed to come. Presumably this was by way of being a snub to the Americans and to West, the transplanted American painter. Whatever the reason, West was never able to complete
the picture.
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| Benjamin West, The American Commissioners of the Prelimnary Peace Negotiations with Great Britain American, 1783 (begun) Winterthur,DE, Winterthur Museum |
Other objects in the exhibition represent the stages by
which an artist plans for the finished work.
There are, therefore, drawings by both Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo, as well as sketches by Tintoretto and David.
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| Leonardo da Vinci, Head of a Woman (La Scapigliata) Italian, 1500-1505 Parma. Galleria Nazionale di Parma |
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| Michelangelo. Studies for the Libyan Sibyl Italian, c.1510-1511 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Tintoretto, Doge Alvise Mocenigo Presented to the Redeemer Italian, 1577 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Jacques-Louis David, Death of Barat French, 1794 Avignon, Musee Calvet |
There are also roughly finished works, showing a loose
handling of paint, part sketch, part finished work. These are represented by works of Frans Hals,
Nicolas Poussin, Rembrandt, Velazquez and Jacques-Louis David. Similar effects in sculpture can be seen in
the work of Auguste Rodin.
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| Frans Hals, The Smoker Dutch, c.1623-1625 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Rembrandt, Hendrickje Stoffels Dutch, mid-1650s New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Nicolas Poussin, Midas Washing at the Source of the Pactolus French, c.1627 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Diego Velazquez. Peasant Girl Spanish, c.1649-1650 Private Collection |
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| Jacques-Louis David, Mme de Pastoret and Her Son French, 1791-1792 Chicago, Art Institute |
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| Auguste Rodin, Madame X (Countess Anna-Elizabeth de Noailles) French, c.1907 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
The exhibition also includes a painting that has a
fascinating history, which shows what could have happened to many of the unfinished
paintings of the Old Masters. It is a
portrait of a woman and her daughter by Titian. It is thought that the figures may be members of Titian's own family.
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| Titian, Portrait of a Lady and Her Daughter Italian, c.1550 Private Collection |
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| Overpaint of Titian painting Tobias and the Archangel Raphael Removed during restoration. |
Left unfinished at Titian’s death, the almost finished painting was overpainted
by someone else and became a painting of Tobias and the Archangel Raphael,
presumably so that it would be easier to sell. The
painting led a peripatetic life, ending up in a bombed out garage in the
Bayswater section of London at the end of the Second World War. It was x-rayed in 1948, which uncovered the
original painting underneath.
Restoration to remove the overpainting took over 20 years.1
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| J.M.W. Turner, Sunset from the Top of the Rigi English, c.1844 c 2016 Tate, London |
The exhibition also includes a room filled with prints,
demonstrating the process of printmaking and the various levels of “finish”
that can be produced by artists working in print media. And there is a room filled with partially
finished works of Joseph Mallard William Turner, on which I have commented
previously.2 These paintings represent an early stage in Turner’s creation of
the final work, which only ended at “varnishing day” at the Royal Academy
gallery, when he would put his final touches on his work. These are the atmospheric backgrounds, all fog
and color, which were later transformed by the addition of shapes representing
the narrative he had in mind. Hence,
they were for him part of the process, while for us they can stand alone as
works of great beauty.
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| Gustav Klimt. Posthumous Portrait of Ria Munk #3 Austrian, 1917-1918 Private Collection |
As artists adopted the aims and techniques of Impressionism
and later of Abstraction in its many forms the idea of the “finished” work of
art as the goal of the artist became less and less accurate. The process became more important than the
final product and a work was to be considered finished when the artist said it
was finished or ready for presentation.
Still, even in this later world, some works can still be defined as “unfinished”.
One such is the Posthumous Portrait of Maria
Munk III by Gustav Klimt. This was the third
posthumous portrait of the young woman that Klimt did. The first two had been rejected by her
family, who had commissioned the portrait after her suicide. Alas, this third portrait was never completed
either, since Klimt died while still working on it. However, it does reveal the way in which he went
about planning some of his best known works, such as the famous Portrait of
Adele Bloch-Bauer I (The Woman in Gold) of 1907.
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| Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer I Austrian, 1907 New York, Neue Galerie |
The later portions of the exhibition, from the
Impressionists (on the third floor) to the most contemporary works on the
fourth floor held less interest, I thought.
Once the principal of process over product, with completion at the caprice
of the artist and lacking an objective definition of what is “finished” the
work can be anything from a few lines on paper to a massive installation. Such works are well represented, as are
several that play with the concept of finishing itself. One such is a pile of wrapped hard candies, which
passersby are invited to dip into, thus changing the work of art endlessly as
the candies are removed and replenished (Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)
by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, 1991). For this reason, this work can (theoretically at least) never be "finished".
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| Janine Antoni, Lick and Lather American, 1993-1994 Private Collection |
Another example is composed of two self-portrait busts by the
artist Janine Antoni, called Lick and Lather (1993-1994). One bust is made of chocolate, the other of
soap. After completing them, Ms. Antoni
licked the chocolate one and bathed using the soap one, thus eroding their “finish”. Also, due to their organic nature both will
continue to decay, even without licking or lathering, as opposed to being “finished”
and “set in stone” like the traditional marble or bronze bust.
All in all, the “Unfinished” exhibition is at once
spectacular, interesting and thought provoking.
It is definitely worth the trip to 75th Street and Madison
Avenue. So, GO!
© M. Duffy, 2016
1. More information can be found at the following links:
- “Rediscovered Titian to Be Offered at Christie’s in December”, 16 September 2005 at http://www.christies.com/presscenter/pdf/09162005/09162005b.pdf
- “Uncovered Titian Wrapped in Mystery”, The Guardian, 17 September 2005 at https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/sep/17/arts.artsnews
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