Monday, November 23, 2015

Ashmolean

Claude Lorrain
Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia
1682
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford holds one painting that I specifically wish I could remember from twenty years ago on the single brief visit I made there. It is the Claude Lorrain above, painted in 1682  the year of the artist's death  and inscribed on the back in his hand. He writes that this was the last picture he painted. But to my shame I did not see it. Twenty years ago in Oxford I was not yet interested in 17th-century painting, plus I was badly jet-lagged. All I can personally remember of the Ashmolean is hundreds of glass cases full of pottery shards. Taken at a glance it appeared to be a vast display of gravel.

Other wonderful Ashmolean pictures from Baroque Italy that I should have seen on the same visit and did not see are to be seen in reproduction below.

Nicolas Poussin
Exposition of Moses
1654
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Bernardo Strozzi
A Betrothal
1620s
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli
Medoro & Angelica
1640s
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
 
Pier Francesco Mola
Echo & Narcissus
1630s
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Pietro Tessta
Dead Christ Mourned by Angels
1640s
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Guercino
Study Head of an Apostle
ca. 1620
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

after Domenichino
Creation of Eve
ca. 1700
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi
Landscape with Tobias & the Angel
1650s
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Gaspard Dughet
View of Tivoli
1650s
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Mattia Preti
Game of Draughts
1630s
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Giacomo Francesco Cipper
Young Girl with Kitten & Puppy
17th century
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford