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Drama & Beauty
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G RE AT EU RO PE AN PAI NTI N G S
Richard P. Townsend is an independent scholar and president of Townsend Art Advisory LLC
FRO M TH E BO B J O N E S CO LLEC TI O N
Erin Rodman Jones is Executive Director of the Museum & Gallery, Inc.
Drama & Beauty
This beautifully illustrated catalogue—celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Bob Jones Collection—presents a fascinating survey of religious European art from the 14th through the 19th centuries. Bob Jones Jr. founded the collection as an educational effort and opened it on the campus of the university named after his father in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1951. Those first 25 paintings included works by Bicci di Lorenzo, Luca Giordano, El Greco, and Tintoretto, and today the collection comprises over 400 paintings, as well as a wide range of sculpture, decorative arts, and antiquities. It is widely recognized among scholars as one of the finest collections of Renaissance and Baroque paintings in America, and a document of the revival of the taste for Baroque pictures in the mid-20th century. Erin Jones’s introduction provides an overview of the history of the various iterations of the Museum & Gallery, even as it looks forward to a new home in the center of its community. Richard P. Townsend’s essay presents the most in-depth examination to date of Bob Jones Jr. as a collector, extensively using letters, invoices, and photographs to paint a picture of Jones hitherto not available. At the heart of the volume is the presentation of 55 paintings, featuring works by great European masters including Botticelli, Bouts, Cranach, Guercino, Jordaens, Preti, Reni, Ribera, Rubens, Tiepolo, and Zurbarán.
GREAT EUROPEAN PAINTINGS FROM THE BOB JONES COLLECTION
the time only a novice collector, he was well schooled
him not only for their artistic value but also for the stories
in history and the fine arts. With a discerning eye for
they told. For the most part they were commissioned by
paintings of quality, he began acquiring works in an era
the Church of their day for the education of the illiterate
when Baroque religious art was not generally in vogue.
people who gained knowledge by “reading” the paintings. Their artistry and beauty drew people to them, and the
These paintings were merely occupying space in
content enlightened them.
warehouses, and the dealers were glad to sell them to him for bargain prices as low as mere hundreds of dollars. And
Thousands of years of biblical and European history and
so the collection began and grew. Some of the world’s great
culture combine on the canvases of these masterworks for
art experts at the time—Mitchell Samuels, Carl Hamilton,
our edification and aesthetic appreciation today as well.
Stephen Pepper, and Hans Tietze—happily mentored
The publication of this catalogue of selected works from
him. Perhaps they even found him to be somewhat of a
the Museum & Gallery celebrates the 70th year of the
curiosity. He was, after all, not only an art collector; he
collection. We desire that this small selection from the
was also an educator, a Bible scholar and preacher, and a
more than 400 paintings in the collection will stimulate
classical actor. All these roles combined with uncommonly
your imagination and enrich your spirit.
wide knowledge in a variety of subjects—in short, he was a Renaissance man. These paintings were important to
Experience the awe. Appreciate the gift. BOB JONES III C H A I R M A N , B OA R D O F T R U S T EE S M U S EU M & G A L L ERY, I N C .
Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, called Sandro Botticelli (and studio) Madonna and Child with an Angel (“Madonna of the Magnificat”) (detail of cat. 6)
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DR A M A & B E AU T Y
THE COLLECTOR B EHIN D T HE PICT U RES
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2 Madonna and Child with Saints tempera on panel, c. 1375–80 507⁄8 × 76 inches
NICCOLÒ DI PIETRO GERINI Italian (Florentine), active c. 1368–1414 P.59.176
Niccolò di Pietro Gerini’s polyptych (multi-paneled altarpiece) was completed around 1375 and displays the transition from the earlier medieval style to that of the early Renaissance initiated by Giotto in the first part of the century. Stephen Pepper explains that “this intact altarpiece is one of America’s more important examples of late 14th-century painting” (Pepper 1984, 13). Traditionally, the lower zone of an altarpiece, called a predella, comprises a series of smaller scenes, which together often form the narrative of a saint’s life. Over time, many polyptychs were cut apart and sold as separate paintings, making these altarpieces with intact predellas—such as this one—rare indeed. This predella shows scenes from the life and legend of Mary Magdalene—the figure with long blond hair seen to the Madonna and Child’s right in the main panels above.
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19 Landscape with the Baptism of Christ oil on canvas, c. 1655–60 841 ⁄2 × 1201 ⁄8 inches
SALVATOR ROSA Italian (Neapolitan), 1615–1673 Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Simpson P.55.72
Salvator Rosa is remembered almost as much for his colorful personality as for his ability to paint. His diverse interests—including acting, singing, philosophy, and poetry—were outlets for his romantic mind, which produced equally romantic paintings of a wild and sublime natural world, endearing him to later, 19th-century audiences. It was not until the 17th century that artists first began to paint nature as a subject itself. In this scene of Christ’s baptism, nature takes center stage. Rosa masterfully creates a lush visual texture with the gnarled tree trunks, the feather-like leaves, and the jutting rocks of the cliffs. Though pictured in the center foreground of the canvas, Christ and John the Baptist are dwarfed by the panoramic—and rather Italian-looking—Jordan Valley. The expansive landscape and the small figures underscore a key theme implied in the biblical narrative, humility, and presage the 18th century’s concept of the “Sublime.” The Baptism—which entered the collection in 1955—was one of the first Italian Baroque pictures to come to America. It was acquired from the Ricciardi family in Florence who had commissioned it from Rosa and from whom two Americans—Col. James Thomson and Henry Wilde—acquired it and several other Rosas in the winter of 1836. These were sent to New York in 1837, but due to Wilde’s death this painting was cared for by his friend Sidney Brooks and stored for a decade and then sold by him to a Mr. A. Arnold of Canal Street in July 1847 (Sidney Brooks to Charles Davis, 5 October 1847, and Charles Davis (?) to A. Arnold, 15 July 1847, Museum & Gallery files).
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40 The Adoration of the Magi monogrammed and dated on the stone, lower right: 1652 JB oil on canvas 881 ⁄4 × 1127⁄16 inches
JAN BOECKHORST, called LANGE JAN Flemish, c. 1604–1668 P.68.433.4
Lange Jan (“Tall John”) Boeckhorst trained in the studio of Jacob Jordaens (cat. 39) and became one of Rubens’s (cat. 38) most important followers. Like his predecessors, Boeckhorst traveled to Italy and studied the 16th-century Venetian masters. Because many of his paintings are either unsigned or wrongly attributed, it has been difficult to establish a comprehensive body of his work. In The Adoration of the Magi, Boeckhorst orders his composition according to three distinct groupings: the soldiers and servants to the left, the Magi in the center, and the Holy Family to the right. Saturated colors, billowing drapery, wafting incense, and playful putti all enhance the richness of the picture. Scholars agree that this painting is one of the finest mature works by Boeckhorst and a masterpiece of the Flemish High Baroque style.
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