Word: sassetta
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...exquisite description of the medieval cosmos, The Expulsion from Paradise, Rembrandt's Portrait of Gérard de Lairesse, a Botticelli Annunciation. Others are perhaps less familiar - Ingres's Portrait of the Princesse de Broglie, one of the supreme moments in 19th century art; a Sassetta Temptation of St. Anthony; Petrus Christus' Saint Eligius and assorted Flemish treasures; a splendid array of medieval and Renaissance panel paintings from Italy and northern Europe. Among the drawings- which, at the time of Lehman's death, was one of the greatest collections in private hands in the world...
...have spoken about the artists' use of light or of plastic form. El Greco's eerie lighting in View of Toledo compared to Tiepolo's ethereal scene of St. Thecla Praying or compared to Monet's Rouen Cathedral could have emphasized the different handlings of light. A trio of Sassetta (the be-beginnings of perspective), Cezanne his constructive view of nature), and Joseph Stella's Coney Island (an engineering of color) could have stated a development in the ordering of nature or of form...
Leaving the exhibition, one can't help but remember a kaleidoscope of images: Sassetta's Magi colorfully dotting a hill, the light passing through the stained-glass window of Vermeer's work, the strength of Picasso's Gertrude Stein, Rousseau's Tropics, with a monkey that looks like he's blowing bubbles with orange bubble gum, or Pollock's Autumn Rhythm defying the limits of its canvas. As if each color of Morris Louis' "unfurled" is a work from the show, one sees them falling off to the sides leaving a space of white light shining from the center...
...anything went. To eke out their meager stipends, parish priests could (and did) sell a 14th century predella out of the back door of their church for a few lire. The art market was full of floating masterpieces at whose origins dealers winked. The outstanding picture in the bequest, Sassetta's Our Lady of the Snow, is arguably the greatest surviving work by this unprolific Sienese master and worth, according to a spokesman at Christie's, "about $1,500,000." But it was stolen 60 years ago from the high altar of the church at Chiusi, near Siena...