'Sculpture in the Age of Donatello' at MoBiA

We took in the exhibition 'Sculpture in the Age of Donatello' at the Museum of Biblical Art in March.  All 23 of the objects in the exhibition are from the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence.  The objects are only available during the renovation and re-imagining of the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo -- the museum associated with the Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore) of Florence (known as 'Il Duomo').  

There is an introductory video which seems to be about the reconfiguration of Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and the art treasures of the three buildings that comprise the Cathedral complex -- the Cathedral, the Campanile, and the Baptistry.  Many of these works had to be removed from the exteriors of the Duomo complex because they were suffering from environmental damage primarily caused by air pollution. 

The main gallery of MoBiA for the exhibiton 'Sculpture in the Age of Donatello'.  Photo by Blomme-McClure 

The exhibition has been beautifully mounted in MoBiA's main gallery which is divided by gauzy white fabric into niches and rooms.  The free-standing sculptures are mounted on high pedestals which approximate the way that they would have been seen in their original locations around the Cathedral complex.  While we were in the gallery a few visitors were actually lying on the floor to further approximate the views the Florentine public would have had when the sculptures were newly finished and installed. 

The exhibition features several masterpieces by the sculptor Donatello (Donato di Niccolo di betto Bardi, 1386- 1466) who worked in several Italian towns during the first half of the 15th century.  He spent several years in Florence creating works to embellish the Cathedral complex.  In addition to works by Donatello the exhibition contains several works from the end of the 14th century through the middle of the 15th century by other artists who often worked side-by-side with Donatello on the Duomo.

The most stunning work in the exhibition is Donatello's 'Saint John the Evangelist' (circa 1409-1411) -- a seated figure of the bearded evangelist holding a book (the gospel of John).  It originally stood beside the Cathedral's main western door -- no doubt passing judgment on Florentines as they entered the church.

'Saint John the Evangelist' by Donatello, marble, circa 1409-1411.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

Stern and austere, the bearded figure flanked the central western door of the Cathedral with Nanni di Banco's 'Saint Luke' of 1408.  

'Saint Luke' by Nanni di Banco, marble, 1408 and 'Saint John the Evangelist' by Donatello, marble,
circa 1409-1411.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

While the two figures are of the same scale, the 'Saint Luke' seems much less imposing due to the smug, self-satisfied facial expression and the complex drapery of his robe -- it's beautiful, but distracting.

'Saint Luke' by Nanni di Banco, marble, 1408.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

In the first niche inside the entrance there is a lovely, late 14th-century 'Annunciation' by Giovanni d'Ambrogio from about 1397.

'Annunciation' by Giovanni d'Ambrogio, marble, circa 1397.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

The sensuous robes of both the Madonna and the Angel Gabriel have remarkable detail and naturalness -- the fabric appears gossamer thin and beautifully draped.

'Annunciation' -- detail of the Angel Gabriel -- by Giovanni d'Ambrogio, marble, circa 1397.
Photo by Blomme-McClure

Donatello created several old testament figures to fill niches in the campanile.  Two are on display in this exhibition -- 'The Prophet Habbakuk' (also known as 'Lo Zuccone') and 'The Sacrifice of Isaac'.

'The Prophet Habbakuk' (aka 'Lo Zuccone') by Donatello, marble, circa 1423-1435.
Photo by Blomme-McClure

'Habbakuk' is an austere standing figure, approximately lifesize, bald and barefoot.  The strong lines of the drapery of his robe make the sculpture appear even taller and more commanding and gives it the elongated feeling of an El Greco saint.

'The Sacrifice of Isaac' by Donatello, marble, circa 1421.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

There's an almost Art Deco quality about 'The Sacrifice of Isaac' that Donatello sculpted around 1421 for the Campanile.  The blocky figure of Isaac passively waits for his father, Abraham, to strike the sacrificial blow, while the animated figure of Abraham writhes and recoils from the deed that God has commanded him to commit.  It is a gorgeously expressive work -- much more animated than most of Donatello's work.

The show also includes three hexagonal relief medallions from a set that Luca della Robbia created for the Campanile.

' Grammar' by Luca della Robbia, marble, 14th century.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

'Disputation' (aka 'Plato & Aristotle') by Luca della Robbia, marble, 14th century.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

'Music' (aka 'Orpheus') by Luca della Robbia, marble, 14th century.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

The whimsical scene of the lutist playing 'Music' to soothe the beasts of the forest is especially delightful.  And the animated 'Disputation' is almost like a cartoon panel from a comic book.

The della Robbia studio also created the crosier in gold and enamel to be carried by the bishop in processions and ceremonies in the Cathedral.

'Cr0sier' (detail) by Studio of Luca della Robbia, gold & enamel, 14th century.  Photo by Blomme-McClure 

Three gilded bronze panels show scenes from the life of Christ that were part of Lorenzo Ghiberti's original east doors to the Baptistry (opposite the Cathedral's main doors).  They are displayed with stone reliefs derived from the same compositions from the early 15th century.  These doors, commissioned in 1401, were later moved to the north side of the Baptistry when Ghiberti was given a second commission for the current east doors (which Michelangelo named the 'Gates of Paradise') in 1425.  After withstanding centuries of air pollution and corrosion, all of the original bronze panels from Ghiberti's two commissions have been moved inside the museum and restored.  Today the panels in the Baptistry doors are copies of the originals.

Three panels by Lorenzo Ghiberti, bronze, circa 1401 to 1424 displayed with stone reliefs derived from the same compositions.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

Ghiberti's individual bronze panels of the life of Christ from the 1401 commission display the rudimentary animation and use of perspective that came to full flower in his panels of the twelve Old Testament scenes for the 1425 commission.

'Adoration of the Magi' by Lorenzo Ghiberti, gilded bronze, circa 1401 to 1420.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

'Flagellation of Christ' by Lorenzo Ghiberti, gilded bronze, circa 1401-1420.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

'Crucifixion' by Lorenzo Ghiberti, gilded bronze, circa 1401-1420.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

For the 'Adoration of the Magi' Ghiberti uses two-point perspective in the temple surrounding the Holy Family.  In the 'Flagellation of Christ' there is a sense of movement in the torquing bodies of the Roman Centurions wielding their whips on the cringing Christ.  It also uses single-point perspective in the temple behind the figures.  In the 'Crucifixion' an overall symmetry focuses the viewer's attention on the figure on the cross.  Both Donatello and Brunelleschi were apprentices in Ghiberti's studio during the time that the panels for the 1401 commission were being created.

Donatello created two bronze heads to adorn his cantoria (singing gallery) inside the Cathedral.  They appear to be identical.  Luca della Robbia also created a cantoria for the Cathedral -- both are now in the museum.

'Bronze Heads' by Donatello, bronze, circa early 14th century.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

The wooden models for the Cathedral's dome (Il Duomo) created by Filippo Brunelleschi are miniatures of the gigantic dome he built over the Cathedral's crossing.  Brunelleschi won the commission for the dome in competition with Ghiberti.  After losing the 1425 competition for the Baptistry doors to Ghiberti, Brunelleschi had gone to Rome with his friend Donatello to study the architecture of the ancient city.  Inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, Brunelleschi devised an even larger dome for Florence.  It is an engineering marvel as well as an architectural triumph.

Models for the Cathedral dome by Filippo Brunelleschi, wood, circa 1418-1446.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

The exhibit, 'Sculpture in the Age of Donatello' will remain at the Museum of Biblical Art (on the northwest corner of Broadway & 61st Street) through June 14th.  I urge anyone interested in three-dimensional art to see it while it's here.  MoBiA is the only stop for this exhibition.  When the show closes all of the pieces in the exhibition will return to Florence to await installation in the renovated Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.  

See my blog post on our June, 2001 visit to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo for more on the objects in this splendid museum:

http://zylopho.blogspot.com/2014/07/italian-trip-diary-day-7-florence-to.html

See my blog post on our 2001 visit to the Bargello Gallery in Florence to view additional works by Donatello:

http://zylopho.blogspot.com/2014/07/italian-trip-diary-day-6-florence.html

'While We're Young' -- Gen-Xers vs. Millennials

We saw 'While We're Young' last Friday afternoon.  The movie -- written, directed, and produced by Noah Baumbach -- stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts.

Banner for 'While We're Young'

Stiller plays Josh, a documentary filmmaker in his mid-40's who has been struggling to complete a sprawling, unfocused film for the last 10 years.  Watts plays his wife, Cornelia, who produces documentaries including those of her father (played by Charles Grodin) but not those of her husband.  Cornelia has had two miscarriages and Josh and Cornelia have given up on having a family.  Their best friends (Maria Dizzia and Adam Horovitz) have just had their first child.

Josh meets a young couple -- Darby and Jamie (Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver) -- at an adult education class he teaches on film making.  Darby makes artisanal ice cream and Jamie is an aspiring documentarian.  Josh and Cornelia start hanging out with Jamie and Darby.  As they begin to absorb the millennial culture of their new young friends they grow more distant from their gen-X friends.  Things turn disastrous when Josh discovers that Jamie is succeeding with his own documentary while Josh continues to flounder with his.

This movie about movie making needs to be a better movie.  'While We're Young' is just a so-so movie.  The plot founders on set pieces -- like the ayahuasca ceremony -- and cute montages that slow its momentum.  The information provided about Josh's documentary is confused and diffuse.  The New York City sites are not well-defined or integrated into the story.  The editing is sometimes abrupt and choppy.  Darby and Jamie as portrayed by Seyfried and Driver are not sufficiently magnetic to justify Josh and Cornelia's fascination with them.  Stiller and Watts are effective as reluctant gen-Xers pining for perpetual youth and Grodin is wonderful as the grouchy boomer -- but good acting does not automatically equal good filmmaking.     

Thoughts on 'Woman in Gold'

We went to the Bow-Tie Chelsea on Friday afternoon to see 'Woman in Gold'.  The film, directed by Simon Curtis from a screenplay written by Alexi Kaye Campbell, is about the repatriation of 'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I' painted by Gustav Klimt.  It stars Dame Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann, Adele Bloch-Bauer's niece, and Ryan Reynolds as E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg, Maria's lawyer and the grandson of the composer Arnold Schoenberg.

Poster for 'Woman in Gold'

The movie is scattered (quite literally) over three time periods: the early 1900's when the portrait was painted and Maria was enthralled by her glamorous Aunt Adele who died in 1925; the mid-to-late 1930's when Maria married the opera singer Fritz Altmann and they escaped from Vienna after the Anschluss (the Nazi takeover of Austria in March, 1938); and the period from 1998 thru 2006 when Maria and Randy fought the Austrian government all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to regain her aunt's portrait.  The fact that Maria Altmann then sold the portrait to Ronald Lauder for his Neue Galerie for $135 million is touched upon only as a footnote -- in the movie Maria rebuffs Lauder's attempt to finance the legal battle for the painting and seems to reject his interest in acquiring it.  The movie does show Randy looking on the internet for the value of Klimt's works, but implies that this was only to convince his law firm to take on Maria's case.  We are left with the impression that Maria's desire to obtain the portrait which was hanging in the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna at the time was completely personal -- love for her Aunt Adele and retaliation against the people of Austria for their anti-semitism and support of the Nazis.

'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I' by Gustav Klimt, oil, silver and gold on canvas (1907)
 from Neue Galerie, New York.

The movie is strewn with brilliant cameos, some by well-known actors -- Charles Dance (as Randy's managing law partner), Elizabeth McGovern (as a federal judge), Jonathan Pryce (as Chief Justice William Rehnquist) and many others.  Helen Mirren's central performance as Maria Altmann is remarkably layered, but Ryan Reynolds is merely adequate as Randy.  Daniel Bruhl gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as Hubertus Czernin (who exposed Kurt Waldheim as a Nazi) the Austrian who guides them through the convoluted world of Viennese culture and law.   

The real problem is that the plot lacks a coherent point of view or consistent emotional tone.  It requires too much effort from the audience to put together a jigsaw puzzle of disparate chunks of present and past; fiction and fact; events shown and context surmised.  Instead, this effort should have been supplied by the film's director, writer and editor before it was released.

  

Even More Ballet Quibbles and Bits . . .

Video for SAB's Winter Ball

Here's a new video that was produced for The School of American Ballet's Winter Ball on Tuesday, March 3rd:

https://vimeo.com/122016655

It features three advanced students from the 2014-15 Winter Term -- Alicia Holloway from Morgantown, WV; Jocelyn Dolson from Superior Township, MI; and Thomas Davidoff from Atlanta, GA.

Peter Walker, an SAB alumnus and NYCB corps member, choreographed a piece for the intermediate students that was also performed at the Ball.

SAB's Intermediate Students in Peter Walker's piece d'occasion for The Winter Ball.
Photo from SAB Facebook page

SAB Workshop: Who's Staging What?


Jock Soto has begun working with the advanced men on the Third Campaign from Balanchine's 'Stars and Stripes'.  Getting all of those rows lined up military style looks like the biggest challenge at this point.

Yvonne Borree and Jonathan Stafford are working with at least two couples on the Wedding Pas de Deux from the last act of  'Sleeping Beauty'.  Tschaikovsky's melodies float out of the studios most afternoons.  (In my earlier 2015 Workshop post I neglected to mention that Ms. Borree danced Aurora during her career at NYCB.)

Suki Schorer is in the midst of teaching two casts of female students Balanchine's 'Valse Fantasie' to the music of Glinka.  Schorer, SAB's senior Balanchine stager, usually teaches the entire work to all of the girls before she selects the casts.

Susan Pillare is working with the individual sections of the 'orchestra' for Jerome Robbins' 'Fanfare' -- some days the reeds, some days the strings, but not yet the brass and percussion sections.

Justin Peck's Ballet 'Heatscape' for Miami City Ballet:

Miami City Ballet cast in Justin Peck's 'Heatscape' with decor by Shepard Fairey.
Photo by Daniel Azoulay for Miami City Ballet.

Here's a promotional video for Justin Peck's new ballet for Miami City Ballet -- a collaboration with the well-known Miami street artist and muralist Shepard Fairey to the music of Bohuslav Martinu (Piano Concerto #1).

https://youtu.be/L_w11RwHYuw?t=13

It's great that today's hot new ballet choreographer collaborates with artists and musicians to create many of his new works.  

I'm reminded of how exciting Twyla Tharp's 'Deuce Coupe' was when it was first staged by the Joffrey Ballet at City Center (1973) with five street artists spray painting graffiti tags on three rolls of paper as they were slowly raised across the back of the stage while Erika Goodman danced the ballet vocabulary at the front of the stage and the rest of the company (plus some Tharp dancers) danced Tharp-isms around her -- all to music of the Beach Boys.

 

Joffrey Ballet in Twyla Tharp's 'Deuce Coupe' (1973) with United Graffiti Artists painting backdrop.
Photo from Dance Magazine archives by Herbert Migdoll

Unfortunately, the fumes from the spray paint were toxic for the dancers, so the backdrop was later replaced by a stationary backdrop for 'Deuce Coupe II'.      

Guest Teachers at SAB in March:

During March there have been guest teachers at The School of American Ballet.  Jason Beechey is the head of the ballet school associated with the Semperoper Ballett in Dresden (the Palucca Hochschule fur Tanz Dresden).  He taught the advanced men's class (and probably others).  Mr. Beechey trained at Canada's National Ballet School and also studied under Stanley Williams at SAB and at the Vaganova School in St. Petersburg.  Mr. Beechey danced with the London City Ballet and Charleroi/Danses (Belgium).  He came to the Dresden school in 2006 and has been expanding its program of global student exchanges and implementing its apprentice program with the Semperoper Ballett.  He has also been involved with Youth America Grand Prix and the Prix de Lausanne.

Aaron Watkin, the Artistic Director of the Semperoper Ballett Dresden, also taught classes.  Mr. Watkin also studied at the National Ballet School of Canada and attended summer sessions at the School of American Ballet.  He went on to perform with the National Ballet of Canada, the English National Ballet, and the Dutch National Ballet before working with William Forsythe at the Frankfurt Ballet.  He has been Artistic Director of the Dresden company since 2006.  

Nikolaj Hubbe, the Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Ballet, taught classes from March 28th through April 1st.  When Nikolaj was a principal dancer at New York City Ballet (from 1992 to 2008) he used to teach occasionally at SAB.  He's always very patient with the students and carefully explains the mechanics of the movements he wants.  Schooled in the fast, light, precise Bournonville style, Nikolaj adds yet another dimension to these students' technical skills.

Hopefully, these gentlemen were also looking at the students as candidates for their schools and companies.