Caravaggio’s Lost & Found Masterpieces by Fr Michael Collins

APAVM SG • 340 views • 3 months ago

Michelangelo Ceresi, better known as Caravaggio, after his hometown, is one of the most famous artists in the world. Caravaggio was feted by wealthy patrons before being exiled from Rome for killing a man. The artist pioneered the technique of light and shade in oil painting but after his death his style dropped out of fashion. Fr. Michael Collins recounts Caravaggio's life and tells the fascinating story of the theft of The Nativity of St. Laurence in Palermo and the discovery of The Taking of Christ hanging forgotten over a fireplace in the Jesuit Provincial house in Dublin. Fr Michael will also enlighten us on the Lost & Found Story of Caravagio's St. Jerome.

The Tale of the Getty Venus & Russborough Estate by Prof Lynda Mulvin

APAVM SG • 138 views • 3 months ago

The Russborough Estate, Ireland's most famous and magnificent Georgian house, is a stately home set in the Wicklow Mountains. It was built by Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown, and contains hidden treasures of fine and decorative arts from the Classical Period, fine paintings from the Renaissance and 17th Century Dutch Art. The collection, set against richly decorated interiors includes Roman marble sculptures of gods of the Roman Pantheon from Apollo, Dionysus, Hercules, Diana , and Venus. Their disappearance early in the twentieth century and recent rediscovery of the lost Venus, among the great art works of Getty Villa Museum, C.A. is a happy tale and is the subject of this talk.

The Extraordinary Story of Leonardo’s Last Supper by Maria Cristina-White da Cruz

APAVM SG • 107 views • 3 months ago

Possibly the most famous mural in the world, Leonardo da Vinci's celebrated Last Supper is literally disappearing before our eyes. Painted in the closing years of the 15th century in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Leonardo's masterpiece has suffered from unsuccessful execution technique, pollution and unsatisfactory restoration attempts. The lecture traces the commission by Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, to paint Jesus with the twelve apostles on the evening before His execution. Using sketches by Leonardo and copies of the fresco by his contemporaries , Maria Cristina W hite-da Cruz goes behind the scenes to identify the hand of the Master.

Napoleon’s Art Heist in Rome and The Vatican by Leonardo Marra

APAVM SG • 153 views • 3 months ago

Rome has been invaded many times over a history of almost 3,000 years. One of the most devastating incursions was at the end of the 18th century , when French troops stripped the city of artworks and shipped them to Paris to be displayed in the Louvre Museum. Historian Paul Wescher described it as "the largest movement of works of art in history". Napoleon kidnapped the Pope and the Vatican was looted. For three days a bonfire in the Belvedere courtyard at the Vatican consumed the liturgical vestments and canvases that had been kept in the Apostolic Palace for centuries, as the French searched for hidden treasures.