The Society for the History of Collecting invites you to
a Visit to 'Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance' at the Victoria and Albert Museum
led by Lynn Catterson
Thursday, 18 May 2023 from 15.00-17.30 (BST)
*LIMITED PLACES REMAINING. Anyone booking after today will be added to the list and will pay the Society directly on the day.
Aleco Dosenna (1878-1937), Terracotta relief of the Virgin and Child, 1929, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (A94-1930)
This visit to the important exhibition of Donatello and Italian Renaissance sculpture will be led by Dr. Lynn Catterson, who has published extensively on the role of Stefano Bardini, the leading dealer in Italian sculpture and decorative arts at the turn of the century. The visit to the exhibition will explore examples of 15th century Italian sculpture within the context of its surging popularity in the late 19th century and the consequent market demand to possess on the part of private collectors and public institutions.
The exhibition, Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance brings important works by the artist and his contemporaries to London, providing an unparalleled opportunity to gain a greater understanding of workshop practices at the time, the influences on the young artist as well as his influence on his contemporaries. This, the third exhibition, following its presentation in Florence and in Berlin, not only sets Donatello within his contemporary artistic milieu; it also, exceptionally allows the visitor to learn about the many copies and even fakes, that were made during the 19th century, when museums like the South Kensington Museum, under the curatorship of John Charles Robinson, acquired the outstanding collection of Renaissance sculptures, now on view in the Renaissance and sculpture galleries of the museum.
The group will meet at the courtyard entrance to the V&A at 3.00pm to enter the Donatello exhibition. Numbers are limited.
Lynn Catterson, PhD, 2002 (Columbia University). Since 2010, she has been working on the Florentine dealer, Stefano Bardini, the late nineteenth century art market, its social network and various constituent topics such as contamination of the canon and the scholarly literature. Her most recent publications include: “Duped or Duplicitous? Bode, Bardini and the many Madonnas of South Kensington,” Journal of the History of Collections, 2021; “Art Market, Social Network and Contamination: Bardini, Bode and the Madonna Pazzi Puzzle,” in L. Catterson, ed, Florence, Berlin and Beyond: Social Network and the Late Nineteenth-century Art Market, Brill, 2021.
