MADRID.- As part of the celebrations in 2021 to mark the centenary of the birth of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, his heirs have all been contributing to several special exhibitions planned by the
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in his honour. Following the highly successful exhibition of the German Expressionists that inaugurated the celebrations at the end of last year, the museum is presenting a new selection of twenty works many of which formed part of the Baron’ father’s collection of early renaissance decorative arts which he was passionate about. These were only shown once in 1992 on the occasion of the inauguration of the museum. The exhibition contains some other works which have never been seen before in Madrid, enhancing the breadth of the collecting power of both generations. The works included in this exhibition are made possible thanks to Baroness Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Following his most generous gesture of all, having entrusted his entire collection to a trust in the hope that it would remain available to the public, he was quoted as saying: "I believe that the masterworks of the collection, should whenever possible, be made available to all, and that temporary loans and exchanges between different countries, can help further the cause of world peace." This cultural diplomacy is a big part of his legacy, beyond being an extraordinary collector. His heirs recognise his very substantial philanthropic gestures throughout his life on a scale the art world had rarely experienced.
The exhibition runs from 12 April 2021 to 23 January 2022 and will be shown in the galleries of the permanent collection. For this event, ten examples of 16th - and 17th -century Dutch and German goldsmith’s work of outstanding quality have been selected, together with two Italian and German Renaissance sculptures, three spectacular, Italian Baroque rock crystal carvings, four oils from different 17th -century schools, and a remarkable, 18th -century German travelling case housing 66 items.
The first work is displayed in Room 4 alongside examples of 15th -century Italian painting. This is a stucco sculpture of The Virgin and Child with four Angels (ca. 1465-70) by Agostino de Duccio. Still retaining traces of polychromy, it derives from a cast of a marble by Agostino known as the Auvillers Madonna (Musée du Louvre). A small hole on either side of the Virgin’s neck may indicate the presence of a now lost necklace. The Christ Child holds his mother’s hand while the left-hand angel displays the coat-of-arms of the Pucci family. Reliefs of this type with images of the Virgin and Child became very popular in 15th -century Florence and were made for private devotional use.
This is followed by a group of works on display in the Villahermosa Gallery that includes the impressive Imhoff Cup (ca. 1626) by Hans Petzoldt and a Ewer in the form of a fish (ca. 1600) in rock crystal and gold made in a Milanese workshop. The Imhoff Cup was a gift from the Holzschuher family to Andreas Imhoff, a councillor of the city of Nuremberg. It is decorated with a fantastical beast with a lion’s head and fish’s body (the emblem of the Imhoffs) and also features a series of reliefs on mining and metallurgy.
On display in Room 6 is a case containing a table service by Christian Winter, one of the most renowned Augsburg silversmiths in the first half of the 18th century, the period when his silver services became extremely popular. The service comprises 53 gilded items and 13 porcelain ones. All the pieces - dishes, trays, cutlery, plates, cups and a range of utensils of different sizes and functions - fit into individually shaped compartments inside this sumptuous case, which is lined with garnet coloured velvet.
In Rooms 8 and 9 the museum’s collection of 15th - and 16th -century German painting is now enhanced by a wood sculpture of The Pietà (ca. 1505-10) which until 1955 was attributed to Tilman Riemenschneider and subsequently to the Master of the Wettringen Altar. Also on display is the Rákóczy Cup (ca. 1570-1620) which consists of three elements of different dates that were assembled prior to 1664. The interior is decorated with the Rákóczy coat-ofarms and the cup has a finial of a warrior holding a lance.
Shown next to the splendid collection of Dutch painting from the permanent collection in Rooms 20 and 21 are the paintings of Lot and his Daughters (ca. 1645) by Hendrik de Somer, one of the artists who disseminated Caravaggism in northern Europe; Landscape with the Rhine (1663) by the painter and printmaker Herman Saftleven; and Hunting Scene next to a Farmhouse (ca. 1645-50) by Philips Wouwerman. The latter is one of the few examples of Old Master Painting to be added to the collection in the 1980s when the Baron was more focused on the modern art collection.
Also in the Room 21 visitors can see Flowers in a glass Vase (ca. 1657-60) by Cornelis Jansz. de Heem, which allows for a comparison with the painting by his father, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, from the permanent collection. The parallel between the two styles is evident, both in the background and in the glass vase and the overall arrangement. However, Cornelis’s bouquet reveals a pronounced diagonal that divides the composition into two asymmetrical groups while his father grouped the flowers to place more emphasis on the centre and accompanied them with fruit and small petals.
The gallery is completed with two magnificent examples of Nautilus Cups, one by Cornelius Floris of around 1577 and the other by Cornelius Bellekin from the late 17th century. Considered luxury items, these cups were highly appreciated from the second half of the 16th century and are often depicted in still lifes of the period, such as the three by Willem Kalf in the permanent collection which hang in the same room.
