Art and emotions [SEC=PERSONAL]

[Margaret Anne Samu]

Also, don't forget Rembrandt's Danae in the Hermitage collection.  

Here's an article by Lee Rosenblum from Art in America, Oct 1997, that I found online at 
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n10_v85/ai_19897820
[ The long awaited but not quite triumphant return to public view on Oct. 14 of Rembrandt's Danae at the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, marks the 
end of a grueling effort to salvage one of the museum's most celebrated and sensuous masterpieces. An acid-and-knife attack 12 years ago transformed the 
reclining nude into a "dark effervescing mass," in the words of one of the conservators who worked on the painting. The newly restored work is the centerpiece of 
an 18-month-long exhibition, "Danae" The Fate of Rembrandt's Masterpiece," installed in room adjacent to the Hermitage's Rembrandt gallery. The show also 
includes Danae paintings by Titian and Blanchard, a Greek vase depicting the Danae myth, plus engraving, drawings and watercolors drawn from the Hermitage's 
collection. A 26-minute multimedia program will explore the painting's iconography, its art-historical context, the artist's methods, other Rembrandts in the 
Hermitage, and the restoration process; photographs of the restoration work will also be on view.
Although the museum's upbeat press release notes that "over 70 percent of the paint surface remained undamaged," distinguished Rembrandt scholar Egbert 
Haverkamp-Begemann more soberly observed in a recent interview with A.i.A. that the ravaged areas are, in fact, "the most important parts of the painting: the 
face, body and upper parts of the legs. What was left -- the left upper quadrant -- has quite a lot of surface but is not that important." Although he had not seen the 
results of the restoration when interviewed, he concluded from the Hermitage's own written report that the painting "obviously remains a ruin. There's no other 
way to describe it. They pulled together some passages that could be restored and the rest was left as is." ]

As far as music goes, I remember hearing a story about an early performance of Ravel's Bolero (perhaps the premiere--?).  As the music swelled, an overwhelmed 
member of the audience started shouting, "He's mad! He's mad!" You'd have to look that one up for accuracy.

Margaret

Margaret Samu
Ph.D. Candidate in Art History
Silberberg Lecture Series Coordinator 2006-7
Institute of Fine Arts, NYU
1 East 78th Street
New York, NY  10021

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