It must have have beat least twenty years since we were last in The Frick. It was before I started keeping track of things here because I found nothing in the search. The Frick rounded up other versions of two of their sensational El Greco’s and hosted a mini blockbuster with the variations. We made a special trip to see that.
El Greco’s Purification of the Temple and his Saint Jerome still steal the spotlight in the newly refurbished Fifth Avenue mansion. Other Spanish masters – Goya with his workers, The Forge, Velazquez’s his hapless King Philip IV and Murillo’s self portrait – are well represented. Vermeer’s lighting is a knockout. Bellini’s Saint Francis receiving the stigmata is a wonder. Hans Holbein the Younger appears to have actually preserved the real the Thomas Moore in his canvas.
Two versions of the Pieta, the Virgin cradling the dead Christ after the Crucifixion, both by unknown artists from the 15th century, were hung together in an upstairs room. They knocked me out. One obviously copied the other and both probably copied someone else. I love the idea of a rich diner hiring an artist to put him at the scene.
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