2 C O N T E X T 1 1 5 : J U LY 2 0 1 0 Context Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Fiona Newton 21 George Street, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 9JU Tel 01507 602567 email [email protected] Editorial Board Fiona Newton (chair) Nigel Crowe (main features) Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Michael Taylor (main features) Cartoons by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2010 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Published for the Institute of Historic Building Conservation by Cathedral Communications Limited, High Street, Tisbury,Wiltshire, England SP3 6HA Tel 01747 871717 Fax 01747 871718 email [email protected] www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to non-members of the IHBC at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £50.00 Elsewhere £75.00 Subscription orders, together with remittances payable to Institute of Historic Building Conservation, should be sent to the IHBC Business Office at Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA. The views expressed in Context are not necessarily held by the IHBC or the publisher. Neither the publisher nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. We gratefully acknowledge the support of firms whose advertisements appear throughout this publication.While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this issue of Context is current and correct, neither the IHBC nor the publisher can be held responsible for any errors or omissions which may occur. Copy deadlines Context is published five times a year, in March, May, July, September and November.The copy deadlines in 2010 are: Issue Deadline September, Issue 116 19 July November, Issue 117 20 September Graham Tite writes: An exhibition and its catalogue have traced view-making back to its beginnings. For the first time, the resources of two of the world’s greatest collections of drawings have been combined to bring a familiar argument to a wider public. The collections are those of the British Museum and the Uffizi. After closing in London in July, the show moves next year to Florence (1 February to 30 April). Drawing (and European papermaking) in its modern form began in Italy early in the 15th century. Perspective was reinvented and refined in the same period after a long lapse since the decline of Roman imperial art and architecture. The practice of drawing grew to embrace a wide range of natural phenomena and human activities. Italian Renaissance Drawings elaborates these themes, providing wonderful opportunities to see items that usually make only rare exits from their cabinets. The joint curators have been stimulated into making new comparisons. Drawings and other objects are placed side by side for the first time. For those who wish to focus mainly on architecture and town planning, 10 per cent or more of the items (there are 101 catalogued drawings) deal specifically with buildings and the urban setting. In the album known as the Florentine Briefing From mind to eye to hand Picture Chronicle (BM), a group of 55 folio drawings bound together, we see the story of Jacob and Esau. The Genesis story is set half in a portico of classical columns elaborately decorated with festoons, drapes and furniture, and half against a landscape background. The huntsman, Esau, arrives from the countryside and begs his meal from Jacob in front of a well-head that is carved with yet more antique friezes. The perspective setting creates a powerful sense of depth to transform the two sheets into unmistakeable deep space, depicted purely through penmanship. FromTuscany we can move straight to the Venetian cities of the north east. Another rare showing of an album (BM) reveals the art of Jacopo Bellini. A jousting tournament is taking place against the background of an unmistakably Venice-like city with its clock-tower over a main gate and two-storey loggias showing the familiar stilted arches of the region. Bellini had passed on to his sons, Gentile and Giovanni, his newly developed skill in combining figures with a convincing architectural setting. At this point, the Uffizi contributes a further rare item, attributed to Gentile but similar and perhaps related to a painting by Mansueti (Accademia, Venice) of the Campo San Lio. Towards Landscape by Leonardo daVinci, 1473, pen and ink (copyright Gabinetto Disegni e Stampedegli Uffizi)
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