Tag Archives: Annunciation

Setdart offers us these days the possibility of contemplating this starry vault thanks to this important and extensive Spanish collection forged between 1970 and the 1990s. through her we can take a tour of one of the most splendid chapters in the history of glass art; focusing on that glassware that explored the expressive possibilities of Art Nouveau and Art Deco in the leading geographical enclaves in its development such as France (Nancy), the Czech Republic (Bohemia), Italy (Murano) or Sweden (Orrefors)

For the occasion we have gathered more than two hundred pieces (vases, centerpieces, decanters, paperweights, lamp stands, ashtrays, small sculptures…) signed by the most renowned glass manufacturers. Its exquisite workmanship and avant-garde concept is in keeping with the time in which they were made.

The Mannerist style, which emerged in Italy around the 1530s, represented a paradigm shift with respect to the Renaissance where the proportion, balance and harmony traits that until then had defined artistic creation lost their total hegemony by virtue of artistic intentionality. and expressiveness. Once the knowledge of human anatomy, perspective and color was consolidated, the artists and their workshops advanced on their path towards experimentation, thereby seeking greater drama and distinction in their compositions that would emerge in the Baroque period.

Also known as Late Renaissance, Mannerism is seen as a bridge between the High Renaissance and the Baroque period, which adopted the ornate aesthetic of this current, adapting it to shape its characteristic extravagance. In this way, the artists began to make clear in their creations their intention to go one step further, beginning to endow their compositions with an expressive force that they reflected both through artificial chromatism and through twisted and exaggerated figures that increased the sensation of movement.

The diversity and cultural brilliance that emerged after the devastation caused by the Second World War represents one of the most fertile and groundbreaking creative periods in our history. The multitude of artistic expressions that broke into the international scene at a frenetic pace are the manifestation of a vital need of the human being to face the barbarism that he himself had caused . After the profound changes brought about by the war came the end of the artistic utopias that the historical avant-gardes had proclaimed.

The world had changed and with it, it was inevitable that art would too. With a Europe completely sunk physically and morally, the artistic center par excellence that until then had been Paris, moved to the United States where the birth of the first great post-war artistic movement, abstract expressionism, turned the city of New York into the new capital of western art. However, Pollock’s withering dominance of gestural painting prompted the appearance of two counter-movements such as Pop art and Hard Edge.

We confirm this with three important oil paintings that these days can be purchased at Setdart Auctions. Both belong to the period of greatest recognition of Tusquets, as shown by the fact that at the time he painted them (in the last decade of the 19th century) he was presiding over the International Artistic Circle of Rome.

Italy has been and is a point of reference in the field of interior decoration. Talking about Italy is undoubtedly synonymous with art and culture, but it is also synonymous with industry, innovation and luxury. In this sense, the concept of Italian design furniture is intrinsically linked to high-quality furniture, with elegant and clean lines, but also with large doses of creativity and modernity. Therefore, the “Made in Italy” design is distinctive of exclusivity and avant-garde in both technique and aesthetics.

In this sense , the entry of the 20th century marked a turning point that would start a new chapter in Italian furniture design . While before the First World War, Italian design was consistent with international style and lacked a balance between elegance and creativity, at the end of the war Mussolini’s fascist regime brought about the total isolation of Italy, which resulted in the creation of a truly Italian design. Before the fall of fascism at the beginning of the 1940s and the opening to the outside world, Italian furniture experienced a period of splendor guided by designers such as Piero Bottoni, Antonio Citterio, Gio Ponti, Ico Parisi and Luigi Caccia Dominioni, who gave their designs a distinctive, sophisticated and original touch.

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, sculpture underwent a radical revolution that would forever transform the excessively academic conception, which until now had dominated its practice. It will be then when the changes that some sculptors of the previous century pointed out will materialize to give birth to a work that, independent of architectural and urban projects, will gain value by itself.

In this way, the revolution started by the master August Rodin, changed the paradigm of the sculptural work , marking a turning point for a whole generation of later artists who found in Rodin’s legacy, the starting point of their experimentations. In this sense, it should be noted two fully differentiated trends , which in turn fed into each other: on the one hand, the aspect conceived under the identity stamp of the incomplete and fragmentary represented by sculptors of the stature of Julio Gonzalez and on the other the more naturalistic tendency in which we can inscribe Baltasar Lobo . In the latter and as in the case of the Zamorano sculptor, the substratum of reality will continue to be present which, despite revitalizing and transforming it, will be intimately linked to the most ancient and primitive traditions of Egyptian and Mediterranean culture .

Faced with its ambivalent aesthetics, it is inevitable to lose sight of the border line that separates repulsion from attraction where the usual order by which we are governed does not reach our understanding. And it is precisely in this uncertainty where the power of attraction of the grotesque exerts its greatest influence.

This feeling is precisely the one exerted by Fabelo’s work, whose superreal, dreamlike and unfathomable universe, inhabited by fantastic and monstrous creatures, exerts on the viewer a power of attraction that is as disconcerting as it is captivating. In the grotesqueness of Fabelo, the influence of two great masters such as Velázquez and Goya can be guessed, but also of the Cuban pictorial tradition together with certain elements from surrealism and the crudest expressionism through which he forms a parallel world, whose codes escape to our reasoning, sowing endless contradictory reactions, doubt, mystery, empathy.

In the history of art, there is an aesthetic founded on the idea of the beautiful and the grotesque, an a priori antagonistic pairing that, however, is clearly indivisible. From the origins of artistic and literary practice, The grotesque has been one of the greatest sources that nature has been able to offer to artistic creation , through which some of the most brilliant reflections and metaphors in relation to the human condition and existence have been constructed. One only has to think of the monstrous faces of Da Vinci, the jesters of Velázquez, the black paintings of Goya, or the tremulous nudity of Francis Bacon, to verify that, even with a diversity of connotations, there are common themes to which art always It has turned over artistic periods and trends.

In this sense , the persistence of the theme of the grotesque in art is a reflection of our own history as a civilization, whose story, plagued by episodes linked to madness, poverty or violence, make the grotesque an imperishable element intimately linked to Our culture. Art, then, does not invent the conception of the grotesque, but instead, using a reality common to human beings, it imbues us in a juice of mirrors, which confronts us with our own monsters. Likewise, the multiple readings that underlie the concept of grotesque indicate a metamorphic nature that, as in the case of beauty, evolves in parallel with its time.

Faced with its ambivalent aesthetics, it is inevitable to lose sight of the border line that separates repulsion from attraction where the usual order by which we are governed does not reach our understanding. And it is precisely in this uncertainty where the power of attraction of the grotesque exerts its greatest influence.

This feeling is precisely the one exerted by Fabelo’s work, whose superreal, dreamlike and unfathomable universe, inhabited by fantastic and monstrous creatures, exerts on the viewer a power of attraction that is as disconcerting as it is captivating. In the grotesqueness of Fabelo, the influence of two great masters such as Velázquez and Goya can be guessed, but also of the Cuban pictorial tradition together with certain elements from surrealism and the crudest expressionism through which he forms a parallel world, whose codes escape to our reasoning, sowing endless contradictory reactions, doubt, mystery, empathy.

Deformed beings, humanoid insects and an extensive multiform bestiary, coexist in his grotesque and avernic imaginary together with delicate and beautiful mermaids in what seems to be a great utopian metaphor of human existence, where the artist cries out for the need to build a plural and harmonic society on a universal scale as the only solution to the decadence of a human being, increasingly disconnected from his true animal essence.

The most daring and bizarre aspect of the Cuban artist is possibly also the most sincere and admired both by critics and by great collectors. Symptoms of this are the amazing results that this type of production, dominated by what we could call a beauty of the grotesque, achieves in the international market, thus ratifying the powerful influence and fascination that the irrational and unknown exerts on the viewer.

When speaking of a collector psychiatrist, the ghost of Hans Prinzhorn no doubt haunts our imaginations. It is known that this German psychiatrist unintentionally revolutionized contemporary art history by giving priority to the plastic creations made by his patients. His collection of “alienated art” greatly influenced Art Brut (led by Dubuffet) and, later, Outsider Art.

But it is not this link (on the other hand, already too exploited) between art and madness or between art and therapy that motivates the writing of this article.

Conversely, the Catalan psychiatrist we are going to talk about, Joan Obiols Vié (Granollers, 1918-Cadaqués, 1980), was a great lover of art regardless of his profession. Although his sensitivity must have been heightened and skewed by his deep understanding of the human spirit, it was not “art made by madmen” that encouraged his commitment to the newest art.

Today, it is hard to believe that authentic works of art were ever thrown amidst demolition material . Fortunately, cities have always had urban gleaners with an enviable watchful eye . We must thank some of these distinguished collectors for the recovery of stained glass windows, fragments of ceramic trencadís, wrought iron pieces … from restorations carried out in emblematic places of the Gaudinian geography of Barcelona: Park Güell, La Pedrera, Casa Vicens, Casa Milà …

The MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) and the Museo del Disseny de Barcelona They currently guard several of these architectural elements designed by Gaudí that were recovered from the gradual reforms of the most famous modernist buildings. Many of them have been seen in national and international exhibitions organized by the Gaudí Chair and the Finca Güell.

At other times, the valuable Gaudinian architectural details were left in the hands of individuals. The current owner of the pieces that Setdart puts up for auction on December 14 is an expert on Gaudí’s work, to whom some of the happy finds from restoration work were entrusted . He is a specialist in Gaudí, who has written various books on the architect and is related to entities dedicated to the study, protection and conservation of his work . He has also collaborated in the dissemination of some of the pieces he owns by presenting them at exhibitions, which is why they appear in catalogs.

The technical virtuosity that Joaquin Sorolla achieved with his pictorial work established him as the painter of light par excellence . However, the scope of his work goes far beyond his well-known canvases in which he captured like few others the lighting effects of the Mediterranean. In this sense, the Valencian artist’s facet as a cartoonist represents a valuable testimony of the evolution that his work underwent, revealing in it the key aspects that marked his artistic personality. Far from considering it a secondary manifestation, Sorolla builds his production as a painter and draftsman in parallel, evolving at the same time both in terms of technical and thematic aspects. With some exceptions, his drawings are not usually preparatory, but, as in the case at hand, they are in themselves true works of art.

Within its evolution, the scholarship that after winning the contest convened by the Valencia Provincial Council is granted in 1884 to complete its studies in Rome. In the Italian capital, a young Sorolla will discover not only the work of the great Italian Renaissance masters, but it will also be where his admiration for the work of Mariano Fortuny will surface, who will come to exert a powerful influence on the work of the Valencian artist.

Setdart welcomes this great altruistic gesture at its headquarters, organizing this charity auction by the artist Teresa Unsain on November 30 on our web portal.

“The impact that the destruction of the houses and the fields caused by the mass of lava descending like a river towards the sea was devastating. This destructive force of nature determines the smallness of the human being and makes you reposition yourself as a being. tiny in the universe ”. These are the words of the painter Teresa Unsain, to whom the chilling ecological and human disaster has motivated not only an immense pictorial series but also the generous initiative of organizing a charity auction in favor of those affected by the La Palma volcano.

Setdart welcomes this great altruistic gesture at its headquarters, organizing this online charity auction. Many of the works by this Barcelona painter (who currently resides in Valencia) have been made as a result of the volcanic eruption. They show skies traversed by electric discharges, or horizons shimmering in disturbing but beautiful amber atmospheres. Others represent the volcano regurgitating lava that advances like a formless and silent monster over the sleeping city. All of them are made with the encaustic technique on wood.

The auction is completed by other paintings by the same artist who, although they deal with other urban and landscape themes, share that characteristic and inimitable style of hers, with which he makes us enter a world plagued by indomitable forces.

The proceeds of the sales will go to the Cabildo de La Palma, which has set up a specific account for those affected by the volcano.

Max Bill: the great promoter of concrete art

Architect, designer, sculptor, painter, theorist, publicist and educator, we could say that the Swiss artist Max Bill, embodies the concept of universal genius of the Renaissance. His career started at the Bauhaus school was inevitably linked to the teachings he received during his formative stage until he became a firm defender of functionalism and geometric formalism. In fact, in the mid-30s, the artist immersed himself fully in his investigations around abstract form, based on the inexorable laws that govern mathematics and geometry as the only means to achieve the universality of the art to which it is applied. should aspire.

In the sculptural field, Max Bill was especially interested in the spherical figure and its different sections, which, as in the case at hand, combined to give light to multiple variations of the same geometric figure. Likewise, this quarter of a wedge-shaped sphere symbolizes, in addition to the idea of infinity, a dilemma between spiritual art and functional art, considering that the created object must first fulfill its mission in order to subsequently be able to feed the soul through the esthetic.

Gottfried Honegger: the purity of concrete art

Following in the footsteps of Max Bill, the also Swiss artist Gottfried Honegger was throughout his vast career, a faithful defender of concrete art and of the maxim coined by Theo van Doesburg in 1930 according to which, the universality of art could only be achieved through clarity and purity. Following this artistic conception of rationalist roots, Honegger gives birth to a work free of emotional implications. The work in question belongs to one of the artist’s most representative series, known as relief-paintings where monochrome reds cover the entire surface made up of repetitive geometric elements. In them, Honegger reaffirms his conviction that art must be constructed using only its fundamental elements in a geometric abstraction completely devoid of any symbolic association linked to reality.

Protagonist of the great debates around abstract artistic practice that took place between the 20th and 21st centuries, Honegger maintained until his death the idea that art could change the world.

The formal simplicity that Joan Miró always claimed as the guiding principle of his art hides behind it an extensive constellation of references, tributes and synergies with other artists, poets and mystics.

Of the rich variety of extra-pictorial influences and interests that pervade the Mirian universe, his fascination with the poetry of Saint Francis of Assisi stands out. His love for the verses of the religious is not surprising, since both shared a love of a pantheistic nature for nature and its creatures: birds, stars, earthly and cosmic elements intertwining without rest.

Theater and dance, mime and balé, are the worlds in which the prestigious sculptor Richard MacDonald has been immersing himself for decades to extract from them a renewed idea of beauty in movement, of contained expression and imprisoned pathos.

Closely linked to Cirque du Soleil and the Royal Ballet of London, MacDonald dedicates long sessions to the contemplation of acrobats and dancers live. From his rigorous study and his faith that the truth of the soul resides in the body in motion, a work is derived that is worthy heir to the best tradition of Western sculpture. In his bronzes, the flexible agility of Donatello’s figures and the existential depth of August Rodin seem to combine.

In works such as “Peasants resting after the harvest”, the painter gives birth to a true epic of the rural world, whose customs, people and work, he represents with a deep sense of human dignity. Fleeing from idealization, Zanetti bets on the faces of the people, of those who have the dignity of the simple, humble and hard-working men engraved in their hands, on their skin and in their eyes, who populated the infinite fields of his native Castile. The monumental character that it gives to its peasants, as well as the rotundity of its forms, enclose the individualized portrait of a people, whose work and sacrifice claim it here, as the absolute owner of the land it sows. The implicit criticism makes even more sense if we take into account the deplorable situation in which the country was at that time, and especially the rural world.

His stroke, of a forcefulness and masterful precision, together with a chromaticism that, although austere and contained is also as warm and rich in nuances as are the ocher, red and orange of his land, provide us with a work without ambiguities or folds, as sincere, direct and frank as the protagonists to whom he paid tribute in his work.

Ultimately, Zanetti’s painting represents the story of a part of our history that, although it belongs to the past, remains in us despite the times, despite the changes. Because no matter how much tractors and harvesters have replaced mules and scythes, dreams, desires, sacrifices and roots in the land of men survive throughout history (and in spite of it). And it is precisely about this universal and imperishable reality that Vela Zanetti speaks to us.

The fascination of artists with the wandering life of the gypsy people goes back a long time, but it was especially from the romantic era that this attraction transcended the mere search for picturesque or exotic themes. The image that the romantic artist began to gain of himself (and that would intensify with the painters of the first avant-gardes) found in the figure of the gypsy a model with which to illustrate his commitment to bohemia and his anti-bourgeois commitment.

Let’s remember the paintings of caravans and gypsy camps settled in the vicinity of Arles that Van Gogh painted , or the numerous portraits of gypsies that KeesVan Dongen made or, in the Spanish sphere, Isidre Nonell, Ignacio Zuloaga and Joaquín Sorolla.

Sorolla, in parallel to his theme of sea and beach, developed an important production of gypsy theme, immortalized their dances and parties, as well as the beauty of their women. An outstanding student of the Valencian master, José Mongrell (Valencia, 1870 – Barcelona, 1937), not only inherited the master’s colorful technique, but also his thematic interests. The painting that Setdart is auctioning these days (see lot 35227233) has the peculiarity of showing the theme mythologized by so many artists (a gypsy camp) together with the portrait of Sorolla himself.

The theme is singular: S Orolla is in front of a gypsy woman who seems to be reading her hand . A silent dialogue is established between the two through the exchange of glances. Sorolla lowers his head, remaining in a reflective attitude, perhaps after hearing the admonitory words of the gypsy. Her weathered face, wrapped in a handkerchief, is hardened but at the same time kind.

Mongrell reveals himself to be a true master in the psychological uptake of his characters : here, the silent dialogue captures us by the mysterious magnetism of the expressions, which always preserve an impenetrable dignity. Mongrell goes beyond genres, because here the social theme is mixed with manners and with the tribute to his mentor friend. The scene is dominated by a warm palette that reflects the Mediterranean sun: an intense cerulean blue reflects on the variety of ocher, browns and reds contrasted, although toned and balanced, with the luminous whites and yellows of the outfits.

The work of Julio Romero de Torres occupies in the history of Andalusian painting a place similar to that occupied by García Lorca in poetic art. , since in both the vernacular reached a depth of universal resonance. Both comparable, in their respective artistic languages, with the effects of cante jondo on the listener’s mind, elevate the apparent banality of regional customs and peculiarities to a sublime expression of shared concerns in any time and place: love and death, desire. passion and instinct, channeled by the magic of creation.

A) Yes, avant-garde and tradition, local flavor and universal significance, intertwine in the work of Romero de Torres . Only he had the secret of the master formula whose ingredients (symbolism, decadence, genre painting …), skillfully recombined, gave rise to mysterious scenographies where the manners theme was veiled behind dense warps in whose nets the spellbound gaze of the spectator was trapped.

See, for example, the painting “Malagueña” (1917, exhibited in the Majestic Hall in 1919), where a young man wearing a Cordovan hat leans over Amalia “La gitana”, whose guitar rests on her lap . The young man seems to want to console the woman’s pain, suffering that is expressed in the crease of the eyebrows and the fleeting gaze. Behind them, a crime of passion is described (as belonging to an episode that has already occurred, or perhaps yet to come). The cypress announces death and mourning. The flamenco theme and its stereotypes (passionate love, jealousy, guitar, Christian cross, funeral rite…) have been treated in such a way that they rise beyond local folklore. Rather, they respond to a plastic transposition of eternal feelings.

To characterize the male character of the aforementioned canvas, the painter used his son Rafael Romero. The The same face and clothing, the same gesture and a very similar expression, is the one adopted by the character portrayed in the painting that Setdart puts up for auction this time (lot 35201692): it is a portrait of Rafael Romero in which only the face and shoulders are framed, and where the hint of the landscape hinted at in the background also coincides with that fragment of the Malagueña.

It is not an exaggeration to affirm that geopolitical maps translate the mental maps of a certain society, of a certain historical moment. Cartography condenses an image of the world that goes far beyond mere topographic studies.

If we look at the cartography of the enlightened period, we will observe that the rise of scholarship in all fields of knowledge and the emergence of scientific institutions in the modern sense of the term will greatly affect the making of maps. In the first place, because the French kings (in collaboration with the Spanish crown and other European powers) will promote expeditions to the new world in order to reconfigure the maps from astronomical observations and physical measurements.

Setdart Subastas has assembled an important collection of maps from this flourishing period, the 18th century, both for science in general and for cartographic science in particular. Specifically, a large part of the cartographic documents tendered in our current auction belong to the Universal Atlas of 1757 (“Atlas Universel, dressé sur les meilleurescartes modernes”). It consisted of an ambitious project that would end up involving cartographers and engravers from all over Europe. It was an initiative of Gilles Robert de Vaugondy and his son Didier, geographers of Louis XV, who had the most recognized globe manufacturing workshop in France.

The illuminated engravings grouped in this collection show the scope of this singular project: a very precise map of the then still non-conflictive Holy Land (“divided into its twelve Tribes”, lot 35251586); a splendid map of the East Indies (to highlight the allegorical figures, the putti and galloping horses that adorn the cartouches, num. 35251568), the Map of Patagonia and the Strait of Magellan (illustrated with caravels plying the seas); the Bering Strait …

Apart from the maps that resulted from the expeditions to the colonies of the New World and the East Indies, this same Atlas of French origin and Venetian edition (the Santini brothers acquired the plates of the Vaugondy), also included numerous maps of Europe: of the Islands British (Britannicae Insulae, 35251582), of the German Empire (under William I, 35251629), French Flanders …

In our cartographic collection, together with the aforementioned maps from the Atlas Universel, we also include engravings belonging to the famous Encyclopaedia of Diderot and d’Alembert. The edition of the Encyclopédieraisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers It was the fruit of the same enlightened spirit that we commented on cartographies. The prints tendered in Setdart correspond to the Architecture section, in which it was intended to disseminate the accumulated knowledge in architecture so far, through plans, elevations, typologies, gadgets and latest technical advances (see lots 35221796 and 35221794).

Old maps are one of the most complete documentary typologies, due to their dual nature, cartographic and historical. The rarity of some of the editions, coupled with the longevity of many of the copies, make the possession and enjoyment of ancient cartography a booming value. The meticulous and ambitious work of engravers, illustrators and cartographers turn these pieces into authentic works of art.

We are facing a Christ serene, who enters into a silent dialogue with the viewer. His features do not show physical pain, which is reflected in the drops of blood that fall from his head and run down his naked back. The hard work of glazing produces a realistic feel to the point that gliding tears and drops of blood appear to bulge . The thorns of the crown are inserted into the flesh of Jesus, piercing it so aggressively that when they sink, they mark the relief under the skin and even tear it, as is the case with the eyebrow. The precision with which he has executed many details gives it a high degree of realism, as in the case of the hair painted almost individually or in the grain of the wood.The cross, of which we only see part of the two logs , is presented with almost architectural resounding and thus make explicit the symbolic heaviness of the load.

The message of this passage is the very acceptance of the Passion. The suffering of Christ has an end and with full consciousness embraces the pain materialized on the cross.

The painting in question reminds us of the models of the great Leordanesque followers located in the cities of northern Italy. . Opting for a contrasting palette between the dark backgrounds and the blurred contours of the figure, while in the flesh tones and drapes (in the red tunic that wraps the torso) she uses bright colors and extracts beautiful velvety qualities. We are before a painting fully inscribed in the late Renaissance.

Luis Feito

The evolution of Luis Feito is one that takes place without major shocks and with the coherence and cohesion of those artists fully committed to the creative act. All his work addresses from the purest abstraction, the tensions and dualities between radically opposite concepts . Under this premise, the canvas becomes a space of confrontation, which gravitates between the structural balance and the dynamic tension that arises from the interaction of colors and shapes. “1195” reflects a key moment in Luis Feíto’s career when, from 1963, he began a increasingly slow and restrained expressive trend that leads him towards a growing formal and material purification. In the 1970s, the fullness of color and a trend towards geometrization, where the elements of the composition were simplified to the essentials, ended up being imposed.

Rafael Canogar

In recent decades, Canogar’s research has gone beyond the concept of painting to create a series of images that, like the one that concerns us here, is based on the manipulation of the support and the enhancement of the material. Canogar tears and fragments a material made of sheets of cellulose pulp, linen and binder, to later recompose each of the parts into a composition in which color, structure and matter predominate. The result is images of great plastic power with irregular contours and overlapping fragments like collages, which, According to Canogar himself, “they are the reflection of the destructive constructive opposition forces inherent to the human condition.”

We see in both cases how the game between opposites or opposites will be an imperishable idea throughout its entire trajectory, a fact that should not surprise us if we take into account that,

Both for them and for their fellow group members, the canvas became a true battlefield through which to break with the total slack in which Spanish art and society were plunged.

It is the first time that a Spanish auction brings a collection of such important icons from different schools and regions of Russia to the general public. The online format of the auction will allow collectors and interested parties from all over the world to access this tender, which is complemented by the exhibition of the pieces in the SetdartMadrid room and with a physical catalog with interesting texts from world-renowned experts and that put in value these unpublished pieces. Using his digital tools, Setdart reveals the thoroughness and spirituality applied by icon painters in creating these masterpieces.

The Orthodox icon, as an object of artistic value, appears on the Russian historical-artistic scene at the beginning of the 20th century, coinciding with the excavations of medieval churches, with the discovery of ancient icons and their subsequent restoration. Images appeared beneath the centuries-old layers of dirt, revealing hitherto unknown chapters of Russian national history. From this moment the first private collections of these works were formed. In 1906 Sergei Diagilev organized a pompous and revolutionary exhibition “Two Centuries of Russian Art”, which occupied ten rooms of the Parisian Autumn Salon. Thirty-five ancient Russian icons were featured there for the first time, sparking the interest of the European public in Russia, Russian art, and icons in particular.

Henri Matisse, a great friend of the Russian collector Sergei Schukin, visited Russia in 1911. The purpose of that trip was to see Russian religious art. The sublime simplicity, great spiritual depth, and even the artistic techniques that the French absorbed by visiting regional Orthodox churches, carried over into his Moroccan series and the rest of his later work.

During this frenzied decade and a half before the Revolution, Russia has managed to discover, enhance and turn its religious art into a visiting card that, to this day, in an almost mystical way, attracts foreign audiences and arouses their interest in Russian heritage.

This pioneering auction of more than seventy unpublished Russian icons on the market will be accompanied by traveling exhibitions between the Madrid and Barcelona venues, digital tools, the online auction format and the catalog with publications by experts in Russian art. in order to awaken the interest of collectors, art lovers and professional researchers for the pieces that were created thousands of kilometers from our lands, in chapels and workshops impregnated with the smell of incense and under the prayers of the painters monks.

Exposed to the public in our rooms during the month of September, these mysterious pieces are telling the story of a people that, possibly, have more things in common with our culture than one can imagine.

In short, with This auction of Russian icons, unprecedented in Spain, to be held on Thursday, September 23, Setdart begins a new chapter in the Spanish collecting scene, highlighting the role of patron and collector when building historic bridges.

By definition, the portrait is the representation of the physiognomic features of a person, created through different means of expression such as painting, sculpture, photography and literature. Does this mean that when we look at a portrait, we are seeing the actual effigy of the person’s features? To what extent is a portrait a free interpretation agreed between the subject and the artist of the reality to be portrayed?

In the Middle Ages, portraits were used for official purposes or simply in the hope of gaining divine recognition. To portray a man for other purposes would have been a scandalous individualistic will, strongly condemned by the Christian church; we will have to wait for the first representations commissioned from the artists, portraying their clients (Giotto).

It was during the Renaissance that portraiture, strengthened by the resurgence of classicism and the rise of the middle class, became the most popular and widespread genre among the wealthy classes. However, the portrait remained a symbolic, almost idealized element, to which the present attributes (skins, animals, jewels, weapons, etc.) conferred a deeper double meaning; attention to the fidelity of the features was not the main objective of the painter.

The transmission of the image to posterity became synonymous with greatness, an opportunity for social affirmation within the reach of the new emerging classes, no longer a mere aristocratic legacy. From the first profile portraits (evocative of Roman numismatics), the great masters passed to a less majestic, more intimate representation, although still linked to allegories and celebrations of social status.

Leonardo was the first to instill in his subjects a new attention, not only to the fidelity of the traits, but to the psychological characterization: a clue to the soul of the subjects represented.

In the seventeenth century, massive figures were imposed, occupying almost the entire pictorial surface and appearing in the same plane as the viewer. Soon they give way to the “political portrait”: a three-quarter pose, armor or war attributes, in the representation of a majestic and statuary image of almost timeless characters.

It was not until the 19th century that artists gave greater priority to expressiveness and the inner world than to physical appearance: the dramatic brushstrokes helped to highlight the emotional impulses and intimacy of the subjects; later, with the avant-gardes, decomposition and extremes also affected portraits, presenting us with works with increasingly less naturalistic perspectives.

The portrait is undoubtedly one of the most complex and varied artistic genres in the history of art, a dynamic approach to the context in which it is practiced and with innumerable results, never identical to each other.

Since ancient times, art has used symbolism to express an infinity of concepts and feelings hidden under the physical appearance of everything and everything around us. In this sense, the symbolic charge of the floral world will acquire a special relevance in art, being the object of the deepest moral, religious, political and social reflections. Her own nature, beautiful, fleeting, delicate and joyful, captivated the gaze of countless artists who, whatever their time and style, found in them the metaphorical image with which to convey messages of a very diverse nature. The richness of its meaning will evolve and oscillate over time depending on the historical context, but also on the intention of the artist himself.

In fact already in ancient civilizations we find the first manifestations of its symbolic character . In Egypt the lotus flower, represented the Sun and was therefore considered symbol of light and life . The importance it reached is reflected in the multiple objects found in the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun in which this flower appears, which, at that time, became a true amulet.

With the arrival of Christianity, flowers occupied a privileged place as symbols of a spiritual truth. The meaning of many of them was transformed to express the dogmas and beliefs of the new religion whose importance will become especially evident in the iconography of Marian themes and the Passion of Christ. In this way, the carnation associated up to now with the eroticism and fertility of the goddess Hera, will become a symbol of the nails of Christ but also of the divine love of the Virgin Mary for the Child. Likewise, during the Renaissance the representation of the Archangel Gabriel was very common offering a lily to the Virgin Mary, as a symbol par excellence of her purity, chastity and devotion. On the other hand, and due to the 3 petals that form it, the lily will also be associated with the dogma of the Holy Trinity. Another of the flowers most linked to Christianity and therefore to religious art will be the rose, a flower that accompanied Mary from the earliest times of the Church as an expression of her purity, suffering and glory. Along with the lily and the roses, the columbines will have a special significance within Christian iconography whose dove shape will be associated with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

On the other hand, flowers were also a recurring element when indicating the virtues or values of the person portrayed as well as his lineage. The woman was often depicted with the thistle or carnation flower as a symbol of conjugal love and fidelity. On the other hand, the male figure appeared accompanied by the purple lily, the violet, the vinca or the chamomile, all of them associated with the virtues of the good Christian knight.

So far we have seen how flowers are represented in art imbued mostly with religious connotations. However, this trend will begin to change with the irruption of still lifes in the dutch painting of the seventeenth century, now when its representation will emancipate itself from Christianity, to express more “earthly” concerns and emotions. These still lifes, described with the meticulousness and attention to detail that characterized the art of the Netherlands, often contain a message. linked to human fragility and the transience of life. The introduction of withered flowers became a symbol of death that until then had been represented through skulls and hourglasses. Conversely, fresh flowers were an emblem of power and the continual resurgence of nature.

One more of the infinite hidden meanings behind flowers is related to the idea of power, dominance and social position In this sense, the arrival of species such as tulips or daffodils that from the old Ottoman Empire had a very high cost due to their exoticism was of vital importance. For this reason, monarchs and noble characters were very often represented alongside these precious and distinguished flowers.

With the arrival of realism and impressionism, the meaning of the flowers becomes more personal, being the fruit of the emotions and experiences of the artist. We just have to think about Monet’s water lilies, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers or Matisse’s bouquets to realize that now, the flowers will be the vehicle through which to project the most subjective impressions.

From the hand of artists as prominent as Andy Warhol or Georgia O’keeffe, contemporary art continued to find a perpetual source of inspiration in the floral world that has remained intact to this day.