Acquisitions of the month: January 2025

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Triton (1653), Gian Lorenzo Bernini

The Rijksmuseum has acquired a sculpture by the baroque master Bernini on permanent loan from a private collector. The sculpture, a depiction of the Greek god Triton wrestling a sea monster, is a terracotta study of the figure Bernini made for the Fontana del Moro in Rome in 1653, which still stands in the city today. A third version of the sculpture, in the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas, was probably produced as a gift to Pope Innocent X, who commissioned the fountain sculptures. The Rijksmuseum version underwent restoration work in 2018 and now becomes the first Bernini sculpture on permanent display in the Netherlands.

Triton (1653), Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Menil Collection, Houston
123 works by Cy Twombly

Designed by Renzo Piano and first opened in 1987, the Menil Collection was built to house the body of mainly 20th-century art built up by John and Dominique de Menil in the mid 20th century. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of its Cy Twombly Gallery, the Menil Collection has received a major gift from the Cy Twombly Foundation of 123 works by the artist. These include two early paintings that have been on long-term loan at the museum: Volubilus (1953), which takes its name from the Moroccan site of Volubilis and shows two abstracted arch-like forms, and Untitled (1954), a mass of scrawls that anticipates some of his most famous works from later in his career. The 121 works on paper span Twombly’s whole career and include graphite drawings as well as collages.

Volubilus (1953), Cy Twombly. Photo: Adam Neese/Paul Hester; © Cy Twombly Foundation

Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Thirty photographs by Robert Frank

Robert Frank is best known for The Americans (1958), a book of photographs of life in the United States that, Jack Kerouac wrote, seemed to ‘suck […] a sad poem right out of America onto film’. In 1949, however, Frank spent time photographing the streets of Paris and compiled a scrapbook for his wife, Mary, which is now on display at the MFA Boston, in the exhibition ‘Robert Frank: Mary’s Book’ (until 22 June). The book is being exhibited alongside a selection of other photographs taken by Frank on the same trip, 38 of which have now been acquired by the museum. Most of this body of photographs, which depict everything from chairs and cobbled streets to advertising posters and anonymous Parisians, was donated by the June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation; four were purchased by the museum through funds donated by John and Cynthia Reed. One work from The Americans has also been acquired: 4th of July, Jay, New York (1954).

Detail from Mary’s Book (1949) by Robert Frank. Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts Boston; © The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation

Spanish Ministry of Culture
Casa Gomis/La Ricarda (opened 1963), designed by Antonio Bonet i Castellana, El Prat de Llobregat, Spain

The Spanish Ministry of Culture has announced the purchase of a house designed by the architect Antonio Bonet i Castellana in the 1950s and ’60s on the outskirts of Barcelona. Casa Gomis, also known as La Ricarda, is perhaps Castellana’s masterpiece, an exquisite example of rationalist architecture that is also a Gesamtkunstwerk, with the architect choosing every piece of furniture, material and decoration, as well as designing the garden. The house had been privately owned, but will now be renovated and turned into a cultural centre open to the public.

Interior of Casa Gomis (La Ricarda), designed by Antonio Bonet i Castellana in El Prat de Llobregat, Spain and opened in 1963. Photo: Adria Goula; courtesy Iconic Houses Network

Salisbury Cathedral
Sarum Master Bible (13th century)

Friends of the Nations’ Libraries (FNL) has announced that its campaign to raise the £90,000 needed to buy the Sarum Master Bible for Salisbury Cathedral has been successful. Produced by the Sarum Master, who worked in Salisbury in the mid 13th century and is one of the earliest recognisable manuscript illuminators in England, the Bible is illuminated with detailed gold leaf and elaborate initials in the Master’s characteristic gothic style. Because Salisbury was one of the few places in the country with a burgeoning book trade, the Bible was widely bought and disseminated and for a time became the standard text for churchgoers in southern England. There are five other verified texts by the Sarum Master in existence – but none have been in Salisbury until now. The cathedral has said that its first priority is to digitise the Bible.

Bible (13th century) with illuminations by the Sarum Master. Courtesy Salisbury Cathedral/Sotheby’s

Musée du Louvre, Paris
Guilty Punchinello (n.d.), Giambattista Tiepolo

The comedia dell’arte was a recurring subject in the work of Giambattista Tiepolo (and, even more so, in that of his son, Domenico Tiepolo) – in particular the stock character Punchinello. In this painting from the 1730s, bought by the Louvre at a Christie’s evening sale for £2.5m, the scene is crammed with Punchinello figures, all exhibiting the trademark traits of the character: hunchback, crooked nose, red cheeks, pot bellies and gangly legs. The work becomes the 10th work by Tiepolo senior to enter the permanent collection of the Louvre.

Guilty Punchinello (n.d.), Giambattista Tiepolo. Photo: courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd. 2024

Tate
Blank stare (2021), Amoako Boafo

Last year Tate’s Africa Acquisitions Committee, which has helped the museum to acquire works by some 40 artists since it was set up in 2011, established a Catalyst Fund to accelerate its acquisition of contemporary African art. At the 1–54 Art Fair in Marrakech last month, Tate acquired a new work through the fund – Blank stare (2021), an oil portrait by the Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo, whose work mostly consists of sensitive portraits of Black figures, often against brightly coloured backgrounds and using his signature finger-painting style, which results in a strikingly mottled impasto.

Blank stare (2021), Amoako Boafo. Photo: courtesy Gallery 1957; © Amoako Boafo

Warburg Institute, London
Three antiquarian cookery books from the library of Elizabeth David

On her death in 1992, Elizabeth David left 380 of her antiquarian cookery books to the Warburg Institute in London. Now, thanks to a grant from the Friends of the Nation’s Libraries, the Warburg has bought at auction three more books not included in David’s original bequest: a 1643 edition of Dell’Arte del Cucinare (1570) by Bartolomeo Scappi, one of the personal chefs of Pope Pius V; Edward Kidder’s Receipts of Pastry and Cookery (1720) and Charlotte Mason’s The Ladies’ Assistant for Regulating and Supplying the Table, being a Complete System of Cookery (1786). These will soon be digitised and will be available to read through the Warburg Digital Library, along with many other antiquarian cookery books from the institute’s collection.

A renaissance kitchen from Dell’Arte del Cucinare by Bartolomeo Scappi, first published in 1570, this edition 1643. Photo: courtesy the Warburg Institute, University of London