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Sotheby's, London

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Edgar Degas, Racehorses (study for "Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey"), c. 1881, charcoal on light brown paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1999.79.9

Racehorses (study for "Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey")

Edgar Degas · c. 1881 · charcoal on light brown paper ·  Accession ID  1999.79.9

This altarpiece is made up of three panels, with a single man standing in each of the narrow wings to the left and right and a wider panel at the center, which shows a woman holding a baby as twenty-two people look on. The background behind all the people is gold, and the top of each panel comes to a rounded, pointed arch under a second taller, sharper point. Spiraling columns frame the left and right sides, and rows of semicircular shapes, like inverted scallops, run inside the curving arches. In the central panel, the woman, child, and people around them all have pale skin and blond hair except for two elderly men with gray hair and beards. They all have plate-like gold halos that overlap, sometimes obscuring the face of another person. The woman and child, Mary and Jesus, sit on an unseen chair on two wide steps. They gaze at each other while Mary gently touches Jesus’s chin. Her lapis-blue mantle covers her hair and wraps around her body. The robe is edged with gold and has gold starbursts on one shoulder and on the crown of her head. Jesus’s garment is patterned with blue and gold against a dark orange background, and it wraps around his lower body. He holds a bird in one hand, touches Mary’s robe with the other, and a piece of coral hangs from a cord around his neck. Most of the people on each side wear azure-blue, pale peach, or brick-red garments decorated with gold. There are three inscriptions in this central panel. Mary’s halo is inscribed with “SCA MARIA MATER DEI” and Jesus’s halo reads, “IIS XRO M.” A third inscription across the bottom of the panel is partially damaged, but some of it reads, “LIIII QUESTA TA ATTA FRE FRATE GIOVANNI DA.” In the wing to our left, a balding, bearded man wearing a brown cloak over a black robe stands facing our right almost in profile. His pale skin has a dark, ash-gray cast. The hood of the black robe lies across his shoulders. He holds a wooden crutch with a curved top in the hand closer to us, and holds up his other hand with his palm facing us, fingers slightly curled in. A halo around his head is incised into the gold background and is filled with letters reading, “SaS ANTONIVS O VIENA.” Nearly lost against his dark robes, a black boar or pig stands near his feet. The floor here and in the right panel have a brocade-like pattern with three-lobed, gold designs against a field of brick red. The right wing is filled by a blond, cleanshaven young man standing facing our left as he looks toward Mary and Jesus in the center. He wears a long orange tunic decorated with blue flowers, and has a peacock-blue cloak and matching boots. Flags patterned with gold against black or red backgrounds flutter from a staff he holds with his right hand, farther from us. His other hand rests on the gold belt at his waist. His inscribed halo reads, “SCS. VENANCIVS MRTIRI.” The three panels are separated by spiraling gold columns and topped with triangular gables. The gables are filled with stylized leaves and animals in muted shades of brown against a black background. Near the pointed tops of the panels, the side wings have three-lobed shapes filled with a winged angel on the left and a person with a halo holding a hand to the chest on the right. The central gable has a four-lobed shape showing a man hanging on a cross.
Puccio di Simone, Allegretto Nuzi, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Angels, and Saints Anthony Abbot and Venantius [entire triptych], 1354, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.6.a-c

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Angels, and Saints Anthony Abbot and Venantius [entire triptych]

Puccio di Simone, Allegretto Nuzi · 1354 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.6.a-c

Ferdinando Galli Bibiena, Stage Design of Garden Pavilions, c. 1711, pen and brown ink with two shades of brown wash over graphite on cream laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Purchased as the Gift of Vincent and Linda Buonanno, 2007.111.53

Stage Design of Garden Pavilions

Ferdinando Galli Bibiena · c. 1711 · pen and brown ink with two shades of brown wash over graphite on cream laid paper ·  Accession ID  2007.111.53

Georges François Blondel, View of a Prison, c. 1765, mezzotint on laid paper, Paul Mellon Fund, 2001.118.2

View of a Prison

Georges François Blondel · c. 1765 · mezzotint on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.118.2

Two dark-skinned women stand facing each other on a dirt path that runs beside a body of water in this horizontal painting. One woman faces us and balances a flat tray loaded with white cloths on her head. Her left hand, on our right, holds the tray steady. The apron or loose, long skirt of her off-white dress is bunched up around her hips, but the fabric still falls to her ankles. A dark green, red, and brown scarf covering her head is tied in a knot by one ear, and the ends fall in front of that shoulder. The other woman stands in front of the first, to our left with her back to us. She wears an aquamarine-blue dress and garnet-red scarf tied around her head. A brown basket hangs from her left arm. The path angles from the lower right corner and cuts into the distance to our left. It is lined with brown and green bushes and grasses. An expanse of dirt to our right reaches to the shoreline, which curves like a C into the distance. Dabs of brown and dark pink suggest several more people standing or stooping in the surf in the distance. Shallowly sloping rust-brown hill cut into the water, spanning left two-thirds of the width of the composition along the horizon. The sky in the top half of the composition is a clear, milky white. The artist signed and dated the lower left corner, “C.Pizarro. Paris 1856.”
Camille Pissarro, Two Women Chatting by the Sea, St. Thomas, 1856, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.30

Two Women Chatting by the Sea, St. Thomas

Camille Pissarro · 1856 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.30

Edgar Degas, Woman Reading a Book, c. 1879, charcoal and black chalk with stumping and erasing, heightened with white chalk, on blue wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.35

Woman Reading a Book

Edgar Degas · c. 1879 · charcoal and black chalk with stumping and erasing, heightened with white chalk, on blue wove paper ·  Accession ID  1995.47.35

Walter Gramatté, Woman with a Necklace, 1923, color etching printed in blue on wove cream paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012.92.246

Woman with a Necklace

Walter Gramatté · 1923 · color etching printed in blue on wove cream paper ·  Accession ID  2012.92.246

We look across a river at a long, flat bridge that runs parallel to a hazy, city skyline in the distance in this horizontal painting. The scene is painted with visible dashes and strokes of mostly pastel blue, ivory white, muted mauve purple, and navy blue. The flat bridge spans the width of the composition along the horizon, which comes a third of the way up the canvas. The sky above is filled with clouds painted in muted tones of cream white, pale blue, and a few touches of shell pink, which mirror the water below. Along the horizon, buildings with spires and towers stretch from our right about two-thirds of the way across the canvas. To our left, a cluster of several boats, tiny in scale, gather near the bridge. Closer, and to our right, three larger ferries are crowded with passengers who are represented by minuscule daubs of brightly colored paint, mostly in black, golden yellow, crimson red, sky and cobalt blue, and ivory white. These boats are painted in short, flat brushstrokes in bands of flame red and midnight blue. The artist signed and dated the work at the lower left: "C. Pissarro, 1890."
Camille Pissarro, Charing Cross Bridge, London, 1890, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.32

Charing Cross Bridge, London

Camille Pissarro · 1890 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.32

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Two Rampaging Elephants, 1790/1792, pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk and charcoal on white laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Purchased as the Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2007.111.172

Two Rampaging Elephants

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo · 1790/1792 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk and charcoal on white laid paper ·  Accession ID  2007.111.172

Italian 13th Century, Italian 13th Century, Leaf 5 from an antiphonal fragment, c. 1275, red and brown ink with decorated initials in red and blue on vellum, Gift of Mr. Ladislaus and Beatrix von Hoffmann, 2009.1.1.9

Leaf 5 from an antiphonal fragment

Italian 13th Century, Italian 13th Century · c. 1275 · red and brown ink with decorated initials in red and blue on vellum ·  Accession ID  2009.1.1.9