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Gothic Art in the Gilded Age. Medieval and Renaissance Treasures in the Gavet-Vanderbilt-Ringling Collection

2010; Oxford University Press; Volume: 22; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jhc/fhq025

1477-8564

Tony Wilson,

Historical Art and Culture Studies

The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, was created by the circus entrepreneur John Ringling (1866-1936). Its collections include paintings, sculpture, and ‘decorative arts’ from the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, crowned by Piero di Cosimo's eccentric and wonderful Building of a Palace. The core of this group consists of items assembled by the Parisian collector-dealer Émile Gavet (1830-1904) and atmospherically displayed to visitors and clients in his gallery-residence near Nôtre-Dame. In 1889 Gavet commissioned from the Louvre curator Émile Molinier a sumptuous catalogue of this collection/stock. That same year, over 300 pieces – including Renaissance paintings, Gothic metalwork, medieval and Renaissance sculpture, furniture, maiolica, watches, gems, and wax portraits – were acquired from him by Alva, the energetic wife of the heir to the New York Central Railroad fortune, William Vanderbilt. Alva Vanderbilt (1853-1933) installed the collection in a ‘Gothic Room’ in her majestic summer villa (one...