Time to say Goodbye

All good things must come to an end, and this project is sadly closing down. The project editors, Barbara Pezzini, with Alison Bennett, Nicola Kennedy, Madeleine Pearce and Giulia della Rosa, would like to thank all the readers of the Burlington Index Blog. The Index Blog stemmed from the Burlington Magazine Index, a digital and …

Works of Art in Russia: Two 1921 Editorials in the Burlington Magazine

by Anne Benson In July and September of 1921, editorials in the Burlington Magazine expressed concern over the fate of Russia’s art treasures “ever since the outbreak of the revolution and especially since the appearance of a Bolshevik government”. The July article was speculative, while in September, the editors included a welcome eyewitness account providing …

Pontormo, Brexit and the National Gallery

by Noti Klagka and Barbara Pezzini The sale of Jacopo Pontormo’s Portrait of a Young Man in Black (illustrated here) has been recently made popular by the British press, which described it as a potentially lost national treasure and a victim of the consequences of Brexit. Its vicissitudes have also been narrated in a Burlington …

The Russian Revolution and The Burlington Magazine: A letter from Alexander Polovtsov

by Anne Benson In 1919 The Burlington Magazine published a letter titled ‘Salvage of Works of Art in Russia’ by Alexander Polovtsov (see full text of the letter below and HERE).[1] This is a remarkable document—a rare firsthand account of what was happening to Russia’s art treasures during the 1917 Revolution. News from Russia was confusing, …

A European Journal: The Burlington Magazine in February 1949

Priced at 3 shillings and 6 pence – the equivalent of £5 in 2017 – with a grey-azure, 'broken blue', cover and only black and white photography, The Burlington Magazine of February 1949, appears at first glance as belonging to another time (illustrated left). Its austere look and few advertising pages remind the reader of …

From Nicola di Maestro Antonio to Carlo Crivelli and back again

by Amanda Hilliam The only article dedicated to the Venetian painter Carlo Crivelli (c.1430/5 – c.1494) ever to appear in The Burlington Magazine was published in March 1913.[1] The attribution to Crivelli of a newly-discovered Madonna and Child (fig.1)., which had recently passed from Duveen Brothers to the Philip Lehman collection in New York, was …

‘Caravaggiomania’ in The Burlington Magazine, part II: 1903-1951

by Noti Klagka  This blog focuses on articles published on Caravaggio in The Burlington Magazine before the 1951 Milan exhibition organized by Roberto Longhi, which transformed Caravaggio studies. As illustrated in the previous blog, during the second half of the twentieth century, the Burlington contributed much to the shaping of Caravaggio’s oeuvre by paying close …

A Christmas Card from Roger Fry

(London, British Museum) Cut by Eric Gill as a Christmas card for Roger Fry in December 1910. This encouraged Fry to make his own cards in 1912 and 1913. Best wishes of a Happy Festive Season to our readers from the Burlington Index Blog.

‘Caravaggiomania’ in The Burlington Magazine – Part I: the late 20th century

by Noti Klagka This post explores the scholarship on Michelangelo da Caravaggio in the pages of The Burlington Magazine and reveals the crucial role played by the Magazine in the critical reception of this artist. Caravaggio has definitely been the most popular 17th century Italian artist published in the Burlington: 59 main articles and 210 …

Herbert Read, ‘Pope of Modern Art’ and Editor of The Burlington Magazine (1933-1939)

In 2007 Benedict (Ben) Read, esteemed art historian and son of Herbert Read, wrote an essay about his father’s editorship of The Burlington Magazine.[1] More recently, he kindly gave the Index Blog permission to re-publish some excerpts from it. Sadly Ben Read died on 20 October 2016 and was unable to edit personally this abridged …