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Stuart Lochhead Sculpture, 22 Old Bond Street, London (2026)

15/10/2026

A strange visitor for Frieze week! Jean-Joseph Carriès’ Le Grenouillard (c. 1891) inhabits a world of grotesque hybrids and uncanny transformations. A half-man, half-frog creature crouches over a giant toad, their bodies and webbed limbs seemingly fused together. Four smaller amphibians emerge from the surrounding ground, transforming the composition into a miniature fantastic landscape. The soft modelling and dark, waxy patina of the plaster heighten this extraordinary sense of metamorphosis.

First exhibited in ceramic at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1892 (Fig. 3), the composition emerged from Carriès’s ambitious, unrealised Porte de Parsifal (Fig. 4) commissioned by the American socialite Winnaretta Singer. Its fantastical creatures draw upon the hybrid monsters of medieval Gothic portals and the water demons of Japanese art, reflecting the sculptor’s fascination with the grotesque and the uncanny.

One of only four known plaster versions of the model, the present sculpture is distinguished by its rich, dark patination, reminiscent of vieux bois (old wood). It exemplifies Carriès’s extraordinary technical experimentation and his ability to transform an unconventional subject into a visionary work of fin-de-siècle Symbolism.

📍Discover Le Grenouillard in BEYOND THE VISIBLE: SYMBOLISM AND ITS LEGACIES, on view at 22 Old Bond Street, London, until 6 November.

05/10/2026

Nero’s Vase in its new home!

I’m extremely proud to share the acquisition of this beautiful monumental vase by the Yale University Art Gallery. Made of Aswan granite, carved in Alexandria and shipped from Egypt to the heart of imperial Rome, it was originally created for the Nymphaeum of Emperor Nero’s Domus Transitoria, one of the most spectacular and elaborately designed spaces of any imperial residence in the city before the fire of 64 AD.

There are few places in the world to which this exceptional vase could belong more fittingly than Yale’s antiquities collection, which has brought together an extraordinary range of artefacts and works of art from cultures across the globe.

My particular thanks to the inimitable Larry Kanter, pictured here with me, whose enthusiasm and commitment made this acquisition possible. I could not think of a better new home for it.

02/09/2026

Fieldnotes from the Adriatic Coast – Lorenzo Lotto (2/2)

Our journey through the Marche comes to an end in the town of Jesi, another important centre for the art of Lorenzo Lotto. Although often overlooked, the city’s elegant Palazzo Pianetti – now the Pinacoteca Civica – houses one of the finest collections of the artist’s works.

Among its treasures is the Deposition (1512, Figs. 1-5). Originally commissioned for the Confraternity of the Good Death after an earlier commission to Luca Signorelli had failed to create, the altarpiece is one of Lotto’s earliest masterpieces in the region. Its brilliant colour, dramatic composition and profound emotional intensity already reveal the qualities that would define his mature style. Rather than depicting Christ being lowered from the Cross, Lotto represents the poignant moment of the Entombment, with Joseph of Arimathea gripping the burial shroud between his teeth as he lowers Christ’s body – a striking detail that overturns Raphael’s earlier creation in Rome.

Equally fascinating is The Legend of Saint Lucy (Fig. 6), an incredible narrative painting where, instead of arranging the episodes in a conventional sequence, Lotto devised an ingenious visual system in which the story begins in the predella, continues in the main panel, and returns to the predella to conclude. Small painted wheels guide the viewer through the narrative, transforming the altarpiece into an interactive visual journey and revealing Lotto’s remarkable ability to rethink traditional religious storytelling.

Together, these paintings encapsulate what makes Lorenzo Lotto such an exceptional artist: an extraordinary colourist rooted in the Venetian tradition, yet constantly pushing the boundaries of narrative, emotion and invention. They provide a fitting conclusion to our journey through the Marche – and to one of the Renaissance’s most original artistic voices.

26/08/2026

Fieldnotes from the Adriatic Coast: Lorenzo Lotto 1/2

Our final stop is not a geographical location but an ensemble of works by an artist who is synonymous with the Marche as a region. Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480–1556/57) was one of the most original painters of the Italian Renaissance, renowned for the emotional depth and psychological sensitivity of his portraits and religious works. Born in Venice, he spent much of his career in the Marche, where he received some of his most important commissions. Deeply devoted to the Sanctuary of the Santa Casa, Lotto entered the Holy House of Loreto as an oblate in 1554, spending his final years there before his death.

Painted for the Church of San Domenico in Recanati, the Recanati Polyptych (Fig. 1) is one of the earliest masterpieces of his career. While retaining the traditional multi-panel format of the medieval polyptych, Lotto infused it with a new sense of naturalism and vitality. Rich Venetian colour, refined drapery and masterful handling of light already reveal the distinctive artistic personality that would define his mature work.

The polyptych also marked the beginning of Lotto’s enduring relationship with the Marche, where he would spend much of his career and produce some of his greatest paintings. Its inventive predella scenes, dramatic compositions and emotional immediacy demonstrate an artist unafraid to challenge convention, making the work a pivotal moment in the transition from the formal traditions of the fifteenth century to the more expressive language of the so-called ‘High’ Renaissance.

12/08/2026

Fieldnotes from the Adriatic Coast – Tempio Malatestiano

Moving southward from Ravenna, we cross the regional border to the coastal town of Rimini, home to one of the most remarkable temples of the Italian Renaissance.

The Tempio Malatestiano is a unique masterpiece of art and architecture, bringing together the work of Leon Battista Alberti, Matteo de’ Pasti, Agostino di Duccio and Piero della Francesca. Commissioned by the condottiere Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta in the mid-fifteenth century, the church was conceived not simply as a place of worship, but as a dynastic monument celebrating the ambitions, learning and artistic patronage of the Malatesta court.

Its extraordinary marble façade and arcades, designed by Alberti (Fig. 4), transform the medieval church into a triumphal arch inspired by ancient Roman architecture, while the richly sculpted interior by Agostino di Duccio (Figs. 1-3, 6-12) is unlike any other in Italy. Delicate reliefs of angels, saints, the Liberal Arts, Sibyls and even the signs of the Zodiac reflect the humanist fascination with classical antiquity, philosophy and the cosmos, creating one of the most intellectually ambitious decorative programmes of the Renaissance.

Among its greatest treasures is Piero della Francesca’s celebrated fresco of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta before St Sigismund (Fig. 5), an early masterpieces of Renaissance portraiture.

Part church, part classical temple and part princely mausoleum, the Tempio Malatestiano perfectly encapsulates the Renaissance ambition to unite antiquity, Christianity and humanism in a single work of art. It remains one of Italy’s most extraordinary monuments – and an essential stop on any journey through central Italy.

05/08/2026

Fieldnotes from the Adriatic Coast – Dante’s Tomb

Just a ten-minute walk from the stunning mosaics of San Vitale lies the tomb of the great Florentine poet Dante Alighieri, author of the Commedia and one of the founding figures of Italian literature. Exiled from Florence in 1302, Dante spent his final years at the court of Guido Novello da Polenta in Ravenna, where he completed his poem before his death in 1321.

The tomb’s most celebrated feature is the exquisite marble relief carved by the Venetian sculptor Pietro Lombardo in 1483. Commissioned by Bernardo Bembo, the Venetian governor of Ravenna and father of the humanist Pietro Bembo, it is one of the earliest and most influential Renaissance portraits of Dante. The poet is shown standing at a lectern, crowned with laurel and raising his hand thoughtfully to his mouth – a gesture of contemplation and poetic inspiration that became one of the defining motifs of Dante’s iconography (Fig. 6, 7).

The tomb is equally famous for the extraordinary story of Dante’s remains. After previous attempts by Lorenzo de Medici to transfer the remains to Florence, in 1519 the Medici Pope Leo X granted the city permission to reclaim its greatest poet, with Michelangelo even proposing a magnificent new tomb. Forewarned of the Florentine delegation, the Franciscan friars secretly removed the bones through a hole in the wall beside the sarcophagus, leaving the tomb empty. They hid the remains once again during the Napoleonic suppression of the monasteries in 1810, and they were not rediscovered until 1865.

Today, Dante still rests in Ravenna, while Pietro Lombardo’s magnificent relief remains one of the defining Renaissance images of the poet, shaping how generations have imagined the father of the Italian language.

29/07/2026

Fieldnotes from the Adriatic Coast – The Mosaics of Ravenna

The Lochhead Fieldnotes return! Today we inaugurate the third edition of our gallery tradition: a travelling workshop in which we explore some of Europe’s most remarkable artistic and cultural treasures. Having shared our travel in Rome, Turin and Genoa, we now set off along the Adriatic coast, from Ravenna to the Marche, uncovering some of central Italy’s most extraordinary monuments.

Our journey begins in Ravenna, home to some of the finest surviving Early Christian and Byzantine mosaics in the world. Composed of millions of shimmering glass and gold tesserae, these fifth- and sixth-century masterpieces have retained their astonishing brilliance for over 1,500 years. As the capital first of the Western Roman Empire, then of the Ostrogothic Kingdom and Byzantine Italy, Ravenna became a unique meeting point of cultures, leaving behind an unparalleled concentration of mosaic monuments.

The crowning achievement is the Basilica of San Vitale (Fig. 2), one of the greatest monuments of the Byzantine world. Consecrated in 547, its soaring octagonal interior and luminous gold mosaics – including the celebrated portraits of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora (Fig. 4) – unite imperial authority with Christian theology in one of the defining artistic statements of the sixth century.

Just a short walk away, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia offers a strikingly different experience (Fig. 6). Its modest brick exterior conceals an intimate interior crowned by a deep blue, star-filled vault, while mosaics such as the celebrated Good Shepherd (Fig. 8) preserve the elegance, naturalism and rich symbolism of the late Roman world. Together, San Vitale and Galla Placidia trace the extraordinary transition from classical antiquity to the spiritual vision of Byzantium, making Ravenna one of the indispensable destinations in the history of Western art.

14/07/2026

A day to remember…

Last week’s visit to the Musée d’Orsay is one I shall remember for a long time. I was invited to inaugurate the display of this wonderful ceramic mask by Jean-Joseph Carriés, which has now entered the museum’s collection.

Ever since it first arrived at our gallery in London, I had a feeling the Orsay would be the perfect home for it. Rather than following the usual path of an acquisition, however, the sculpture took a more direct – and more personal – route, becoming a gift to mark the museum’s 40th anniversary.

A huge thank you to Edouard Papet, whose enthusiasm for the sculpture made this donation possible, and to the entire team at the Musée d’Orsay for such a warm welcome. It was a real pleasure to spend time with the curators and wander through the galleries together.

The donation feels especially meaningful because Carriès is an artist close to my heart. Early in his career he was drawn to the Symbolist movement, before becoming fascinated by Japanese stoneware at the 1878 Paris Exposition. He later settled near Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye, where he mastered the art of glazed ceramics and produced some of the most extraordinary works of the fin de siècle.

There is always something special about seeing an object you have lived with begin its next chapter in a place where so many people will be able to discover and enjoy it. Seeing this remarkable work become part of one of the world’s greatest museum collections is incredibly rewarding.

01/07/2026

A limestone saint in the cloisters of Westminster…

This striking fifteenth-century sculpture depicts a tonsured deacon saint, probably a martyr, holding a palm frond and a clasped manuscript. Its subtle contrapposto, monumental drapery, and intensely expressive features exemplify the refined naturalism of the Burgundian court.

Preserved in an exceptional state, the work is a rare rediscovery from the circle of Claus de Werve (c. 1380–1439), the Haarlem-born sculptor who succeeded his uncle Claus Sluter as court artist to the Dukes of Burgundy in Dijon. Building on Sluter’s revolutionary realism, De Werve developed a remarkably lyrical and graceful sculptural language.

The saint displays the hallmarks of De Werve’s workshop, from its flowing drapery and naturalistic modelling to the distinctive motif of a hand emerging from the folds of a cloak to grasp a book. These features closely parallel works by the artist and his immediate circle, ranging from the carved walnut figures of Theuley Abbey (now in the Louvre) to the celebrated mourners on the tomb of Philip the Bold, both of which represent some of the highest achievements of Burgundian sculpture.

Last week, the Deacon Saint featured in our display at Studiolo, set against the magnificent limestone vaults of Westminster Abbey. The medieval architecture provided the perfect backdrop, bringing the beauty and craftsmanship of De Werve’s carving vividly to life.

📍To see our Deacon Saint in the flesh, visit our current exhibition, Valentin van Orley and His World: A Rediscovery in Early Netherlandish Painting, on display until 17 July in our gallery on 22 Old Bond Street, London, W1S 4PY.

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Workshop of Claus de Werve, Deacon Saint, c. 1410–1430, limestone, 81.5 x 26.3 x 20.4 cm

24/06/2026

What is a finely cast bronze of an Italian saint doing in the Burgundian Netherlands in the late fifteenth-century?

This remarkable statuette of Saint Francis is an exciting addition to the small surviving corpus of Netherlandish metal sculpture from the late 1400s. Combining exceptional craftsmanship with rare subject, it offers fresh insight into the higher artistic achievements of Burgundian brass founders and the international networks that connected Flanders to Italy.

Technical analysis and stylistic comparisons link the work to Renier van Thienen, the leading Brussels founder responsible for some of the most celebrated bronze monuments of his age, such as the famous Rijksmuseum pleurants for the tomb Isabella of Bourbon (Fig. 2-3). Its refined modelling, highly polished surface, and sophisticated casting technique place it among the finest examples of Flemish figurative metalwork to survive.

Beyond its technical and artistic importance, the sculpture raises intriguing questions of patronage and cultural exchange. While Saint Francis was a central figure in Italian devotional culture, representations of the saint are comparatively rare in Netherlandish sculpture. The choice of subject may point to Franciscan patronage, the influence of Italian merchants and confraternities active in Bruges and other Flemish cities, or even the possibility that the sculpture was intended for export to southern Europe. Whether destined for a Franciscan church, commissioned by an Italian patron in the Low Countries, or cast for an international market, the statuette stands as compelling evidence of the fascinating artistic and devotional connections linking Flanders and Italy during the Renaissance.

This remarkable bronze is on display for our current exhibition, Valentin van Orley and his World: A Rediscovery in Early Netherlandish Painting. This Friday, it will travel for one day only for Studiolo in Westminster Abbey.

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Renier I van Thienen (active c. 1465-1498), Saint Francis, c. 1480, Brass, 48.3 x 20 x 13 cm

Workshop of Jan Borman, attrib. to Renier I van Thienen, Weeper from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon (1436-1465), c. 1475–1476, Brass, 55 x 23 x 14 cm

Stuart Lochhead Sculpture

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