Christie's Online Magazine No.280

From: Christie's - Saturday Oct 09, 2021 03:06 pm

Christie’s

Louise Bourgeois, Collecting guitars, Carracci’s Annunciation, Greek helmets, Art vs climate change, Francesco Vezzoli, and more |

‘I work like a bee,’ said Louise Bourgeois — so why is she best known for her giant spiders?

‘Revolutionary’: how Annibale Carracci’s Annunciation reconciles the human with the divine

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Notes on guitars: why scrapes, cuts and sweat stains can make an instrument sing at auction

Greener art: how Cecily Brown, lawyers, gallerists and Christie’s are confronting climate change

The unpredictable art of Francesco Vezzoli: spectacle, sex, celebrity — and antiquity

How to get ahead in Greek helmets — all you need to know, from patina to the ‘death blow’

More stories

Editor’s picks

Birds, blooms and foliage cover every inch of this exuberant pair of Meissen ewers. Among densely packed white blossoms and trailing snowball flowers, each ewer has a parrot on one side and an oriole on the other, with fluttering finches on the foot and the ribbon-tied handle

Estimate: $40,000-60,000
until 19 October, Online

The region of Hell Creek, Montana, is a rich source of dinosaur remains — including this juvenile triceratops skull, dating from around 65 million years ago. Triceratops was a herbivore, so its famous horns weren’t used for hunting but as a defence from apex predators such as the T-rex

Estimate: £300,000-500,000
12-26 October, Online

This oil sketch of the Grand Canal in Venice was made by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot in 1828. Painted rapidly on the spot, it anticipates the approach of the Impressionists, who idolised the artist. As Claude Monet said, ‘There is only one master here — Corot. We are nothing compared to him’

Estimate: $300,000-500,000
13 October, New York

Given its impressive size, this Roman bronze arm is likely to have come from a statue of a deity or emperor. At first sight, the forefinger may appear to be beckoning, but comparisons with other ancient sculptures suggest that the hand might in fact once have carried a spear

Estimate: $70,000-90,000
12 October, New York

Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), Spider. Bronze. 128½ x 298 x 278 in (326.3 x 756.9 x 706.1 cm). Conceived in 1996 and cast in 1997. Artwork: © The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2021 // Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), The Annunciation (detail). Oil on canvas. 54¼ x 39¾ in (137.7 x 101 cm). Estimate: $3,000,000-5,000,000. Offered in Old Master Paintings and Sculpture on 14 October 2021 at Christie’s in New York // Cecily Brown (b. 1969), There’ll be bluebirds, 2019. Oil on UV-curable pigment on linen. 53 x 66¾ in (134.5 x 169.5 cm). Estimate: £500,000-700,000. Offered in 20th/21st Century: Evening Sale including Thinking Italian on 15 October 2021 at Christie’s in London // Francesco Vezzoli. Photo: Matthias Vriens. © Francesco Vezzoli

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Christie's Online Magazine No.280