Gothic Art in the Gilded Age. Medieval and Renaissance Treasures in the Gavet-Vanderbilt-Ringling Collection
Abstract
BOOK REVIEWS Virginia Brilliant (ed.), Gothic Art in the Gilded Age. Medieval and Renaissance Treasures in the Gavet-Vanderbilt-Ringling Collection. Sarasota, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, ï²ï°ï±ï°. ï©ï³ï¢ï® ï¹ï·ï¸-ï°ï¹ï±ï¶-ï·ïµï¸-ïµï¶ï±. ï²ï±ï´ pp., ï³ï°ï¶ col. illus., ï³ï³ b. & w. illus. $ïµïµ. The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, was created by the circus entrepreneur John Ringling (ï±ï¸ï¶ï¶-ï±ï¹ï³ï¶). Its collections include paintings, sculpture, and âdecorative artsâ from the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, crowned by Piero di Cosimoâs eccentric and wonderful Building of a Palace. The core of this group consists of items assembled by the Parisian collector-dealer Ãmile Gavet (ï±ï¸ï³ï°-ï±ï¹ï°ï´) and atmospherically displayed to visitors and clients in his gallery-residence near Nôtre-Dame. In ï±ï¸ï¸ï¹ Gavet commissioned from the Louvre curator Ãmile Molinier a sumptuous catalogue of this collection/ stock. That same year, over ï³ï°ï° pieces â including ï³ï´ï± BOOK REVIEWS Renaissance paintings, Gothic metalwork, medieval and Renaissance sculpture, furniture, maiolica, watches, gems, and wax portraits â were acquired from him by Alva, the energetic wife of the heir to the New York Central Railroad fortune, William Vanderbilt. Alva Vanderbilt (ï±ï¸ïµï³-ï±ï¹ï³ï³) installed the collection in a âGothic Roomâ in her majestic summer villa (one of the earliest