Love is in the air..
“Art and Love in Renaissance Italy,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, through February 16th  [Metropolitan Museum of Art] [Art Daily]
Further reading:
‘Art and Love in Renaissance Italy’- Eternal Objects of Desire [Roberta Smith, NY Times]
“Eros” at the  Richard Feigen Gallery, NYC through January 9th [ART INFO] [RLFeigen.com]
Love seems to [...]

Floris Claesz Van Dijk. Still Life with Cheeses, Bong and Good Will Hunting DVD, 1615 (?) (from onfamiliarthings.blogspot.com)
Van Dyck’s subtle scrutiny of the human psyche [Souren Melikian, International Herald Tribune]
Van Dyck’s Prettied Up Merchants, Bankers Star in Paris Show of Portraits
Commentary on the life and career of Anthony van Dyck, favorite painter of the British [...]

Following up on the previews of Old Master exhibitions in Europe earlier last month, OMNP follows up with comprehensive coverage of some of the major shows, along with a rundown of those recently announced, both in the US and abroad.

Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian, now on view until January 18, at the UK National [...]

Sales results from Lempertz’s auction of Old Masters in the beginning of October, revealed some high-quality material by lesser known artists, going for bargain bin prices. Once again, these small spots are where steals can be had…Lot 14, a work that OMNP pondered being attributed to the style of Flemish master Frans Snyders, could not [...]

 
Proceeds from the sales of this Degas pastel and "Suprematist Composition" by Kasimir Malevich are two surefire bets that Sotheby’s will be counting on to keep them afloat this fall.
As an economic recession looms larger, the future prosperity of the art market remains very much of a concern. OMNP continues its earlier coverage with further [...]

Lot 245, A Concert of Birds: This opulent menagerie portrayed by an anoymous follower of a luminary from the Dutch Golden Age can symbolize the bountiful prosperity of its owner.
OMNP previews selected lots from Sotheby’s London sale of lower priced Old Master and British paintings on Thursday, October 30th. Lack of expertise notwithstanding, many of [...]

While the Hirst auction ended up being a defiant cash cow for Sotheby’s, channeling the artist’s aesthetics  through works like the Warhol print above couldn’t save the auction house from disappointing results from last week’s Contemporary sales.
Is a bleak one (at least for the short term).
As the maelstrom of turmoil affecting the international economy continues [...]

A gorgeous M+C from the Bellini showcase in Rome.
When it comes to Old Masters paintings, OMNP sometimes finds that living stateside is akin to going to movie theater in the ‘burbs- your’e going to get some of the big releases, but your certainly not going to get all of them. Click MORE to read through [...]

Yes, it’s a copy, but it’s a great work nevertheless.
The steady flood of October auctions continues, as OMNP previews Dorotheum’s sale of a quality group of Old Master paintings on Tuesday the 14th. Most of these paintings listed  run at a premium, priced at around €50,000 EUR or higher, however there are some bargains to [...]

OMNP Auction Preview of Skinner Sale 2426, European Furniture & Decorative Arts , Boston, Thursday, October 3rd, 2008

OMNP lists a few more exhibitions hitting up the big museums in the US and Europe in the upcoming months. Links are below. Newslinks have been updated on the right, as well.
US
Exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook and other priceless Renaissance artifacts from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in “Medieval and Renaissance [...]

In the age of the blockbuster exhibition, museums pack the crowds with exhibitions that present popular, headlining-grabbing artists. Two recent Old Masters shows demonstrate how this curatorial approach can sometimes produce stimulating results and at other times, head-scratching ones.
Turner to be compared to Masters [BBC]
“Turner and the Masters” [Tate Britian official website]
On the heels [...]

OMNP recently spent a Friday afternoon with the charming Hugo Nathan, a young Old Masters dealer who presides over the New York branch of Dickinson-Roundell-a prestigious dealing partnership in the field for the past two decades. Mr. Nathan was recently responsible for the gallery’s exhibition, Devotio Moderno, a show that caught OMNP’s eye for it’s [...]

OMNP strives to show the importance of Old Masters by underscoring their resonance today. In doing so, OMNP will regularly profile a Contemporary artist who has been directly influenced by the work of Old Masters. This week’s artist is Kim Keever, a New York based artist whose photographs draw from the sublime qualities of landscape [...]

J. M. W. Turner

at the Tisch Galleries, 2nd floor
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
on view till September 21, 2008
Click MORE for the review

The review for the Turner retrospective at the Met will be posted shortly. And you can now find information and contact pages for OMNP above the NEWS section.
A few news links and topics of interest for the weekend:
Artists Represent Most Powerful Emotion: Love at the National Gallery in London [Art Daily]

The National Gallery [...]

A penury of Old Masters is good (and bad) for sales [Souren Melikian, International Herald Tribune]
Mr. Melikian wraps up last week’s Old Masters sales in London. A slideshow of sales highlights reveals some information that OMNP overlooked. Of note: A big reason that the Van Dyck portrait of a stallion [...]

OMNP has added information on recent news and exhibitions to the left hand side of the site for your convenience.
A few items of interest from the past week:
£300m: Fashion king’s art collection in sale of century/Andrew Johnson/UK Independent
The heir to the late Yves Saint Laurent mulls over selling his massive art collection, which [...]

Masters and Surprises: In London, Old Masters Set To Be Sold” [Jay Akasie, New York Sun]
“At Sotheby’s, exceptional Old Masters offering lead to six records” [Souren Melikian, International Herald Tribune]
“Old Masters Reemerge for London Summer Sales” [Amy Page, ARTINFO]

“Turner, Hals Works Sold in 51.5 Million-Pound Sotheby’s Auction” [Scott Reyburn, Bloomberg]

“Sotheby’s old masters sales fetches [...]

Sotheby’s Official Results, Sale L08040/Old Master Drawings
OMNP finds it a bit amusing that while the sale of the Goya drawings being sold over at Christie’s received a fair amount of press coverage, there was no mention of Sotheby’s sale of the Parmigianino drawing, shown above. The estimate on this lot can be chalked up [...]