Only the Best : Masterpieces of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon

by Katharine Baetjer; James David Draper

• ISBN13: 9780810965461
• ISBN10: 0810965461
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-03-01
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Summary

This volume brings together 80 of the finest masterpieces in the collection of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, all richly illustrated in color. These magnificent works, which reflect the eclectic taste of renowned art collector Calouste Gulbenkian I 1896-1955), include paintings by Rubens, Fragonard, Gainsborough, Turner, and Manet; jewelry by Lalique and silver from services produced for thc nobility of Russia and Western Europe; Roman medallions; Ottoman ceramics; Japanese lacquerware; and books and textiles from both the Eastern and Western worlds.

Published to accompany an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, this stunning book offers dazzling testimony to Gulbenkian's devotion to quality. As a collector -- whether of ancient Egyptian pieces, Islamic works, or European painting and decorative arts -- Gulbenkian acquired "only the best".

Table of Contents

President and Chairman's Foreword	vi
Victor de Sa Machado
Director's Foreword	vii
Joao Castel-Branco Pereira
Director's Foreword	viii
Philippe de Montebello
Contributors to the Catalogue	ix
Acknowledgments	x
Note to the Reader	xi
Calouste Gulbenkian: The Collector as Creator	3	(8)
Joao Castel-Branco Pereira
A Home for Our ``Friends of a Lifetime''	11	(152)
Nuno Vassallo e Silva
Catalogue
Roman, Islamic, Armenian, Egyptian, and Chinese Art	18	(14)
Mario de Castro Hipolito
Maria Helena Trindade Lopes
Maria Antonia Pinto de Matos
Maria Queiroz Ribeiro
Medieval and Renaissance Art	32	(21)
Manuela Fidalgo
Maria Rosa Figueiredo
Luisa Sampaio
Islamic Art	53	(36)
Maria Fernanda Passos Leite
Maria Queiroz Ribeiro
Old Master Paintings	89	(20)
Luisa Sampaio
Eighteenth-Century Decorative Arts	109	(19)
Isabel Pereira Coutinho
Maria Fernanda Passos Leite
French Sculpture	128	(6)
Maria Rosa Figueiredo
Nineteenth-Century Painting	134	(14)
Luisa Sampaio
Lacquer, Lalique, and Modern Bindings	148	(15)
Isabel Pereira Coutinho
Manuela Fidalgo
Maria Fernanda Passos Leite
Selected Bibliography	163