Art trove in monastery Down Under?

“Your drawing is much better than ours.”: So said Hugo Chapman of the Prints and Drawings Department at the British Museum, in 1999, when confronted with a tempera study of a head from Raphael’s workshop, probably by Giulio Romano. This head of an apostle is notable not only for its quality but also for its ownership: the community of Benedictine monks of New Norcia, western Australia, which was set up as a Catholic mission by Spain in 1846.

New Norcia is a hodge-podge of curiosities where anything might still turn up. The secret is now out, and since the discovery of the Raphael/Giulio Romano, scholars and auction houses have surveyed the paintings, none more so than Nicholas Lambourne of Christie’s. The works on paper, of which there are tens of thousands, may still conceal finds. . .

The paintings collection is of mostly Caravaggesque oils from Spain and Italy. There are a few good originals, such as a Holy Family and a Rest on the flight to Egypt by Giovanni Bernardino Azzolino, as well as works by Tomaioli, Giacinto Brandi, and the circle of Orazio Riminaldi. The majority are copies, as befits a a relatively poor mission sent round the world. The Giulio Romano, on the other hand, has an exceptional provenance. It was bought for purely religious reasons in 1941 at an auction of deaccessioned works from the National Gallery of Australia.

Posted by David on May 9, 2003 8:47 PM