BRITAIN LETS GETTY PURCHASE MASTERPIECE.Byline: Associated Press The government gave permission Friday for a major Renaissance painting to go to America because no British institution offered to match its $22.5 million price. The John Paul Getty Museum in Malibu bought the 15th century work, ``The Holy Family Holy Family, term referring to the child Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In the Roman Catholic Church the feast in its honor falls usually on the first Sunday after the Epiphany. In art the theme of the Holy Family became popular during the Renaissance, probably deriving from the larger theme of the Nativity in medieval representations. There are fine examples by Signorelli, Michelangelo, and Rubens. with the Infant St. John'' by Fra Bartolommeo, but the government delayed giving an export license Export License Permission from the exporter's government to export specific merchandise to a particular country. to allow for British bids. There were none. The painting was sold by an aristocratic couple, Viscount Gage and his wife, who are battling to maintain their stately home, Firle Place, in Sussex, southern England. ``It was a very difficult decision,'' said Sue Bond, a spokeswoman for the family. ``But it makes more sense to sell one picture that will maintain the property for a long period than to sell paintings one by one . . . In the end you have a lot of space on the walls.'' The Getty Museum will loan the painting for six months to the National Gallery in London before it goes to California. The viscount will get about half of the $22.5 million. The rest will go for taxes. The painting, considered a masterpiece of the Renaissance era, will join a number of other famous works at the Getty, including Van Gogh's ``Irises'' and Titian Titian (tĭsh`ən), c.1490–1576, Venetian painter, whose name was Tiziano Vecellio, b. Pieve di Cadore in the Dolomites. Of the very first rank among the artists of the Renaissance, Titian had an immense influence on succeeding generations of painters, especially in his use of color.'s ``Venus and Adonis Adonis, in Greek mythologyAdonis (ədō`nĭs, ədŏn`ĭs), in Greek mythology, beautiful youth beloved by Aphrodite and Persephone. He was born of the incestuous union of Myrrha (or Smyrna) and Cinyras, king of Cyprus..''``It's one of the very few great Italian Renaissance paintings that any American museum has bought in a long while,'' said museum director John Walsh. Completed in Florence, Italy, in 1509, the painting depicts the Holy Family and St. John resting under a pomegranate pomegranate (pŏm`grănĭt, pŏm`ə–), handsome deciduous and somewhat thorny large shrub or small tree (Punica granatum) belonging to the family Punicaceae, native to semitropical Asia and naturalized in the Mediterranean region in very early times. tree. |
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