Getty Museum Gets New Director and National Gallery of Canada Gets Rare Renaissance Masterpiece

By Stan Parchin
Monday August 15, 2005

Dr. Michael Brand, Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA, has been appointed the new Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA after a high-profile extensive search to replace Deborah Gribbon, who resigned in October 2004. Brand served as the chief executive officer of the VMFA for five years. His resignation becomes effective in November 2005. An expert in Indian art and architecture, Dr. Brand has overseen plans for the VFMA's $163 million expansion, set for completion in 2008. Under his directorship, the museum made exceptional acquisitions such as Venus and Cupid (ca. 1625-1630), an oil painting by Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652/3), a Gandharan seated Buddha and a pair of ancient Chinese seated Bodhisattvas.

Meanwhile, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa has acquired Virgin and Child with an Angel (ca. 1535-1540), a Roman Mannerist oil on panel painting by Francesco Salviati (1510-1563). The artwork, quite large and very well preserved, is presently on view at the NGC as part of the special exhibition Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and the Renaissance in Florence.

Born in Florence, Salviati apprenticed in the workshop of Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531) and then moved to Rome. Virgin and Child with an Angel depicts an elegantly dressed Virgin Mary with a sleeping Christ Child in her arms, accompanied by an angel contemplating a transparent veil. Salviati's paintings are characterized by their elegance, rich colors, highly imaginative poses, air of artificiality and attention to ornamental detail.

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From your Guide: Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions, is a specialist in ancient, late-medieval and Renaissance art and history. His interests include: the art and culture of Old and New Kingdom Egypt; the Italian and Northern Renaissances; Church history; and witchcraft, heresy and social dissent in late-medieval and early Modern Europe.

Image credits:
(1) Mike Curtin / Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Dr. Michael Brand

(2) Francesco Salviati (1510-1563)
Virgin and Child with an Angel, ca. 1535-1540
Oil on panel
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Purchased 2005