More Jewels in LACMA’s Crown

The Ahmanson Foundation’s impact on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s collection is no secret. Since 1972--in good times and bad--the foundation has consistently provided funds for acquisitions of artworks. The result is most obvious among the museum’s European Old Masters, where more often than not the most distinguished paintings and sculptures have been purchased with Ahmanson money.

Now two more paintings have joined the parade, courtesy of the foundation. “The Martyrdom of St. Cecilia,” a dramatic interpretation of a religious theme by 17th century Italian artist Carlo Saraceni, was recently installed in the Thornton Gallery of the Ahmanson Building. “Stairs and Fountain in the Park of a Roman Villa,” an imaginary scene by Hubert Robert, France’s foremost landscape painter in the 18th century, goes on view today in the Carter Galleries.

Both works are jewels in LACMA’s crown, the museum’s curators say, but they were selected to round out the collection as well as to provide aesthetic satisfaction.

The Robert gives the museum a beautiful 18th century landscape that is likely to be a favorite with the public, says J. Patrice Marandel, LACMA’s curator of European painting and sculpture. Having emerged from the museum’s conservation laboratory, where Joseph Fronek gave it a careful cleaning and pronounced it in “wonderful condition,” the immense--11-by-9-foot--work is now the centerpiece of a long gallery.

“It’s a great addition to our 18th century French collection,” associate curator Mary Levkoff says. “We have many wonderful French paintings, but they are all relatively small. We needed a big painting to anchor that gallery. It’s really critical.”

“Stairs and Fountain in the Park of a Roman Villa,” which was painted in the 1770s, depicts a vast stone stairway rising from the lower level of a park to a plane high on the horizon. It’s a dreamy scene, in which a rainbow emerges in mist from a fountain’s spray and tiny, deftly painted figures stroll on the grounds and ascend the stairs. Described by LACMA curators as “a visual elegy” rather than a literal description of a particular place, the painting combines Roman-inspired monuments with people in French costumes, in a fanciful, idealized landscape.

Robert (1733-1803) was a native of France but worked in Italy from 1754-65, transforming his Rococo style to a more classical mode of expression. During his Italian sojourn he met and traveled with another French painter, Jean-Honore Fragonard. Their sketches of such famous sites as the Villa d’Este at Tivoli may have inspired “Stairs and Fountain in the Park of a Roman Villa.”

The early history of the painting is unknown, but experts say it may have been part of a large ensemble created to decorate a grand building. Camille Groult, a major French collector of 18th century paintings, bought the work in the early 20th century. It remained with his heirs in Paris until acquired by LACMA.

The Saraceni, on the other hand, helps to fill a historical gap. “One of the reasons we went after it is that we have a very good collection of Italian Baroque paintings, but nothing to represent that moment in Italian art when Caravaggio [and his circle] revolutionized painting in Rome,” Marandel says. “This is one of the finest examples that exists in any museum in the world.”

Saraceni, who was born in Venice in 1579, moved to Rome around 1598 and worked in Caravaggio’s studio there. Known as one of Caravaggio’s most gifted and distinctive disciples, he was commissioned to do easel paintings, large altarpieces and frescoes for the Quirinal Palace.

With its strong contrasts of light and dark, diagonal movement and deeply emotional quality, “The Martyrdom of St. Cecilia” is a powerful example of Saraceni’s skill and the Baroque style, Marandel says. The painting, executed around 1610-15, depicts a saint whose corpse is said to have been exhumed completely intact. After the miraculous event she was designated the patron saint of music.

“It’s just a marvelous painting,” Marandel says. “It has such elegance and drama at the same time. Although it’s called ‘martyrdom,’ it’s not gruesome. It really depicts the moment before the martyrdom. The action seems suspended in time.”

Marandel is particularly pleased to have landed the Saraceni because he had been “following it for years,” he says, and was aware that Scott Schaefer, one of his predecessors, had tried to acquire it for LACMA several years ago from a private dealer. At the time, the dealer sold the painting to Barbara Piasecka Johnson, the Polish-born widow of J. Seward Johnson, head of pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson. She assembled a widely publicized collection of Old Masters, drawings and decorative arts during the 1970s and ‘80s.

Johnson exhibited about 80 religious works from her collection, including the Saraceni, at the Polish National Museum in Warsaw in 1990. “But now she has other priorities and is selling her collection,” Marandel says. “I am very grateful to the foundation for continuing to enrich our collection. It’s an ongoing project, but this painting adds to the gallery tremendously.”

* The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (213) 857-6000. Admission: $6.