CONTEMPORARY ART

Artists in the gutter

The interest in squalor evident in recent british art stretches back to the satire of Hogarth and James Gilray. Far from being a sign of a recent moral decline, it may be a clue to the national character.

ARCHITECTURE

Villa Frankenstein

What’s in a building’s name? almost nothing, to judge from the changing application of the word ‘villa’ over three centuries.

Lesser gods

Concluding his article on Pontormo and the Medici, Larry J. Feinberg discusses a recently discovered drawing by the artist. Perhaps a study for a tapestry border or a decorative surround of a fresco, it may relate to the horoscope of Francesco de Medici.

Developing vision

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, owns one of the world’s greatest collections of historic photography, which its curators are constantly expanding with often unexpected discoveries. Sophie Leighton explains how the department’s recent acquisitions build on and perpetuate a history of the medium.

The Metropolitan’s Duccio

In 2004 the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased the last painting in private hands by one of the founders of Western art, a Madonna and Child by Duccio. The museum’s curator of Italian paintings, Keith Christiansen, publishes here the first full account of this intimate, innovative masterpiece.

Private Masterpieces

For many years the National Gallery, London, and Tate have maintained secret lists of works in private British collections that should be acquired by the nation if they are ever sold. To work out what those lists might contain, Apollo asked Martin Bailey to draw up a list of the 25 privately owned masterpieces that deserve above all others to be kept in the uk. It makes important reading at a time when worries are increasing about the low level of funding for major acquisitions by the British national collections.

Modern master

The director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, talks to Louise Nicholson about the museum’s strategies for acquiring works of the highest quality at a time when so much modern and contemporary art is soaring in price.

A renaissance partial armour from the Brunswick Armoury

The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, has added a significant acquisition to its permanent collection – a beautifully decorated partial suit of renaissance armour.