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26-526: Edward Solly (25 April 1776 – 2 December 1844) was an English merchant living in Berlin, who amassed an unprecedented collection of Italian Trecento and Quattrocento paintings and outstanding examples of Early Netherlandish painting , at a time when those schools were still largely unappreciated. In 1821, following negotiations by his associate Benjamin Wegner , Solly sold his collection of about 3000 works to

52-540: The Albigensian Crusade in the early 13th century, is evident. In contrast to the artistic and literary achievements of the century, Trecento music (at least in written form) flourished in the second half of the century, and the period is often extended (especially in English-language scholarship) into the first decades of the 15th century, as a so-called "Long Trecento". Musicians and composers of

78-472: The Dutch Golden Age predominating, at least numerically, in a very varied range of works. When the cream of his collection, those paintings he had reserved for himself, were sold by order of his heirs, his daughters Sarah and Lavinia and his son Edward Solly F.R.S., at Christie's , 8 May 1847, a few were held back, or "bought in" at the sale when they failed to reach their reserve, as was one of

104-747: The Galleria Giustiniani was published under supervision of Joachim von Sandrart , in the form of a compilation of engravings of the family's gallery of statuary, most notably the Athena Giustiniani , and the Giustiniani Hestia . Giustiniani followed interests in many other fields, writing essays in architecture, music, and art, as well as on such practical matters as hunting, travel, and horse trading . A friend and neighbour of Caravaggio's first patron, cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte , he extended his own friendship to

130-703: The Proto-Renaissance in art history. Painters of the Trecento included Giotto di Bondone , as well as painters of the Sienese School , which became the most important in Italy during the century, including Duccio di Buoninsegna , Simone Martini , Lippo Memmi , Ambrogio Lorenzetti and his brother Pietro . Important sculptors included two pupils of Giovanni Pisano : Arnolfo di Cambio and Tino di Camaino , and Bonino da Campione . The Trecento

156-610: The Samuel Henry Kress and Andrew W. Mellon collections; thus Fra Filippo Lippi 's Madonna of the Niche and Duccio's Nativity triptych are both now in the National Gallery, Washington . Following the successful sale that he had urged so long, in 1821 Solly moved to London, where he retired from shipping and dealt in works of art, which filled his house at 7, Curzon Street , Mayfair. His interests narrowed to

182-452: The troubadours . In music, the Trecento was a time of vigorous activity in Italy, as it was in France , with which there was a frequent interchange of musicians and influences. Distinguishing the period from the preceding century was an emphasis on secular song, especially love lyrics; much of the surviving music is polyphonic , but the influence of the troubadours who came to Italy, fleeing

208-478: The 13th and 14th centuries, which had been preserved largely in the churches and monasteries for which they had been commissioned. He had a judicious eye also for early Netherlandish painting : his most famous purchase in that field were the wings of the Ghent Altarpiece of Hubert and Jan van Eyck , which was sold by the cathedral canons soon after it had been returned to Ghent in 1816; Solly purchased

234-533: The Baltic timber trade, with offices in the city of London . As Non-Conformists the family suffered social restrictions in the higher levels of English society. During the Napoleonic Wars the firm secured immense contracts for the supply of Prussian and Polish oak timber and ship's stores from the Baltic. Solly removed to Stockholm and then in 1813 to Berlin, overseeing the family firm's bulk purchases on

260-613: The High Renaissance. He acted on occasion as advisor to John Bowes , whose collection forms the Bowes Museum . Often sensing himself in financial trouble, in eight London sales between 1825 and 1837 Solly sold paintings, drawings and engravings, according to Frits Lugt , although the records now online through the Getty Provenance Index show a total of 1306 lots in many auctions, with small paintings of

286-582: The Northern Lowlands, Solly volunteered to carry the news of Napoleon's defeat to London. The journey took him fifteen days through enemy territory. He sailed to England across the North Sea on board a Dutch herring boat and arrived in London twenty-four hours before the official messenger. In Berlin he married the daughter of Auguste Krüger in 1816. His great personal charm and intelligence opened

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312-635: The Prussian State, to form a public collection. In 1815 Frederick William III had bought the remains of the Giustiniani collection for just such a purpose, but resisted this purchase. Solly's financial situation became straitened. Through the mediation of Benjamin Wegner , a friend and agent of Edward Solly, negotiations on a purchase of the collection by the Prussian state began in 1820, and in 1821 Solly's entire collection of some 3,000 pictures

338-582: The Prussian king; 677 of them formed a core of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin . Solly acquired a second collection during his years in London after 1821. Solly is also credited for having undertaken a perilous journey to deliver the first news of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig to the English. Solly was a younger brother in an English merchant family headed by Isaac Solly that were engaged in

364-483: The Trecento included the renowned Francesco Landini , as well as Maestro Piero , Gherardello da Firenze , Jacopo da Bologna , Giovanni da Cascia , Paolo "Tenorista" da Firenze , Niccolò da Perugia , Bartolino da Padova , Antonio Zachara da Teramo , Matteo da Perugia , and Johannes Ciconia . [REDACTED] Media related to 14th-century art in Italy at Wikimedia Commons Vincenzo Giustiniani Vincenzo Giustiniani (13 September 1564 – 27 December 1637)

390-643: The artist, purchasing Saint Matthew and the Angel when it was rejected by church officials for its perceived lack of decorum. He died in Rome in 1637. The collection itself was broken up at the beginning of the 19th century, when the king of Prussia acquired over 160 paintings, the most important of which were destined for museums in Berlin . Today the Berlin Gemäldegalerie houses 43 paintings from

416-517: The family business, while Benedetto entered the Church and became a cardinal himself, 16 November 1586. Both brothers were keen art patrons, and the collection they established became one of the most important in its age. On Giustiniani's death - Benedetto died in 1621 - it contained over 300 paintings (15 by Caravaggio) and more than 1200 pieces of sculpture, and the various catalogues constitute an invaluable resource for early 17th-century art. In 1631,

442-467: The finest interior views by Pieter de Hooch and possibly Vermeer 's Lady Standing at a Virginal (National Gallery, London), both falling within the desirable contemporary category of " cabinet pictures ", he was not drawn to the Seicento and Baroque Old Masters that formed the main other interest of contemporary collectors and connoisseurs, but rather to the early Byzantinising Italian paintings of

468-509: The highest social circles, and as his business affairs prospered he was on good terms with ministry officials, the Prussian court, artists, connoisseurs and intellectuals. In his travels he began to take an interest in paintings. The social turmoil of the wars and the dissolution of monasteries brought many works of art onto the market, and Solly proved a discerning buyer, concerned with the provenance and documentation of works he bought, to an extent unusual in his generation. Though he owned one of

494-605: The last Genoese ruler of the Aegean island of Chios , which had been a family possession for centuries. In 1566 the island was lost to the Ottomans. On April 14, 1566 an Ottoman fleet under Piali Pasha arrive at the port of Chios and occupied it. The island was pillaged; churches destroyed or converted to mosques. Some members of the family were taken captive and transported to Constantinople. About twenty younger Giustinianis were drafted as janissaries . Three accepted their fate;

520-519: The other eighteen were killed on September 6, 1566. A painting about their martyrdom is in the Doge's Palace, Genoa . Vincenzo and his elder brother Benedetto were taken by their father to Rome, where an uncle was already a cardinal. Giuseppe Giustiniani became a banker, and by his death in 1600 was financier to the Vatican and one of the richest men in Rome. Vincenzo Giustiniani followed his father into

546-611: The panels through the paintings dealer Nieuwenhuys. Solly and the firm suffered a major setback when twenty of their merchantmen, running the Napoleonic blockade on behalf of the Allies, were captured by Danes within the Napoleonic system and taken to Copenhagen. Only after years of pressuring was any compensation effected. Solly continued collecting nevertheless, increasingly with the idea that his paintings might be purchased by

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572-641: The part of the European continent not covered by Napoleon's Continental System . Through his acquaintance with 'Fighting Charlie' Vane he was present at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. Afterwards he presented a fine sword to Captain Thomas Harris inscribed with the legend From Edward Solly To Thomas Noel Harris, In Commemoration Of Their Fellowship At The Memorable Battle Of Leipzig Of The 18th And 19th Of October 1813. Due to his familiarity with

598-536: The two works attributed to "Lionardo da Vinci" (sic). Sarah Solly donated five of the paintings to the National Gallery in 1879, including a Portrait of Giovanni della Volta with his Wife and Children by Lorenzo Lotto (bought in at the 1847 sale), and two Dutch Golden Age paintings . Trecento The Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Italian Renaissance or at least

624-455: Was also famous as a time of heightened literary activity, with writers working in the vernacular instead of Latin. Dante , Petrarch and Boccaccio were the leading writers of the age. Dante produced his famous La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy ), now seen as a summation of the medieval worldview, and Petrarch wrote verse in a lyrical style influenced by the Provençal poetry of

650-613: Was an aristocratic Italian banker, art collector and intellectual of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, known today largely for the Giustiniani art collection, assembled at the Palazzo Giustiniani , near the Pantheon , in Rome, and at the family palazzo at Bassano by Vincenzo and his brother, Cardinal Benedetto , and for his patronage of the artist Caravaggio . Vincenzo's father, Giuseppe Giustiniani, had been

676-601: Was bought for the newly founded Alte Nationalgalerie . 677 paintings were selected for display in the museum; others were hung in the Hohenzollern palaces to replace those that had been removed to the museum. Though Solly was an early admirer of early Netherlandish painting , Solly's first collection was mostly Italian, including Raphael's Solly Madonna ( illustration, right ). Under National Socialism, some of Solly's Italian pictures were traded for those by native German masters and, some through Duveen , found their way into

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