Many thanks to Bendor Grosvenor for sendng me this NG press release. It looks as if the two paintings weren’t badly hurt, as they’re both going back on display.
NATIONAL GALLERY STATEMENT
At 5.08pm on Saturday 16 July 2011, a panic alarm was set off in Room 19 of the National Gallery.
A Gallery Assistant acted promptly and triggered the alarm after observing a person appearing to spray two of the paintings in the room with an aerosol can.
The police were called at 5.10pm and arrived at the National Gallery at 5.19pm.
A man has been arrested.
The two paintings involved are both by Nicholas Poussin, The Adoration of the Golden Calf (1633-4) and The Adoration of the Shepherds (1633-4).
Both works are part of the National Gallery permanent collection.
Prompt action by Conservation staff has ensured very little damage was sustained by the two works.
They will be returned to display in Room 19 of the National Gallery on Monday 18 July 2011.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The Adoration of the Golden Calf (1633-4)
Oil on Canvas
153.4 x 211.8 cm
Bought with a contribution from The Art Fund, 1945
Moses climbed Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the Ten Commandments. During his absence the Israelites built an idol with Aaron's help and worshipped it with song and dance. On his return, Moses was so angered by this that he smashed the tablets (Exodus: 32).The Adoration of the Golden Calf and its companion piece, The Crossing of the Red Sea were made for Amadeo dal Pozzo, a cousin of Poussin's major Roman patron, Cassiano dal Pozzo. The paintings stayed together until 1945 when the National Gallery acquired The Adoration. Poussin took the design for the group of dancers from his Bacchanalian Revel before a Term of Pan' (also in the Collection) another picture of pagan celebration, but turned the group through 180 degrees. The even distribution of blue, red and orange throughout the painting helps to unify the composition as a whole, but colour, for example the white of Aaron's cloak, is also used to isolate individual figures. Poussin also used emphatic gestures in order to tell the story.
The Adoration of the Shepherds (1633-4)
Oil on canvas
97.2 x 74 cm
Bought with a special grant and contribution from The Art Fund, 1957
The shepherds come to adore the new-born Jesus in the stable. New Testament (Luke 2: 8-14). In the background the angel announces the birth of Christ to them. Poussin uses a long-established motif, and places the Nativity in a stable built into the ruins of a classical building. This motif appears in the National Gallery's earliest Botticelli, Adoration of the Kings, and Poussin's contemporaries the Le Nain brothers used it in their Adoration of the Shepherds of about 1640. The ruins represent the collapse of the Old Dispensation, the law of the Old Testament, superseded by the New Dispensation, the kingdom of Christ. The figure of the kneeling shepherd derives from that of one of the magi in The Adoration of the Magi by the studio of (Rome, Vatican Loggie). Each figure shows a different stage in the bending motion of the human body.
Press Office, 17 July 2011
Statement from National Gallery on Poussin. - Art History Today
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