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Three Important European Paintings Acquired

The Museum's European collection has been significantly enriched through the generous gift of three important 16th- and 17th-century paintings. Donated by Edwin and Adrianne Joseph, the works include a splendid Adam and Eve created around 1520 by the Flemish Master of Lucretia; a handsome Portrait of a Man, ca. 1570, by the Amsterdam portraitist and figure painter Dirck Barendsz.; and a major mythological canvas by the Antwerp painter Otto van Veen - his monumental Saturn and Minerva Beckoning Venus away from Ceres, Bacchus, and Silenus.

Prior to the Joesphs' gift, the Museum's collection of European art did not include a painting of Adam and Eve, a subject that became increasingly important to Northern artists in the years after 1504, when Albrecht Durer issued his revolutionary Adam and Eve engraving. Following Durer's lead, artists such as Jan Gossaert, Maerten van Heemskerck, Lucas Cranach, and the Master of Lucretia turned to the subject in part to demonstrate their mastery of the male and female nude in the new Italian High Renaissance style. With the arrival of the Master of Lucretia's Adam and Eve, the Museum can now represent this crucial, early episode of Italian influence on Northern European art. The paintings by Barendsz and Van Veen are equally significant additions, for the collection previously contained no example of 16th-century Netherlandish portraiture and no work by the great Rubens teacher Van Veen.

The Museum extends its profound thanks to the Josephs for their remarkable donation and invites everyone to view two of the paintings -- Adam and Eve and Portrait of a Man -- now installed in the Dalis Foundation Galleries of European Art.

For More Information or Images Please Contact the Chrysler at (757) 664-6200 or museum@chrysler.org

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