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NEWS RELEASE ARCHIVES

Museum Acquires Two Important New Works

Two new works recently acquired by the Chrysler will enhance the overall strength and importance of the Museum’s Permanent Collection—a significant 18th-century Italian sculpture and a 1932 photograph of Joseph Stalin by the legendary James Abbe. The Paduan master Giovanni Bonazza (active. 1695-1730) produced his charming terracotta relief sculpture, The Adoration of the Shepherds, in 1730 in preparation for his monumental marble sculpture of the same subject for the Chapel of the Madonna of the Rosary in the basilica of SS Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. Bonazza was one of several north Italian artists then working on the chapel’s sculptural decoration. To perfect their compositions, the sculptors involved first created small-scale sketches, or bozzetti, in terracotta before beginning their final works in marble. Beautifully carved and minutely detailed, Bonazza’s bozzetto is a complex, multi-figure composition rich with scenic and genre detail. The Madonna and Child, seated at center before an elaborately carved stable structure, are attended by Joseph and a host of adoring shepherds and angels. The Annunciation to the Shepherds takes place at the left, while other travelers approach from the right.

The Chrysler already possesses two terracotta bozzetti from the same program, and the addition of Bonazza’s Adoration of the Shepherds only serves to contribute to the Museum’s representation of this important Venetian commission. The sculpture will be installed this summer in the Museum’s 18th-century European gallery.

Giovanni Bonazza (Italian, active 1695-1730) The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1730 Museum Purchase

James Edward Abbe (American, 1883-1973) Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) in the Kremlin, Moscow, April 13, 1932 Gift of Tilly Abbe for the Abbe Family

This photograph was exhibited in the Chrysler Museum’s James Abbe Photographer exhibition in 2000. It will be included in an exhibition entitled Shooting Stalin: The Wonderful Photographs of James Abbe, organized by the Ludwig Museum in Cologne Germany on October 1, 2004.

James Abbe’s photograph of Joseph Stalin comes from the biggest photo-journalistic scoop of his long career. In 1932, rumors were circulating that Stalin was seriously ill and having difficulties performing his duties. Abbe convinced the Soviet authorities that a photograph of a healthy Stalin was needed to prove to the world that he was still in control. In Stalin’s office at the Kremlin, Abbe made six negatives in one 25 minute session. The images were published in newspapers around the world. This view with the portrait of Karl Marx suspended on the wall over Stalin is the most powerful image from the session. It directly links the founder of Communism with the commanding visage of the current leader, creating a perfect symbol for the ongoing creation of the Soviet Empire.

Recently, the photograph was used on the cover and as the frontispiece for Isaiah Berlin’s book The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture Under Communism. That book, published by the Brookings Institution, includes a foreword by its president Strobe Talbott.

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