Mark McDonald – författare

The Metropolitan Museum Journal is issued annually and publishes original research on works of art in the Museum's collection. Highlights of volume 54 include conservators' discoveries of Renaissance sculptor Andrea della Robbia's workshop techniques, a new reading of lavishly dressed women on tile panels from 17th-century Iran as courtesans, and John Singer Sargent's decisive role in choosing his socialite sitters' fashionable dress.

Founded in 1968, the Metropolitan Museum Journal is a blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually that features original research on the history, interpretation, conservation, and scientific examination of works of art in the Museum’s collection. Its scope encompasses the diversity of artistic practice from antiquity to the present day. The Journal encourages contributions offering critical and innovative approaches that will further our understanding of works of art.

The first comprehensive account in English of Renaissance Spain’s preeminent sculptorAlonso Berruguete (c. 1488–1561) revolutionized the arts of Renaissance Spain with a dramatic style of sculpture that reflected the decade or more he had spent in Italy while young. Trained as a painter, he traveled to Italy around 1506, where he interacted with Michelangelo and other leading artists. In 1518, he returned to Spain and was appointed court painter to the new king, Charles I. Eventually, he made his way to Valladolid, where he shifted his focus to sculpture, opening a large workshop that produced breathtaking multistory altarpieces (retablos) decorated with sculptures in painted wood.  This handsomely illustrated catalogue is the first in English to treat Berruguete’s art and career comprehensively. It follows his career from his beginnings in Castile to his final years in Toledo, where he produced his last great work, the marble tomb of Cardinal Juan de Tavera. Enriching the chronological narrative are discussions of important aspects of Berruguete’s life and practice: his complicated relationship with social status and wealth; his activity as a draftsman and use of prints; how he worked with his many assistants to create his wood sculptures; and his legacy as an artist.Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, WashingtonExhibition Schedule:National Gallery of Art, Washington(October 13, 2019–February 17, 2020)Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas(March 29–July 26, 2020)

A fascinating look at how trades and occupations—and the people who perform them—have been popularized through prints and photographs Small Trades: Real and Imagined explores the social and cultural significance of everyday occupations, as portrayed in prints and photographs from the early sixteenth to the mid-twentieth century. This beautifully illustrated volume features nearly two hundred works on paper depicting tradespeople—from blacksmiths and bakers to chimney sweeps and grocers—as well as those in less savory professions, such as pickpockets and ratcatchers. Incisive essays uncover the multifaceted intents behind these images, be it laughter, disgust, or voyeuristic admiration. Beyond mere genre scenes or portraits, however, these compelling images by artists such as Abraham Bosse, Annibale Carracci, William Hogarth, Eugène Atget, and August Sander offer fascinating insights into the relationship between class and consumerism, as well as the transformation in social dynamics that followed the dawn of the industrial age. The book concludes with an in-depth look at Irving Penn’s arresting series Small Trades (1950–51) that reveals how these seemingly simple images of ordinary working people became landmarks in the history of twentieth-century photography and icons of modern art.Published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York(March 25–August 8, 2027)