A great challenge for Scotland

This August, Europe's jolliest cultural jamboree, the Edinburgh International Festival, includes an exceptional fact the opening of the Playfair Link at the National Galleries of Scotland. This ambitious unravelling links W.H. Playfair's two noble Doric buildings upon The Mound, the National Gallery and Royal Scottish Academy, in a largely subterraneous building, designed by John Miller and Partners to house the National Gallery's first purpose-built exhibition space. one as well as the other the building and its first exhibition will be reviewed in nearest month's APOLLO. (See also 'Around the Edinburgh Galleries' upon page 82 of this issue.)

The Playfair Link uncloses with 'The Age of Titian', a mouth-watering exhibition that brings together works of art from renaissance Venice that have been or remain in Scottish private and public collections. At its core are the five Titians which arrived at the National Gallery in 1945 as part of the remarkably generous loan of 26 paintings by the agency of the 5th Earl of Ellesmere later the 6th Duke of Sutherland. single of the exhibition's principal themes is Scottish collecting and collectors, and the Duke of Sutherland's paintings will be seen in the connection of such works as the Earl of Wemyss's Nativity by the agency of Gerolamo Romanino, Moretto's King David, from the Southesk collection, the Duke of Buccleuch's portrait of Alvise Contarini through Veneziano Jacometto, and the Marquess of Bute's Christ and the Centurion of Capernaum by the agency of Paris Bordon, which receives its first detailed analysis in this issue of APOLLO, in an article by means of Alexandra Jackson on pages 42-49

Scotland's obligation to private collectors, both in bourns of what remains in their hands and what has passed from them to public collections, could not be made clearer, a point worth stressing since the of recent origins broke of the proposed sale in September of Dumfries House in Ayrshire by means of the Marquess of Bute. The house, designed by the agency of the Adam brothers, and built in 1754-59 is of outstanding significance for the survival of with equal reason much of its original furnishings, including the largest collection of Chippendale furniture in private hands, supplied to the house in 1759-66 and substantial, slightly earlier assemblages by two leading Scottish cabinetmakers, William Mathie and Alexander Peter

The sale is not unexpect since the near marquess has never lived in the house, which in the past hundred has been in effect a dower house. Although locate in attractive policies, it is in not in a particularly appealing area. Until not long ago it was generally regarded as the finest of the Crichton-Stuarts' many possessions, on the other hand now that Victorian architecture is fitly appreciated, the splendour of mountain Stuart, which the family has always regarded as its principal abiding-place has eclipsed it--especially as high hill Stuart and its magnificent estate, unlike Dumfries House, are unclose to the public.

Johnny Bute as the not absent marquess prefers to be called, has made a great succes of high hill Stuart, notably in the way that he has continued the tradition of his family's patronage of contemporary art and architecture. each detail of the public opening, from the design of the guidebook to the commissioning from architects Munkenbeck & Marshall of a stylish of recent origin visitor centre, opened in 2001 is a type from which the United Kingdom's sum of two units national trusts, as well as private country-house proprietors have much to learn. This forward-looking aspect of the estate is further embodied in the visual arts programme race by the Marquess's sister Lady Sophie Crichton-Stuart, which arranges displays of contemporary art in the house and its surroundings (currently there is an installation by the agency of Langland and Bell in its William Burge chapel).

It is reasonable therefore for Johnny Bute to argue that the sale exhibits a straightforward commercial decision, since 'my heart has always been upon Bute rather than in Ayrshire. With a view to devolving assets to the nearest generation of my family, I have therefore decided to dispose of the Dumfries Estate.' This at hands a testing challenge to Scotland's public collections, and in particular the National Trust for Scotland, since the sale is not being made to suited capital tax liabilities, and in like manner the price will be high.

'The Age of Titian' present to views what has been lost to Scotland, major paintings from the Southesk, Aberdeen and Hamilton Palace collections among them. This does not cause real sorrow since these paintings have extreme pointed up in easily accessible public collections. on the contrary if the contents of Dumfries House were to be dispersed there would be a real faculty of perception of tragedy, since once dismantled, a historic collection--unlike an individual painting--is gone for at any time Last year, the National Galleries of Scotland scored a notable triumph with the acquisition, partly in lieu of estate what one ought to do of the Duke of Sutherland's Venus Anadyomene through Titian. The cost was 116 million [pound sterling]. Dumfries House has an level greater call on the nation's purse and a happy conclusion to the negotiations for its time to come presently being conducted in high stealth would be splendid news for Scotland--and the world.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Apollo Magazine Ltd

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group