Saturday, February 09, 2008

The Accidental Diptych

Landscape With a River God, left, reunited with Venus and Adonis, rightSeparated since the late 1700s, the two pieces, "Landscape With a River God” (left) and “Venus and Adonis” (right), will be reunited in one frame for the first time in an exhibition opening on Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's believed that this work of Nicolas Poussin was orginally cut in two for commercial reasons -- it's was likely easier to sell two smaller works than one large one. When the show closes in May, they will be separated again; one piece remaining in the permanent collection of the Met and the other returning to Musée Fabre in Montpellier, France. --via the New York Times Together at Last: 2 Paintings in a Frame

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