Scarlet and Black, April ll, HHS—ll. 5

Selected

Works from

the thling

Collection

One of the prints in the Collection is the engraving (right) by the
Dutch artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), "Scene of Two Leaders 0!
Battle", executed around 1630. From a century earlier is the drawing
(below) done about 1536, from the School of Michelangelo Buonarotti
(1475-1564), a pencil, ink, and wash study tram "The Last Judgment",

. which is over the altar in the Sistine Chapel in Rome Both of these
works, reproduced here through the assistance of Richard Cervene
and Don Rempp. are now on exh '

Rooms.

The college s permanent collection of art
has been sig icantly augmented recently
by the acquis on oi a gilt from Clinton A.
Rehling, ’35.

The ﬁrst pieces of this gilt arrived in mid
March, and Curator oi the Permanent
Collection Richard Cervene has been busy
since then having them catalogued and
framed Twenty of the ﬁrst seventy- -{ive
prints and drawings are now on display

outside the Private Dining Rooms in the-

Forum

The works in this opening exhibition have
been chosen to indicate the range of artists
and styles in the collection. Fourteen artists
are represented, from the fifteenth through
the nineteenth centuries, the Italian Proto-
Renaissance to Tokugawa Japan. Among
the tinest works shown are a pencil drawing
by Benozzo Gozzoli, ca. 1455, oi the
Presentation at the Temple; the ukiyo-e
Urami Falls. ca, 1340, by Ando Hiroshige;
Boy with Open Mouth by Giovanni Battista
Piezeta, in charcoal and chalk about 1717;
and an Honore Daumier etching Lawyer,
from around 1850

One special treasure' in this segment oi the
collection' is a signed drawing by Leonardo
da Vinci. This is not on display in the Forum
showing because, as Cervene remarked,
“we have no control down here."

In fact, one difficulty with which the art
department is faced as a result of this gift is
suitable display space. Cervene said that he
had asked Rehling to hold off on sending
some of the most valuable and delicate
pieces “because we have no room, nowhere
to show them”. Great care has been taken in
the mounting and framing oi the pieces now
on exhibit In order to prevent discoloration
or damage to the works. Non glare
plexiglass allows all the details to be clearly
visible, and 100 per cent rag paper which
will not deterorate, has been used in mat-
ting The work has been done by the art
department's trainer. Don Rempp.

Future installments of the collection will
include such diverse items as T'ang bran»
zes, Hellenistic marbles, and work of con-
temporaty sculptors Jean Tinguely and
Rafael-Jesus Soto, as well as paintings by
Luca Signorelli, Pieter Brueghel the
Younger, and Man Ray, and prints by
Rembrandt, Rouault, Matisse. and Picasso,

The collection will be a part at the per
manent collection, but will be kept together
under the separate name of the “Rehling
Collection oriirt”.

Rehling, consultant to the United Nations
Development Program, has worked in
seventy countries around the world, which

has allowed him to assemble a collection
which reﬂects, according to Cervene, “a
catholic interest in various media and an
exceptional sensitivity”. The fit is a result of
more than thirty years oi collecting, “not as
any kind of investment, which is so
reireshing these days", Cerven said, but
“all for love.” '

The collection is on the basis of personal
criteria not some plan to collect certain
things. Nevertheless, the‘ result is what
Cervene calls ”of inestimable educational
and esthetic value".

it is the educational aspect which most
excites Cervene. “What is important is to
enjoy them and use them," he said of the
works in the gift. “It would have been
pointless just to dump them in some gallery
in New York,” he pointed out, where the
pieces would be just more oi the same.
Rehling chose to donate his collection to
Grinnell because he knew that they would be
used in art history classes here, as well as,
being shown to the public, The curator
declared, “As a primary resource for
purpose-oi study and learning the collection
is enormously exciting . . . Students can look
at these things and rind out why this one is
Mantegna and not someone else . . , That
kind of close study is really valuable.”

The entire collection consists of over three
hundred pieces. it is not possible to deter»
mine exactly how many there are, as the
latest inventory was made in 1965, and more
works have been added since then. There
will be a number of installmenm to the gift,
over a period of time, at the discretion of the
donor,

As the items come in, they are being
appraised, but the total monetary value oi
the gift' is not to be disclosed. ”That s not
important " Cervene stated He does not
want the collection to be considered by the
students as a financial windiall for the
college, or tor them to go in awe of them as
rare and precious masterpieces, but for the
works to be studied and appreciated for
themselves, as individual, unique esthetic
expressions. “not only (tor) the college, but
, , . the midwest in general."

“The Rehllng Collection oi Art," Cervene
said by way oi summation, “in conjunction
with current and one-going holdings in the
college Permanent Collection, insures
opportunities ior continual contemplative
discoveries and Visual enrichment of the
highest quality to students, [acuity and
guests oi the college in the years ahead.”

by Richard Cleaver

 

