Private Collection, Asia Christies, Asian Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, 31 May 2015, Lot 216 Acquired from the above by the present owner

ABOUT THE WORK

Annie Cabigting’s series of museum-goers contemplating both their mortality—and immortality—is one of her most dramatic and well-loved creations. In Mesdames, she faithfully reproduces the Portrait of Lucina Brembati, an evocative depiction of a noblewoman of the High Renaissance painted by Lorenzo Lotto, the Venetian master. Cabigting captures the cyphers of the crescent moon and the engraved ring that would reveal the lady’s identity to later generations. Lucina rises from a rich red brocade surrounded by symbols of marriage and fidelity. A gray-haired woman is in the foreground, also dressed in silk and velvet, signifying this century’s dignity and accomplishment. She seems to be in deep dialogue with the portrait, communicating from her own modern time and space. A brilliant flash of the sky blue shawl leads the eye into a forced perspective of eternity. The choice of the setting, Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Northern Italy, was also thoughtfully chosen. It was founded by Count Giacomo Carrara, “a wealthy collector who left a generous legacy to the city of Bergamo at the end of the 18th century,” a commentary of the role that art patrons play in the creation of these cultural locations. Mesdames is a tour de force that raises subtle questions of reality and illusion, the relationship between the viewer and the object, and our own position in this complexity as we ourselves observe the entire tableau. — Lisa Guerrero Nakpil