VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Each month, Rienzi highlights a great work of art in the Rienzi Collection. Gallery Talks are given on the third Thursday of the month at 1 pm by museum curators, conservators, educators, and librarians. .

At January's Gallery Talk, Dr. Helga Aurisch, Curator of European Art, will discuss Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus, a mythological painting by Angelica Kauffmann, one of the leading women artists in the history of art. As a painter, Kauffman was in the forefront of the 18th-century Neoclassical movement and her painting of Ariadne draws directly from antiquity and the tales of the Roman poet Ovid.

Contact 713.639.7800 or rienzi@mfah.org  for information. Admission is free, reservations encouraged.

Rienzi is the MFAH house museum for European decorative arts. Originally the home of arts patrons Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III, Rienzi comprises a remarkable art collection, house, and gardens. For more than 40 years, the Mastersons collected decorative arts and paintings made from the 17th to mid-19th century. The collection and residence were used and enjoyed by the owners, their children, grandchildren, and friends until 1997, when Rienzi was given to the MFAH.

Image caption: Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus, Angelica Kauffman, 1774, oil on canvas. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harris Masterson III in memory of Neill Turner Masterson, Jr., 69.23. (detail above, full image below).