ATLANTA (AP) – Atlanta’s High Museum of Art is giving visitors a chance to experience the engaging over-the-shoulder glance of Johannes Vermeer’s famous “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”

Along with 34 other works from the Dutch Golden Age, including four by Rembrandt van Rijn, the 17th century masterpiece is part of the exhibition “Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis,” which opened yesterday in Atlanta and runs through Sept. 29.

“What you get from this exhibition is an overview of Dutch paintings at the hand of the very best examples you can imagine,” said Emilie Gordenker, director of the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in The Hague, which owns the paintings.

“Girl with a Pearl Earring” is one of only about three dozen paintings that can definitively be attributed to Vermeer. It’s also the most famous example of a category of Dutch portrait known as a “tronie,” from a Dutch word for face. These bust-length portraits aren’t meant to capture the likeness of a specific person.

The mystery surrounding the identity of the girl with the soft, translucent skin and enigmatic gaze has contributed to the painting’s fame, which has been boosted by author Tracy Chevalier’s 1999 book of the same name. The novel, later adapted to a film starring Scarlett Johannson as the girl and Colin Firth as Vermeer, is a fictional story about the painter and his model.

The girl’s blue and yellow turban is not something a 17th-century woman would have worn, and could indicate she is a figure from history or the Bible, Gordenker said. The uncertainty allows the “freedom for us to really think about who she might be,” she said.

“Girl with a Pearl Earring” last visited the U.S. during a Vermeer retrospective at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., in 1996. Like Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” to which it is often compared, it is a relatively small painting, only about 18 by 15 inches, and occupies its own gallery at the end of the High exhibition.

Leading up to that highly anticipated finale are more extraordinary examples of 17th-century Dutch painting. They’re grouped into four categories, opening with landscapes and winding through still lifes, scenes of everyday life, and portraits.

“There are 35 paintings in the exhibition. Any one of them would be a highlight in our collection,” High director of collections and exhibitions David Brenneman said.

Among the highlights is a 1665 painting by Jan Steen, “As the Old Sing, So Twitter the Young,” a scene of debauchery with adults eating, drinking, playing music and even teaching a young child to smoke a pipe. As is characteristic of depictions of everyday life at the time, Steen is trying to convey a moralizing message _ a parrot symbolically looking on from the corner drives home the point that children will mimic their elders’ bad behavior.

The four Rembrandts in the exhibition trace the Dutch master’s career. “‘Tronie’ of a Man with a Feathered Beret” from 1635 and “Portrait of an Elderly Man” from 1667 showcase Rembrandt’s exquisite attention to detail and masterful use of light.

The exhibition had its U.S. premiere at the de Young Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco earlier this year, and a condensed version will be on view at The Frick Collection in New York from Oct. 22 through Jan. 19.

___

If You Go…

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING: DUTCH PAINTING FROM THE MAURITSHUIS: Through Sept. 29 at the High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta; http://www.high.org, 404-733-5000. Open Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and on Thursdays until 8 p.m.; Sundays, noon-5 p.m. Adults, $19.50; students with ID and seniors 65 and over, $16.50; children 6-17, $12; children 5 and under, free.

#   #   #

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A once-golden statue of the deity Diana that formerly stood as the tallest point in New York will be refurbished by its current owners at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The 13-foot-tall sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens depicts the hunting goddess poised to shoot an arrow. Conservationists are using a $200,000 private grant to regild the now faded artwork with 180 square feet of gold leaf.

“Diana is widely recognized as one of the great icons of our collection, but most people do not realize that the sculpture’s gray-green surfaces once gleamed in gold,” museum director and CEO Timothy Rub said in a statement.

The statue was first installed in 1893 as a weather vane atop the original Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. Standing on a 300-foot-high tower and fitted with “billowing drapery” to catch the wind, Diana became the highest point in the city, according to museum records. It was also the area’s first statue to be lit at night by electricity.

After the entertainment complex was torn down in 1925, Diana was placed into storage. The Philadelphia museum acquired the statue seven years later; since then, she has stood at the top of a staircase in the museum’s grand entrance hall.

The restoration project is expected to take about four months.

#   #   #

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

DENVER (AP) – Phil Watkins estimates it will take about four months of painstaking labor to restore the six historic stained glass windows damaged last month in the fire at the Church of the Ascension.

“They have to be totally taken apart,” Watkins said as he and his workers removed six windows from the sanctuary to transport them to the Watkins Stained Glass Studio in Englewood.

The century-old windows were heavily damaged in the fire. One was almost shattered, and the others were badly cracked or broken.

His wife, Jane, gathered up three small bags filled with fragments of glass that the firefighters carefully collected after putting out the fire.

“We will try to piece this back together,” she said.

Sitting over a light table, they will study the colors and the pattern, slowly piecing it together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

It’s not the first time they’ve restored these windows. About 25 years ago, they worked on them after they were damaged by stones thrown by a vandal.

“But this is much worse,” said Phil.

Luckily, the Watkins Stained Glass Studio still has a large supply of the same rare glass that was used to make those windows, back when the 107-year-old church was built.

It’s very rare Blenko stained glass, “handmade and mouth-blown,” said Jane, “made the same way as European antique glass.”

This jewel-toned stained glass represents a crossroads of American history, one that blends master craftsmen with early church history.

William Blenko, born in London, apprenticed himself to an English glass craftsman trained in old-world traditions of stained glass, then emigrated in 1893 to the U.S., where he opened his first stained glass window factory.

By that time, Watkins’ ancestors had already established themselves making stained glass windows in Denver. They’d worked as master craftsmen since 1761 in London and Liverpool, following the same stained-glass traditions used in the Middle Ages.

Like William Blenko, Clarence Watkins left England and sailed to America with the tools of his trade. He studied further in New York and Boston, and in 1868 left St. Louis in a covered wagon bound for Denver. By 1881, he had his own shop, making stained glass windows in the old-world style for Denver’s mansions and grand churches.

By the early 20th century, when builders erected the Church of the Ascension in Denver, they made sure to use Blenko stained glass for the windows — which may have been made by Watkins’ grandfather, Frank Watkins.

“It looks like his style,” said Phil, sitting in a pew Friday and gazing up at the windows that were not harmed.

While restoring the windows, Phil and Jane hope to determine whether his grandfather made them.

They’ll also take apart each window, piece by piece, and find the exact shade of glass to replace it — which isn’t easy because handblown glass varies in thickness, creating different shades of the same color.

Phil, who made his first stained glass windows at age 12 for a church in Boulder, uses his vintage supply of antique glass only when absolutely necessary.

“I’m a squirrel,” said Phil, who has worked on more than 380 church windows over his career. “I waited 40 years to use a piece of red that was just perfect for the robe of Jesus in the Last Supper.”

#   #   #

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

If Detroit falls into bankruptcy, those masterpieces and other prized artworks could go on the auction block to help satisfy the city’s staggering debts. Though the auctions would raise much-needed cash, they would also strip the city of its cultural riches, including paintings by Rivera, Renoir and Matisse, and maybe even zoo animals and historic automobiles.

“The art here is just as important as any of the structures connected to the auto industry,” said Shearrod, a grant manager for a local nonprofit, during a recent visit to the museum. “The DIA is the spirit of Detroit.”

Other institutions owned by the city and potentially at risk include a black-culture museum, the historic Fort Wayne dating to the 1840s and the 985-acre Belle Isle park, which will probably be leased to the state. Just north of the city is the Detroit Zoo.

Another source of potential auction pieces is the Detroit Historical Museum’s collection of about 60 vehicles, including an 1870 Phaeton Carriage car, a 1911 Ford Model T and John Dodge’s 1919 coupe.

Shearrod said the DIA collection shouldn’t be considered as an option.

“Bidding the stuff off is completely ridiculous,” he said. “There are better ways of dealing with Detroit’s debt” than selling off an art collection piece by irreplaceable piece.

But emergency manager Kevyn Orr, a bankruptcy expert hired by the state in March to steer Detroit away from insolvency, has made it clear that everything of value owned by the city could be up for grabs. A decision on whether to file for bankruptcy could come within weeks.

In a letter to DIA officials, Orr gave notice that there are no sacred cows, even if bankruptcy means cutting the city’s soul to save it.

Others aren’t so sure. The DIA doesn’t believe the artwork can be sold to satisfy city debt and has an attorney looking into the issue. Michigan’s attorney general has weighed in, too, releasing a formal opinion that the artwork is held by Detroit in charitable trust “for the people of Michigan.” The state Senate passed a bill requiring the DIA to stick to a national code of museum ethics, which bars the sale of art to satisfy needs other than enhancing an institution’s collection.

Orr spokesman Bill Nowling said there is no intention to put a value on, or to sell, anything in the city-owned collection.

“We were just giving them a heads-up,” Nowling said. “We believe there is some exposure risk to the collection if we go into a bankruptcy — that creditors could ask us to put some value on it.”

Some donated pieces have stipulations that prohibit them from being sold or transferred. However, others were bought decades ago with city money, said museum spokeswoman Pamela Marcil.

Orr presented a plan earlier this month to creditors, asking some to take only 10 cents on the dollar on the debt the city owes. Others are being asked to take less. By July 1, Detroit’s budget deficit could reach $380 million. Orr has said long-term debt could surpass $17 billion.

If he doesn’t get the concessions he seeks, Orr could move Detroit into a Chapter 9 bankruptcy. That would make it the largest U.S. city to do so.

Should the city enter bankruptcy, everything, including the potential sale of artwork, “is probably on the table,” said Ben Feder, a bankruptcy attorney with New York-based Kelley Drye & Warren.

But “it would be the choice of the city to go that route. Without the consent of the city of Detroit, probably nothing” could be sold, Feder said.

Selling or privatizing other Detroit assets, like its electric and water departments, makes more sense because they would bring in a steady flow of revenue, he added.

The sale of a painting brings in a one-time sum. The museum won’t put a price on any painting, but it’s easy to imagine the work of famous artists fetching tens of millions of dollars.

Van Gogh’s “Portrait du Dr. Gachet” sold for more than $80 million at auction in 1990. A Henri Matisse bronze nude sold three years ago for more than $48 million.

But what Detroit needs most is revenue to supplement its shrinking tax base caused by people and business fleeing the city. In the 1950s, Detroit had 1.8 million people. Its current population barely tops 700,000.

Zoo board members have discussed the potential impact on the zoo.

“The city essentially owns all of the assets other than vehicles,” zoo Director Ron Kagan said. “Unlike the DIA, our works of art — the animals — really have no commercial value. I don’t think we view this as an imminent threat.”

The zoo, the DIA and Detroit’s other cultural gems have more value intact, Nowling said.

“When you’re talking about lowering a $15 billion debt load, there is not a big market for giraffes,” he said. “We need to come up with a plan to protect as much of our assets as possible because we need a viable city going forward.”

The DIA is in the city’s resurgent Midtown district and draws about 500,000 visitors a year. Van Gogh’s “Self Portrait” was the first piece from the acclaimed artist acquired by an American museum, Marcil said.

The city later bought “Wedding Dance” and “Gladioli” by Monet.

Less ethical art collectors might be interested if DIA pieces were made available, but legitimate collectors would be appalled at the reason behind the sale, said Charles Guerin, director of the Hyde Collection in Glen Falls, N.Y.

Some pieces were meant to be enjoyed by the public and “not meant to pay off debt,” he said.

Public opposition has sunk similar plans to sell cherished art collections.

Brandeis University near Boston announced plans in 2009 to close its Rose Art Museum and sell $350 million in artwork in response to a budget crisis. But museum supporters filed a lawsuit, and the idea was dropped.

“The donors to the rest of the school raised holy hell with them,” said James K. Ballinger, director of the privately owned Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona. “They realized it was a much larger issue than the sale of art objects.”

“You’ve got to be unbelievably diligent here,” he said. “If you look at the DIA collections, certainly those things given to the DIA would have been given to the community, so to speak.”

#   #   #

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE