As The Three Graces can attest, the Metropolitan Museum is in an especially acquisitive mood these days. Despite much competition, its Department of European paintings has been especially fortunate, securing such prizes as The Lute Player by the rare 17th-century French Caravaggist, Valentin de Boulogne, a Portrait of Benedict XIV by Pierre Subleyras (cf my article on the subject) and Gaetano Gandolfi’s Head of a Bishop Saint, bought in January. But its most spectacular recent acquisition has yet to be formally announced: Xavier Salomon, the Chief Curator of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, will be joining the department as a curator of Italian paintings later this year.
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