Strange Beauty: Masters of the Germany Renaissance

Intriguing exhibition at the National Gallery which seeks to look at the Renaissance German art in its collection, how that art came to be in the collection.

The exhibition also looks at why the gallery did not actively collect German art until fairly recently and how that gap in the collection may have affected how history has viewed the art.

I was nice to see German Renaissance worked pulled together as a genre in its own right with some comparisons being made between different artists and regions. It was also fascinating to learn about how the collection grew and about how much of the German work came from the collection of Prince Albert who has also commissioned studies of the subject.

I was interested in the room which showed how German artists had often taken unusual subjects and I liked the selection of paintings of Christ taking leave of his mother and getting a chance to compare them.

I think that the exhibition tried to address too many questions and possibly answered few of them. I liked the fact that the poster itself has a question mark on it and that each door way and statements to argue with on the floor in them (although these already looked quite worn on day 1). I think the unstated question it asked and answered though was what to do with some of the art in your main galleries when you are using those galleries for another major exhibition? It answered that well! It’s strange to feel the gallery quietly and slowly adjusting ready for the opening of the Veronese exhibition!

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