Cathy's Art Diary

Fun online discussion from the National Gallery examining whether Giorgione’s Il Tramonto (The Sunset) should be considered a fake or a true image by the artist. The discussion was around whether so much had been added or repaired that this had now become an image which had not been imagined and devised by Giorgione. Two of the educators from the gallery, Marc Woodhead and Carolo Carsato, took opposing views to make for an interesting half an hour   with one speaking from the heart and the other analysing the science and evidence. They had great slides of the damage and how it was repaired in the 1930s when many of the stranger elements of the picture such as St George and a rather add dragon were added to hide missing areas of paint.   They talked about how the composition might have looked and at how the picture links stylistically to other by the artists. In the end   they both agreed that 88% of a Giorgione is still quite a lot and worth having!

Fascinating online discussion organised by the Royal Society of Arts focusing on the current debate about the removal of statues of controversial figures. The discussion brought together the cultural and historic commentators Mary Beard and David Olusoga who had debated this topic on Twitter taking slightly opposing views. They discussed the recent removal of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol agreeing that it had been a pivotal moment with one of them (sorry bad notes!) saying “the removal of a statue is the creation of a new history”. In reality their views were quite similar and both called for more nuance in the debate which was not possible via the sound bites of social media. I liked Olusoga’s call to judge people by what they did not what they thought as often what they thought was a reflection of the times they lived in. I was also interested in Beard’s example of attempts to ignore difficult bits of history and culture in students she had had who wouldn’t study Ovid Met...