Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery on love and marriage in the Renaissance to mark Valentine’s Day. Sian Walters showed us what we can learn about courtship and marriage from Renaissance paintings. She started by looking at seduction via mythological works by Andrea Schiavone and Titian. She was clear to point out that what was presented as seduction at the time might be described as sexual assault or rape today. She then looked at allegories of love taking representations as an example of Venus and Mars and how they are based on an ancient painting of Alexander and Roxanna. She also talked about objects linked to marriage and childbirth in particular cassone or wedding chests and birth trays. She discussed how the images often held a symbolic or moral message particular directed at the women. She discussed the gallery’s story of Griselda cassone in detail taking us through the story and focusing on the wedding scenes.

Classy exhibition in the London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE of works by Mark Manders responding to the history of the site. It consists of three works. My favourite was the giant head which the blurb said it was "poised between past and present". It gives the idea of having stumbled across an ancient object which is appropriate for this site of a Roman temple. I'm not sure I understood the random postcard it was shown with but I liked the 'newspaper’ containing every word in the English language arranged at random. Oddly our brain starts to try to make sense of the text. This was show hung over a rod on the wall. It would have been fun to have copies available to flick through. Closes 4 July 2026

Disjointed exhibition at the Gilbert and George Centre featuring 18 works by Gilbert and George made between 1984 and 1998. I say disjointed as I wasn't sure what was tying these pictures together to make an exhibition but that's not to say I didn't enjoy it. It consisted of work from three series The 1984 pictures from which the title work came, The New Democratic Pictures from 1991 and The Rudimentary Pictures from 1998. The works looked great in the space but that's not surprising as it was designed to show the artists' work. I particularly like the tall gallery on the ground floor and the way you can also view it from a balcony above. Closed 28 February 2026  

Excellent three week online course from the National Gallery on the art of Wright of Derby to compliment their exhibition on him. Matthew Morgan started in the first week by outlining the artists life and work and giving an overview of how the art market was changing at this time and how artists were reflecting the new ideas of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. He also brought in Lucy Bamford from Derby Museums Trust to discuss why Wright was known as Wright of Derby and to examine his relationship with the city. Morgan spent the next two weeks examining two aspects of Wrights work, how he reflects the rational and how he engaged the emotions. He started with the rational   discussing ideas at the time about the benefits of looking and observation and Rousseau’s ideas around learning by doing and by demonstration. He discussed the circles Wright moved in, including the Lunar Society, and whether we can consider him an Enlightenment artist. Having examined the ...

Interesting small exhibition at the Wallace Collection presenting five swords made in Lucknow from their collection. The swords were shown together at the centre of the room with good explanations of each around the edge. They were beautiful objects both the swords themselves and the scabbards. They were from the 18th and 19th centuries and made as royal regalia and as diplomatic gifts. My favourite was this one which had a beautiful enamel hand on the handle. I also loved the poppy decorations on the scabbard of another sword. Closed 22 March 2026

Brilliant and subtle exhibition at the Wallace Collection presenting Caravaggio's "Victorious Cupid”. The painting, from 1602 is on loan from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, is placed within the context for which is was painted. The introductory room introduces you to Rome at the time and the artist and patron. If you then turn right you enter a subtle recreation of the patron, Vincenzo Guistiniani's gallery of classical sculpture.   At the centre is an Aphrodite from Guistiniani's collection with an invocation of the view from the window of his palace at the far ending showing the church for which Caravaggio had painted his St Matthew paintings. Around the edge are reproductions of engravings of classical subjects. The blurb fails to mention that these were all in the collection and the engravings all come from a catalogue of the collection which I learnt from the lecture I'd done on the painting a few days before. The painting itself is shown in the room to th...