Exhibition in Focus: Devotion by Design
Study morning at the National Gallery to compliment their exhibition “Devotion by Design”.
It consisted of 3 excellent talks on themes from the exhibition. The first was the best by a co-curator of the exhibtion, Jennifer Sliwka, looking at the huge Sassetta altarpiece. She made you look at the work in a new way giving a lot of background on where it had been placed and introducing interesting ideas of how the side panels may work in a complex set of pairings. It made you go and look at the picture again with a fresh eye.
David Ekserdjian from University of Leicester talked about narrative in altarpieces not just in the obvious pradellas but also in the embroidery on clothing or in the backgrounds.
Finally there was a very different take from Ben Quash from Kings College, who looked at the different theological themes an altarpiece might reflect depending on its setting and use.
It consisted of 3 excellent talks on themes from the exhibition. The first was the best by a co-curator of the exhibtion, Jennifer Sliwka, looking at the huge Sassetta altarpiece. She made you look at the work in a new way giving a lot of background on where it had been placed and introducing interesting ideas of how the side panels may work in a complex set of pairings. It made you go and look at the picture again with a fresh eye.
David Ekserdjian from University of Leicester talked about narrative in altarpieces not just in the obvious pradellas but also in the embroidery on clothing or in the backgrounds.
Finally there was a very different take from Ben Quash from Kings College, who looked at the different theological themes an altarpiece might reflect depending on its setting and use.
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