Reflecting on the St Francis exhibition

Disappointing online lecture from the National Gallery looking back at their St Francis of Assis exhibition.

I only say disappointing because other similar lectures have looked at what the gallery have learnt from an exhibition or reflected more deeply on one of the themes of the show. In this talk Richard Stemp took us through the show but it was more like a guide talk than a reflection. It would have been good to know a bit about visitor reactions to the show which had combined religious and environmental themes.

Richard is always good and took us through the life of Francis via the Sassetta altarpiece which is beautifully displayed in the show. He also had an excellent introduction taking us through the first room which combines the Zurbaran painting with contemporary pieces and I gained a better insight into the links between them.

This was still an interesting talk but I felt Richard could have been briefed better.

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