Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent online study morning from Paula and Geoff Nuttall looking at the history and art of Naples from the 13th to 15th century. Geoff started the morning by looking at the Angevin’s who ruled the city from 1266 to 1435 guiding us through the complicated order of succession covering both the early French Angevins and the later Durazzo branch of the family from Hungary and Croatia. He outlined their building work in the city and looked in particular at the patronage of the civil servants around King Ladislav. I was delighted that he spent quite a lot of time talking about the tomb shown here for Admiral Antonio Baboccio de Piperno which I had discovered a few years ago and loved but I didn’t know a lot about it. He talked us through the imagery in some detail. Paula then took over looking at the Aragonese rulers of the city from 1442 to about 1504 focusing on Alfonso I including his work to rebuild the Castel Nuovo, his commissioned of medals from Pisanello, his interest in Nor

Fascinating two week online course from ARTscapades looking at the development of the Gothic style in France. Jana Gajdošov from Sam Fogg Limited and the Victoria and Albert Museum lead us clearly through four lectures, the first three grouping cathedrals chronologically and stylistically and the last focusing on Notre Dame often seen as the pinnacle of the style. It would have been useful to have a glossary of terms to refer to so I had to do a lot of Googling for spellings when I typed up the notes but as the course progressed you became more familiar with the terms. I liked the way the speaker took us through church by church building up a progression of ideas. I discovered a number of cathedrals I hadn’t heard of before and now have yet another travel itinerary to add to the bucket list.

Disappointing online lecture from the National Gallery on Giotto’s St Francis frescos in the church at Assisi. Artists and art historian, Aliki Braine, guided us though the technique of fresco and the narrative of the major fresco in the upper church as a coda to the National Gallery’s current St Francis exhibition which, of course, couldn’t include the frescos. It is always wonderful to look at this cycle again and Braine had beautiful illustrations but I would have liked a bit less on the technique, which I have studied quite often, and more on the iconography of the frescos themselves, why they were so groundbreaking and how they helped to establish the fame and importance of Francis.

Fascinating study day from the London Art History Society looking at the art of the papacy in Avignon from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. Alexandra Gajewski from the Burlington Magazine and a specialist on architecture of this period took us though the history of the city in this period looking at how that history influenced art and architecture. I don’t know the city at all and now want to visit. There were some wonderful slides of the papal palace, the remains of the bridge and various chapels from around the city. For a brief half an hour, I may have understood the papal schism, which I never did when studying Medieval history at university! I was fascinated to learn that Simone Martini worked and died in the city and fragments of the frescos he did for the cathedral survive in the museum. Also to see the drawing of Cardinal Jean de la Grange’s tomb which was destroyed in the French Revolution but was probably one the largest and greatest tombs of this period.

Excellent six week online course form the National Gallery looking at the history and art of the main centres in Northern Europe in the Renaissance. Jo Walton took us clearly though the period splitting the lectures geographically starting with France focusing on Paris, Dijon and the Loire, moving on to Bruges and Flanders, the court of the Holy Roman Empire, Nuremberg and Durer, London and the Hanseatic League and finishing with Antwerp. This order did take us on a rough chronology of the time as well with some overlap. In each case Walton blended the history of the area and the art it produced showing how the two often went hand in hand for example when rulers used art to promote and control their image or competed with each other to commissioned the richest and best work. She tired things together clearly so I now have a much better overview of the history of the period although I’m not sure I will ever understand the intricacies of the Hapsburgs. Despite this being a period I

Complicated online lecture from the Churches Conservation Trust on the angel roofs in East Anglian churches. I was new to this topic and wished I had brought more knowledge of roof construction and the area to this talk but I was still fascinated and am desperate to tour the area and look at them. Sarah Cassell, an independent scholar, took us through some of her findings from her ongoing research with some beautiful illustrations. I was particularly interested in how she felt the positioning of different types of angels or angels holding different attributes might reflect the use of the space in the church below and roofs which may be trying to show the different orders of angels.

Fascinating online lecture from Churches Conservation Trust on the Giotto’s Last Judgement in the Scrovegni Chapel. Richard Stemp, took us through the iconography of the fresco and how it fits within the detailed scheme of the whole chapel. He also compared to other Italian Last Judgements. This was a talk to mark advent and Richard pointed out that this was because sermons were preached in advent to mark the Four Last Things which are death, judgement, heaven and hell. I have heard Richard talk about the chapel a few times but I always learn something new about it and love his witty eye for details. This time I realised some of the damned are entering hell by walking along the top of the door arch and there are angels at the top rolling up the earth and sky as this is the end of the world.    

Fascinating online lecture from the Churches Conservation Trust looking at how love and marriage were reflected in medieval tomb monuments. Jessica Barker from the Courtauld Institute took as her starting point The Arundel Tomb in Chichester Cathedral which shows a couple holding hands. Although this is a 19th century reconstruction she felt this is how it would have originally have looked as there are many other examples of this around the country. She discussed a number of these and suggested that the hand holding was not a romantic gesture but a sign of a legal contact as often the women had bought land to what were controversial marriages. She also looked at tombs reflected ideas of marriage at the time giving two examples of brass memorials to merchants which give heavy emphasis to the children born to the marriage as a sign of a life well lived in the absence of rank and wealth. I liked the section which discussed two tombs commissioned by women, the wonderful Alice Chauce

Fascinating online lecture from Birkbeck College looking at the symbolism of the vaults in the lower church of St Francis in Assisi. John Renner took us though the four faults over St Francis’s tomb possibly by Giotto linking their allegorical narrative with the theology of the Franciscan order at the time. He took us though the imagery in some detail and pointed out that the three vaults on the vows of the order all followed the same pictorial template. I love this sort of detailed analysis of images and wish we had had longer on them. Looking again as I write this I find myself looking at sections he didn’t describe and wondering what they mean. Oh dear, another place to add to the post lockdown list!

Stunning five week online course organised by the London Art History Society on the city of Lucca in Italy, its silk manufacturing and trading and the merchants patronage of the arts. Led by Geoff Nuttall it was wonderful to spend so much time, 10 hours in all, looking at quite a specific subject. I knew very little before the course about the silk trade in the 14th and 15th centuries and will now be spotting the cities textiles in paintings and annoying fellow gallery goers by shouting LUCCA! In the first week we looked at the origins of the trade and how the silk was made leading to week two on how the merchants set up colonies throughout Northern Europe and Italy bringing not only their textiles but also their banking skills. I’d not realised how active they were in England and want to have a walk round the city looking at the places they worshipped and operated. The later weeks were devoted to looking at specific families, both at their trading but also their commissioning o

Glittering three week online course from Richard Stemp on the use of gold in paintings in the International Gothic and early Renaissance periods. In the first week we looked at the use of gold on early works in the National Gallery. Richard explained the different techniques   and showing us different examples of how it was used. He talked about the practical function of gold to reflect the candle light in the dark churches and led us though the iconography of a series of images. This all set us up to study two specific pictures over the next two weeks, The Wilton Diptych from 1395-99 and Carlo Crivelli’s Annunciation from nearly 100 years later in 1486. The former is a more traditional gold picture showing King Richard II with the patron saints of England kneeling before the Virgin and a troupe of angels. Richard talked us through the religious and political iconography of work. The later is mainly painted but uses gold to pick out the ray of light and the dove representing the H

Detailed and fascinating talk from the Courtauld Research Forum on how Isabella of France both used and had artistic propaganda used against her following her invasion of England in 1326. Laura Slater of the University of Cambridge, talked us thorough a rough history of Isabella, wife of Edward II, who deposed Edward in favour of his son due to his father’s reliance on favourites, firstly Piers Gaveston and later the Despensers. Both sides of the issue slandered the other with Isabella being accused of adultery with Roger Mortimer and Edward of sodomy. Its all quite complicated! Slater outlined how Isabella aligned herself in speeches and imagery with Queen Esther of the Old Testament, another complex story involving an advisor, and how she rebuilt the Greyfriars church in London as a gesture to the city that had supported her. Meanwhile her supporters spread rumours of Edward’s sodomy via sermons.  S later then took us through imagery which may point to Isabella’s adultery most

Speculative and intriguing online lecture from Birkbeck as part of the their Murray Seminar series looking in detail at a triptych in the National Gallery by Giusto de Menoboi. I must admit its not a piece I was aware of, and I now can’t wait to get back and take a look as Laura Jacobson outlined its possible origins clearly and led us through a series of possible connections between the image and who it may have been made for, making the talk like listening to a fascinating story. I love this sort of art detective work and was very convinced by her argument. I loved her lively description of the imagery in the work and what made her think it was made for a specific reason, as a gift to a young girl starting her training in a convent. We tend to look at works like this with a Coronation of the Virgin flanked by saints and a stock image but she showed us how the choice of saints and narrative panels can point to a back story. I won’t give the game away as to who she concluded it

Excellent online lecture from ArtScapades on the Allegory of Good and Bad Government fresco in Siena. This is one of my favourite frescos and rooms so I was delighted to spend time listening to Richard Stemp explain the iconography of this secular work by Ambrogio Lorenzetti from 1338. I think last time I was in Siena I spent nearly two hours just sitting and looking at all the wonderful details. I had recently done a three week course with Richard on the Arena Chapel in Padua by Giotto and he drew parallels in this work with the figures of the virtues and vices there. I particularly enjoyed his detailed walk thought the Allegory of Good Government which leads for a figure of Wisdom, though images of Justice and Concord to the Common Good. He explained the iconography in this work of the different virtues and matched it later with that of the vices in Bad Government. I hadn’t realised before that the images of the city and countryside on the side walls match the geography of the

Fun online talk from the National Gallery looking at predella panels in the gallery from three altarpieces. Marc Woodhead and Carlo Corsato did an excellent double act talking us through what a predella was, the base of an altarpiece which was usually decorated with small scenes to illuminate lives of the saints or stories told in the main section of the work. They started by looking at Carlo Crivelli’s Madonna of the Swallow from 1490-92. The National Gallery has the whole altarpiece, including it’s frame, so it was a good way to show us how the predella worked. They took us through two panels in particular, the St George and the St Jerome, to show us how they told a whole story in a small picture. They even told us a story about St Jerome’s lion and a donkey that I’d never heard before! They then moved on to two pictures where the gallery only has panel from the predella and not the full work using them to show how altarpieces have been broken up over the years. They looked at

Fabulous three week online course from a new online course provided ARTscapes looking at the history and iconography of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua by Giotto. Richard Stemp lead this course bringing his dry wit to it but backed up with a deep and scholarly knowledge of the subject. In week one we looked at the construction of the chapel and it’s possible use followed by looking at the Great Last Judgement and the pictures of the virtues and vices in the lower register of the church. He had lovely illustrations showing interesting and quirky details. Week 2 we went through the frescos of the life of the Virgin and her parents up to the Massacre of the Innocents. I love the attention to detail in telling the stories. Week 3 was the Mission, Passion and afterlife of Christ followed by a discussion of the added depth of meaning when you look at how the pictures are paired up both above and below each other and across the church as well as the how the Old Testament vignettes betwe

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at how Italian early altarpieces were made. Artist and gallery educator Nick Pace guided us through the various stages of making one of these beautiful altarpieces with a gold background using the gallery’s Jacopo de Cione Coronation of the Virgin polyptych work from 1370-71 as an example. He had fascinating examples of where he had tried out the various techniques and insights into the materials and pigments used as well as how the studio would have operated. It was particularly good to get an artist’s insight into these works.

Excellent study day organised by the London Art History Society as the last in a series on early Italian art focusing on lesser-known fresco cycles. Other study days in this summer series had looked at specific cities but this final session swept up other art which wasn’t in those three major centres. We also had a different lecturer for this session and Clare Ford-Wille took us on a lovely tour of Northern Italy and added lots of towns to add to my list of places I want to visit. Most interesting was her tour of the abbey at Pomposa which I had not come across before. Various abbots had commissioned cycles to promote the church. Sadly none of the artists are known but there seems to have been a fashion for depictions of the Last Supper at circular tables. We then looked at cycles in Padua which are overshadowed by the amazing work by Giotto which we had studied in the previous session. We started with the work of Giusto da Menabuoi in Baptistery commissioned by Fina B

Fascinating study day organised by the London Art History Society and held at Friends House focusing on the role of Sienna in Early Italian Art. This was the fifth day in a series on this early period of Italian art and this time focused on the art of Florence and in particular at the role of Giotto.     John Renner, the lecturer, started by looking art in Florence before Giotto including going thought the art and architecture of the Baptistery in some detail and works by Cimabue. We then spent a delightful hour looking at Giotto’s masterpiece, the Arena Chapel in Padua, in detail. As ever John had wonderful, high quality images which were almost better than being there! I loved the section where he went through the sequence of images of Joachim and Anna which included the beautiful detail used for this article. In the afternoon we went on to look at the work of that Giotto did in Florence from Virgin and Child pictures to the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels in Santa Croce and t

Fascinating study day organised by the London Art History Society and held at Friends House focusing on the role of Sienna in Early Italian Art. This was the fourth   day in a series on this early period of Italian art and this time focused on the art of Sienna.   John Renner, the lecturer, started by look at the relationship the city had with the Virgin and the plethora of early images this produced. This followed the Battle of Montaperti with Florence in 1260 when, following the city offering the virgin the keys to the city in the cathedral, it was said that the Virgin laid a veil of mist over the battlefield the next morning leading to Sienna’s victory.  We then went on to look at Duccio’s Maesta painted between 1308-11 and commissioned by the city. He talked us through the iconography in detail and how it can be read in different directions. In the afternoon we moved on the Duccio’s successors Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers who I must admit are some of