Cathy's Art Diary

Useful online lecture from the National Gallery discussing the new still-life room created as a result of the recent rehang of the collection. Bart Cornelis, Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings 1600-1800 at the gallery and Sarah Herring, an associate curator there outlined the history of still-life painting and discussed the paintings they had chosen for the room to illustrate this. The room covers from the 17th to the 19th century. They then widened the talk out to point us at 20th century examples by Cezanne and Picasso in rooms 43 and 45. This was followed by a lively Q&A session ranging from the role of insects in these paintings, through the Roman frescos in Pompeii and a discussion of who bought this pictures.

Interesting online lecture from the Royal Collection introducing an exhibition on James VI of Scotland and I of England at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Kate Anderson, from the National Galleries of Scotland, talked us through the narrative of the show and highlighted some key exhibits with an emphasis on items lent by the Royal Collection. The show divides into the king’s time in Scotland and England and his influence in Europe and the world. She talked about his regency, as he came to the throne of Scotland aged just 13 months when his mother was forced to abdicate, and there were some touching exhibits from his childhood such as a letter from him aged about 6 to the Countess of Mar. I was most excited to see that the portraits of his children, Prince Henry, Charles I and Princess Elizabeth, later Queen of Bohemia, by Robert Peake have been reunited and that seems to be just one of many reasons to try to get to the show.

Comprehensive online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the life and work of Velazquez. Jo Walton led us clearly through the subject with excellent illustrations and an emphasis on works owned by the gallery itself. She started with his early street work which I love and talked about the symbolism in it as well as emphasising the delightful still-lives he included. We then talked about how he went to Madrid and became the court painter and we looked in detail at the work he did for them. Alongside this we looked at his mythical and historic works as well, of course, looking in more detail at the Rokeby Venus and Las Meninas.

Opulent exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum which looked at the golden age of Mughal art which lasted from about 1580 to 1650. The show was clearly described and included a fabulous selection of art and objects which were beautifully displayed. I loved the way dramatic large carpets were used both as exhibits and as feature walls in some of the spaces. I love the small Mughal paintings which remind me of Medieval illuminations. As these are small, they did create some bottle necks but showing them around the edge of rooms with objects in the centre helped the flow. There were some stunning items such as these enamel dishes, a beautiful selection of jewels, a shield which was in the armory of Grand Duke Ferdinando I de Medici in Florence and some fabulous rock crystal. As this is the same period as lot of the Western Renaissance art I study, I couldn’t help but make comparisons. I was interested to see mention of where the art was influenced by Western prints or where ...

Excellent exhibition at the Science Museum looking at scientific discovery at the Court of Versailles. This was a clearly described show, cleverly laid out and with some stunning objects and paintings. It’s not a period I’ve ever studied but I am increasingly drawn to it. From realising that the three Louis’s of the period ruled for 149 years I was hooked. The show was full of intriguing stories and people and lead to a lot of Googling, both in the show to check links my brain was making and since. I give you Antoine-Augustin Parmentier who argued that potatoes were the answer to famines caused by bread shortages and declared them edible in 1772 or Madame de Genlis, tutor to the royal children who commissioned this model of a chemistry lab. Throw in a stuffed Rhinoceros killed in the Revolution, some wonderful paintings, including a portrait of the first pineapple grown in France, and the knife used to operate on the kings anal fissure, then there was something for everyone! C...

Exquisite small exhibition at the British Museum putting their new acquisition of a drawing by Rembrandt of a sleeping child in context. The show looked at pictures of children in Dutch and Flemish 6th and 17th centuries works in the context of art and social history. They ran chronologically placing Rembrandt in the centre of the timeline. I loved the early drawings by Henrick Goltzius as well as his engraving of Frederick de Vries who was his apprentice while the boys artist father was in Venice. It was done to send to his father to Sue him there but was well! There was a good selection of Rembrandt drawings from the collection featuring children and the commentary talked about how he often saved drawings of everyday life to reuse the images in religious works. The focal drawing, shown here, was so delicate. Finally the show looked at followers of Rembrandt and a new find for me were some beautiful, coloured interiors by Adriaen Van Ostade. Closed 6 October 2024   ...

Interesting online discussion as part of London Art Week focusing on the 17th century portrait artists Mary Beale. Christopher Baker of the Burlington magazine chaired a discussion between two curators who had produced shows on Beale, Lucy West of Dulwich Picture Gallery and Ellie Smith of Philip Mould & Co. Smith focused on the life of Beale and took us through themes in her show which was on at the time at Philip Mould & Co and I have since been to see it.   She talked about how Beale made her money from commissioned work but also painted her family and friends often using them to experiment with new material and ideas. West looked back to show on Beale’s studio from a couple of years ago which focused on her technique and the experiments of her husband, Charles, who was a pigment expert and salesman. She talked about his notebooks which documented the work of the studio. It was fun to hear the speakers discussing Beale’s work which they had obviously grown to lo...

Interesting exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on Caravaggio’s “The Martyrdom of St Ursula”. Painted in 1610 this is Caravaggio’s last painting which is on loan from Naples. It was shown with the gallery’s own “Beheading of John the Baptist” of a similar date as well as a letter found in the Naples archive in 1980 which authenticated the work and accounts of his death from two early biographies of the artist. When I went, quite early in the run of the show, it was very busy with a confusing queuing system up the stairs. It was all a bit of a scrum! I was pleased to see it was popular but it left little mental space to commune with the work. I had actually seen the work just a few months earlier in Naples where I had managed to spend some quiet time with it. A much better experience. Closed 24 July 2024 Review Times Guardian Evening Standard    

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their small exhibition focused on Caravaggio’s “The Martyrdom of St Ursula” on loan from Naples. Francesca Whitlum-Cooper took us through the life of Caravaggio and where this picture fitted into it and then looked at the story of St Ursula pointing out this was an unusual way of showing her martyrdom as images usually focused on the thousands of virgins she travelled with. She then looked at the history of the painting and in particular a letter found in the Naples archives in 1980, which referred to a painting of the subject by Caravaggio which had been left out in the sun which made the varnish soften, which was used to identify the work. I would have liked to have less about the life of the artist, which I have frequently covered in talks, and more about how they borrowed the picture and why they chose the works to show with it. I have since been to the show so look out for my review of it.

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery on the life and work of Rembrandt. Jo Walton led us though Rembrandt’s career via a selection of paintings and etchings many of them from the gallery’s own collection. She discussed how an artist’s studio would have operated in 17th century Holland and how his style changed over his lifetime. She also discussed why we see a proliferation of self-portraits from him. I would have liked a bit more about setting his work in the context of the times and a comparison to his contemporaries.

Clever online course from the National Gallery in Lent to look at paintings of the Easter story. The course was led by Carlo Corsato and each week he discussed a few paintings from the Renaissance in detail looking at why   and how it was painted   then analysing the composition and symbolism. We covered Mantegna and Bellini’s versions of “The Agony in the Garden” Perugino’s “Mond Crucifixion” and Caravaggio’s early “Supper at Emmaus”.   In the second half of each session he had invited guest speakers who brought a different viewpoint to the topic. We began with artist and educator, Joanna Conybeare, looking at how Northern artists approached the subject focusing on Gerrit van Honthorst’s “Christ Before the High Priest” and how he used light and dark to tell the story and add drama. Week two was Siobhan Jolley talked about the role of Christ’s female followers in Crucifixion scenes as witnesses to trauma an artists and the New Testament have portrayed them and why....

Beautiful exhibition at the British Museum focusing on works on paper from Genoa. The title came from Petrach’s description of the city as ‘La Superba’ or The Proud which I thought was a lovely play on words. The commentary explains how the city attracted artists with the arrival of one of Raphael’s pupils, Perino del Vaga, but has been largely overshadowed by Venice. The show consisted of a large selection of prints and drawings which were well explained. I think my favourite was Giovanni Batista Castello’s “Ulysses in the Gardens of King Alanous’ Palace” from about 1550. I loved Luca Cambiaso’s simple but expressive pieces. Among the explanations were some fascinating stories such as how Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’s invented the monotype print and a nobleman artist who murdered a fellow noble in self-defence and had to flee to Florence. There was also a section on Flemish artists who came to the city including a wonderful sketchbook of genre scenes by Cornelius Wael. A...

Excellent seven-week online course from the National Gallery looking at painting in 17th century Holland. Lydia Bauman, artist and art historian, led us clearly through a series to themes with enough repetition to embed ideas while still making all the sessions feel fresh. She began giving an overview of the economics and society of the time to give context. She explained why she didn’t want to use the more usually descriptor of the period as “The Dutch Golden Age” as it wasn’t golden for people whose lands the Dutch colonised. The second week was also a useful overview of how artists worked paying particular attention to the different genre specialisms. She discussed how, with the rise of the Protestant religion in the region, the church was no longer commissioning art so artists had to start to work for the open market rather than to commission. In later weeks we looked at themes ranging from portraiture with a focus on the recent Frans Hals exhibition, the role of the home an...

Useful online lecture from ARTscapades introducing the exhibition on Rubens and women at Dulwich Picture Gallery. I say useful as I’d hoped to get to the show but I’ve run out of time now so I was pleased to hear an explanation of what was there and what narrative they are suggesting. Amy Orrock, a co-curator of the show, guided us through the four rooms and their themes. The show is built around the seven pictures by Rubens owned by the gallery which are all of women. She guided us though those as well as the excellent loans which illuminate those works and add to the story. The show looks at portraits, Biblical subjects and Rubens development of the nude discussing the idea of the Rubenesque figure. I was interested to hear that Orrock feels it is based on the antique “Crouching Venus” figure. Wherever it comes from I think I have it!

Lovely exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of 18th century drawings of Venice. The show as a whole built a sense of the city at the time which was then, as now, a magnet for visitors from carnival figures, through scenes of the Grand Canal, portraits of characters and records of interior design. I loved a small drawing by Pietro Antonio Novelli of a gnocchi seller. I’d not known that the Friday before lent was called Gnocchi Friday and Punchinello figures like this sold them in the streets. I also liked the tiny watercolours of the Grand Canal on blue paper like postcards. My favourite work was a picture of the church by the Rialto by Canaletto which looked just like it does now. I struck up a lovely conversation with the gentleman next to me about where the fish market was in relation to it. Closes 11 February 2024  

Excellent online course from the London Art History Society looking in depth at the life and work of Nicolas Poussin. Over five weeks and ten lectures Giulia Martina Weston led us thought the themes in Poussin’s work, placing him within the context of his time. The 17th century isn’t a period in art I know very well so as well as learning about the artist I also got a good overview of the art market in Italy and France at the time. I was fascinated by hearing that critics at the time talked about Poussin as the anti-Caravaggio and the New Raphael. I must admit in the Caravaggio v Raphael argument I’m with the former so I felt that explained why I don’t feel drawn to Poussin. Despite not being a fan of Poussin I feel I will now get a lot more from looking at his work as I now understand his philosophy from his Neo-stoicism, his vision of art as poetry and how he used biblical and mythical texts, his repletion of images like the variations in music and use of the antique. We als...

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades on Frans Hals. Clare Ford-Wille led us through the career of Hals and set him in the context of his time. I found her narrative a bit disjointed at times, however in her defence, I have done a lot on Hals around the show at the National Gallery and the previous one at the Wallace Collection so there probably wasn’t a lot more to learn. She did however provide good study notes after the talk which will be really useful to refer back to.  

Fascinating online lecture for the National Gallery looking in detail at the role of the demonic in the works of Rubens. Art historian, Timothy Revell, lead us though a detailed argument around the influence of Frans Floris’s “Fall of the Rebel Angels” of 1554 which was in the cathedral in Antwerp and which Rubens would have known well on the composition of the latter artist. He also outlined the influence of Michelangelo and Durer on the work of both artists and how Floris in particular, showed a blending of Italian and Northern styles. He led us through Rubens’ “Last Judgement” of 1618, “St Michael Throwing out Lucifer and the Rebel Angels” of about 1622 and his “The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse” from 1623-4, comparing the imagery to the Floris. He spent some time discussing a Bumble Bee in the latter picture and what it’s symbolism and links to Urban VIII might be. This talk had originally been advertised as “A Halloween Journey Thought the National Gallery Collectio...

Fascinating online lecture from London Art Week looking at the discovery of a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi in the Royal Collection. The talk brought together those involved in the rediscovery and experts on Artemisia to discuss how the painting was identified and why it is an important rediscovery. Niko Munz, Christchurch College Oxford, described how, while working as part of a project to catalogue and trace works owned by Charles I , he flicked through some files of royal pictures and found an old catalogue sheet from 1862 which had a dull photograph of the work linking the work to Charles and mentioning Artemesia. He then checked old inventories which showed it had hung in Henrietta Maria’s rooms and might have been part of a design to prompt the Catholic faith. Adelaide Izal, conservator for the Royal Collection, then took us though the historical and technical evidence from confirming that it did date from the period when Artemisia was in England, that it was painted i...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery focusing on the work of the conservation department. Larry Keith, Head of Conservation, talked to us from the studio using Poussin’s “Cephalus and Aurora” from the 1630s which he is working on at the moment as an example for the points he was making. He took us though the history of conservation at the gallery and some early controversies. I was amused to hear of a Parliamentary select committee getting involved in the 1850s which I can’t imagine happening now. We looked at the issues that can occur using this painting to discuss the effect of darkening varnish, how colours change and what to do about tears as this work was damaged by falling slate when it was in storage in the Second World War. He talked about how works are chosen for conservation and the principles by which the gallery works using materials that can be reversed if future generations change their minds about the treatment of a picture.