Cathy's Art Diary

Learned exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of drawings used by Flemish print makers in Antwerp in the 16th century. This is quite a niche show but you know me, I like niche. There are some exquisite drawings many of them shown with the final print also excellent commentaries telling you about the artist, engravers and publisher. The star of the show was the amazingly detailed Pieter Bruegel the Elder of The Fair at Hoboken from 1559. The copper plate for the print was used for 200 years. The print was clearer but more crude than the drawing. I loved a drawing by print maker Johannes Wierix from 1586 of the Pool of Bethesda and it was a nice touch there were also prints by him based on drawings by other artists. Also Jan Van def Staet’s view of the Arno with a river god from 1575 which had originally been a design for a tapestry for Grand Duke Cosimo I. The figure of the river god had been changed by cutting out the paper it was on an inserting a new version. Closes 25 Septemb...

Enlightening online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at the collecting of Flemish painting in France on the 18th century and the influence of that on French art. Christopher Vogtherr from the Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin explained how Flemish art started to enter the French royal collection mainly via the portrait artists they employed such as Rubens and Frans Porbus the Younger culminating in the commissioning of the great Marie de Medici cycle from Rubens. A greater variety of work entered the collection under Louis XIV mainly via still-lives and battle pictures. However on his death this increased and a series of other major collections started to emerge which features Flemish art on an equal footing with Italian. Though these collections Vogtherr talked about Roger de Piles principles of hanging art choosing work through the power of the painting not the subjects or schools and the development of the idea of the three schools of art, Italian, Netherlandish...

Fabulous three week course from ARTscapes looking at the relationship between Netherlandish painting and Italy.   Paula Nuttall look us clearly through various aspects of this relationship with wonderful illustrations. In week one we busted idea, started by Michelangelo, that Netherlandish art was seen as primitive and sentimental, and looked at the common themes in Netherlandish and Italian art in the 15th century and how Northern art was admired and purchased at that time. Week two we focused on how the Northern paintings got down into Italy, who the patrons were and whether they bought work when travelling to the north or commissioned it from a distance. Examples we looked at included this wonderful portrait of Francesco D’Este, the illegitimate son of Leonello D’Este who was sent to the Burgundian court to be educated, by Van Der Weyden. We also looked at three art works commissioned by Thomaso Portinari including the fabulous altarpiece in the Uffizi. Finally we looked ...

Excellent three day online course from Art History in Focus looking at the history of Flemish art via pictures in the Wallace Collection. Lead by Sian Walters via Zoom this course, of two hours each morning over three days, had a good mix of lectures and interactive sessions. She used Zoom well to give variety and her style meant you did have a sense of doing this with a group of people not just in a room on your own at your laptop. Day one we looked at the early artists, mainly Van Eyck, Van der Weyden and Memling. She admitted early on that the Wallace Collection did not have a good representation of these artists, just one Memling, but she used other pictures to tell the story in a clearway. I must admit these are some of my favourite so it was nice to take some time over them. Day two was Rubens starting by focusing on the galleries wonderful Rainbow Landscape, a section of which is shown here, then looking at his life and career and finally going through other pictures and ...

Series of excellent videos from Visit Flanders guiding you through various exhibitions and displays of Flemish art all filmed post lockdown. Each presenter has a slightly different style and all the videos come with subtitles which is particularly helpful for the two which are not in English. I love they cover which a wide period from Van Eyck to Ensor in the late 19 th century and you do start to spot similar themes and styles thought Flemish art. You have to draw parallels between Ensor’s “Entry of Christ into Brussels” and scenes like Bruegel’s Nativity. I wonder if there will be more in the series. Episode1 : Van Eyck I have reviewed this already as it is a film of the Van Eyck exhibition in Ghent. Episode2 : Bruegel This is set in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels and focuses on their collection of works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Michel Draguet, the director fo the museum, takes us on a whistle stop tour of the pictures pausing to discuss...

Small exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of 16th and 17th century works on paper to compliment the Cezannae card players exhibition. This gallery focused on the Flemish and Netherlandish tradition of portraying peasant life. The grotesque features and vulgar poses of the people amused urban audiences but the landscape show they wanted their countryside unspoilt. There was a wonderful Bruegel the Elder drawing for a print complete with mobile brothel in the centre.

Exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery in Edinburgh of Flemish paintings in the Royal Collection bringing together 51 works from the 15th to 17th centuries. This was a stunning exhibition. I love this gallery there is something so calming about its space. I also recommend the tape tour which has the advantage of slowing you down and making you think. There were three main themes to this show portraits, the relationship between Rubens and Van Dyck and landscapes. The real star was Bruegel’s “Massacre of the Innocents”. A striking work from a distance but even more stunning for the detail close-up. The story of the picture and how, because it was painted shortly after a Hapsburg massacre, it was considered to be too inflammatory so many of the massacred babies are painted over with animals somehow gives it an even more menacing feeling. The most stunning portrait was Massys’s Erasmus, painted for Sir Thomas Moore. It shows a face of such intelligence and such beautiful detail in the nails i...