Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades on the 17th century artist Adam Elsheimer. I’d not come across this artist before so was intrigued to be introduced to him by artist and writer, Julian Bell, in this talk based in his new book on the artist. I seem to be drawn to this century at the moment so it was useful to add Elsheimer to my knowledge bank. Bell focused on Elsheimer’s “Flight into Egypt” of 1609 to highlight his style and tell his story. He explained how Elsheimer’s works when he arrived in Rome were small pieces painted on copper. Sadly, partly because he seemed to have worked slowly, he ended up in debtors’ prison and died aged 32. Bell placed us into the world of Northern artists in Rome at this period and described how Elsheimer and Rubens became friends. He also looked at how the art world had been shaken by the works of Caravaggio and a moving away from the elegance of Raphael. He talked us through the expensive sky in this work and how that might relate to...

Interesting talk at Charleston   Farmhouse as part of the literature festival with Julian Bell looking at his new book and series of paintings based on the Book of Genesis. It was a great idea to invite Rabbi Julia Neuberger to interview Julian. He had begun the book following reading Genesis for the first time and interpreting the work as stories rather than theology. She, of course, had studied the theology in detail so added a wonderful commentary on the various meaning and interpretations of the work which Julian had often reflected through his reading without knowing it. The slides that were shown of the work were fascinating. Julian’s visual interpretations of the words of the first days of the creation and brought to mind the great Haydn Oratorio. I loved his quote that one reason for the project was that it was “a great excuse to use colour”!