Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting annual exhibition at the National Gallery showcasing school children’s responses to a painting in the collection. This year’s picture was Orazio Gentileschi’s “The Finding of Moses” from the 1630s, a fairly recent acquisition by the gallery. I always look forward to this show as it makes you look at a familiar picture in a different way. This year the children’s responses were are varied as ever ranging from Gunthorpe Primary School replacing the women In the panting with inspirational women who have shaped the world, Holy Trinity CR Primary School in London created a patchwork blanked for the baby Moses with scenes form his life and symbols of his character and Snaresbrook Primary School who were drawn to the clothes and thought about clothes their family members had worn in order to design their own dresses. In this occasion I liked the addition of this mind map of the children’s’ first thoughts about the painting. It is good to see how people might react who don’t...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery on the years Artemisia Gentileschi and her father Orazio spent in London working for the royal court. Desmond Shaw-Taylor, Keeper of the Queen’s Pictures, talked about Artemisia’s 2 years in London and Orazio’s turbulent 13 when he seemed to argue with lots of people. He looked at how their Italian style suited Henrietta Maria, who had known Italian art when she was being brought up at the French court and had an Italian mother, Marie de Medici. Her husband, Charles I, seemed to favour the more flamboyant Dutch and Flemish artists. He discussed how their work fitted with others in her collection which formed a cohesive style. She liked their sparse style with relatively few figures and a controlled palette as in Orazio’s “The Finding of Moses” as well as the added allusion to the senses eg in Artemisia’s “Self-Portrait as La Pittura” it is all about looking, she looks into the light and works on an unfinished picture to be lo...

Nice display  a t the National Gallery highlighting “The Finding of Moses” by Orazio Gentileschi which has recently been   acquired by the gallery. The picture was shown with two information boards on the artist and on the iconography of the picture. It is one of the few pictures made while Orazio was working for the English court in his late 60s. The picture was painted for Queen Henrietta Maria and hung at the Queen’s House in Greenwich. The river in the top right hand corner is meant to represent to evoke the Thames. It may have been inspired by the recent birth of the future Charles II. It was a nice touch to have this display in the same room as the Caravaggio’s of whom he was a follower and with the recently acquired picture by his daughter Artemisia. Incidentally I can’t wait for the exhibition of her work coming soon to the gallery.