Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online course from the London Art History Society looking at how the artists of Naples developed a Baroque style in the 17th century. Giulia Martina Weston, an associate lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art, led us through the topic with six well planned lectures. Day one focused on the effect of Caravaggio having worked in the city and how artists either adopted or rejected this style. We then looked at Luca Giordano and his work in the city as well as in Florence, Rome and Venice. Day two concentrated on architecture in particular the work on Cosimo Fanzago. The first lecture focused on the Certosa de San Martino talking us through its design and decoration in detail. The second lecture then broadened out to look at his work for the religious orders and his secular commissions. The final day looked at Mattia Preti and Salvator Rosa, artists from Naples who worked further afield. We ended by looking at the art market examining how much different artists were p...

Review of the sumptuous exhibition at Tate Britain looking at Baroque art in Britain. This roughly covered the reigns of Charles II, James II, William and Mary and Queen Anne. I think I found the earliest work most fun with the later work getting too overblown. I liked the way it looked at the court and history as a starting point then moved on to themes including architecture, interior design, mansions and gardens and Trompe l’oeil. There were really impressive pieces in this show including a painting from the King’s bedchamber in Whitehall (shown here), one of the few pieces saved from the fire in 1698, the controversial catholic altarpiece from St James Palace and the altarpiece and pieces of the marble surround from James II redesign of the chapel in Whitehall. I loved the room of Trompe l’oeil work. I was quite thrown by the cut out man and loved the panel on a door showing a wonderfully realistic painting of a violin which looked like it was handing on the door. I...

Touching exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of Renaissance and Baroque portrait drawings focusing on drawings done from life. The show was gently themed looking at the purpose of the pictures and subjects but the pictures were just so stunning that they didn’t really need a narrative. I loved two sections on specific artists, the Carracci studio looking at how the three artist cousins used each other and visitors to the studio as subjects and Holbein the Younger as a court artist. I was fascinated by the pictures of women in what may have been court livery. There were many stars of the show. I think my favourite was a wonderful study of a nude youth and child by Pontormo where the model is the same as used for the young man supporting the body of Christ in the Deposition who looks out at the viewer. I wonder who he was. There was also a beautiful young man by Clouet, the Holbein of the French court. In any age he has a stunning face. The best story was with a...

The third session of this six week course at the National Gallery focusing on the art of the 17th century. This week looked at the Spanish Golden age with the first lecture given by the course tutor, Lucrezia Walker, looking in detail at El Greco, Velazquez, Zurbaran and Murrillo. The focus was on Velazquez and his work at court. I would have liked a bit more on Murrillo but I think we ran a bit short of time. The second talk was given by Larry Keith from the National Gallery conservation department discussing how the colours in Velazquez pictures have altered and the gallery’s ethos for correcting this. He had interesting photos of the original colour of the bed cover on the Rokeby Venus. He also talked about restoration of “The House of Mary and Martha” where colour deterioration had altered the way the shadows worked in the picture. A fascinating talk.

The second session of this six week course at the National Gallery focusing on the art of the 17th century. This week looked at Rubens, Van Dyck and the Flemish Baroque. The first lecture by the course leader, Lucrezia Walker, looked at the work of the two artists and how it developed over this period looking in some detail at their major works. It was fun to take a look at Rubens’ Marie de Medici cycle as they have always fascinated in the Louvre as they appear quite silly to the modern eye.   The second session introduced us to Ulyana Gumeniuk a former BP Portrait Award winner and fellow of Trinity College. She has done much work copying, although she described it as transcribing, the Old Masters in galleries from which she investigates what were the artists first brush strokes and how did the picture build up. From that experience she then creates her own works. I found this session fascinating and I could see that she was working in a Baroque style but I must admit...

The first session of this six week course at the National Gallery focusing on the art of the 17th century. This week looked at Caravaggio, the Counter-reformation and the Baroque and was led by the course tutor Lucrezia Walker. The first half discussed what the Baroque was by taking two artists Bernini and Caravaggio as examples. I am not sure I’d ever considered Caravaggio to be Baroque mainly because I like him and don’t like Baroque which I think of as more about fussy visuals and flying babies! It was interesting to consider the changed from the rather cooler High Renaissance to the flamboyant Baroque. The second half looked in more detail at the religious pictures of Caravaggio. I had never thought before about the fact that all his pictures are set in interiors even if they are an obvious exterior subject such as the road to Damascus. I would have liked to hear a bit more about the Counter –reformation and the Council of Trent but we have got five more weeks to ...

Rich exhibition at the V&A looking at the art and design of the Baroque seeing it as the first global art movement. It was full of large lush objects with a real sense of the richness of the era although I’m personally not surprised it led to revolution in some areas! It focused on both the religious and secular uses of this style as well as its international nature. I am not sure I had any favorite pieces as it’s not a style I particularly like but I did find it a magnificent exhibition with the pieces beautifully displayed with each one given the space to be seen and to speak for itself. It was however a bit like swimming though melted chocolate with marshmallow being thrown in at intervals. Not an unpleasant experience but it became quite tiring and a little sickly! Reviews Times Daily Telegraph Evening Standard

Exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace of Italian art in the Royal Collection bringing together 90 paintings and 85 drawings from royal palaces. Galleries of paintings focused on Florence, Rome, Venice and Northern Italy in the C16th and the Baroque. Another gallery side gallery had three rooms of drawings looking at the different techniques. Incorporated through the exhibition was furniture, sculpture and books from the collection. There was some focus on how the items entered the Royal Collection looking in particular at the collecting of Charles I including how it was dispersed on his death and how many items were required on the Restoration. It was a lovely opportunity to see some great works of art. My particular favourites were two drawings by Michelangelo as a gift for Tommaso de’ Cavalieri one of “A children’s bacchanal” and one of “The Fall of Phaeton”. The best painting was the self portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi which was shown next to works by her father ...