Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery on the influence of classical sculpture in some of its paintings. Catherine Heath took three paintings, Uccello’s “Battle of San Romano” (1438-40), Botticelli’s “Venus and Mars” (about 1485) and Titian’s “Bacchus and Ariadne” (1520-3) and used them to look at how Renaissance artists referenced classical art. She gave examples of when they used actual sculptures as their models as in Titian’s figure with snakes based on the Laocoon in the Vatican which had been discovered just 14 years earlier. She included some examples of troupes which they might have been inspired by on Roman sarcophagi such as Botticelli’s use of one again in the Vatican collection. She also talked about where the inspiration had possibly come from descriptions of lost classical art such as San Romano having links to a painting of a battle of Alexander the Great, much described but now only know from a Roman mosaic version in Naples. She also talked about wh...

Super exhibition at King’s College at Somerset House looking at how contemporary artists respond to the classical tradition. I did the show the wrong way round but it worked! It’s better to start with the Bush House section (go in through the back) which has some stunning works by contemporary artists which take their inspiration from classical art. Sacha Sasko’s “The Good Watchman” which was a classical head with an empty block where the eyes should be. It really plays with your mind as you can see the road behind through this apparently solid head. My favourite piece in the show was Edward Allington’s “Victory Boxed”, 99 small blue and white Winged Victories arranged in the pattern of the Greek flag. There was a video installation in this section which I didn’t have enough time to engage with. It consisted of three upright video screens showing an artist sitting on a chair talking how they use the classical world as a resource for the present. You sit on a chair opposite...

Fascinating exhibition at Pallant House looking at how modernist artists used the idea of the antique in their work. I am currently doing a course at the V&A on classicism and I like modernist art so inevitably I loved this show! It pointed out how classicism had a revival after the horrors of the First World War being seen as a return to order and reviving ideas of idealism. The show had a good mix of mediums with great pictures but also good use of posters, books and photographs. There were some wonderful pictures which I’d not seen before including one of the Toilet of Venus by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell done as part of a decorative scheme for Dorothy Wellesley’s dining room. It was three statuesque full female figures in great shades of yellow and orange. There were also some old friends such as Meredith Frampton’s portrait of Marguerite Kelsey from the Tate. I loved a room dedicated to the 1935 Olympian Party held at Claridges with costumes designed by Oli...