Cathy's Art Diary

Confusing online course from the London Art History Society on Norman influence on architecture and material culture in Southern Italy. I say confusing because the history and many of the architectural terms were new to me. I think some people on the course had already done others with the speaker John McNeill so were more familiar with some of the background. It would have really helped to have a glossary of terms and an outline of the people and dates involved in the handout for reference. I know my English Norman architecture of the 11th and 12th century quite well so it might have helped me to make comparisons or say more about why they were different. McNeill had some great illustrations, I suspect many of which he had taken himself, which gave a good sense of the buildings many of which were now ruins. He made good use of floor plans but I’m afraid I did confuse them over time and they were very similar. That said I discovered some wonderful sites and have definitely added ...

Interesting day of lectures from London Art History Society held at Friend’s House on the reaction against Modernist art by the dictators of the inter war years. Richard Humphreys organised the talks by country starting with an overview of what was happening at the centre of the avant-garde in Paris. We tend to concentrate on the major modern movements which started there like Cubism and Surrealism but Humprey’s looked at the reaction against these movements often led by the right wing and nationalism. He then used this discussion of the reaction to lead to talks on Italy and Mussolini, Russia and Stalin and Germany and Hitler where similar themes and subjects emerged such as the role of technology and how it represented in art, the desire to memorialise and use the history of the countries and the propaganda use of art. Because of the similar themes the country talks became a bit repetitive so I wonder if it might have been better to arrange it by theme, flagging what was happe...

Fascinating exhibition at the British Museum on the history and art of Sicily focusing on the Greek and Norman periods. This was a well set out and explained exhibition and I loved the inclusion of large scale photographs of the main sites to give you a real sense of being there. Like the Sunken Cities show though the show was stolen by some stunning objects. In the Greek section was a pottery basin on a stand from 1400BC that you could have put in your garden now it was so perfect. This was near to a near perfect flat gold bowl with bulls on it. I loved the gorgon head gable end and think we need to revive them. Most intriguing was the section on the cult of Persephone and the female ceremonies which seemed to involve lots of alcohol and piglets! I loved the little statues of goddesses with small pigs! Book me in! I loved the Norman section as I had studied this at A Level. I hadn’t realised that a lot of the original palace still existed. I was interested to se...

Elegant exhibition at the V&A looking at the growth of the Italian fashion industry and what makes it different. The first section of the show was chronological starting with the post war industry based on artisan craftsmen where fashion was used to boost the economy, through the growth launch of the Sala Blanca fashion shows at the Pitti Palace in Florence and the role of the Hollywood films made in Rome. The second section began with the role of the stilista in Milan, who aimed to create the perfect style. It then looked at different materials and ended with a wonderful room of brand designers seen as modern taste makers. There was a lovely section on the role of local dressmakers with a great collection of clothes owned by Margaret Abegg and made by Maria Grimaldi which discussed the relationship between women and their dress makers. This was lvoely because Margaret was not a standard model shape and it was nice to see how the clothes would work on more normal ...

An exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the work of the Divisionist painters in Italy and the influence they had on the futurist movement. I found this exhibition was a bit mixed. It’s not a subject I knew anything about so it was interesting to see what Italian artists were doing at the same time as the Impressionists were appearing in France. The first room was super with some grand landscapes, my favourite being a huge white alpine landscape by Emilio Longoni. However I was not so sure about the rest. At times the artists seem so determined to make a political statement that the art becomes a bit like a political poster. Some of the symbolist works also passed me by a bit particularly one called “The Bad Mothers” which seemed to be an atonal picture of two long haired women in a tree. Reviews Guardian Evening Standard

Lecture at the National Gallery by Robert Lumley from University College London, looking at the new exhibition “ Radical Light ” . The lecture discussed the political context in which the paintings site, ie in the years following the unification of Italy. It also looked at themes in the pictures such as the countryside and the working classes. I must admit this is not a period or topic I have looked at before so I got a bit confused with the plethora of Italian names.

A well constructed exhibition at the National Gallery of the art of Sienna in the Renaissance period covering the 100 years from the canonisation of Saint Bernardino to the entry of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V in 1536. I thought I knew the art of Sienna well but realise it’s the earlier period I know, Duccio and the good and bad government frescos, I did not really know what came next and this was therefore a fascinating insight of how these earlier works influenced later generations. I loved Francesco de Giorgio’s covers for the cities account books in the first room including miniature pictures of the city complete with its blank and white stripped cathedral tower. However the highlights of the show were the works which had been brought together from different collections for the first time in 100 or more years. They included Matteo di Giovanni’s Assumption altarpiece brought together for the first time since its discovery in 1800 and works from Pandolfo Pettrucci’s chamber i...

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 ...