Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent three-week online course from the National Gallery focusing on Parmigianino’s “Vision of St Jerome” from 1526 which was the subject of a small exhibition at the gallery at the time. Richard Stemp used the six sessions to gradually broaden out from the painting itself to the life of the artist and then onto themes which the painting highlighted. It was cleverly structured and covered a lot of ground. Week one focused on the painting and the exhibition discussing its context, influences and composition. He then looked at the life of the artist and his other works. In week two we looked at the role of women linked to the painting beginning with a useful overview of the history of painting the Virgin Mary and the different archetypal images placing this work within ideas of the Immaculate Conception. We then looked at women as commissioners of art as this work had been commissioned by a widow, Maria Bufalini in memory of her husband. Stemp ran though examples of paintings ...

Interesting lunchtime talk at the National Gallery given by James Heard and looking at “The Virgin and Child enthroned” by Jan de Beer. This picture dates from a time when prosperity moved from Bruges to Antwerp following a slump in the wool trade and a silting up of the river leading to Bruges. James looked at the picture in the context of the mannerist style by which is it describe but explained that Antwerp mannerism and Italian were not linked except by their elongated and sinuous style. He also made us think of it in the light of Gossart’s trip to Rome bringing back drawings of classical architecture and this picture combines classical and gothic styles. He talked about the range of work which de Beer undertook which included pageants for the city. He made us look in detail at the picture going through the saint’s attribution and the northern style of showing the attribute in a naturalist way rather than the Italian style which usually see the saint holding up the...