Cathy's Art Diary

Small exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of 16th and 17th century works on paper to compliment the Cezannae card players exhibition. This gallery focused on the Flemish and Netherlandish tradition of portraying peasant life. The grotesque features and vulgar poses of the people amused urban audiences but the landscape show they wanted their countryside unspoilt. There was a wonderful Bruegel the Elder drawing for a print complete with mobile brothel in the centre.

Again two very good days and I'm really sorry the week is over. On Thursday we concentrated on Roger Van de Weyden with Douglas Brine. In the morning we looked in detail at "The Descent from the Cross" which is in Madrid. I saw this at the end of last year so the experience of it was quite fresh in my mind. Fascinating to go through the iconography in detail and to think about how and why the figures fit in the space the way they do. We then focused on some of the other works in detail. The afternoon was spent in the Print and Drawing Room at the British Museum . I hadn't realised that anyone can go along and ask to see anything that they hold there. A nice atmosphere with a mix of people studying and the staff who work in the room with their personalised desks. We had out a series of drawings linked to Roger van de Weyden. There was a particularly fine portrait of a woman but my favourite was a drawing which was probably for a wall painting of a procession. I was dra...

Another good day at the Summer School. Today focused on The Master of Flemalle or Robert Campin, again looking in detail at a selection of works attributed to him with the course leader Dr Susie Nash. In the morning we went into some detail on who this artist was, whether he was Robert Campin who taught Roger van de Weyden or whether he was the unnamed master of the Flemalle panels. Also whether all the works attributed to him are in fact by the same hand. In the afternoon we focused on the Seilern Triptych in the Courtauld collection. We looked at detailed micro photography of it and talked through the iconography then spent time before the actual picture thinking about what we had learnt. Finally we went into the conservation department to look at the x-rays of the picture and to discuss changes which had been made while it was being painted. Susie Nash had worked closely with this picture so it was fascinating to hear new research and ideas about it.

Another good day on this course being immersed in Jan van Eyck. We had a different lecturer today, Dr Douglas Brine, who took us through a brief outline of the life of Van Eyck and then focused on three major works The Washington Annunciation The Rolin Madonna The Van der Paele Madonna It was fascinating to look at these works in detail, focusing on symbolism in them and how new technologies have brought to light changes in the composition between the initial drawing and the final painting. The lecturer was just back from Bruges where he had been doing some research into the Van der Paele Madonna so we were introduced to some new theories about this picture. In the afternoon we went to the National Gallery to look at the Van Eyck's there as well as the Van de Weydens and Gerard David.

Just done day one of a Courtauld Summer School on Early Netherlandish art. I thoroughly recommend these. I did a Spring school last year on Saints and Sanctity and really enjoyed it. It was nice to see people I'd met at the previous course and to meet new people. Today we've had good general introduction looking at why a lot of this work has disappeared and what the workshop set up was like. The afternoon was spent in the conservation department where we got a chance to mix and use paints and pigments of the time. Fascinating to use contemporary materials and see how a different pigment can affect the feel as well as the colour of the paint. Quite proud of my small rather cross eyed virgin but I think I'll stick to the day job!