Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent online seminar from the Courtauld Gallery to compliment their exhibition of Parmigianino drawings and prints. Five talks took us through various aspects of Parmigianino’s work on paper from an analysis of the handwriting on the drawings, his use of reversal in images and the drawings in Vienna. Catherine Jenkin’s an independent researcher and Naoko Takahatake from the Getty Research Institute took us though Parmigianino’s innovative print production looking at both his woodcuts and etchings. They speculated that he had learnt his techniques in Rome and discussed how he advanced the use of this relatively new technology. My favourite talk used the baptismal records in Parma to trace the links between artists in the city in the last ten years of Parmigianino’s life. Mary Vaccaro found the artist as godfather to four children of other artists and talked about how this honour implied a close link between people and families. I thought this was an innovative approach and as...

Interesting online seminar from the National Gallery looking at women artists and the gallery. There was a good blend of looking at what is in the collection, how the collection has been used by women and how contemporary artists are interacting with it all delivered with an interesting range of speakers. The afternoon opened with a look at the roles of women hidden behind male artists such as sisters, daughters and mothers. Some like Marietta Robusti, daughter of Tinteretto, were artists themselves but others like Agnes Durer and Margaret Van Eyck ran their husband’s studios. They mused on how many similar women in the art world had been forgotten. The meat of the event was looking at copying work in the gallery and the role this played in women’s art studies. We also discussed women who used these copies as a way of earning money. This included a fascinating examination of the gallery’s own registers tracing women who appeared in them from 1900-1910. There were also intervi...

Interesting afternoon at the Victoria and Albert Museum to mark the launch of a new international declaration on digital reproductions which allow museums and galleries to produce, store and shares works from their collection. The keynote speech, given by Bill Sherman, Director of the Warburg Institute, looked at the history of reproductions. He pointed out that most of the Greek statues we know come from Roman copies   and siting the V&A’s own cast court as an example from the museum world. He also told us that the first declaration on reproduction was pioneered by Henry Cole who was first director of the V&A. That declaration had lasted since 1867 but 150 years later a new one was needed for the digital age. This was followed by an interesting panel discussion about the challenges and possibilities which the internet and brought to the cultural world and looked at different approaches from charging to providing free to see the collections used. The after...

Excellent workshop at the National Gallery looking in detail at Diana and Actaeon by Titian as part of a new series on pictures whose subject is myths and legends. We began by looking at the source of the story, Ovid, and how the poem was reflected in the picture. We also looked at the fact it was part of a commission from Philip II of Spain for a series of myth pictures or Poesies and how these were late paintings by Titian which gave him a lot of freedom in their composition. We spent a lot of time at the painting itself discussing the composition and listening to reading of the section from Ovid and discussing what was included and left out. Finally we returned to the seminar room to talk about the greater meaning of the story and larger themes in in such as the difference between about sight and the act of looking, a popular theme with artists. I came away with a much greater understanding of the work and felt I had looked at it in much more detail than befor...

Fascinating seminar at the National Gallery focusing on Claude Lorrain’s picture “Seaport with the Embarkation of St Ursula” lead by Steven Barrett. In the first section we looked at the story of St Ursula and how Claude had chosen to depict in in this picture. We discussed whether it was necessary to know the story to appreciate the picture. We also spent a lot of time looking at wonderful photos of details of the picture and talked about Claude’s style. We spent quite a lot of time looking at the picture itself and discussing its composition and how the picture might have been commissioned. We ended back in the seminar room talking about other St Ursula pictures and how this one had come into the National Gallery collection. We also talked about the influence of Claude on other artists including Turner and Monet.

Workshop at the National Gallery in their “A Look Inside” series looking at Seurat’s “The Bathers”. This morning was led by Ben Street, a lecturer at the gallery, and examined whether the picture was of or against it’s time. It put it in the context of the impressionists but also looked at his more academic influences. We also discussed the social context of the picture and the fact it was painted the same year as “Sunday Afternoon at the Island of Grand Jatte” and whether the pictures could be viewed as a pair. We ended by spending about ¾ hour in front of the picture looking at the techniques in detail and sharing ideas from the session. A great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Very good morning workshop at the National Gallery looking in detail at “The Madonna del Gatto” in the current Barocci exhibition. The first section looked at the painting in detail, examining who it was painted for but also looking at the details in it. I hadn’t spotted the lovely prayer book in the basket at the front. We then looked at the art historic context placing it within Barocci’s career and looking at his technique. We also discussed whether he could be described as a Mannerist artist or is he more Baroque. He last session was in the main galleries looking at works which related to the painting. We looked at a lovely Correggio of the virgin fitting a jacket she’s made on the Christ child. I’d walked past this picture so often but never stopped and looked at it properly. We also looked at Parmigianino's "Madonna and Child with Saints" which keeps coming up in lectures!