Cathy's Art Diary

Another brilliant week at the Courtauld Summer School . This year I look the course called “Nike to Angel” with Dr Cecil Hennessy which looked at how early Christian iconography evolved from classical themes plus how the iconography developed. Cecil was a wonderfully clear, logical lecturer and really encouraged ideas and participation. There was a series of ten lectures giving an overview of the topic then looking at different artistic mediums from the period such as ivories, mosaics and metalwork. We had some really good sessions in the museums going to the V&A and the British Museum twice. The second session at the British Museum was brilliant as it was a handling session. We thought we’d see second rank pieces but when we arrived the curator had out pieces we’d looked at on the previous visit. We handled (in gloves) a wonderful apotheosis ivory with textured elephants, the wonderful casket from a treasure hoard, a fantastic smooth vessel with a perfectly fitting lid and most m...

Plenary lecture to mark the end of the first week of the Courtauld Summer School . This was given by John House who had recently retired from the Courtauld and looked at the work on Van Gogh focusing on his time at the Yellow House and comparing his outlook on art to Gauguin’s. Van Gogh had invited Gauguin to Arles thinking they thought the same way about art but this lecture pointed out the differences and the almost inevitable conflicts which emerged.

The week has gone so fast! You just get a rhythm and routine and it’s over! The morning’s lectures begin with looking at the landscape tradition in the Italian and German Renaissance. It looked at how the practice of landscape came from the Netherlands to Italy and then fed into Germany. We saw how in Germany there was a culture of representing the forest and discussed the allegory of this. The second lecture took the same area and period and looked at portraits. Again the Netherlands led the way but we looked in detail at how Venice developed this tradition. We discussed the social changes which were reflected by the growth in portrait painting. The afternoon trip was the National Gallery where we looked at the wonderful set of Cranachs there moving on to the Holbeins and the Altdorfers what may be the first landscape study in art. We then looked at the Italian side concentrating on the Titians. So what have I learn this week? Sadly that I’m not sure I like German art! I now understan...

Today was a bit different as we did the gallery bit in the morning by going to the Strang Print Room at UCL. This was fascinating as I’d never come across it before. Open to the public it givens access to UCL’s art collection including the archive of the Slade. On this course we were looking at prints by Durer and his contemporaries. It was a great chance to compare the different techniques he used wood cut, engraving and etching. I loved getting up really close to the Madonna and the monkey and seeing all the subtlety in it. The afternoons’ lectures began with Lucas Cranach taking him as a comparison to Durer and looking at why he painted I the style he did when there is evidence that he could use a finer approach. After tea we looked at the work of Grunewald, in particular the Grunewald altar piece, again as comparison to Durer.

Gosh this enjoying yourself is really tiring! Today’s lectures merged into each other either side of the coffee break. First was a talk on Gothic sculpture in Germany which was fascinating as I knew nothing about it before. It focused on the big altar pieces and looked at the difference between the polychrome and monochrome ones and why each was used. After coffee we looked at why this style continued so long in Germany and how the Renaissance style began to creep in and why. The afternoon was a trip to the new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries to look at the German sculpture there and the little bit of Venetian. We then went upstairs to look at how Durer prints had influenced design and other forms of carving.

It’s so nice to be back at the Courtauld Summer School and to see old friends from previous years. This year is the Durer and Venice course lead by Dr Richard Williams. I chose it as a friend has joined me this year. He wanted to do Italian art, I wanted to do Northern so this seemed a good compromise. It’s proving to be fascinating as we bring enough visual knowledge of Venice to it but the Durer side is new and exciting. The first day’s lectures set the scene. The first looked at the background of Germany and Italy at this time and the relationship between the two. The second looked at how Durer related to the Italian renaissance before he went to Venice, what he knew about it and where he was in his career. As ever there was a gallery talk given by one of the research students. This year I opted for early medieval sculpture which was fascinating. The student (whose name I failed to get) had worked on a large Madonna and child in room 1 of the Courtauld Gallery and managed to ascerta...

Plenary lecture to mark the end of the Courtauld Institute summer school . The lecture was given by one of the professors at the Institute Paul Hills. He discussed the effect of trade with the East on colours in Venice. In particular he seemed to concentrate on the effect of the imported blue and white ceramics. I must admit he lost me at this point. I couldn’t make the leap from blue and white pottery to the role of blue and white in pictures. I felt those colours were more about sunshine and blue skies on the lagoon. I felt the argument wandered around a bit and just showed how good our lecturer for the rest of the week had been.

Can’t believe the course is over already. You just get into a routine and it’s finished! Today’s first lecture was Tintoretto v Veronese. I’d never really understood Tintoretto before but, although I’m not sure I’ll ever respond emotionally to it, I get what he was aiming for and like some of the images in the iconography, I’d not really understood that his works tend to be for and full of the tradesman of the city. We did Veronese quite quickly, but it turned out the lecturers phd was on Tintoretto’s church Madonna dell’Orto so maybe a bit if bias crept in! Second lecture was on the counter reformation. As usual I realised this is where I start to loose it with religious art. Things just become too prescriptive and a bit violent, I think I like my religion peaceful. As part of the session twpo members of the class read the dialogue between the inquisitor and Veronese regarding the “Feast at the House of Simeon” (or is it?) This really brought the topic to life and we followed it with ...

Wow it has seemed a long day as I’ve packed things in! Two lectures this morning. We started with portraits with a debate on what a portrait is and isn’t. We then looked at the role of Netherlandish art, the difference between public and private portraits and the place of women in portraiture. After coffee was the role of the Terra Firma in Venetian art. It was an interesting discussion about whether the influences came from city to country or visa versa the conclusion was that they influenced each other it was not just one way. This gave us a chance to look at some less well-known artists such as Lotto and Pordenone. This afternoon was a wonderful trip to the British Library to look at books printed in Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries. These had been retrieved for us and we looked at them in a room upstairs. The curator there was really knowledgeable so there were some great discussion between our lecturer and him. It was great to get a chance to handle the books and have a reall...

Today’s lectures were excellent. As one fellow student said “At last we’ve left religion and found sex!”! We began with the mysterious Giorgione who we know very little about and who only left a handful of pictures as he died young, however what he did leave was remarkably significant and seemed to introduce a new style of pastoral art to Venice. We tried analysing some of the more mysterious pictures but who knows what they mean. After coffee was Titian with particular emphasis on the mythological series. The themes in these became more and more racy. In one series he seems to have admitted that one of the reasons for the figures in them was to show naked women from all angles! The trip this afternoon was the Print Gallery at the British Museum which I always enjoy. We were able to look at Gentile Bellini’s drawing for the big procession in St Marks Square, a Ttitan drawing, two Carpaccios, a Veronese and a Tintoretto. It is so nice to be able to compare style and technique that clos...

Another good day at the summer school! The first lecture was on devotion in painting focusing on the development of the altarpiece in Venice. We looked in quite a lot of detail at what wasn’t an altarpiece, ie private devotional works. Altarpieces in this period went through three phases the gilded polyptic form through the sacred conversation style to the large narrative pieces. It was great to see lots of images which I knew well so a bit like studying old friends. The second lecture was on the Scuole, the Venetian version of confraternities, and the art they commissioned. They developed a wonderful narrative tradition which often places miracles and biblical events into a contemporary setting. The afternoon was a session in the National Gallery looking in particular at the Bellini’s most of which in the collection were for private devotion. We discussed the changing nature of private devotion, the influence of Flemish and Netherlandish art and the early development of portraiture. I...

Today has been my first day of this year’s week at the Courtauld Institute’s summer schools. This year I am doing “Painting in Renaissance Venice” which is being led by Michael Douglas-Scott. It was nice to see some familiar faces and there are at least five of us who did Michael’s course last year. Today has been two lectures. Firstly setting out the background of Venice in this period looking at how the city had set up a myth of itself, the role of the Doge. the nature of the Republic and the role of citizens. The second lecture looked at why the nature of Renaissance was different in Venice. There was still a sense of the coming of antiquity and humanism but in Venice it fused with the Gothic and Byzantine rather than replacing it. The day ended with a choice of gallery talks. I went to one on the second floor of the Courtauld on the coming of Modernism. In essence it looked at the Impressionists and discussed what they were reacting against and what themes they portrayed. All in a...

Today has been my first day of this year’s week at the Courtauld Institute’s summer schools. This year I am doing “High Renaissance : art and architecture in Rome 1500-1527” which is being led by Michael Douglas-Scott. It is shaping up to be another good year. It’s been nice to bump into a few people who I’ve met in previous years and to get back into the swing of lectures. I must say work already feels a long way away! Today has been two lectures. Firstly on Renaissance Rome and the papacy looking at the state of the papacy at this time and why art and architecture was important to it. It touched on the duel roles of Rome as centre of Imperial Rome and as centre of the Christian church in the West which made is a major centre of pilgrimage. The second lecture was on Revonatio Urbis that is urban renewal in the city at this time. Again it firstly looked at why this was done which including to improve the image of the papacy, to provide better transport for pilgrims, to improve the hygi...