Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online talk from the Foundling Museum looking at how children with what we would now call learning disabilities were treated by the Founding Hospital. Thomas Aird, a volunteer at the Museum, took us through some detailed research he had done on children listed as ‘idiots’ at various times in the hospital, tracking what had happened to them over the years. I was fascinated by the amount of detail he had found on the children, often finding where they had been placed in apprenticeships and in some cases finding out when they died and where they are buried. Most touching was Ann Valley who lived in the care of the Foundling Hospital for the whole of her 83 years. He explained that the term ‘idiot’ was not seen as derogatory at the time, it only became so as narrower definitions of conditions were adopted. He also explained how the issue had become more pronounced following the period of general admission to the hospital between 1756 and 1760 when, in return for government...

Fascinating online tour from London Art Week of an exhibition at Sam Fogg looking at Medieval women as the subject and makers of art. Jana Gajdosova, Medieval specialist at Sam Fogg and Alexandra Gajewski   of Burlington Magazine took us round the show with four brief videos of the installation then picked out specific images to highlight themes. I loved the image of St Avia shown here which would probably have been set in a wall and fascinated to hear about Shrine Madonna’s which open up down the chest to reveal an image, often a Trinity, and fell out of fashion due to the theological contradiction that them implied the Virgin came before all aspects of the Trinity not just the son. They kept mentioning a previous round table discussion which I found on the Sam Fogg website which involved the two speakers from the talk plus Jeffrey Hamburger from Harvard University and Madeline Caviness from Tuft University. This talked more about the themes involved including the idea of who...

Interesting online interview from the Victoria and Albert Museum with Orsola de Castro, co-founder of Fashion Revolution, which campaigns for ethical production in the fashion industry. Tamsin Blanchard, Editor, 'Hole & Corner' magazine, interviewed Orsola about her new book “Loved Clothes Last” advocating the mending of clothes. Tamsin described the book as a “why to” book rather than a “how to” one. They talked about Orsola’s fashion brand using upcycled remnants from the fashion industry, her work supporting ethical designers and manufacturers via the Aesthetica initiative at London Fashion Week and the work of Fashion Revolution. They then looked at some of the ideas and suggestions in the book including what emergency repair tools Orsola keeps in her handbag and the idea of having mending stations in high street stores. She advocated thinking though the life cycle of a garment before buying it, how you will look after it, how it might be repaired and if it might...

Tantalising online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their exhibition on Durer’s travels due to open on 20 November this year. Susan Foister, the curator of the show, took us through how Durer’s journeys fitted into his life and discussed what they brought to his art and how his presence in new places influenced the artists around him. I knew about his two trips to Venice but didn’t know about his later trip to the court of the Emperor Charles V in the Netherlands. It seems that the National Gallery’s own St Jerome is going to be a pivotal work in the show but she took us through some exciting loans which will put this in context and help to illuminate other aspects of the narrative. It seems very early to have a curator’s talk on a show but I think it was originally planned for it to open about now. I can’t wait to see it in the Autumn and watch out for a number of other talks I have booked on the topic. I suspect 2021 might be the year of Durer on the blog!  ...

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at Degas’s art collection, what he planned for it and how it influenced him. Christina Bradstreet started by listing the paintings in Degas’s bedroom as an indication of his taste in art. She took us through a brief outline of his life including how he had to sell his father’s art collection and how he started to build up a collection himself as he grew richer. He looked at how the artists he owned influenced his own work in particular focusing on Ingres, from whom he took line and composition, and Delacroix, for his use of colour. She talked about his plans for his collection to become a public museum on his death however this didn’t happen and it was auctioned at the end of the First World War. The National Gallery sent Maynard Keynes to the sale and bought old masters and works by Degas and we looked at some of the works they bought.  

Interesting online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at the golden age of Venetian glass as part of their "Meet the Expert" series.  Curator Suzanne Higgott talked us through the different styles of Venetian glass with wonderful illustrations from the Wallace Collection and elsewhere. She explained how the Renaissance glass makers tried to imitate natural minerals forms such as rock crystal and agate. She also talked about how the city moved the glass makers to the island of Murano to keep their recipe a secret as well as to protect the main islands from fire due to the furnaces. She mentioned glass makers who were allowed to travel to other courts and how they adapted their designs when competition came from lead crystal and potash glass.

Fascinating online lecture from Birkbeck College looking at the symbolism of the vaults in the lower church of St Francis in Assisi. John Renner took us though the four faults over St Francis’s tomb possibly by Giotto linking their allegorical narrative with the theology of the Franciscan order at the time. He took us though the imagery in some detail and pointed out that the three vaults on the vows of the order all followed the same pictorial template. I love this sort of detailed analysis of images and wish we had had longer on them. Looking again as I write this I find myself looking at sections he didn’t describe and wondering what they mean. Oh dear, another place to add to the post lockdown list!