artfirstprimo tours the National Gallery

Welcome back art lovers. For those of you who don't yet know, let me remind you the National Gallery, London offers free lecture tours everyday at the same times of 11:30 and 14:30; leaving from the new part of the building - The Sainsbury Wing, just next to the main shop.  Yesterday I, artfirstprimo, conducted both 60 minute tours of the NG, from 11:30-12:30 and from 14:30-15:30. Both the 11:30 and 14:30 tours of the National Gallery featured eleven different paintings from the National Gallery's Permanent Collection, which consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you who were able to attend one of my talks at the National Gallery yesterday, enjoyed them, but if you missed them or just want a reminded of which pictures we looked at so you can visit them again with a friend. here is a list of those paintings:

The 11:30 NG tour pictures were: The Margarito of Arezzo (Virgin Child, 1260s), Carlo Crivelli - about 1430/5 - about 1494 (La Madonna della Rondine, about 1490-2), Jacopo Cumin called Tintoretto - 1518-1594 (Origin of the Milky Way, probably 1570-80), Tiziano Vecellio in English Titian - active about 1506 - died 1576 (Diana and Actaeon,1556-9), Titian (Death of Actaeon,1559-75), and to end the 11:30 tour, Claude-Oscar Monet - 1840-1926 (The Bathers at la Grenouillere,1869) and Claude-Oscar Monet (The Beach at Trouville, 1870).

For my 14:30 tour of the National Gallery I looked at the following pictures: Andrea Mantegna about - 1430/1-1506 (Introduction of the Cult of Cybele at Rome,1505-6), Bernardino di Betto of Perugia called Pintoricchio - active 1481-1513 (Penelope with the Suitors, about 1509), Agnolo di Cosimo called Bronzino - 1503-1572 (An Allegory with Venus and Cupid, probably 1540-50), and to end the 14:30 tour of the National Gallery, William Hogarth - 1697-1764 (Marriage-A-la-Mode, about 1743).

And for those of you who like quick bit-sized information about an artist and a particular work the, National Gallery's ten minute talks everyday at 16:00 will be ideal for you.  Yesterday I also gave this talk, which took place in room 38 of National Gallery, and featured the artist Canaletto and his 1738 large canvas view of The Upper Reaches The Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo.  The vantage point places the viewer directly in the centre of the Grand Canal.  Canaletto's fame and fortune was mostly secured by English patronage, this resulted in him visiting England in 1747, which, for a painter that rarely left Venice, was indeed significant.

If you would like to come along to my next two tours of the National Gallery at 11:30 and 14:30 they will be on Friday 4th November, starting as usual just outside the main shop in the Sainsbury Wing.  As usual I will only reveal the choice of pictures as we tour around the Gallery.  However, I will also be giving the free 10 minute talk on the same day at 16:00 in room 8 in front of the painting, the featured artist, which I can reveal will be Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola called Il Parmigianino - 1503-1540 (The Madonna and Child with Saints John and Jerome, 1526-7).

Hopefully see you all there for more fun at the National Gallery.

The itinerant art historian face to face with the ultimate itinerant artist

Welcome back art lovers. Monday night night saw the completion of the course called 'Introduction to Western European Art History', which I teach at the Bishopsgate Institute in London's Liverpool Street.  This whirlwind, and frankly very exciting, six week course is quick and immediate in the information it imparts especially if the students have particularly inquiring minds, as was the case on this particular course. The course took the students on a rollacoaster ride from Byzantine to Victorian painting; ultimately giving them the confidence and the tools of art recognition to survive and be comfortable in any art gallery in the world.

Tuesday morning saw the me, the itinerant art historian once again leave the confines of London to deliver another my lectures, this time to the Mid Kent DFAS.  The Mid-Kent decorative and Fine Arts Society are a plucky, warm and welcoming society based in the village of Sutton Valance, not that I got to see it, as a travelling art historian, one gets to visit many destinations but rarely gets to see them.  However, for this lecture the Mid Kent DFAS got to experience just one part the life of Leonardo da Vinci, his Portraits and Madonnas.  My lecture 'Leonardo's Portraits and Madonnas revealed many hitherto unknown facts regarding the life of the great Renaissance master. 

However, although we know that Leonardo was born the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci, on the 15th April in a small hilltop town called Vinci some 20 miles west of Florence surprisingly little is known about Leonardo's early life before his entry into the workshop of Andrea di Michele di Francesco Cioni a local hero of painting in the nearby town of Florence who would later be given the nickname - Andrea del Verrocchio as a direct reference to his skill as an artist; Verrocchio literally meant 'true eye'.

However, what is now known is that the famous image of an old Leonardo from the museum in Turin is not Leonardo.  Indeed it has been known for decades that this image is not Leonardo, yet it has persisted to be recognised in the minds of the public as being him no doubt helped by its use on book covers and by the media.  But you don't need me to find out more about the life of this giant of Renaissance art, because if you are lucky enough to live in London or you are able to travel to London, you can experience another aspect life of Leonardo for yourself in the up and coming exhibition to be held at the National Gallery -

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan
9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012

But a word of warning, this is going to be a very busy exhibition and tickets are being restricted to keep the numbers down, so do not just turn up and expect to get in, book in advance to avoid disappointment.

I will be virtually living in this exhibition, so see you there.

The Itinerant Art Historian in a Contemporary Landscape

Welcome back art lovers. On Saturday 22nd October I visited the latest incarnation of the White Cube group of galleries in London's , Bermondsey Road.  White Cube three takes over a former industrial building and turns it into an austere and uncompromising homage to the cult of contemporary art.  The inside is bathed in harsh white light; no signs adorn the walls of this protestant-like temple to contemporary art, in an obvious attempt to break with the past, there are not even any signs to inform you where the toilets are.  As for the art in these cavernous white spaces, they will need a further visit, because it was now time to get across town to the next appointment with art.

Later on on Saturday I was to be found in the Gerhard Richter exhibition at Tate Modern; admiring Gerhard Richter's so called squeegee paintings that have an extraordinary effect of seeming as though they are other-worldly; as though there are many dimensions beyond just three within their bounds, especially those with interventions within them that seem to float over the surface of the images.  I am also admiring Richter's engagement with the past in this exhibition entitled Panorama; the word which itself derives from the Greek god Pan- the god of everything, indeed we still invoke this god in many other words such as pandemic and the orthodox image of God referred to as Pantokrator.  Richter's photo-realist black and white paintings of American bombers and his uncle Rudi confront the realities of war re-representing images that are at once art and also detached from their times.  But his painting of the 'Reader' engages with a more distant past reminding us of the ethereal light in Johannes Vermeer's (1632 - 1675) paintings and the anonymity in the work of the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864 - 1916). In all these paintings Richter achieves his own kind of anonymity, by inducing a photo-realist blur into his images that distances the viewer whilst also echoing the convention of the Dutch 'conversation piece' popularised by Vermeer and his contemporaries such as Pieter de Hooch (1629 - 1684) and Jan Steen (1626 - 1679). 

This inspiration from the past also reappears again as I look at Richter's photo-realist image of 'Betty', as one is again reminded of Hammershøi, but also of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's (1780 - 1867) iconic Bather of 1808.  But the image of Richter's daughter 'Betty' resides in a room where Richter also approaches the traditional subject of landscape painting.  But in Richter's landscapes we see again his obsession with blurring the image, which very much his signature. These images are wonderfully hypnotic and traditionally romantic; we the viewer look down of these lands again as outsiders impossibly floating over a seemingly imaginary landscape.  Also in this exhibition one comes across a painting of a single Candle, this image reminds us of the single point of light in seen in many of the works by the so called Masters of Light painters from Utrecht also known as the Caravaggisti, such as Hendrick ter Brugghen's (1588 - 1629) Concert of about 1626 and Gerrit van Honthorst's (1592 - 1656) Christ before the High Priest from about 1617. In the work of Gerhard Richter we do not see an artist that is trying to confound the viewer with the variety of his styles and media, indeed we see an artist that continues a tradition that stretches back to the very earliest stirrings of the Renaissance, that is the ability to work in a variety of media and a resoluteness not to work in the way that art historians would wish or image an artist should work.  The past is the future and the future is the past in the work of Gerhard Richter.

The Itinerant Art Historian in Historical Winchester

Welcome back art lovers. You find the itinerant art historian arriving this morning in the bright sunlight and azure skies of a briskly chilly Winchester the home of King Arthur's round table; well at least something that claims to be this legendary object.  Of course the reason why I am here in Winchester is not to see the round table, but to give a lecture to the Winchester decorative and fine arts society on the subject of 'The Art of Portraiture: From Titian to van Dyck'.  The society is a large one that requires me to give this lecture twice today to accommodate their membership, which numbers almost 500.

  

But as I sit here in the Victorian Gothic splendour of the Winchester's raked seating Guildhall theatre venue waiting to take to the stage and give my lecture, I reflect on my brief walk around the interior of this grand build where I came across many other large and splendid halls, some of which contained paintings of great figures associated with Winchester's great and historical past, including a rather large, if somewhat unimpressive portrait of Charles II by one of the many artists that would benefit from imitating the style of  Anthony van Dyck - Sir Peter Lely.

 

But as my mind now drifts back to the first of my two lectures here in Winchester, I glance around the lecture theatre to observe the great and the good of the Winchester DFAS arriving.  As the theatre starts to fill for the morning rendition of my lecture one can hear the conversations that abound as to what revelations might be revealed by this lecture.  Amongst the chatter I overhear a lady remark, as she looks at the title of the my lecture displayed in large type on the screen on the stage, "does it say Titan,who is he"?  At least there will be one revelation that I can be guaranteed to be revealed.

 

In two days time I head off once again on my travels with art around the country bound for Huddersfield via Wakefield station to give this lecture again.  See you there, and stay up to date at my twitter feed. 

artfirstprimo peregrinations at the NG

Welcome back art lovers, the itinerant art historian here. Whether you were there or not this morning on my free 11:30 tour of the National Gallery, here is a list of the paintings that featured from across the National Gallery's world renowned permanent collection consisting of over two and a half thousand masterpieces of Western European art. 

We started this morning with a quintessential example of Renaissance art with:  Masaccio's Virgin and Child, 1426, which we them compared with a similar work by Gentile da Fabriano; his Virgin and Child, 1425, we then looked at love, marriage and sexual appetite with Botticelli's Venus and Mars, 1485, followed by Poussin's very odd pagan rites of his Bacchanalian Revel before a Term, 1630-4.  With mythology and the sexual excitement of the nude we moved on to Velazquez's mysterious Rokeby Venus, 1647-51. Why is this the only nude in existence and where in the world by Velazquez and is this really an image of Venus or somebody Velazquez actually knew?  And finally Seurat's monumental canvas Bathers at Asnieres, 1884

It was indeed an exciting tour filled with laughter & real life resonances regarding love, life, betrayal and ridicule. Be part of the next tour today featuring a new selection of pictures, at 14:30. 

Welcome back to my 2nd free guided tour of the NG. If you missed today's 14:30 tour or just want to know want a list of what we saw...Here is a list of those masterpieces: We began with a painting by an unknown artisan described only as the Margarito of Arezzo, 1260's, this painting was bought in the 19th century by the National Gallery not because they though it was a superb example of art, but precisely because they though it was a bad example of art that could be used to demonstrate just how far art had progressed from the 13th century to the 16th century with the art of Raphael, indeed it was described as primitive.  We then looked a painting that is an enigma in its own right, the mysterious so-called Wilton Diptych, c.1395-99.  Again there is no recorded artist for this small portable folding altarpiece, but it is filled with symbolism and richly decorated with real gold leaf and expensive colours such ultramarine blue.  We then moved on to Titian's Diana and Actaeon, 1575, a painting executed towards the end of the life of this illustrious Venetian Renaissance master; who even in his old age was experimenting with new styles in painting, indeed this painting could be said to be exhibiting the earliest example of what came to be known as 'Impressionism' long before the term was coined in the 19th century. And so from Titian we moved into the 18th century with the work of a now little know painter called Sebastiano Ricci.  Ricci's Bacchus and Ariadne, 1700-10, demonstrate a painter at the height of his powers with this popular mythological subject that was made famous by painters of a previous age including Titian.  And finally we alighted on one of only three works owned by the National Gallery, the work, Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus, 1601. This picture has many strange anomalies such as the strange fall of light on the characters within, the strange view point of us, the spectator, and the mysterious possible error of a large outsized hand.  Indeed this an artist that was much maligned within and for centuries after his death.  Here is just a few of the comments that were made about Caravaggio just decades after his death in 1611:

“For that Florentine-born Spaniard, Caravaggio was an evil genius, who worked naturally, almost without precepts, without study, but with only the strength of his talents… the coming of this man to the world was an omen of the ruin and demise of painting… this anti-Michelangelo, with his showy and superficial imitation, his stunning manner, and liveliness, has been able to persuade such a great number and variety of people that this is good painting… that they have turned their backs on the true way.” 

Vincencio Carducho, artist and writer, 1633

“Michele’s work often degenerated into common and vulgar forms.” He lacked invenzione, decorum, disegno, or any knowledge of the science of painting…it seems that he imitated art without art.” “The moment the model was taken from him, his hand and mind became empty… Caravaggio suppressed the dignity of art, everybody did as he pleased, and what followed was contempt for beautiful things, the authority of antiquity and Raphael destroyed.”

Giovanni Pietro Bellori, biographer of Caravaggio, 1672

Caravaggio's reputation would not be revived until the 20th century and this comment would be instumental in helping to revive his reputation:

“There is hardly any one artist whose work is of such moment as [Caravaggio’s] in the development of modern art… he was, indeed, in many senses the first modern artist; the first… to proceed not by evolution but by revolution; the first to rely entirely on his own temperamental attitude and to defy tradition and authority.  Though in many senses his art is highly conventional… he was the first realist… his force and sincerity compel our admiration, and the sheer power of his originality makes him one of the most interesting figures in the history of art.”

Roger Fry, artist and critic, 1905

Next NG tours by artfirstprimo: Sat 29 Oct at 11:30 or 14:30 and Fri 4 Nov at 11:30 or 14:30.

See you there.

West-Country Odyssey

Welcome back to artfirst. You join me one again on a train concourse here at Paddington station at an ungodly hour of 06:48.  And reason for this early foray? It must be the 'Cult of the South Pacific: from Cook to Gauguin'.  This lecture seems to have a life of its own. I am giving this very popular lecture literally the length and breadth of the country. 

So far I have visited, with this lecture: Ayrshire, Edinburgh, Sutton Coalfield, Newbury, Peterborough, and for this week, from today until Thurs, I shall be visiting: Shepton Mallet, Liskeard, Bodmin and Truro in the west-country, and then on to Guildford and Sevenoaks.  Why on earth is this lecture so popular, if only I knew? Having given it first in 2007 at the National Portrait Gallery, it has grown and grown in popularity. If you want to know more about this lecture have a look at the synopsis on my website primoartdiscoverytours.co.uk

And so on with the tour, for those of you in the west-country the itinerant art historian, on route from Westbury, has just left Frome station, next stop Bruton Station, followed by my destination Castle Cary Station to begin my west-country odyssey.  The lecture to Mendip DFAS near Shepton Mallet via Castle Cary now over, I now find myself on a train to Taunton, where I will pick up a train to Liskeard.

As the rolling hill and last flourishes of green rushes past out of my window I'm faced with an elderly man in a pin-striped suit asleep in front of his ipad with his Apple headphones in.  The scene makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the landscape full of sheep and cows and the world inevitably rushing by.  The odyssey continues, because with the Liskeard lecture but a distant memory, I am whisked away in car owned by an official of the Bodmin DFAS (Decorative and Fine Arts Society) to give my lecture to their society the next morning.

The next morning as I say farewell to the officials at Bodmin I almost forget where in the west-country I am, but there s no time for reflection because I am now standing on another train platform.  This time it's Bodmin Parkway and I am expected in Truro to give my lecture to their DFAS.  I arrive in time to give an evening lecture, which is well received, however there is not time to think about how it went, because I have a overnight sleeper to catch from Truro Station, the 22:27 Riviera Sleeper. As I get on board I am greeted by a very friendly train guard who shows me to my private berth complete with fold-away sink, bed and TV with a selection of movies and documentaries.  It is a long overnight journey that will not get me into Paddington until 05:21 the next morning, am told I can sleep in until 07:00 if I like when the train arrives.  I settle in for the night and the bumpy journey ahead.

Welcome back art lovers. You find me this morning enjoying the delights of the 1st class lounge at Paddington.  Apparently one is entitled to such luxuries when a sleeper ticket is purchased.  On offer in the 1st class lounge are various complimentary breakfast delights such as croissants, tea and coffee, newspapers, biscuits and fruit - I sample all and make myself at home.  It has been a whirlwind odyssey around the west-country, from Castle Cary in the Mendips to Liskeard, then Bodmin and Truro.  And as I wait here in the 1st class lounge with the TV chef Gary Rhodes and his bevy of women minders sat behind me, I realise that though I am back in London there is not enough time to go home, I prepare to set out on the next part of my mission to take art around the country. Next stop the 08:15 from Waterloo to Guildford, Surrey, luckily I was able to have a wash and shave on the sleeper.

In Guildford I will give a lecture to the Shalford DFAS at 11:00 am on Angelica Kauffman: An 18th Century Artists in England.  Kauffman, originally from Switzerland spent 7 successful years in England wowing audiences with her painting and intellectual prowess and was one of only two women founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768 along with that other forgotten women hero of 18th century painting in England Mary Moser. From Guildford, Surrey I will take the train from Victoria to Sevenoaks, Kent to give a lecture on portraiture, entitled the Art of Portraiture: from Titian to van Dyck. I finally arrive back in London at 23:30 Thursday after setting out on Tuesday 11th October at 05:30, and at last get to sleep in my own bed - for a while.  Because the week is not over, I have two 2 hour classes to teach one at the City Lit: Medieval to Renaissance and one at the Bishopsgate Institute: An Introduction to Western European Art.  I arrive home at 21:15 on Friday night and finally end my week.

More adventures in art next week; where I will be once again at the National Gallery giving two free guided tours of the National Gallery's permanent collection on Monday 17th October.  Tour one at 11:30 and tour two 14:30, each tour will last for 60 minutes and each tour will feature different paintings, and as usual I will not decided which paintings I am going to talk about until I get to the gallery.  And don't forget, the meeting place is the same everytime - the ground floor Sainsbury Wing entrance by the NG shop.

See you there art lovers

artfirstprimo: Leonardo and the question of dissection

Welcome back to artfirst.  Having spent a Monday 3rd Oct at the Exmoor DFAS giving my lecture called 'The Cult of the South Pacific: from Cook to Gauguin', I then took a few days off in Devon to enjoy the scenery and catch up with my good friends in the region before heading back to London. 


My arrival in London yesterday saw me plunging back into my first love - the Renaissance.  It was time to teach part 3 of my City Lit course in Covent Garden, London; the course - Masters of the Renaissance: Leonardo and Michelangelo.  In part 3 it was time, once again, to catch up with the remarkable life of the painter from the small town of Vinci - Leonardo. 


In this lesson called - 'Nature, Anatomical and Experiment' we looked at Leonardo's view and perception of the world and how this shaped his art.  This we did by looking at some examples of his work in the context of some of his own comments such as this one, which we discussed the meaning of: "“The human race in its marvellous and varied works seems to reveal itself as a second nature in this world.” Leonardo da Vinci: 1452-1519.


Further questions that were discussed were, 'was Leonardo the first to dissect human bodies to aid his depiction of them or was it a Florentine artist, practising in the 1470s, known as Antonio Pollaiuolo as is mentioned here by the 16th century painter turned art historian Giorgio Vasari: 1511-1574 - "“He (Antonio Pollaiuolo) understood about painting nudes in a way more modern than previous masters, and he dissected many bodies to view their anatomy. He was the first to show how to seek out the muscles and so give them their proper position and form in his figures.”  This is a question I leave to you to decide.


We also got up close and personal to, in my opinion, the most enigmatic of portraits by Leonardo - the portrait of a young Florentine girl called Ginevra de' Benci. Painted circa 1480 it is one of Leonardo's earliest portrait commissions and is the only Leonardo in America.


Of course we also discussed the hotly anticipated exhibition at the National Gallery, London, and the need to book your tickets in advance, and the details of this live broadcast:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/leonardolive 

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan

9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012

artfirstprimo at the BM

Welcome back to artfirst. You find me today in the BP lecture theatre at the British Museum listening to the assistant curator of the Grayson Perry exhibition called the 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman'. The assistant curator is very nervous and clearly not use to public speaking as she is speaking at a rapid rate and finding it somewhat difficult to catch her breath. We are looking at images of some of Grayson's work and some images of the works from the BM's collection that have influenced and inspired Grayson.  Including Grayson's tapestries such as 'Map of Truths and Beliefs' and Benin bronzes.  The overall theme of the exhibition is that of pilgrimage and similarities between ancient and modern beliefs.  The culmination of the exhibition is the 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman' itself, which manifests itself as a large cast iron sculpture by Grayson of a sailing ship that is rusted to give it an appearance of an ancient object. 

It is but a short walk from the BP lecture theatre to the exhibition itself, where I find myself now for this private view of the exhibition in question.  As I walk around this exhibition of the 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman' it is clear that Grayson embarks on a spiritual pilgrimage.  It is a pilgrimage that is both physical, as in his journey to Germany on his custom made motorbike, (that features outside the exhibition as you go in) imaginary, as in his recollections of childhood, and virtual as he scours the vaults of the British Museum's treasure trove of objects to bring 16th century German vases into contact with his own vases.  This Grayson Perry exhibition, here at the BM, has been an introduction into the life and world of an artist who has some how managed.  To combine an intelligent art historical approach to the combination of works that make up the exhibition, while also acknowledging that he's not a historian,with a child-like openness that allows the viewer into his world of the benign dictator Alan Measles (Grayson's very ancient teddy bear he has had since childhood).  Grayson's force of personality draws the viewer into the utterly believable world of his teddy bear Alan Measles creating a modern myth that draws on ancient traditions of story telling. 

The juxtaposition of ancient and modern in Grayson Perry's 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman', brings alive objects from our shared and collective past histories and reminds us that fundamentally we have changed little over millennia, indeed there is nothing new under sun. A must see exhibition, British Museum 6th October 2011-19th February.