Renaissance
Yuletide Scenes 6: Journey of the MagiTuesday, 24 December 2013It was the fate of Benozzo Gozzoli (c 1422-1497) to be a contemporary of the immortals. A merry journeyman dauber, his talents were overshadowed in his lifetime and are overlooked now. He had a good start in life, working for both Fra Angelico and... Read more... |
Imagine: Who's Afraid of Machiavelli?, BBC OneWednesday, 04 December 2013There is a wonderful play to be written about the month in 1502 when Cesare Borgia was holed up in a castle in northern Italy with Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli. Which of these two was working for the fearsome Borgia? Wrong. It was the... Read more... |
The Culture Show at Edinburgh: Leonardo da Vinci - The Anatomist, BBC TwoThursday, 15 August 2013When Leonardo da Vinci went for a job in Milan, he wrote ahead mentioning his bridge-building skills and then turned up at court with a lyre he had made in the shape of a horse’s skull. But had he finished compiling his illustrated treatise on the... Read more... |
10 Questions for Artist Michael LandyMonday, 20 May 2013Much of Michael Landy’s work concerns destruction or decay. The British artist, who recently turned 50 and is part of the YBA generation, came to prominence in 2001 with the Artangel commission Break Down, which saw all his worldly possessions... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Florence: The Springtime of the RenaissanceSunday, 31 March 2013It’s an instinct of curators to put the pieces back together, to reintroduce works of art which time and market forces have scattered to the four winds. In recent memory, exhibitions have reunited in one space all of Monet’s haystacks, Cézanne’s... Read more... |
Gallery: The Springtime of the RenaissanceSunday, 31 March 2013The images in this gallery illustrate some of the links and juxtapositions made in The Springtime of the Renaissance. Classical statues which influenced Florentine artists, works reunited for the first time in centuries, sculptural forms reproduced... Read more... |
Federico Barocci: Brilliance and Grace, National GalleryThursday, 28 February 2013Federico Barocci, who he? According to the National Gallery, a great Renaissance, mannerist and Baroque painter hardly known outside Italy, the National’s own Madonna of the Cat his only easel painting in a public collection in the UK... Read more... |
Yuletide Scenes 4: Mystic NativitySaturday, 22 December 2012I’ve always loved this painting in the National Gallery by Sandro Botticelli. The jewel-like colours and exquisite clarity of detail create a consoling sense of lucidity, as though everything has been revealed to be alright.The reason for this... Read more... |
The Northern Renaissance: Dürer to Holbein, The Queen's GalleryFriday, 09 November 2012In what ways was the Northern Renaissance distinct from the Italian one? When we look at a painting by Holbein we’re struck by the painting’s rich surface: we admire the finely delineated weave of a Turkish rug, the individual hairs of fur lining a... Read more... |
Renaissance to Goya: Prints and Drawings from Spain, British MuseumFriday, 21 September 2012Alonso Berruguete, Vicente Carducho, Juan Antonio Conchillos y Falco and Pedro Machuca are hardly familiar names in the Anglophone art world, but their drawings are on view in a revelatory exhibition. The British Museum is showing nearly all its... Read more... |
Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, National GalleryThursday, 12 July 2012Three paintings by Titian depicting stories from Ovid’s poem Metamorphoses welcome you to the National Gallery’s exhibition Metamorphosis: Titian 2012. Diana and Callisto shows Diana casting out the pregnant nymph Callisto from her company. Diana... Read more... |
Beatrice and Benedict, Welsh National OperaSaturday, 18 February 2012Such a pity about Beatrice and Benedict! As a musical visualiser, a creator of musical tableaux, a radio composer avant la lettre, Berlioz had few equals. The Damnation of Faust is surely the greatest radio opera ever written. But for some reason he... Read more... |