Four Northern Renaissance Paintings at the Prado, Madrid

The Museo del Prado in Madrid has a great collection of paintings from the Northern Renaissance, the countries around Holland, Belgium and Germany in the 1400s and 1500s. That's not too surprising in a way since Spain used to rule over some of those countries so it's only to be expected that some of the glorious art works found their way into Spanish collections. It has room after room on the ground floor full of these paintings, so very different to the Italian Renaissance paintings in rooms nearby. I've chosen four paintings that I particularly like, starting off with Jan Gossaert's 'Christ Blessing, the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist' from 1510-1520.

The thing that always grabs my attention is the delicacy of the figure of Christ in the middle, the serenity and stillness. Is he blessing the Virgin? If so, why? And why is John pointing at Christ? It's an odd composition, especially with the angel popping through the round opening above Christ's head. Maybe it was painted to go above the doorway into a private chapel of something like that, so you receive your blessing for going into the chapel? I really don't know, but it's not a painting I find I can just glance at and walk past, once glanced at I need to look properly.

An earlier painting is 'The Descent from the Cross' by Rogier van der Weyden, painted before 1443. We see Christ being held by Joseph of Arimathia and Nicodemus, Saint John aiding the fainting Virgin and, I think, Mary Magdalene being distraught on the far side of Christ (in Italian paintings of the time her hair would be loose). The figures are almost life-sized and that makes the painting even more dominating. The Virgin's figure reflects that of her son as he hangs limply before he reaches the ground. What would you think if you saw this hanging in a church surrounded by flickering candles reflecting the gold background and the rich colours, the sight of your lord who gave his life to save yours? It must have been a powerful image back then.  

Heironomous Bosch, known simply as El Bosco in Spain, is a great favourite at the Prado and has a room to himself that houses some of his greatest paintings, including 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'.

The painting is constantly surrounded by viewers several deep so you've got to be patient in order to see it properly and up close. It's a triptych of three scenes showing paradise, earth and hell, all with so much weirdness you can only wonder what sort of magic mushrooms El Bosco ate. It's odd since it's this painting that people crowd around leaving his other works easy to see up close - this is his 'big hit' that people know but you can learn a lot about him from the other paintings as well.

The Prado held a major exhibition of El Bosco's work three years ago that was sold out and opening hours had to be extended due to popular demand. I was lucky enough to get tickets and enjoyed the exhibition but it was too crowded to be able to view the works in comfort. I enjoyed seeing his paintings much more now that they're hanging together in a single room without the crowds.

A final painting I want to show you is this self-portrait by Albrecht Durer from 1498. Here he is, a young man, assured and confident, dressed richly like an aristocrat and with his life ahead of him. It shows his Italian influences with the three-quarter pose and the landscape through the window.

It's also a bit of a show-off painting using himself as the poster-boy for his workshop. If you look under the window there's some text inscribed on the wall. This says, "1498, I painted this after my image, I was twenty six, Albrecht Durer". So, the show off was only 26 when he painted this astonishing self-portrait. He had an interesting and largely rewarding life ahead of him and he left behind a great body of work. Surely we're due a Durer exhibition sometime soon?

I first came across this self-portrait when I was 16 at school (along with the van der Weyden 'Descent' painting) and was disappointed on my first visit to the Prado three years ago when it was out on loan so I didn't see it. I've seen it since though.

There are dozens of other Northern paintings on display in the ground floor galleries but these are the four I wanted to share. 

'The Renaissance Nude' at the Royal Academy

The main exhibition at the Royal Academy at the moment is 'The Renaissance Nude'. It's quite a small exhibition up in the Sackler Galleries but it's also really interesting. I vaguely expected it to be full of Florentine paintings but it wasn't, there were probably as many works from the Northern Renaissance - from Germany and the Low Countries - as there were from Italy. That in itself is to be welcomed since it's quite unusual to see so many Northern works in an exhibition not specifically dedicated to them. It was also nice to see so many engravings and drawings as well as paintings and, with a few exceptions, all were new to me so it was nice to explore new works (new as in over 500 years old but new to me, of course).

The first painting that made me take a second glance was 'Christ on the Cold Stone' by Jan Gossaert. It looks rather Italian with the figure, the pose and the column in the background, but he was Flemish. The body is far more athletic and anatomically correct than many Flemish works and the simple fact of an exposed torso marks it as a bit different.

I like the highlights over the chest and shoulder and the rather improbable highlight over his belly but that lends an emphasis to the stress and tension in the pose. The musculature of the left arm is very realistic, more so than the multiple abs on the stomach. The body is quite different to another painting by Gossaert in the exhibition of 'Hercules and Deianira' that he completed 13 years earlier demonstrating how Gossaert's grasp of anatomy had significantly developed.

There are some drawings by Raphael, including 'The Three Graces' that includes three studies of a woman in different positions, pulled together. It's done in red chalk on paper and there's not a smudge in sight - these masters were trained properly back in the olden days. It's not very big and I suspect any gallery around the world would be happy to hang this drawing on its walls.

This study was included in the exhibition of Raphael's drawings at the Ashmolean in Oxford a couple of years ago. According to the catalogue the central figure was drawn first, the figure to the left was done next and the final figure on the right was added last. I wonder how long this took Raphael to draw?

Another drawing that caught my attention was simply called 'Reclining Male Figure' by Parmigianino. I don't know if it was study for another work or painting but it's an impressive work, with the man clearly lying down (look at the shadows on his body and around him) and almost as if he's about to start stretching. I'd be delighted if I could draw like this.

The exhibition doesn't just include paintings and drawings, there are also other artefacts depicting nude figures such as miniatures in books, metalwork and one statue. Not just any statue, this is a Donatello statue from the 1460s of Saint Jerome, clearly a penitent Jerome.

The statue is life-sized and depicts a thin, realistic body, not the idealised bodies of Greek and Roman statues. Donatello is trying to depict an average middle aged man, reaching for the realistic to let viewers know that this could - and perhaps - should be them in their devotion to their religion. It's almost like it's a body in pain or some kind of stress, particularly with the harsh angle of the head. I'd love to know what the person who commissioned this statue actually wanted and specified in the contract for it.

There are a few engravings by Durer in the exhibition and my favourite was his 'Adam and Eve' from 1504. Adam and Eve were popular choices for artists since they could show both genders and the differences in body shapes with Adam generally being muscled and Eve more voluptuous. There is usually some strategically placed foliage to cover the genitals and, in this engraving, somehow the participants have managed to stand behind stray branches with some small leaves to cover the offending articles.

With Durer it always pays to look at the detail as well as the overall composition. See the serpent putting the apple into Eve's hand, the goat hiding behind the tree under the serpent and what's that little mouse doing between Adam's feet?  There's story-telling going on here but there's also decoration to ensure that buyers were happy they were getting their money's worth when buying a copy of the engraving.

Another painting that caught my eye was 'Allegory of Fortune' by Dosso Dossi in 1530. The male figure is holding a sheaf of lottery tickets in his hand while the female figure sits on a bubble that could explode at any time. The figures are ok but what I noticed when I took a second look at the painting was the great musculature of the lad's right thigh - look closely and you can see the very slight bulge of the thigh muscle, a realistic muscle that any young man would have rather than an over-worked and extreme muscle that some artists would paint. It's really subtle and that's what impressed me about these figures.

I'll include a final painting for it's oddity rather than any beauty. It's called 'Lovers in an Interior' attributed to 'Jacometto Veneziano or close follower' from 'before 1497. The figures are ok but nothing special but what is odd is the inclusion of the glass of water with a sprig of some plant in it in the bottom right corner. What's that about? Placing stalks of some plants in water encourages them to root so is this some sort of allusion to fertility and maybe this couple are hoping for children? Or something like that? All very odd.

So there you are, some thoughts on the exhibition. Loads of works I'd never seen before and some artists I've never heard of but have now. It's a small exhibition but it's interesting and worth seeing if it's your kind of thing.

The Alte Pinakothek in Munich

I visited the Alte Pinakothek in Munich to see its great 'Florence' exhibition so, while I was there, I needed to look round its collection, up the long, long staircase to the first floor. It's Florentine Renaissance paintings were downstairs in the exhibition so I was expecting gaps in the collection but it was still surprisingly good and the rooms were mainly surprisingly empty of visitors - I was the only one in some rooms - since everyone was downstairs in the crowded exhibition.

The first few rooms were interesting enough with large early northern paintings, all rather similar in style and content. But it pays to keep your eyes peeled since I found this lovely little painting of the 'Tower of Babel' by Lucas van Valkenborch, a copy of the painting by van Eyck. I quite like the idea of copies being in museums in their own right as works of art. It's very small and easily missed.  Further along were large paintings of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, also copies of van Eyck, this time from panels in the Ghent Altarpiece. They were really good, almost life-sized and quite jewel-like to see (my photo doesn't do them justice).  They were painted by M van Coxie in the mid-1500s.

Keep walking and you'll find paintings by Lucas Cranach, quite a few by Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and others - it's almost a who's who of northern Renaissance painters. The northern painters used oil to mix their paints well before the Italian painters and their paints still glow with colour and life as they strove for ever greater realism and accuracy in their paintings. Here's a rather lovely 'Adoration of the Magi' scene by van der Weyden. There are many great paintings from the northern Renaissance and it was difficult to choose just one and I picked this for the colours. It was painted in 1455 and it's a tribute to him and his workshop that the colours remain so vibrant.

Then you come across one of the most wonderful paintings in the collection, a self-portrait by Albrecht Durer, resplendent in his expensive coat and his carefully coiffed ringlets. What a dandy and what a handsome man he was. My photograph is awful and has caught too much light but trust me, this is a beautiful painting and one of the highlights of the collection. By any standards, Durer was a great painter and a great draughtsman and he did this painting when he was only 28. To give it its full title, this is 'Self-Portrait with Fur-Trimmed Robe' from 1500. It's inscribed with the words in Latin, "I, Albrecht Durer of Nuremberg, portrayed myself in appropriate colours aged twenty-eight years". Is this a tribute to overwhelming vanity or is this an advert that says, 'give me a commission and this is what you'll get from me'. I suspect the latter. It really is an astonishing painting.

Moving forward to the end of the 1500s we come across loads of astonishing paintings by Rubens. Painting after painting - he was obviously a favourite of whoever developed the collection. I really need to do some work on Rubens one of these days.

There's a great painting of the 'Drunken Silenus' (there's a different version in the National Gallery in London which I prefer), a portrait of Rubens and his wife as a wedding portrait (and they made a handsome couple indeed), but the painting that stopped me in my tracks was 'The Death of Seneca'. It's an astonishing painting in which the teacher of stoicism accepts his fate and commits suicide. The body is based on a classical statue Rubens drew in Rome and the head and face are based on a bust of Seneca. I was browsing round the paintings, this one's a Rubens, that one's a Rubens and then I saw this and stopped dead to gaze at it. What a powerful painting, almost life-sized and very difficult to ignore. A moment in time captured by Rubens forever in incredible detail.

Another painting that stopped my perambulations was 'Two Satyrs'. Just look at that satyr in the front and tell me he's a saint in disguise. No, *that* satyr understands getting drunk and rutting with whoever is around and will enjoy it immensely. From the look of him he's just been very naughty and plans to be naughty again quite soon.

But let's not forget that Rubens is also justly famous for his religion works and this crucifixion caught my eye. Just look at those arms being stretched and pulled down by the weight of the body, putting more pressure on the nailed feet. A very simple and very effective composition to meditate on.

There are, of course, many more great paintings than I can cover in this short blog about the museum, but I'm pleased I took the time to explore it. I was visiting to see the 'Florence' exhibition (one of the best I've seen in a long time) and I was almost expecting the collection to be rather provincial with the truly great works being in the Gemaldegallerie in Berlin, but I was wrong. There are more than enough great works to keep any art lover happy in the Munich Alte Pinakothek. I hope to visit again one day.

And then down, down, down the stairs to the ground floor...

'Strange Beauty' at the National Gallery

This evening we went to a late showing of the 'Strange Beauty' exhibition at the National Gallery. Sub-titled 'Masters of the German Renaissance', the exhibition tells the story of the northern European renaissance when what we're used to seeing is the glories of Italy. But there are also glories of the north and it's nice to showcase them like this. It's not a big exhibition but it's certainly worth seeing.

The exhibition pulls together paintings from the northern renaissance in the National Gallery's collection, many I don't remember being on display so it's nice to see them hanging together. Some of these painting I've loved for a long time - 30-odd years for some of them - and others I've never seen before. Early on we see the 'Arnolfini Portrait' by Jan Van Eyck, a marvellous marriage portrait of Mr Arnolfini and his young wife, with slippers and a dog, a mirror with the backwards reflection and the chandelier with glints of metal. It's full of glorious detail from the carpet behind the wife to the fruit on the dresser behind the husband referencing the fecundity of his wife. The way the clothes hang, the folds and the drapery of the bed all bring a new and challenging realism to painting at the time. Mr Arnolfini might not have been the most handsome of men but he has how place in history forever and so does his demure wife.

Another painting I learned to love many years ago is Albrecht Durer's 'Saint Jerome'. This is the saint in his older years discarding his red hat and robe and going into the wilderness with his friendly (but rather snooty-looking) lion to reinforce his spiritualism and belief. This is a tiny painting, about six inches tall and it packs so much into that small space. One it's glories is the background that is reminiscent of a Leonardo landscape, all rocky outcrops, trees, flowers in the grass at the saint's feet and with an emotional sky and a hint of sunset. The colours are still vibrant after all these years (much more lively than they look in this picture) and another painting on the back which is also on display shows the end of the world in what looks like a massive explosion. I wonder how Durer imagined the world exploding all those years ago?

As well as Van Eyck and Durer, we also see paintings by Lucas Cranach who painted the poster girl for the exhibition - Venus - and Holbein with his great work, 'The Ambassadors'. Holbein is also  represented by a painting I've never seen before, 'A Lady With A Squirrel And A Starling', a lovely portrait with a simple composition and beautiful detail, such as the fur in the mink bonnet she wears and the glints of light in the feathers of the bird. The squirrel, of course, is just taking care of a spare nut he found.

One thing that irritated me about the exhibition was harping on about how ugly some of the people were, which is why it's a 'strange' beauty. There's even a room at the end of the exhibition where you can pin notes to a wall about what you think. I think that's silly. Yes, many of the people depicted in these old paintings aren't the idealised characters we're used to from Italian paintings but that doesn't make them strange or ugly, just another way of depicting human beings. There's plenty of beauty on show in this exhibition and plenty to enjoy.

 The exhibition is on until May so you have plenty of time to see it.