Important Fra Angelico News

In important news about Fra Angelico you need to know that the predella panels to 'The Annunciation' in the Prado in Madrid are currently being restored. The five small panels under the main altarpiece show scenes from the life of the Virgin: Birth and Marriage of the Virgin, The Visitation, The Nativity, Presentation in the Temple, and The Dormition of the Virgin. They're possibly my favourite predella of the Fra's and I have no doubt that they will burst with colour once the restoration is complete. I'm looking forward to seeing them again when we can travel safely.

You're not allowed to take photos in the Prado so this photo is of the full altarpiece from the catalogue of the excellent exhibition about Fra Angelico at the Prado a couple of years ago.

'Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution' at the MSK Ghent and the Ghent Altarpiece

If you're interested in 15th Century painting, particularly Flemish painting, then the big exhibition to visit at the moment is in Ghent, Belgium, with panels from the newly restored Ghent Altarpiece at the heart of the exhibition. The Ghent Altarpiece is documented as being by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck - it's the only known work by Hubert and there are about 20 known works by Jan, half of which are in this exhibition, the biggest ever exhibition of his works. So it's mandatory to attend.

It's easy enough to get to Ghent from Brussels, only a half an hour train ride with frequent trains. The exhibition is in the Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) which is a 15 minutes stroll from the railway station. I went there on a Wednesday and it was incredibly busy so it's probably best to book your ticket in advance online. An audioguide in various languages is included in the price of the ticket. Photos are not allowed so I've added images found on the web to illustrate this blog along with a few of my own photos.

The exhibition opens with some context setting with a timeline of the life of Jan Van Eyck (or what is known about him) and the world he lived in. There are video walls, exhibits of the kinds of objects shown in his paintings (like candlesticks), lots of illuminated manuscripts in books of various sizes in glass cases throughout the exhibition, statues of angels and text on the walls. There are also works by other contemporary artists from the North but also some from the Italian Renaissance, particularly from Florence.

In the early rooms there are copies of the Ghent Altarpiece by other artists, a series of lovely small paintings by Christian Schultz from 1865 (that are on loan from the V&A in London) and much bigger copies of some of the panels by Michael Coxcie from 1557-58 on loan from the Alte Pinakotek in Munich (where I saw the panels of the Virgin and John the Baptist last year, photo above) and elsewhere.

The centrepiece of the exhibition are the exterior panels from the Ghent Altarpiece (that is, what you see when the Altarpiece is closed) and the panels of Adam and Eve from the interior of the Altarpiece. These are placed around the exhibition in different themed rooms.

I'd never seen the Ghent Altarpiece before. It's kept in a huge glass case in St Bavo's Cathedral in the centre of Ghent and this is a rare occasion when the panels have been removed for an exhibition. With that in mind it was very exciting to be able to get up close to the panels and look at them so closely since they're normally at quite a distance from the viewer in the cathedral. The restoration has cleaned away centuries of dirt and varnish to reveal the Altarpiece in all it's glory and the real Adam and Eve in all their pale nakedness.

Adam looks almost as if he's walking forward, with his right foot raised slightly above the edge of the painting, like he's going to step out of it. It's also odd to notice that he has slightly hairy legs with a covering of fine hair (which you'd never guess from looking at reproductions). Eve is more static and has the rounded stomach that was fashionable at the time. Something that really stood out for me was the realism of Adam's face, the sheer detail that suggests a portrait of a real model rather that a generic face on top of a generic body. I wonder who he was?

One thing I got ridiculously excited about was being at the right height to be able to look through the windows of the Virgin's room in the 'Annunciation' panels, something that would be impossible to do when you see the Altarpiece in the cathedral since it's raised up high.

Peering through the windows I could see tiny buildings with the stepped fronts you can see around Belgium and especially in the buildings in Bruges. There were also tiny marks that could've been people on the street in front of the buildings but I couldn't make them out very well. I need to find close-up images of this window - there must be some somewhere. It's astonishing that so much detail was added to the Altarpiece, particularly when no-one would ever really be close enough to see it when it was in situ in the cathedral. That's what I call dedication.

There was a delicate small Crucifixion attributed to Jan Van Eyck and Workshop showing a simple scene set in a landscape. The painting is light and airy with Van Eyck imagining what the Holy Land might've looked like with its sparse vegetation and almost sun-bleached sky. The depiction of Jerusalem in the distance is rather imaginative as are the strange trees, with Van Eyck showing a place he'd never seen.

It was about here in the exhibition that I realised you have to look carefully at the signs beside each exhibit to check which was a Van Eyck and which was related to him in some way. The signs have his name in large letters but, in much small letters, adds 'and workshop' or 'after' to attribute the work to the workshop or a follower. It's all clear but you do have to look at the signage rather than just glance.

It was great to see both versions of Jan Van Eyck's 'St Francis Receiving the Stigmata' hanging side by side, the larger one (about 12" x 14") from Turin and the smaller one (about 4' x 5") from Philadelphia. They're almost identical paintings but the difference in size is really noticeable. The face of the saint is very realistic as he kneels in a rocky wilderness for the Seraph to beam down he stigmata of Christ. It's incredibly detailed and is a lovely little painting. I don't know why but I preferred the tiny Philadelphia version, probably because it is so small but lacks none of the detail of the larger version.

Hanging next to the two versions of St Francis was another version, this time by Fra Angelico. a small panel in a rather plain modern wooden frame. It's a simple painting with a simple story. The details of the rocks and landscape aren't important to the Fra, the Seraph delivering the stigmata is what matters and that is front and centre in the painting - it's the story that matters rather than the detail of the painting. It looks like it was probably one of the predella paintings along the bottom of a much larger altarpiece (I'll need to do my homework to find out which one). I don't recall ever seeing this particular panel before so it was a delight to see it.

I smiled when I saw the next painting by Van Eyck, his rather strange 'St Barbara'. I've seen this painting many times since, until recently, it was on loan from Antwerp to the National Gallery in London and hung on the wall beside 'The Arnolfini Portrait' and 'Portrait of a Man (Self-Portrait?)' by Van Eyck. Very little is known about the work - is it meant to look like this? is it unfinished? is it a preparatory drawing for a larger work?

It's a delicate little piece showing a rather large St Barbara sitting in front of a cathedral in the distance, with people going about their daily lives behind her. It's displayed in a glass case so you can also see the back of the small panel. I like to think that the painting is meant to look like this and that Mr Van Eyck was experimenting. It lacks none of the detail you'd expect from a Van Eyck work, it just doesn't have the jewel-like colour we've come to expect from him.

Further along is another painting with a difference from Van Eyck, his beautiful little 'Annunciation Diptych' on loan from the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in Madrid (where I took this photo). It's an example of grisaille work, i.e. painted statues with shadows and everything. The painting shows Gabriel in one panel with the Virgin and the dove of the holy spirit in the other. It's quite small and that makes the detail of the folds in the drapery even more impressive.

This technique was also used on a much bigger scale in the outer panels of the Ghent Altarpiece with St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist.

The two St Johns feature so prominently since the cathedral was originally dedicated to St John and the donors were closely associated with the church. The donors were Joos Vijd and Elizabeth Borluut who are shown kneeling and life-sized in their old age when the altarpiece was commissioned. Their panels are thought to have been painted last in around 1431-2. 

There were two gorgeous small paintings titled 'Madonna at the Fountain' that looked identical to me but one was attributed to Jan Van Eyck and dated 1439 and the other to Jan Van Eyck and Workshop and dated as c.1440. Jan's 'solo' version has the inscription 'As I Can' (his motto) on the battered old frame, suggesting it's the original frame. It shows the Virgin with a playful Child in a garden with two angels holding an ornate cloth behind the Virgin while she stands beside the fountain of life. The detail is incredible and I loved the colours of the angels wings. The ground is covered in tiny flowers and the backdrop is a hedge of pink and red roses. I suspect the term 'jewel-like' was invented specifically for this painting.

The penultimate room in the exhibition is dedicated to portraits and there are several by Van Eyck here since he was a renowned portrait painter. My second favourite was a painting of Jan de Leeuw, a young goldsmith who, it seems, Van Eyck knew. He's holding a ring as a symbol of his craft. Once again, it's the sheer realism of the face that's quite astonishing - change the hat and the coat and he could be the driver on the bus you got on yesterday. My favourite portrait? Why, the portrait of Margaret Van Eyck, Jan's wife, of course.

It's a lovely portrait showing Margaret with her trendy hair style and the astonishing lace head-dress. In my head I'd imagined this exhibition hanging Margaret together with the portrait thought to be a self-portrait of Jan side by side in a position of honour but that remains on the wall of the National Gallery in London. Such a shame and a missed opportunity.

There are, of course, many other paintings on show in the exhibition, both by Jan Van Eyck, his workshop and followers and by other great artists. As well as Fra Angelico's 'St Francis' there's also his lovely panel of the 'Scenes from the Life of St Nicholas of Bari', two small paintings by Masaccio, paintings by Benozzo Gozzoli, Paolo Uccello, Gerard David and Quinten Massijs (opposite) as well as others. It's a great exhibition and certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity to see so many works by Jan Van Eyck in the same place at the same time. 

A few observations: most of the works are small so you need to get up close to see the detail and that often means waiting your turn - be patient. It was very busy when I was there so choose your time carefully to enjoy the exhibition at your own pace. To use the audioguide you need to get close to the download points on the walls near the exhibits so get used to people leaning across you to get close enough and get used to being surrounded by 'beeps' as each download happens (can the 'beeps' be turned off somehow?).

It's a great exhibition and a great opportunity to get up close to some of the Altarpiece panels. If you are only even vaguely interested in 15th Century paintings then this is the exhibition for you.

Of course, I couldn't visit this exhibition and not go to St Bavo's Cathedral to see the interior panels of the Ghent Altarpiece in all their restored glory. It's easy to get to the Cathedral from the Museum, basically just keep walking up the same road in a vague straight line for about 30 minutes and you're there. Inside the Cathedral look to your left for a little ticket booth and pay €4 for a ticket and then step into a small room and there it is in front of you, once of the great wonders of European art. There was a small queue when I was there so I suspect the queue is much longer in holiday season. The Altarpiece is in a giant glass box raised up about four feet to give the impression of what it would look like on an altar - this means that you're looking up at the panels and can't get very close to see details (getting close was one of the joys of the exhibition). Photography isn't allowed but in the other wing of the cathedral is a great little gift shop with loads of images of the altarpiece and a great selection of books.

It was a strange experience to see the Altarpiece, standing shoulder to shoulder with others in a cold, small, crowded room, people jostling for a better view with quiet chatter and the tinny sounds from the audioguides some visitors hired. Not the greatest atmosphere in which to see such a wonder but it was a joy to see it after all these years. I swear the top three panels of Jesus, Mary and John were glowing as the angels sang and played their instruments. I loved the faces of the angels, some looking less than enthusiastic in their adoration, one looking down to follow the words from the song sheet, one peering out at the viewer - what a wonderful collection of attitudes and faces.

I waited patiently to be able to move closer to the centre to get a proper look at the face of the lamb on the altar in the middle of the lower, central panel ('The Adoration of the Lamb') since much has been said about the strangely humanoid face and eyes that came to light as the painting was cleaned and restored. I couldn't get close enough to see the detail of the face but those eyes definitely looked strange.

Here is the altarpiece in all its glory - the figures of Adam and Eve are almost life-sized so that gives you an indication of the size of the work. I'm so pleased that I was able to see the exhibition and then the Altarpiece.

A Decade of Exhibitions 2010-2019

At the end of the decade I thought I'd look back at exhibitions I saw over that time and see if I could come up with a top ten. I couldn't so I've listed my top 14 exhibitions. The criteria are really quite broad, not simply those I've personally liked but also those I've learned from, exhibitions that have brought together the widest range of paintings rather than going for the obvious exhibits, a whole host of things.

They're in chronological order rather than a countdown to the top exhibition - that's a step too far into the impossible. So here they are, the best exhibitions I've seen in the last decade.

Fra Angelico and the Masters of Light - Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Paris (2011)

The first exhibition about Fra Angelico I ever attended was at the Musee Jacquemart-Andre in Paris in 2011 and that was the first time I'd seen the widest range of his works outside of San Marco in Florence. The exhibition was made up of 20-odd paintings by Fra Angelico and about the same number by contemporary artists he influenced or was influenced by. I still remember standing in the middle of a small room being surrounded by paintings of the Virgin & Child by Fra Angelico, the vivid colours, the serenity, the different compositions - definitely a wow moment.

Paul Klee: Making Visible - Tate Modern, London (2014)

I've liked works by Paul Klee since I first came across him in school in about 1978. He's not one of the most famous artists of the 20th Century but he's one of the most influential, being a member of various art movements in the first half of the century including Der Blaue Reiter in Munich. I remember this exhibition as being very big, and it was, but largely because his paintings are mainly relatively small so more fit onto the walls. There was so much colour in those galleries, shapes and textures, mesmerising paintings to gaze at and decide what they're about - is that a house in the hills? a human figure? or just a mass of colours? It doesn't matter really, the beauty emanates out of the paintings. I went back several times to be in rooms surrounded by those amazing paintings.

Matisse: The Cut-Outs - Tate Modern, London (2014)

The follow-up exhibition to the Paul Klee exhibition at Tate Modern in 2014 was about Matisse and his cut-outs. The cut-outs are just that, coloured paper cut up and torn into different shapes and pasted  onto a background, so simple and yet so effective. Monsieur Matisse was an old man when he started creating his cut-outs and it was great seeing early film of him working as part of the exhibition. As he grew older he needed to use his assistants to place the coloured papers just right to fit his vision. How can so much beauty come from cut up bits of paper? It was an astonishing exhibition that I re-visited several times.

Inventing Impressionism - National Gallery, London (2015)

There were many Impressionist exhibitions over the decade and I attended quite a few but the Inventing Impressionism was rather special. It was based on the collection of the art dealer Paul Durant-Ruel who championed the Impressionist painters in the early days and virtually all of the paintings in the exhibition went through his hands at some stage. The exhibition contained some astonishing works that were completely new to me, a high quality exhibition without any filler at all. There was a quote on the wall of the final room of the exhibition from Durant-Ruel, 'At last the Impressionist masters triumphed...'. I loved that quote, naming the impressionist painters as 'masters', equal to the Old Masters we're familiar with.

Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun - Le Grand Palais, Paris (2015)

I'd never heard of Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun until I went to the exhibition of her portraits in Paris in 2015 and I'm so pleased I went. Madame Vigee Le Brun had an astonish life, being the favourite portraitist of Marie Antoinette, going into exile during the French Revolution due to her connection to royalty, travelling around Europe with her daughter making her living by painting portraits in country after country before eventually returning to France and dying in her own bed when in her 80s after attending a party that evening. Her legacy was on display in that huge exhibition that seemed to go on and on, with portrait after portrait, so lifelike and alive in expressions and colours, a true master of portraiture. The poster for the exhibition was one of her own self-portraits.

Sonia Delaunay - Tate Modern, London (2015)

I've known of the Delaunay's for quite a while but mainly Robert, Sonia's husband, so I looked forward to seeing this exhibition of Sonia's work. They worked together in the early years developing radical colour theories and putting them into practice in similar but subtly different ways. From the minutes I walked into the exhibition I was surrounded by colour, by Sonia's sketches and paintings, illustrations for Dadaist poetry, designs for clothes and samples of her work, so much variety and colour everywhere. It was great to learn about her life and work, about how she's quoted as saying she discovered black when in her 60s, about how she continued painting and experimenting into her old age in Paris. I was mightily impressed by this exhibition and, more so, by the variety of her work, always inventing, always creative.

Painting the Modern Garden: From Monet to Matisse - Royal Academy, London (2016)

Another great exhibition was all about paintings of gardens in all their variety, all the colour and shapes and textures of flowers and trees and shrubs, gardens with people in them, with country cottages, with walls and just flowers. Lots of flowers. I loved it. As well as paintings it included information about the gardening habits of some of the artists, who swapped seedlings with who and who liked to paint someone else's garden. There was a  great photo of Kandinsky in his garden with a shovel, wearing shorts and with a cigarette in his mouth. I wanted to jump into some of the paintings and wallow in the flowers colours. The only poor thing about the exhibition was the rather dull poster featuring a detail of a Monet.

A Thyssen Never Seen - CaixaForum, Barcelona (2016)

I went to Barcelona to see this exhibition, mainly to see a beautiful Virgin & Child by Fra Angelico, one of my favourite paintings of his, but got caught by the sheer range of paintings in the exhibition which was showing off the Thyssen collection from Madrid. From early Renaissance paintings to modern works from the mid-20th Century, there was something there for everyone. Whoever curated the exhibition and managed to get so many masterpieces from the Thyssen-Bornamisza Museum in Madrid must've been a good negotiator since it was an amazing variety of paintings from across the centuries, all first rate and no filler.

Out of Chaos - Laing Gallery, Newcastle (2017)

The 'Out of Chaos' exhibition in Newcastle was in partnership with the Ben Uri collection in London, a collection of works telling the tale of migration and escape from persecution in the first half of the 20th Century. Of course, not everyone escaped and some of the works shown were poignant in that the artists were killed or died before they could reach safety and their potential forever lost. I can still remember some of the terrible images in those paintings. I was pleased to see a couple of small works by Sonia Delaunay since she and her husband fled persecution and war. It was a powerful exhibition with some very powerful tales to tell.

Raphael: The Drawings - Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (2017)

This exhibition at the Ashmolean in Oxford consisted of drawings, big and small, by Raphael, all of which I'd never seen before but some of which were sketches for elements of paintings and I'd seen a couple of those finished paintings (such as Disco Jesus in the Vatican). To say that Raphael was a good drawer is an understatement. It was particularly good to see him practicing his compositions, having a character face this way and then that way as he experimented with what might be the most effective or dramatic. It's good to get a glimpse of how an artist of his stature worked.

Picasso 1932 - Tate Modern, London (2018)

This was  an odd exhibition in many ways - not everything in it was first rate Picasso but everything was authentic. It showed us his works from a very experimental year when he was already rich and famous but wasn't sure where to go next artistically. There was also one large room put aside to show us the works in one of his one-man exhibitions he curated that year. I loved how each exhibition was labeled with the day and date the work was done - so many works completed in less than a day before he moved on to something else. The sheer creativity of the man is astounding.

Florence - Alte Pinakothek, Munich (2019)

This was a truly great exhibition on so many levels, with great paintings from about 1300 - 1500 by painters associated with Florence. Giotto, Gaddi, Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippo, Ghirlandaio, Leonardo, Fra Bartolomeo, Botticelli and a host of others. Altarpieces were re-imagined using available predella panels and side panels, early portraits showing the development of portraiture - so much stuff to marvel at. The museum had started work on this exhibition five years ago and it must have been a joy to see it come to fruition and see it constantly packed with visitors, both local and international to enjoy the wealth of glorious art gathered together in the same place for the first time. Well done Alte Pinakothek!

Fra Angelico and the Rise of the Florentine Renaissance - Prado, Madrid (2019)

A large exhibition of works by Fra Angelico from all over the world to help celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Prado, all centred on the newly restored 'Annunciation' by Angelico that is one of the prides of the Prado's collection. It really was a stunning collection of paintings from major, large collections and obscure small pieces from small collections in towns around Europe and the USA. It was startling to see all these paintings by Fra Angelico in the same place, see his art develop, his story-telling improving, the subjects he chose to paint and the colours he used. The ficus was on one decade of 1420-30 when Angelico reached his peak with his glorious Virgin & Child paintings and the masterpiece of the 'Annunciation'. So much care went into the detail of this exhibition and chosing Adam and Eve from the 'Annunciation' to front the exhibition was inspired. Well done Prado!

Keith Haring - Tate Liverpool (2019)

The final highlight exhibition for me was the recent exhibition of works by Keith Haring at Tate Liverpool. I suspect we can all recognise his cartoon-like works but I didn't know much about him before this exhibition, his activism and his untimely early death. He would've been just a few years older than me if he hadn't died and I can't help but wonder what he'd be producing these days. It was a very big exhibition with loads of his stuff on paper, vinyl and canvas, big pieces and small, some as stand0alone works, others were for posters and his activism. His early works about AIDS were particularly powerful and his later works reflected this except they were bigger, more complicated and more painful to see. Tate Liverpool obviously understood this and the final image, just as you left the gallery, was a blown up photo of Keith with his top off and wearing parched jeans having a bit of a dance and a giggle, reminding us of the fun he enjoyed and his indomitable spirit manifest in his art.

So there you have it, a decade of exhibitions. There were many more over the decade, well over 100 or more, but these are my favourites, the ones I think back to and enjoy, even the painful ones. I'm quite pleased that so many were outside London and outside the country - you don't have to be in London to see great art, it's happening everywhere!

There were many more that weren't about painting as well, exhibitions of sculpture, folk crafts, ancient artefacts, Buddhist scriptures, manuscripts, punk memorabilia, all sorts of stuff really. Take a look at what's happening in your local gallery or museum - or maybe your local coffee house or pub even - since amazing things happen everywhere. The important thing is to open your eyes and your mind - you never know what you might find.

The Plastic Bag Awards 2019

It's time for annual awards fest in the Plastic Bag so let's jump right into the Baggies 2019!

Best Shakespeare

There's normally a good selection of productions of Shakespeare plays to choose from but this year I've only seen one play, 'Romeo and Juliet', and then again, it's not even the Shakespeare play, but two dance versions and a film version. The nominees are:

* 'Romeo and Juliet' @ the Royal Opera House
* Matthew Bourne's 'Romeo & Juliet' @ Sadler's Wells
* 'West Side Story' @ British Film Institute

The award must go to Kenneth MacMillan's wonderful choreography and the dancing of the Royal Ballet in 'Romeo and Juliet'. The joyousness of it, the spectacular sword fencing, the leaping and flying of the cast and the Happy Strumpets all make this production a winner.

Best Drama

I saw quite a few plays over the year, many of which were good but lacked that certain something that would put them in the Baggies as nominees. The successful nominees are quite varied in subject matter, from a fantasy full of special effects to a Jamaican wake to life in a northern town and a glitzy West End farce to a one-woman play about a young secretary working for the nazis during the last war. The nominees are:

* 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' @ The Palace Theatre
* 'Rutherford and Son' @ the National Theatre
* 'Nine Night' at the Trafalgar Studios
* 'Present Laughter' @ the Old Vic
* 'A German Life' @ the Bridge Theatre

The Baggie goes to the one-woman powerhouse of Dame Maggie Smith and 'A German Life', a strange tale in which the character has convinced herself that she knew nothing about the Holocaust despite working as a secretary in the nazi high command in Berlin. A powerful performance for a powerful play.

Best Musical

This has been a good year for musicals, with a  wide variety produced over the year. The long list went beyond the five nominations allowed so these are the really stand-out productions. The nominees are:

* 'Blues In The Night' @ Kiln Theatre
* 'Fiddler On The Roof' @ Playhouse Theatre
* 'The Bridges Of Madison County' @ the Menier Chocolate Factory
* 'Come From Away' @ Phoenix Theatre
* 'Girl From The North Country' @ the Gielgud Theatre

None of the nominations are particularly cheerful. A down-at-heel hotel in 'Blues', the oppression and forced migration of 'Fiddler', the chosen migration of 'Bridges', the terrible background to 'Away' and the 'depression of 'Girl' - none are a bundle of laughs. The Baggie goes to 'The Bridges of Madison County' for it's tale of love and loss with the marvellous Janna Russell leading the cast.

Best Entertainment

I classify 'entertainment' as something that happens on a stage (big or small) but isn't necessarily a play, musical or dance. This year there are three nominees:

* Tracey Thorne interview and Q&A to launch her latest book @ Waterstones
* 'A Room of One's Own', a Virginia Woolf reading @ Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
* Amanda Palmer 'There Will Be No Intermission' @ Union Chapel

It's always a delight to hear Tracey Thorn talk since she's articulate and intelligent and only a couple of years younger than me so we share lots of similar memories. 'A Room of One's Own' was a delight to hear of rate wide-ranging ideas discussed and a reminder of the book I last read decades ago. But the Baggie must go to Amanda Palmer for her nearly four show on her 'There Will Be No Intermission' tour. Amanda would normally go into the 'Gigs' category but this wasn't a gig, it was something else, something powerful in which she shared intimate moments of her life unselfishly to tell us we're not alone. A very brave show on so many levels. Well done Amanda.

Best Gig

Not many gigs this year but I had the joyous madness of The B-52s, the poptastic bouncing of Alphabeat and the soaring voice of the lovely Kelli O'Hara (although hers was definitely a concert rather than a gig).

* B-52s @ Hammersmith Apollo
* Alphabeat @ Hackney
* Kelli O'Hara @ Cadogan Hall

The Baggie can only go to those B-52s, to Fred, Cindy and Kate and their great band for giving me such a fun night out and a chance to relive all those great hits from yesterday that still stand up.

Best Dance

It's been a funny year for dance, with more revivals by the Royal Ballet, a welcome revival by Akram Khan and a new Matthew Bourne. The nominees are:

* Akram Khan's Giselle @ Sadler's Wells
* Matthew Bourne's Romeo & Juliet @ Sadler's Wells
* Emociones @ Teatro Alfil, Madrid
* The Suit/Ingoma by Ballet Black @The Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House

The winner is obvious to me and I'm pleased that the judging panel agreed - the flamenco at Teatre Alfil in Madrid! It was a stunning sight, feet pounding the floor a thousand times a second, dramatic shapes, passion and lots of sweat. I want to see more flamenco - no, I need to see more flamenco - and I look forward to the summer season at Sadler's Wells.

Best Performance

Best performance is an award given to someone for doing something that little bit special in acting, singing, reciting, whatever. Interestingly the nominees this year are all women: Jenna Russell as the Italian immigrant to America; Maggie Smith as the German women fooling herself over working for the nazis; Cordelia Braithwaite as a feisty Juliet jumping on Tybalt's back to protect Romeo; and Amanda Palmer telling the truth of her life.

* Jenna Russell in 'The Bridges of Madison County'
* Maggie Smith in 'A German Life'
* Cordelia Braithwaite in 'Romeo and Juliet'
* Amanda Palmer @ Union Chapel

The award goes to Amanda Palmer for her astonishing show 'There Will Be No Intermission' in which she's on stage for just shy of four hours baring her soul and telling us about the most intimate things, about abortions and miscarriages, about first loves and the death of a close friend. There are laughs in the show as well as sadnesses, it's well paced and well constructed, sprinkled with songs but mainly Amanda talking to us. Well done!

Best Exhibition

This has been a bumper year for exhibitions and I could easily add more to the nominations - Bonnard at Tate Modern, Sorolla at the National Gallery, William Blake at Tate Britain - but the nominees were a cut above the rest for different reasons. We have early Renaissance masters, imaginative print-makers, magically weird installations and colourful cartoons with a message.

* 'Florence' @ Alte Pinakothek, Munich
* 'Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking' @ Dulwich Picture Gallery
* Olafur Eliasson @ Tate Modern
* 'Fra Angelico and the Rise of the Florentine Renaissance' @ the Prado, Madrid
* Keith Haring @ Tate Liverpool

In most years, the Alte Pinakothek exhibition of 15th Century Florentine works would win hands down for the sheer range of works and artists, the recreated altarpieces using available predella panels, the choice of little-seen paintings, large and small. An outstanding and carefully curated exhibition. But it's been pipped at the post by the astonishing Fra Angelico exhibition over the summer at the Prado. There aren't enough superlatives to praise that exhibition which presented little known works from around the world as well as the gloriously restored 'Annunciation' as the centrepiece of the exhibition. Truly astonishing. Well done Prado!

Best Film

I saw more films than usual this year, from the grand expanse and effects of 'Avengers Endgame' to the small but razor sharp documentary about Suzi Quatro, from the old of 'Goodbye Mr Chips' (that I;'m including since I've never seen it before) to the latest Almodovar film.

* 'Avengers Endgame'
* 'Suzi Q' documentary
* 'Pain & Glory'
* 'Goodbye Mr Chips'

The Baggie goes to Almodovar and Banderas for 'Pain & Glory', a marvellous film about an ageing film director with health problems getting his mojo back. Maybe it was the raging thing that touched me but I loved it. I loved the colours, the story telling, the characters, the sunshine and light of Madrid, it all worked for me. Well done!

And there you have it, the peak of culture and art in my world in 2019. I wonder what will happen in 2020? We'll see...

'Fra Angelico and the Rise of the Florentine Renaissance' at the Prado, Madrid

This is the second great exhibition this year about the Florentine renaissance (the first being at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich) but this exhibition at the Prado focuses on Fra Angelico in the years 1420-1430 and his contribution to getting the renaissance underway in Florence, both in terms of developing new ways to paint and to his triumphs of storytelling. The centrepiece of the exhibition is the Prado's newly restored 'Annunciation' altarpiece and it is a glory to behold with Gabriel's glittering wings and the bright colours - we can only be grateful to those apprentices that would've spend days pounding rocks to extract the colours and prepare them for the Fra to carry out this amazing work. And, of course, to the restorers who've done such an amazing job.

One of the things that made this exhibition special for me was the number of Fra Angelico works on loan from all around North America and Europe, from places I would probably never go to and so never see the paintings. Paintings are loaned from the Hermitage in St Petersburg ('Virgin and Child' opposite, an early painting with gold background), from Fort Worth and Houston in Texas USA, from Yale University and San Diego in the USA, from Rotterdam and Frankfurt and Remagen. Paintings are also on loan from the great museums of the Met in New York, the National Gallery in London, the Vatican in Rome, the Uffizi in Florence and, of course, from Fra Angelico-central, San Marco in Forence. Works by other artists of the time are also on loan, of course, including a lovely little 'Annunciation' by Uccello from the Ashmolean in Oxford.

It's such a privilege to see the wide range of works exhibited and we should be grateful to the curators and teams that must've spent years preparing for this exhibition and negotiating the various loans.

The exhibition is about Fra Angelico and the vast majority of exhibits are by the good Fra. However, it also includes works by other contemporary artists to provide a more rounded picture of the time and how artists were developing and influencing each other. We see bas-reliefs by Donatello to illustrate how the Fra started to depict a more playful baby Jesus in paintings for the first time, paintings by his master Lorenzo Monaco, and examples of the gorgeous Florentine cloths that were being weaved and which the Fra depicted as clothes and drapery in paint.

There is a single painting by Masaccio, 'Saint Paul' (opposite)  since it's thought that his 'Adam and Eve' in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence influenced how the Fra depicted Adam and Eve in the 'Annunciation'. There is also an 'Annunciation' by Robert Campin to demonstrate how the scene was viewed differently in the traditions of the Northern Renaissance. There are many others, of course. The Fra was open to influences and he absorbed the ones that helped him develop his art and pave the way for subsequent artists. 

The first painting in the exhibition is a small 'Virgin and Child Enthroned' from 1411-12, i.e. before the Fra was ordained as a friar and took the name Giovanni, back when he was a teenage apprentice called Guido. This devotional piece was painted by the young Guido di Pietro while he was in Lorenzo Monaco's workshop, to Monaco's design but  painted by Guido. It was probably commissioned by the Alberti family in Florence since its coat of arms is prominently displayed at the bottom and may have been the central panel of a triptych. It's a lovely little painting and it's nice to see very early works from the Fra to begin to trace his development as an artist and story-teller.

Another early painting that I really like is the 'Crucifixion' from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. it was probably painted in 1418-20 so the Fra was still a very young man but, although it has a traditional golden background, he was already experimenting with the figures and positions he paints them in. Look at Mary Magdalene bending down behind the Virgin so you see mainly the top of her head and the head of the man holding the pole looking up at the daed Christ, head tilted right back. Something I always find strange is the little tuft of hair on the man's chest since body hair was so rarely included in paintings. The group is arranged in a circle around the base of the cross with the figures looking up while the Virgin collapses in shock at the front.

The next room is what I thought of as the London room since it included three golden panels with seven roundel paintings from the Courtauld collection and the five-panelled San Domenico predella and small roundel of St Romulus from the National Gallery. 

My favourite of the five panels is to the right of 'Christ in Glory' and shows the forerunners of Christ, saints and virgin martyrs. Out of all the many figures painted in the five panels only one looks out at the viewer and that is Moses, to the left of centre in the top row. I've never seen an explanation of why this is - it's not unusual for the Fra to paint a character looking out at the viewer but out of all these people, why only him? A reminder of the Old Testament commandments would be odd given that Christ came to provide a new Testament but there's probably a theological reason for it.

           

One thought I had about this predella and it being full of different biblical and historical characters was suggested by the label that said it was the Fra's first work after being ordained as a friar - is this a 'show off' painting? I think of 'show off' paintings as those that advertise the artist's skills - look what I can do and if you commission me I can do something of this quality for you. The Fra was demonstrating his painting skills but also his understanding of theological studies, putting characters in the right order of importance in the paintings. One of the many joys of the exhibition catalogue is that it attempts to name each character in the five panels, something Dillian Gordon did in the National Gallery catalogue (which is no longer in print for some reason).

The panels from the Courtauld are made up of seven small roundels (about four inches in diameter) with gold background. The choice of saints to portray is a bit unusual but the panels were commissioned for a convent so that might help explain it. I've always been quite fond of the Mary Magdalene figure who looks quite cross and is gesturing to her lord almost to say to the viewer, 'look at what you've done'. I also rather like the painting of an almost imperious St Catherine of Alexandria resting against her wheel.

In the next room there are two gorgeous Virgin & Child panels on adjacent walls, the 'Virgin of the Pomegranate', acquired by the Prado a couple of years ago, and the lovely 'Virgin of Humility' from the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection on loan to MNAC, Barcelona. 

The 'Virgin of the Pomegranate' is full of gorgeous blues and reds and gold, with the two angels holding up the cloth of gold wearing green. The rather chubby baby Jesus is helping himself to pomegranate seeds from his mother's hand (the baby is the image on the front of the plan of the museum for visitors at the front desk). The cloth of gold almost shimmers as you look at it and you can almost see the rich stitching if you look closely, the heavy drapery falling in complex folds around the Virgin. I particularly like the two angels whose job it is to hold that heavy cloth for all eternity, the green of their robes works well against the gold cloth, as they both look towards the Virgin and the playful baby. It's interesting that their wings are also painted mainly green. It's a very peaceful, contemplative painting and it's astonishing how those colours have stayed rich and bright over the nearly 600 years since it was painted.

On an adjacent wall is the most lovely 'Virgin of Humility' in it's golden tabernacle-style frame. I first saw this painting a few years ago at an exhibition of the Thyssen collection in Barcelona and have loved it ever since. We see the baby resting his head against his mother's cheek and gazing up at her, offering her a lily while the Virgin holds a vase of roses with a single lily. The cloth of gold is intricate in the way the folds fall and, again, is obviously rich and heavy. Three angels hold the cloth while two more sit at the Virgin's feet playing instruments. The angels holding the cloth aren't as prominent as those in the 'Pomegranate' panel and look rather too delicate to hold up that obviously heavy cloth but they manage to do so effortlessly. It really is a lovely painting.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the newly restored 'Annunciation and Expulsion of Adam and Eve' altarpiece for San Domenico, the Fra's home church at the time and for which he completed three altarpieces. The restoration was carried out to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Prado and no better painting in the collection could have been selected.

          

The altarpiece is a perfect example of the Fra's great contribution to pushing forward the Renaissance in Florence as well as his skilful story-telling. Brunelleschi's theories of perspective are evident in the architecture of the Virgin's room and the innovation of having the altarpiece as a square without gothic arches is the first example of this approach, soon to be followed by almost every artist. The prominent addition of Adam and Eve leaving the garden and, in effect, walking through the Virgin's garden, is another first for the Fra. 

I was particularly taken with Gabriel's golden wings that glittered with new life after the restoration. You can clearly see each individual feather in his wings and and they glow and glitter almost as if they're becoming still after flying. I stood there swaying from side to side to watch the feathers move and take turns shining - I don't know what the guards must have thought I was doing. I also liked the graceful folds in his robe and then lime green lining that shows at the bottom and the blue under-robe.

It was also lovely to see the bright light coming through the window in the room beyond the doorway and see the leaves of the trees in the garden outside. 

I suspect that when most people think of the 'Annunciation' they think of the Angel and the Virgin - I certainly do - so it was inspired to use the Adam and Eve section of the painting as the face of the exhibition. It features on the posters for the exhibition and is the cover of the catalogue. What a great idea. It also helps to emphasise that these characters are actually one third of the painting and are an important part of the biblical story, with the Virgin wiping away original sin and the baby to be born is the ultimate descendant of Adam and Eve and is the one who will eventually free them from eternity in Limbo. There's a lot that can be read into this painting.

Near the altarpiece was a copy of a contemporary book illustrating trees and flowers, showing that the detail the Fra included in the garden was part of a tradition and the flowers were real, not simply made up to look pretty. 

The restoration work is incredible, with the colours almost luminous, making the altarpiece much brighter than it was previously, almost like a veil has been lifted and we can see it properly for the first time. Thank you Prado and thank you Almudena Sanchez for carrying out the restoration. Thank you also to the American Friends of the Prado and the Friends of Florence for donating so much to the cost of the restoration.

The predella of the altarpiece has been removed and hung at eye height so we can more easily look at it and appreciate the smaller paintings showing scenes from the life of the Virgin. They are lovely little paintings and I really liked the Nativity scene with the kings obvious in their crowns and the lookers-on in contemporary Florentine dress just as the scene is set in a Tuscan landscape. Something I hadn't noticed before but now can because of the hanging of the predella is the small angel flying over the hillside at top-right calling to the shepherds. It's always worth looking at the details in paintings by Fra Angelico.

Further on through the exhibition you come to a three dimensional painting, almost life-sized of a 'Crucifixion with St Nicholas of Bari and St Francis'. This was exhibited in Florence for the first time after being restored and I saw it there last year. It puzzled me at the time, wondering what it had been cut out from but, it seems, this is how it was originally done, as a piece to stand out so that viewers can get closer to the crucifixion and almost be part of it. Sadly there's a lot of damage to the figure of St Nicholas but the red of the blood dripping from the cross is as bright a scarlet as you could want.

It was designed for a boys club at the time in Florence where the boys could channel their energies into singing religious songs and chants with this work in the background. I wonder what it must have felt like to be there at the time?

Also on display is one of the four reliquaries Fra Angelico painted for Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The four reliquaries were brought together in Boston, USA, last year for the first time in several hundred years.  Three of them can be seen in San Marco in Florence and the fourth is in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. This reliquary is the 'Coronation of the Virgin' in which Christ crowns his mother as queen of heaven. It's very colourful and can almost glow under the right lights. St Thomas Aquinas looks out at the viewer, presumably exhorting the viewer to read the Bible or his other works. Along the bottom of the frame is a scene of six angels, the holy couple and the baby all in blue. The reliquaries are quite small so it's a testament to the Fra's skill that he can get so much detail into small paintings.

In the final room of the exhibition were two halves of what was thought to be a small, portable diptych, brought back together again - the two halves are in different museums in Detroit and in Newark. The paintings are pocket sized, just about the size of a modern day postcard, and one shows the Virgin and Child with Angels while the other shows St Dominic witnessing St Francis receiving the stigmata from the flying seraph. I couldn't find a photo of this work online so this is a photo I've taken of the piece from the catalogue. I thought the diptych was delightful and am grateful to be able to see these works when I am unlikely to ever travel to the museums that now hold them.

The final works in the exhibition are two luminous panels depicting the 'Marriage of the Virgin' and the 'Dormition of the Virgin', both in the bright colours I've come to expect from the Fra.

There is a lot going on in the 'Marriage' painting, with the young men on the left breaking sticks to try to find the new growth that will win the hand of the Virgin, the men pounding Joseph's back in jealousy that he won her hand, the priest looking sideways at Mary, presumably checking that she really wants to Mary the much older Joseph, so much storytelling. The colours are gorgeous with so much detail included, such as the gold embroidery on the priest's green robe. I suspect this is one of the problems of looking at paintings by Fra Angelico - we risk seeing only colourful, pretty pictures without recognising the complex storytelling and innovations in terms of how to tell the story, how he developed new approaches that subsequent artists took on and used and how he developed new ways of painting these stories.

I haven't really commented on the works of other artists included in this exhibition since I wanted to focus on the works by Fra Angelico - there are about 60 of his works in the exhibition so I've only scratched the surface and included some of my favourites. The focus on his work between 1420-1430 helps to illustrate that the Fra was still a young man and still learning and developing his art, soaking up and contributing to the artistic life and development of Florence which was bursting with new ideas at this time. This is all ably demonstrated by this exhibition and by the careful work of its curator, Carl Brandon Strehlke. Although you can't take photos in the Prado, where possible I've used my own photographs when I've seen some of the works elsewhere to illustrate this blog. Other photos are taken from the web.

This is a great exhibition and, if you're in or planning to visit Madrid over the summer, it's certainly worth seeing. Well done Prado and happy 200th birthday!