'Botticelli Reimagined' at the Victoria & Albert Museum

On Friday afternoon I trotted off to the eagerly awaited new Botticelli exhibition at the V&A in South Kensington. I first heard about it about a year ago, so it's been a long-time coming. It's another one of those 'here's a painting by the artist and here are some more he influenced' type of exhibitions but we were also promised lots of Botticelli's so I'm okay with that.

The exhibition is in three parts. Firstly, very modern works that have been inspired by Botticelli, then a section on the Pre-Raphaelites that helps to 're-discover' Botticelli in the 1800s, and finally a large display of Botticelli paintings (and those of his workshop) and drawings. The latter was, for me, the highlight since that's what I wanted to see.

I found the first section rather unappealing. It didn't seem to be so much about the influence of Botticelli, more about people doing their own versions of 'The Birth of Venus' and 'Primavera'. To be fair, the title of the exhibition is 'reimagined', but it's still mainly these two iconic paintings.

We see snatches of film, paintings and prints, photographs recreating 'Venus' and even Dolce & Gabbana dresses made with 'Venus' printed cloth. Um, ok. Some of it was very meh and some at least made me do a double-take to check what I was actually looking at, but now of it made me go wow. There was nothing I wanted to see again (including the Magritte man with Primavera on the back of his coat).

Someone's put a lot of effort into tracking down these often odd pieces and, while I'm not convinced it was worth the effort, it more than adequately shows the influence of Signor Botticelli still lingers, or at least the influence of these two paintings, either to be loved or ridiculed.

Next up was a room full of paintings mainly by from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (and sisterhood in some cases) to demonstrate Botticelli's influence on painting under the Victorian as his works were rediscovered after languishing in the second league of painters for most of the previous few hundred years. It's odd to think that someone so popular today was largely ignored for hundreds of years. The major contributors in this room are Burne-Jones and Rossetti and many of them have been included in other exhibitions over the past ten years or so, but there were a few paintings I hadn't seen before (such as this reimagined 'Venus' by Walter Crane) so that made it worth wandering round. But then, on to the main event of a large space given over to the works of Signor Sandro Botticelli himself.

Of course, when you think of Botticelli, everyone wants to see 'The Birth of Venus' and 'Primavera' but that's not going to happen unless you go to the Uffizi in Florence. Luckily, I have been to the Uffizi and they're a gorgeous sight. What we're given is a collection of religious paintings, mythological paintings, portraits and drawings, both by Botticelli and by his workshop and it's interesting to guess which were by him and which by his staff copying his style, some of more obvious than others.

It was interesting to see multiple versions of portraits of the same people and how the styles change slightly. It was also good to see styles unchanging over the years in some of the Madonna and Child paintings, with their heads looking the same, even at the same angles despite the years, with the backgrounds being different. There was series of round paintings with the Child's chubby face exactly the same in several different paintings.

More interesting to me was 'Mystic Nativity' which is on loan from the National Gallery and which I suspect everyone has seen on Christmas cards. It's surprisingly small with an awful lot of detail that rewards close scrutiny. The angels are dancing partway between heaven and Earth and three crowns are suspended just under their feet, presumably for the holy family. The central group of the family with a cow and donkey reminds me of the small painting above a door in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, also by Botticelli, so, perhaps, is another example of Botticelli repeating his successful compositions.

The shepherds are receiving crowns of laurel or olive branches suggesting the crown of thrones at the other end of Christ's life. If you look in the bottom corners of the painting you can also see small devils watching and, presumably, waiting their turn. It's all rather strange when you put the composition together and is very different from the other paintings on display.

I think my favourite painting was the large 'Pallas and the Centaur' which I can't remember seeing before. It shows Pallas Athene taming a warlike Centaur with his bow lowered. She's fondling his hair like a favourite pet and his head is bent towards to her, almost unwillingly like a wild creature she's just tamed.

It features Botticelli's trademarked flapping drapery with gorgeous designs and the many-layered wavy hair of both mythological figures. It's always worth a closer look at the background of paintings and it's nice to see the contemporary (for the time) ship sailing into the port of whichever land this happens to be. I went back to look at this painting several times - it rewards a repeat viewing.

It's been a long time coming but I enjoyed it and I'm pleased to have seen so many Botticelli's in one place, particularly seeing similar compositions and being able to compare them. It would've been nice to see more, of course.

Pre-Raphaelites at Tate Britain

Last week I went to see the new Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood exhibition at the Tate Britain.It was quite busy and reminded me of my dislike of those audio-tour headphone sets but it's well worth a visit.

The Pre-Raphaelites occupy an odd position in British (and world) art since so many of the works associated with the movement have made their way onto greeting cards and biscuit tins that we're all terribly familiar with the 'stars' of the movement and have seen little of the 'lesser' paintings. And, I think, that's part of the problem with the PRB in that if familiarity doesn't quite breed contempt, it breeds familiarity, and that removes any potential for the 'wow factor'.  I assume that's why the curator of the exhibition chose to present it as the Pre-Raphaelites as Victorian avant-garde. The blurb says:

Combining rebellion, beauty, scientific precision and imaginative grandeur, the Pre-Raphaelites constitute Britain’s first modern art movement. This exhibition brings together over 150 works in different media, including painting, sculpture, photography and the applied arts, revealing the Pre-Raphaelites to be advanced in their approach to every genre. Led by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) rebelled against the art establishment of the mid-nineteenth century, taking inspiration from early Renaissance painting.

The exhibition establishes the PRB as an early example of the avant-garde: painters who self-consciously overturned orthodoxy and established a new benchmark for modern painting and design. It will include many famous Pre-Raphaelite works, and will also re-introduce some rarely seen masterpieces including Ford Madox Brown’s polemical Work 1852–65 and the 1858 wardrobe designed by Philip Webb and painted by Edward Burne-Jones on the theme of The Prioress’s Tale.

I think I suffered from the 'been there/done that' syndrome of seeing all these familiar paintings on the walls. O yes, another nice painting but so what... I think the first thing that excited me was a bust of Dante by Alexander Munro and that's because I'd seen the death masks in Florence.

I was, strangely, delighted to see 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil' (above) by William Holman Hunt and 'Laus Veneris' by Edward Burne-Jones, both on loan from the Laing Gallery in Newcastle. These were the first Pre-Raphaelite paintings I ever saw in the flesh and it's always a delight to see them. My other influence from the Laing is the work of John Martin who painted vast panoramic scenes whereas the next generation focused on the detail of the PRB.

The one painting that I came away with in my mind is Rossetti's 'Annunciation' that reminds me of the simplistic paintings of Fra Angelico in the cells at San Marco. The same pale pallet, the same dramatic pose and the overall intensity.

Something I wan't expecting was a portrait of Sophie Gray by John Everett Millais which is really beautiful. This photo doesn't really tell the full tale but it shows a young woman who recognises her own beauty and is ready to grow into the power that brings. The colour tones don't quite work since her dress is green, not black, and that affects the colour of the whole picture. The pose is quite modern and could be seen in any 'glamour' magazine today.

If you have an interest in art then you've probably already seen most of these paintings, or at least the paintings you're interested in. But I'd still say go and see the exhibition - paintings are always different when you see them in front of you.