'Charles I: King and Collector' at the Royal Academy

The new blockbuster exhibition in London is all about Charles I's collection of paintings and other art works at the Royal Academy. And it is a BIG exhibition. It's full of room after room of great paintings with hardly a dull note and some works by artists I've never come across before. There are four tapestries designed by Raphael and nine enormous canvases my Mantegna showing a triumphal procession in ancient Rome, loads of portraits of Charles and the royal family by van Dyck, self-portraits by Rubens and van Dyck, Charles on horses, a room of miniatures and lots more besides. This really is an exhibition to linger over and there's something here for everyone.

I found myself mulling over how this exhibition came together and imagined the curators having a cuppa in the cafe one day and chatting about their dream exhibitions - if only we could get X Y Z together - and here they are. Charles I's collection was spread far and wide after his execution and, while many were subsequently bought back, many still reside in collections around Europe. This exhibition brings many of them together again.

One of my favourite paintings was 'Portrait of a Woman in Green' by Agnolo Bronzino. If you ignore those enormous green sleeves for a moment, you could easily see that woman on a bus or train going about her business today.

She is so fresh and 'real' with her patient face waiting to get on the next train because this one is too crowded. She looks kindly with a bit of backbone when needed, easily the manager of a busy office. That bright green dress against the rich, deep red background makes the painting really noticeable - how often do you see that rich green in old paintings? The painting was really noticeable and I'd love to know who she was and what happened to her. Maybe that's covered in the catalogue?

Another painting that caught my eye was a large one by Rubens, 'Minerva Protects Pax from Mars'. The titular characters are in the background while a great deal of frolic goes on in the foreground, presumably showing the benefits of a peaceful life and nation. I particularly liked the little group of children at the bottom-right of the painting - just look at those faces. I've no idea what that satyr is up to. And look at Minerva's arm pushing against Mars' shield - we don't quite see muscles and tendons pushing against her skin but that demonstrates her power against the god of war.

I also really liked the 'Adoration of the Shepherds' by Jacopo Bassano. The Virgin and Child are centre-stage in the brightest part of the painting while Joseph sits on the ground with his dog curled up beside him (I don't remember a dog being in the story but he looks cosy down there).

It's called 'adoration' but I didn't get that feeling from the shepherds, rather there's a suggestion that they're a bit agitated and don't really know what to do because they've never worshipped a baby before so they've brought a sheep as a gift. Well, what do you bring a baby that angels seem to know? Luckily, all is right with the world because the donkey and ox are there for consistency.

It was a surprise to see Jan Gossaert's curly-haired 'Adam and Eve', partly because of all the flesh on display - with a few exceptions, most of the paintings have fully clothed people in them. Of course, trees were really handy in Biblical times because they always seemed to sprout a branch at crotch height to avoid any embarrassment. Bit unfortunate if you walked into the branch though, especially if it had thorns. I'll leave that thought there.

Another painting I liked was of the royal kids by van Dyck with their enormous dog (and a tiny pooch). I stood there pondering dressing kids as little adults but then focused on the dog - if I was them I'd want to ride round on his back! He looks docile enough but has a striking musculature. It's also a bit of a show-off painting with all that beautiful fabric and lace on show, almost like van Dyck was saying, 'just look what I can do and how good I am - I'm certainly worth every penny you're paying me'.  And, indeed he was.

There were lots of paintings of Charles himself, mainly large, always regal and calm, sometimes outdoors on horseback and sometimes in a more courtly setting. His flamboyant clothes were always gorgeous and it's easy to imagine artists being very careful to ensure he's shown off to best effect. One of my favourites was a simple line drawing by van Dyck towards the end of the exhibition.

I've recently taken up drawing so it was fascinating to see this lesson from a real master, bringing the likeness to life without over-doing it and without filling the page with chalk. There's no shading or detail on the hat or clothes, it's all about the face. Very minimal with the lines but still brings the drawing to life. I bought the postcard of this drawing to keep with my drawing stuff as a reminder and a lesson. It really is quite marvellous in its simplicity. Thank you Mr van Dyck.

This really is an exceptional exhibition and I'll certainly want to visit again when the crowds of the first few weeks start to thin out a bit (at least I hope they will).

'Rubens & His Legacy' at the Royal Academy of Arts

The big exhibition at the Royal Academy at the moment is about Rubens and his influence on other artists at the time and over the years down to Picasso. This is always an interesting idea for exhibitions - show someone with a big name and then hang paintings by other artists near the relevant master to show his or her influence. I saw a great exhibition a few years ago on this theme at Tate Britain about the influence of Picasso on British artists and that exhibition introduced me to some new artists I hadn't really looked at before. Its all about balance.

The exhibition was split into different themes for each room based around one of Rubens' paintings. We see a Rubens landscape and then a Turner or Constable or someone else illustrating the influence of Rubens from a similar composition or use of colours or brush strokes. Some careful thinking has obviously gone into this exhibition.

One of the first paintings that got me looking closely was 'Christ on the Straw', a triptych of Virgin and Child, Christ taken down from the cross and John the Baptist. The thing that really attracted my attention was the simple leaden nature of Christ's arms, the sheer dead weigh of the arms hanging uncomfortably and the body in an unnatural position. The other two panels and the people around Christ don't really interest me, it's the body of Christ and the leaden weigh of it, the embodiment of death. I even waited for a couple to move on so I could get a closer look.

One of the 'big' paintings of the exhibition was 'Tiger, Lion and Leopard Hunt' from 1617. It's a large painting (taller than me) and was surrounded by slightly smaller paintings of hunt scenes, some of which looked a little too gory for me.

I'm definitely with the tiger in this one - savage him! The painting tells a compelling narrative of a hunt in which the animals fight back. The lion is being killed, the leopard is already dead but the tiger fights back to protect his family - momma tiger is protecting her cubs and has one in her mouth while her mate tries to give her the time to escape the barbarous hunters. I stared at this painting for a while, grabbing a seat opposite the painting ad just looking at it. All the violence, the careful composition and colour palette, the movement and, bottom right, the stillness. It's a great painting but I didn't really look at any of the other hunting paintings.

Another great painting was the far smaller 'Pan and Syrinx' painted with Jan Brueghel. I spent some time in front of this puzzling over how it was painted by Rubens and Brueghel - which one did which bits? It's nice and bright in oils which keep the colour and it looks fab.

One of the great things about exhibitions of this kind is that they introduce you to paintings and artists you might not otherwise come across. There were lots n this exhibition. There was a lovely self-portrait by Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun, several Delacroix and Watteau paintings as well as Cezanne and Picassos.

A painting I'd never come across before but fell in love with was 'Drunken Silenus Supported by Satyrs' by Van Dyck. This is such great fun with a fat old Silenus obviously out of his head on a Friday night and getting into bad company with the satyrs. I hope he got home okay.

It's a good exhibition and well worth seeing for the range of artists and styles on display. I can't help but feel it would have been better if there were more works by Rubens on display - his is the name over the door, after all. Some of the links with other paintings also seemed a bit tenuous but that's possibly a bit churlish of me. I enjoyed it and learned from it and that's the main thing.