Favourite Paintings: 'The Madonna of the Swallow' by Carlo Crivelli

Another favourite painting is 'Madonna of the Swallow' by Carlo Crivelli, a Venetian painter from the late 15th Century. He has quite a distinctive style and most of his works are full of lots of detail, often with swags of flowers or fruit hanging in strange places in the painting. One reason I like it is that, as well as being a great painting, it's in its original frame, so this is what Italian altarpieces looked like around 1490.

We have the Virgin and Child flanked by saints Jerome and Sebastian, both of whom are looking a bit peeved. Jerome has his symbols of the bishop's hat, his books and the lion while Sebastian is clothed for once and holds an arrow. The Virgin is crowned and enthroned and above her is a swallow on the lintel, hence the name of the altarpiece. The predella (the paintings underneath the main painting) shows St Catherine of Alexandria, Jerome in the wilderness, the nativity, Sebastian's martyrdom and St George with the dragon. There's probably a very good reason why these five scenes make up the predella but I don't know why.   

Whenever I see this painting I try to find another detail I haven't noticed before, puzzle about St Jerome seems so cross and insistence and why Sebastian seems to be practicing his dance steps in front of his Lord while reminding him with the arrow that he died in his name. The bowls of flowers at the top of the painting intrigue me - who waters them?

If you're lucky enough to be able to get to the National Gallery in London then give yourself a few minutes to look at this painting properly and see what you can find in it.

'Hamlet' Actors

For no good reason I wondered how many times I've seen Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' on stage recently. It's one of his greats and is one of my favourites. I used to be able to quote huge chunks of it but not these days. In the last 11 years I've seen six different productions. It seems like once an actor reaches a certain age and wants to prove their theatrical credentials they want to play or get offered the part of the Dane.

2009   Jude Law (Wyndham's)

2010   Rory Kinnear (National Theatre)

2011   Michael Sheen (Young Vic)

2015   Benedict Cumberbatch (Barbican)

2017   Andrew Scott (Almeida)

2018   Michelle Terry (The Globe)

I've yet to see a truly great production of 'Hamlet' and all of these productions have something about them that disappointed. It's not the acting, more the production itself, the director's vision of the play, usually wanting to do something 'different' with it, or the sets and staging of the piece.  Jude Law's version was a bit unmemorable (other than lots of running) and the worst from my point of view was Michael Sheen's with it's awful setting in a mental hospital and Ophelia wandering around dropping coloured tablets rather than flowers. It was all so unnecessary and pointless.

Benedict Cumberbatch's version was simply a star vehicle and I really disliked the rubble-strewn second half (I kept worrying someone would turn an ankle walking on it all). Andrew Scott's version was interesting and had a novel take on using technology but what let it down was a new final scene set in the afterlife. No! If the play needed an afterlife scene then I'm sure Shakespeare would've written it. 'Hamlet' ends with Fortinbras taking the crown of leaderless Denmark.

I think my favourites are Rory Kinnear and Michelle Terry, largely because they know how to speak Shakespeare's verse, it's in their bones and they speak so naturally. The productions weren't great but the actors were. Michelle Terry made me want to read the play again and savour some of those great speeches.

The first production of 'Hamlet' I ever saw was with Derek Jacobi playing the title role in 1978, fresh from his huge success with 'I Clavdivs'. He's also part of a theatrical tradition of great Hamlet's passing on a copy of the play from one to another, started when Michael Redgrave gave the small book to Peter O'Toole. The book went to Derek Jacobi and he passed it to Kenneth Branagh who still has it. I wonder who he'll eventually give it to. I saw the book in an exhibition at the British Library a few years ago.

That's six productions in only 11 years so that mean we're overdue another production. I wonder who will play Hamlet next?

'Sin' at the National Gallery

The National Gallery has just opened a new exhibition titled 'Sin', an exploration of depicting the concept of sin in art. It's a nice provocative title but I'm not sure it really lives up to the name. It's in the ground floor galleries and is, essentially, a one-room exhibition of about 14 works. The first painting you see as you walk in is Bronzino's 'Allegory with Venus and Cupid' which could mean virtually anything. Beside it on the wall is Tracey Emin's 'It Was Only A Kiss' in neon lighting. 

To mount an exhibition about 'sin' in only 14 works is quite a challenge. The poster girl for the exhibition is Valesquez's 'Immaculate Conception' and the first painting on the walls is Jan Breughel's 'The Garden of Eden', a delightful little painting full of animals he probably hadn't seen when he painted it. We then move on to Cranach's 'Adam and Eve' and the first sin of eating the fruit of knowledge from the forbidden tree.

A work I hadn't seen before was 'The Scapegoat' by William Holman Hunt on loan from Manchester Art Gallery, a rather strange small painting with a woolly goat looking out of the picture in an odd landscape with a moon and  rainbow in the background. The sign explains that the goat is a symbol of sin and it carries away the sins of the people when it's set free to wander away. I can't help but feel that if you've got to explain something then maybe it's not the best exhibit to use. 

The final work is a small statue of a young man lifting up his tee shirt to look at a wound in his side simply called 'Youth' by Ron Mueck. The sign says, 'The work proposes a path of redemption that questions, disrupts and dismantles stereotypes and prejudices....'. That's a roundabout way of saying the young man in the statue is black. Has he been stabbed or is he the risen Christ for a new age? There are many paintings of Christ showing his wound, often to doubting Thomas, and this statue repeats that image but with the lad in tee shirt and jeans. I couldn't help but think back to Madonna's video for 'Like A Prayer' in the '80s and the outrage at the figure of the 'black Jesus' and the burning crosses. 

It's a free exhibition in the ground floor galleries that you can visit after you've seen the collection and before the shop and exit.

'Artemisia' at the National Gallery

The first major exhibition of paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi in the UK has just opened at the National Gallery in London and it's well worth visiting. She's not a terribly well known artist so hopefully this exhibition will change that and give her the credit she deserves. Born in 1593, her father was an artist and follower of Caravaggio and that influenced her own paintings. She was raped by an artist friend of her dad's who was successfully prosecuted and she is noted for her depictions of powerful women, occasionally cutting off mens' heads. 

She left Rome for Florence where she became the first woman admitted to the Accademia, lived in Venice and Naples, was commissioned by Charles I and spent time in London with her dad who died here and then she returned to Italy. She had children, had love affairs and enjoyed an international reputation as an artist at the time but that reputation diminished over the years and is only now being rediscovered.

'Artemisia' is in the exhibition suite in the Sainsbury Wing and is quite large and spread out. Most of her paintings are large and it doesn't take many to fill up the walls of each room. There are also a few original letters from her and her husband with the curly script you'd expect from the first half of the 1600s. You need to be masked to get into the National Gallery at the allotted time on your ticket, then head downstairs to the exhibition space and join a short queue to get into the exhibition. There's a free audioguide to the exhibition you can stream and listen to on your own device of choice if you want to. And then in you go to the exhibition.

Artemisia seems to have had a stock of subjects she painted and painted again, such as Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes, sometimes with spouts of blood and other times with dribbles. Also Susanna and the Elders where the old men spy on the youthful Susanna and threaten to report her as whore unless she has sex with them. Susanna is definitely the victim of men in these paintings, trying to cover her nakedness from the lecherous old men.

It's difficult not to associate these paintings with her experience of being raped as a girl/young woman. There are also paintings of the death of Cleopatra and the asp, a powerful queen choosing death over slavery. There's a strong sense of morality, of nobility, in these paintings. Better to die in control of one's destiny than die as a slave. 

She used her own image as the basis for some of her paintings, such as her painting of Saint Catherine with her wheel symbol and holding the palm leaf of a martyr which is in the National Gallery collection and herself as a painter in the 'Allegory of Painting' in the Royal Collection. There's also a self-portrait of her as a lute player. I prefer the Saint Catherine painting since we see the face almost full on with a direct gaze, a confident woman knowing her fate and willing to face it without fear or shame.

It's well worth seeing this exhibition if you can, the first exhibition of her work in the UK. She led a colourful life and it's been interesting finding out more about her.

'The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage' at the Royal Opera House

After seven long months, the Royal Ballet returned to the stage of the Royal Opera House with a leap and a twirl last night, dancing a wonderful series of highlights from their repertoire. The stalls had been removed to create enough space for the socially distanced orchestra and there was a specially invited audience of students and NHS staff to help create the atmosphere in those red plush seats. I, of course, had the best seat in the house, on my couch with a glass of red wine and some nibbles (not normally allowed in the venerable auditorium) that I managed to sneak past the ushers.

The performance opened with the orchestra playing the 'Sleeping Beauty' overture before launching into an ensemble piece by Shechter, followed by a pas de deux from 'Swan Lake' and we're off and leaping with one dance following another, solos, pas de deux, small groups and full ensemble pieces. Every couple of dances would see a short on-stage interview by Anita Rani talking to members of the Royal Ballet or short video pieces and that format worked really well. There was a short interview with Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and a piece from his marvellous 'Woolf Works' which saw Edward Watson dancing as Septimus Smith from 'Mrs Dalloway' which may well be his final performance on that stage since he announced his retirement at the start of the year. 

There were scenes from 'Jewels' with Sarah Lamb and Ryoichi Hirano, a great dance from 'Carousel', a ballet I've not seen before with Mayara Magri and Matthew Ball, and the fantastic non-stop movement of the final scene of Wheeldon's 'Within The Golden Hour'. We saw Alexander Campbell dance Oberon from 'The Dream' and Francesca Hayward dance Juliet from 'Romeo and Juliet', a pas de deux from the lovely 'La Fille Mal Gardee', Natalia Osipova dancing a frantic 'Medusa', Marianela Nunez dancing from 'Don Quixote' and a lovely video of the people of Doncaster recreating moments from 'Romeo and Juliet'. 

The show ended with MacMillan's 'Elite Syncopations' and music by Scott Joplin and others and the Royal Ballet flooding the stage with their colourful costumes as the whole cast appeared, either dancing or, at the end, taking their bows. A perennial crowd-pleaser and the perfect ending to the evening's performance.

It was a joy to see the Royal Ballet back on that stage doing what dancers do - dance. And provide spectacle, colour, skill, athleticism, impossible movements, sensitivity and exuberance. Wow. As ever, a ballet performance is more than the dance, it's the costumes, the music, the lighting, the scenery, the whole package. I'm sure all the dancers were on a high afterwards but I wonder if they really understand what they gave to us, the online audience? The joy, the delight, the hope. I admit to clapping at the screen of my laptop as I celebrated their proud moments and shared in the fun. You have a huge repertoire, Royal Ballet, so do it again. Pretty please?

Photos by me from my laptop screen so apologies for the poor quality but they're authentic.

The British Museum in a Mask

The British Museum is open again and, like many places, requires you to wear a mask, has free ticketed entry and a one-way route to follow, ending with the shop. The way in is the same, over to the big tent for bags to be checked and then into the main entrance, get your ticket scanned in the courtyard and then join the queue to get into the exhibition rooms and start the route. Only the ground floor is open at the moment, and not all the rooms, but it was nice to be back. Luckily for me, there was no queue when I arrived so I went straight in to be faced by the Rosetta Stone. 

And there we are, faced with the giant statues of Amenhotep III, in one of the Ancient Egyptian rooms. As it is with most places and exhibitions, the first few rooms were busiest as people adapt to the space, and then the numbers start noticeably thinning out. I wandered round, gawping at the ancient artifacts, All too soon I was surrounded by Assyrian strangeness with winged angels and lions defending doorways and suddenly I was in Ancient Greece.

Exhibits of statues and jars in glass cases and people carefully examining the designs and trying to follow them round the shape of the jars. And then the Parthenon room with those axing friezes. The last time I was in that room it was so crowded I couldn't wait to get out but my recent visit was far more relaxed with maybe a dozen or so people in the room. It was far more relaxed and I had plenty of time and space to examine the carvings. I've always been fascinated by the intricate drapery of the flowing gowns worn by the women in those friezes and I love the fighting centaurs.

In the next room, set in front or a reconstructed Greek temple is Grayson Perry's 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman' dedicated to all those unnamed craftsmen over the millennia that made the exhibits in the Museum. It's a galleon sailing their spirits into immortality. It was one of the highlights of the visit.  

Suddenly I was back in Egypt and there was mighty Rameses II. Rameses always makes me think of Shelley's 'Ozymandias' and the much quoted line, 'Look on my works ye mighty and despair'. Rameses was a great builder so no wonder statues of him have been found all over Egypt.

Then downstairs into the Africa rooms with some great Benin bronzes, before heading back upstairs to wander through the Native American rooms to the Mexico rooms and then a room full of old books that are so tempting to touch, probably reminiscent of the old British Library. Then to the shop where you can buy loads of things to do with the subject matter in the Museum, including their own facemarks - I got one with the Rosetta Stone inscription as decoration. Then out the exit into fresh air, also known as the back door.

I really enjoyed the visit and the Museum has carefully planned the route to take in as much as possible while keeping visitors safe. I was probably there for an hour or so wandering along the route and it would be easy to spend longer if you actually look at everything properly. Entry is timed and ticketed but is still free so, if you've got the time, it's well worth a visit. Remember to bring a mask.

Favourite Paintings: 'The Skiff' by Renoir

'The Skiff' by Renoir is a favourite painting in the National Gallery. I've seen it many times and whenever I step into the room it's in my eyes are drawn to it by the gorgeous colours pulling at me. All those blues and greens with the slash of orange and yellow for the skiff itself. The painting shrieks of summer and sunshine and warmth with the dappled water and sun reflecting off everything. Those poor ladies in the boat must have been sweltering in all that sun with all those clothes, especially the rower.

I like looking at the details in the painting as well as absorbing the radiated heat. The railway bridge, the colourful house, the yacht, the indistinct people on the bank (partners of the ladies?), the clump of reeds. I love all the reflections in the water, spreading more colour into the water. It's also easy to see the brush-strokes, particularly in the water around the paddle. It looks like the waves were created by a brush simply dabbing at the canvas and the different shades create the dappled effect. It took me a long time to learn to look at the details in paintings rather than concentrate on the overall effect but it's very rewarding.

If you're in London it's well worth a visit to the National Gallery (enmasked, of course) to see this painting for yourself. Don't just glance at it, look at it.

It's All In The Details... Titian at the National Gallery (in a mask)

I was standing there gazing at 'Diana and Actaeon' in the Titian exhibition at the National Gallery and started drinking in the details. I'm quite familiar with the painting but it's always nice to really look at a painting. I liked how Diana's little lap dog is already in full protective mode, baring her teeth at the enemy, young Actaeon and his hunting dog. The nymphs are all shocked and scared but the little dog is ready for anything. Actaeon is a mortal and Diana is a goddess so is pretty safe really, but that's not the point.

Actaeon is all muscle and sinew, not an ounce of spare flesh on that body, just look at the legs and that shoulder and arm. Diana and her handmaidens are all soft and fleshy, voluptuous and inviting, just the odd piece of drapery covering them. They're at their bath after all. They've been surprised and are attempting to cover their nakedness, all that flesh on display. Why they would choose to bathe in a ruined house in the middle of the woods is anybody's guess.

Then I noticed, between two nymphs on the ornate ledge above the pool, a small jar probably filled with rare, essential oils for Diana to bathe with. There's a small mirror beside it reflecting the jar. On closer inspection there's a reflection of the jar in the pool and, looking closer still, you can see a few dabs of white paint that give the jar it's sheen.  

Sometimes it's the details that bring a painting to life. Look at the detail on that ruined shelf, the frieze around the old fountain or whatever it is, partially worn away over the years and then that small jar. All the marks of a master. But it's the storytelling that draws us into a painting like this, the inventiveness of the composition. The current Titian exhibition is well worth seeing.

Favourite Paintings: 'Two Satyrs' by Rubens

'Two Satyrs' by Peter Paul Rubens is in the Alte Pinakotek in Munich and I saw it when I visited the gallery to see the wonderful 'Florence' exhibition in January 2019. After seeing the exhibition I went for a cuppa and a cake in the cafe and thought I may as well see the gallery's collection. I expected it to be like any provincial museum anywhere but I was quickly disabused of that misconception. It has an astonishing collection with loads of great paintings including 'Two Satyrs' by Rubens.

The painting may be called 'Two Satyrs' but there's really only one satyr here and he's the one looking right at you. There's something about that look that says he's already had his fun and now he wants a glass of wine, but then he sees you and you're the focus of his attention. And you know what? He'll have his way with you. He will. That's what satyrs do.

I have no idea why Rubens did this painting, why it was commissioned, how he found the model, what it's meant to represent, and I don't care. It's about nature and about sex, about passion and lust, about giving in to those primitive urges that make us who we are, about stripping back the trappings of civilisation and presenting the primitive us. It's you and me.

Westminster Abbey in a Mask

After visiting St Paul's Cathedral a few weeks ago I decided that I'd also visit Westminster Abbey when it re-opened for visitors and I went to the old place yesterday. It's probably three decades or more since I was last inside the Abbey although I have occasionally visited the Cloister when you could access it from Dean's Yard. I worked within a couple of minutes walk of the Abbey for 26 years so I'm very familiar with the old pile from the outside, but not the inside. The Abbey is a working church but it's also a reliquary of the history of this little island.

It was originally built in 1065 on the site of an earlier Benedictine church by order of King Edward, later Saint Edward the Confessor, who is still buried there. He died in 1066 and later that year, William of Normandy (the Conqueror) was crowned king of England, starting the long tradition of all coronations taking place in the Abbey. The place has been added to, extended and re-modelled over the centuries. It's strange to walk around the tombs of these almost mythical old kings and queens, earls and dukes, the plaques and flagstones engraved with names from over the centuries, the names of poets and writers, scientists and politicians. It was a big surprise to see the names of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan on flagstones. Younger readers might not even know who they were but I remember them.

The visitor entrance is still the North Door and you need to be masked and observe social distancing when you can. Tickets need to be bought online in advance. There's a one-way route marked with pink signs that takes you to some of the more famous and interesting things to see in the old church. The walls are covered with plaques and monuments to dead people and you walk on graves with the flagstones you walk on commemorating the great and the good as well as people you've never heard of. I walked over Sir Isaac Newton without noticing since I was too busy looking at the grave of Charles Darwin and wondering where Stephen Dawkins was buried.

The route takes you to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior surrounded by red poppies. It was quite moving to read the long inscription ending with, 'They buried him among the Kings because he had done good towards God and toward his House'. It made me wonder what will happen to the Field of Remembrance in the grounds of the Abbey this year, when the grounds are planted with crosses and symbols of the regiments and names of the dead in wars and conflicts since the First World War.

The route continues down through the nave, through the Quire and around the High Altar. This is where the early kings are buried in stone caskets under the vaulted roof of the Lady Chapel, along with later kings and their families. Light floods the chapel and the colourful banners bring the place to life. The route takes you past the tombs of Elizabeth and Mary but the rooms are closed because they're so small.

Follow the route round and you come to Poet's Corner and the tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer ('Canterbury Tales' anyone?). Apparently the tradition of burying poets and writers in that area of the Abbey begun when Edmund Spencer asked to be buried near Chaucer in 1598. Not all of the poets named in plaques and memorials are actually buried there, some are named in honour on flagstones or with plaques on the walls. You see the names of Lord Byron, George Eliot/Mary Ann Evans, Dylan Thomas, Ted Hughes, Jane Austin, WH Auden, CS Lewis and a host of others, some still famous names, others not so famous. There's a large statue to Shakespeare, a bust to William Blake and a monument to Handel.

The route then takes you out into the Cloister and the Chapter House. It's another very light space and is where the Benedictines used to gather back in the day and for a century or so was used for storage. A thing that fascinated me was the paintings on the walls behind the stone benches. It looked like the paint was applied directly to the stones rather than to a surface of plaster. I'll have to do some research on that since it seems like such an odd way to work.

You then head back into the Abbey proper with a big memorial flagstone to Churchill and, near the West Door and exit is the Coronation Chair in a glass room on its own. It's over 700 years old and is where the monarch is seated in front of the High Altar to receive the crown. I thought it looked a bit strange, a bit too wide for its height maybe? And then out into the open air through the West Door and you can leave or visit the shop which also operates a one-way system. Looking back over the West Door is a frieze of statues that I've never really looked at before, despite walking past that door thousands of times over the years. The statues are of Modern Martyrs, most of whom I've never heard of but included is a statue to Martin Luther King.

I'm pleased I visited the Abbey, I remembered a lot and learned a lot. It was busier than I expected but not crowded. For some odd reason you're not allowed to take photos inside the Abbey (as I found out after taking a photo just inside the entrance) so the internal photos here are taken from the web. I think I'd quite like to go back in the run-up to Christmas, when the light is weaker and the air is cold. I suspect the place feels even more atmospheric. The Abbey also usually has a large Christmas Tree outside, near the North Door. I suspect Christmas 2020 will be a strange time in this strangest of years.