A learning day
I woke up early as there was sunshine in my face from where I hadn't shut the curtains thoroughly last night *sigh* So I got up, fed the cats, and had breakfast. We were all leaving the house today - Mr Cee to take Youngest Cee to the airport as he was off to Scotland with friends to climb Ben Nevis (the tourist walking route!), and me to start my Summer School course in London.
They left before me, and I went by train and tube to The Wallace Collection (which took about an hour) and joined the other 27 attendees in the Lecture Theatre. Today's theme was The Renaissance and we had a whistle-stop summary of the Italian and Northern European Renaissance in the morning. During the lunch break, I went to look at The Swing by Fragonard in its newly cleaned and restored state. It's very luminous now...
In the afternoon we had a short lecture about Mary Queen of Scots and then we had a tour around the collection to look at some examples of the artwork linked to the lectures. Under the cut for a few things I liked:
The Virgin and Child in Majesty with Saints Peter and John the Baptist (1370 - thought to be by Vannuccio). Painted in egg tempera on a poplar panel with lots and lots of gold leaf and the blue is Ultramarine (which actually cost more than gold leaf at the time!). Very typical for the time - you can imagine it glowing in candlelight. St Peter is in blue and yellow (if you see a Saint in blue and yellow it's either St Peter or Joseph), and John the Baptist in a fetching red.
St Catherine of Alexandria by Giovanni Battista Cima da Congliano (1502) shows the influence of the Flemish Renaissance with the landscape in the background and the accurate perspective. Gorgeous fabric painting in oil and some egg tempera on other parts of the panel.
Our lecturer brought a torch as the Renaissance gallery as it is quite dark...
Portrait of a Man in Red (around 1450), this was a typical way of painting someone for the time - side views were also reproduced in medals you'd give someone as a memento. This is probably a courtier.
Saint Jerome by Benvenuto di Giovanni (probably late 1400s). This would have been part of a larger altarpiece - it may even have been in a border around a bigger devotional piece. St Jerome is beating himself on the chest with a rock to stop naughty thoughts. No one knows why it was sold off, probably to bring in cash for the church it was originally in. He is dressed as a hermit.
A portrait of Eleonora di Toledo (probably after her death as this is the dress she was buried in, and there's an urn in the background) (c.1562)
Saint Roch by Carlo Crivelli (1480) - born into a rich family in Montpellier, but he gave away his inheritance and embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome. Along the way he comforted victims of the plague, contracting the disease himself which resulted in a sore on his thigh which he's showing in this painting.
We had a quick look at a Titian - one of his later works and we'll revisit this one later in the week :)
The day finished at 4 pm and I was home just after 5 pm rather overwhelmed with how much I had learned today! Tomorrow we are studying the Spanish and Italian Baroque....
Just time for today's question which is a long one! 10 - Don't Step on a Bee Day: is an important reminder that the fate of the common bee lies in the balance - with bee numbers in some countries having halved in the last decade with no apparent cause. Some localities are taking measures to help the bee population, for example, planting wildflowers by the side of roads/on road medians or encouraging residents to move away from a manicured lawn to a yard full of flowers. Are you aware of any such measures where you live? Do you agree that if bees disappear, life would change significantly for humans (and not in a good way)?
We were all encouraged in May to have a 'no mow May' so we would leave some (or all!) of our garden lawns to grow to allow bees to have some chance of wildflowers (or just dandelions). We did that at the end of the garden and the local council allowed all the grass verges in the roads to grow - which was probably also very good for their budgets too. Farmers are being encouraged to leave borders around their fields for wildflowers and many of the gardens you can visit in historic castles and houses have allowed sections to go wild for bees :) I have a lot of bee-friendly plants in my garden (deliberately planted, but we inherited some too). Some of our shrubs hum with life in the Spring - it's lovely!
They left before me, and I went by train and tube to The Wallace Collection (which took about an hour) and joined the other 27 attendees in the Lecture Theatre. Today's theme was The Renaissance and we had a whistle-stop summary of the Italian and Northern European Renaissance in the morning. During the lunch break, I went to look at The Swing by Fragonard in its newly cleaned and restored state. It's very luminous now...
In the afternoon we had a short lecture about Mary Queen of Scots and then we had a tour around the collection to look at some examples of the artwork linked to the lectures. Under the cut for a few things I liked:
The Virgin and Child in Majesty with Saints Peter and John the Baptist (1370 - thought to be by Vannuccio). Painted in egg tempera on a poplar panel with lots and lots of gold leaf and the blue is Ultramarine (which actually cost more than gold leaf at the time!). Very typical for the time - you can imagine it glowing in candlelight. St Peter is in blue and yellow (if you see a Saint in blue and yellow it's either St Peter or Joseph), and John the Baptist in a fetching red.
St Catherine of Alexandria by Giovanni Battista Cima da Congliano (1502) shows the influence of the Flemish Renaissance with the landscape in the background and the accurate perspective. Gorgeous fabric painting in oil and some egg tempera on other parts of the panel.
Our lecturer brought a torch as the Renaissance gallery as it is quite dark...
Portrait of a Man in Red (around 1450), this was a typical way of painting someone for the time - side views were also reproduced in medals you'd give someone as a memento. This is probably a courtier.
Saint Jerome by Benvenuto di Giovanni (probably late 1400s). This would have been part of a larger altarpiece - it may even have been in a border around a bigger devotional piece. St Jerome is beating himself on the chest with a rock to stop naughty thoughts. No one knows why it was sold off, probably to bring in cash for the church it was originally in. He is dressed as a hermit.
A portrait of Eleonora di Toledo (probably after her death as this is the dress she was buried in, and there's an urn in the background) (c.1562)
Saint Roch by Carlo Crivelli (1480) - born into a rich family in Montpellier, but he gave away his inheritance and embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome. Along the way he comforted victims of the plague, contracting the disease himself which resulted in a sore on his thigh which he's showing in this painting.
We had a quick look at a Titian - one of his later works and we'll revisit this one later in the week :)
The day finished at 4 pm and I was home just after 5 pm rather overwhelmed with how much I had learned today! Tomorrow we are studying the Spanish and Italian Baroque....
Just time for today's question which is a long one! 10 - Don't Step on a Bee Day: is an important reminder that the fate of the common bee lies in the balance - with bee numbers in some countries having halved in the last decade with no apparent cause. Some localities are taking measures to help the bee population, for example, planting wildflowers by the side of roads/on road medians or encouraging residents to move away from a manicured lawn to a yard full of flowers. Are you aware of any such measures where you live? Do you agree that if bees disappear, life would change significantly for humans (and not in a good way)?
We were all encouraged in May to have a 'no mow May' so we would leave some (or all!) of our garden lawns to grow to allow bees to have some chance of wildflowers (or just dandelions). We did that at the end of the garden and the local council allowed all the grass verges in the roads to grow - which was probably also very good for their budgets too. Farmers are being encouraged to leave borders around their fields for wildflowers and many of the gardens you can visit in historic castles and houses have allowed sections to go wild for bees :) I have a lot of bee-friendly plants in my garden (deliberately planted, but we inherited some too). Some of our shrubs hum with life in the Spring - it's lovely!