Today sees the return of our occasional series featuring some of the finest pictures in London's National Gallery, as Nige admires a vast procession... Norbiton Toby's reflections on processions brought to mind a National Treasure that has so far escaped the attention of Dabblers - Frederic Lord Leighton's Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna Carried in ... Read More...
National treasures
If you are looking for something to do on a Saturday between now and the end of the month, I can recommend a visit to Sands Films Studio in Rotherhithe. Go along for tea and cake at 4.0 pm, followed by a tour of the premises and a screening of ... Read More...
Continuing our occasional series featuring some of the finest pictures in London's National Gallery, Gaw looks at a crucifixion scene that's unusually troubling even for this genre... The current work-in-progress of Mark Alexander, a painter and friend of The Dabbler, is inspired by Christ Mocked (The Crowning by Thorns) by Hieronymus Bosch. He ... Read More...
Continuing our occasional series featuring some of the finest pictures in London's National Gallery, Nige looks at an under-appreciated Venetian master... These days restfulness and sheer undemanding beauty are not qualities we value very highly in the art of the past, preferring emotion and drama - hence our preference for Caravaggio ... Read More...
Continuing our series looking at great paintings housed in London's National Gallery... Dating from around 1540, this arresting painting depicts an unlovely pair of taxmen, evidently just as popular in 16th century Zeeland (in the Netherlands) as they are everywhere today. It is agreed to be unlikely that Marinus painted from a ... Read More...
Continuing our series looking at great paintings housed in London's National Gallery... Bellini’s Doge Leonardo Loredan is a commanding portrait in two senses: the subject has an unmistakably authoritative presence; and, like the Arnolfini Portrait, the painting hogs viewers’ attention in its room (62, in the Sainsbury Wing). It has in common ... Read More...
Continuing our series looking at great paintings housed in London's National Gallery... The National Gallery has thirteen Raphaels (if you include the dubious Madonna of the Pinks, recently 'saved for the nation'). The one that always draws me towards it is the Mond Crucifixion (in Room 8). There's something about the sheer ... Read More...
Continuing our series looking at great paintings housed in London's National Gallery... I took my youngest son to the National Gallery last week. As we stood before Stubbs's Whistlejacket I asked him what he thought: "It's a bit scary, Daddy". I could see his point. Stubbs's series of paintings depicting a horse being ... Read More...
For a Burns Night special, we take a break from London's National Gallery and head to Edinburgh in our series looking at artistic national treasures... The Skating Minister or, to give it its full title, The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch (c.1795) is a much-loved painting, and indeed, who could fail ... Read More...
Continuing our series looking at great paintings housed in London's National Gallery... For such an intimately and widely known painter it's amazing how the works of Vincent Van Gogh retain the ability to make you look again, even when seen on screen. Even his landscapes and still lifes remain gripping. In ... Read More...
