Renaissance
Altoon Sultan on Piero di Cosimo
Painters on Paintings
Altoon Sultan reflects on Piero di Cosimo’s A Satyr Mourning over a Nymph (c. 1495), seen on a recent trip to the National Gallery, London. Sultan writes: “There I was, standing in front of this beautiful, tender, poignant painting, unable to stop weeping. It may be that my feelings were very close to the surface from […]
Giovanni da Rimini @ the National Gallery, London
Apollo Magazine
Florence Hallett reviews Giovanni da Rimini: A 14th-Century Masterpiece Unveiled at the National Gallery, London, on view through October 8, 2017. Hallett begins: “Jewel-like, and embellished with engrossing details, the exquisite little panel at the centre of the National Gallery’s current exhibition is a rare evocation of Rimini at the turn of the 14th century, […]
Philip Pearlstein on Piero della Francesca
Painters on Paintings
Philip Pearlstein reflects on his transformation from an abstract expressionist to a figurative painter, a change owed in part to the study of Piero della Francesca. Pearlstein recalls that Piero’s work “seemed to me to provide a kind of grammar of pictorial invention, parallel to the grammatical constructions of language that adventurous poets play with; […]
David Reed on Caravaggio
Painters on Paintings
David Reed considers rarely seen details in several paintings by Caravaggio and how these details alter and intensify the potential meanings of the works. Reed writes; “Did Caravaggio realize that the self-portrait reflection in the “Bacchus” and the praying figure in “The Works” would not be visible under the standard circumstances in which the paintings […]
Raphael: The Drawings
London Review of Books
Charles Hope reviews Raphael: The Drawings at The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, on view through September 3, 2017. Hope writes: “One of the great strengths of the exhibition is the way it illustrates Raphael’s increasing mastery of and obvious pleasure in the medium of drawing during his years in Rome. This comes across most strongly in […]
Raphael: The Drawings @ the Ashmolean Museum
Apollo Magazine
Curator Catherine Whistler previews Raphael: The Drawings which will be on view at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, from June 1 – September. 3, 2017. Whistler notes: “Looking closely at Raphael drawings is always a moving experience; considering the drawings in terms of their cognitive and affective aspects, rather than as stepping-stones towards the final painting, […]
Michelangelo and Sebastiano
Studio International
Emily Spicer reviews Michelangelo and Sebastiano at the National Gallery, London, on view through June 25, 2017. Spicer writes: “For 25 years, give or take, Michelangelo and Sebastiano were close friends, a friendship apparently born from the former’s rivalry with Raphael. Michelangelo was godfather to one of Sebastiano’s children and when Sebastiano had a crisis […]
Fra Bartolommeo’s Divine Draughtsmanship
Apollo Magazine
David Ekserdjian reviews Fra Bartolommeo: The Divine Renaissance at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, on view through January 15, 2017. Ekserdjian writes: “Fra Bartolommeo is a supremely able and, at his best, ravishingly beautiful draughtsman, but even his warmest admirers could not claim he is limitlessly various… One of the main pleasures of studying […]