Another Day At The National Gallery Of Art

After a day of R&R--it had been a solid week of activities for me--we went back to the National Gallery for yet another day of art appreciation, enhanced by the Great Courses art history videos we have been watching. (And further enhanced by watching a few episodes of Fake or Fortune, an art history sleuthing show on BBC Four that has gone through 9 seasons...something completely unimaginable on American TV). By now we are well into the National Gallery, up through Caravaggio and Velazquez and Rubens and knocking on the doors of 18th century painting. We are trying to do it all chronologically, but the Gallery's layout and organization and COVID detours do not lend themselves to such a program as ours. Anyhow, here are more pix along with the usual irreverent wit. IIDSSM.

Jacob Jordaens, Holy Family Caught in Headlights,

1620

Extremely rare non-full-figured, clothed female by
Rubens, his sister-in-law, Susanna Lunden, the
painting aka, mistakenly, Le Chapeau de Paille (the
hat is felt, not straw),1622; we'll have an occasion
for comparison in our next episode

Rubens' more mature Judgement of Paris, 1632 

Attributed to Van Dyke, Santa Claus and the Elves Celebrate
Another Successful Christmas, 1620; the inscription reads
"That outta keep the little bastards happy for another year"

Philippe de Champaigne, Cardinal Richelieu,
1633; Louis XIII's main guy; could have been
a star center in the NBA, but chose the church
and statecraft instead

Rene Ssance, Pigeon Defiling the Future Queen of Heaven,
1635; note angel's red, white, and blue wings...hmmm

Claude Lorrain's Enchanted Castle, 1664; we never ever miss 
a Claude

One of Vicki's favorites, Steen's Effects of Intemperance, 1663

Poussin's Bacchanalian Revel, 1632; we think it might have been
fun to be a Poussin model

Never ever miss an Avercamp, despite the fact they all look the
same

Velazquez' Toilet of Venus, 1647; the "Rokeby Venus"; only
the fact that he was close personal buds with the King saved
Velazquez from the Inquisition on this one; I speculate

Murillo Self Portrait, 1664; paint vs. reality

Vicki stands for scale with a huge Guido Reni
Adoration; painter of light

Mr. Fruity Butt Pants [Michaelangelo di Merisi, aka
Caravaggio], Boy Bitten by Lizard, 1594

Mr. Fruity Butt Pants, At the Restaurant in Emmaus, 1594; Jesus
is telling the waiter that the chicken is over-seasoned, take it
away!

Personal favorite: Salvator Rosa, Philosophy, 1645;
the inscription says "be silent, unless what you have to 
say is better than silence," an early anticipation of
Wittgenstein's "wovon man nicht sprechen kann,
daruber muss man schweigen" (Tractatus Logico-
Philosophicus, 7.0); marvel at my Renaissance man
erudition... 

Our wanderings in the Gallery have brought us now to what I regard

as the "crossing," the heart of the place, where are displayed, opposite

each other, two Turners and two Claudes; in his Bequest to the Nation,

Turner had specified that his two be shown with the Claudes, an

earlier landscape master whom he revered; he had also specified

that the Fighting Temeraire be displayed at the National Gallery so

as to be close to Trafalgar Square and the Nelson column; anyhow

this is holy ground for Turner fans...

Claude's Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheeba,
1648

Turner's Dido Building Carthage, 1815

Turner, Sun Rising Through Vapor, c. 1807

Claude, Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah, 1648

We tarried; actually we were trying to find the exit, since we had
already had our quota for the day; but in an adjoining room,
something similar was going on...some Turners among the 
Canalettos...Venice, the Basin of San Marco on Ascension Day,
1740

Turner, Bridge of Sighs, Ducal Palace and Custom House, Venice:
Canaletti Painting, 1833; this is Turner's homage to Canaletto,
whom he shows at his easel on the left

Homage aside, Turner was competitive to a fault, with his
contemporaries as well as The Greats, and relished exhibiting
his work by that of the latter; here, his The Dogano, San Giorgio,
Citella, from the Steps of the Europa [his hotel], 1842; hard to
imagine an artist, up to that time, better traveled than Turner

We left, singing "Anything you can do, I can do better..."