Return To The National Gallery Of Art

The National Gallery of Art and Trafalgar Square are a whole 1.2 miles from our flat, as the horse flies, so, in order to save our strength for art appreciation, we usually take the bus. (Unless it's a long haul, we generally take the bus anyway, since a) you can look around and see things of interest, b) it is rarely crowded and therefore less of a COVID risk (also far better ventilated than the Tube), c) it is much easier on Vicki's knees, and d) it is cheaper. Just FYI). In our last episode, we had finally finished the Sainsbury Wing and gotten past the crucial year of 1500 and possibly into the era of early modern art. Possibly. It's a pretty fuzzy line actually, lots of chiaroscuro and sfumato going on. The only thing I can think of that happened in the year 1500 was Durer painted his third self-portrait, which is in Munich, not London. Anyway, this day we finally got into the main building and started looking at the numerous 16th century artists represented there...Tintoretto, Veronese, Titian, Holbein, Cranach, etc. FWIW, we are proceeding in accordance with the Great Courses National Gallery (video) lectures of art historian Elizabeth Scallon. She only does a few paintings in each room, but it's still very edifying.

Veronese, Family of Darius before Alexander, 1565; Darius' mom
mistakes Alexander for his friend, Fred...bad form...but Alexander
gallantly excuses her faux pas

Piombo, Jesus Raising Lazarus from the Dead,
1517; Piombo was a close personal bud of
Michaelangelo, aka Mr. Twisty, who did the design,
and, obviously, the twisted figure of Lazarus

Tintoretto, St. George and the Dragon, 1565;
never mind the woman in the blue dress running
off; she was one of his models whom he'd promised
to feature in one of his paintings (according to Vasari) 

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1517; I am slowly coming to 
greater appreciation of Titian

Bronzino, Allegory of Venus and Cupid, 1545;
some weird stuff going on here

Pontormo, Joseph with Jacob in Egypt, 1518; aka The Staircase 
to Nowhere That Helps with Perspective

Titian, Virgin with Suckling Jesus, 1570s; the late
Titian began doing more with the blurry technique,
attributed to Leonardo; also attributed to cataracts,
I submit

Raphael, Portrait of Pope Julius II, 1511; muy
famoso; sorry for the loss of chronological
order; it does not seem to be a big thing in the
National Gallery, and COVID is not helping;
BTW, following a long dispute, it has now
been decided that this is the original and the one
in the Uffizi is the copy (!); decided by a penalty
kick shoot-out

Titian, Portrait of Gerolamo Barbarigo, 1510

Holbein the Younger's Erasmus, 1523; big sleeves
were really big in those days

Holbein the Younger's (French) Ambassadors, 1533; the distorted shiny
thing on the floor is actually...

A skull; not sure what Holbein was thinking; all this was going
on in the court of Henry VIII, and probably not good news for
someone 

Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of a Woman Inspired by Lucretia, 1530;
Lotto is one of our favorites; notice how she commands the
viewer's attention...

Peter Breughel the Elder, Adoration of the Kings,
1564; the child recoils from the ugliness by which
he is surrounded; interesting treatment; see below

Elder Breughel, Landscape with Flight into Egypt, 1563; 
obviously the landscape was more important to the artist than
the story

Jan Gossart, Adoration of the Kings, 1510;
compare with the later Breughel, above; a
Reformation had come along

Workshop of Marinus van Reymerswale, People
with Funny Hats Counting Taxes, 1530s

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Cupid Complaining
to Venus, 1534; there's another version in the
same room

Cranach, Primitive People, 1527