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

Return To The British Museum

Actually, we've returned several times. It's free and open and four blocks away. There's no rush. On this particular day we returned briefly to the Roman/British section, then did the clocks and automatons, then money and coins, then some classical glass and ceramics. After a few hours, we're exhausted and head back to the flat to rest, read, blog, and plan the next day's visits. But we'll be back to the British Museum again. And again.

Remnants of letters home from a Roman army outpost

Passing through a favorite room; carved back sides of Lewis chess
pieces

Another day, another hoard, but this is a special one: just the
jewelry pieces from the Fishpool hoard (more than 1200 coins),
buried after the Battle of Hexham, 1464; things were not going
well for the Lancastrians; largest of Medieval hoards so far 
found in Britain; note particularly the lock and key piece on 
the left, a 15th century "key to my heart" piece Vicki liked

Innards of a late Medieval church clock

Of great interest to us were the automatons: devices that perform
a variety of chores as they keep time: the farmer indicates the time
with his staff, the cow's eyes roll, and at a pre-arranged time, the
milkmaid milks the cow; Polish/German, 1600

Galleon that plays organ music within to
announce the beginning of the banquet,
then sails across the table and fires its guns;
Hans Schlottheim, 1585

Gotta get me one of these

Of course we also learned how pendulums work,
etc.

Next was the room on the history of coins, money, filthy lucre

Ending with contactless payment, as all the Museum's cafes

and shops now require

Among my museum obsessions is to find 
a contemporary depiction, like this, of the Oracle
of Delphi seated on her tripod, hallucinating;
here, however, Heracles is stealing the tripod from
her; Athens, 5th BCE; it's complicated; must keep
looking...

Commerce containers of the classical world

Guide to shapes and uses

News to me of the day: an epinetron, a device that a woman would
place on her leg to protect it while roving wool; Athens, 5th BCE;
I still have to figure out what roving is...

Chaturzange and Thil hoards; Roman, south of France; no end
of hoards

Classical glass, always of interest

Portland Vase, Roman, 15 BCE-30 CE

Case after case of such stuff

Also new: sardonyx, two-tone cameos...early
Roman empire

Houses Of Parliament

Daughter Rachel worked in the US Senate for some years and was sure to see the Houses of Parliament on one of her London visits, and she has since been urging us to visit the Houses too. We did, finally, on August 6, her 10th wedding anniversary as it happened, and have to concur that it's one of the very best things that London has to offer. I'd urge anyone visiting here to do the Houses: much history, much art and architecture, much pomp and ceremony, and civics lessons that we all need to know or be reminded of. For COVID, there were timed tickets and limited numbers, of course, and a simplified route. The tour proceeds using hand-held multimedia devices, with excellent and expandable content, but there are docents in every room, often more than one, quite knowledgeable and quite patient with questions from their American cousins. For the blogger, such as yours truly, there was the minor frustration of not being permitted to take photos beyond the great hall, but then that gave me ever more time to actually look and listen. I'll post my few pix, but then refer the reader to Parliament's fine website and its virtual tour of the Houses, https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/virtualtour/. 

We arrived early enough to stroll around
Parliament Square...my least favorite statue of
Churchill; there's a much better one in one
of the anterooms to the House of Commons,
showing him at his argumentative best

David Lloyd George does not fare much better--
Britain's PM in WWI

"Look, kids, it's Big Ben"--still under wraps, due
to re-emerge later this year

North transept of Westminster Abbey, where we have visited
and attended services

Nearby St. Margaret's, the parish church for locals; also favored

by the Parliamentarians, who were not fond of the high liturgy in

the adjacent building; marriages include Pepys, Milton, Churchill,

Lord Louis, et al.

Parliamentarian #1

Richard the Lion Heart; still don't understand 
what he had to do with Parliament; or scaffolding

Lady Hall of the Abbey

Detail

The stairwell exterior of the British Inter-Military
Group building; caught our eye

Now in the Victoria Tower Gardens, looking at

Burghers of Calais, copy #4,737, wondering what

they had to do with Parliament, or Parliament with 

them, since it was one of the Edwards giving them

trouble; Victoria Tower in the background

Now finally in the Houses of Parliament, Whitehall...this is the
great hall, built by Henry II to impress...largest hammerbeam
roof in the UK, maybe in Europe; site of many historic events

Angelic ceiling ornament

There are plaques all around about who stood where when the

great events took place...my favorite, above, marks the spot

where Charles I stood during his trial for treason in 1649;

he was executed subsequently outside the Banqueting House,

Whitehall

Photography was allowed also in St. Stephens chapel

Not much to picture though

After our tour, a last look and photo; do take the virtual tour!

PS: my favorite, of all the many scenes and scenarios, concerns the Black Rod, appointed by the monarch, head of the House of Lords, who goes to knock on the door of the House of Commons, to announce the presence and call of the Sovereign for her/his annual message and opening of Parliament. The doors are slammed shut, reflecting the reaction to Charles I's invasion of the chamber in 1640, with his bodyguard, to arrest dissident members. No monarch has entered the House of Commons since then. The doors to the House of Commons still proudly bear the marks and scars of the ceremonial knocking over the centuries. One of representative democracy's proudest moments, re-enacted every year.