Giovanni Battista Moroni at the Royal Academy: Getting Face to Face with the 16th Century

Yesterday I spent a spontaneous afternoon at the Royal Academy's Giovanni Battista Moroni exhibition. I didn't entirely know what to expect from it but I had seen some of the works in the National Gallery's collection so from what little I knew I was looking forward to it.

Moroni is one of the 16th century's many underestimated and overshadowed Italian renaissance artists. His lack of popularity must be down to his relatively niche clientele, he worked mainly in the area surrounding his home in Lombardy and he didn't travel as widly as many of his more well known contemporaries. Luckily for his reputation his paintings regained favour in the Victorian era when they appealled to the tastes and romantic sensibilities of collectors including the National Gallery's Charles Eastlake.

The exhibition is a relatively small one in the Sackler Wing but there is plenty in it and it should not be overlooked in favour of the glitzy Allen Jones or the heavy and awe inspiring Anselm Kiefer. The works chosen showcase a good cross section of Moroni's works including some altarpieces and portraits that encompass characters from various walks of Italian society from aristocrats to his most famous work the humble tailor (above).

While the altarpieces are interesting and show how effectively Moroni managed to appeal to his counter-reformation patrons it is of course his portraits that steal the show.

The care and sensitivity with which he treats his sitters is evident from the first room. He is able to capture more than just a likeness of his sitters but to portray something of their character.
We see rich aristocrats that look as though they have the weight of the world resting on their shoulders or who seem thrilled to be exactly where they are in life showing off their wealth and circumstance.

As well as being pscyhologically interesting the paintings are also a sumptuous visual spectacle. One of the features of his paintings is the bluey grey background he often employs. This allows the intricatly detailed costumes to pop of the canvas. We are shown a masterclass in painting the fashionable clothing and jewellery of the day notable examples being the 'boy in pink', the portrait of Isotta Bombatti and the gentleman pictured below in his cosy looking (and very on trend) fur.

I really enjoyed the exhibition and would recommend it to anyone interested in portraiture.

It runs until 25th January and costs £13.50 (£12 without donation)

Happy 180th Birthday Édouard Manet hope you are looking forward to the Royal Academy's celebration of your work as much as I am!

The exhibition opens on the 26th.... get booking.
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/manet/about-the-exhibition/
 

Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde - Get it before it's gone

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is really where my interest in art history began. The Royal Academies exhibition Pre-Raphaelite and other Masters: the Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection in 2003 was the exhibition that first left me really wanting to know all I possibly could about the paintings, the painters and the subjects of the works hanging on the walls around me. Since then I have been to lots of other inspiring exhibitions and studied some fascinating periods of art history but I have always maintained a fondness for Rossetti and the gang.

At the age of 13 I was only really able to appreciate the beauty of the paintings, the vibrant colours, the elaborate textures and the incredible natural details. Of course these aspects are all present in this exhibition and the paintings are a feast for the senses particularly the fifth room which focuses upon the groups preoccupation with beauty.

One of my personal faves

But the exhibition does not rest upon it's laurels and merely present a 'beautiful' exhibition, it seeks to reexamine the brotherhood within their context, looking at their interest in science, contemporary theology and concerns with contemporary morals and society and how their paintings, sculpture and decorative objects express these concerns. The exhibition challenges the viewer to see past the beautiful and luxurious images which give the impression of artists merely attempting to paint sentimental scenes and instead presents the idea that the brotherhood were breaking new ground through their engagement with the present.

One of the most interesting aspects of the exhibition for me was the inclusion of painted furniture and stunning tapestries which I had not seen presented alongside the paintings before. It certainly gave you an impression of the breadth of their influence upon British art, particularly the arts and crafts movement. 

This stunning wardrobe painted by Edward Burne-Jones is just one magnificent example of this.

The exhibition was huge and packed with things to see, read and engage with, frankly there are some paintings there that you could stare at for hours and continue to notice details you had missed. The magnificent Lady of Shallot in the final room being an excellent example. I did hear several viewers lament that it was not the more famous John William Waterhouse representation of the Tennyson poem, however I found myself almost preferring the drama of Holman Hunts work lesser known work, the billowing red hair, the chaotic floor, the vibrant colours and the thread from her weaving strewn around her. Don't know what you think?

The Lady of Shalott John William Waterhouse

The Lady of Shalott William Holman Hunt

But the details I think shouldn't be missed, and most often were, were the poems engraved on many of the paintings frames. Reading these, often written by the artists themselves, gives you a new insight into the painting and the wider work of the brotherhood.

It has taken me woefully long to get to this exhibition between getting back from traveling and the chaos of working in retail during Christmas so if you read this and it peaks your interest then get down there quick as the exhibition ends on the 13th. The galleries advice regarding tickets for the last days is that the advance booking tickets are sold out but that they can be bough on the door on the day (in the morning to avoid disappointment). If you are reading from Russia then lucky you as the exhibition is traveling to Moscow's Pushkin museum in July of this year.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/pre-raphaelites-victorian-avant-garde

Tatlin's Tower

Pop in to see the Large Model of The Monument, to the Third International otherwise known as Tatlin's Tower, in the courtyard of The Royal Academy of Arts. It is exhibited there as part of the Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935 exhibition.

This model represents a small scale example of a work of architecture envisaged by Vladimir Tatlin but never completed. It is an incredible work of fantasy expressing the avant-garde context in which it was created. It comprises an intertwined metal framework with three rotating geometric forms, the lowest one being a cube which would have been used for a variety of events and would have completed a single rotation over the period of a year.

This structure would probabaly have been for all intents and purposes unbuildable as well as totally impractical but the opportunity to see the model at least gives us a framework with which to imagine how incredible it would have looked! Especially when you consider that it would have been 400 metres tall making it over twice the height of the Gherkin in London!

As the Tower is in the courtyard of the Royal Academy it is open to the public for free and is worth having a nosy at.

Also bear in mind that the Degas Exhibition ends on the 11th, if you want to go and see this exhibition it might be worth booking as the show has been very popular!

For a review of the Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935 exhibition visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/oct/30/soviet-architecture-royal-academy-review?INTCMP=SRCH