Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan
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Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan 9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012 Sainsbury Wing and Sunley Room Admission free Sponsored by Credit Suisse 'Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan' is the most complete display of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings ever held. This unprecedented exhibition – the first of its kind anywhere in the world – brings together sensational international loans never before seen in the UK, including 'La Belle Ferronière' (Musée du Louvre, Paris), the 'Madonna Litta' (Hermitage, Saint Petersburg) and 'Saint Jerome' (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome). While numerous exhibitions have looked at Leonardo da Vinci as an inventor, scientist or draughtsman, this is the first to be dedicated to his aims and techniques as a painter. Inspired by the recently restored National Gallery painting, 'The Virgin of the Rocks', this exhibition focuses on Leonardo as an artist and in particular on the work he produced during his career as court painter to Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan in the late 1480s and 1490s. Benefiting from his salaried position, Leonardo had the freedom to explore ways of perceiving and recording human proportion, expression and anatomy and the myriad forms of plants and animals. These investigations fed into his extraordinary paintings: marvellous combinations of the real and the ideal, the natural and the divine. Featuring the finest paintings and drawings by Leonardo and his followers, the exhibition examines Leonardo’s pursuit for perfection in his representation of the human form. As a painter, he aimed to convince viewers of the reality of what they were seeing while still aspiring to create ideals of beauty – particularly in his exquisite portraits – and, in his religious works, to convey a sense of awe-inspiring mystery. The final part of the exhibition features a near-contemporary, full-scale copy of Leonardo’s famous 'Last Supper', on loan from the Royal Academy. Seen alongside all the surviving preparatory drawings made by Leonardo for the 'Last Supper', visitors will discover how such a large-scale painting was designed and executed. For press information and images, please contact the press office at [email protected] or 020 7747 2865 For public information, please contact 020 7747 2885 or [email protected] Frederick Cayley Robinson: Acts of Mercy 14 July – 17 October 2010 Sunley Room Supported by the Wellcome Trust Frederick Cayley Robinson (1862–1927) is one of the most distinctive yet elusive British painters of the early 20th century. This will be the first exhibition of his work to be shown in the United Kingdom for over 30 years. The four central paintings on display are the summation of Cayley Robinson’s artistic ambition. Executed between 1916 and 1920, his masterpiece, 'Acts of Mercy', comprises four large-scale allegorical works commissioned to adorn the new Middlesex Hospital, rebuilt between 1928 and 1935. Combining modernity with tradition to remarkable effect, the artist emulates the spiritual integrity and methods of the Old Masters he encountered in the National Gallery. Alongside Cayley Robinson’s modern works, National Gallery paintings by Piero della Francesca (The Baptism of Christ , 1450s), Sandro Botticelli (Four Scenes from the Early Life of Saint Zenobius , about 1500) and Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (Summer , before 1873) will be shown. … All four works were displayed in the entrance hall of Middlesex Hospital until 2007. Subsequently purchased by the Wellcome Trust, they are normally on public display in the Wellcome Library in Euston, London. After this recent sale, the exhibition offers the chance to reassess Cayley Robinson and his stature, and also track the wide range of sources from which his work derives. … Cayley Robinson’s pictures are almost always of people; denizens of a silent, timeless world. A frequent theme is the care for the young and the old. Essentially a British Symbolist, Robinson created a striking variety of moods and atmosphere in his paintings to evoke complex emotional responses. His work characteristically incorporates a rich variety of altruism and symbolism, but often meaning is reserved, or implicit, creating an aura of mystery or ambiguity. There are symbolic allusions but no clear-cut messages. The exhibition celebrates a British heritage success and provides a timely opportunity to re-examine a little- known yet highly distinctive artist who now seems to stand outside the main developments of British art. Taking the form of a modern allegory or history painting, 'Acts of Mercy' memorably explores the positive forces of the human spirit in the face of destruction. … Press view : 13 July 2010, 10.30am–1.30pm Open to public : 14 July – 17 October 2010 Daily 10am – 6pm, Friday until 9pm Last admission 5.15pm (8.15pm Friday) Admission Free Summation > summary Denizens > citizens The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian completed 1475, Antonio del Pollaiuolo and Piero del Pollaiuolo Medium and support: Oil on poplar Dimensions: 291.5 x 202.6 cm Acquisition credit: Bought, 1857 Inventory number: NG292 Location in Gallery: Room 57 The Florentine brothers Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo were born some 10 years apart and started on different paths. Piero trained as a painter, perhaps with Andrea dal Castagno. Antonio is usually considered the greater artist; he developed design skills which were the basis of the painting and sculpture for which he was famous. Antonio had his own workshop by 1459 and styled himself painter and sculptor. He was, and remains, famous for his work in other media such as designs for embroidery, engraving and enamel-work. His engraving of the 'Battle of the Ten Nudes' was the largest and most influential print of the 15th century, providing models of the male body in action. (…) The picture is composed symmetrically to tell the story taken from the 'Golden Legend' of Saint Sebastian who was sentenced to death on being discovered a Christian. He was bound to a stake and shot with arrows. Here, the six archers have three basic poses, turned through space and seen from different angles. This helps produce the three-dimensional solidity of each figure and together they define the foreground space. The Pollaiuolo brothers were sculptors, and may have made statuettes of the archers. The male nude is central to this picture and the figures - like the landscape - have been studied from life. A number of life drawings by the Pollaiuolo brothers have survived. The landscape takes about a third of the background of 'The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian'. It is remarkable in its rendering of the glimmering river Arno and fading horizon. The tonal changes which occur over the receding landscape have been achieved by the use of oil paint. The painting was placed in an oratory, built by the Pucci family in the 1450s, in the key Florentine church of the Servite order, SS. Annunziata. The Pucci family were Florentine bankers and were on close terms with the Medici family. Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective On View at National Gallery of Art, Washington October 14, 2012–January 13, 2013 Roy Lichtenstein, Look Mickey , 1961 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art Washington, DC—Pop art was defined, refined, and ultimately blown wide open by American artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997). In the first major exhibition since his death, Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective will include more than 100 of the artist's greatest paintings from all periods of his career, along with a selection of related drawings and sculptures. On view in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from October 14, 2012, through January 13, 2013, the exhibition presents Lichtenstein's legacy, including the classic early pop paintings based on advertisements and comic-book, his versions of paintings by the modern masters, and series including Brushstrokes, Mirrors, Artist's Studios, Nudes, and Landscapes in a Chinese Style. Over the course of his career, Lichtenstein's work has been the subject of more than 240 solo exhibitions, the last full survey having been organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1993. (…) The exhibition will be arranged chronologically and thematically, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of Lichtenstein's work. (…) Early Pop: After completing several canvases with identifiable comic-book characters, Lichtenstein moved on to subject matter taken from other forms of printed media, including advertisements, telephone books, and catalogues. Rendered with a limited palette (red, yellow, black, and white), Keds (1961) depicts a larger-than-life pair of sneakers from a Sears, Roebuck, & Co. advertisement; and Cup of Coffee (1961) and Hot Dog with Mustard (1963) are idealized versions of their real-life counterparts. (…) Published by the Art Institute of Chicago, the 368-page fully illustrated exhibition catalogue will become a landmark of scholarship on the artist. Nine essays by leading critics and scholars, accompanied by photographs of the artist and his seminal exhibitions, examine the various styles and subjects featured in paintings created throughout his lifetime. Albert Gleizes Woman with Animals (Madame Raymond Duchamp Villon) , completed by February 1914 Oil on canvas, 196.4 x 114.1 cm Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice 76.2553 PG 17 Albert Gleizes was born in Paris on December 8, 1881. (…) With several friends, including the writer René Arcos, Gleizes founded the Abbaye de Créteil outside Paris in 1906. This community of artists and writers scorned bourgeois society and sought to create a nonallegorical, epic art based on modern themes. The Abbaye closed in 1908 due to financial difficulties. As in a number of his other paintings of this period, Albert Gleizes depicts a domestic interior scene in a self-consciously “modern” style. Here the seated woman is the wife of the sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon.