National Gallery

We had a fabulous guide for the National Gallery.  He took us through time from earliest works to most recent and talked about changing materials and techniques.  He told us about how images of women changed based on ideals of beauty at the time, such as during the 1500s, women with high foreheads were considered the most beautiful (some women purposely pulled their hair out at their hairline to extend their foreheads).  Thus they were painted this way in portraits. 

The earliest painting we saw was by Jan van Eck in the 1400s of a  couple getting married.  Van Eck was an early user of oil paints.  You can see the entire room reflected in the mirror behind the couple, and see that others are in the room.  The artist signed the work in fancy script above  the mirror ("Jan van Eck was here"). 

The second painting was Venus and Mars:  Love has overcome War (he is very relaxed, she is alert). 

These four paintings below were a set based on the Elements:  Earth, Sea, Air and Fire.  Each shows the abundance of the earth:  harvested food, fish, fowl, and cooking.  What is particularly interesting to me is the biblical symbols that are in each painting.

Sea:  Jesus calling his disciples from their fishing boats

Earth:  Mary, Joseph and Jesus are crossing the bridge (fleeing to Egypt) and about to give alms to an Anchorite (monastic community member in poverty).

Air:  the prodigal son debauching with ladies of the night in the street market

Fire:  Jesus eating at Martha and Mary's house. 

Early artists used pigment mixed with egg yolk, but these paints dried fast and did not hold colors as well.  Later on they developed oil paints which held color better and dried more slowly, allowing more careful painting.

Our guide indicated that the National Gallery did not have nearly as many paintings as the Louvre, but had more high quality ones.  He also noted that the only British ones were from the 1700s onward, because in all honesty the ones before that simply weren't that good (and hadn't lasted well).  All the paintings in the museum were saved during WWII by evacuating them to a cave in Wales where the temp was cool and the air was dry.  The building was heavily damaged in the war, but no painings were lost. 

This painting was of the queen, commissioned by her, but it did not get a place in the palace becasue in the end she didn't like how it turned out.  Ironically, the artist was allowed to keep it and show it and he became a renowned portraiture artist and the people loved this image of the queen.

The last works we saw were the Impressionists.  The Grenouillers (sp?) "frogs" refers not to the amphibians in the water, but the look of the women in their period bathing suits.