Today was another tubeless day. I actually had something planned that would have involved a tube ride, but it will have to wait. I have an appetite for art that matches my appetite for cheese. I had some yesterday, but I wanted more!
Follow me to New Oxford Street. As we walk along we can lick some windows belonging to unopened shops. We turn right at the Tottenham Court Station left on Charing Cross Road. Charing translates into Chere Reine referring to Eleanor, wife to one of the Edwards—first or third. I know it wasn’t the second. Anyway we stroll down a gentle slope towards the river and Trafalgar Square passing some mighty (but closed) book stores on the way.
The target is the National Gallery, which over looks the fountains and Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square, but we have to wait for it to open, so it’s fun to stroll around and lick windows even in this major tourist area.
I am not sure when a good time is to visit the National Gallery. It is almost always sure to be crowded in summer. My visit coincided with several tourist groups plus about five school visits. Nevertheless, all this can be worked around.
So if any former AP Art History students are reading, this museum is almost like the second semester of the course. It’s all paintings—many of them glorious—some of them apparently exhibited merely because they survived. The Antiquities are all at the British Museum. The National Gallery starts with some wonderful late Gothic Italian and Northern European altarpieces. They MUST be seen in person to grasp the craft, detail, and brilliant colors. The X marks the spot for the Holbein Ambassadors is gone, so I had to ask an attendant where to stand to see the skull.
I could go on and one about what I saw, but here are some things that I liked especially. Some people sneer at my “pretty” taste, but I love the dreamy light of Claude Lorraine, and the clarity of Canaletto. For all its naturalism (Some of my students mistook his work for a photo.) it is not realistic, but a fantasy. His Venice is never overcast. There are no poor, no dirt, and the canals smell fresh. Everything is perfect, poised, and bathed in a clear light that lends serenity to every scene. I know these images of perfection are not real—but it’s nice to dream. I would like to mention that JMW Turner admired both of these artists, and their influence on him can be seen in the luminous works on display here. And I finally found the running hare in Rain, Steam Speed.
Somewhere in there I took a gelato break. You can follow me from Trafalgar Square up St. Martin’s Lane to Long Acre to Covent Garden and down Neal Street to Shorts Gardens. Flavors of the day were coconut and Mexican Chocolate, and, yes, they were divine.
So by the time I had finished saturating myself with art, I was tired with aching feet. The road home lies through Covent Garden. I walked up Endell Street to High Holborn and then home.
I have the Tour de France on. And by the way I am So Cool. VeloNews published one of my comments on their live internet coverage yesterday.
I have eaten lettuce salad with radicchio and tomatoes, and now I am enjoying CHEESE. Do you think that orange stuff at the supermarket is cheddar? Ha! Real Cheddar is mild but complex. The richness of flavor is wonderful. The blue cheese is likewise rich and creamy. The penicillin tang is subtle and simply adds more richness. Mmmm
So on that cheesy note—Cherrio!
I would enjoy a gelato right now! What you say about the light in the Canaletto Venice (whoops, I wrote "Venus" first!) made me think of Turner--and then you mentioned him!
ReplyDeleteSo many things go into what we see in a place... what you write about the Venice painting makes me think of that, too.
Gelato is sublime!
ReplyDeleteI agree that what we bring to a work of art is as important as what it can say to us. It's important to sort out which is which.
I was thinking even in terms of what the painter decides to paint--like focusing on the light, or the architecture, or the people, and, like you said, ignoring or focusing on the dirt or poverty, or who-knows-what-else. What mood is there... all those things.
ReplyDeleteLearning about the artist's intention and how it was carried out was one of the most fascinating things about art history and one of the interesting things about teaching it. All artists no matter what their medium must make choices. Are the choices conscious or not? In the case of the visual artists I mentioned I believe they were.
ReplyDelete