Allow plenty of time to see this stunning, superb mega-blockbuster exhibition that will have you enthralled for hours. THE GREATS– MASTERPIECES FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND is part of the Sydney International Art series.
This exhibition represents one of the most significant collections of Old Master paintings ever seen in Australia and features over seventy paintings and drawings from a time span of over four hundred years.
Aside from two works, this is the first time these paintings have been seen in Australia. The exhibition features the works of major artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, El Greco, Gauguin, Boucher, Cezanne, Velasquez, Monet and Vermeer.
This is a huge, sprawling exhibition, elegantly laid out and displayed. Make sure to examine the numerous drawings included and beautifully displayed throughout the exhibition.
The first room includes the oldest work in the exhibition, – the luminous, delicate and fragile The Virgin Adoring The Sleeping Christ Child by Botticelli (c.1485) that is full of beautiful, textured detail. The room also includes Titian’s Venus Rising From the Sea (1520-1525 ) with its feathery brushstrokes, and Veronese’s (1580’s) swirling, turbulent Venus, Cupid and Mars.
The second room is dominated by Van Dyck’s Saint Sebastian Bound for Martyrdom (c.1620-1621), an absolutely huge painting, with its dynamic composition and billowing red cloak of the soldier. The eerieAn Allegory (Fabula) (c.1585-1595) by El Greco is sensational and this room also contains the Velasquez An Old Woman Cooking Eggs ( 1618). Elsheimer’s The Stoning of Saint Stephen, whilst a small work, is full of busy detail and the swirling use of curved and diagonal composition.
Moving into the third room, our attention is caught by the deceptively clear, simple composition of Vermeer’s Christ in the house of Martha and Mary (c.1654-1655). Vibrant and alive, it resembles a twenty-first century watercolour. This room also holds the luscious, startled A Woman in Bed by Rembrandt (1647) and the glorious, quietly luminous Young Man in Yellow by Jan Lievens (c1630-1631). Alert viewers will note links between the Raphael work and the Rembrandt painting.
The fourth room enables us to sample the delights of the large Boucher triptych- three pastoral scenes that take up close to an entire wall with its delicate exoticism. This room also includes the close to allegorical Watteau work Venetian Pleasures (1718-1719) and the superb, glittering The Plaza San Marco, Venice by Guardi (c1770 -1775).
Sir Joseph Reynolds The Ladies Waldegrave (1780-81) demands our attention in Room five along with works by Gainsborough and Constable. Sargent’s Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1892) is dynamically elegant, and this room also features the iconic Raeburn painting of Rev Robert Walker skating (c1795).
Room six is furnished like The Octagonal Room in The National Gallery in Edinburgh and contains distinctively Scottish works including paintings by Landseer, Wilkie, and Raeburn.
Room seven moves us much closer to contemporary times, featuring several of the major Impressionists including works by Degas, Gauguin, Corot, a shimmering, exquisite Monet, and a dark,ominous Pissarro. This room also includes a sharp, spiky, angular work by Cezanne and a vibrant painting by Seurat.
In an alcove, by itself, is the huge Niagra Falls, From the American Side(1867) by Frederick Church. One can just feel the mist and the water….
An exceptional, riveting exhibition of works that, unless you actually fly to Edinburgh, we would only get to enjoy as reproduced prints in art history books. Required viewing for anyone interested in art and art history. Go see!
THE GREATS– MASTERPIECES FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND is on exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW until 14th February 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment