Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Two interesting art exhibitions

For those who love art, there are two current exhibitions both in Madrid and London that you may like: 


- "Leonardo da Vinci, painter at the court of Milan" at the London National Gallery : this is an exhibition of some of Leonardo da Vinci´s most important works, painted when he worked for Duke Ludovico Sforza in Milan at the end of the 15th century. Visitors will be able to see nine Leonardo´s most important paintings in the same place. One of the most interesting aspects of this exhibition lies on the possibility of comparing the two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks (the one that belongs to the National Gallery, recently restored, and the one that makes part of the Louvre collection). Here you have two links, where you will find some of the paintings you analyzed last year, such as The lady with an ermine:


- "The Hermitage in El Prado": this exhibition offers the possibility of visiting 120 works of art of Saint Petersburg´s Hermitage Museum. The Russian tsars started an art collection that includes works of art from different periods. If you go to Madrid, you will be able to visit some Caravaggio, Titian or Velázquez ´s paintings never seen before in Spain. The exhibition also includes some sculptures, such as the terracota study made by Bernini before sculpting his Ecstasy of Saint Theresa. This is also a unique opportunity of watching some paintings of the 20th century in El Prado. Here you have some more information about the works of art on display: 



Tavern scene or The Luncheon, Velázquez


The Lute player, Caravaggio




Ecstasy of Saint Theresa (terracota model), Bernini

If you go to Madrid, don´t miss the opportunity of watching these and other masterpieces.

6 comments:

Laura Meco said...

Oh! Last year we went to el Prado, but we couldn't see any of these paintings and esculptures! We made a mythological route. If I go there again, I'll try to visit these masterpieces.

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Last Saturday there was a very interesting report on "Informe Semanal" about El Prado exhibition. Here you have the link:

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/informe-semanal/informe-semanal-hermitage-prado/1242031/

And here you have another link related to El Prado and its visitors. It´s a project of a video artist called Francesco Jodice: He focused his attention on the people who observe the paintings and their reactions about them. The video is short and very interesting, because you can observe details of the paintings impossible to be watched in the museum:

http://www.elpradoporfrancescojodice.com/#/pelicula

I´ve seen it three times as a trailer in the cinema. I hope you like it.

Alejandro Torrillas said...

Hi Paqui!
I watched this new on TV. I think I listened that is the first time that many of these works of art go out from Saint Petersburg's Hermitage museum to an exhibition in another museum.
Bye!

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Yes, Alejandro. These are unique works of art and it´s very difficult to convince the curators of the museums to give permission to send these paintings and sculptures to other museums. But this is one of the activities included in the Spain- Russia Year. Some paintings of El Prado were in the Hermitage Museum from February to May. Here you have a link about this past exhibition:

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/04/2011/hm4_1_271.html

It was a complete success:

http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20110531/prado-hermitage-muestra-mas-vista-historia-del-museo-ruso/436028.shtml

And the same is happening with Leonardo´s exhibition in London: the tickets are sold out since some weeks ago. People love art.

If you have time, have a look on the link about Francesco Jodice´s project: it lasts 3 minutes and it´s beautiful to observe people watching masterpieces.

Unknown said...

i think davinci had the idea of oil on wood as the interpretation of him finding a synthetic man made oil possible acrylic of tree or even somthing to do with rice

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Thanks for your comment, Anne. Içm not an expert in Leonardo Da Vinci. I´m only a Secondary School teacher, but you may be right. Leonardo liked testing with different materials.