Category Archives: Bronzino

Has the National Gallery gone off the boil?

Lamentation

You have to go all the way back to the Rembrandt the Late Works exhibition in October 2014 to find a stand out exhibition at the National Gallery. What’s followed since then hasn’t been devoid of interest, but is it as interesting as the current Vermeer at the Louvre? Certainly not. This ultimately is the National Gallery’s immediate peer group and the type of exhibition it will be judged against.

Having been severely underwhelmed by the Australian Impressionists, I had high hopes for Michelangelo and Sebastiano. Continue reading Has the National Gallery gone off the boil?

Topping the list: Is the National Gallery of Art really the best in the world?

National_Gallery_of_Art_-_West_Building1.jpg

I’m a serial lover of lists, especially those about art and art museums around the world. A few years back I read a ‘Worlds 50 Best Art Gallery’s’ feature in The Times and thought that I needed to do more to get around them. I kept the paper and I’ve annotated each entry with the date I visited so far managing 29/50 in almost four years. You can read the feature (even if you aren’t a subscriber) on the following three links.

There are many other lists out there: Trip Advisor even has its own crowd sourced version, the Independent has a particularly good list of the UK and the Telegraph has a decent one on a largely European city basis. You can even do the online equivalent of rating yourself using this link. I make the top 1% Continue reading Topping the list: Is the National Gallery of Art really the best in the world?

If you could take away just one thing from… Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)

Maria-Theresein-Platz, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

The Kunsthistorisches Museum or KHM, as it’s known to locals, is an absolute must on any trip to Vienna. Its collection is a superb treasure trove of art to rival the worlds very best. The building itself is in my humble opinion the most beautiful major museum in the world. I’m not trying to do down either the Louvre or the Hermitage (both are beautiful), it’s just that the KHM edges them out. Continue reading If you could take away just one thing from… Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)