Wednesday 3 September 2014

Architecture in Renaissance painting: notes from the National Gallery

Portrait of a man in armour /Francesco Granacci (c1469-1543). The landscape beyond his shoulder creates actuality/realness.

Arches, archways, openings and doorways are architectural forms of greetings - and entrances.

Virgin - porta coeli.
Doorways that lead to heaven.
Indoor space is a focus for intimacy.
By 1420. artists began to explore new kinds of interior.
Inventing places was as fundamental as inventing figures.
Nativity/Ercole de' Roberti

Adoration of the Kings/Botticelli

Virgin Adoring the Infant Christ/Andrea del Verrocchio. John Ruskin described this painting as 'an entirely priceless example of excellent painting, exemplary for all time'.

Reading and watching

  • Foot by Foot to Santiago de Compostela/Judy Foot
  • The Testament of Mary with Fiona Shaw at the Barbican
  • The Testament of Mary/Colm Toibin
  • Schwanengesang/Schubert - Tony Spence
  • Journals/Robert Falcon Scott
  • Fugitive Pieces/Ann Michaels
  • Unless/Carol Shields
  • Faust/Royal Opera House
  • The Art of Travel/Alain de Botton
  • Mad Men Series 6
  • A Week at The Airport/Alain de Botton
  • The Railway Man/Eric Lomax
  • Bright Lights, Big City/Jay McInerney
  • Stones of Venice/John Ruskin
  • The Sea, the Sea/Iris Murdoch
  • Childe Harold/Lord Byron
  • All The Pretty Horses/Cormac McCarthy
  • Extreme Rambling/Mark Thomas
  • Story of my Life/Jay McInerney
  • Venice Observed/Mary McCarthy