Contrary to appearances, The Universal Cabinet is not always dipping into a European minibreak. (I wish.) But a recent bank holiday meant that the airline special offers were winking at me and so we were off to Valencia. More posts to follow, but in short lots of honey/gold-coloured stone churches give the old town a mellower view of the Gothic than those of us used to Northern Europe are familiar with.
With the cathedral, the sun-drenched atmosphere is underlined by the bleached-white, limestone sculptures flanking the main door and the fact that the entrance court (embraced by these undulating railings) is a mini sun-trap, even early in May. In mid August it must feel like a 5 metre square frying pan…
A reminder of how much art was commissioned by royalty in ages past – most of this exhibition is from the royal collection. Holbein’s drawings, apparently so easy but in fact carefully crafted on pink-washed paper, with chalks, ink and watercolour, leap from the page.
The direct observation reminds us of photographs and these wheeler-dealers and young men so pleased with themselves therefore look like mid-Victorians (and not just because the unfortunate hairstyles appeared in the 1850s again, or the early Tudors’ fondness for dodgy beards).
In other cases, the slightly bleared eyes of old age (here Thomas More’s father, a judge himself) reminds you of an Edwardian politicians after the port – or a golden and black sketch of an arts and crafts heroine about to sweep to dinner in her best dress.
The grand piano suddenly thundered out. The sounds of a sad waltz drifted through the wide-open windows and everyone suddenly remember that outside it was spring, an evening in May, and they smelt the fragrance of the young leaves of the poplars, or roses and lilac.
Long term readers will remember my delight in finally reading AS Byatt’s brief biography of Mario Fortuny. (I said it before, and I’ll say it again: HOT.)
Mario in late middle age. He also rocked a beret in his 20s if that’s your cup of tea.
Well, I managed to visit his former home and showroom last month and…I want to move in. Perhaps predictably for a man who was heavily into a bit of velvet brocade, it’s one for the maximalists.
Last one! (Maybe??) And a final, by now quite belated, throwback to Florence. A lot of April was spent working, tbh, even if that involved travel to various places and so I don’t have a huge amount of discoveries to report. It also means that Instagram is *very* much a highlights reel and there’s a lot I’m still catching up on from, er, late March.
However, May and June involve more time with friends, which is always lovely, and also means lots of fun plans that are guaranteed to get me out of my rut. Coming up: a book talk with Caroline Eden, silent films and a trip to Regent’s Park theatre with friends, a family celebration and a visit to the V&A tropical modernism exhibition.
Anyway, back a step to last month and a hasty trip to the Barghello one Sunday in Florence. It’s not always open on Sundays, and back when we visited in November and I was going down with the start of what was an ear and throat infection that would knock me out for most of the next 6 weeks but didn’t know it yet, and just felt tired and incredibly grumpy, we managed to get there literally in time to see them close the doors in our faces. Having now been, that was probably a blessing in disguise.
Even with *half* the museum shut for restoration, a couple of hours felt like the amount of time needed for a visit – and it was a couple of hours well spent. Getting to see a Donatello, or a Giambologna, or a Michelangelo up close was an almost physical experience, and I hadn’t expected the rooms and rooms of medieval and pre-medieval ivories, the heraldic shields or the floor of Della Robbia plinths either. Visiting when ill would have felt awful and instead here is a handful of the things I enjoyed most.
Sorry / not sorry. I’m reading mainly re-reads at the moment (and enjoying them greatly), although there is a new to me author appearing shortly, so my main inspiration is visual right now. And by visual: I mean art.
So, here’s some modern art currently hung amongst the core collection at the Accademia in Venice. It’s a cross-border collaboration (sob BREXIT sob) between Venice and Berlin, and I presume that some pieces have therefore gone the other way.
As this is basically a “grown up” version of what I like to do with my postcard wall, juxtaposing different eras and styles, often through a subject matter or colour palette, I was hooked obviously. There weren’t quite as many pairings as I’d hoped but of the two it was generally was the moderns that grabbed me and acted as a palette cleanser for the Peggy Guggenheim I was on my way to see.
Mar 14 Chaffinches sing but in a shorter way than in Hants
Mar 15 Mrs Snooke was buried
Mar 17 Brought away Mrs Snooke’s old tortoise, Timothy, which she valued much, & had treated kindly for nearly 40 yrs. When dug out of its hybernaculum, it resented the Insult by hissing.
Mar 18 No turnips on the road. Green plovers seem on the wing.
Mar 20 We took the tortoise out of its box & buried it in the garden: but the weather being warm it heaved up the mould & walked twice down to the bottom of the long walk to survey the premises
Mar 25 Sowed carrots, parsneps, planted potatoes. Ground works well. Tortoise sleeps.
Mar 28 The tortoise put out his head in the morning
Mar 30 The tortoise keeps close
Reverend Gilbert White, the naturalist’s journal
For those in the U.K. I hope you have some nice plans and an easy start to the day.
If you’re wondering what to do with your day off, scrubbing the bathroom, filing your paperwork and emailing that builder / therapist back *may* be the answer (after all, the point is to do something that you don’t usually have time for – and if this kind of day clears the next month of weekends then it is WELL worth it). However it may very much not be, in which case get thee to an art gallery (or a film, or the box office for your local theatre company and buy those tickets you’ve been thinking of) and if you’re not in London then hop on what’s left of the trains and get into town.
The NPG has an excellent exhibition of modern black artists – all “portraits” in the sense that they centre the human form, but sometimes individuals – even self portraits – and at other times archetypes. It’s one of the best exhibitions there’s been since the Lubaina Himid retrospective and it’s only on till May 19 so if you’re planning a late May bank holiday visit you’ll be too late. If you’ve already seen this – well done, and what about the Entangled Pasts show at the RA?, which also features some of Himid’s work?
One of the reasons I went to Venice at the end of my recent trip (beyond the fact I couldn’t resist when I realised that I *could* do it in a day), was to see the Guggenheim collection.
It’s become a modern legend, and is a favourite visiting spot for a couple of my friends, so never having been I hot-footed it there after lunch. It’s almost at the end of one of the vaporetto lines, and as you leave you have the most beautiful views of Santa Maria della Salute, one of the most recognisable sights in Venice and perched on the edge of where canal meets open water.
Inside, there’s modern art on every wall – in the dining room around a surprisingly narrow bench-like table, in a side room where deep blue Murano glass miniatures of Picasso sculptures filtered the light, or in the room that overlooked the Grand Canal and a Marino Marini (remember him from Florence last year?) statue of a rider and his horse.
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