National Gallery- Trafalgar Square, London Diaries

5th March, 2016 @ London - the city known as the epicentre of the British empire and their culture and heritage houses some of the common era's oldest educational and historical places. In the first part of the London diaries, I will take you to the Trafalgar Square which is home to The National Gallery- the place where the work of mankind's most eminent artists come alive. Open to the public since 1st May, 1844 the square commemorates the great battle of Trafalgar where the British emerged victorious against the Spanish and the French forces.

Trafalgar Square viewed from the National Gallery

The towering Lord Nelson's column- the hero of the war

Yoda theatrics

King George IV statue erected in 1843

The statue of Major General Sir Henry Havenlock reminded me of the history of Indian struggle for Independence as he was the commanding general in the British retaliation against the first Indian revolt of 1857. On the back side of the plinth is engraved with the names of the regiments which took part in the war like the Bengal artillery, Madras Fusiliers (now Madras Regiment) and the Ferozepore Regt. of Sikhs which exist even to this day although as a part of the Indian army.

Back side of the plinth

As I looked around for other historic buildings in the vicinity, I couldn't miss the beautiful St Martin-in-the fields church built in 1726 which is the best known work of Scottish architect James Gibbs.

Finally it was time to make my way inside the National Gallery as the mere thought of entering the world of artists was giving me goosebumps already and not wanting me to wait even a breath longer!

The Gallery was divided into four zones with each zone representing the exhibitions of different era's of artistic excellence and their cultural and historical influences starting from early renaissance 13th to 15th century where most of the paintings were made in devotion to the church and also the start of realism to the 20th century paintings of the post-impressionism era.

A Pagan Sacrifice, 1526 by Garofalo

(Oil on canvas)

The painting depicts a mysterious ancient rite described in a popular romance called the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Dream of Polyphilus), published in 1499. It is a representation of pagan sacrificial rites in general which were popular before the rise of Christianity and Catholicism in Europe.

The paintings of Infant Christ surrounding Virgin Mary and the Saints

Garofalo (About 1481-1559) The Agony in the Garden, about 1520-39 (Oil on Canvas, transferred from wood)

Christ prays in the garden of Gethsemane, near Jerusalem. Above an angel holds a chalice and a cross, in reference to his coming sacrifice. The three disciples who joined him in his vigil lie asleep, unaware of the Judas approach with the Roman soldiers who will arrest Christ. (Matthew 26: 36-47)

Garofalo's The Vision of Saint Augustine (About 1520)

Ortolano (before 1487-after 1524) Saints Sebastian, Roch & Demetrius, about 1520 (Oil on Canvas, transferred from wood)

Sebastian is bound to a tree stump. His body is pierced by arrows although his elegant pose does not imply that he is in pain. The quiver in the foreground alludes to his martyrdom. Saint Roch stands to his left along with his pilgrim staff and a flask. On the right is Demetrius, a Roman officer martyred for his zeal in converting pagans. 

Dosso Dossi (active 1512, died 1542) Lamentation over the body of Christ, about 1515-20 (Oil on Wood)

The three Maries weep over Christ's crucified body. The three crosses are visible on the distant mountain of Golgotha. The crown of thorns and the dice thrown by the soldiers for Christ's clothing lie on the foreground. The anatomical distortions and the crude painting style make this representation of physical suffering and grief extremely disturbing.

Garofalo's An Allegory of Love

Paolo Veronese An Allegory of Love- Infidelity

Paolo Veronese An Allegory of Love- Happy Union

Paolo Veronese Allegory of Love- Respect

Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) Allegory of Love-Scorn, about 1575 (Oil on canvas)

This painting shows the cupid beating a naked man with a bow. The woman on the far left holds an ermine, which symbolises purity. She escorts her companion away from the man. The painting belongs to the series of the four allegories of love.

Workshop of Titian- Venus and Adonis (about 1555) 

Oil on Canvas

The goddess Venus conceived a hopeless passion for the mortal Adonis. She implied on him not to take part in a hunt in which she foresaw his death. Her pleas were in vain, and Adonis received a fatal wound from a wild boar. This is the studio copy of a painting Titian executed for Philip II of Spain.

Paris Bordone (1500-1571)  A Pair of Lovers, 1555-60 

Oil on Canvas

The identity of the lovers is unknown. They maybe the gods Venus and Mars or possible Chloe and Daphnis, whose eventual marriage was frustrated by amorous confusion, mistaken identity and abduction. Holding pipes in the hand, the woman encourages her lover's advances with the other. Cupid, crowning them with a myrtle wreath, marks their happy union.

Paolo Veronese- The family of Darius before Alexander, 1565-7, Oil on canvas

Following the defeat of Persian Emperor Darius, his mother appealed to Alexander for mercy. However she mistook Alexander for his friend Hephaestion. However, Alexander(in red armour) graciously turned this mistake into both a compliment for Hephaestion, 'another Alexander' and an assurance that he would protect Darius's family.

Jacopo Bassano (active about 1535; died 1592)

The way to cavalry, about 1544-5, Oil on canvas

Christ, beaten by soldiers stumbles under the weight of the cross, watched by the weeping virgin Mary. St. Veronica holds up a cloth to wipe Christ's brow. His image became miraculously impressed upon it. Christ's holiness is emphasised by his detachment from the crowd.

Paolo Veronese- The adoration of the kings,1573

Oil on Canvas

A shaft of light illuminates the Christ child, before whom the three kings kneel in adoration. This stable is built on Roman ruins, symbolising the triumph of Christianity over the pagan order. Joseph(in orange and blue) is unusually prominent. The painting was made for a wall flanking the altar of a confraternity dedicated to Saint Joseph in the church of San Silvestro in Venice.

Paolo Veronese (about 1548)- The conversion of Mary Magdalene, Oil on canvas

Concerned by her sister's spiritual health, Martha takes Mary to the temple to hear Jesus preach. Veronese shows Mary blushing with shame and sunk to her knees as she is overcome by Christ's words. Her fashionably low-cut dress, inappropriate for a visit to the temple, is emblematic of her formerly sinful life centered on vanity and pleasure. Converted by this encounter Mary then turns to a life of piety. The jewellery slipping from her neck foreshadows her subsequent renunciation of worldly goods.
The picture demonstrates Veronese's sophisticated and witty approach to narrative and composition. The inward turning curve or the figures on the right is matched by the outward turning one of the architecture seen through the door in the wall on the left. The men bring our gaze to Mary, anchored in the centre by the two columns. Her attention- and with it, ours- is in turn led to Christ by Martha's pointing hand. His elegant, slightly leaning posture is accentuated by the child disappearing behind the robes of the woman on the left, itself set against the bright exterior by the silhouetted head of a dog. 

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo (about 1480- about 1548)

Oil on canvas
Saint Jerome (about 342 - 420) was the translator of the Vulgate Bible and the chief inspiration for Christian penitents and hermits. He is shown in the desert beating his chest in penitential prayer in front of a crucifix.The naturalistic sky is characteristic of Savoldo, who was particularly noted for his paintings of dawn, dusk and the night. The church in the background may represent SS. Giovanni e Paolo (S. Zanipolo), Venice, near which the artist is reported to have lived in 1532.

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo (about 1480- about 1548)

Mary Magdalene, about 1535-40

Oil on canvas

Jacopo Tintoretto (about 1518-1594)

Christ washing the feet of his disciples, about 1575-80

Oil on canvas
Painted, probably in the 1560s, for the Chapel of the Sacrament in the Venetian Church of S. Trovaso together with a 'Last Supper'.
Before the Last Supper Christ washed his disciples' feet using a basin of water and wiping them 'with the towel whwrewith he was girded'. Peter protested, but Christ observed, 'If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me'. Peter then said, 'Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head' (John 13: 1-9).
Parts of the painting, the figure (probably Judas, who left to betray the Christ) with a torch in the foreground to the left especially, are badly worn.

Corneggio (active 1494-died 1534)

Christ presented to the people, about 1525-30

Oil on poplar

Bronzino (1503-1572)

 An allegory with Venus and Cupid, about 1545

Oil on wood
The picture is likely to be that mentioned in Vasari's 'Life of Bronzino' of 1568: He made a picture of singular beauty, which was sent to King Francis in France; in which was a nude Venus with Cupid kissing her, and on one side Pleasure and Play with other Loves; and on the other, Fraud, Jealousy, and other passions of Love. Venus and Cupid are identifiable by their attributes as is the old man with wings and an hourglass figure who must be Time (not mentioned by Vasari). The identity of the other figures, and the meaning of the picture remain uncertain.
The howling figure on the left has been variously interpreted as Jealousy, Despair and the effects of Syphilis; the boy scattering roses and stepping on a thorn as Jest, Folly and Pleasure; the hybrid creature with the face of a girl, as pleasure and fraud; and the figure in the top left corner as Fraud and Oblivion. The erotic yet erudite subject matter of the painting was well suited to the tastes of King Francis I of France. It was probably sent to him as a gift from Cosimo I de' Medici, ruler of Florence, by whom Bronzino was employed as a court painter.

Jan Gossaert (active 1508-died 1532)

Adam and Eve, about 1520

Oil on wood

Adam, wearing an apron of leaves, and Eve, still naked, stand between the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Adam has just tasted the apple that Eve holds, while the serpent watches from above. In the background is the garden of Eden with the richly decorated Fountain of Life in the centre.

This is one of at least nine painted or drawn compositions of this subject undertaken by the artist; they became progressively more complicated. Gossaert was especially interested in portraying the nude figure; this painting shows the influence of Italian and German art. 

The Virgin and the Child Enthroned with Saints

Jan de beer and workshop

About 1515-20, Oil on wood

The Virgin's throne combines Gothic and Italian Renaissance elements such as statues of putti or winged infants. John the baptist appears on the left shutter with the scene of his preaching in the foreground while the right shutter depicts John the evangelist and his vision on the island of patmos.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

Two Crabs (1889) Oil on Canvas

After his release from the hospital in Arles in January 1889, Van Gogh embarked on a series of still lives, including crab studies. This painting may show the same crab upright and on its back. Parallel strokes sculpt the creature's form on an exuberant sea-like surface.

Vincent Van Gogh

Farms nears Auvers,1890, Oil on Canvas

Van Gogh loved the mossy thatched roofs which he saw near his last home at Auvers, close to Paris. A row of dilapidated farm buildings dominates this picture, made a month before the artist's death. Their shapes are mimicked by the fields and the hills behind. The hasty brushwork and the blank sky suggest that he painting is unfinished.

Sunflowers, 1888, Vincent Van Gogh

Oil on canvas

A Wheatfield with Cypresses, 1889

Vincent Van Gogh, Oil on Canvas

Cypress trees reminded Van Gogh of Egyptian Obelisks. These dark trees were in a wheatfield close to St-Remy mental asylum near Arles where the artist spent a year as a patient. They stand straight and tall in the middle of the wheat and make a strong and deliberate contrast with the receding horizontal bands of the yellow field, blue hills and the sky.

Long grass with butterflies, 1890

Vincent Van Gogh, Oil on canvas

Van Gogh painted this in the gardens of the asylum at St. Remy where he noted, 'the grass grows tall and unkempt'. Single black strokes on top of the patches of bright green highlight the most untidy areas of vegetation. The unusual vista is framed by the white path and a line of trees, which are abruptly cut off from the view at the top of the canvas. 

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses)

About 1894-1905, Oil on canvas

Eleven female figures repose in an imaginary landscape bordered by trees. The forms of landscape mirror the women's sculptured bodies. Cezanne outlines the figures and the main features of the background in blue, heightening the serene atmosphere and suggesting the unity of man with nature.

The master Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
The virgin and the child with St. Anne and St. John- the baptist,
About 1499-1500
Charcoal and white chalk on paper, kept in a dark room and focused by lights.

Francesco Pesellino (1422-1457)
The story of David and Goliath
About 1445-55, Tempera on Wood
This panel tells the story of how David killed the giant Goliath

The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, completed 1475
Oil on poplar
Antonio(about 1432-1498) and Piero del Pollaiuolo(about 1441-before 1496)
Sebastian was a Roman centurion who was discovered to be a Christian. He was sentenced to death by the emperor Diocletian. The arrows failed to kill him, although he was left for dead. The archers echo each other's poses, grouped in pyramid around the saint.

Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the rocks
About 1491-1508, Oil on wood
The virgin holds out her hand above the Christ child. Supported by an angel, Christ blesses his cousin, the infant St. John the baptist, who can be identified by his cross and scroll. The rocky setting may refer to the world at the dawn of the time, or to the desert in which Christ lived after his flight into Egypt, or both.

This painting is the second version of the painting kept in Louvre museum, Paris. Why Da Vinci created two paintings of the same theme is a mystery for many. Louvre museum also holds his other great works like The Last Supper and The Monalisa.

To en-capture and study the entire National Gallery would take months given the numerous works of the greatest artists which it carries within its walls encapsulating the vivid imaginations and richness of their immortal Art. 

That brings us to the end of my visit to the majestic Trafalgar square and the National Gallery. I will be back with my next blog on The British Museum- another 'must have' place on your London itinerary.