Week 3 at the National Gallery and Red 161

The third  session with Leslie Primo at the National Gallery was another opportunity to look at works on display that were very much still in the 'Early phase'.

Virgin and child with St John

The works were themed around paintings that used a number of people working together in 'workshops' but attributed to (generally) a senior painter.

The Virgin and child with Saint John by Ghirlandaio clearly showed this approach being part of a fashion for the images of the Virgin, it shows the Virgin as was the custom in a 'different realm'- by the separation that's produced by baby Jesus being on the parapet, aerial perspective is used and the detail around the central figures is impressive.

Adoration of the Kings

The Adoration of the Kings credited to Sandro Botticelli has some features of note although elegant the anatomy of the figures is questionable, ruined buildings provide symbolism - unusually the paintings is in a circular form.


This painting has clear use of mathematical perspective along with effective use of foreshortening  and the Peacock is symbolic of resurrection.  

Quite a wedding gift

Another of the paintings from Botticelli's workshop was Venus and Mars - the painting is another that would have been a wedding gift and is intended to give a 'message' to the bride and groom- it shows Mars sated. A similar painting by the same artist is on show at the Louvre in Paris.

Another picture of note we spent some time looking at was The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian - credited to Antonio  and Piero Pollaiuolo - I was puzzled by the somewhat 'schizophrenic' perspective but the fact that the junior artist paints the main figure (the saint) is also jarring.

Like so many of the paintings it's been reframed through the years and part of the work is missing.

A very symmetrical work with repeating figures

Red 161

Not far from the gallery at a Money Exchange Bureau 

A currency message