Week 3 of Looking at Paintings - History Part II

St Luke at work

Well In some ways I suppose weeks 1 and 2 were a build up to week 3 (which I is kind of inevitable)  but what I'm saying is that London's National Gallery is seriously impressive.

Having spent some time at the Gallery it did cross my mind that the visit could feel repetitive but the truth of the matter is that there's an awful lot of pictures there and even if you so look at some more than once the subsequent time spent looking at them can bring fresh insights.

The chance to be in the National Gallery also means I get to notice other paintings as I move around - like these two, Salome is very confrontational  and the colour (particularly the flesh of Salome) striking - It was painted from the biblical story  of the delivery of the head of St. John the Baptist.
The painting is from about 500 years ago by the painter Sebastiano del Piombo.

We were aging looking at Narrative in paintings and also looked at some works that were originally frescoes but had been removed from the walls the were painted on (like Penelope With Suitors by Pintoricchio -from about 1509).

The second painting around the same time (1520) was not credited to a specific artist but the idea of a 'painting about a painting' I find rather curious - it's called 'Saint Luke Painting the Virgin and Child' -

and the studio was Workshop of Quinten Massys- Massys is an important figure in the Flemish art world.
(St Luke is traditionally the saint associated with painters.)

The Group looks at Perseus turning Phineas and his Followers to Stone

 We also looked at paintings from Titian's Workshop and The Death of Actaeon from Titian but the picture I was most thrilled with was Luca Giordano's Perseus turning Phineas and his Followers to Stone, this is a later painting (from the 1680s) and is ostensibly of a theatrical production - but shows much more.

Salome (1510)  by Sebastiano del Piombo