National Gallery Page #13

And that brings you to a different problem.

What happens... He used tinted varnishes,

which we know existed

from Pliny's time in antiquity.

Cos he would have thought,

"Oh, that bit's now too bright."

- Yes.

- And if we clean them all off,

we think we're very scientific,

we strip all the varnish off,

and so we destroy any of that evidence.

Even when we find original varnish, we tend

to get very excited and take them off.

And so that's something we'll never know,

how much the artist toned it back.

But you can see in this painting...

I think the painting's much finer over here.

If you come here, see,

he's just done zigzags.

- Hasn't bothered...

- Yeah.

To do any real modeling at all.

Cos he knows this is the dark corner.

And he also knows it's above your eyeline.

And so you see these differences...

And he also knows the window

lets in the breeze,

so he's made the candle blow from the left.

Yeah, that's quite...

So you lose all that.

I mean, context is almost kind of crucial

for a painting like this.

And you read a lot of rubbish because

people say it's above a fireplace,

oh, it's the flickering firelight.

If you actually look at a firelight,

it doesn't reflect back.

The thing that light reflects off is floor.

And so, I mean, if this was a palace,

for instance,

and we can try it when we go to a

banqueting hall and switch off all the lights.

You know, how much light do you get

from the windows bouncing off the floor,

and illuminating the ceiling.

And you can test it... The only place I know

it really works well is Palazzo Barberini.

- Anyway, thank you very much.

- Yes.

See you.

See you.

Do you want the light?

Please.

Yeah, it's not doing...

Aaah. Not that square. Not that square.

- The Titian cuts across here.

- OK.

- So this would... This would be one wall.

- Yeah. Right, I get it.

So it's... it's 'within that... within that space.

So it's not a very big...

How far do you have

to be from the paintings? What...

- The barrier there.

- Oh, that's just the barrier.

- Yeah.

- And what is the barrier?

- It's...

- It's just a little...

It can be up for grabs, but it would be like...

probably like a rope...

- Yeah.

- Thing.

- OK. I think it's fine, space-wise.

- Yeah?

I don't think it's a problem.

What's the floor like?

Erm... it is concrete,

with wood over the top.

But maybe you could put

some vinyl or something'?

- Well...

- Actually, this is the floor.

- Shall we have a look at the floor?

- Yeah. It's concrete underneath.

It's oak, I think, over concrete.

I mean, I think we just have to look

at the visual aesthetic of the thing

to be in front of the Titians.

I just think, if you put

a floor intervention on there,

it might look a little bit... artificial.

- And actually...

- Yeah.

If it was Ed, you could

ask him if you would dance on that.

- As a question. So...

- Yes. OK.

Or Carlos. It's a question.

Would you mind...

- Dancing on that?

- Yeah, and they would have a point of view,

- and we'd respect it.

- Yeah. OK.

But I think the question

would have to be asked.

I don't think it'd be a problem.

They won't be doing massive...

- They're not...

- ...jumps and leaps...

- Even Carlos.

- Well, not in here, no.

- Yeah, even Carlos! Yeah...

- OK.

But I think, you know,

putting just dance floor...

- Like, a lino's no use.

- It's no use.

You'd have to build a sprung floor.

Then you get a whole other...

- That would be...

- ...dynamic.

If you come to a gallery

to dance in front of the Titians,

- that's the nature of the event.

- OK.

So one has to find what would

be the most appropriate thing.

Woman) OK.

So, good morning, everybody.

And thank you so much

for coming this morning.

'Titian called these works

something special.

He called them poems, "poesie".

And that was the first time

that an artist had referred to his works

in a way comparing himself

to the intellectual capacity of poets,

of poets of the ancient times.

And, of course, Titian's favourite poet,

who he was very familiar with,

and was able to read in the many

wonderful vernacular translations

that were circulating at that time,

was Ovid, who, of course,

was a Roman poet,

and who wrote the wonderful

Metamorphoses.

Ovid told these tales of the gods

from the Greek pantheon

with such a mixture of humour and levity,

and, at the same time,

acknowledging

the tragic elements of the...

of human beings son of tangled up

in the loves and affairs of the gods.

And it was these subjects that

Titian chose to send to Philip.

And I now just want to look at the picture

and see all the different tools

that 'Tahitian has used

to bring the story to life

and to make us really feel

all sons of different, conflicting emotions,

just as Ovid did.

And I think the reason

that Tahitian loved Ovid so much

was that he was tragicomic, yes,

but he was also a poet

that really used words

in a very, very visual way,

whereas Wan was a gainer

who could conjure up poetry visually.

And that's why,

in this famous letter to Philip,

he called these works poems.

And I think that as we sit there

and feel that lyrical quality emanating forth,

that we can understand why that was

and why they're still called

"poesie" to this day.

Today's ten-minute talk

is on Michelangelo's Entombment,

this large painting behind me.

This is quite an extraordinary example

of the National Gallery's collection.

I don't know if any of you were looking at it

and thought that it looked a bit odd.

There are some

really quite unusual features in this painting.

It's perhaps not the most typical way,

for example to represent the subject.

And also, well, I suppose what I most notice

about it is its unfinished stale.

That's quite a curious aspect

of what's going on.

I don't know what you think, but for me,

it's really great to have

mysteries and questions

hanging over paintings

that are 500 years old,

because sometimes,

we tend to look at them

and think because they're 500 years old,

we know everything

there is to know about them.

And, of course, that's not the case,

and every single one of us,

as an individual,

brings a different story

to a painting like this,

and sees something different.

I absolutely do see someone texting

on a mobile phone.

Of course, that's probably not

what everyone else sees at all.

But that's actually what can help

keep these paintings alive for us,

the mystery around

what the artist had intended,

because it's not always

completely obvious.

I'm going to stop there. If you do want

to ask questions, please do.

Something all artists are interested in

is how painting can kind of freeze reality.

So someone who died a long time ago

is still here, looking at us.

This lobster, which existed a long time ago,

which now doesn't exist at all,

of course, is here, preserved.

The amazing preservation, and here it is.

The drinking horn still exists.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes