National Gallery Page #3

Now, if you like the story of Moses, you

might like to see more stories about Moses.

And there are lots of other storm

about Moses in the National Gallery.

But if you think to yourself,

"I've had it up to here with Moses,

"I'm sick of Moses,

I want to see somebody else,"

there's lots of other stories you might wanna

learn about in the National Gallery.

There are people writing.

There are people eating

and being surprised.

There are people -

you might not believe this -

there's an old man over there

who's being fed by ravens.

There's a raven, a little black bird,

that's giving him his food.

All these amazing stories

in National Gallery paintings for you to see.

This is a portrait

which was commissioned by Henry

lo fulfill another one

of his demands, really,

to, as I say, to son of almost

meet Christina by proxy

through the medium of the portrait,

so that he could decide

whether he wanted to marry her.

So Holbein is dispatched to Brussels

in March 1538.

This is following the death of Henry VIII's

third wife, Jane Seymour.

And Henry is sort of desperately trying

to identify a suitable fourth wife.

Holbein arrives, Hans Holbein,

sent by the King of England,

to paint a portrait

on the understanding

that if it satisfies the King,

she's then going to go over to London

and become the Queen of England.

Henry is said to have fallen in love with it,

and to have been very, very keen

to arrange the marriage.

But that doesn't happen.

There's an anecdotal statement-

we don't know whether this is true -

that Christina herself

said to the English envoy,

"if I had two heads, one should be

at the disposal of the King of England."

So it seems that she herself had a sense

that this wouldn't necessarily

be a good match for her.

And, ultimately, Henry gave up.

This is a very sort of simple picture

in its composition.

The sort of frontal pose

is very deliberate here,

so that Henry could actually sort of see

exactly what she looked like,

no sort of profile view that's hiding

any blemishes or imperfections.

But the use of light

across the features, again,

is very, very subtle

and carefully modulated

so that there's a hint of an expression,

there's a hint of animation in her features.

She seems to be ever so subtly

sort of wryly observing the artist

as she observes him.

And I always feel, looking at this painting,

this portrait,

that this really is a young woman

fully in possession of her faculties.

Very intelligent, squarely facing the world,

and ready for anything

that the world might throw at her.

So I'll stop there and say

thank you very much and goodbye.

How did Leonardo da Vinci start off

with a blank panel and a palette of oil paints

How did Leonardo da Vinci start off

with a blank panel and a palette of oil paints

and create a painting

of such sublime beauty'?

If you just look

at that flower in the comer there,

how did that happen?

It's this wonderful mixture

of observation and imagination.

What was in the artist's...

What was Velazquezs intention

on painting Venus with her back to us,

but with that bewitching look in the mirror?

And how did Stubbs achieve

such an anatomically accurate

representation of a horse?

This painting is huge, so physically,

there must have been great challenges

in painting it.

But artistically, look at the detail,

look at the observation

that the artist was able to represent.

And what was in Van Gogh's mind when

he painted this glorious vase of sunflowers,

with its brilliant use of colour

to convey mood?

Just look at the number of colours

that are in this painting.

It's really yellow and green,

but with this amazing blue stripe through it,

and a blue frame to the vase.

And how does that use of blue, juxtaposed

against that great splurge of yellow,

represent something in the artist's mind?

All of it, really, is about looking,

and about reflecting,

and about learning ways

to decode paintings

and understand what

the artist's intention was.

And however you look at a painting,

whether it's through a very

art historical perspective,

or whether it's through looking at its history

and how it came to be at the gallery,

or whether it's through looking

at colour or form or composition,

this gallery provides you

with wonderful opportunities

to explore the human condition.

And we hope, with Take One Picture, that

it's not just about knowledge and learning.

That's one half of it.

The other half of it is finding your own

creative response to the paintings,

finding ways in which these paintings

have a relevance to you today.

And I think many of you

will go back into your schools

and find a whole myriad of ways

to give your pupils the chance

to do this very same exploration.

No, it's nice to see it up here.

I think that you should make a proposal.

- That it be cleaned.

- Do you?

- Yeah, yeah.

- For... Well, that's...

So just state that it would benefit

from a good cleaning and restoration.

I'm bothered by all the retouching up here.

I'm bothered by all the retouching,

evident retouching,

- in the mantle of the Madonna, of the blue.

- Yeah, yeah. But it...

Which is not nearly so...

- But I do see that.

- Her mouth...

- And also...

- Yeah.

Is this retouching?

Or is ii crazed varnish?

- Crazed varnish.

- Just crazed varnish.

- Similarly, round her mouth.

- Yeah.

Actually, look, that's ground.

That honey colour.

He's dragged the lighter colour

across the shadow.

- Yeah.

- Then there's that little orangey bit.

- That's ground. Absolutely.

- Yes. Yes.

- Yeah.

- Ya.

- Not retouching.

- No.

This is the story

of Samson and Delilah,

Old Testament story, in which we are told

how the Philistines want

to bring down the power of the Israelites.

And, in particular, to break Samson.

So they're going to advance

their secret weapon, Delilah,

and have her seduce Samson

so that they can destroy the Israelites.

So, in a sense, you've got a spy story.

You've got the beautiful spy

going off to sleep with the enemy.

And in the Biblical account,

we're told how, time after time,

she goes to his campaign lent,

all decked up and looking gorgeous,

trying to find out where his strength lies.

Time after time after time, he lies,

but his desire for her becomes so great

that, bit by bit, visit after visit,

he finally tells her.

I want all of you to imagine

that you are a spy,

and that you have been sent

by your people, your tribe, your nation,

to be very nice

and get secrets out of the enemy.

So, first of all, the enemy is the enemy.

But after you've had a drink or two,

a meal, chat with the enemy,

and pretended to love the enemy,

you are beginning to feel differently

towards the enemy.

And what has been pretended...

might become real.

It messes with your mind.

And I think Rubens, who's this painter

of great psychological import,

has realized what's going on

in the mind of Delilah.

She has pretended to,

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