Happy New Year

By London Bridge.

River Thames, midnight recently.

“Giotto’s genius blooms afresh in Padua”

I would love to share a wonderful article by the historian Robin Lane Fox.

In “Giotto’s genius blooms afresh in Padua” (The Financial Times), he writes about “Joachim’s Dream” by Giotto di Bondone:

Restoration of the biblical frescoes in the Scrovegni chapel reveals the Italian painter to be not just the maestro of human gesture and form but a brilliant botanical artist as well.

Giotto was born in Tuscany. He was active from the 1290s until his death in 1337, not only as a painter but as an architect too, designer of the base of Florence’s multicoloured bell tower beside its cathedral. Modern critics like to decentre famous names and discover neglected talent among their contemporaries. Giotto was a genius, so much so that they tend to skirt around him. I have just checked what Kenneth Clark had to say about him in his wonderful BBC series, Civilisation, first broadcast in 1969. In episode three, Giotto, he declared, “ is one of the supreme painters of the world”.

Wearing a neatly pressed suit with a folded handkerchief in his top pocket, Clark spoke in the Arena chapel in Padua. In early October I stood there too, handkerchief-free in sagging trousers. Clark dwelt on some of the paintings that most captivated me, but said nothing about the items I have learnt to value. He presented Giotto as a master of human gesture, form and painted drama. Indeed he was, but Clark did not say that he was also a master artist of plants.

‘Joachim’s Dream’ Giotto painted borage, chives and a spiny thistle.

I had previously thought of Giotto’s landscapes as bare and rocky, unlike his lively human figures. His Nativity scene shows Mary lying on her side under a wooden roof and engaging with her baby Jesus, but the setting is a barren hillscape in which angels are bringing shepherds the glad news. However, in his Resurrected Christ, Giotto painted plants around Christ’s feet. The excellent restoration of the chapel’s frescoes has brought out the details. Christ has a laurel bush, a strawberry tree, or arbutus, and plants of parsley and dill behind him and a variety of calamintha under his feet. They are painted with exceptional precision. Some of the leaves on the parsley are yellow, just as in older age.

In ‘Joachim’s Sacrifice’, a goat eats a pink-flowered
clover; nearby is a marigold and a chamomile.

When Giotto painted The Dream of Joachim, father-to-be of the Virgin Mary, he also put in individual plants, this time on a rocky hill; borage, chives and a spiny thistle. When Clark discussed it in close-up, he ignored them. In the previous scene, Joachim’s Sacrifice, Giotto painted a goat eating a pink-flowered plant in the foreground. It is a clover, exactly painted, and around it there is a marigold and another chamomile.

Genius is capable of almost anything in its field: Giotto, I now realise, is a brilliant botanical artist. How and why did he paint particular plants? His Resurrected Christ is the Christ whom Mary mistook for a gardener. I do not think that he therefore showed plants behind him. Nor does Maria Autizi, one of the restorers who worked at close quarters on Giotto’s paintings.

Giotto in the Louvre

Huge fan of Giotto. A genius of an astounding ouvre. I’ve already discussed his “Pentecost” at the National Gallery, London.

Below are some of his masterpieces at the Louvre.

His art functions today as it did in his day - tell the story of Christ and Biblical tales - but I find them aesthetically beautiful and appreciate the affected humanism/drama.

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The Crucifixion by Giotto

Jimmy Carter (1924-2024)

President Carter is well before my time, so I only know what I’ve read about him over the years.

I think he was a misunderstood president who occupied the office of the Presidency during a particularly turbulent period - e.g. the Iran hostage crisis and inflation.

He was a dignified man who’s passing reminds us of a time when public discourse was a lot more respectful & dignified. 

Probably, the last decent American president ... and one of the few in recent history NOT to increase his net worth by million after their presidency. That says a lot to me.

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Update: I found this Channel 4 new piece “Jimmy Carter: how he’s eradicating the guinea worm”:

Fra Filippo Lippi - The Barbadori Altarpiece

I love the early renaissance which doesn’t get as much fanfare as its most celebrated superstars.

And among those are Filippo Lippi. He had a pretty scandalous life (as you’ll see below).

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The Barbadori Altarpiece by Filippo Lippi

Incredible altarpiece at the Louvre.

The Mother Mary (about to sit down?) with Christ at her side on their heavenly throne with ecclesiastical worthies.

Filippo Lippi channels Brunelleschi’s architectural style, complete with round arches and grey stone (pietra serena) which the latter was so fond off.

Dimensions and lines on the floor give us a sense of perspective.

The Labour Party - quangocracy or democracy

I’ve just read a fascinating column by Ms. Ella Whelan. It presented a really interesting argument a propos democracy and governance. 

In “For Starmer, the unelected Blob must always rule over the plebs” (Telegraph), she says:

It’s been 177 days since the Labour Government was elected. And in that time, our new Prime Minister and his MPs have set up at least 25 quangos – almost one a week. 

Take the Office for Budget Responsibility, initially set up as a panic response after the global financial crash to provide what was supposed to be independent and transparent analysis. The OBR’s pronouncements are now treated as gospel by many MPs, who quote it as though its staff should write economic policy, rather than politicians who are answerable to voters.

There’s the headliners like Great British Energy, Skills England and the Independent Football Regulator, the niche like the National Cladding Taskforce and School Support Staff Negotiating Body and the quangos to regulate the quangos, like the Regulatory Innovation Office. Pick an issue and it’s almost guaranteed that some Labour MP has come up with an unelected body to advise on it.

All of this makes Labour’s crocodile tears for democratic change in the House of Lords stick in the craw. The recent row over hereditary peers was our Government’s attempt at looking like it cared about the little people.

How dreadful that these earls, viscounts and barons get a say in the legislative process simply by dint of their bloodline. This cheap shot at unelected lords might be true, but it begs the question as to what right any other lord or baroness has to sit on the plush red seats deciding which laws the great unwashed are governed by.

The Labour crusade against the House of Lords is waged on the putative basis of “protecting” or affirming democracy.

And yet, the same party outsources enforcement of certain policies and decisions to these unelected quangos. They’re government-funded semi-public administrative bodies outside the civil service. The OBR (which was mentioned) is a classic case, but the same with the Climate Change Committee.

It seems to me that many, but not all, quangos are created to shift responsibility and blame elsewhere. It avoids or delays a difficult or embarrassing decision to someone else.

Why is “democracy” critical to the House of Lords — but not to the quangonistas?

The Rise of Reform UK

If there were a general election tomorrow, it seems more people would vote for Reform UK than the Labor party.

Just think about: the governing party has fallen to second position among voter preference within only four months of forming a government. That’s incredible.

Why has the government’s honeymoon been so short? Partly lying about their intended tax rises during the campaign, and partly gas-lighting and feigning hysteria about the state of the economy to justify their taxes. Then, there’s being over generous to public sector workers whilst simultaneously depriving pensioners off their winter fuel allowance. General incompetence & dishonesty. As for the conservatives, they messed up almost every policy area over the past 14 years.

Reform UK is, to some extent, a protest vote expressing general resentment by people left behind.

They’ve been able to tap into disaffection about both major parties and resentment among older voters. People are fed up with the mass and/or excessive immigration. Speaking for myself, I think we’re a little reluctant to admit that the UK needs immigration for the National Health Service, among others. So, something like 50% of nurses in the UK come from overseas. People are also fed-up with the culture of intolerance and discrimination in both the public and private sector (i.e. “DEI” in HR-think). For me, I’m sick of the “wokery” in trashing all-and-every aspect of British heritage and culture.

Traditional Labour voters are supposed to be patriotic English men and women who believe in local communities - as opposed to big corporations. The Labour party has, in recent times, drifted so far that’s unclear what they stand for other than just a name for their core vote.

Ultimately, Reform UK has a low ceiling.

The Farage-Trump nexus is off-putting for many off the middle-of-the-road people. There’s also a difference between opinion polls and actual elections. Finally, Reform UK have unworkable policies. For people coming over by boats, there’s no way France is going to accept them back. Why should they? They’re also a little too anti-environmental. Like the Green Party, I think they offer simplistic solutions to highly complex problems.

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah from London

St Nicholas Church in Tooting.

Wish all of you, who celebrate, a very Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah and all Holiday Season joy.

“Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” at the National Gallery - Pt 3 Which are you favourites?

Note: This is the 3rd final part of my personal write-up of the London National Gallery’s Van Gogh exhibition. See here for Part 1 and Part 2.

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Sunflowers - 1888 (London)

Incredible.  So uplifting and cheerful .

Photos doesn’t do this painting justice. It was part of a series of on a beautiful everyday subject that Van Gogh found alluring.

It looks like a simple painting (and it is) - but there is a life-force and meaning behind it - which I think is why people are drawn to it.

I believe this particular one was painted for Gauguin? (who really admired it). They reflect a warmth in Van Gogh’s yearning for companionship in Arles, which he called “the Japan of the South.” It feels happy.

Van Gogh sculpted these sunflowers out of paint. They protrude off the canvas and the petals are in different stages of wilt and decay.

The texture of the seeds is just magical.

I’m fascinated by the smidgen of reflective white.

Why emblazon the vaze with his forename: emphatic pride?

Beautiful long dash-like brushstrokes for petals.

Heavy thick seeds of various colours spiralling within the flowers.

Christopher Hitchens great talk on Free Speech in Canada

I like Christopher Hitchens and his brother Peter.

He died today (15th December) 13 years ago - 2011.

I found this excellent talk he gave in Canada on free speech.

He didn’t live long enough to deal with cancel culture, online censorship (The Spectator), and (in England) the rise of “Non-Crime Hate Incidents” involving something like questioning an identity which the police determine is motivated by hate as a quasi crime.

The Hannah Arendt Square in the 19th Arrondissement of Paris

While visiting Paris, I was staying in the Hannah Arendt Square.

This I really appreciated.

I like her a lot, but she was v. much a product of her time.

Her political thought is very important; but her work vis-a-vis the Holocaust and the “banality of evil” (in her exposure to Eichmann’s trial) was more of an accident.

“Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” at the National Gallery - Pt 2

Note: This is the 2nd part reviewing London’s NG’s Van Gogh exhibition. See Part 1.

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Room 3 — “The Yellow House: An Artist’s Home”

The third theme of the exhibition concerns his time in Arles.

Arles was a tiny little town in Van Gogh’s day. Literally, a few houses and a railway line. The yellow house (below) was rented by van Gogh in early 1888. By September, he had bold plans to turn it into a modest “artist’s home” and commune for his artist friends from Paris. He used his major paintings as decoration for the house.

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Starry Night Over the Rhône - 1888

Awesome.

Quite possibly, my favorite painting of his. 

That’s the constellation of Ursa Major over the River Rhone at Arles.

The canvas overwhelms the senses with its immersive beautiful serene atmosphere.

As van Gogh explained:

“And it does me good to do what’s difficult. That doesn’t stop me having a tremendous need for, shall I say the word — for religion — so I go outside at night to paint the stars, and I always dream a painting like that, with a group of lively figures of the pals.”

 The vivid colours illuminating the painting.

Blog Name Change - TheGalleryMeerkat.blogspot.com

Hello bloggers,

After a few years of having an obscure name for my blog & URL; I’ve decided to “upgrade” it to something more catchy and a bit more “me”.

Later today, my blog will be under the new name of:

thegallerymeerkat.blogspot.com

Squirrel photobombing a couple 😃

Same past posts, same content, same “character”, same blog followers ... just new name/URL.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

If you could change links and RSS feeds, would appreciate it.

Finally, big thank you for recent feedback and continued interest in the things I write about. 😉

Changing blog title & address - your opinions

Hello bloggers,

Please give me some feedback.

For some time I’ve wanted to change the “jeeveshat” title and blog address.

Jeeves is part of the P.G. Wodehouse stories, which isn’t what this blog is about.

Q1) Should I change the blog title & address?

Yes/No.

Q2) Idea to buy my own domain? - so doesn’t have “blogspot.com” at end?

Yes/No.

Q3) Which of these titles/addresses are the best ones (let’s say top 2)?

TwistedArtBlog

AngloArtBlog

WalkInArt  - a bit pretentious? 

LiamsArtBlog

OnceAMonkey

ArtVulture - my favourite, short and snappy, and I like the vulture image.

MonkeyArtBiz

OTHER ........

Q4) Colour scheme - thinking of changing blog theme from green to blue?

Yes/No.

Q5) Current blog post font size - is it too big?

Yes/No. 

Q6) Any other blog changes you think would be good?

...