The Feminine Gaze and Botticelli’s Smeralda ✎

Portrait of a Lady known as Smeralda Bandinelli by Botticelli (1470-1480)

This portrait (at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) always makes me smile.

I think she has a real warmth and presence that jumps right across 550 years.

For its time, this was a radical painting: it’s one of the most early Florentine portrait depictions of a secular woman in a three-quarter pose. If you look at the early renaissance, this kind of painting really marks a shift. For example, Verrocchio, who later trained Botticelli, easily conformed to religious paintings (of the time) in which the Virgin Mary is rendered in three-quarter - e.g. The Virgin and Child with Two Angels at the National Gallery, London. But not an ordinary woman.

Botticelli rendered a level of psychological presence going beyond (even exceeding) those reserved for the Virgin Mary.

I think the pinnacle of this artistic psychological depth and artistic power (with respect to the feminine gaze) was wielded by Leonardo da Vinci:

Portrait of Ginevra de Benci by Leonardo da Vinci

A funny twist to this legend, and which directly ties the Italian renaissance to Victorian London is that Dante Gabriel Rossetti spotted this painting at Christie’s and bought it. It’s connection to the Pre-Raphaelites is quite obvious, I think.

The Lady of Pity by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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At any rate, I was curious to know who this lady was that Botticelli painted.

Thanks to deligent art historians at the V&A it is possible that a grandson or descendant from the Bandinelli family (in the 1600s) added that name to the bottom of the painting way after it was painted. In those days, families would sometimes “forge” inscriptions to older beautiful artworks to claim that their ancestors were noble and important enough to be painted by masters, like Botticelli.

This leaves us with the fascinating reality that she remains a mysterious beautiful lady from 1470s Florence. 

Her very anonymity draws us to searched out the actual person Botticelli captured on the wood panel.

“Caravaggio’s Cupid” exhibition at the Wallace Collection ✎

Earlier this year, I visited the Wallace Collection in London to see Caravaggio’s famous Victorious Cupid (also known as Amor Vincit Omnia), painted in 1601-02.

This was the first time this monumental Baroque masterpiece had ever been seen in public in the UK. I really enjoyed this once-in-a-lifetime display of one of the great masterpieces.

Rating: 4/5 ★★★★

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Victorious Cupid by Caravaggio (1601-1602)

I found this painting both captivating and a bit unsettling.

As I stood in front of it, the tension between classical idealism and raw gritty street reality becomes clear.

Caravaggio painted Cupid. As embodiment of love, he conquers the lute (music), armour (war), a globe (travel), manuscript (learning).

Usually, Cupid was depicted as a soft cherubic being. But, Caravaggio did the opposite. He hired a real street kid from Rome - it was suggested that the model was his lover (Francesco Boneri).

Also, is there something mocking in Cupid’s grin? He knows we want love, or carnality. 😉

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Caravaggio painted heavy sweeping eagle wings with extraordinary plumage and feathers.

The chiaroscuro emphasises his soft & warm rounded fleshiness of cheeks. 

I think Caravaggio’s smile carries a sense of playful, perhaps teasing intimacy.

Pieter De Hooch’s Puzzle Box By Susan Tallman ✎

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This painting and accompanying analysis appeared in The Atlantic (“Look Closer: Pieter De Hooch’s Puzzle Box”) recently.

My thoughts:

I love the sense of quiet dignity surrounding the daily domestic routines (which were central to Dutch self-image) that always inform his work. While the setting is peaceful and charming, the sombre expressions seem out-of-place and probably reflect de Hooch’s & Amsterdam’s emphasis on duty. I love the winding staircase, it skillfully guide’s the viewer’s eye deeper into the painting. There is a yearning to look beyond into the canal houses De Hooch painted just beyond the doorway. 

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Look Closer: Pieter De Hooch’s Puzzle Box 

By Susan Tallman (The Atlantic, August 2026 Issue)

Pieter de Hooch was a contemporary of Johannes Vermeer in the Dutch city of Delft for a time; they painted similar subjects, in similar costumes, engaged in similarly quotidian activities. But they were quite different artists. De Hooch’s 1663 painting Interior With Women Beside a Linen Cupboard delivers exactly as little drama and numinous transcendence as its title promises. (It was formerly called The Good Housewife, which is hardly better.) The intrigue lies elsewhere.

De Hooch’s picture is a puzzle box—an ingenious construction of openings and closings, insides and outsides, revelation and concealment. The sturdy wall behind the standing women with their crisply folded stack of linen is breached in three different places, extending our vista with sudden depth. On the right is a stairway twisting up and out of sight, on the left a window, and in the center a door.

These last two open onto the voorhuis, a foyer punctuated with a second, taller window and another doorway, beyond which we can see a sunlit snippet of the outside world—a bit of tree, the suggestion of a canal, and a building on the opposite side, with its own syncopated grid of windows, doors, and brickwork. (Look again at the spot of sky, diced by overlapping panes of glass, and you might catch a glimpse of the light and structure, the clarity and enigma, of Piet Mondrian.)

Our attention is being endlessly redirected. The brightest things in the picture—that bit of blue heaven and the red-and-white house across the canal—are also the most distant. Meanwhile, the one piece of incipient action is hidden in shadow: a child of 5 or 6, standing on the threshold between what we can see clearly and what we can’t, with a kolf stick cocked to send a small ball straight out of the picture and into our world.

Looked at one way, De Hooch’s scene is assertively ordinary. Looked at another way, it’s a lesson in the limits of visibility and knowledge. There’s the rectilinear orderliness of floor tiles and bricks, limpid windowpanes, and perfectly folded fabric. And there’s mayhem, writ small, in the unpredictable trajectories of a child and a ball.

“Wellington’s Dutch Masterpieces” exhibition at Apsley House ✎

Earlier this year, I went to Apsley House at Hyde Park Corner for a very special exhibition.

Apsley House is the home of the Duke of Wellington. The 1st Duke established both his fame and wealth in the Napoleonic wars.

France, in 1816-1818, was a period time of immense economic disruption and ruination. Napoleon’s defeat left many French aristocrats, military officers, and financiers financially ruined. As such, the Duke purchased these 17th-century Dutch paintings at public auctions in Paris, and out-bid everyone & acquired top-tier masterworks, like Jan Steen’s The Wedding Party, with ease.

What makes this exhibition fascinating, and beautiful, is that it displays 18 magnificent 17th-century Dutch paintings collected by the 1st Duke of Wellington. These intimate genre scenes and landscapes of Wellington’s feature the ordinary people of the Dutch Golden Age, their social gatherings, and daily life. They are magnificent and v. beautiful.

They also include some my personal favourites: Pieter de Hooch, Jan Steen, and Jan van der Heyden.

Rating: 10/10.

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A Musical Party by Pieter de Hooch (1675)

For those that follow my blog, Pieter de Hooch is an absolute personal favourite of mine among the Dutch masters.

For me, though, I think I prefer his earlier Delft works (focusing on simple, sunlit courtyards and modest hearty domestic life). His later Amsterdam paintings shifted toward high society, grander architecture, and wealthy patrons enjoying their leisurely time.

Here the painting is split between the music at the fore and the love/holding hands/kissing at the back. I love the two dogs playing at the fore too.

As ever, the atmosphere is beautifully captured with rich red curtains that filter and warm the incoming light. It even reflects off the marble tiled floor.

Me :)

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A Wedding Party by Jan Steen (1667)

Love it.

Jan Steen is antithesis of De Hooch.

Loud, chaotic, theatrical, and packed with brilliant Dutch wit.

He even paints himself at the fore leaning against a large wooden barrel, looking directly out at the viewer with a glazed smirk.

Jan Steen depicting himself.

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The Milkwoman by Nicolaes Maes (c. 1655-1657)

Wonderful.

Classic Maes with his distinctive vibrant colour saturation. 

Before he became famous for his genre scenes, he was Rembrandt’s star pupil in Amsterdam during the late 1640s. It’s obvious he inherited Rembrandt’s powerful chiaroscuro: the light directs the viewer’s eyes to the story here. A brilliant white light strikes the milkwoman’s crisp white sleeve and the open palm of her hand.

Milkmaids were often a flirtatious subject in Dutch art. Here, she is the embodiment of honest work and virtue.

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The Eavesdropper by Nicolaes Maes (1656)

What a lovely and v. famous painting. 😆

It’s amazing that Duke Wellington managed to get his hands on this painting.

The maid stands at the foot of a wooden staircase, making direct eye contact with us, holding a finger to her mouth in a classic “shh” gesture.

As ever, with Dutch art, trying to convey some high-brow moralism.

I love the smile. It’s like she’s trying not to giggle.

A kiss? A fondle?

It’s interesting the orange/white colours define both maids.

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The Château of Goudestein by Jan van der Heyden (1674)

Beautiful.

For me, Jan van der Heyden’s View of the Westerkerk, Amsterdam at the National Gallery is breathtaking in its meticulous, near-microscopic attention to detail.

This painting typifies the cultural phenomenon of 17th-century Dutch life: atristoractic country retreats.

Not only meticulous in landscape, but his sweeping blue skies with their soft drifting clouds, elegant swans etc.

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The Dissolute Household by Jan Steen (1668)

Famous painting by Jan Steen.

Prosperous bourgeois home turned upside down when people in charge completely abandon their duties.

A hanging basket, with monkeys.

 

A faithless husband, a slumbering mother, thieving children.

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The Courtyard of an Inn with a Game of Shuffleboard by Adriaen van Ostade (1677)

What a joy.

Charming, and radical for its day.

Jan Steen treated peasant-life like a raucous & theatrical comedy; Van Ostade depicted them with a sense of warmth & empathy.

Thus, ordinary peasant life depicted beautifully in Dutch art.

Hardworking man relaxing with his pipe lost in his thoughts

Kids playing next to him.

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A Village Scene by Jan Victors (1654)

A charming depiction of street life.

I have come across Jan Victors at the National Gallery in A Village Scene with a Cobbler (which is so beautiful) that I was pleased to come across his work again.

I love the camaraderie, the earnest facial expressions (Rembrandt?), and the joie-de-vivre sense of a summer’s evening. 

Wonderful find.

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The Intruder: A Lady at her Toilet, Surprised by Her Lover by Pieter de Hooch (1665)

Wow.

De Hooch’s treatment of light is just incredible. 

I love the way his luminous daylight pours into the room reflecting the textures of the silk garments and the polished wood.

In 1661, De Hooch had moved to Amsterdam, and his handling of light underwent a profound transformation, becoming noticeably darker & heavier, and more subdued. I really love his earlier domestic scenes of mothers peeling apples, or maids sweeping yards ...

In the 17th-century, a “toilette” referred to the practice of a lady getting dressed, styling her hair, and applying perfume etc... So, when her lover “intrudes” on her at her toilette, he is catching her in a highly private & vulnerable moment. He removes his hat politely.

The vibrant textures draw us in.

Deep blue skirt wrapped in a rich red fur-trimmed jacket.

His vibrant yellow doublet exquisitely rendered.

An intricately embroidered sash that glows.

 

Beautiful depth and layers via the doorkijkje.

Is the dog the moral admonition? 

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The Physician’s Visit by Jan Steen (c. 1660)

Another Jan Steen.

This painting is not about “illness” - the lady is lovesick, and, quite possibly, pregnant. As per ArtUK:

The girl in this painting is not ill but lovesick. To underline the point, there is a picture of ‘Venus and Adonis’ on the wall and the boy in the foreground is Cupid in seventeenth-century costume, putting an arrow in his bow. The doctor takes the woman’s pulse and looks knowingly at the maid, who is holding a urine bottle. Erotic melancholy was allegedly detected by feeling the pulse, whilst visual examination of the urine was claimed to reveal the same disorder, or pregnancy.

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Leftovers

Newly discovered copy of the US Declaration of Independence in London ✎

What great news.

The National Archives in London found a copy of the US Declaration of Independence.

According to the BBC, it seems many were printed and distributed across the colonies. Today, few are left:

The rare copy has undergone conservation works to stabilise its paper and repair a slight tear, making it safe for handling, study and future display.

It will go on display as part of Revolution 250: America’s Independence Story, 1763-1783 at The National Archives.

The National Archives already holds three of the original official copies of the Declaration of Independence printed by John Dunlap in Philadelphia on 4 July 1776.

Around 200 copies are likely to have been printed on the night, of which only 26 are known to have survived until today.

It is part of the National Archives “Revolution 250: America’s Independence Story 1763–1783” exhibition. Hopefully, I can go and see it in person.

A Bigger Splash by David Hockney (1967) ✎

In honour of David Hockney who recently passed away.

I really love the feeling of:

1. nostalgia and ephemerality of good-times (captured in the fleeting nature of a splash)

2. that warm sun-baked Californian palette of turquoise & flesh-toned pinks. They’re so relaxing and inviting. Hockney perfectly captured his own joy of Southern California. 

My Upcoming Art Exhibitions List for the Summer and Autumn ✎

Hi everyone,

I have been away from blogging for some time. I’ve been focusing on going to the gym and my fitness, and have been doing some travelling lately. I want to get back into blogging about art.

I have just secured some tickets - for this year - which I am so v. excited about. 😁

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1) The Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum

This is one of the most famous and magnificent panoramic masterpieces of medieval art that survives today. This embroidered piece of linen cloth is as important as it is beautiful. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!! (Please see this BBC YouTube documentary)

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2) Frida: The Making of an Icon at Tate Modern

A major retrospective on Frida Kahlo the artist and the icon. I am very excited about this because she is not an artist I know a lot about. So, I am excited to see an intellectual and aesthetic exploration of this iconic artist.

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3) Francisco de Zurbaran at the National Gallery

For me, when it comes to Spanish Baroque, I venerate Bartolome Esteban Murillo and, of course, the great Velazquez. Yet, Zurbaran’s famous Saint Francis in Meditation is one of the National Gallery’s most iconic paintings and typifies this artist’s quiet, powerful & intense chiaroscuro & style.

I am so very excited to get a deep dive into an artist who, for me, has been rather marginal in Spanish Baroque.

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4) Early Netherlandish Drawings at British Museum

I love the Dutch Golden Age and the Northern Renaissance. So this exhibition at the British Musuem is so up my alley. It is a VERY rare survey of highly detailed 15th and 16th century Northern Renaissance drafts, including the greats: Rogier van der Weyden, Pieter Bruegel the Elder etc...

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5) Tracey Emin retrospective at the Tate Modern

Merh.

I think Emin is an underwhelming and tedious artist. I expect to be bored, but I feel I owe to myself to make an effort when presented with a major retrospective of a so-called serious artist.

The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ✎

I saw this commemorative medal dedicated to Emperor Charles V. 

He is on my list of top 10 historical figures I wish I could talk to.

Beautiful German Renaissance craftsmanship: “silver-gilt medal was made by Hans Reinhardt the Elder, in Germany in 1537.”

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I’ve been deeply fascinated by Charles V. 

His power was unrivalled in the 16th century and he completely changed European history, but I also think an overall decent(ish) Emperor.

• The Sack of Rome - Charles V’s own army caused the Sack of Rome. The army hadn’t been paid in months, and they were practically starving. The Duke of Bourbon (defecting from King Francis I of France) was nominally the “commander”, but had very little control over them. He gave an order to “take Rome”. His Imperial troops attacked and the army turned into a leaderless mob. The Sack of Rome was a total collapse in all human decency and human restraint. Torture, mass murders, and mass rapes (even of nuns). The great basilica of St Peters was used as a stable for horses. It’s probably unknown how many irreplaceable manuscripts and masterpieces were destroyed. He was publically horrified by his own army and it is a great irony: the man who spent his life fighting to preserve the Catholic Church against the Reformation was the same man whose army effectively destroyed the Renaissance Papacy. Renaissance too. 
• The Dutch Golden Age - Flemish Charles V was the unintentional “founding father” of the Dutch Golden Age. His religious policies and his eventual abdication, and giving the Netherland to Spanish Philip II, set the stage for the Netherlands to become a global superpower.
• Causing Henry VIII to leave the Catholic Church - Normally, Popes granted favors to kings all the time. But Charles V forced the Pope’s hand preventing the annulment. The irony here is that Charles inadvertently helped create one of the most powerful Protestant nations in European history which then became a massive rival to his own deeply Catholic son, Philip II. One of the first major Catholic but secular forces that reigned Papal power.
• Humble End - He died as a simple monk (mostly), wearing plain clothes instead of robes.

The Normalisation of Systemic Hatred Against Jews in the UK ✎

Antisemitism is on the rise in the UK.

It’s been getting more-and-more nasty and especially very scary.

The Golders Green attack of last month was a very dark day. Not just for two Jewish individuals brutally stabbed by a maniac, but because it demonstrates warnings about the normalisation of extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric, almost always a contributing factor to anti-Jewish violence.

Headline today shows university Jewish students receiving death threats!  What is this?

Anti-semitism, is one of oldest and virulent of the irrational hatreds that saturates the Middle East. It is a key component of Palestinian Arab culture. It is also a significant undercurrent of Leftist ideology, and has been since at least Karl Marx and his self-loathing of his Jewish heritage. The antisemitism on the Right suffered a moral defeat after the horrors of the Holocaust. Today, about 80 years after the Holocaust, the generation that witnessed it first-hand have mostly passed away and antisemitism is undergoing a recrudescence. Now, Iran has replaced Germany. 

Since Oct-7, the focus of attacks have been concentrated on Jewish targets. From the miniature Kristallnachts perpetrated on university campuses, to stabbings of clothing-identifiable Jews on the streets of major cities, to the vandalism directed at Jewish identifiable buildings; it represents a change in the direction of violence. The point is to separate Jews from their neighbours and community. In essence, while the antisemitism seems outrageous, it offers the West a way out of the current chaos: “allow us to kill off the Jews and we will leave you alone”. 

I am in favour of free speech, but I think there is something deeply wrong in UK culture that it is mainstream and routine to call for the dismantling of the world’s only Jewish state, and when slogans such as “Globalise the Intifada” are tolerated under the banner of political expression. These nasty ideas carry real-world consequences for Jewish communities in England.

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Our King recently went to visit the Jewish community in Golders Green and met the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis:

The Madonna of the Meadow by Raphael (1506) ✎

I saw this exquisite masterpiece in Vienna.

The harmony of the composition is absolutely captivating.

Raphael painted this when he was only about 23 years old. Raphael lived a brilliant but tragically short life, dying at the age of 37 in 1520.

I like the contrast between Mary’s slightly melancholic expression (reflecting her tragic prescience) and the two children playing.

Serene Italian landscape.

Baby Christ’s soft chubby cheeks and baby fat is High Renaissance naturalism.

A departure from the medieval homunculus to the divine as fully human in the flesh.

St John the Baptist giving Christ the cross.

King Charles III at the US Congress ✎

Watching the King deliver a wonderful address with grace and humour, referencing shared cultural icons of Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens, it shows the respect and dignity a head of state should command.

My favourite part is when he said: “America’s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more.”

I think the respect and dignity of the US government has been on the decline ever since Donald Trump. His rudeness and disrespectful attitude to his so-called allies (esp. Canada), and his vindictive egomania, has really tarnished the gravitas of the US.

Anyway, well done King Charles. 

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My favourite system of government is a Parliament with a constitutional monarchy. The best argument in favour of this approach was articulated by Sir Walter Bagehot. Bagehot famously divided the British government into two distinct branches: the dignified and the efficient. The Crown is the “dignified” part of our constitution. Its purpose is not to “govern”, but to provide the symbolic historical foundations of our nation. I think this is a deeply conservative institution and, my goodness, I can’t overestimate its importance. The Monarch is not elected, and don’t take sides in debates. They are a living bridge to our past, our culture, the nation’s history and continuity. They represent the nation’s shared identity from centuries ago to the present day which transcend the prevailing political differences of the day. 

In divided & difficult times, the Monarchy is consistent and visible. Their value to the UK is immeasurable.

The church of St Martin-in-the-Fields ✎

I was lucky to capture a burst of the setting sunlight against a cloudy evening.

At Trafalgar Square.

Do art galleries devalue the art in their tacky gift shops? ✎

This is the from the blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition last year at the National Gallery:

 

I felt a bit embarrassed. 😔

I think Van Gogh would be shocked by what’s been done to his work.

His sunflowers motif were a lifelong, almost spiritual, expression of “gratitude” of being face to face with nature. E.g. see Gauguin’s depiction of Van Gogh’s magnum opus. The power of his art comes from his energy and excitement; and Van Gogh was a troubled soul.

Quite a lot of his paintings were done in an asylum, and it feels v. disrespectful to slap his face and works on tacky bags, jewelry, kitchen towels, tea matts, and everything else etc. 

Van Gogh always wanted “validation” (esp. among the respectable Paris salons), but he certainly had a respect for art.

I get museums are strapped for cash, but is it too much?  🤔

Yellow Islands by Jackson Pollock (1952) ✎

From the Tate.

I don’t enjoy the chaos & nor do I really appreciate the appeal.

But I can see how revolutionary it was in art history.

No doubt a reflection of the world during the atomic age. The nuclear arms race, power of electrons and molecular matter. Artists from this era lived through two world wars, the Holocaust and the Great Depression. How do you make art that is meaningful? The expressionists turned inwards to themselves, and painted what they felt instead.

To me, a bit cheap and cheerful - more of a craft than art.

The Grand Turk Giving a Concert to his Mistress by Carle van Loo (1737) ✎

I saw this at the Wallace Collection.  It’s a historically significant work of art.

Carle van Loo was part of the 18th century French Rococo movement, and especially the “Turquerie” trend of the time.

This was a European artistic trend for “Oriental” scenes (v. popular in the 18th century). It was a reflection of the French aristocracy’s fascination with the exotic East. And, as the Wallace Collection argue, one of the “best examples of the Turquerie”. It was exhibited at the Salon of 1737 and was one of a famous pair.

The “mistress” is singing positioned to the left of the Grand Turk, leaning in towards a musical score. Laden with symbolism.

The Eltenburg Reliquary ✎

Wow. Saw this stunning object at the V&A in London. 

The Eltenberg Reliquary is a magnificent 12th-century masterpiece of Rhenish Romanesque art - 1180 AD.

Probably used to house sacred relics, e.g. the Eucharist.

Has that Byzantine dome, gilded bronze, exquisitely carved ivory ...

It shows how redundant our views of the Middle Ages as the ‘Dark Ages’, as little more than mud and superstition.

Elephant ivory used to depict the Crucifixion.

St Paul’s Cathedral at night ✎

I took this photo earlier this week around midnight.

Designed by Christopher Wren, and modelled on St Peter’s in Rome.