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.