Trip London 201711 B National Gallery

London - National Gallery.
(many photos below; might take a short while loading)
I browsed in the shop in Sainsbury Wing first.

Originally I thought maybe I can find a nice shopping bag or a 2018 diary.
The current-exhibition-artwork-based merchandises in shops
are not appealing at all !
Wouldn't it be better if the buyer(s) or merchandiser(s) 
or person-in-charge for the shops
have more art / design training or better still a degree.

After asking about the time for the afternoon guided tour, I went outside.

Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell

Entering from the Getty Entrance to main building.

I briefly walked through the Degas Impressionist exhibition on ground floor/Level 0.

Edgar Degas drew lots of ballet dancers, woman bathing and horses.

Somehow the pastel drawing reminded me of the
terrible made-in-China PRC poor quality oil pastel
I once bought when I was about 6 years old.
Even though later I had a better made-in-Japan Sakura-brand pastels.
The nightmare affected me for decades:
I do not really like pastel.
Sorry. Not allowed to take photo in that exhibition.
His drawings can be easily found on www.


Then I went to a room which I had not entered before.

Gallery A or Room A

This painting shows
how people were visiting room 32 of National Gallery a hundred years or so ago.

Artist: Giuseppe Gabrielli. 1886.

"Saint Paul Writing", 1520s, Pier Francesco Sacchi.
(He was writing the Holy Bible   1 Corinthians 13: 4,  in Greek)
"The Madonna and Child with Saints" 1543, Bernardino Lanino.

"The Madonna and Child with Angels, Saints and a Donor"
 about 1529-31, Girolamo da Treviso.
(it was an altar piece in church  S. Domenico in Bologna )

Fewer people go to this gallery/room...
because it is the earlier works from about 13th century
where the "uglier" pictures (done before the Renaissance) are.
Quite a number of French and Italian artists.

Some paintings are not quite good-looking
because they didn't study perspective or anatomy then.
Still some relatively nice works.

Many paintings are on Christian theme.
They  just call it religious paintings nowadays
(for fear of annoying non-Christian visitors?)
(isn't Britain a Christian country?
I do not like the extreme political correctness)

Naturally in old days,
there are a large numbers of paintings on similar theme of 
Virgin Mary / Madonna with baby Christ. 
And other stories found in the Bible.
Paintings about and for Christianity is a high ranking genre.
Many were placed inside churches and cathedrals.

"Saint George and the Dragon" Gustave Moreau, 1889-90.

"The Raising of Lazarus" 1625-76, Possibly by Simon de Vos.
Different artists/painters have different versions
of this story written in the Holy Bible (John 11:1-44)

National Gallery room A

If interested, you can find more info on the paintings
from National Gallery official website.
www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/floorplans/level-0/gallery-a-paintings-1250-1600

Next,
I went up and see other paintings....
and then,
 joined a guided tour...

Next 2 blog entries.
  Part C
http://sn-uk.blogspot.com/2017/11/trip-london-201711-c-national-gallery.html
  Part D
http://sn-uk.blogspot.com/2017/11/trip-london-201711-d.html