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Nigel Ip

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Today's events reminded me of the fire which burnt down the National Museum of Brazil last year and the fortunate virtualisation since 2016 of its now-lost collection and interiors by @google. I don't know if such a thing exists for @notredamedeparis, but I think we need to pull together all of our amateur images for such a project. #cathédralenotredamedeparis #cathédralenotredame #notredamecathedral #notredame @googleartsculture

Another of my favourite images of @notredamedeparis, this from 2014 during a summer school with @uni_kentparis. #cathédralenotredamedeparis #cathédralenotredame #notredamecathedral #notredame @googleartsculture

Although I occasionally joke about how too many people visit @notredamedeparis instead of nearby Sainte-Chapelle, I am devastated to hear of the serious losses suffered from the recent fire. There is no denying it is one of the most important and influential examples of Gothic architecture around, with stained-glass that can hardly be rivalled and relics which generations of visitors made pilgrimages to see. All of that has tragically turned to ashes. This picture of an ornamental angel from an organ backlit by one of the brilliant rose windows remains one of my favourite images from 2015, the first (and last) time I actually went inside. I didn't pay much attention then to what I felt was a place that was way too big. But the place always did look good and I am disheartened that the spire and roof has collapsed too. My thoughts go to all those emergency services helping to put the fire out and to any unsuspecting victims. #notredamecathedral #cathédralenotredamedeparis #cathédralenotredame #notredame @googleartsculture

Finally made it to @twotempleplace for the last week of #Ruskin200. This relatively focused show brings together objects from the major Ruskin collections in the UK (#RuskinFoundation, @ashmoleanmuseum, @museumssheffield, @ruskin_museum, @ruskintoday), resulting in an excellent introduction to the Victorian era's most famous art critic. Ruskin's advocation for 'truth to nature' is clear in the many meticulous copies and studies he (and his assistants) made after natural elements and architectural wonders; the section dedicated to Venice is impressive. He often relied on daguerreotypes for his copies and a selection of these have been splendidly juxtaposed with their corresponding works. Ruskin's famous admiration for J.M.W. Turner is also recognised with visual pairings. A small section also explores Ruskin's connection to Sheffield, a place he admired for its metalworking industry. Upstairs, an intimate room is dedicated to St George's Museum at Walkley which he founded in 1875. The collection consists of numerous objects he owned, from minerals and medieval manuscripts, to his assistants' studies of Italian architecture and Renaissance paintings. A few Kelmscott Press publications are also on display. The main hall is dedicated to the books he wrote about the natural world, collectively called The Grammars. Natural studies fill the walls and cases exhibit influential texts on related topics. Overall, the exhibition makes for a refreshing take on Ruskin as an educator and writer. His links to the Pre-Raphaelites are barely mentioned, a good choice in my opinion since it often overshadows his other contributions. I thoroughly enjoyed it. #johnruskin #twotempleplace #exhibition #art #victorianart

Earlier this week, I decided to bring out two impressions of Sir Francis Seymour Haden's 'Breaking Up of the Agamemnon' (1870), one of my favourite printmakers, leading proponent of the etching revival in Britain, and founder of @re_originalprints in 1880. It is considered one of his largest, most ambitious and important works. The subject was chosen by Haden when P.G. Hamerton approached Haden in 1870 to etch a plate for his newly-founded art magazine 'The Portfolio'. The Agamemnon was the British Navy's last surviving wooden-hulled warship, shown in the etching being moored and dismantled at Deptford, near Greenwich. There are apparently up to 11 states for this work; shown here are states 1 and 2. Comparing differing states is a fun game of spot-the-difference, but equally frustrating too. Beneath the bow of the Agamemnon, one can see that what was one a depiction of boats under sail on the Thames has been replaced with a view of dockyard sheds. There are also a few minor differences in the ripples in the foreground. I love this print so much. One can imagine taking in the scene at dusk with the sun setting behind the Greenwich skyline as the ship gradually fades into the darkness. So peaceful. So sublime. So perfect. #sirfrancisseymourhaden #francisseymourhaden #etching #etchingrevival #breakingupoftheagamemnon #printmaking #adventuresintheprintroom @royalmuseumsgreenwich #royalmuseumsgreenwich #nationalmaritimemuseum #cairdlibrary

#RenaissanceNude Room 5: Usually, for specialists, any opportunity to reconstruct the famous collection of Isabella d'Este calls for celebration of a nerdy kind. However, the links to nudity felt tenuous, undeveloped, and unsurprising. After all, one had just passed through 4 rooms telling us that nudity was everywhere in Renaissance art. I should clarify that the general theme of this 'Personalising the Nude' section is more broadly on Renaissance patrons...but none of the patrons are mentioned (except Isabella). The star of the room is Bronzino's 'Portrait of a Young Man as Saint Sebastian'; in his nonchalance, the interest is clearly on the sitter's handsome body, gently draped around the back for maximum contrast. But this is not one of Isabella's commissions which feature in this room (it was painted 4 years after her death). The 2 works which explicitly mention her patronage are Dosso Dossi's 'Allegory of Fortune' (featuring her personal emblem: lottery tickets) and Perugino's minutely-instructed 'Combat between Love and Chastity'; neither labels even mention the word 'nude'. No texts even mention WHY nudes feature so prominently in her collection; for the Perugino, her letters say it was because 'a certain nude Venus and she was meant to be clothed and doing something different. And this is just to show off the excellence of his art.' Her collection as a whole was intended as a comment on the strength of virtues, on the nature of love, and of the arts; nudes embodied that in Renaissance discourse. None of this is mentioned anywhere in the room. The Pisanello medallions for the Este family were delightful though; we always see the obverse portraits, not the allegorical nudes on the reverse. People loved the double-sided Jacometto(?) portrait. Perhaps this room should've gone first, introducing visitors to nudity in the context of singular collections, then exploring the theme in greater depth with the succeeding rooms. @royalacademyarts #royalacademyofarts #isabelladeste #bronzino #perugino #dossodossi #pisanello #simonebianco #antico #thenude

#RenaissanceNude Room 4: As someone fascinated by cross-cultural influences, I found this to be quite an enlightening little room, but not in the way one might expect. The focus was on how artists explored the vulnerability of the human body - age, torture, pain - a contrast from the previous room dealing with ideal proportions. But this room might also have spun a different story quite easily, one that pits the stereotypes of Italian and Northern styles against each other (ideal vs grotesque). As a specialist, I found it a little difficult to ignore such stereotypes and it was refreshing to take a step back and consider the fluidity of interests across Early Modern Europe. Take, for example, Rosso Fiorentino's drawing of Judith and Holofernes in the nude. Sprouting from a Vasarian bias about how Rosso disgraced the Italian style by becoming influenced by the Germans, we have always viewed him as a bit of an outsider; indeed, the exhibition has consciously separated him from his brethren in the preceding room. The drawing is used here as an example of creative contrasts between young and aged bodies, a prominent interest in Northern Europe, as indicated by the exhibited prints of Dürer and Hans Baldung Grien. But I do wish there were examples of the Fontainebleau School elongated nudes, which look similar to those in the Jan Wellens Cock (attr.) picture of Saint Anthony's Temptation. Nearby, there are Swiss, German, and Flemish images of martyred and flagellated individuals. And in the centre of the room is Donatello's polychrome wood St Jerome. I feel it could have been used to better effect in the first section as an example of a representative nude character in art (strong first impression too) rather than for elderly forms. In turn, the St Sebastian reliquary could've come into dialogue with the other martyr pictures. Funny little room. @royalacademyarts #royalacademyofarts #thenude #donatello #rossofiorentino #hansbaldunggrien #albrechtdürer #giovannijacopocaraglio #janwellenscock #simonbening

#RenaissanceNude Room 3: On the whole, this small room has very few flaws and is pleasant to be in. Viewers enter with a double-sided sheet of anatomical drawings by Leonardo da Vinci in their immediate line of sight, though its size means viewers don't register it straight away. And so they go leftwards. This room focuses on the nude as an exploratory device for artists to understand anatomy, ideal proportions, and to learn from the rediscovery of antique sculptures. A study of the Laocoön by Baccio Bandinelli is juxtaposed with Gossaert's famous study of the Spinario (a bronze miniature is shown beside it; perfect!); a figure from two altarpiece panels by Luca Signorelli also references the sculpture. Nearby is also Antico's gilt copy of the Apollo Belvedere. There is a pleasant wall of life drawings by Pisanello, Dürer, Raphael (2), Fra Bartolomeo, Pontormo, and Parmigianino. These provide us with a variety of the different body types at play throughout the period, but it is far from being representative; cross-cultural influences like Flemish Romanist and Fontainebleau School forms are not exhibited. The best section, in my opinion, is dedicated to anatomy and ideal proportions, where a case of treatises by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Dürer, and Cesare Cesariano's translation of Vitruvius plays beautifully with Michelangelo's annotated male nude in red chalk and the Leonardo sheet. My first criticism is also a logistical one; the Michelangelo is in an awkward place where it is barely noticed. Yet there also isn't room to place it in the middle like the Leonardo (accessibility issues) or along the already full drawings wall. The manuscripts case is also too high to hang it above them. And placing it on the wall with Bandinelli and Gossaert breaks the flow. It's a little unfortunate. My second concerns the separation of Dürer's drawing for Eve from the engraving. I understand keeping the wall purely drawings but why not put it in the first section (spatial issues, probably, and resultant lack of geographical representation?). @royalacademyarts #royalacademyofarts #thenude #michelangelo #jangossaert #pontormo #parmigianino #pisanello #dürer #lucasignorelli

#RenaissanceNude Room 2: Every kind of Renaissance subject matter taken from Antiquity is shown in this room, the largest in the show, placed under the complex theme of Humanist thought. There isn't much of a premise here; visitors are encouraged to wander around this mosaic of objects to make visual links by themselves. And there are so many. My issue is with the labels; links to other objects are barely addressed. Some will find this lacking in direction and lazy, but it also shows the endless possibilities for specialists to compare and contrast. There are some really great groupings: Titian's 'Venus Anadyomene' with a Gossaert panel from Rovigo (beside a boxwood Lucretia holding a dagger); a Dürer-Perugino-Raimondi trio focusing on male nudes; a gorgeous display of moralistic and allegorical panels by Memling and Giovanni Bellini; and French manuscripts illustrating Pliny the Elder tales. Other unsaid links require independent thinking, such as Gossaert's reference in bas-relief to a nearby Pollaioulo bronze of Hercules and Antaeus (whose 'Battle of the Nudes' engraving wonderfully complements Mantegna's 'Battle of the Sea'). The bronze Cupid (circle of Donatello) was probably intended to play with Dosso Dossi's putti in the 'Myth of Pan' and the nearby copy of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, all part of a lovely section on fauns featuring Piero di Cosimo, Dürer and Cranach. Some works just seemed odd to be so physically distanced from relevant sections: Marco Dente's 'Nymph and Satyr' from the satyrs/fauns, and Barthel Beham's 'Death and Three Nude Women' from Memling's memento mori. I also found Giulio Campagnola's exquisite 'Reclining Venus' to pair well with Marcantonio Raimondi's 'Dream of Raphael'. It's a complicated room with endless tales, but intriguing links can be found for the wary. @royalacademyarts #royalacademyofarts #thenude #exhibition #Donatello #dossodossi #marcantonioraimondi #giuliocampagnola #jangossaert #hansmemling #giovannibellini #antoniopollaiuolo #pietroperugino #titian #andreamantegna

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