The National Gallery - Room by Room

I decided that the best way to get to know a museum is to have a favorite object in each room.  This compels you to look at every object in every room.  Some museums like to move objects around, especially those where a large portion of the collection is not on permanent display (for example, the British Museum only displays about 10% of their total collection).  Art Museums tend to display everything they have.  One of the distinctive things about the National Gallery is that the collection is entirely paintings -- no sculpture or video installations, etc...

Herewith are my room-by-room selection of preferences of the National Gallery on London.   This exercise has shown me a lot about what I like in paintings:

1. Dramatic lighting
2. Fun little details that only emerge after you've stared at a painting a while
3. Painter's errors (e.g., a New Testatment scene with 13 apostles - d'oh!)
4. Cats - a painting is always improved when there's a cat in it

Central Hall
da Brescia: Portrait of a Man - unfinished legs, one of which is solid black.  Must have hit a deadline.

Room C - Holbein and Germany
Hans Holbein the Younger:  The Ambassadors - portrait of two men, with a weird distorted skull that is only in perspective when you stand to the extreme right of the picture

Room D - Coreggio
Coreggio:  Ecce Homo (Pilate presents Christ to the crowd) - captures the enormity of the moment, and puts Pilate in the background, almost irrelevant.

Room E - Leonardo and Lombardy
DaVinci:  Virgin of the Rocks - unfinished, but that doesn't matter, it's a freakin' DaVinci.
Room 5 - Netherlands 1500
David: Adoration of the Kings - nativity scene oddly set in the ruins of a German castle; there are a lot of paintings like this, that show stories from the Bible or from mythology but with clothing and settings that are contemporary.  Did this not seem weird to people?

Massys:  Old Woman - amazing portrait, probably not an actual person, of a very ugly old woman.  Painting can be funny.

Room 6 - Ferrara and Bologna
Nothing in this room absorbed me.
Room 7 - Jacopo Pontormo
Nothing stirred me in this room

Room 8 - Florence and Rome
Michelangelo:  Manchester Madonna - unfinished, but still masterful.

Room 9 - Venice and Veneto
Tintoretto:  Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet - monumental, you have to stand all the way across the room the take it in.

Room 10 - Venice
Sorry, nothing here for me.
Room 11 - Joachim Beuckelaer
Nothing here.  Starting to get depressing.

Room 12 - Titian and Venice
Titian:  Bacchus & Aridane - lots going on in this one, takes a while to piece it all together.  Thank heavens for the audio guide.

Room 13 - CLOSED.  See room B.

Room 14 - Netherlands
Gossaert:  Adoration (of you know who) - outrageously detailed and colorful, one of the most spectacular paintings I've ever seen, with major error of 'transparent' paving stones at bottom.

Room 15 - Claude and Turner
JMW Turner:  Dido Building Carthage -- the room consists of four paintings, two by Turner and two by Claude.  Turner donated his two paintings to the National on the condition that they be hung beside the two Claudes.  I'm always a sucker for Dido and Aeneas stories, because I spent my third year of high scool attempting to translate The Aeneid.

Room 16 - Early Rembrandt
Heda: Still Life -- Transparent orange peel in and otherwise wonderful still life.  I've come to appreciate still lives as painter's showing off.

Follower of Rembrandt:  Man Seated at Table -- dramatic lighting, mostly very dark.

Room 17: Dutch Italianate Painting
Lastman:  Juno Discovers Jupiter with Io - another one with a lot of story going on, and I've always wondered where Jupiter's moon Io gets its name.

Room 17a: Dutch Mannerism
van Delen:  Architectural Fantasy - crazy elaborate architectural composition.

Room 18:  France
LeNain:  Four Figures at a Table - women with heartbreakingly sad faces

Room 19: Poussin
Wouters:  Nymphs Surprised by Satyrs - lust never looked so gorgeous.

Room 20:  Claude (Lorrain)
Claude:  Cephalus and Procris - I've looked at this painting for a while, and I can't figure out why there are square dents on all of the cows.

Room 21:  Dutch Painting
Dujardin:  Woman and Boy - the boy is peeing.  whaa?

Mieris:  Woman and Fish Peddler - there's a cat

Room 22:  Amsterdam and Dutch Painting 1650-1670
der Heyden:  Westerkerk Amsterdam - picture of a church, framed from across a canal, with amazing detail in paving stones, thousands of them painted individually in what is otherwise a lifeless painting.

Steen:  Effects of Intemperance - cat!

Room 23:  Rembrandt and Dutch Painting 1640-1660
Rembrandt:  Self-portrait - because Rembrandt self-portraits always steal the show.

Room 24:  Rembrandt and Dutch Caravaggists
Cornelis van Haarlem:  Followers of Cadmus Devoured by Dragon - this is a painting of a guy getting his face bitten off by a dragon.  Little is left to the imagination.

Room 25:  Vermeer and Delft Painters
Hoogstraten:  3-D diorama of a  Dutch House - the only object in the museum that is not a painting.  Very clever construction that has you look through a hole in a box and see a domestic scene.

Room 26:  Dutch Scenes
van Ostade:  Alchemist - lots of detail, great story being told, but all in a very dimly-lit setting, so you have to work to see every detail.

Room 27:  Dutch Scenes
ter Borch:  Woman Playing Theorbo - terrific texture in the cloth, the painting shows a woman with two men, and there's a lot of ambiguity in the relationships betwen them (suggestions that she is a prostitute).

Codde:  Woman Holding Mirror - cat!

Room 28:  Flanders
Teniers:  Rich Man Being Led to Hell - weird monsters all over the painting; pretty nightmarish stuff

Teniers:  Old Peasant Caresses Maid - cat!

Room 29:  Peter Paul Rubens
Hard to pick one in this room, but the Samson and Delilah has spectacular lighting effects.

Room 30 - Spain 17th Century
Zurbaran:  Two paintings of St. Francis of Assisi - in contrast (pun intended) to the color-saturated paintings in the room, these two are stark, almost tintypes.

Room 31 - Anthony Van Dyck
Van Dyck:  Charles I on a horse - the head of the horse is ridiculously out of proportion to the rest of the painting.

Jordaens:  Portrait of a Couple - features a dog that looks like an Ewok

Room 32 - Italy 17th Century
Liss:  Judith in the Tent of Holofernes - gruesome beheading., no detail is spared

Rosa:  Witches at their Incantation - very disturbing images with weird monsters, this painting will give you nightmares.

Room 33 - France 1700 - 1800
LeBrun:  Self-Portrait  - one of only a few female artists featured in the collection.  My, she is pretty

Room 34 - Great Britain 1750 - 1850 (A Favorite Room)
Joseph Wright's:  An Experiment on a Bird of an Air Pump -  depiction of a family observing a demonstration of a vacuum chamber with a bird in it. Lots of great story going on in this one, I love it.

Hogarth:  The Graham Children - hilarious cat in this family portrait.

JMW Turner:  The Fighting Temeraire - voted by Brits as their favorite painting in the National Gallery.

JMW Turner:  Rain, Steam, and Speed - see if you can spot the bunny running from the train

Room 35 - Hogarth
Gainsborough: The Painters Daughters with a Cat - sketch of cat that was never painted in

Hogarth:  Marriage A La Mode - six paintings telling amusing story as only Hogarth could.

Room 36 - British Portraits
Reynolds: Colonel Tarleton - fighting the rebels in the US

Room 37 - Italy
zzzzzzzz

Room 38 - Spain and Venice
Canalettos:  The Basin of San Marco on Ascension Day - so many great Canalettos, tough to choose.

Room 39 - Spain and Venice
Goya:  Duke of Wellington - fine portrait, atypical Goya.

Room 40 - Italy
Tiepolo: Trojan Horse (two paintings) - the horse doesn't look like it's made of wood

Room 41 - The Academy
Delaroche:  Execution of Lady Jane Grey - one of the most heartbreaking pictures ever


Room 42 - Painting Out of Doors 
Jones:  Wall In Naples - curious choice of subject matter

Room 43 - Impressionists
Manet:  Execution of Emperor Maxmilian of Mexico - painting was cut apart and sections were destroyed.  Parts reassembled on a canvas

Monet:  Waterlily Pond - need I say more?

Monet:  Thames Below Westminster - my favorite painting in the collection; atmospheric depiction of the Houses of Parliament in the fog.

Pisarro: Paris at night - great atmosphere.

Room 44 - Pisarro and Seurat
Sorry, got nothing for this room, and I normally like Seurat.

Room 45 - Van Gogh and Cezanne
Van Gogh:  Sunflowers - dude nailed it.

Room 46 - Degas
Nothing here either

Room 51 -
Uglio di Norio:  Altarpiece - Christ rising from the tomb, holding what appears to be the Flag of England (though the painting predates the flag).  Plus, the artist is named "Uglio."

Room 52
Jacopo di Clone:  Crucifixion - the blood spurting from Christ's wounds is over the top.

Room 53 -
Strozzi: Abduction of Helen - a rare 13th century painting not about the Bible.

Room 54
Ucello:  Battle of San Romano - with all of the action, the most interesting thing in this painting is the dead guy lying on the ground; a very early example of foreshortening perspective.

Room 55
Nada

Room 56
Van Eyck:  The Amolfini Portrait - among the greatest paintings in the collection, Van Eyck's detailed work exceeds any painter before or since.

Room 57
del Pollaiuolo:  St Sebastian - St Sebastian being shot to pieces by arrows, some of the bows are accidentally transparent.

Verocchio: Tobias & the Angel - there's a dog that seems to be transparent.

Room 58
Closed

Room 59
Crivelli:  St. Peter Martyr - one of those painting that graphically shows the martydom of a saint, in this one St. Peter Martyr (to be differentiated from St. Peter) has a sword stuck in his head.

Room 60
Pontarcchio: Penelope with Suitors - cat!

Room 61
Mantegna: Introduction of the Cult of Cymbelene to Rome - painted to look like a frieze, shown from a low angle.

Room 62
Oh look, more saints

Room 63
Bermejo: St Michael Triumphs Over the Devil - hilarious face on the devil.

Room 64
And, no big surprise, saints dying

Room 65
Durer:  St Jerome - terrific detail

Unknown:  Domition of the Virgin - rarely-depicted story of the apostles with Mary on her deathbed; there are 13 apostles depicted, when there should only be 11.

Room 66
Signorelli:  Holy Family - Joseph appears to be an African.

Understanding Cricket #1

Went to my first cricket match a few weekends ago, as guest of my good friend ("me mate" will take time to get used to) Mark.

We went to Lord's Cricket Ground, which calls itself  "The Home of Cricket."  Lord's is to cricket as Churchill Downs is to horse racing, or St. Andrew's is to golf -- it's the ultimate shrine to the sport.  Lord's is also home to the Marylebone (that's pronounced "MAR-lee-bone") Cricket Club, which maintains the official cricket rulebook.  Mark bought me a copy of the official rule booklet, which is called "The Laws of Cricket."

 My friend Karen was visiting:

We went to see "county cricket", which meant it was cheap (I think about eight pounds a person).

 Here is the outside of the stands.  The banners show various records set at the club, none of which made any sense to me.

 Here's a view of the pitch from down low

 This is a view of the club member's stands.  Very posh.

 Luxury boxes and cheap seats.  Not a big crowd for county cricket.

 "Has anyone seen the ball?" "I thought you had it." "No, I thought Oliver had it.  Oliver, have you seen the ball?" "When's lunch?"

Watching cricket is very relaxing.  It's really a great way to spend a lazy weekend day (or entire weekend).  Ignoring all of the language, what you are watching is:
1. A guy throwing the ball (the bowler)
2. A guy trying to hit the ball (the batsman)
3. A bunch of other guys trying to catch the ball if it is hit (the olivers)

Close inspection of this photo shows that even the umpire has a sponsor logo on his shirt.

 Stands are empty.  The group of people to the left are taking a tour of the stadium.

 Comparing cricket to baseball (always risky, since I barely understand baseball), cricket seems to move faster.  There's none of the endless fussing by the batter at the plate or by the pitcher on the mound.  The ball is hit on most throws, and since there are no foul balls, every hit counts.  This is why scores of 400 runs is not unusual, and an individual player can score 100.

 They are serious that you stay in your seat while the game is going on.

 This is the famous "father time" weather vane at Lord's.

 The teams take a 45-minute lunch break, and a mid-afternoon tea break.  The players have lunch in dining rooms at either end of the Lord's clubhouse.

 My goal in life is to understand what this means:

 This is the press box.  Called the UFO.

I think the reason I find cricket confusing is because of the language used to describe it.  Here is an actual quote from an article by Simon Wilde in the 21 August Sunday Times: "Striving for the follow-up yorker, Broad overpitched, allowing Tendulkar to get off the mark with a boundary, but there were few such gifts.  Tendulkar on 14 gave a half-chance return catch to Tim Bresnan, who also hit him with a short ball.  He has been out-thought by England's pacemen this summer but it was Swann who got him this time, gloving a sweep to first slip."  The only clause in that paragraph that I understand is "there were few such gifts," but I don't even follow what the gift was.

The rules are no easier.  Here's a quote from the Laws of Cricket:
LAW 36 LEG BEFORE WICKET
1. Out LBW
The striker is out LBW in the circumstances set out below.
(a) The bowler delivers a ball, not being a No Ball, and
(b) the, ball, if it is not intercepted full pitch, pitches in line between wicket and wicket or on the off side of the striker's wicket, and
(c) the ball not previously having touched his bat, the striker intercepts the ball, either full pitch or after pitching with any part of his person, and
(d) the point of impact, even if above the level of the bails,
either (i) is between wicket and wicket
or (ii) if the striker has made no genuine attempt to play the ball with his bat, is either between wicket and wicket or outside the line of the off stump
and,
(e) but for the interception, the ball would have hit the wicket.

As best as I can tell, this means that you are out as a batter if you intentionally let the ball hit you.

In summary, my first step in understanding cricket is to learn that it can be enjoyable to watch even if you don't know why certain things are going on.