Holbein Exhibition, Tate Britain
Holbein in Britain exhibition - great collection of Holbein's portraits in Britain - all you would expect, Henry VIII, Princess Catherine of Denmark, Erasmus, Thomas More and family etc and much more.
Henry VIII
Usual art exhibition design - brown and dark red walls, short didactic panel on entry to room and small labels with a little bit of background. Hence if you know most of these paintings as I did, you do not learn very much but, of course, you get to see the originals. So, I don't think I now know much more about Holbein. Labels were a bit negligent too - for example the picture of Henry VII and Henry VIII does not give a clue who the 2 women are - Elizabeth of York and Jane Seymour - a little bit shocking.
Henry, VII and VIII, Elizabeth of York and Jane Seymour
I would speculate that Holbein must have been a little bored in London as virtually all his output is of portraits of people staying out at you or over your left hand shoulder - even the group portraits do not interact with each other, while if you look at his output abroad he is known as the German Raphael with a typical Renaissance output - and in the exhibition only a battle scene drawing and Noli Mi Tangere and 'the Old and New Testament' are in any way dynamic in composition as opposed to portraits.
The Allegory of the Old and New Law painting was worth the entrance fee in itself as I had not seen this before and it seems to sum up the new religious belief, on the one side is a gloomy, stormy apocalyptic old testament scene, on the other is a sunny optimistic, view of life now that Jesus had brought love and the conquest of death into the world -quite amazing.
Henry VIII
Usual art exhibition design - brown and dark red walls, short didactic panel on entry to room and small labels with a little bit of background. Hence if you know most of these paintings as I did, you do not learn very much but, of course, you get to see the originals. So, I don't think I now know much more about Holbein. Labels were a bit negligent too - for example the picture of Henry VII and Henry VIII does not give a clue who the 2 women are - Elizabeth of York and Jane Seymour - a little bit shocking.
Henry, VII and VIII, Elizabeth of York and Jane Seymour
I would speculate that Holbein must have been a little bored in London as virtually all his output is of portraits of people staying out at you or over your left hand shoulder - even the group portraits do not interact with each other, while if you look at his output abroad he is known as the German Raphael with a typical Renaissance output - and in the exhibition only a battle scene drawing and Noli Mi Tangere and 'the Old and New Testament' are in any way dynamic in composition as opposed to portraits.
The Allegory of the Old and New Law painting was worth the entrance fee in itself as I had not seen this before and it seems to sum up the new religious belief, on the one side is a gloomy, stormy apocalyptic old testament scene, on the other is a sunny optimistic, view of life now that Jesus had brought love and the conquest of death into the world -quite amazing.
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