17th century
Artists in Amsterdam, Dulwich Picture Gallery review - a slight but evocative sketchWednesday, 28 August 2019
Done well, a one-room exhibition can be the very best sort, a small selection of paintings allowing the focused exploration of a single topic without the diluting effect of multiple rooms and objects. In this respect, Artists in Amsterdam rather... Read more... |
Charles I: Downfall of a King, BBC Four review - beheaded monarch upstaged by exotic presenterWednesday, 10 July 2019
“I want to discover how our government could fall apart and the country become bitterly divided in just a few weeks,” historian Lisa Hilton announced at the start of her BBC Four account of the traumatic demise of Charles I. In a mere 50 days in... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Treviso - cultural patronage, Italian styleFriday, 05 July 2019
Fortunate those Italian towns and cities whose Renaissance rulers looked to the arts to enrich their domain. Now neglect of cultural heritage can be laid at the doors of successive governments, but regional enlightenment can make a difference even... Read more... |
First Person: Liam Byrne on bringing Versailles to the City's 'Culture Mile'Saturday, 18 May 2019
When you dedicate your life to studying and performing on a musical instrument that essentially went extinct at the end of the 18th century, nostalgia plays a certain unavoidable role in your daily routine. I don't mean fetishistic historicism - I'm... Read more... |
Looking for Rembrandt, BBC Four review - painter's biog is a mini-masterpieceWednesday, 24 April 2019
This final episode of BBC Four's Looking for Rembrandt, exploring the life and work of the Netherlands’ greatest painter, was a mini-masterpiece in itself. We rejoined the story in the mid-1650s, when Rembrandt found that his days of popular acclaim... Read more... |
Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now, Gagosian Gallery review - old master, new waysTuesday, 16 April 2019
What are we to make of the two circles dustily inscribed in the background of Rembrandt’s c.1665 self-portrait? In a painting that bears the fruits of a life’s experience, drawn freehand, they might be a display of artistic virtuosity, or – more... Read more... |
The Crucible, The Yard Theatre review - wilfully over-stirredWednesday, 03 April 2019
The Crucible is a play that speaks with unrelenting power at times of discord, most of all when the public consciousness looks ripe for manipulation. Never more appropriate than now, you might think – and in a year in which the work of Arthur Miller... Read more... |
All Is True review - all's well doesn't end well in limp Shakespeare biopicSaturday, 09 February 2019
All may be true but not much is of interest in this Kenneth Branagh-directed film that casts an actor long-steeped in the Bard as a gardening-minded Shakespeare glimpsed in (lushly filmed) retirement. Seemingly conceived in order to persuade... Read more... |
The Double Dealer, Orange Tree Theatre review - high spirits and low moralsWednesday, 12 December 2018
It's been 40 years since The Double Dealer last had a major airing (indeed, perhaps any airing) in London, so on the basis of novelty value alone, the Orange Tree's end-of-year offering is worth our attention. But as always with Restoration comedy,... Read more... |
Macbeth, Shakespeare's Globe review - sexually-charged production draws power from the shadowsThursday, 15 November 2018
Macbeth has rarely seemed quite as metrosexual as in this gorgeous shadow-painted production that marks Globe artistic director Michelle Terry’s first production in the Sam Wanamaker theatre. Even in a play that walks the tightrope between its... Read more... |
Don Quixote rides again, and againWednesday, 07 November 2018
It’s a story of a mad old man who imagines himself to be a knight errant. On his quests he sees virgins in prostitutes and castles in roadside inns. His adventures have spawned an adjective that describes delusional idealism, typified by the... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Josquin, Calidore String Quartet, Ronn McFarlaneSaturday, 03 November 2018
Josquin: Missa Gaudeamus, Missa L’ami Baudichon The Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips (Gimell)That music composed in the 14th and 15th centuries can be enjoyed and performed today is mind-boggling. As is looking at one of Josquin des Préz’s... Read more... |
