Spectacular Overview of Catherine the Great

Wednesday 29th August 2012

The National Museum of Scotland has been truly canny in securing a wonderful loan exhibition “Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress” which continues to 21 October. This is the third collaboration between the Museum and St Petersburg’s State Hermitage. A remarkable series of loans across all major areas of the Empress’s interests have been brought together, all very well explained in the excellent accompanying catalogue. The portraits on display are splendid as are the various examples of the decorative arts she so assiduously commissioned, none more so that the spectacular “Green Frog Service” made for her by Wedgwood in 1774. Should this display of Russian taste whet your appetite, you can develop your knowledge by joining our visit “The Romanovs: St Petersburg & the Arts” which will take place 23 – 29 September next year.

Wonderful Exhibition on Renaissance Master

Wednesday 29th August 2012

Raphael is one of the most important artists in the history of art. Umbrian by training, Florentine by influence, he came to full maturity when he moved to Rome in 1508. While there have been many exhibitions devoted to this artist in the past, an unprecedented opportunity has come along to study his most complex period from about 1513 to his early death in 1520, aged 37. Just about to close at Madrid’s Prado (16 September) the exhibition, Raphael in Rome, The Mature Years, then transfers to Paris where you can visit it at the Louvre between 11 October and 14 January, early next year and do remember to purchase your tickets in advance! While his frescoes painted in Rome cannot form part of the exhibition, the organisers have managed to secure almost all the major works painted during these years. This is an opportunity that will not occur again in our lifetimes, so hurry along! You might also like to see Raphael in situ in The Vatican next year when we shall visit his famous frescoes, privately at night, during our “Behind Closed Doors: Connoisseur’s Rome” visit, 24 – 28 February 2013.