Walker Art Gallery
For one of our art history lectures we went to the Walker Art Gallery.
The first and probably our lecturers favourite painting was 'Dante's Dream of the Death of Beatrice' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The painting Dante's Dream is based of the poem 'La Vita Nuova' by Dante Alighieri who has inspired many of Dante's paintings and in fact Rossetti changed his name to Dante after this poet. The poem shows a women Beatrice as the object of Dante's unfulfilled love and she is lying on her death bed whilst an angel holding Dante's hand kissed Beatrice, showing how Dante can't touch Beatrice during her last breath due his secret love for this young girl. The painting shows Beatrice as a red headed women wearing a white dress, the red hair shows that she was fiery and passionate, She's seen as a seductionist due to how men like Dante are drawn to her, however the white dress symbolises her innocence and purity. Beatrice's figure itself was modelled by Jane Morris the wife of Dante's close friend William Morris, who Dante was having an affair with. Above the bed of Beatrice there are two almost identical women wearing green and holding a canape, the green and the action of them holding this canape above Beatrice represents hope, a hope that Beatrice will go to heaven. On each side of the painting there are stair cases, one featuring going down representing hell and the other going up representing heaven, showing the two paths she may take.
Another piece we looked at was Simone Martini's 'Christ discovered in the temple' which featured a painting of Mary, Joseph and a moody teenage Jesus, in a wooden frame that was engraved and painted with gold leaf. The painting is based of the story of when Christ and his parents went to the Temple in Jerusalem and Jesus abandoned his parents to stay behind and teach among the scholars there. The painting almost shows a real parent and child relationship showing Jesus as a moody teenager being punished by his parents for abandoning them. Frankly I think this is hilarious and Simone is a bloody genius.
One of the paintings I really liked was Samira Addo's portrait of the scouse actress Kim Cattrall. The portrait has a modern abstracted element but what I found most interesting was its placement in the gallery. This painting was placed in room 5 of the gallery, which is a room filled with 17th century paintings, making this modern portrait stand out and look really out of place. I kind of liked the thought of it not belonging there yet it just stays there like whatup. Ye i like that.
Lubaina Himid was another artist who's art really stood out in her installation 'Naming the Money'. Her work shows many African life size figures placed around the Walker Art Gallery. The piece addresses how the Walker Art Galley was mainly funded by the money earned from enslaving African men and women and how this was disguised and glamorised.
The first and probably our lecturers favourite painting was 'Dante's Dream of the Death of Beatrice' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The painting Dante's Dream is based of the poem 'La Vita Nuova' by Dante Alighieri who has inspired many of Dante's paintings and in fact Rossetti changed his name to Dante after this poet. The poem shows a women Beatrice as the object of Dante's unfulfilled love and she is lying on her death bed whilst an angel holding Dante's hand kissed Beatrice, showing how Dante can't touch Beatrice during her last breath due his secret love for this young girl. The painting shows Beatrice as a red headed women wearing a white dress, the red hair shows that she was fiery and passionate, She's seen as a seductionist due to how men like Dante are drawn to her, however the white dress symbolises her innocence and purity. Beatrice's figure itself was modelled by Jane Morris the wife of Dante's close friend William Morris, who Dante was having an affair with. Above the bed of Beatrice there are two almost identical women wearing green and holding a canape, the green and the action of them holding this canape above Beatrice represents hope, a hope that Beatrice will go to heaven. On each side of the painting there are stair cases, one featuring going down representing hell and the other going up representing heaven, showing the two paths she may take.
Another piece we looked at was Simone Martini's 'Christ discovered in the temple' which featured a painting of Mary, Joseph and a moody teenage Jesus, in a wooden frame that was engraved and painted with gold leaf. The painting is based of the story of when Christ and his parents went to the Temple in Jerusalem and Jesus abandoned his parents to stay behind and teach among the scholars there. The painting almost shows a real parent and child relationship showing Jesus as a moody teenager being punished by his parents for abandoning them. Frankly I think this is hilarious and Simone is a bloody genius. 
One of the paintings I really liked was Samira Addo's portrait of the scouse actress Kim Cattrall. The portrait has a modern abstracted element but what I found most interesting was its placement in the gallery. This painting was placed in room 5 of the gallery, which is a room filled with 17th century paintings, making this modern portrait stand out and look really out of place. I kind of liked the thought of it not belonging there yet it just stays there like whatup. Ye i like that. Lubaina Himid was another artist who's art really stood out in her installation 'Naming the Money'. Her work shows many African life size figures placed around the Walker Art Gallery. The piece addresses how the Walker Art Galley was mainly funded by the money earned from enslaving African men and women and how this was disguised and glamorised.
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