So the question to ask about the Michaelina Wautier exhibition at the Royal Academy in London must be: Is the hype about this recently rediscovered 17th-century woman painter justified? The answer: Yes, absolutely. She really does merit acknowledgement -- and not just because we recognise a woman working in a man's world. Her art shows she was extremely talented, producing superb canvases covering a diverse range of subject matter. What's more, she painted very large pictures featuring male nudes, such as Bacchus, despite her contemporaries thinking that was not the sort of thing a female artist could do. And her portraits are wonderfully lively and lifelike. This is Martino Martini, an Italian Jesuit missionary who travelled to China in the 1640s. It was painted in 1654, when Michaelina was around 40. Martini, who was staying at the Jesuit College in Brussels, is depicted wearing traditional Chinese silk court attire and a hat of fur and feathers. A rather substantial...
The Pre-Raphaelites -- their lives, their loves and their art -- have a lasting attraction, and The Rossettis at Tate Britain has got the blockbuster feel to it, with 150 paintings and drawings. It is, surprisingly, the first ever retrospective of poet and painter Dante Gabriel at the Tate, and the biggest show of his work in two decades. It's also the largest show in 30 years of art by his wife and model Lizzie Siddal and will in addition cover the life of Romantic poet Christina Rossetti and Dante's relationships with his muses Fanny Cornforth and Jane Morris. An immersive experience is promised, including spoken poetry. It's on from April 6 to September 24. There'll be some beautiful art to look at, even if we can't escape the feeling we've trodden similar ground a couple of times recently, here and there . A very different experience will be on offer over at Tate Modern in the shape of Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life . The Swede af Klint...