We must confess that religious paintings are not our favourite subject, and we've tended to regard Spanish Catholic art as being, well, just a little too religious to cope with. So we approached the Francisco de Zurbarán exhibition at the National Gallery in London with a certain amount of trepidation. A degree of contrition is due.... Yes, there were monks, altarpieces and lots of saints, but we were blown away by Zurbarán's ability to depict textures and fabrics and to convey an intensity of feeling. It's an absolutely excellent exhibition, full of truly beautiful paintings. Such religious art was intended to bring the faithful closer to God, to bridge the gap between Heaven and Earth, in an age when many could not read. Zurbarán was a master at it. Let's start with a saint: Just take a look at the fabrics, trimmings and gems in this picture. And the garments are even more striking when you are stood in front of this nearly life-size figure. This is Casild...
Christmas is coming, and so maybe your thoughts are set on one of those German Christmas markets, your chilled hands warmed by a glass of mulled wine. Head to Hamburg, and you can take in a top-class exhibition as well. Caspar David Friedrich: Art for a New Age starts at the Kunsthalle on December 15, marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of the leading German Romantic painter, a major retrospective with more than 60 paintings looking at the new relationship between man and nature that Friedrich explored at the start of the 19th century. It's on until April 1. We're big Friedrich fans, and we've already enjoyed one exhibition of his work this year, in Schweinfurt in northern Bavaria. .jpg)
But let's head back to London, stopping in first at the National Gallery for the first-ever exhibition dedicated to a neglected 15th-century Florentine painter. That's Francesco Pesellino: A Renaissance Master Revealed in a free show from December 7 to March 10. Pesellino worked with contemporaries including Fra Filippo Lippi and obtained commissions from the Medici family, but died at the early age of 35. The show aims to shed light on this little-known artist as a story-teller who filled his work with splendid detail.
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Pop Art isn't really known for its female practitioners, but one of the few who did make a mark in a very male genre was Pauline Boty. She died, however, from cancer in 1966 at the age of only 28. A show at Gazelli Art House in central London, Pauline Boty: A Portrait from December 1 to February 24, is the first retrospective of her work in a decade. .jpeg)
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Pauline Boty (1938-1966), Colour Her Gone, 1962, Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Rising Tide at Pourville (Marée montante à Pourville), 1882, Brooklyn Museum, New York. Photo: Brooklyn Museum
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At Firstsite in Colchester, there'll be the first major exhibition since 1975 of the work of Lucy Harwood (1893-1972), who studied at Cedric Morris's East Anglian School of Printing and Drawing. Partially paralysed after a botched operation, Harwood abandoned the promise of a career as a pianist to switch to painting, developing a Post-Impressionist style. With over 100 works, Lucy Harwood: Bold Impressions is a free show running from December 2 to April 14.
North of the border, the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh is showcasing The Printmaker's Art: Rembrandt to Rego from December 2 to February 25. Also starring in this exploration of 500 years of prints are Dürer, Goya, Hokusai, Picasso and Warhol.
One of the greatest of Italian Renaissance portrait painters is Giovanni Battista Moroni, and there's a major retrospective of his output on at the Gallerie d'Italia in Milan from December 6 to April 1. Moroni (1521-1580): A Portrait of His Time will have loans from major Italian and international collections and show the artist's pictures alongside those of his contemporaries, including Titian, Veronese and Lorenzo Lotto.
One of the greatest of Italian Renaissance portrait painters is Giovanni Battista Moroni, and there's a major retrospective of his output on at the Gallerie d'Italia in Milan from December 6 to April 1. Moroni (1521-1580): A Portrait of His Time will have loans from major Italian and international collections and show the artist's pictures alongside those of his contemporaries, including Titian, Veronese and Lorenzo Lotto.
At the Palazzo Zabarella in Padua, you can see From Monet to Matisse: French Moderns 1850-1950, a selection of around 60 works from the Brooklyn Museum in New York. This show has been touring in Asia and North America but now appears to be in Europe for the first time. Cezanne, Millet, Morisot and Sisley are among the other artists featured from December 16 to May 12.
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We've been to a few of those places Monet painted along the Normandy coast, and they're pretty spectacular, but do they measure up to the Engadine in south-eastern Switzerland? Gerhard Richter has taken holidays in the area for a quarter of a century, and more than 70 works from museums and private collections recording his fascination with the Alpine landscape will be on show there across three venues from December 16 to April 13. Gerhard Richter: Engadin can be seen at Hauser & Wirth and the Segantini Museum in St Moritz, as well as at the Nietzsche House in Sils Maria.
Images
Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), Moonrise over the Sea, 1822, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie. © bpk/Nationalgalerie, SMB/Jörg P AndersPauline Boty (1938-1966), Colour Her Gone, 1962, Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Rising Tide at Pourville (Marée montante à Pourville), 1882, Brooklyn Museum, New York. Photo: Brooklyn Museum
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