It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: the chance to see one of the greatest -- and most fragile -- works of European art before your very eyes. The illustrated manuscript known as the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry contains images that have shaped our view of the late Middle Ages, but it's normally kept under lock and key at the Château de Chantilly, north of Paris. It's only been exhibited twice in the past century. Now newly restored, the glowing pages of Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry are on show to the public for just a few months. "Approche, approche," the Duke of Berry's usher tells the visitors to the great man's table for the feast that will mark the start of the New Year. It's also your invitation to examine closely the illustration for January, one of the 12 months from the calendar in this Book of Hours -- a collection of prayers and other religious texts -- that form the centrepiece of this exhibition in Chantilly. It's su...
Grinling Gibbons: indisputably Britain's most outstanding woodcarver. Petworth House in West Sussex has one of the greatest examples of his work in its Carved Room , but while that's a breathtaking ensemble of wall decorations and elaborate picture frames, it's not necessarily always so easy to pick out the fine detail of a carving several feet above your head in the subdued lighting of a National Trust stately home. That's the reason why Centuries in the Making at Bonhams in London is such an eye-opener. Here you encounter Gibbons' extraordinary skills up really close, the intricacies and the subtleties of the carving highlighted and spotlit. This exhibition, part of a year of events to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Gibbons' death, is only on in the West End free of charge for a few weeks this August, but it will be heading to Compton Verney in Warwickshire in the autumn for an extended run. This is one of the smallest objects in this exhibition, but...