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...
Olafur Eliasson is very of the moment, isn't he? He wants to save the planet, and he hopes that if you go to see Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life at Tate Modern in London, the immersive art he's made that you encounter will heighten your sense of the world around you and make you even more minded to combat climate change. Of course, if you were planning to see this show in the first place, we suspect the chances are that you're already fairly environmentally aware. Eliasson wowed London with The Weather Project in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall back in 2003, and so, many of those flocking to this retrospective on the South Bank will be hoping for just as much wow this time round. Do they get it? Well, the best of the 40 or so works on show really do astonish and delight and surprise.... but to be honest, quite a few fall a bit flat. Perhaps that's because while most of these haven't been on display in Britain before, we have seen a fair number in the past, includ...