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...
He was only 25 when he died in 1898, yet Aubrey Beardsley's sensuous, subversive and often risqué drawings are among the most memorable images of the late Victorian era. An exhibition opening on March 4 at Tate Britain in London will be the largest to showcase his original works since the mid-1960s. It runs through until May 25.
Over at Tate Modern, the doors open on March 12 on Andy Warhol. The show will feature more than 100 works from across Warhol's colourful career, with images from Marilyn Monroe to Lenin and Mao, not forgetting the odd can of Campbell's soup. On for not just 15 minutes, but almost six months, through to September 6.
In the middle of the 16th century, King Philip II of Spain commissioned Titian to paint a series showing Classical myths. The six pictures, dubbed by Titian "poesie" because he saw them as the visual equivalents of poetry, are being reunited for the first time in 400 years for an exhibition at London's National Gallery called Titian: Love, Desire, Death. The show runs from March 16 to June 14, and will then travel on to Edinburgh, Madrid and Boston.
The current closure of the Ordrupgaard Museum in Copenhagen for building work means London gets the chance to appreciate some of the fantastic art you can normally see in the Danish capital. Sixty of its extensive collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works are going on show at the Royal Academy. Gauguin and the Impressionists: Masterpieces from the Ordrupgaard Collection runs from March 29 to June 14.
At the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London, The Enchanted Interior features work by more than 50 artists that depicts women in enclosed and ornate spaces. There are paintings by Pre-Raphaelites and Orientalists, including Edward Burne-Jones and John Frederick Lewis, as well as contemporary responses to the theme. It's on from March 13 to June 14.
The National Portrait Gallery's new show takes us back to the 1920s and 30s to the brittle yet brilliant society of Cecil Beaton's Bright Young Things. As well as Beaton's photographs, there'll be paintings by the likes of Rex Whistler and Augustus John. March 12 to June 7.
They've already got an eye on the inter-war years at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich in the Art Deco by the Sea show but now they're going back a couple of decades to explore Art Nouveau: The Nature of Dreams. On from March 29 to September 13, this exhibition features the work of René Lalique, Edgar Degas, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Alphonse Mucha among others.
A contemporary of Eric Ravilious and Edward Burra, Barnett Freedman is the subject of the new show at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. Barnett Freedman: Designs for Modern Britain looks at how he became one of the country's most sought-after and prolific commercial artists. On from March 14 to June 14.
The big exhibition opening on the Continent in March is in Rome, marking 500 years since the death of Raphael at the age of just 37. The show at the Scuderie del Quirinale will bring together more than 200 works and is due to run from March 5 to June 2. More than 70,000 advance tickets have already been sold, the gallery says.
Over to Paris now, where at the Musée d'Orsay, an exhibition begins on March 24 under the title James Tissot's Ambiguous Modernity. Made towards the end of the 19th century, Tissot's society paintings seem strikingly at odds with the new vision offered by his contemporaries, the Impressionists. The show continues to July 19.
At the Grand Palais, we go back two millennia to Pompeii, for an immersive exhibition that aims to recreate the streets of the city in three dimensions using the latest technology and incorporating recent archaeological findings. March 25 to June 8.
Hopefully, the weather will be improving by March 27, because it's time to head out of town and celebrate the art of painting en Plein Air: From Corot to Monet at the Musée des Impressionismes in Giverny. There's Turner, Boudin and Constable too, and the show runs until June 28, part of the 2020 Normandie Impressioniste season.
Ending on March 8 is Troy: Myth and Reality at the British Museum in London. There's no doubting the epic nature of this show, but we have to say we found it somewhat confusing, hard to navigate and a bit underwhelming.
And there's one other exhibition to mention this month: Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing comes to an end at the Queen's Gallery in Edinburgh on March 15. This is a scaled-down version of the illuminating show we saw in London last year.
Titian, Danae, probably 1554–56, Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London. © Stratfield Saye Preservation Trust
Albert Moore, Pomegranates, 1866, Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London
Filippo Albacini, The Wounded Achilles, 1825, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
In the middle of the 16th century, King Philip II of Spain commissioned Titian to paint a series showing Classical myths. The six pictures, dubbed by Titian "poesie" because he saw them as the visual equivalents of poetry, are being reunited for the first time in 400 years for an exhibition at London's National Gallery called Titian: Love, Desire, Death. The show runs from March 16 to June 14, and will then travel on to Edinburgh, Madrid and Boston.
At the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London, The Enchanted Interior features work by more than 50 artists that depicts women in enclosed and ornate spaces. There are paintings by Pre-Raphaelites and Orientalists, including Edward Burne-Jones and John Frederick Lewis, as well as contemporary responses to the theme. It's on from March 13 to June 14.
They've already got an eye on the inter-war years at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich in the Art Deco by the Sea show but now they're going back a couple of decades to explore Art Nouveau: The Nature of Dreams. On from March 29 to September 13, this exhibition features the work of René Lalique, Edgar Degas, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Alphonse Mucha among others.
A contemporary of Eric Ravilious and Edward Burra, Barnett Freedman is the subject of the new show at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. Barnett Freedman: Designs for Modern Britain looks at how he became one of the country's most sought-after and prolific commercial artists. On from March 14 to June 14.
The big exhibition opening on the Continent in March is in Rome, marking 500 years since the death of Raphael at the age of just 37. The show at the Scuderie del Quirinale will bring together more than 200 works and is due to run from March 5 to June 2. More than 70,000 advance tickets have already been sold, the gallery says.
Over to Paris now, where at the Musée d'Orsay, an exhibition begins on March 24 under the title James Tissot's Ambiguous Modernity. Made towards the end of the 19th century, Tissot's society paintings seem strikingly at odds with the new vision offered by his contemporaries, the Impressionists. The show continues to July 19.
At the Grand Palais, we go back two millennia to Pompeii, for an immersive exhibition that aims to recreate the streets of the city in three dimensions using the latest technology and incorporating recent archaeological findings. March 25 to June 8.
Hopefully, the weather will be improving by March 27, because it's time to head out of town and celebrate the art of painting en Plein Air: From Corot to Monet at the Musée des Impressionismes in Giverny. There's Turner, Boudin and Constable too, and the show runs until June 28, part of the 2020 Normandie Impressioniste season.
Last chance to see....
Images
Aubrey Beardsley, The Slippers of Cinderella, 1894, Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, University of Delaware Library, Museums and PressTitian, Danae, probably 1554–56, Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London. © Stratfield Saye Preservation Trust
Albert Moore, Pomegranates, 1866, Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London
Filippo Albacini, The Wounded Achilles, 1825, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
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