Opening and Closing in February

The big new show in London this month is Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance at the Victoria & Albert Museum, starting on February 11. Donatello created a revolution in sculpture in 15th-century Florence, and this show, with some 130 objects, includes much work that has never been seen in the UK before. It's the last in a series of interlinked exhibitions following shows in Florence and Berlin that were highly praised. On until June 11. 

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford takes us to ancient Crete beginning on February 10 for Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality. The palace of Knossos was the centre of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization, and legend had it that an enormous labyrinth was built there to hold the Minotaur, a creature half-man, half-bull. This exhibition includes more than 100 objects that have never left Greece before as well as two immersive experiences. It runs until July 30.

Curiously, the new show at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is also about the ancient Mediterranean: Crete, Cyprus and Sardinia. Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean, from February 24 to June 4, presents more than 200 objects thousands of years old, many on display in Britain for the first time, including figurines described as the "terracotta army of Cyprus". Entry is free. 

Compton Verney in Warwickshire is devoting a show to a Tudor Mystery: A Master Painter Revealed. The gallery's portrait of Thomas Knyvett is by an artist known as the Master of the Countess of Warwick, and this exhibition looks into the world of Tudor art and seeks to discover the real identity of the painter. The show, on from February 4 to May 7, includes work from public and private collections across the UK, and it's being put on in partnership with Philip Mould, known for the TV series Fake or Fortune. 

The biggest draw among all this year's exhibitions across Europe? There's very little competition for the blockbuster Johannes Vermeer show at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. We've got our tickets, and you should probably book too if you want to be sure of seeing it. It's the biggest ever assembly of Vermeer's paintings, with 28 of the 35 or so pictures now attributed to him on display. Opening hours have been extended at the Rijksmuseum; it's on from February 10 to June 4. 

Vermeer came, of course, from Delft, and the Museum Prinsenhof in the city is holding a complementary exhibition over the same dates about Vermeer's Delft. The show will feature pictures by Vermeer's contemporaries, Delft pottery and tapestry and archive material to recreate the artistic and social scene in the city in the mid-17th century. The last exhibition we saw at the Prinsenhof was a fantastic retrospective of that other great Delft artist, and indeed Vermeer's contemporary, Pieter de Hooch.   

 

There was another Dutch 17th-century artist who produced enigmatic genre paintings with the initials JV, and he gets a first-ever exhibition at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, beginning on February 16. Jacobus Vrel: Forerunner of Vermeer is someone who's long been shrouded in mystery, and his intriguing works often feature a woman seen from behind, looking through a window. This show has 13 of the 50 or so paintings Vrel is known to have made and features a lot of new research. On till May 29, after which it moves to the Fondation Custodia in Paris.

Staying in the Golden Age, the Hermitage in Amsterdam is showing Rembrandt & His Contemporaries: History Paintings from the Leiden Collection, one of the most significant private collections of Dutch art. The 35 pictures include works by Jan Steen and Samuel van Hoogstraten, and the show runs from February 4 to August 27.

Elsewhere in Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum is marking its 50th anniversary this year, and the first of a series of celebratory exhibitions is Choosing Vincent, telling the story of the support the artist received in his lifetime from his brother Theo and of how his reputation and the gallery's collection were established through the efforts of Theo's widow Jo and their son, also named Vincent. On from February 10 to April 10. 

It's the 125th anniversary of the birth of MC Escher, the Dutch master of optical illusion. At the Kunstmuseum in The Hague, Escher -- Other World combines his prints with a series of installations that invite you to step into Escher's creations. On from February 18 to September 10. Also from February 18, and running until October 1 at Escher in the Palace, the permanent display of his work in The Hague, is an exhibition introducing you to his mentor: The Man who Discovered Escher: Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. 

It's absolutely fascinating to explore the extent to which Gustav Klimt drew ideas and motifs from the work of other contemporary artists, as we discovered at the Van Gogh Museum in the autumn. That show now moves on the Belvedere in Vienna from February 3 to May 29. Klimt: Inspired by Van Gogh, Rodin, Matisse.... also has pictures by Whistler, Monet, Alma-Tadema; about 90 works in total. 

Opening at the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg on February 11 is Gabriele Münter: The Human Image, with around 100 works concentrating on the German Expressionist's portraiture. The show continues until May 21. 

There are around 80 works from more than 30 lenders in The Sun: Source of Light at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam. Rubens, Turner and Caspar David Friedrich are among the artists in this exploration of the key role the Sun has played in European art down the centuries. This collaboration with the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris can be seen from February 25 to June 11. 

And there's another big single-theme exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Munich; Flowers Forever: Flowers in Art and Culture assembles around 170 works for a comprehensive sweep through art history from the ancient Egyptians through Dutch still life and the Victorians to the present day. It runs from February 3 to August 27, and another version of the show will brighten up the autumn at the Musée des impressionismes in Giverny from late September. 

Finally, transferring from London's National Gallery to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Madrid on February 14 is Lucian Freud: New Perspectives, a retrospective of Freud's career that encompasses around 50 works made over seven decades. It's on until June 18. 

Last chance to see....

The engrossing and very entertaining Objects of Desire show, exploring the influence of Surrealism on design over more than 100 years, closes at London's Design Museum on February 19. There's Dalí, Magritte and quite a lot of surprises in store. 

Images

Donatello, Pazzi Madonna, c. 1420, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. Photo: Antje Voigt, Berlin
Johannes Vermeer, Woman with a Pearl Necklace, c. 1662-64, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Gustav Klimt, Eugenia Primavesi, 1913, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
Salvador Dalí, Lobster Telephone, 1938. Photo: West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, West Sussex. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, DACS 2022