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...
We'll start off this month by going back to Tuscany in the early 14th century, to the beginnings of modern western European painting. Duccio and Simone Martini were among those in the city of Siena reinventing art. There are more than 100 exhibits in Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350, which runs from March 8 to June 22 at the National Gallery in London. The show was previously on at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and reviews were generally very good.
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There's a second show opening later in the month at the National, and it's quite an exotic one, devoted to a 19th-century Mexican artist whose work has not been shown in Britain before. José María Velasco: A View of Mexico, running from March 29 to August 17, features sweeping landscapes by a painter who was interested not only in the natural world but in the rapid modernisation of his country.
Just around the corner at the National Portrait Gallery, there's a rather more conventional draw: Edvard Munch Portraits. On from March 13 to June 15, the show includes more than 40 works from collections across Scandinavia and elsewhere, featuring the Norwegian's portraits of family, collectors and close friends, a perhaps lesser-known aspect of his output.
The Wallace Collection is marking Grayson Perry's 65th birthday with a show presenting more than 40 new works, including ceramics and tapestries, alongside pieces from the gallery that have inspired him. Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur is intended to raise questions about making and collecting art, and it's on from March 28 to October 26.
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Now for two exhibitions at Charleston in East Sussex: First up at Charleston Farmhouse near Firle from March 8 is Inventing Post-Impressionism: Works from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham. The Barber is currently closed for rebuilding, and so work by artists such as Cezanne, Pissarro, Renoir and van Gogh can be seen alongside pieces from Charleston's own collection until November 2.
Then, at the newish Charleston venue in Lewes, there's Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour from March 26 to September 21. With more than 100 pieces on display, this is the largest exhibition ever devoted to Bell, one of the key names in early 20th-century British art, a leading figure in the Bloomsbury group and of course a resident of Charleston Farmhouse. The show comes to Sussex from the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, where reviews weren't entirely positive.
Let's cross the Channel for some Baroque drama. To Rome first of all, where there's a blockbuster exhibition at the Palazzo Barberini entitled Caravaggio 2025. They promise some of Caravaggio's most celebrated paintings, as well as new discoveries and works that are normally difficult to get access to. With loans from both sides of the Atlantic, this show runs from March 7 to July 6.
And to see what a woman can do with similar subject matter, head to the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris for Artemisia Gentileschi. With around 40 works by the most celebrated female painter of the Baroque, Artemisia: Heroine of Art is on from March 19 to August 3. Again, we're promised rare loans and newly attributed works. 
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Grayson Perry. © Richard Ansett, shot exclusively for the Wallace Collection, London
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), Judith and Her Maidservant, c. 1615, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria Palatina, Florence. Image: Su concessionne del Ministera della Cultura
Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Seated Woman with Bent Knees, 1917. © Národní Galerie, Prague, Photo: National Gallery Prague 2024
Staying in Paris, we'll fast-forward to the 19th century for two new exhibitions at the Musée d'Orsay. The museum's staged a series of shows featuring Nordic artists (most recently, Harriet Backer), and now it's the turn of another Norwegian. On from March 25 to July 27, Christian Krohg (1852-1925): The People of the North features many works displaying Krohg's interest in social issues.
Meanwhile, from March 18 to July 6, you can see Art Is in the Street, which aims to immerse the visitor in the feeling of strolling through late 19th-century Paris with a collection of nearly 300 posters advertising anything and everything. Apparently the biggest ever such show, it will feature artists such as Bonnard, Mucha, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vallotton and Vuillard. Sounds very tempting.
More art from the same period and a little later can be seen at the Musée des impressionnismes in Giverny, which is playing host from March 28 to around 60 works from one of the most prominent of all private art collections. The Nahmad Collection: From Monet to Picasso also features Degas, Matisse, Redon, Renoir and others, and the show is on until June 29.
Egon Schiele died in 1918 at the age of only 28, even before the end of World War I. The relatively neglected final four years of his life are the focus of a new exhibition at Vienna's Leopold Museum, running from March 28 to July 13. Egon Schiele: Last Years will have about 130 artworks from Austrian and international collections, including Schiele's unfinished portrait of his friend Albert Paris von Gütersloh, on loan from Minneapolis.
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Images
Simone Martini (c. 1284-1344), The Virgin and Child, about 1326-27, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkGrayson Perry. © Richard Ansett, shot exclusively for the Wallace Collection, London
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), Judith and Her Maidservant, c. 1615, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria Palatina, Florence. Image: Su concessionne del Ministera della Cultura
Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Seated Woman with Bent Knees, 1917. © Národní Galerie, Prague, Photo: National Gallery Prague 2024
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