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...
If you're interested in social history, you'll find much to enjoy in The 1920s: Beyond the Roar , the new free exhibition at the National Archives in Kew. The starting point is the 1921 census of England and Wales, the full record of which has just been made public. The exhibition shines a light on various aspects of the 20s through the census and its statistics and the Archives' vast holdings of documents, as well as photographs and film. The decade was an age of major change, technological and social, and those changes were in part the result of World War I and the terrible bloodshed during more than four years of conflict. More than 700,000 British soldiers died, but when the surviving Tommies came marching home after November 1918, it was a very different world they were returning to. There were fewer men, for one thing. On census night in England and Wales in 1921, they counted just under 18.1 million males -- but 19.8 million females. While men were away dying in...