Royal treasures and Raspberry Pi – the week in art

Jonathan Jones

Friday, 01 Mar 2013

# Art

The Design Museum wants to get its hands on your computer, while the V&A uncovers Elizabeth I's Russian connection – all in your weekly art roundup

Exhibition of the week: Treasures of the Royal Courts – Tudors, Stuarts and Russian Tsars

This exhibition has a misleading title: it sounds like brainless treasure-gazing but is in fact an exploration of diplomatic and cultural connections between England and far-off Russia in the Renaissance. A collaboration with the Moscow Kremlin Museum, it sets the finery of 16th-century tsars against the artistic riches of Elizabeth I's court. As well as lots of gold and silver, it includes some of the greatest miniatures painted by artists such as Nicholas Hilliard, the wonderful Hampden portrait of a young Elizabeth, and gifts sent by her to the tsar.

• V&A, London SW7, from 9 March until 14 July

Other exhibitions this week

Simon Starling
An exploration on the frontiers of art and science, Starling's Black Drop is a film of the 2012 transit of Venus, the last occurrence of this astronomical wonder in our lifetimes.
• Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, until 24 March

Yinka Shonibare
Outstanding survey of this artist's recent work, including an opera film, fighting foxes and colossal outdoor sculptures.
• Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Yorkshire, from 2 March until 1 September

Chuck Close
One of the best artists of our time continues his odyssey around the mysteries of the human face.
• White Cube Bermondsey, London SE1, from 6 March until 21 April

Hans Josephsohn
Pungent, awkward, memorable works by a powerful modern sculptor.
• Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, until 14 April

Masterpiece of the week

Thomas Gainsborough, Mr and Mrs Andrews, about 1750
They are rich. The land is theirs. So is the game shot on it. But the sky? That billowing moist veil of greys and blues is a luxury they share with the poorest in England.
• National Gallery, London WC2N