Online art experience of the week
The Raphael Cartoons
A cartoon in the Renaissance meant a full-size design and came from cartone, the largest size paper you could buy. Raphael’s huge coloured drawings for tapestries to hang in the Sistine Chapel have been in Britain since the 17th century and at the V&A since the 19th. Now you can explore them in intimate, unprecedented visual detail using images recorded by Factum Foundation.
• Victoria and Albert Museum online.
Also showing
Back to Earth x WePresent
The Serpentine Gallery collaborates with WeTransfer on a new series of enhanced, immersive digital art encounters beginning with Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen.
• Serpentine Gallery online.
Jo Spence
A tour of this powerful and courageous artist’s work with Rising Arts Agency’s Manoel Akure.
• Arnolfini Gallery online.
Richard Hamilton
Michael Bracewell, Peter Saville and others in a podcast about the pioneering genius of pop – and digital – art, illuminating his central interest in the reproduced image in prints and other media.
• Cristea Roberts Gallery online.
Turner in January
The Scottish National Gallery’s annual new year show of Turner’s watercolours is happening online, with lovely detailed images of his invigorating and profound landscapes.
• National Galleries of Scotland online.
Image of the week
A new book explores the often overlooked role of black soldiers during the US civil war with striking and previously unseen images.
What we learned
A Madrid mural celebrating women was pitched into Spain’s culture wars
Artists in Paris have fallen on hard times
‘Iconic architecture’ is all the rage again
Charles McQuillan’s dramatic panoramas capture Belfast in lockdown
Thousands of people are finding solace in online life drawing …
… and you can now paint the wildlife of the Galápagos from your sofa
Front windows are the new galleries as famous artists encourage lockdown creativity
Australian artist Lucienne Rickard ended her 16-month mass extinction project
An exhibition in New York shares stories of LGBT+ seniors …
… while an international collective of artists is raising money for the NHS – plus other design news
Our Great British art tour visited Oxford, Thetford, Swindon, Bath and Liverpool
Roy Mehta’s pictures are a love letter to one of Europe’s most multicultural communities
Misan Harriman’s best shot is of Tom Cruise fist-bumping a rising star
A new photography book pays tributes to US civil war soldiers of colour
An A1 upgrade could mar views of Angel of the North, says its sculptor Antony Gormley
Fashion designer Zandra Rhodes told us about punk, pink hair and staying creative after cancer
Former YBA Michael Landry spoke about whether he regrets destroying everything he owned
Hillary Waters Fayle creates exquisite art by stitching colourful threads into leaves
Renowned textile artist Audrey Walker has died
Masterpiece of the week
Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School Spain circa 1640-45, studio of Diego Velázquez
The irony and unexpectedness of this painting is a great example of the way Spanish genius Diego Velázquez saw his complex world. It’s a charming portrait of a little prince on horseback, yet also much more. For one thing, the way Baltasar Carlos’s horse rears up mimics, even parodies, equestrian portraits of adult generals and nobles. The presence of a small man behind him to our left – Velázquez made many powerful portraits of the dwarves who were part of Spanish court life – draws attention to this irony of scale as a small boy on a small horse gets the regal treatment. On the other side of him stands a black attendant. Expanding outward, Velázquez reveals all the busy social goings on at the riding school behind the prince. It’s like a film suddenly panning back from the actors to show all the crew and studio bustle. But this tremendous epic gem, although bought in the 19th century as by Velázquez, is now classed as a lesser studio work. Is that true? Just look at the delicate brilliance with which the prince’s clothes are painted. The Wallace Collection is holding an online conference in early March to probe the quality and authorship of this arresting picture.
• Wallace Collection online.
Don’t forget
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