Sketches from the National Gallery

To me, visiting the National Gallery in London was like a dream come true. I had been reading David Hockney's "secret knowledge" before my trip (the examples in his book were mostly paintings in the National Gallery) and was very eager to see those paintings first hand. When I entered the central hall of the gallery and immediately noticed "the tailor", I realized I was in such a feast I hardly knew where to start.

Here are the sketches/impressions on some of the paintings I saw:

1. If I have to choose one painting to represent the National Gallery, I will pick "The Ambassadors".


The painting is large (one thing you can't see from reading books is size, though you know the dimension, you don't feel it), the two ambassadors are life size. The details in the painting are unbelievable. You feel you can actually walk into it. The symbolic meanings of the objects in the painting are interesting. The distorted skull is fun to detect (like a 3D picture, once you can see it it's never the same). I like those paintings with skulls (to remind you the mortality). I will probably do a self portrait with a skull beside me someday.

2. The Caravaggio paintings are smaller (slightly smaller than real life size) than I expected. It's interesting I would imagine them larger, probably because of their larger than life emotional impact. I visited the Irving Penn exhibition next door (in the National Portrait Gallery) and noticed he actually borrowed one composition of Caravaggio in his portrait of Richard Burton.



3. I wonder how the wonderful blue color was created in "The Virgin in Prayer". It's an unbelievable simple but powerful rendition of blue, white, and red. Just looking at the folds on the Virgin's robe makes me want to weep.



4. Though they are not famous, I love the "Four Elements". To me they show such buzzing themes of market place and suit the crazy globalized 21th century perfectly.

5. I am not a biblical painting fan, but I found the landscapes depicted in those 15-16th century paintings very interesting. In fact, I was shocked how surreal the landscape in Giovanni Bellini's "The Agony in the Garden" looked. The color scheme and the dream-like atmosphere actually reminded me Dali. I think I will never look at a Dali painting the same way again.

6. The Vermeer painting is a let-down. It is so small, as if the patron didn't pay Vermeer enough to buy paint so he has to cut down the size (probably to show off his skill too). Somehow it looks better in reproduction.

7. I wonder how the lighting condition can be recreated using studio light in "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump". It's such a wonderful depiction of the scientific movement. How come I have never seen any photo on modern science which gives me the same sense of suspense and wonder?