Leonardo 500 in Bristol (and some other art)

It's 500 years since Leonard da Vinci died, and as part of recognising that and celebrating his life and genius, the Queen's collection is lending some of her collection of his drawings to 12 museums or galleries around the UK, one of which is the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery,which has been loaned 12 of the pictures, and on Sunday, on a whim, I went to see it .

It is a small exhibit (12 pictures! ) but well worth seeing. You were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibition, but there are photos on the Royal Collection's website (here)

My favourite was a little sketch of cats (and  one random dragon)

After seeing the Leonardos, I looked around the rest of the museum, which has a small section of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including a child's tunic, which is around 1,500 years old!

The tunic was a shroud - apparently ancient Egyptian children mostly went naked, in day to day life.


There is an aeroplane hanging in the main hall - it's a replica of a Bristol Boxkite, which were built in in Biostol between 1910 and 1914 . The replica was one of several built for the making of the film ' Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines'  , in 1965.

The museum also includes a small but well stocked art gallery, with a Gainsborough, Stubbs,a BurneJones, Alma-Tadema and a Damien Hurst.

The Garden Court, Edward Burne Jones

La Belle Dame Sans Merci  - Frnak Dicksee

  

Unconcious Rivals - Alma Tadema

Beautiful Hours - Damien Hurst 

I enjoyed my visit.

More Art

The AFP art show wasn't the only one I went to while I was in London; having a morning free after the gig, I looked into what exhibitions were on, and then headed down to The Queen's Gallery (which is tucked round the back of Buckingham Palace), where  there was an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings.

They were absolutely fascinating, and beautiful. The drawings in the collection cover quite a lengthy period in da Vinci's life, and the exhibition explained how in the early sketches, he was very much influenced by the accepted wisdom about anatomy - showing, for instance, a man's spine connecting to his penis, and the woman's spine going into the womb, then in later works showing much more accurate pictures, although in some cases with inaccuracies based on extrapolation from animal dissections (animals presumably being easier to get hold of than people)

The exhibition also had side by side comparisons - modern medical models displayed along side Leonardo's drawings, which showed how accurate his observations were. Amazing.

In Which There is More Culture

Afer the HyperComics exhibition I had planned to go the the Natural history Museum, where I'd heard tell of a Giant Kntted Squid (or possibly a knitted Giant Squid) but when I got there I found that the relevent exhibition cost £8 and had a huge queue.

I could've coped with one or the other, but not both, so the Giant Knitted Squid will have to remain a mystery.

Instead, I did go in for a short time, and admired some of the carvings and so on - I love that the building was designed to include representations of science and natural history, so that although it is a little like a cathedral, it is a cathedral adorned with wolves and rats and monkeys and octopi, instead of saints and demons.

However, the place was too overcrowded to be able to take much in, so after a very short time I headed next door to the V&A, where I spent a very soothing hour or so, mainly in the Medieval & Renaissance Galleries.

I found some lovely sculptures - this one of Alexander & Bucephalus, from 1515

There were also some lovely tapestries (although I missed the Raphael cartoons, as that exhibition doesn't open untilWednesday)

This one shows the Trojan War, and dates back to 1475.

And then I turned a corner an foun a little case, containing a note-book of Leonardo da Vinci...

There were, of course, also many statues, which I am sure at least one of you will enjoy...