Research Seminar – Colour at the National Gallery (2014)
National Gallery Partnership Lecture at the Bowland Auditorium, Berrick Saul Building, York, 10 March 2014
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Dr Caroline Campbell, Curator of Italian Paintings before 1500 and Loans Curator at the National Gallery, London, gave a research seminar in York on 10 March 2014 on ‘Colour at the National Gallery’.
In light of the National Gallery exhibition Making Colour (18 June – 7 September 2014), Dr Campbell discussed the translation of abstract concepts into physical reality, albeit the ephemeral one of a temporary exhibition, through asking the question of whether one can attempt to convey such a complex subject as Colour in a six-room exhibition.
The talk also addressed the more philosophical questions of why one should even embark on such a perilous enterprise and why such exhibitions matter to the discipline of art history.
![Sassoferrato, The Virgin in Prayer (1640-50), oil on canvas; National Gallery](assets/Uploads/2014-ng-researchseminar-1.jpg)
Sassoferrato, The Virgin in Prayer (1640-50), oil on canvas; National Gallery, London (http://bit.ly/2ucHpFC)
![Rachel Ruysch, Flowers in a Vase (c.1685), oil on canvas; National Gallery](assets/Uploads/2014-ng-researchseminar-2.jpg)
Rachel Ruysch, Flowers in a Vase, c.1685, oil on canvas; National Gallery, London
![Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, Combing the Hair ("La Coiffure"),National Gallery](assets/Uploads/2014-ng-researchseminar-3.jpg)
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, Combing the Hair ("La Coiffure") (c.1896), oil on canvas; National Gallery, London (http://bit.ly/2uerBE8)
Main image: The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise (detail), by Giovanni di Paolo (1445), tempera and gold on wood; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York www.metmuseum.org (http://bit.ly/2uFNT2f)