A tour of the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery
Housed in the Gallery’s newer Sainsbury Wing, the collection contains some of the truly great works of the Renaissance period with pieces by artists such as Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, Sandro Botticelli and Giovanni Bellini.
Cave, the Principal of Hampstead Fine Arts College, was in her element. Her knowledge and ability to bring each picture to life, setting each work within its own historical, political and artistic context was fascinating for everyone on the tour. Cave had carefully created a route through the gallery to give her audience a sense of the chronology of the early Renaissance, starting with The Virgin Enthroned with Narrative Scenes (c.1267) by Margarito D’Arezzo – the earliest painting in the National Gallery – and finishing with The Virgin and the Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist (1499-1500) by Leonard da Vinci, via one of Cave’s eight ‘Desert Island Paintings’, Masaccio’s Virgin and Child (1426).
It was hugely rewarding to tour the Sainsbury Wing with someone with such an extensive knowledge and love of the Renaissance period. One parent said: “Candida was astounding. What an immense privilege to view these works of art with someone like her. I am going to be sure to join every tour that she does with the Dukes Club.”
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