A very female gaze | Paula Rego at the National Gallery
Crivelli's Garden IV, Paula Rego, 1990-1. Acrylic on canvas, 190 × 260.7×2cm © Ostrich Arts Ltd. Photo: The National Gallery, LondonThere’s double reason to go to the National Gallery this week, with one stunning temporary exhibition just opened, and another set to close.
First up, Crivelli’s Garden, the monumental mural created thirty years ago by the late Paula Rego, which has been placed in the same room as the piece that inspired it, the predella panel of an altarpiece by 15th-century Italian artist Carlo Crivelli, known as La Madonna della Rondine (The Madonna of the Swallow).
Rego’s work, until a recent refurbishment gracing the Sainsbury Wing Dining Room, stretches ten metres across and depicts female characters from the Bible, the Golden Legend (a medieval compilation of the lives of the saints) and other traditional folklore sources, reimagined through Rego’s very female gaze. These characterful women go about their business within a maze-like Portuguese garden, adorned with azulejo tiles.
It's not as dark as much of Rego’s work – she didn’t want to put anyone off their dinner, presumably – but this is a painting that demands a great deal of attention: viewing it (from right to left, oddly) is akin to watching a movie or reading a novel, full of hidden references and quirky detail. Genre? Magical realism, of course.
Between 1990 and 1992 Rego was the gallery’s first-ever Associate Artist, and she was given use of the artist’s studio, then in the basement of the gallery, and asked to produce work inspired by pieces in the collection, exhibited as Tales of the National Gallery in the Sunley Room between December 1991 and March 1992. The commission for Crivelli’s Garden was an addition to this brief. The women depicted are inspired by the Virgin Mary, Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret, Saint Cecilia, Mary Magdalene, Judith and Delilah, who share the garden with figures from mythology and folklore. Rego used her friends and family as models, as well as National Gallery members of staff. The exhibition includes drawings from those sittings, as well as sketches for the final piece, drawn from her collection. Planning for the show was already underway when Rego died in June 2022. It runs until October 29.
If you’re quick, you can double it up with a viewing of St Francis of Assisi, which closes on Sunday July 30. This fine show explores how the medieval Umbrian mystic has inspired artists, from the 13th century to the present day, and how his spiritual radicalism, religious tolerance and love of nature are still of enormous relevance to our time. It brings together works from the National’s collection, by the likes of Botticelli and Zurbaran, with international loans of pieces by Caravaggio, Stanley Spencer, Antony Gormley and Giuseppe Penone (plus a new commission from Richard Long), as well as film clips from Zeffirelli, Fellini and Pasolini. There’s even the cover of a Marvel comic, dedicated to everyone’s favourite saint, titled Francis: Brother of the Universe. A must see, then… but be quick.