An art exhibition and a weekend away.

On Friday John and I visited the National Gallery in London to see the, Siena: The Rise of Painting exhibition. Friday was very hot and although we visited in the morning the underground (tube) was unpleasant, with too many people and struggling air conditioning. In Trafalgar Square there was a free musical being performed in preparation for the weekend. They were singing Meatloaf songs so I joined in with everyone till we reached the gallery. West End Live takes place over the weekend and top west End shows would be performing. You can see the recordings from the weekend Here

As the name of the exhibition suggests the artwork was old but very good, with work from 1300 to 1350.  The exhibition was organised by the National Gallery  London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Much of the art was 'devotional' and there were a lot of painting and statues of saints and the Virgin Mary. This period is the beginning of Renaissance. I didn't take many picture as the gallery was very dimly lit to protect the artwork. 

This first piece is a small diptych of the glorification of the Virgin and the Crucifixion. Pairing the two was quite common at the time. This piece is made of ivory, very small and delicate which is what drew me to it.

My second choice is a triptych with the Virgin and Child, Saint Dominic and Saint Aurea on either side and  Patriarchs and Prophets above the Virgin. This was painted by Duccio in 1312- 15? and it is considered one of his finest work.

There were some textiles in the exhibition that I was interested in . The age of the pieces was fascinating. How had they survived so long?

This piece of textile, faded red silk with a large palmette design was from central Asia and was made in the late 13th to mid 14th century . This type of textile was highly prized. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do justice to the beauty of this piece of textile.

Next is a carpet that would have been used indoors and outdoors for ceremonial furnishings. Carpets like this were very expensive, luxury items and integral to royal interiors. These carpets led artists to include them in their artwork to show the importance of the Virgin Mary and the saints.

The remaining textile were small scraps of fabric but still managed to show the beauty of the design. Unfortunately they did not show up well on photos as the rooms were dark and although you could take photos, flash was not allowed. You will have to take my word that they were delicate and very beautiful. 

John had wanted to visit this exhibition and we had added it into our weekend itinerary as it was finishing on June 22.  Later in the day we left London for our weekend away. We usually stop on the way to visit somewhere or something but this time we drove directly to our hotel.

On Saturday we decided to visit Montacute House. This is a National Trust property in South Somerset. The Elizabethan house was built at the end of the 16th Century. Currently only the ground floor of the house is open but it also has a beautiful garden and parkland. We visited the house first. We took a walk through the parkland and looked back towards the house to take this photo,

The house had a lot of windows of varying sizes and shapes. It made the interior nice and light.

The tapestry below is a copy of the original tapestry from the house. It is interesting as it depicts many items of wildlife from around the world, putting animal and birds together when in reality the lived in different countries.

In one room there was some beautiful tapestry. The light in this room was very dim to help preserve the tapestry

Having visited the house we decided to take one of the parkland walks and so headed off to go to the top of St Michael's Hill. The day was rather warm for walking up steep hills so we took it slowly. When we reached the top we had a good view of the surrounding area, although there was a heat haze. There was a variety of wildflowers to enjoy and the gentle hum of bees.

At the top of the hill there was a folly or Prospect Tower which stands at 60 feet tall, and was built in 1760 

We walked back down to the village and we headed to the cafe for tea and cake before returning to our hotel.  It was a very enjoyable day out.

On Sunday we visited Midsommer Quilting, my favourite quilt shop. Whether I need fabric or not this is a must when I am in the area. I did buy some fabric.

This slow stitching fabric was just too cute to miss. I don't have a plan for it yet but I have several ideas in my head.

My final purchase was this white transfer paper. I'm hoping this will be very useful for transferring sashiko patterns. It is expensive but will be worth it if it works well.

We had  slow journey home, stopping here and there as we fancied. I love our weekends away together.

Take care

Lyndsey