Painter at the court of Milan

The landmark Leonardo da Vinci exhibition in London, which examines his career as a painter in Milan, is thought to be one of the most popular art exhibitions ever. The National Gallery is showing more than half of all the surviving da Vinci paintings and seven paintings which have never been shown publicly before. These, alongside many drawings, offer a unique opportunity to compare his works and understand his influences.
I won't be able to travel to London to see it and I believe that tickets are now scarce so I was very pleased to see the exhibition catalogue book arrive in the OPU office last week.
The book focuses on the period in the 1480s and 1490s when Leonardo was working as a salaried court artist to Duke Ludovico Sforza in Milan. During this time, freed from the commercial pressures of Florence, Leonardo produced some of his most influential work. The book has large glossy illustrations and detailed analyses of these - his two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks, The Last Supper and The Lady with an Ermine together with details and drawn studies.
There are essays on Leonardo's service to the Duke of Milan, his painting technique and studies of other works in the catalogue.
Leonardo set a new standard when he was in Milan; his style became the visual language of the regime through his ideals of beauty and his theories of expression and character.

Leonardo da Vinci: painter at the court of Milan by Luke Syson (et al) is at NLS shelfmark OP4.211.2 and the National Gallery exhibition runs until 5th February 2012.

Antidote to brutality and vice

Anything containing "horror" in the title is of interest to my morbid curiosity, so that's why I took a closer look at Henry Cole and the chamber of horrors by Christopher Frayling.
Published by the Victoria and Albert Museum, this book details the origins and early history of the V&A. Henry Cole's gallery of false principles - which came to be known as the "chamber of horrors" - was the Museum's inaugural exhibition in 1852.
The book contains beautiful colour plates of the known surviving exhibits and explores the relationship between culture and society.
Cole, in his famous 1874 speech, said: "Schools of Art are there to instruct chiefly the young, but Museums are there to instruct the young and old...they are temples where all can worship in harmony; they teach good habits of order, and cleanliness and politeness...Museums are antidotes to brutality and vice."
Just like libraries!

(Photograph of Henry Cole by A J Melhuish, 1870. Museum no. 355-1886, from the V&A website)

Forests and gardens of South India

55 botanical drawings made for the forest conservator Hugh Cleghorn are being exhibited for the first time at Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. The exhibition is part of a series of drawings made by Indian artists for Scottish East India Company surgeons.
It runs until the 4th July; admission is free.

(photo credit: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh website)

Taste of Japan

I don’t know when it first started but it seems for a long time I have become more and more fascinated by Japanese culture. I thought for the month of June that the exhibition outside our office should demonstrate this. The books on display are from the Official Publications Collection, so yet again, it shows what a diverse collection of material we have, not just parliamentary papers and copies of Hansard.
One of the items is the Japanese Foreign Ministry a reference aid from the Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence,
Another item is Japanese art in detail from the British Museum, what an interesting book, it explains about Japanese art and goes into great detail describing Japanese art work in the British Museum.

The Tale of Genji is another book I have chosen and you can see on display the cover of this book. This ranks amongst the world’s greatest works of romantic works, it was written in the early eleventh century and had an enormous impact on Japanese literature, not just the wording but also the visual art.
The last book I want to point out is the British Museum book on Haiku poetry. Haiku poetry is short only seventeen syllables which normally consist of three phrases a five syllable phrase followed by a seven syllable phrase followed by another five syllables. When the strictest rules are followed there are three requirements, these are brevity, seasonal feeling and a cutting word, and this word can be placed at the end of any of the three lines.
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Why not try making up a Haiku or have a competition with your friends and colleagues.
I hope that you will enjoy this small exhibition and you will become as fascinated as myself on Japanese culture.

Christmas Cheer

If you have not already seen the small exhibition outside the Official Publications Unit in Causewayside then hurry along to it. It is entitled Christmas cheer and I searched our collection for items that have a festive feel.
There is a fantastic book from the Victoria and Albert collection, about Christmas lists, a book with headings inside that you can fill in and then consult each year to make a perfect Christmas.
There is also a book about festive dining, some wonderful recipes in this of times gone by.
There is a selection of Christmas cards produced by the NLS, I couldn’t display all of them but did enjoy looking through the collection.
I couldn’t forget to put two parliamentary papers in the display one from Westminster and one from the Scottish Parliament about Christmas trading.
I thoroughly enjoyed looking through the Official Publications collection and I found the most amazing things.
Watch out for future displays.
Merry Christmas to all.

OPU exhibition

Thousands of events are taking place over Edinburgh just now ....the fringe has arrived. However, there is one small event that you will love to see and that is the Offical Publications Exhibition. It is taking place at the National Library of Scotland for the month of August and it is a display entitled Celebrating a Decade of the Scottish Parliament.
Elaine Simpson and Catherine Davies have put a small collection of items together the display cases, outside the reading rooms.
Items on display will be a quiz about the Scottish Parliament, an item in Scots language, code of conduct for the Ministers and other interesting items from the Scottish Parliament first decade.