Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
Free, but suggested donation of £2, temporary (optional) exhibits ex-
tra,floorplan-£1;daily10:00-18:00,Friuntil21:00,lastentrytospecialexhibits45minutes
before closing; no photos, on Trafalgar Square, Tube: Charing Cross or Leicester Square.
Information:
Helpful£1floorplanavailablefrominformationdesk;freeone-hourover-
view tours leave from Sainsbury Wing info desk daily at 11:30 and 14:30, plus Fri at 19:00;
excellent £3.50 audioguides—choose from one-hour highlights tour, several theme tours,
or tour option that lets you dial up info on any painting in the museum; ArtStart com-
puter terminals help you study any artist, style, or topic in the museum, and print out a
tailor-made tour map (mostly in the Espresso Bar, and a few more non-printing ones on
first floor of the Sainsbury Wing); info tel. 020/7747-2885, switchboard tel. 020/7839-3321,
Eating:
Consider splitting afternoon tea at the excellent-but-pricey National Dining
Rooms, on the first floor of the Sainsbury Wing. The National Café, located near the Getty
Entrance, also has afternoon tea.
Visiting the Museum:
Pick up the handy £1 map and approach the collection chronolo-
gically.InthemedievalandearlyRenaissanceroomsyou'llseeshinypaintingsofsaints,an-
gels, Madonnas, and crucifixions floating in an ethereal gold never-never land. Then comes
the Renaissance, where artists rediscovered the beauty of nature and the human body, ex-
pressingtheoptimismandconfidenceofthisnewage.LookforBotticelli's
VenusandMars
,
Michelangelo's
The Entombment
, Raphael's
Pope Julius II,
and Leonardo's
The Virgin of
the Rocks
.
Next seek out Northern Protestant art, in which Greek gods and Virgin Marys were out,
hometown folks and hometown places were in. Highlights include Vermeer's
A Young Wo-
man Standing at a Virginal
and Rembrandt's
Belshazzar's Feast.
The museum's outstand-
ing Baroque collection includes Van Dyck's
Equestrian Portrait of Charles I,
Velázquez's
TheRokebyVenus,
andCaravaggio's
TheSupperatEmmaus.
It'snosurprisethathometown
painters get lots of space here. The reserved British were more comfortable cavorting with
naturethanwiththeloftygods,asseeninConstable's
TheHayWain
andTurner's
TheFight-
ing Téméraire
.
Then,attheendofthe19thcentury,anewbreedofartistsburstoutofthestuffyconfines
of the studio. They donned scarves and berets and set up their canvases in farmers' fields
or carried their notebooks into crowded cafés, dashing off quick sketches in order to catch a
momentary...impression. Check out Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces such
as Monet's
Gare St. Lazare
and
The Water-Lily Pond,
Renoir's
The Skiff,
Seurat's
Bathers
at Asnières,
Van Gogh's
Sunflowers,
and Cézanne's
Bathers.
