Dressed in Gold | Gold | National Gallery

people have been dressing in goals for millennia as a sign of wealth and prestige so it's no surprise that we find numerous examples here at the gallery but it's not just clothing it's also accessories jewelry fans also made out of gold as art historians were interested in how painters particularly great portrait artists like Van Dyck managed to capture the light and reflectivity of gold using oil paint as opposed to gold leaf as was used in earliest centuries and through these very paintings we get a wonderful insight into the history of costume over time so this is a portrait of Doge Leonardo Laura Dan by Giovanni Bellini the Doge is the elected ruler of Venice and we can tell it's the Doge by his very particular outfit especially this horned hat known as a corner that he's wearing now he's an elected leader and not a king so he's not wearing a crown but you'll notice this very fine band of gold that goes around his head to make sure he's just as distinguished as any King this is very finely painted by Bellini who's a real master with oil paints that it allows them to capture real fine detail and real sense of reflection and shine coming off these fabrics if you look closely you'll see in places it looks like each golden thread has been painted individually by Bellini taurine Abba museum is the world's leading Museum of Art and Design it holds a collection of over 2 million objects reflecting 5,000 years of human creativity one of the museum's most significant collections is the textiles and fashion collection which is unparalleled in its range and in its eyes and boards the most significant examples of design these are often precious and rare and as a result are often decorated with gold Kirsti this hat is so similar to the one in our painting it really is it's an incredibly rare surviving example the late 17th century doors you set what's quite interesting about it is that it been worn over the top of a Lenin coif and these were made for the doors by the nuns of the San Zakariya convent in Venice every Easter what fabric is being used here for the fabric we have gold salt damask that covers the top and then around the edging we've got gold bread so there's actually gold in this absolutely so it's a very very time-intensive technique and it's been available only to the richest member of society and the most powerful I'm also struck by how similar this fabric is to the mantle that the Doge is wearing in our painting it really shows off these fantastic motifs and it's a golden folk damask from the early 1200 Venice is one of the main so producing centers in Italy as a door it does seem very likely that he had been Mariner so producing Venice itself at the National Gallery we've got a painting by Van Dyck of 16 19 to 20 showing st. Ambrose barring Emperor Theodosius from Milan Cathedral and even though Saint Ambrose was a 4th century bishop he's shown in a fabric not dissimilar to this so what we're looking at here is a late 15th century chasuble and the fabric that we're seeing is velvet embroidered with gold and this is a hugely time intensive and indeed very very expensive technique so what's interesting is although the velvet was more than in Italy the religious imagery that we see was actually woven in Germany and is it usual for there to be this much gold in ecclesiastical garments so the symbol of power or a divinity or indeed to stand out in a crowd you've often found at ecclesiastical garments have a huge amount of gold embroidery on them in Rembrandt's Belshazzar's feast we see Belshazzar the king of Babylon giving a sumptuous banquet for his Lords we see him in the center dripping in gold he has a bejeweled gold crown teetering above his turban he's wearing a wonderful gold brocaded cape which is painted so luxuriously by Rembrandt we also see his guests drinking out of golden goblets but here's the catch this gold has been stolen from the Temple of Jerusalem by Belshazzar's predecessor Nebuchadnezzar the writing in Hebrew that we see on the wall is the Word of God telling Belshazzar that he has been weighed in the balance and found wanting and that his kingdom is about to come to an end so in this painting we see that gold is not always a good thing and that greed gets punished this portrait of a lady known as the lady in red by Moroni dates from the second half of the 1550s it's particularly famous for this exquisite red dress which would have been inordinately expensive and is wonderfully fashionable as well but it's set off by wonderful golden accessories there's a gold trim on the dress itself but she's also wearing some gold jewellery if you look in her hair you'll note that even though her hair itself is golden you can just about make out that she's got some wonderful jewellery set off with emeralds on her wrists she's wearing golden bracelets and even gold rings on her fingers she also holds a golden fan on her lap but strangely she's covering up the handle which would have been the most sumptuous the most luxurious part of it one possible reason for her parent mortise tea could be her concern for sumptuary laws which controlled the consumption of luxury goods this is a portrait of Lord John Stewart and Lord Bernard stewart-cousins of Charles the first on the Left we have John Stewart in gold and one stepped down his younger brother Bernard in silver and Van Dyck has really captured the beautiful metallic qualities of these fabrics and if we look at John's doublet in the left you'll see these very fine buttons and embroidery and also this beautiful cloak that he's wrapped around himself with this wonderful gold lining my favorite detail is the fringing here at the bottom of John's breeches which is also in shimmering gold fashions like painting styles change but by choosing golden fabric and accessories these artists and sitters have ensured that centuries later their memories still glisten in the paintings at the National Gallery you you

Channel: The National Gallery

Views: 58,455

Keywords: National Gallery, Gold, Gold in paintings, Golden paintings, Dressed in Gold, Victoria and Albert Museum, Gold clothing, Gold accessories, behind the scenes, Art, History of art, art history, Rosalind McKever, Kirsty Hassard, Rembrandt, Moroni, Anthony van Dyck, Bellini

Id: ZY7Q0rkO2Bg

Length: 7min 3sec (423 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 08 2017