Devotion by Design at the National Gallery

One of my outings at the weekend was to the National Gallery to see their current exhibition, Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500.

I wasn't sure it was going to be my sort of thing but oh my goodness, it was. Exactly my sort of thing. Beautiful, mesmerising, the sort of pieces you could spend hours in front of, admiring the myriad details.

My favourite (though it was a tough call) was an altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli, called The Madonna of the Swallow. You can look at a reproduction on the National Gallery's website, here. But it looks very unimpressive when stripped of its surrounding frame and other pictures in the altarpiece. Plus it looks very two-dimensional, whereas the real thing just glows.

So you should definitely visit. It is free after all, so no excuse. It's on until 2nd October.