Never as big as it seems

Yesterday we took in the British National Gallery. So many works that I have seen over the years in art history books, by the glitterati of the art world - Holbein, Titian (loads of them), Rubens, Rembrandt, Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Van Eyck, and Vermeer. Here's a link to the gallery's website if you want to go for a virtual wander around the works:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

Raphael's 'Madonna of the Pinks' was there. This was one the Getty tried to buy a couple of years ago (for about $50 mil if memory serves) but they were outbid by a British law that allows British institutions to fundraise to match the selling price. She isn't pink, as the title would indicate - the Christ child is holding pinks, which are small flowers like miniature carnations. The painting is less than 12 inches on any side - tiny. For $50 mil. Yeah.

The other painting that surprised me was Van Eyck's 'Arnolfini Wedding Portrait,' which they now seem to think wasn't a wedding portrait at all. Like the Mona Lisa, it is far smaller than my mind had imagined it from the history books - barely two feet tall. But unlike Miss Mona, it delivers well - and we could get our noses within a foot of it. The details of the fabrics are sublime - velvet, tapestry, lace, fur. The dude had serious chops.

In a switch up of size impressions, they were showing the Leonardo drawing of The Virgin and St. Anne, with Jesus and John the Baptist. You get used to drawings being the size of a decent sketchbook. This one is almost as tall as me. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng6337

Awesome. (sorry Larry!)