Artist’s Eye Talk at the National Art Gallery – 14 Oct 2011

Art, like anything else in this world, is continuously evolving, with artists searching new means of expression and thus move further on the path of innovation. Yet, we find that what was old serves as an inspiration for the new, whatever was before becomes the basis of the new. And indeed, that’s what the Artist’s Eye Talk at the National art gallery, every month tries to bring to our attention.

So, a slight zooming back to the talk on Friday 14^th October 2011, is due.

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Well known artist Christopher P. Wood explained how Sassetta’s Saint Francis panels for the San Sepolcro Altarpiece (made in egg tempera on poplar, during the 13th century) was an inspiration for him. Imagination – a main theme of his own artworks – is according to him something central to these panels. He explained how Sassetta creates the imaginative and makes it look real – not in terms of technique, but as an overall work of art. We see how Sassetta, like Giotto, introduces the language of sculpture into painting; it is not totally realistic but enough to demarcate it from the medieval paintings before his time.  There is this absence of the shadow of the human figures in the paintings. So this not-so-close-but-close-enough approach to realism becomes a proper backdrop for presenting the imaginary in a believable way. For example we find the flying castle in Saint Francis and the Poor Knight, and Francis's Vision (right) as being credible in context of the painting as we find that dominance of a very modern, very uniformly coloured and strictly constructed architecture throughout; it’s as if the strict construction lines were being repeated in perspective.

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These very delineated and calculated lines of the architecture are quite modern and bring into play the perspective of Sassetta’s work, like we find in Saint Francis before the Sultan (left). The use of colour in the architecture is almost graphical and thus modern: the one shade is uniform (not a gradual degradation of tone) and separated from the other shade of the same colour.

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One other important part of Sassetta’s work is the notion of time and space. In the panels, time and space become one, hence creating a visual narrative. In Saint Francis and the Poor Knight, and Francis's Vision, at the same place we find two scenes involving the same person, Saint Francis. This reminds us of another painting by Sassetta where three scenes are depicted, with perspective introducing the time element: The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul (far right).


In a nutshell, what is ancient doesn’t necessarily have to be set under the ‘old-fashioned’ banner. It could still open new ways for today’s art. And Christopher Wood is living proof of it.