Art and Eye

  Desperately slow progress is conceived by one of the most prominent Russian realist painters of the mid nineteenth century, Vasily Perov. His oeuvre exploited the plight of the peasant in a variety of situations, yet perhaps surprisingly themes were still widely accepted by the conservative, Russian academy. In telling the story of the Russian peasantry,  Accompanying the Deceased is pregnant with the poetry of grief, to use the words of Dmitri Sarabianov. It depicts the dire situation of a peasant family, as they wearily plod onwards into the distance searching for a burial site, a community burial seemingly beyond their meagre means. The skies loom ominously whilst trees deliminate the horizon line, emphasising the difficulties of the Russian landscape. Perov furthers this idea by the harsh, heavy tracks drawn in the snow as the sled is pulled by the exhausted horse. Its arched back and protruding ribs echoes the hunched figure in the front of the the sled, perhaps the only remaini

Inspired by the recent exhibition at the National Gallery, by eye is activated by the panels of Pesellino. Commissioned in 1455 by a confraternity, the artist combines tradition and innovation, paving the way for better-known artists to come. The work has had an exceptionally complicated life. Sawn up in the eighteenth century, the panels have slowly made their way to the National Gallery to be put back together, with the first panel (the Trinity section) acquired in 1863. One panel remains missing, restored here in the bottom right corner, prompting debates surrounding the rights to restoration. Putting the work back together certainly would have been a jigsaw puzzle, reflecting the challenge of piecing together the life of Pesellino, an understudied artist of the Italian Renaissance.  There is a Botticellian aesthetic running throughout the piece, and Pesellino prefigures the Florentine master in many ways. The flying angels at the top of the panel bear a direct relation  to Botticel