More of wot I have seen…

Avetar

I was told this movie was something like Pocahontas crossed with Smurfs with gigantism… …I would add that it looks like it was set in a world inspired by Roger Dean paintings.

I saw this movie at the Imax Cinema, the largest 3D screen in the UK. It was pretty impressive, and the effects were immersive rather than some earlier 3D movies where the effects are obvious and detract from the overall film. The story itself was quite cheesy, loaded as it was with eco, anti colonial messages and some quite cartoon like characters, however this too fitted with the overall feel.

I enjoyed the whole experience very much.


Before hand I went to the The Sacred Made Real exhibition at the National Gallery, where I saw some absolutely amazing paintings and sculptures, that were truely moving...

‘The Sacred Made Real’ presents a landmark reappraisal of religious art from the Spanish Golden Age with works created to shock the senses and stir the soul.
Paintings, including masterpieces by Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán, are displayed for the very first time alongside Spain’s remarkable polychrome wooden sculptures.

Inspiring devotion

The religious artists of 17th-century Spain pursued a quest for realism with uncompromising zeal and genius, creating works to inspire devotion among believers.
By displaying works side by side, this exhibition explores the intense dialogue between the arts of sculpture and painting, revealing that they were intricately linked and interdependent.

Hyperrealism

Sculptors often went to extraordinary lengths to achieve greater realism, introducing glass eyes and tears, as well as ivory teeth and human hair to their sculptures. The separate skill of polychroming, performed by specially trained painters, added to the effect with remarkable flesh tones.

‘The Sacred Made Real’ offers the opportunity to see an art form rarely seen outside Spain, featuring masters of polychrome sculpture, including Pedro de Mena, Juan Martínez Montañés and Gregorio Fernández. At the same time, it demonstrates that the painters of the Spanish Golden Age were able to achieve the same disconcerting realism on canvas.