Harmony and Discord – storytelling promenade at The National Gallery

Titian’s radiant painting Bacchus and Ariadne reveals past, present and future all in one painting. Theseus’ ship sails away in the distance, leaving Ariadne bereft on the island of Naxos. Then the maenads appear, clashing cymbals, devouring haunches of meat, dogs barking, draped in snakes, drunk, blowing trumpets. These followers of Bacchus believe their ecstatic trances help them merge with their god. Bacchus appears, his wine coloured cloak flowing. He revives Ariadne with wine. And her wedding crown already glitters in the sky. But the maniacal behaviour of the maenads turns dark in another story and another painting, when they tear Orpheus to pieces.

Telling stories at The National Gallery is like entering a wonderful box of treasures. I have been allowed to choose my path through the galleries, choosing paintings and myths, creating a journey to compliment the Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure exhibition.

Titian and many other Renaissance painters tried to paint sound. Not only painting musical instruments and musicians, but trying to capture the actual physical vibrations of sound,  the emotional effects of music and its ability to transport the listener to another world. Renaissance painters were searching for harmony in their paintings, and believed music united  mathematics, art, astronomy, philosophy, magic, and the divine.

“All powers flowed downward through the world soul according to particular ‘harmonic concordances’ … and touching any point in this emanative hierarchy, like plucking one end of a taut string, caused the whole to resonate.” Music in Renaissance Magic. Gary Tomlinson. The University of Chicago Press  (1993:48)

Come and discover more on this visual mythical journey.

Harmony and Discord – A storytelling promenade
The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London,  WC2N 5DN
Monday 5 August, Tuesday 13 August, Monday 19 August.
12.00 – 12.50pm,  repeated  2.00 – 2.50pm
Meet in Room 9.
Admission is free. Places limited, allocated an hour before the event. Children must be accompanied by an adult.