John Ruskin. Artist and Observer

4th July 2014 - 28th September 2014
www.nationalgalleries.org

John Ruskin (1819-1900) is renowned as the greatest British art critic of the nineteenth century and the champion of Turner, but his role as an artist remains relatively little known.  He was however an outstanding draughtsman and watercolour painter, who especially took inspiration from the natural world and architectural subjects. This exhibition will illustrate, with the finest examples, the range and quality of his drawn and painted work. Gothic palaces in Venice, wild and spectacular Scottish and Alpine landscapes, and minutely defined and brilliantly coloured birds and plants will all be highlights of the show. The loans will chiefly come from the key UK and US collections (both public and private), and the exhibition is a prestigious collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

It is especially fitting that John Ruskin: Artist and Observer should be showcased in Edinburgh, as Ruskin came from a Scottish family, visited Scotland many times, and was a passionate advocate for the beauty of its landscapes and literary heritage. Key episodes in his public and private life were enacted here.

Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting

22nd March 2014 - 14th September 2014
www.nationalgalleries.org

This exhibition celebrates the recent acquisition, jointly with the National Gallery in London, of two outstanding mythological paintings by Titian (c.1485/90–1576). The purchase of the first of these, Diana and Actaeon, was concluded in 2009, and that of its pair,Diana and Callisto, in 2012, and they have only recently gone back on display at the Scottish National Gallery. The exhibition recreates and expands upon a highly successful exhibition which toured to three venues in the United States in 2010-11. It provides the National Galleries of Scotland with an opportunity to recognise and thank the organisations and individuals who contributed so generously to the acquisition of these hugely important and influential pictures. The exhibition draws on the Gallery’s exceptionally rich collection of sixteenth-century Venetian paintings, drawings and prints to showcase and contextualise Titian’s twoDiana canvases. As well as three additional paintings and a drawing by Titian, almost all of the major names in Venetian art of the period are represented, including Lorenzo Lotto, Palma Vecchio, Jacopo Bassano, Jacopo Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese. The loan of one additional, highly important painting by Titian – the Death of Actaeon from the National Gallery, London – has been secured. Technical information, comparative images and other interpretative material will enrich the visitor experience and provide deeper insights into the art of this exceptionally fertile creative period in Venice’s history.