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Stuart Lochhead Sculpture, 22 Old Bond Street, City of Westminster (2026)

26/08/2026

Fieldnotes from the Adriatic Coast: Lorenzo Lotto 1/2

Our final stop is not a geographical location but an ensemble of works by an artist who is synonymous with the Marche as a region. Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480–1556/57) was one of the most original painters of the Italian Renaissance, renowned for the emotional depth and psychological sensitivity of his portraits and religious works. Born in Venice, he spent much of his career in the Marche, where he received some of his most important commissions. Deeply devoted to the Sanctuary of the Santa Casa, Lotto entered the Holy House of Loreto as an oblate in 1554, spending his final years there before his death.

Painted for the Church of San Domenico in Recanati, the Recanati Polyptych (Fig. 1) is one of the earliest masterpieces of his career. While retaining the traditional multi-panel format of the medieval polyptych, Lotto infused it with a new sense of naturalism and vitality. Rich Venetian colour, refined drapery and masterful handling of light already reveal the distinctive artistic personality that would define his mature work.

The polyptych also marked the beginning of Lotto’s enduring relationship with the Marche, where he would spend much of his career and produce some of his greatest paintings. Its inventive predella scenes, dramatic compositions and emotional immediacy demonstrate an artist unafraid to challenge convention, making the work a pivotal moment in the transition from the formal traditions of the fifteenth century to the more expressive language of the so-called ‘High’ Renaissance.

12/08/2026

Fieldnotes from the Adriatic Coast – Tempio Malatestiano

Moving southward from Ravenna, we cross the regional border to the coastal town of Rimini, home to one of the most remarkable temples of the Italian Renaissance.

The Tempio Malatestiano is a unique masterpiece of art and architecture, bringing together the work of Leon Battista Alberti, Matteo de’ Pasti, Agostino di Duccio and Piero della Francesca. Commissioned by the condottiere Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta in the mid-fifteenth century, the church was conceived not simply as a place of worship, but as a dynastic monument celebrating the ambitions, learning and artistic patronage of the Malatesta court.

Its extraordinary marble façade and arcades, designed by Alberti (Fig. 4), transform the medieval church into a triumphal arch inspired by ancient Roman architecture, while the richly sculpted interior by Agostino di Duccio (Figs. 1-3, 6-12) is unlike any other in Italy. Delicate reliefs of angels, saints, the Liberal Arts, Sibyls and even the signs of the Zodiac reflect the humanist fascination with classical antiquity, philosophy and the cosmos, creating one of the most intellectually ambitious decorative programmes of the Renaissance.

Among its greatest treasures is Piero della Francesca’s celebrated fresco of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta before St Sigismund (Fig. 5), an early masterpieces of Renaissance portraiture.

Part church, part classical temple and part princely mausoleum, the Tempio Malatestiano perfectly encapsulates the Renaissance ambition to unite antiquity, Christianity and humanism in a single work of art. It remains one of Italy’s most extraordinary monuments – and an essential stop on any journey through central Italy.

05/08/2026

Fieldnotes from the Adriatic Coast – Dante’s Tomb

Just a ten-minute walk from the stunning mosaics of San Vitale lies the tomb of the great Florentine poet Dante Alighieri, author of the Commedia and one of the founding figures of Italian literature. Exiled from Florence in 1302, Dante spent his final years at the court of Guido Novello da Polenta in Ravenna, where he completed his poem before his death in 1321.

The tomb’s most celebrated feature is the exquisite marble relief carved by the Venetian sculptor Pietro Lombardo in 1483. Commissioned by Bernardo Bembo, the Venetian governor of Ravenna and father of the humanist Pietro Bembo, it is one of the earliest and most influential Renaissance portraits of Dante. The poet is shown standing at a lectern, crowned with laurel and raising his hand thoughtfully to his mouth – a gesture of contemplation and poetic inspiration that became one of the defining motifs of Dante’s iconography (Fig. 6, 7).

The tomb is equally famous for the extraordinary story of Dante’s remains. After previous attempts by Lorenzo de Medici to transfer the remains to Florence, in 1519 the Medici Pope Leo X granted the city permission to reclaim its greatest poet, with Michelangelo even proposing a magnificent new tomb. Forewarned of the Florentine delegation, the Franciscan friars secretly removed the bones through a hole in the wall beside the sarcophagus, leaving the tomb empty. They hid the remains once again during the Napoleonic suppression of the monasteries in 1810, and they were not rediscovered until 1865.

Today, Dante still rests in Ravenna, while Pietro Lombardo’s magnificent relief remains one of the defining Renaissance images of the poet, shaping how generations have imagined the father of the Italian language.

29/07/2026

Fieldnotes from the Adriatic Coast – The Mosaics of Ravenna

The Lochhead Fieldnotes return! Today we inaugurate the third edition of our gallery tradition: a travelling workshop in which we explore some of Europe’s most remarkable artistic and cultural treasures. Having shared our travel in Rome, Turin and Genoa, we now set off along the Adriatic coast, from Ravenna to the Marche, uncovering some of central Italy’s most extraordinary monuments.

Our journey begins in Ravenna, home to some of the finest surviving Early Christian and Byzantine mosaics in the world. Composed of millions of shimmering glass and gold tesserae, these fifth- and sixth-century masterpieces have retained their astonishing brilliance for over 1,500 years. As the capital first of the Western Roman Empire, then of the Ostrogothic Kingdom and Byzantine Italy, Ravenna became a unique meeting point of cultures, leaving behind an unparalleled concentration of mosaic monuments.

The crowning achievement is the Basilica of San Vitale (Fig. 2), one of the greatest monuments of the Byzantine world. Consecrated in 547, its soaring octagonal interior and luminous gold mosaics – including the celebrated portraits of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora (Fig. 4) – unite imperial authority with Christian theology in one of the defining artistic statements of the sixth century.

Just a short walk away, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia offers a strikingly different experience (Fig. 6). Its modest brick exterior conceals an intimate interior crowned by a deep blue, star-filled vault, while mosaics such as the celebrated Good Shepherd (Fig. 8) preserve the elegance, naturalism and rich symbolism of the late Roman world. Together, San Vitale and Galla Placidia trace the extraordinary transition from classical antiquity to the spiritual vision of Byzantium, making Ravenna one of the indispensable destinations in the history of Western art.

14/07/2026

A day to remember…

Last week’s visit to the Musée d’Orsay is one I shall remember for a long time. I was invited to inaugurate the display of this wonderful ceramic mask by Jean-Joseph Carriés, which has now entered the museum’s collection.

Ever since it first arrived at our gallery in London, I had a feeling the Orsay would be the perfect home for it. Rather than following the usual path of an acquisition, however, the sculpture took a more direct – and more personal – route, becoming a gift to mark the museum’s 40th anniversary.

A huge thank you to Edouard Papet, whose enthusiasm for the sculpture made this donation possible, and to the entire team at the Musée d’Orsay for such a warm welcome. It was a real pleasure to spend time with the curators and wander through the galleries together.

The donation feels especially meaningful because Carriès is an artist close to my heart. Early in his career he was drawn to the Symbolist movement, before becoming fascinated by Japanese stoneware at the 1878 Paris Exposition. He later settled near Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye, where he mastered the art of glazed ceramics and produced some of the most extraordinary works of the fin de siècle.

There is always something special about seeing an object you have lived with begin its next chapter in a place where so many people will be able to discover and enjoy it. Seeing this remarkable work become part of one of the world’s greatest museum collections is incredibly rewarding.

01/07/2026

A limestone saint in the cloisters of Westminster…

This striking fifteenth-century sculpture depicts a tonsured deacon saint, probably a martyr, holding a palm frond and a clasped manuscript. Its subtle contrapposto, monumental drapery, and intensely expressive features exemplify the refined naturalism of the Burgundian court.

Preserved in an exceptional state, the work is a rare rediscovery from the circle of Claus de Werve (c. 1380–1439), the Haarlem-born sculptor who succeeded his uncle Claus Sluter as court artist to the Dukes of Burgundy in Dijon. Building on Sluter’s revolutionary realism, De Werve developed a remarkably lyrical and graceful sculptural language.

The saint displays the hallmarks of De Werve’s workshop, from its flowing drapery and naturalistic modelling to the distinctive motif of a hand emerging from the folds of a cloak to grasp a book. These features closely parallel works by the artist and his immediate circle, ranging from the carved walnut figures of Theuley Abbey (now in the Louvre) to the celebrated mourners on the tomb of Philip the Bold, both of which represent some of the highest achievements of Burgundian sculpture.

Last week, the Deacon Saint featured in our display at Studiolo, set against the magnificent limestone vaults of Westminster Abbey. The medieval architecture provided the perfect backdrop, bringing the beauty and craftsmanship of De Werve’s carving vividly to life.

📍To see our Deacon Saint in the flesh, visit our current exhibition, Valentin van Orley and His World: A Rediscovery in Early Netherlandish Painting, on display until 17 July in our gallery on 22 Old Bond Street, London, W1S 4PY.

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Workshop of Claus de Werve, Deacon Saint, c. 1410–1430, limestone, 81.5 x 26.3 x 20.4 cm

24/06/2026

What is a finely cast bronze of an Italian saint doing in the Burgundian Netherlands in the late fifteenth-century?

This remarkable statuette of Saint Francis is an exciting addition to the small surviving corpus of Netherlandish metal sculpture from the late 1400s. Combining exceptional craftsmanship with rare subject, it offers fresh insight into the higher artistic achievements of Burgundian brass founders and the international networks that connected Flanders to Italy.

Technical analysis and stylistic comparisons link the work to Renier van Thienen, the leading Brussels founder responsible for some of the most celebrated bronze monuments of his age, such as the famous Rijksmuseum pleurants for the tomb Isabella of Bourbon (Fig. 2-3). Its refined modelling, highly polished surface, and sophisticated casting technique place it among the finest examples of Flemish figurative metalwork to survive.

Beyond its technical and artistic importance, the sculpture raises intriguing questions of patronage and cultural exchange. While Saint Francis was a central figure in Italian devotional culture, representations of the saint are comparatively rare in Netherlandish sculpture. The choice of subject may point to Franciscan patronage, the influence of Italian merchants and confraternities active in Bruges and other Flemish cities, or even the possibility that the sculpture was intended for export to southern Europe. Whether destined for a Franciscan church, commissioned by an Italian patron in the Low Countries, or cast for an international market, the statuette stands as compelling evidence of the fascinating artistic and devotional connections linking Flanders and Italy during the Renaissance.

This remarkable bronze is on display for our current exhibition, Valentin van Orley and his World: A Rediscovery in Early Netherlandish Painting. This Friday, it will travel for one day only for Studiolo in Westminster Abbey.

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Renier I van Thienen (active c. 1465-1498), Saint Francis, c. 1480, Brass, 48.3 x 20 x 13 cm

Workshop of Jan Borman, attrib. to Renier I van Thienen, Weeper from the Tomb of Isabella of Bourbon (1436-1465), c. 1475–1476, Brass, 55 x 23 x 14 cm

17/06/2026

A powerful aesthetic bond connects Michelangelo and Auguste Rodin, despite the four centuries that separate them. Each, in his own era, created a new style that revolutionised the conventions of sculpture. The Louvre provides the perfect setting for this encounter between two great sculptors whose influence on art history remains immeasurable.

The human body lies at the heart of the exhibition, bringing the works of the two artists into dialogue. Among its highlights is Pierino da Vinci’s Young River God (Fig. 2), a masterpiece of Florentine Mannerism inspired by Michelangelo’s serpentine figures. River gods were traditionally represented as aged; here, Pierino presents a youthful figure whose body undulates like water. Juxtaposed to it is Rodin’s The Inner Voice, derived from a figure conceived for The Gates of Hell. Rodin echoes the serpentine theme through the exaggerated contrapposto, creating a limbless, deeply meditative figure.

Another highlight is Michelangelo’s wooden Crucifix (Fig. 3) from Casa Buonarroti, attributed to the artist in 1964. The unfinished wood lends the figure a poignant, broken surface, while its treatment of anatomy recalls the spiritual power of Michelangelo’s late work. Displayed alongside Rodin’s Hand of God (Fig. 4), it offers a reflection on non finito — the aesthetic of incompletion associated with Michelangelo’s unfinished marbles and later embraced by Rodin, who allowed his figures to emerge from rough, uncarved stone.

Finally, a dialogue unfolds between a drawing of Michelangelo’s now-lost painting, Leda and the Swan (Fig. 5), and Rodin’s sculpture inspired by the myth of Hermaphroditus (Fig. 6). Beyond their shared Ovidian source, both works explore the metamorphic potential of the human body. Michelangelo’s Leda combines feminine sensuality with sculptural power, while Rodin depicts the merging of two bodies into a single androgynous being.

Across the exhibition, themes of non finito, metamorphosis and the relationship between body and soul reveal an artistic kinship between two sculptors who sought to represent the body not as a static form, but as a living expression of energy, emotion and life itself.

10/06/2026

Set within a richly imagined temple interior, this newly rediscovered panel by Valentin van Orley captures the moment described in the Gospel of Luke when the Virgin Mary presents the Christ Child in the Temple forty days after his birth.

Valentin transforms the biblical narrative into a spectacle of colour, texture, and ornament. The scene unfolds within a monumental architectural setting animated by Romanesque forms, classical decoration, and vividly observed figures. The High Priest overlooks the ceremony in his magnificent headdress (Fig. 1), while an open portal to the left—crowned by three putti carved in high relief—reveals a procession approaching the temple (Fig. 2). Two elegantly dressed women carry candles and sacrificial doves (Fig. 3), their shimmering brocades and vibrant colours enlivening the composition. Throughout, the artist revels in the tactile qualities of silk, marble, metal, and carved stone.

Exhibited publicly for the first time since its rediscovery, The Presentation in the Temple sheds new light on one of the most enigmatic artists active in the Duchy of Brabant in the early sixteenth century. Best known through the celebrated Saluzzo Altarpiece (Fig. 4), created in collaboration with the workshop of the sculptor Jan Borman, Valentin emerges here as a painter uniquely attuned to the dialogue between painting and sculpture. The carved putti, illusionistic reliefs, and sculptural treatment of the architecture exemplify this interplay, while revealing an artist deeply indebted to Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, yet equally responsive to the innovations of the Italian Renaissance.

Our forthcoming exhibition, Valentin van Orley and His World: A Rediscovery in Netherlandish Painting (18 June–17 July 2026) offers a rare opportunity to rediscover this master through one of the most significant finds in early Netherlandish painting in recent years. As part of the exhibition, the panel will travel to Westminster Abbey for a special one-day presentation at the second edition of Studiolo on 26 June.

🔗 For more information about our exhibition, see the link in our bio

27/05/2026

Introducing a very special royal dog – Mouton!

When Queen Victoria, a notable patron of women artists in nineteenth-century Britain, commissioned a series of portraits of her household pets at Windsor Castle, she turned to the sculptor Alice Mary Chaplin, an artist celebrated for her small-scale animalier sculpture who exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy between 1880 and 1897.

This charming terracotta represents the poodle Mouton, one of the Queen’s favourite breeds, whose name derives from the French word for ‘sheep’ – a playful reference to the dog’s dense, woolly coat. Although several works by Chaplin appear in the Royal Collections, terracottas by the artist are exceptionally rare, making this sculpture a remarkable example of her refined modelling.

What makes the work so compelling is Chaplin’s extraordinary handling of clay: the animated modelling of the shaggy and clipped coat, the alert gaze, and the wonderfully lifelike posture all convey the distinctive personality of the Queen’s beloved pet.

So admired was Chaplin within royal circles that, by the end of the century, contemporaries referred to her simply as ‘the Queen’s sculptress’.

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Mary Alice Chaplin (1848–1921), Mouton, 1882, terracotta, 12.5 x 19 x 7 cm

Stuart Lochhead Sculpture

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