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As part of the 2004 East Wing development, the Central Hall has been refurbished and reinstated as a picture gallery. For the first time in nearly 30 years the Hall is once again being used as it was originally intended, as a flagship Renaissance gallery providing visitors with an exhilarating start to their experience in the National Gallery and focusing their attention on the artistic heart of the collection.
The Central Hall was designed by the Victorian architect, Sir John Taylor, as the core of the gallery in the 1870s. The room was restored in 1991 with funds donated by Jacob Rothschild. Now, as part of the East Wing project, the Central Hall has been restored to its original purpose, as a grand gallery for the display of major pictures from the collection. The walls have been hung with a richly coloured Venetian fabric, the ceiling decoration and gold leaf have been restored and new lighting, automatic blinds, humidity controls and air-conditioning have been installed.
The Central Hall can now be used to showcase some of the most important paintings in the collection. The National Gallery has chosen to display works by Titian and his contemporaries. The Gallery is fortunate to have eleven Titians in its collection and the two most important Titian paintings to be shown in Central Hall are 'The Vendramin Family' (mid-1540s) and 'The Death of Actaeon' (about 1565-76). These are both very significant elements of the collection, described by Charles Saumarez Smith, Director of the National Gallery as:
'Two of the greatest 16th-century paintings by one of the greatest painters in the collection. They now occupy a pivotal place, focusing the visitor's attention on the Italian Renaissance which is central to understanding the rest of the collection and, indeed, the development of Western Art itself'.
From 'The Vendramin Family', which was once owned by Van Dyck, visitors are able to look down one of the Gallery's main axes to see Van Dyck's great equestrian painting of Charles 1 hanging in room 31, a reminder of the huge importance of Titian and Venetian painting to the development of painting in future centuries.
The paintings on the Main Floor of the Gallery have been re-organised to complement the new display in the Central Hall. Although they are still shown in chronological groups, they are now also organised along two geographical axes. One axis runs East to West through rooms 9, 10, 11 and 12 and is, in effect, a Venetian corridor including important works by Jacopo Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Giovanni Battisti Moroni, Jacapo Bassano and additional smaller scale Titians. The other axis runs North to South through rooms 14, 11 and 5 and shows 16th-century paintings from the Netherlands including paintings by Gerard David, Quentin Massys, Joos van Cleve, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Jan Gossaert and Joachim Beuckelaer. It concludes with German 16th-century paintings in room 4. These axes work with the natural symmetry of the building and also allow the visitor to see works in a geographical and thematic context.
To complement the re-organisation of the paintings, the National Gallery has commissioned Holmes Wood, a design company specialising in comprehensive way-finding solutions, to improve the signage throughout the Gallery. In addition, every room will have a display stand providing information on the context of each group of paintings. A new floorplan highlighting the changes to the display will also be available in 7 languages.
Notes to editors:
Paintings now hanging in Central Hall
For Further Press Information:
Please contact Jane Morris or Razeetha Ram Tel: 020 7747 2519
jane.morris@ng-london.org.uk / razeetha.ram@ng-london.org.uk
For Images:
Please contact Lara Raymond Tel: 020 7747 2512 lara.raymond@ng-london.org.uk
For public information please quote: Tel 020 7747 2885
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
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