HK- Digital Dunhuang – Tales of Heaven and Earth – Heritage Museum – Until October 22

Until October 22, the HK Heritage Museum, in partnership with Dunhuang Academy and the HK Jockey Club, is launching a fabulous exhibition on the Mogoa Caves in Dunhuang, a complex of cavities built over 10 centuries, to be discovered in the middle of a deserted landscape.

A Digital reconstruction

The exhibition displayed over 100 artefacts or reproductions, giving the public intensive details and 3D images of what those fragile caves look like. A very digital experience confronting us with what heritage and museum can be with the help of innovative technologies.

Cave 194 – Princes from different nations attending the sermon – South Wall – Tang Dynasty, copy, @ Mathilde HK .jpg

A croosroad on the edge of East world

The monument, covering over 42000 m2, counting about 500 chapels, was first a religious and sacred area, welcoming merchants and foreigners on the dangerous silk road. Legend has it, a Bouddhist monk founded a small monastery there in 366 after common era. A much bigger city emerged not far from the hill : a destination was created.

 

Cave 130 –  Donor Portrait of Lady Wang from Taiyuan in Worship, High Tang Dynasty
Copy by Duan Wenjie,@ Mathilde HK .jpg

Travellers, artists and monks painted, or had ordered to be painted,  many more caves during the prestigious period of the Tang Dynasty. After that, the site was progressively abandoned, as was the Silk Road. Around the 14th century, it remained a local pilgrimage destination secretly hidden from the greed of thieves and foreigners… to be rediscovered only at the beginning of the 20th century by different archaeologists who couldn’t believe their eyes…

Open to Public since 1980, part of Unesco Heritage since 1996, the Mogoa caves are to the Buddhist world what Jerusalem is to Christians : A landmark of their cultural identity. As they are fragile and subject to violent winds and sandstorms, their scanning and videorecording seem the best preservation option to both curators and local authorities.

 

Don’t miss that exhibit!

Admissions

Monday, Wednesday to Friday	: 10am – 6pm
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays	: 10am – 7pm

Tickets – 20 hkd – 10hkd only on Wednesdays

 

HK – Miles upon Miles: World Heritage along the Silk Road- HK Museum of history

 

Miles upon Miles: World Heritage along the Silk Road,

Hong Kong Museum of History, TSIM SHA TUI EXIT P2

Closed on Tuesdays

Ticket : 20 hkd

Paris – Louvre Museum- Francis I and the Dutch Arts

Francois Ier,detail, Jean Clouet, Circa 1530, oil on wood, Paris, musee du Louvre.

That exhibition, on display until January 2018, brings French Renaissance back to life. If the court of Francis I is famous for its brilliant livestyle and fashion, that beautiful exhibition underlines the influence of Flemish and Dutch Masters in a period which has always been described as very Italian.

3 Men with barrels, Master of Dinteville (Bartholomeus Pons?), 1537, Städel Museum, Franckfort 

With many artefacts such as portraits, paintings, altar pieces, tapestries, fine books and stainglass windows, Francis I and the Duch Arts reveals the very new research led by Art Historians about the influence and work of Northern artist in 16th century France.

Joos van Cleve, portrait, Eleonore of Austria, c 1530, Royal collection Trust, R.E.II

Forgotten names, such as Godefroy le Batave, Noël Bellemare, Grégoire Guérard, Bartholomeus Pons, reappear on the foreground of one of the most vivid era of fine craftsmenship in Europe.

 

Francois Ier et l’art des Pays-Bas- Musée du Louvre,  Hall Napoléon

Where: 99 rue de Rivoli, 75001 – M° Louvre-Rivoli

When: Until January 15th 2018 –  Monday to Sunday:  9 am – 6 pm – Closed on Tuesdays. Night visits on Wed. and Fri,  until 10 pm

Tickets: 15 €

HK – Science Museum – Eternel Life – Exploring Ancient Egypt – Mummies

That special exhibition, on show until October 18, focuses on archeological findings in Tombs from Ancient Egypt, along with the high tech belonging to excavation methods. FASCINATING!

With 6 Egyptian Mummies dating back from 3000 to 1800 years ago, and 200 objects from the British Museum, the tour provides the visitors with digital screens allowing to undress the bandages around the death and to virtually see the inside of the mummie. This non invasive technique is called Computerized Tomography scanning: CT, and it is already changing the way scientists look at relics and tombs.

 

Venue : Hong Kong Science Museum

Hours : 10 – 19 closed on Thursday

Admission: 20 HKD

 

 

UK – Hampton Court – Tudor’s palace – Mantegna – Triumphs of Cesar

Hampton Court is not only the Tudor’s palace, but also an important place for Stuart rulers.  The most famous for his art collection, Charles I, purchased a huge set by Mantegna in 1629, from Francesco II Gonzagua of Mantua. The cartoons have been on display in the palace’s Orangery from 1630 onwards, and will be until October 30.

From December  2017 to May 2018, those 9 paintings, tempera on canvas,  will be on display at the exhibition dedicated to Charles II, Art and Power, an exhibition organised by the Royal Collection Trust at The Queen’s gallery – Buckingham Palace.

 

 

London – Canaletto exhibition – Queen’s Gallery – until November 12

Venice in the 18th century would have never been the same without its famous views by Canaletto. King George III of England bought 50 pieces from his ambassador in Venice, Sir Paul Smith, in 1762.

Those fabulous paintings, among other drawings by various Italian masters such as Marco Ricci or Francesco Zuccarelli, are on display at the Queen’s gallery, as part of the Royal collection. An exhibition curated by Lucy Whitaker and Rosie Razall, from The Royal Collection.

Highlights: 5 Large paintings of Rome, signed by Canaletto.

Canal Giovanni Antonio, Canaletto – Il Pantheon a Roma – 1742 – Royal Collection Trust

Venue Buckingham Palace

Hours : 10:00 – 17:30

Fee 11£

London – Wallace Collection – permanent display : Sèvres Porcelain

Inkstand – 1758-9 – after J-F Boucher – Medaillion with the head of Louis XVth – commissioned by the King

If there is one Museum fitting perfectly with a visit to London, it is by all means the Wallace Collection. As for a specific highlight, it is worth mentioning its astonishing collection of French Royal Porcelaine stamped by the manufacture of Sevres:  the biggest Collection in the world!

Curated by Dame Rosalind Savill, former directeur of the Wallace Collection, those pieces are soft-paste pieces of the best provenance, all commissioned by the King or Royal princes for thier domestic use or as diplomatic gifts. Their glazing, as their decoration, are  the finest examples you can find.

Venue : Hertford House, Manchester Square – London – W1U 3BN

Free Admission including temporary exhibitions.

Open daily from 10am – 5pm.

UK – Greenwich – The Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College – tours begin 21st October 2017

 

The Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College of Greenwich is currently under restoration. That beautiful Baroc Ceiling created by James Thornhill, an English artist, between 1707 and 1726, is one of the biggest of England.

A 50 minutes experience through scaffoldings and about 60 feet above the ground, under booking only.

Venue: Greenwich

Fee: 10 £

Hours: everyday from Oct 21st onwards

 

London – V&A – Pink Floyd – until 15 October 2017

 

Who doesn’t know the Pink Floyd and their 70’s, yet so very up to date, rock-electro vibs!!!!!

An absolute must go audiovisual exhibition, with the Music playing in your ears, along you walk through the allees, travelling from 1960’s to nowadays. Videos, interviews of Nick Mason, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Syd Barrett, David Gilmour and pieces from the staging of the Wall, the most famous tour of the Band, bring the whole Pink Floyd universe to life.  Such a good moment!

Plan ahead to book tickets and get at least 1h for your visit if you want to enjoy it properly.

London – Balanciaga – Victoria&Albert Museum – until 18 February 2018

 

The exhibition of the Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga showcases about 100 pieces crafted by ‘the master’ of couture, along with pieces produced by young designers claiming his influence.

From quite convertable dresses in a corolle shape, to extra long bottoms, the many creations on display allow to draw parallels between the Couturier and the history of fashion during the 19th century.

Venue : V&A – Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL

Hours : Daily: 10.00 – 17.45 Friday: 10.00 – 22.00

Fee : 12 £