Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic \u201cSomething wonderful is happening\u201d, placards dotted across the National Gallery declare, and this is true. Launching next month, CC Land: The Wonder of Art is the biggest redisplay of Trafalgar Square\u2019s collection since the Sainsbury Wing opened in 1991. Apart from the indignity of the title \u2014 does the sponsoring Hong Kong property company\u2019s name really need to precede the art? \u2014 it is a resplendent achievement.\u00a0\u00a0Mostly respectful of chronology and beloved traditions, it nevertheless rethinks the paintings\u2019 contexts and stories. Confirming the National Gallery as a sanctuary of beauty and learning, it subtly acknowledges, however, in myriad small changes, the museum\u2019s inevitable role in today\u2019s culture wars.The Gallery is riding high on its bicentenary celebrations.\u00a0Van Gogh broke records for a paying show with 334,589 visitors.\u00a0Siena: The Rise of Painting is superb.\u00a0Autumn\u2019s Neo-Impressionism will fascinate, and is heralded by the new dominance accorded Seurat\u2019s statuesque workers at leisure \u201cBathers at Asni\u00e8res\u201d in the late 19th-century display, looking all the way down a sequence of galleries to democratising Caravaggio in room 32. And for months the museum has been aquiver, rooms redecorated, paintings decanted in and out. The process was challenging for \u201csheer logistics\u201d, as well as rethinking, director Gabriele Finaldi tells me on an advance tour of the now nearly complete reorganisation.\u00a0More paintings are on show (more than 1,000), and all look better, thanks to muted wall colours throughout, allowing the canvases\u2019 chromatic richness to shine.\u00a0The hang plays to the building\u2019s strength, those numerous corridor-like galleries which entice you on, promising revelations, broad vistas, intriguing associations. Stubbs\u2019s \u201cWhistlejacket\u201d and Raphael\u2019s \u201cThe Mond Crucifixion\u201d still face each other along the main 184-metre enfilade, but time-travelling spectacles appear en route, notably the central hall\u2019s full-length power portrait contest: Veronese\u2019s emerald-curtained elegance in ermine and satin \u201cGentleman of the Saranzo Family\u201d, acquired in 2022; Delacroix\u2019s melancholy dandy at dusk \u201cLouis-Auguste Schwiter\u201d; Sargent\u2019s elongated silhouette speaking of end-of-era Edwardian patriarchal authority \u201cLord Ribblesdale\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the slightest move redirects attention. Veronese\u2019s \u201cRespect\u201d has been raised to be viewed, as originally intended, as a ceiling picture, and there it is: a drama about consent, a virile youth pulled between Cupid, pointing his arrow at a luscious nude\u2019s genitals, and resisting temptation \u2014 the woman is asleep.\u00a0\u00a0At other times, fresh arrivals shift a room\u2019s whole tenor. The 17th-century Dutch gallery stirs to the Rijksmuseum\u2019s new loans \u201cFeeding the Hungry\u201d and \u201cRefreshing the Thirsty\u201d, humane crowd paintings by Michael Sweerts, a Catholic wanderer who left Amsterdam to join the Jesuits in Goa. Interloper among Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley, Tissot\u2019s assertive businessman \u201cAlgernon Moses Marsden\u201d, elbow resting on a flamboyant tiger\u2019s rug, reminds us how diverse the 19th-century avant garde was. Marsden looks unreliable and was \u2014 he went bankrupt three times. Delightfully, his great-grandson, fund manager Martyn Arbib, made this recent purchase possible.\u00a0Spurring the entire overhaul was the Sainsbury Wing closure in 2023, for its foyer to be redeveloped. Architect Annabelle Selldorf will vanquish what Finaldi called the \u201cforest\u201d of obtrusive pillars, to provide a better, brighter main entrance, not yet unveiled. It will deliver, Finaldi promises, \u201ca warm welcome\u201d and speed: \u201cfrom the tube to Titian in a minute and a half.\u201d\u00a0Compared with current queues and security checks, that sounds heartening: straight upstairs to room nine, the splendid Venetian gallery, now opening on a room for the first time dedicated solely to Titian \u2014 destination pictures \u201cBacchus and Ariadne\u201d, \u201cDiana and Actaeon\u201d, \u201cThe Death of Actaeon\u201d, pagan myths of seduction, cruelty, fate, brought alive in the richest, fleshiest painting, foundational to art history.\u00a0If the old Sainsbury entrance underwhelmed, the wing itself eventually won gritty respect. Like many visitors once ambivalent about its pastiche church architecture\u00a0\u2014 too bland? too postmodern? \u2014 I missed it when it closed, and the first victory of the rehang is a throwback:\u00a0the graceful, serene display of the Renaissance pictures for which these galleries were designed. Their use over the decades shifted uncertainly; now from the initial instant of Leonardo\u2019s \u201cVirgin of the Rocks\u201d, the Sainsbury Wing is a must-see space.\u00a0Piero della Francesca\u2019s pellucid, calmly geometric \u201cBaptism of Christ\u201d is back in its chapel-like setting. Jacopo di Cione\u2019s \u201cCoronation of the Virgin\u201d with its orchestra of angels returns within a new carved frame, every finial and column painstakingly gilded, uniting its two parts. In an inlaid wood frame with wave decorations, Uccello\u2019s gleaming, restored\u00a0\u201cThe Battle of San Romano\u201d \u2014 snow-white chargers, crimson\/gold hat, grid pattern of broken lances \u2014 looks almost modern; \u201clike de Chirico\u201d, Finaldi says.\u00a0Northern Renaissance pictures large and small, amply though not sparsely hung, have also settled into this faux nave setting. Watching over them is Van Eyck\u2019s quizzical \u201cPortrait of a Man\u201d, another restoration success: overpainted black ground removed, narrow sloping shoulders clearer, contrasts of light and shadow thrown by the extravagant creased turban more vivid.With a display devoted to the use of gold in medieval and Renaissance art, starring Bermejo\u2019s \u201cSaint Michael Triumphs over the Devil\u201d, the Sainsbury Wing inaugurates the Gallery\u2019s new focuses on materiality and making. The archangel swoops, fearless, impassive, armour and dress all golden\u00a0\u2014 brocade scored with gold leaf imitating looped weave, breastplate magically reflecting Jerusalem\u2019s towers.\u00a0In the main building, sections on oil sketches and pastel \u2014 Jean-\u00c9tienne Liotard\u2019s decorously precise \u201cThe Lavergne Family Breakfast\u201d; Degas\u2019s smudged, frenetic\u00a0\u201cUkrainian Dancers\u201d and a new loan, \u201cBallet Dancers\u201d, orange and turquoise tutus pulsating in stabs of pure colour \u2014 similarly draw attention to pictures as tactile, handmade objects, a corrective to museums ruled by social and political criteria. In his excellent new The National Gallery: A History, Jonathan Conlin mourns curatorial studies moving \u201caway from object-centred connoisseurship, privileging theorising and polemic over sustained looking\u201d, draining expertise. \u201cWe need to find people who are interested in objects, who know about objects. Where are they to be found?\u201d Finaldi asks.Some very joyous new displays loftily transcend culture wars, celebrating individual (male) genius \u2014 all the Monets, from the realistic choppy seascape \u201cLa Pointe de la H\u00e8ve\u201d to the abstracting \u201cWater-Lilies\u201d, gather for the first time in one room, demonstrating continuity as well as sustained experiment\u00a0\u2014 and personal taste.\u00a0A theatrical gallery partly reprises Charles I\u2019s rare collection, reuniting famous pictures of turbulent post-execution provenance:\u00a0Tintoretto\u2019s vigorous, intense narrative \u201cEsther before Ahasuerus\u201d, from the Royal Collection; Correggio\u2019s soft, blue-gold-white harmony of figures in a landscape \u201cThe School of Love\u201d. Charles\u2019s reign, Finaldi says, \u201cwas a key moment when the English court was at its most refined and engaged with Europe \u2014 and he lost his head!\u201dPivotal to Finaldi\u2019s vision are particular relationships between artists, taking Turner\u2019s demand that his seaports hang alongside Claude\u2019s as \u201cnodal points, steering elements\u201d. Rembrandt\u2019s \u201cSelf-portrait at the Age of 34\u201d hangs with its model, Titian\u2019s \u201cPortrait of Gerolamo Barbarigo\u201d; Dutch Caravaggesque follower Gerard van Honthorst is next to the master.\u00a0\u00a0Rubens both looks back to antiquity and prefigures future confident expressiveness.\u00a0Brilliantly illuminated (the lighting rail rose two metres), Mantegna\u2019s classical series \u201cThe Triumphs of Caesar\u201d (1480s) now hang with Rubens\u2019s homage \u201cA Roman Triumph\u201d (1630) \u2014 \u201che\u2019s Rubensified the elephants, they\u2019re lively and twisting and chubby\u201d, Finaldi grins. Another pairing has Rubens\u2019s engaging secular \u201cSusanna Lunden\u201d (1622-25) alongside the sparkling piece it inspired, \u00c9lisabeth Vig\u00e9e Le Brun\u2019s \u201cSelf-portrait in a Straw Hat\u201d (1782) in the octagonal room 15.This gives prominence to Vig\u00e9e Le Brun, part of an essential impetus to spotlight the Gallery\u2019s few female artists: \u201cPortrait of a Woman\u201d, meticulously textured, by Catharina van Hemessen, earliest known Flemish woman painter; Rosa Bonheur\u2019s rearing, plunging animals and their muscly handlers \u201cThe Horse Fair\u201d atop room 13\u2019s staircase. A low is 2024\u2019s box-ticking acquisition, Eva Gonzal\u00e8s\u2019s weak \u201cThe Full-length Mirror\u201d. A high is Paula Rego\u2019s \u201cCrivelli\u2019s Garden\u201d, a feminist response to Crivelli\u2019s predella for \u201cMadonna of the Swallow\u201d, the saints posed by Gallery staff; it will preside over Locatelli, the Sainsbury mezzanine\u2019s new restaurant.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a marathon, they\u2019re all still running\u201d was how the late Frank Auerbach described history\u2019s great painters to me last year. Finaldi\u2019s emphasis on artistic dialogue is amplified in Taschen\u2019s lavishly lovely bicentenary souvenir The National Gallery: Paintings, People, Portraits, where contemporaries highlight favourite works. Auerbach chooses Rembrandt\u2019s \u201cMargaretha de Geer\u201d, \u201ca very old woman, borne on the ruff of her collar like an apple on a plate\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009eloquent of the increasing detachment of old age\u201d. Rachel Whiteread chooses Bellini\u2019s \u201cDoge Leonardo Loredan\u201d, Hockney Piero\u2019s \u201cBaptism\u201d, \u201ca spatial thrill\u201d.That sense of a baton passed on is a glory of the National Gallery\u2019s comprehensive yet taut collection. Its sensitive, intelligent rehang tells, as Finaldi wanted,\u00a0\u201cstories across time, how pictures served generations\u201d \u2014 and still do.From May 10, nationalgallery.org.ukFind out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic \u201cSomething wonderful is happening\u201d, placards dotted across the National Gallery declare, and this is true. Launching next month, CC Land: The Wonder of Art is the biggest redisplay of Trafalgar Square\u2019s collection since the Sainsbury Wing opened in 1991. Apart from the indignity of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-264374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264376,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264374\/revisions\/264376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}