Exhibition of the week
Mantegna and Bellini
You want heavenly scenes? Look no further than this survey of two Renaissance brother-in-law geniuses that stresses their religious works.
• National Gallery, London, until 27 January.
Also showing
Islamic World gallery
This ravishing new permanent display of Islamic art and history is both beautiful and enlightening.
• British Museum, London.
Turner in January
This annual new year display of rarely seen watercolours is a chance to compare Turner’s unrivalled depictions of wild nature with the real winter world outside.
• Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, 1-31 January.
Astronomy Photographer of the Year
Fascinating images taken by stargazers old and young reveal the sublime grandeur of space.
• Royal Observatory, Greenwich, until 5 May.
The Clock
Treat yourself to this magical work – like a lifetime’s filmgoing in one epic splurge. Comfy sofas, too.
• Tate Modern, London, until 20 January.
Masterpiece of the week
Astrolabe, 1710, from Safavid-era Iran
This treasure of the British Museum’s tremendous new Islamic World gallery is a comparatively late product of a brilliant scientific tradition. The astrolabe enables its user to measure the positions of stars and planets in the sky. It was the essential astronomical instrument before telescopes were invented. This beautiful outsized astrolabe with its richly curving decorations is a luxury item, but it preserves the memory of medieval Islamic astronomy. It was in the Islamic world that ancient Greek mathematics and science were preserved and improved in the middle ages. Long before the Greeks, mathematics and astronomy originated in ancient Mesopotamia. Vague images of these achievements inspired the European cult of the Magi, wise kings from the east whose astronomical observations lead them to adore Christ in so many nativity scenes, plays and poems.
• British Museum, London.
Image of the week
The Tidal Observatory in Newlyn, Cornwall, was among 952 new entries on Historic England’s heritage list this year – along with a prehistoric settlement, hangar buildings and a series of Robin Hood sculptures. The fishing industry in the Cornish port expanded in the 1880s, with the creation of a new harbour and two piers. The observatory was built between 1913 and 1915 for the Ordnance Survey to establish mean sea level. Read the full story here and see the gallery here.
What we learned
Paintings of working women by Sylvia Pankhurst have been acquired for Tate
Tacita Dean and Anni Albers headed Adrian Searle’s best exhibitions of the year
Rodin at the British Museum topped my own shortlist for the best art shows of 2018
Masahisa Fukase, Saul Leiter and Diane Arbus featured in Sean O’Hagan’s best photography shows
Tate Britain will celebrate 60 years of work by female artists
The pre-Raphaelites changed how we see women
In Florence, art can be just too beautiful …
Dalí’s lobster telephone will stay in Britain after a Scottish buyer was found
A lost Caravaggio nativity painting could be recovered, according to a Mafia source
Why there are giant luminous slugs outside Tate Britain in London
A dog left paw-prints on a soft tile in a Roman fortress
The Benin bronzes should go back to Nigeria, David Olusoga
A proposed giant arch sculpture in Sydney is on hold
Thousands welcomed Manchester’s Emmeline Pankhurst statue
Don’t forget
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