Jigsaw 8, Series 2

My usual practice of late has been to photograph the completed jigsaw, but in this case, as the National Gallery thoughtfully included a flier of a convenient size to scan in the box, I scanned instead. Much better picture as a result although much less evidential value.

A picture, as it happens, which was the subject of an hour's art lesson back at the time of my O levels.

On the grounds that the money would be going to a good cause, that is to say the National Gallery, I did think of buying a proper digital image from them. An alternative to dropping tenners in one of their collecting boxes. It would have been fun to have a proper image to examine on screen, but given that I described the use as Internet the price was £250 or so which I though was a bit rich. Especially as one could not be altogether sure that the money was going to go to the National Gallery itself, rather than some outfit it has sold the franchise to. Maybe I would be able to examine a digital image before buying at one of the public access terminals at the gallery?

A good quality, 500 piece jigsaw from Ravensburger. Nice positive feel to the pieces when they are clicked together - with the exception of just one piece which felt a bit loose for some reason.

Edge first, then the mosaic floor with its skull. Then the carpet on the table then the various objects on the carpet and on the lower shelf of the table.

Then the faces, then the other easy bits of the two figures. Then the green backdrop. Then filled in the odd holes leaving the dark elements of the two figures, dark elements which played the role in this puzzle more usually played by the sky.

Luckily, although piece size did not vary very much, there was a good mixture of prong configurations and a good mixture of prong and piece shapes, all of which made scanning the heap for a particular piece a lot easier than it would otherwise have been.

Followed completion of the jigsaw by visiting the jigsaw, taking in the Garafalo (see 16th November) while I was about it. This provided an opportunity to ride a Bullingdon again, the first time since October 21st last (see the other place). Bad start at the Vauxhall stand which could only manage 3 broken bikes, but at least they had been clearly marked by lowering and reversing the saddles. Walked across the bridge to find that the north side stand had 3 serviceable bikes. Grabbed one and headed up Vauxhall Bridge Road to get thoroughly ensnared in traffic and roadworks in and around Victoria Station. Would probably have been a lot quicker to do that bit on foot, but eventually found myself in Victoria Street and so on to Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square. To find that the stand at Cockspur Street was full, then the one at King William IV was full and I finally found a space half way up the Strand at Southampton Street. I had put my key into the hole at Cockspur Street which I thought gave me an extra 15 minutes to find a stand with a space - but the Bullingdon Bike people seem to have changed their website and it no longer gives you details of individual journeys, so I don't know. Maybe the individual journeys will come back if I become a regular user again. So, eventually got back to the National gallery where I was able to inspect the two jigsaws.

Easy enough to find the Holbein, which did seem much more impressive now that I knew it a bit better. But finding the Garafalo was more of a challenge, so I thought I would test the trusties. First older trusty suggested I try a couple of younger trusties chatting nearby. First younger trusty thought the best plan was to ask the older trusty, but disabused of that thought, she went off to some other source. Second younger trusty thought hard and came up with room 9. At which point younger trusty came back with the nearby room 6, which turned out to be the right answer. But ten out of ten to the three of them for helpfulness. Room 6 turned out to be mostly Garafalo, with several large pictures, including a cleaned version of the jigsaw and several small pictures. He seemed to be into a lot of detail, landscape and drapery. One might say that he loved painting intricate and beautiful (if unlikely) drapery.

I particularly liked the expression on the face of the St. Augustine (not quite the same on the image you get on their website) and I was intrigued by the painting of a pagan sacrifice, which seemed an odd subject at a time when I thought the church was still the main customer for paintings and when church subjects were still the only respectable subjects.

We also spent time on the mosaics in the entry hall, but more on that in a future post.

Bought another jigsaw, from the same family, on exit.