…then back to the art

After lunch at Gaby's, a wonderful falalel and all things Eastern café (near Leicester Square) on Steve's recommendation, we trooped off to the National Gallery's medieval section - I love the way the pre-Renaissance artists combined odd perspectives, deep blues and golds, religious stories and (mainly) Italian politics and landscape, such as this by the Clarisse Master (1265 or so), this Bellini, Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin featuring several local Italian bigwigs, and this stunning da Messina of St. Jerome in his study (click for larger image), which plays with perspective wonderfully.

After that, we stopped for Holbein's The Ambassadors, one of the best few paintings in the world - every item, every fold, every stroke is multiply significant - and across the bottom is this streak of paint which (if you stand in the right place), resolves itself as a skull, subverting the power and glory of the two men featured with all their riches, achievements and ambitions. You really need to click on it to get the big picture (sorry).

After all that art and excitement - how to unwind? How about Honey and Ginger Ice-cream Sundae and iced mint tea at Fortnum and Mason's? Positively sybaritic.

Sunday was relatively relaxed: I went to watch Manchester United lose, in the Hogshead, with Neal and Emma (a Man U fan), for whom I cooked a scrumptious meal of roasted fennel, celeriac and various other vegetarian objects, while we all read the Sunday newspapers and watched In the Loop, which loses none of its sharpness with multiple viewings. Watching the footy was a particular pleasure, Stoke City having won too…