London, England: The National Gallery - Rick Steves’ Europe Travel Guide - Travel Bite

Trafalgar Square is another vibrant people's home and, overlooking it, is the National Gallery with London's greatest collection of European paintings. The National Gallery lets you tour the sweeping story of European art without ever crossing the channel. From medieval altarpieces, which told Bible stories in rich yet two-dimensional detail, art enters the Renaissance. Here the Italian master Crivelli pulls out all the stops to show realistic detail while portraying the Annunciation. Notice the playfulness he employs to show off his mastery of 3D. From the foreground, you go back, back, back, and then, bam, you got a pickle in your face. And Renaissance painters revel in pre-Christian classical scenes. Here another Italian master, Sandro Botticelli, paints Mars, taking a break from war. Succumbing to Venus and the delights of love while impish satyrs play innocently with the discarded tools of death. It was the dawn of the Renaissance and there was an air of playful optimism. Leonardo da Vinci takes Mary and Jesus out of the gold-leaf never-never land of medieval altarpieces and brings them right down to a real world we can relate to. Leonardo's subtle play of light on the faces is masterful. And the National Gallery's delightful sweep through art history continues, from Baroque with dramatic fantasies, this one thanks to Rubens, to frilly rococo decadence. Impressionists, like Renoir, capture the breezy ambiance of a boat ride and Cezanne takes us to the brink of the modern world.