Exhibition of the week
The Printmaker’s Art: Rembrandt to Rego
Five hundred years of woodcuts, etchings and linocuts with artists including Picasso and Tracey Emin.
• National, Edinburgh, 2 December to 25 February
Also showing
Pesellino: A Renaissance Master Revealed
Rare chance to find out more about this artist who made a splash in Renaissance Florence before his early death.
• National Gallery, London, 7 December to 10 March
Robert Mapplethorpe: Subject Object Image
The aesthetic power of Mapplethorpe’s photography cannot be denied.
• Alison Jacques Gallery, London, until 20 January
Alia Farid – Elsewhere
Hand-woven rugs that portray the Palestinian community in Puerto Rico.
• Chisenhale Gallery, London, 1 December to 4 February
Tim Lewis – The Forest Visits
Kinetic sculptures of animals provide fun for the Christmas season.
• Flowers Gallery, London, until 1 January
Image of the week
The anonymous owners of the Isleworth Mona Lisa (so nicknamed, because it was previously owned by an art dealer there) are claiming that theirs is an early version of Leonardo’s iconic smiler. Could this really be true, or is it a case of mistaken identity? Read the full story here.
What we learned
Photographer Nan Goldin has been named art world’s most influential figure
A collective of South African women is weaving monumental tapestries of love and loss
Prince Gyasi will be the Pirelli calendar’s first Black photographer
Rishi Sunak and Greece might both be using the Parthenon marbles as a distraction
The annual prize for the best designed vinyl album cover has announced its shortlist
The US photographer Elliott Erwitt, has died, aged 95
A new exhibition celebrates the DIY creativity of the zine
Artist Banks Violette smashes up his own chandelier self-portraits
The astonishing story behind the “My TV girls” fetish photography archive
An artist is teaching robot dogs to paint
Masterpiece of the week
Venice: The Feast Day of St Roch by Canaletto, about 1735
Canaletto is often seen as a tourist painter providing souvenirs for aristocrats on their Grand Tour, but here he shows us Venetian life from the inside. This is one of the shared rituals that sustained this ancient urban community. Plague was at last becoming less of a terror in the 1700s but here no one is taking any chances. A well dressed crowd gather in honour of St Roch (San Rocco), a saint who offered protection from plague. The classical building behind them is the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, home of a lay confraternity dedicated to the saint, richly decorated within by Tintoretto and other artists. Paintings have been lined up on its facade for the festival, as if art was a prayer.
• National Gallery, London
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