A marvellous time was had at the Royal Academy yesterday gawping at the Cranach exhibition - the colours so vivid in works 500 years old, tempera and oil on bits of wood. This was a picture show complete with 16th century smells, the retainer in the lift giving off that particularly acrid, cheesy, choking form of BO that is devastating in a confined space. How polite everyone was about it, smiling beneficently; how we all wished for nosegays; and how we all thought: "Fuck off and get a bath, you malodorous twat... but not until you've taken us to the right floor." Hey, that's the art-going public for you.The pictures are mostly contemplations on the torments of religious devotion, with beheadings, crucifixion and various other horrible ends much in evidence. Not many laughs, except when considering suitable candidates for such fates. Bring me the head of news.
