National Gallery

We went to the National Gallery, which had some pretty impressive special exhibitions, as well a pretty good permanent collection. One of the notable pieces in their collection is the only Leonardo da Vinci work in the Americas, a portrait of Ginevra de' Benci.

This photo has some of the same enigmatic qualities as the Mona Lisa. The background is also vaguely reminiscent of that portrait, as well.

We saw the following exhibitions:

• Desiderio da Settignano. Renaissance sculptor. Amazingly beautiful statues!
  



• Joseph Mallord William Turner. This exhibition will be at the Met in summer 2008, so we'll get to see it twice. Amazing collection of a ton of paintings; I wish I could have taken some photos. I wish I knew how Turner made his oil paintings shimmer like watercolors.
  



• Edward Hopper. This was a pretty large collection of Hopper's paintings, including the famous Nighthawks.