The curator brain drain

In 1857, the National Gallery’s pioneering director Sir Charles Eastlake bought one of Veronese’s most sumptuous paintings, ‘The Family of Darius before Alexander’. The purchase was met with strident and very personal opposition from a Tory, Lord Elcho, in the House of Commons, but his objections were swatted aside by Lord Palmerston and we were spared the irony of fighting to defend the Indian empire while rejecting the opportunity to buy the finest painted celebration of imperial conquest.

‘The Family of Darius before Alexander’ is the centrepiece of the first monographic show in this country dedicated to Veronese (until 15 June). This is the sort of triumphant exhibition that the National Gallery does so well. Drawing on its own outstanding collection and supplemented by spectacular loans, it brings one of the great figures of 16th-century Venice into the scholarly spotlight while presenting to all-comers one of the most enjoyable painters ever to have lived.

In what is as close as the curatorial world gets to Alexandrian achievement they are well served by the charismatic young curator Xavier Salomon, appointed chief curator of the Frick last year at the age of 34.

Later this month, at Tate Modern, the sensuous side of art will be further explored in an exhibition of Matisse’s Cut-Outs (17 April to 7 September), late works of exhilarating freedom that had an enormous influence on the next generation of artists. Central to the exhibition will be ‘The Snail’ from the Tate’s own collection, the great work from the end of Matisse’s life, acquired in 1962 for the then huge sum of £23,000 on the urging of Tate trustee Roland Penrose (which must have made the long-serving director John Rothenstein blush; he had turned down Matisse’s early masterpiece, ‘The Red Studio’, 21 years earlier when it was offered for sale by a defunct London club for £400).