Art Review: Tudor Show and Metropolitan Museum of Art Excites but Doesn’t Excel

The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England is the sumptuous new exhibition at the Met, organized with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. It surveys the art, taste, and, here and there, the politics of the Tudor dynasty. It begins, personality-wise, with Henry VII, who emerges as king after a savage civil war — the War of the Roses — and reigns from 1485 to 1509. Henry VIII, he of the six wives, followed by his three legitimate children in succession, ruled, all told, over 118 years. Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I each fascinates in distinctive ways. I’m happy I saw it and recommend it.

I’ll write about this exhibition today and on Saturday. The Tudors succeeds and fails but never sputters. It’s a teachable moment since I’m seeing so many shows with the same strengths and weaknesses, and, unlike The Tudors, they not only sputter but flail, gasp, and die of folly.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England is the sumptuous new exhibition at the Met, organized with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. It surveys the art, taste, and, here and there, the politics of the Tudor dynasty. It begins, personality-wise, with Henry VII, who emerges as king after a savage civil war — the War of the Roses — and reigns from 1485 to 1509. Henry VIII, he of the six wives, followed by his three legitimate children in succession, ruled, all told, over 118 years. Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I each fascinates in distinctive ways. I’m happy I saw it and recommend it.

I’ll write about this exhibition today and on Saturday. The Tudors succeeds and fails but never sputters. It’s a teachable moment since I’m seeing so many shows with the same strengths and weaknesses, and, unlike The Tudors, they not only sputter but flail, gasp, and die of folly.