Re-opening of Sainsbury Wing at National Gallery

The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret and Two Angels, Netherlandish Altarpiece circa 1510. Artist Unknown. Image: National Gallery.

Following refurbishment over three years, The Sainsbury Wing has been re-opened by their Majesties the King and Queen. It is now the main entrance to the National Gallery. Large clear windows allow an infusion of light into the spacious foyer and the entrance is more imposing, with a hint of classical pillars on the façade facing Canada House.

An impressive high tech screen in the foyer projects a cycle of images of the National Gallery's best loved masterpieces in the collection. Sir Gabriele Finaldi is very proud of the technology , saying it will inspire visitors to explore further .

At the top of the staircase can be seen Sir Richard Longs' 'Mud Sun' using mud from the River Avon with its indentations resembling cave art. I can't help feeling it might be more suited to the Tate than heralding early Christian art.

I miss the former superb shop on the ground floor, the new one is much smaller and limited in range and Giorgio's, an Italian style coffee shop. However, Locatelli's restaurant on level two looks good with Paula Rego's wonderful 'Crivelli's Garden', a modern Marian mural dominating a wall near another small gift shop There is a stylish cocktail bar overlooking Trafalgar Square; and I sampled a wonderfully potent Passionata.

It is worth investing in the £2 art guide suggesting taster routes around the Gallery and highlights of the 1000 works displayed in this once in a lifetime rehang.

Early Renaissance art to the earliest Christian art in the collection are all together in rooms 51-66 instead of hidden away in gallery A, now a learning centre.

Each gallery flows into the other through Gothic style archways so the effect is of entering a magnificent basilica with side chapels encasing such gems as Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks, with his so called Burlington House cartoon behind in another inner sanctum. Leonardo's complex drawing of Mary, her mother St Anne with the infants Christ and St John the Baptist is now a permanent feature.

Walking past the earliest art in the collection in room 62, such as the brightly coloured Margarito of Arezzo's Virgin and Child enthroned dated 1262, echoing Byzantine and Romanesque styles gives one goose bumps. The Botticellis, Duccios, Hans Memling - the list goes on - are awe inspiring .

A hanging painted crucifix or Rood, reminiscent of that in Westminster Cathedral, dates from 1319-15 typical of those found in 13th and 14th century Italian churches.

This wonderful space culminates with Hockney's favourite masterpiece, Piero's 'The Baptism'.

A fantastic new acquisition is an unsigned Netherlandish altarpiece that owes much in style to early Gossaert.

Mary is enthroned in an open air chapel on wooden steps fixed with large nails foretelling the Crucifixion. The Christ child looks sideways as he spreads the wings of a bullfinch, symbol of the Passion, which he holds upside down. Mary, looks downwards at the dragon near her feet, cf Revelation. He is a fearsome grotesque creature.

Either side of her are French king, St Louis, in regal royal robes, and martyr St Margaret of Antioch; a dragon is her attribute as according to the Golden Legend the Devil appearing to her in the form of a dragon, swallowed her whole, but she managed to emerge unscathed.

There are comic touches to this rare altarpiece such as a boy baring his backside at the top of a column and an angel playing a mouth organ.

The refurbishment allows visitors to walk straight through to the older galleries, which have been rehung, without exiting.

In the Central Gallery the striking Coronation portraits of King Charles and Queen Camilla are displayed until 5th June when they go to Buckingham Palace. Queen Camilla looks radiant, exuding warmth ,but the King looks wistful and merges into the elaborate background.

Rooms 2-14 explore the Renaissance from 1500, the Baroque in 15-32, Rococo in 33-37 and Towards Modernism after 1800 in 38-46. The rehang allows a greater flow sequentially with more space.

Guercino's King David, 1651, has been accepted for the Nation in lieu of inheritance tax for Jacob, fourth Baron Rothschild who died last year. The painting, considered a masterpiece of Italian Baroque depicts a middle-aged king, holding a sceptre and wearing an exotic turban echoing that worn by Ancient Greek Sibyllian seers who foretold the coming of Christ.

The painting is reunited with Guercino's 'Cumaean Sibyll with Putto' and 'Samian Sibyll 'in room 32, alongside other 17th century Italian works by artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi and Caravaggio. King David is the sixth acquisition by The National Gallery this year as part of the 200th celebrations and 'The Wonder of Art' rehang.

Rothschild was a key figure in previous configuring of the National Gallery and the building of the Sainsbury Wing.

Members of the National Gallery have been afforded stylish new rooms with an exclusive restaurant, lounges and bars with a private entrance.

The National Gallery is itself a national treasure with free access to its wondrous collection. It's rehang is a triumph.

Read more about the Sainsbury Wing here: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/history/about-the-building/the-sainsbury-wing-20th-anniversary

(While the menus in the various facilities don't specify gluten-free, staff are on hand to advise. )