Walters Art Gallery

Across from the first page of his gospel is the picture of St. John. He sits writing the gospel with a red pen in red ink. He's dressed in robes of bright blue, yellow and red, a red and yellow halo encircles his head, and his huge black eyes stare out of the page with a penetrating gaze.It's a bold image that makes an indelible impression and typical of the rare Ethiopian Gospel Book from which it comes. This latest acquisition of the Walters Art Gallery will go on view for the first time during the Walters' First Thursday hours this week.

Walters exhibition should be blockbuster for gallery, 0) BaltimoreThe arts preview enlightened Baltimore's culture lovers about the array of worthwhile opportunities this season. In his visual arts preview, critic John Dorsey described the major museums' offerings as a nice balance of the "crowd-pleasing" and "thought-provoking," but lacking the scale and name recognition last year's shows ("Less glamour, lots of interest," Sept. 13).While it is true that the Walters Art Gallery, as always, considered artistic and scholarly merit first when planning its upcoming exhibitions, the "The Invisible Made Visible: Angels from the Vatican" exhibition opening in November does indeed deserve "blockbuster" status.

Troia the Bistro at the Walters closed quietly this week, with no new tenant in the wings to take over the handsome space. Why Troia left depends on whom you talk to."Troia's a great restaurant," says Lynn Wolfe, manager of public relations for the Walters Art Gallery. "But it was a hard mix with a museum. People were looking for something more casual."The Walters is moving its gift shop into part of the dining room during the current renovation of its 1974 building. Carol Troia, who with her husband, Gino, opened the original Cafe Troia in Towson, says, "Gino isn't interested in running it anymore.

JACKSON, Miss. - In 1792, with King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette herded off to Paris for a date with the guillotine, the furnishings of their opulent palace at Versailles were auctioned off and eventually scattered across the world.Now, more than 200 years after the start of the French Revolution, many of those artifacts - including three vases from the 18th-century porcelain gallery of Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery - are being reassembled here.The glitzy blockbuster exhibition "Splendors of Versailles" is billed as the largest single collection from Versailles ever to leave France.

Two shows on view at the National Gallery in Washington have major Baltimore connections, and they're both fine shows."Manet, Monet and the Gare Saint-Lazare" brings together 39 paintings, drawings and prints of the section of Paris known as the Quartier de l'Europe, where Manet and Monet and other artists of the period worked. The exhibit provides an excellent opportunity to see urban works by the two great masters and their colleagues. The show was organized around the National Gallery's famous Manet painting "The Railway" (1872-1873)

THE CLOSURE of parts of the Walters Art Gallery from this summer until March 2001 will inconvenience the museum-going public while giving it something to anticipate.The opulent 1980s renovation of the 1904 building made the installations of the 1974 addition look cramped and poorly lighted. Now, with a mix of private and public money, this treasure owned by the people of Baltimore will be brought up to its own high standard.The renovation will make the museum more open and inviting, with the wonderful arms and armor exhibit an immediate attraction for young viewers.

It's going to cost $18.5 million and take three years, and it's intended to turn what looks like a fortress into a palace of art.Beginning this month, the Walters Art Gallery's 1974 building, housing its ancient, medieval, 19th-century and manuscript collections, will close for a complete renovation and reinstallation. The design, by Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects Inc. of Boston, aims to make the building better for the art and for the people who come to see it.Behind the scenes, there will be an overhaul of the mechanical, fire detection and security systems.

Mission: The gallery, bequeathed to the city of Baltimore by Henry Walters, is steward of a distinguished permanent collection of Western and Asian art ranging from antiquity through the early 20th century. Permanent collections are frequently complemented by exhibitions of art from around the world.Latest accomplishment: Twenty-two paintings by French impressionist Claude Monet in his gardens at Giverny are on exhibit through May 31. Opening to critical acclaim, "Monet: Paintings of Giverny From the Musee Marmottan" already has attracted 20,000 visitors.

POWERFUL blotches of color on great canvases by an aging and nearly blind Claude Monet recall nothing in art so vividly as the resounding Ninth Symphony by the deaf Beethoven.Did an old Monet, a half-century after pioneering Impressionism, carry its techniques to a logical conclusion, going beyond the experiments by unknown young artists in obscure ateliers, to anticipate all 20th-century art?Or was a has-been with declining control and progressive blindness merely painting what he saw, which wasn't much?

Tickets are available at the Walters Art Gallery for the exhibition "Monet: Paintings of Giverny from the Musee Marmottan." The exhibition of 22 paintings by the French impressionist, seen only for the second time in the United States, will be on view March 29 through May 31.The paintings, which Monet considered among his finest artistic achievements, include the famous Japanese footbridge, magnificent waterlilies, blooming roses and colorful irises.Admission...