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12th of January.

At 7th of the National Gallery for Beyond Caravaggio, now in its last week.

It's a mixed bag, with far and away the best picture of the taking of Christ on loan from Dublin,

a superb painting, but hung on the same wall as the National Gallery's supper at Emmaus.

This is nowhere near as good, because the central figures don't compare.

In the Dublin picture, Christ, with his downcast eyes, is ascetic and noble, with Judas

yearning and troubled. In the National Gallery's picture,

Christ, suddenly recognised by the company at supper,

and also with downcast eyes,

looks plumped-cheeked and almost debauched,

a grown-up version of one of Caravaggio's grape-eating boys.

Not known to me is a painting of Christ by Gali,

"'which shows him pulling open the wound in his side

"'and looking out of the picture with a wonderfully quizzical expression,

"'both sad at disbelief and troubled by it.

"'So many of the paintings I don't like at all.

"'The Gentilesky rests on the flight into Egypt, for instance.' and troubled by it. So many of the paintings I don't like at all.

The Gentilesky rest on the flight into Egypt, for instance,

...