Don’t stand so close to me! Art in an age of contagion

Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories

Rules and restrictions designed to contain the spread of COVID-19 are changing rapidly, but Rakewell’s attention has been caught by the Italian government discouraging from hugging, kissing and shaking hands in public – and encouraging everyone to keep a metre away from anyone else in museums. Unfortunately, now that the quarantine restrictions are getting even stricter – at time of writing there is talk of a decree forbidding people to enter or leave Lombardy and other provinces including Venice and Padua until 3 April – museums are likely to be so empty that there will be no need for guards to get out their metre-rules.

Although Rakewell is always pleased to get a gallery to himself, he can’t help sparing a thought for more convivial connoisseurs – and the artworks they have inspired over the centuries.

Call the guards – there are far too many people in the Tribuna of the Uffizi.

Tribuna of the Uffizi (1772–78), Johann Zoffany. Royal Collection Trust. Photo: Royal Collection Trust/© HM Queen Elizabeth II 2020

A good turn-out for Jacques-Louis David makes for a crowd-control headache at the Louvre.

The Public Viewing David’s ‘Coronation‘ at the Louvre (1810), Louis Léopold Boilly. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A reminder of what private views were once like…before they become a lot more private.

A Private View at the Royal Academy (1881), William Powell Frith. Courtesy Martin Beisly

Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch at rakewell@apollomag.com or via @Rakewelltweets.