On 26th February 1923 the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) processed through the streets of London for a service in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Christopher Wren (1632–1723). Representatives of the architectural profession in the United States and France joined with the British to lay wreaths at Wren’s tomb. The RIBA has not announced any plans of its own for Wren’s tercentenary to match the 1923 ceremony but it is one of the organisations that under the aegis of the Georgian Group have combined to create an impressive programme of anniversary events, Wren 300.

Rumours abounded at the opening of the Carpaccio exhibition that the National Gallery of Art, Washington, had called a moratorium on old master exhibitions and that this would be the last for the foreseeable future. If this unsubstantiated gossip is true then the gallery’s fifty-year history of stellar exhibitions has gone out with a bang not a whimper. Both the installation and the catalogue are exemplary and much of the credit is due to the careful guidance of the exhibition’s curator, Peter Humfrey.