Edinburgh's winter is illuminated and the Shard experience – the week in art

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/feb/01/edinburgh-winter-illuminated-experience-shard

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Exhibition of the week: Murillo

I have a soft spot for Murillo. What other kind of spot could you have for this fluffy and even maudlin 17th-century Spanish artist? Murillo's themes are prayer and charity. He portrays childhood with a misty-eyed sentimentality. His religious scenes are loaded with reverence like cream on cake.

So why do I like him? First, the above description is a cliche. If Murillo portrays children soppily he also shows the reality of child poverty. And his soft-focus portraits of kids also have a place in the story of art, for they deeply influenced 18th-century artists like Sir Joshua Reynolds in their sympathetic depictions of children. These 18th-century artists played a crucial role in the developent of a warmer and more companionable style of family life – you could even say Murillo invented modern childhood.

This exhibition is an ambitious exploration of Murillo and his relationship with his patron, Don Justino de Neve. Dulwich owns fantastic examples of his work so it should be a zinger.<br />• Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21, from 6 February to 19 May

Other exhibitions this week

<strong>Massimo Bartolini</strong><br />Spectacular Italian installation art to illuminate Edinburgh's winter.<br />• Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh EH1, until 14 April

<strong>Raymond Pettibon</strong><br />Lo-fi videos by this hugely imaginative California artist.<br />• Space, London E8, until 17 March

<strong>Keith Tyson</strong><br />Are Tyson's new paintings good or terrible? It depends – has he remembered to charge up his Art Machine?<br />• Pace London, London W1, from 7 February until 28 March

<strong>George Barber</strong><br />Video work about drone warfare addresses a global debate.<br />• Waterside Contemporary, London N1, from 2 February until 23 March

Masterpiece of the week

<strong>Diego Velázquez, The Immaculate Conception, 1618-19</strong><br />The icy precision of the young Velázquez delights in eerie realism even as he paints a dreamlike religious icon. The tension between realism and theological abstraction makes this a majestic and haunting work.<br />• National Gallery, London WC2

Image of the week

What we learned this week

What the 360 panorama from the top of the Shard looks like – and sounds like

And how the Shard measures up to tallest buildings around the world

That South Korean photographer Ahn Jun has no fear – and is willing to dangle from any building for her art

That you can head to Milton Keynes Gallery and hunt high and low for an £8,000 blank cheque that's been left by an artist for one lucky visitor

That photorealist drawings have a new lease of life

That Bruce Nauman makes art that's like being whacked with a baseball bat

And finally ...

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