Around the galleries: medieval manuscripts and a rare Titian cause a stir in Paris, Mexico comes to life in New York and photography in London focuses on gender

Apollo, Sept, 2005 by Susannah Glynn

The astonishingly vibrant colours of medieval and renaissance manuscript illuminations form the subject of an exhibition at Les Enluminures (Le Louvre des Antiquaires, 2 Place du Palais Royal, Paris, 33 1 42 60 15 58) from 15 September to 16 October. 'Haut en Coleur: Enluminures du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance' focuses on the symbolic use of colour within thirty-five illuminated manuscript leaves from France, Italy, Germany and the Low Countries. A late fourteenth-century leaf from Naples (pictured below) is a particularly beautiful example of the symbolic use of blue: because of the difficulty and expense in obtaining the pigment, it surpassed imperial purple (made from the crushed shells of thousands of seasnails) to become the most highly-valued colour of the medieval period. The exhibition draws some interesting conclusions about the continued resonance of certain colours through the ages, and the fickle application of others; what was once sacred and elite now represents, in the form of blue denim, a broad commonality.

To celebrate the opening of his new gallery at 26 Rue Laffitte, Paris ( 33 1 40 22 61 71), Maurizio Canesso has organised a dazzling exhibition, 'Titian and northern Italian painters of the sixteenth Century' (28 September-28 October). Titian's Diana and Her Nymphs Surprised by Actaeon, identified in 1993 as having been in the collection of Louis Francois de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, is the star of the show. The painting is a smaller version of the Duke of Sutherland's canvas on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland, and has never been exhibited in public until now. That Titian was a prolific reproducer of his own work is widely known; this painting is likely to have been created as a ricordo--a record of a piece made by the artist to facilitate later copies. Works by some of Titian's contemporaries will be also be on display, including Paris Bordon's inventive Rest on the Flight into Egypt with St Catherine and Angels and a Venus and Adonis by Luca Cambiaso.

Coinciding with Tate Modern's Frida Kahlo exhibition (see Susannah Woolmer's review, pp. 94-95), Throckmorton Fine Art (145 East 57th Street, New York, 1 212 223 1059) is staging a photographic retrospective featuring the work of several of her contemporaries. 'Men of Mexico' contains a mixture of familiar and lesser-known images by Edward Weston, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Hector Garcia, Fritz Henle and Gerardo Suter among others; an arresting photograph of Kahlo herself, taken by Henle in 1936, is a highlight.

Are women photographers more in tune with female sensuality than their male counterparts? This is the question being posed in the exhibition 'Women Photographing Women' at the Stephanie Hoppen Gallery, (17 Walton Street, London, 44 [0]20 7589 3678; 13 September-8 October). The show explores the work of three very different photographers: Vee Spears, whose latest book, Bordello, is inspired by the sexual freedom and extravagance that pervaded Parisian brothels of the 1920s; the ethereal, opaque images of Josephine Sacabo; and Renee Falcke, whose photo-journalistic prints focus on the backstage, behind-the-scenes aspects of the lives of a series of glamorous women.

'Treasures of Today', a travelling exhibition of contemporary silver from Goldsmiths' Hall, Foster Lane, London (3 September-13 November), arrives this month in Sheffield at the Millennium Galleries, Arundel Gate, 44 [0] 114 278 2600 (see Philippa Glanville's review of the new cutlery display there, on pp. 84-85). The collection, which includes major pieces by master silversmiths of the late twentieth century such as Gerald Benney and Stuart Devlin, is owned by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the country's most prominent and important patrons of modern silver. Around ninety works will be on show, dating from 1980 to the present day, including the very latest additions to the Company's collection, such as Alexandra Raphael's fantastically colourful plique a jour bowl and a sumptuously decorated dish by Simone Ten Hompel, as well as a selection from Sheffield silversmiths.