Around the galleries: April offers op art by Richard Allen, fine ceramics in Belgium and a retrospective of Filippo Vitale in Milan

Apollo, April, 2008 by Isabel Andrews

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A retrospective of Filippo Vitale (c. 1585-1650), one of the key initiators of the Caravaggesque movement in Naples, is taking place at Silvano Lodi & Due Gallery in Milan from 4 April to 14 May (Via San Primo, 6; 39 02 799151). The exhibition, which includes works from private collections and others that have recently appeared on the market, is a rare opportunity to view the breadth of Vitale's career, whose works lay in oblivion for 300 years before an archive discovery 50 years ago prompted belated recognition. Included is St Jerome Writing (1610-15), Vitale's most intensely Caravaggesque work; the startling composition of Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1620; Fig. 1); and the carefully composed Lot and His Daughters (1640-45)--his final work.

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'Richard Allen: A Retrospective' at Offer Waterman & Co, London, seeks to develop the artist's posthumous recognition by showing over 40 of Alien's optical Pop art collages, Op-art paintings, charcoal paintings and colour studies (11 Langton Street; 44 [0]20 7351 0068). The show also includes Allen's 'white paintings', which he created during the mid-1970s, having decided to work without colour, instead using grid patterns made with charcoal and cellulose acetate on canvas, or wax and charcoal on paper (Fig. 3). All of the works on show are new to the market, having come directly from the family estate after Allen's death in 1999.

Two major art and antiques fairs follow hot on the heels of this year's TEFAF Maastricht fair. The 8th Salon International de la Ceramique Ancienne takes place just outside Brussels in the Chateau of Enghien (30 April-4 May; www.ceramiqueancienne. be). Founded by members of the Belgian royal chamber of antique dealers, it brings together 30 dealers from across Europe who specialise in faience, porcelain (Fig. 2), bisque, enamels and glassware.

Art & Antiques Fair 's-Hertogenbosch is now in its 42nd year, making it the oldest art and antiques fair in the Netherlands. It runs from 11 to 20 April, with 90 exhibitors from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands offering art and antiques dating from 2000 BC to contemporary art, which is a burgeoning section of the fair. Its loan exhibition is drawn from the collection of belongings of famous Dutch writers owned by the Letterkundig Museum (the Museum of Dutch Literature) in the Hague. It includes such unexpected items as the toy rabbit that appears in the final pages of one of the classics of post-war Dutch literature, Gerard Reve's 1947 novel De Avonden. Visit www.afsb.nl for further information.