We went on a quick day trip to the Sainsbury Centre to see the exhibition Francis Bacon and the Masters:  a wonderful exhibition not just because it helps to demonstrate Bacon’s astonishing visual eclecticism.   It’s a completely convincing demonstration of the way his imagination fed on imagery of past art, not only Velázquez, but Titian and Van Gogh and Soutine and Hellenistic sculpture, never copying, but always adapting pose and composition.   It’s also a wonderful exhibition for the wealth and range of work lent by the Hermitage, which Bacon never actually visited, but which is able to supply examples of every sort of art that Bacon might have devoured.