Toulouse-Lautrec, Mantegna and Therrien – the week in art

Jonathan Jones's top shows to see this week Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge The relationship between the visionary lowlife chronicler Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and one of his favourite models, the dancer Jane Avril, is this exhibition's theme. Brilliantly drawn, tenderly coloured, always emotionally engaged with their subjects, Toulouse-Lautrec's depictions of Paris are tougher and more serious than his fame might suggest. • At Courtauld Gallery , London WC2R, until 18 September Splendour and Power: Imperial Treasures from Vienna The Habsburg rulers of the Austrian Empire were fanatical collectors of everything from coral to Correggio paintings . Here is a rich selection from their historic hoards. • At Fitzwilliam Museum , Cambridge, 16 August until 8 January John Cage Chance fascinated Cage, who had as much influence on art as on music. Here are the experiments of a man who inspired his friends Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, and whose compositions can be understood as sculpture. • At Hayward Gallery , London SE1, until 18 September Charles Jencks: Life Mounds It might be objected that the spectacular way Jencks sculpts curvaceous earthworks is too easy, a modern version of the picturesque landscape gardens of the 18th century. But the picturesque has its pleasures, then and now. • At Jupiter Artland , outside Edinburgh, until 18 September British Art Show 7 Last chance to see the Edinburgh showing of this grab bag of where it's at. Local literary giant and muralist Alasdair Gray shows some wonderful portraits. Other highlights are the melancholy paintings of George Shaw , shortlisted for this autumn's Turner prize . • At various venues, Glasgow, until 21 August Up close: artworks in detail Robert Therrien, No Title (Table and Four Chairs), 2003 Therrien's giant table and chairs leave you discombobulated and delighted. Here is another terrific modern treasure of the national Artist Rooms collection of contemporary art. • At Tate Liverpool Mappa Mundi, c1300 This is one of the most important surviving medieval works of art anywhere on Earth. It is a world map in which the Earth, pictured as flat, is crowded with drawings of places, people and animals. An entire cosmology is inscribed on this brown sheer of vellum. • At Hereford Cathedral Andrea Mantegna, The Triumphs of Caesar, c1485 Mantegna worked for the rulers of Mantua, a small city in north Italy, but here he equates their rule with that of the Caesars. In a series of imposing panels, he portrays the treasures, prisoners and captured armour paraded in a Roman triumph. This is one of the greatest depictions of history in art. • At Hampton Court Palace Gorgon's Head or Green Man? This ancient Romano-British face comes from the pediment of a temple in Bath. In terms of Roman art and religion, it most closely resembles a gorgon – but it is the wrong gender. Is it, rather, a memory of a British pagan deity, a shaggy-haired wild god, the ancestor of the Green Man of our folklore? • At Roman Baths, Bath Paul Cezanne, Montagne Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine, c1882 The air bristles, the sky is mineral, the mountain an unattainable remote symbol. Cezanne's paintings of a Provencal mountain are his most profound meditations on the mind's attempts to know the world through the eyes. The mountain is a barrier beyond which the eye cannot see; the world refuses to be grasped. • At Courtauld Gallery , London What we learned this week Why turning your artistic talents to Danish politics can be downright painful Why Edgar Degas was not a cold, voyeuristic misogynist after all How life is full of harsh realities for women refugees Forget Damien Hirst's diamond-encrusted skull: nobody did bling quite like the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa How a church in Encino, Los Angeles, came to the rescue of the art world Image of the week Your art weekly @ADEK03 My review of Late Shift Re-animate Drop In Drawing Experience http://t.co/yaokc5i #artweekly #npglondon Have you been to any of these shows? What have you enjoyed this week? Give your review in the comments below or tweet us your verdict using #artweekly and we'll publish the best ones. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook