Biagio d’Antonio (Florentine, 1446-1516), The Betrothal of Jason and Medea, 1487, Tempera on panel, 32-5/8 x 64-3/8", Museé des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, Florentine, 1444/45-1510), and Workshop, probably Bartolomeo di Giovanni (Florentine, act. ca. 1475-ca. 1500/1505), The Banquet in the Pinewoods: Scene Three of The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti, 1483, Tempera on panel, 33-1/8 x 56", Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.
Attributed to Desiderio da Firenze (Florentine, documented in Padua 1532-45), Satyr and Satyress, After 1524 (?), Bronze, H. 10-5/8", Musée National de la Renaissance, Château d’Écouen (E.Cl.2752a, b).
Gherardo di Giovanni del Fora (Florentine, 1444/45-1497), Chaste Women in a Landscape, Probably 1480s, Tempera on panel, 11-¾ x 9-¼", Private collection. |
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Metropolitan Museum
of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
at 82nd Street
212-535-7710
New York
Art and Love
in Renaissance Italy
November 18, 2008-
February 16, 2009
"It is unbelievable how much is spent on these new weddings …"
— Leonardo Bruni, writing to Poggio Bracciolini on the occasion of his marriage, 1412
Key moments in the lives of Italian men and women in the Renaissance were marked by celebrations carried out with the greatest possible degree of magnificence. Of these, betrothal, marriage, and the birth of a child were of the utmost significance. Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, on view beginning November 18 at the Metropolitan Museum, offers a unique look at approximately 150 art objects and paintings, dating from around 1400 to 1550, that were created to celebrate love and marriage. It includes exquisite examples of maiolica and jewelry given as gifts to couples, marriage portraits and paintings that extolled sensual love and fertility, such as the Metropolitan's own Venus and Cupid by the great Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto, and some of the rarest and most significant pieces of Renaissance glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings and prints of amorous subjects.
The exhibition explores the various exceptional objects created to celebrate love and marriage in the Italian Renaissance. The approximately 150 objects, which date from about 1400 to the mid-16th century, range from exquisite examples of maiolica and jewelry given as gifts to couples, to marriage portraits and paintings that extol sensual love and fecundity, such as the Metropolitan's Venus and Cupid by the great Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto. The exhibition will also include some of the rarest and most significant pieces of Renaissance glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings and prints of amorous subjects.
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy is divided into three sections: Celebrating Betrothal, Marriage and Childbirth, which features splendid wedding gifts such as maiolica decorated with narratives or portraits, rare Venetian glassware, rings (including one of the earliest known diamond wedding rings) and other jewelry, delicate gilded boxes, and costly painted cassoni, or bridal chests; Profane Love, which focuses on erotic, at times salacious, imagery treated in drawings, prints, and other objects created by some of the most celebrated artists of the time, including Parmigianino and Giulio Romano; and From Cassone to Poesia: Paintings of Love and Marriage, which shifts to nuptial portraits and paintings on themes of love that decorated bedchambers and private quarters. Here the poetic genius of Renaissance artists is on display with some of the most beguiling and sensual works by Botticelli, Titian, Lorenzo Lotto, and their contemporaries that were produced for marriages and as gifts for lovers.
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy is organized at the Metropolitan Museum by Andrea Bayer, Curator in the Department of European Paintings. The Profane Love section of the exhibition is organized by Linda Wolk-Simon, Curator in the Museum's Department of Drawings and Prints.
Exhibition design is by Michael Langley, Senior Exhibition Designer, with graphic design by Constance Norkin, Senior Graphic Designer, and lighting by Clint Ross Coller and Richard Lichte, Senior Lighting Designers, all of the Museum's Design Department.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, edited by Andrea Bayer with essays by an international team of experts, and will be available in the Metropolitan Museum's book shops ($65 hardcover and $45 paperback). The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Charles Bloom Foundation. |
