Art History News: Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums

Friday, December 27, 2013

Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums

Showcasing the outstanding achievements in Italian art from the Middle Ages to the Italian Renaissance and through the 19th century, this exhibition covers a vast scope of artistic genres and mindsets by some of the most influential Italian painters in history. It also highlights the outstanding collection of Glasgow Museums, one of the finest collections of Italian art in Northern Europe.

Antonio Balestra, "Justice and Peace Embracing," ca. 1700, oil on canvas, 42 x 55 1/4 in. Photo courtesy American Federation of Arts.

"Of Heaven and Earth" is organized into five chronological sections -- Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: Tradition and Discovery; The Sixteenth Century: Toward a New Beauty; The Seventeenth Century: Rhetoric and Realism; the Eighteenth Century: Age of Elegance; and The Nineteenth Century: Patriotism and Genre.

Sandro Botticelli, The Annunciation, ca. 1490–95. Tempera on panel. Glasgow Museums; Bequeathed by Archibald McLellan, 1854.

After closing Nov. 17, 2013 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the traveling show Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums moved to the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada (Dec. 13 to March 9); then the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, N.Y. (April 17 to July 13); Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisc. (Oct. 1 to Jan. 4, 2015); and Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Calif. (Feb. 6, 2015 to May 3, 2015).

In a previous incarnation, the same show, known as Bellini, Botticelli, Titian: 500 Years of Italian Art was on display at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, until 23 June 2013.

"Landscape with St. Jerome," circa 1610, by Domenichino. Photo provided by American Federation of Arts

From a review of the Oklahoma show: (link and image added)

The prestigious exhibition is full of colorful stories in the form of masterworks by the likes of Giovanni Bellini, Sandro Botticelli, Domenichino, Francesco Guardi and Salvator Rosa.

The works range from a golden-hued 1500 masterpiece depicting Christ and the Magi to Francesco del Cairo’s tragic 1645-1650 portrait “Death of Cleopatra” to

Luigi Garzi’s dramatic rendering of the Roman legend of the “Sacrifice of Marcus Curtius.”

It’s also the first time patrons can see one of the Scottish collection’s finest and most popular Italian paintings, Titian’s early 1500s masterwork “Christ and the Adulteress,” in a more complete way.

"Christ and the Adulteress," circa 1508-10, by Titian. Photo provided by American Federation of Arts

At some point, 12 to 20 inches and a full-length figure of a man were cut out of the composition. For the first time, the exhibit reunites the larger painting with a fragment of the missing piece titled “Head of a Man,” which the museum purchased in 1971.

From a review of the Compton Varney show:

Don't miss

Two large-scale paintings by the Neapolitan master of atmospheric landscapes, Salvator Rosa.

The ‘Virgin and Child’, 1488, by the great Giovanni Bellini, celebrated for its serenity and the imaginative use of colour and ‘The Annunciation’ 1493, by Botticelli notable for the artist’s revolutionary use of mathematical perspective which gave the architecture of the paintings the impression of three dimensional depth.

"Archangel Michael and the Rebel Angels," circa 1592-93, by Cavaliere d'Arpino. Photo provided by American Federation of Arts

More images and credits:

(above)
Sandro Botticelli
The Annunciation (c.1490-1495)
Oil, tempera and gold leaf on walnut panel
© CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection

Giovanni Bellini
Madonna and Child (c.1480-1485)
Tempura and oil on panel
© CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection

Bartolomeo Veneto
Sta Catherine (c.1520)
Oil on panel
© Glasgow City Council (Glasgow Museums) 2012