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With some 120 masterpieces, the show presents the groundbreaking artistic innovations at the birthplace of the Renaissance. A comprehensive selection of exquisite panel paintings, sculptures and drawings transports visitors back to the time of the Medici and traces the development of the art in the modern age, from its beginnings with Giotto’s work to Leonardo da Vinci’s creations.
Bildnis eines jungen Mannes, um 1485
© Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington,
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
The focus of the presentation is on the artists’ world of ideas and working methods. With new self-confidence they plumbed the depths of the real world in quest of the laws of harmony and beauty, they made drawings from nature and studied the works of Antiquity. The painters ambitiously explored the subjects, forms and techniques of their work and, as a result, achieved a variety of artistic forms of expression that had never been reached before, not only in the secular pictorial narratives and portraits but also in the images of private and ecclesiastical devotion.
Madonna of the Carnation (c. 1475), Leonardo da Vinci. Alte Pinakothek. Image: © Bayerischen Staats-gemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
The exhibition provides a detailed insight into the work methods of Florentine painters and explains the close relationship between technical and stylistical change
Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1490/95), Sandro Botticelli. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Image: © Bayerischen Staats-gemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Adoration of the Child (c. 1495), Fra Bartolommeo. Alte Pinakothek, Munich Image: © Bayerischen Staats-gemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
The Annunciation (c. 1443/45), Fra Filippo Lippi. Alte Pinakothek. Image: © Bayerischen Staats-gemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Catalogue
The arts in fifteenth-century Florence made numerous pioneering advances. Artists like Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Sandro Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci brought innovation to the themes, forms, and techniques of painting, opening up a new world of artistic expression. These painters searched for the laws of harmony and beauty with new self-confidence, devoting themselves to the study of antiquity and the practice of sketching from nature. Driven by drawing and in competition with sculpture, they discovered utterly novel modes of representation through portraits, profane visual narratives, and poignant portrayals of church devotion.
Drawing on prominent examples of painting, sculpture, and drawing, this lavishly illustrated volume presents the Alte Pinakothek’s sparkling collection of Florentine art together with more than seventy-five works loaned from museums all over the world, offering multifaceted insights into the intellectual world and working methods of Florentine artists during the Italian Renaissance.
