Bellezza e Bruttezza Beauty and Ugliness in the Renaissance

 

Bozar, Centre for Fine Arts - Brussels

20 Feb. → 14 June'26

An adapted form of the exhibition 

 Gallerie d’Italia in Milan 

9 July → 18 Oct.'26

Beauty and Ugliness have always fascinated people, yet their meanings shift over time. From 20 February to 14 June 2026, Bozar presents Bellezza e Bruttezza, a historical exhibition that explores how artists from Italy and Northern Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries depicted these extremes. From refined ideals to deliberate caricatures. A rare opportunity to see extraordinary and precious works of Botticelli, Titian, Da Vinci, Tintoretto, Cranach the Elder, Matsys, and many others, displayed in Belgium for the first and only time.

The exhibition traces how the standards of Beauty and Ugliness evolved from the last quarter of the 15th century to the end of the 16th century—key transitional periods— by juxtaposing in a rich and compelling confrontation the ways in which these two subjects were interpreted by the greatest Italian artists and their counterparts from Northern Europe. Beauty became an increasingly important social concern at this time, as shown by the rising number of 16th-century publications offering “recipes for looking beautiful” and advice on cosmetics and care. Meanwhile, Ugliness also grew in prominence in art, appearing in a widening range of forms throughout the same period.

Over 90 exceptional works are on display at Bozar. The selection includes works by renowned artists such as Sandro Botticelli, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Leonardo da Vinci, Frans Floris de Vriendt, Albrecht Dürer, Lorenzo Lotto, Quentin Metsys,Titian, Tintoretto, Carracci, Bordone, Sellaer, Dürer, Veronese, Campi, Dossi...

The exhibition brings together these precious works from public and private collections across Europe and the United States. The prestigious lenders include: the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome, the Vatican Museum, the Louvre, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Galleria Borghese in Rome and the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

Since ancient times, beauty and ugliness have been subjects that continue to fascinate and raise questions, as they are universal themes whose variations are determined by culture and era. How was the dialectic between beauty and ugliness formally expressed between the end of the 15th century and the 16th century, a period that would prove to be pivotal? Renaissance artists were the first to accord equal importance to both, and this interest grew throughout the 16th century.

This book explores this trajectory, presenting the themes of beauty and ugliness in their most salient and representative aspects. A comparative approach between the works of the Italian Renaissance and those of Northern Europe, particularly the former Netherlands, allows us to grasp the constants and variations in the history of forms and taste, supported by works accompanied by notes, including those by Sandro Botticelli, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Leonardo da Vinci, Frans Floris de Vriendt, Albrecht Dürer, Lorenzo Lotto, Quentin Metsys, Michelangelo, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.

Under the scientific direction of Chiara Rabbi Bernard, with essays by Cristina Acidini, Christophe Brouard, Elena Capretti, Maria Clelia Galassi, Yves Hersant, Koenraad Jonckheere, Catherine Lanoë, Pietro C. Marani and Giandomenico Spinola.

Quotes

Beauty and ugliness reinforce each other.

— Leonardo Da Vinci

The exhibition “Bellezza e Bruttezza” offers a new perspective on the dynamic tension between beauty and ugliness, exploring their most compelling expressions from the late fifteenth to the end of the sixteenth century—a pivotal moment in history.

— Chiara Rabbi Bernard, curator of the exhibition

“Bellezza e Bruttezza” reveals a nuanced vision of the Renaissance, inspired by the period’s understanding of the human being and the world. For Bozar, the exhibition is also a unique opportunity to unfold a multidisciplinary programme reflecting on contemporary perceptions of physical beauty.

— Christophe Slagmuylder, CEO & Artistic Director of Bozar – Centre of Fine Arts, Brussels

“This important exhibition - created especially for Bozar - brings together masterpieces of Renaissance art that seldom travel. It is a unique occasion to see these remarkable artworks in Brussels. The exhibition builds upon a long tradition of Bozar of presenting Old Masters. It explores an issue that has long motivated artists and raised great debate in society: what - and who is considered beautiful? And why? The exhibition highlights the continuity of Western standards of beauty. And the parallel exhibition of contemporary art – ‘Picture Perfect’ - attempts to unpick some of these norms from our 21st-century perspective."

— Zoë Gray, Director of Exhibitions, Bozar – Centre of Fine Arts, Brussels

Wall Texts

Introduction

In his treatise De Pictura (1435), Leon Battista Alberti tasked the painters of his day with the pursuit of beauty, which for him was based on a broad ideal of "elegant harmony", governed by mathematics. However, from the last quarter of the 15th century, artists started to show increasing attention to beauty’s opposite: ugliness. This phenomenon intensified throughout the 16th century, with representations of "divine heads" placed alongside ugly, even monstrous, ones. Why this unprecedented interest in representing the seemingly contradictory? Because beauty cannot exist without ugliness: they are inseparable, for one derives its meaning, and – perhaps even more so – its brilliance, from the other.

Beauty and ugliness have always been essential, universal themes, their variations in form and taste determined by cultures and eras. What better medium than art, with its power to condense images and create forms, to capture the sembianze (the "outward appearance") and restore their meaning, in an era when the cult and power of the image were not what they are today?

This exhibition seeks to highlight the most salient aspects of this confrontation between bellezza and bruttezza during the Renaissance, showing how they were represented by Italian and Northern European artists (particularly the Flemish), in the pivotal period from the last quarter of the 15th to the end of the 16th century.

Antiquity and the Renaissance

During the Renaissance, the representation of beauty and ugliness was largely influenced by Antiquity, as evidenced here by several striking examples. Initially, 15th- century artists remained largely indebted to the Ancients' conception of ideal beauty, understood as the harmonious association of parts with the whole. Starting with the study of real bodies to arrive at the representation of idealized human figures, they adopted "canonical" proportions and applied geometric grids for respecting certain mathematical relationships between the parts.

Ugliness, in Antiquity, was expressed more specifically by anything that deviated from these norms to come closer to real – sometimes visually unprepossessing – subjects. Certain portraits from Rome’s Republican era, for example, influenced several works by Renaissance artists. However, the discovery, in the 15th century, of the Roman frescoes of Nero's Domus Aurea would provide Renaissance artists with another idea of ugliness, a more imaginary one: that of the grotesques.

Beautiful Women and Realistic Portraiture in the Renaissance

Portraiture is undoubtedly the art form that best reveals how beauty and ugliness were interpreted and represented. The influence of Antiquity is evident in realistic portraits, inspired by the profiles that appeared on ancient coins and medals: the figures are hardly embellished, their flaws not erased. Ideal beauty, on the other hand, is most often depicted and expressed in feminine form, with a proliferation of beautiful, somewhat static-looking ladies. From the late 15th century, in imitation of Flemish art, the three-quarter profile became widespread, permitting a better definition of the subject's physiognomy and greater psychological precision; the posture too is less static. This resulted in a new representation of beauty and ugliness, which gained in complexity and individuality.

In Italian art, especially in the 16th century, the representation of beauty varied considerably depending on whether the artists were Venetian or Florentine: the former depicting beautiful women who come across as a sensuous and assertively seductive, the latter often portraying them as icy and distant.

Muses, Monsters, and Prodigies

Renaissance artists also drew inspiration from real-life subjects who, because of their extreme appearance, were perceived as models that could be artistically idealised. This was the case of the very beautiful Simonetta Vespucci, one of whose supposed portraits is presented here. She inspired Botticelli in many works, including his famous Venus; her beauty was also celebrated by poets. The dwarf Morgante, by contrast, represented a certain model of ugliness, as did Madeleine Gonzales, who inherited from her father Pedro excessive hair growth due to a genetic anomaly, known as hypertrichosis. Those affected by this condition were considered monsters at the time. Such figures became genuine archetypes.

Beauty, Ugliness, and Artifice

In the 16th century, "artifice" referred to the technique of making a difficult-to- represent figure appear natural while simultaneously creating a more perfect form. Through such means, art could correct nature's flaws; but conversely, it could also distort nature, even rendering it monstrous. The widespread social practice of cosmetic art, common at the time, falls under the umbrella of artifice.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is grace, less acquired than bestowed, and with which even those considered naturally disproportionate can be endowed. Grace permits a transcending of traditional beauty, which was dependent on an external canon and the dogma of proportions and harmony; it also encompasses the inner dimension of being and confers a kind of nonchalant air, a sprezzatura, with both ethical and aesthetic connotations.

Making Oneself Beautiful

Reflections on beauty, and implicitly on ugliness, also manifested themselves during the 16th century with the publication and widespread dissemination of treatises and books of beauty recipes. In them we find the criteria for the ideal appearance of a woman: she should have particularly white skin, ample blond hair, dark eyes, rosy cheeks and red lips, a small nose, thin, arched eyebrows, a high, broad forehead, and well-proportioned limbs. The secrets of cosmetics to mask imperfections due to nature or illness were also revealed. While, like art, makeup aimed to perfect nature, often the opposite effect was achieved due to the harmful substances used in their preparations, which included materials such as lead, arsenic, or mercury.

Beautiful Ugliness: Caricatured Heads

It is impossible to find in nature, which is inherently varied, a model of beauty that is always identical and ideal. Moreover, Mannerist art freed itself from strict imitation. In a major shift, the artist felt more entitled to create ever-new forms. Norms, now perceived as unreliable, were transgressed.

Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, from the last quarter of the 15th century onward, opted for a freer creation; distortion was not excluded, as evidenced by Da Vinci’s famous "caricate" (caricatured) heads. Ugliness and caricature acquired a new legitimacy, first in Italy and then in Northern Europe. These bodies and faces, which already disfigure the "normal" in some of the two masters' works, demonstrate that art does not shy away from arousing pleasure by resorting to monstrous figures. In this way, a "beautiful ugliness" is born.

Villains, madmen, vicious or wicked persons... or the privileged figures of ugliness

During the 16th century, ugliness — also because of its protean nature — came to play an increasingly important role in Italian art and in that of Northern Europe, particularly in Flanders. Disproportionate bodies, deformities, and hybridizations: these singularities, which have an impact that is as much intellectual as visual, provided artists with rich sources of inspiration, enabling them to create captivating figures of ugliness. These figures are marked by a strong social and moral connotation, which the various sections of the exhibition seek to highlight.

It was easier for artists to distort the features of marginalized people, who were considered socially inferior, and often the artists sought to mock them, eliciting a laughter of superiority.

Comedy and Social Satire

“Certainly, there is nothing that gives more contentment and recreation than a smiling face.”
Laurent Joubert (leading 16th-century French physician)

Fools and Jesters

“See with what foresight Nature, mother of humankind, has ensured that a pinch of folly is spread everywhere. [...] And so that human life might not be entirely sad and bitter, she has mixed in them more passions than reason.” Erasmus

Vices and Virtues

“Virtue, therefore, seems to be health, beauty, and well-being of the soul; and vice, illness, ugliness, and weakness.”
Plato

Beauty and Ugliness in Pairs

The association of beauty and ugliness is exemplified during the Renaissance by the pictorial genre of "unequal pairs": bellezza and bruttezza in one and the same work.

This theme, first illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, symbolically concludes the exhibition. Here, we encounter mythical mismatched couples from Antiquity, which served as inspiration for Renaissance artists. These are accompanied by secular couples from Italian art, engaged in games of seduction, and by couples from Northern Europe, whose relationship is based more on financial and moral considerations. At the end of the 16th century, we find a tendency to favour stark contrasts, the pairing of antithetical figures: a beautiful young woman alongside an old woman or an ugly old man, a handsome young man courting an ugly woman.

These couples further strengthen the conviction of Da Vinci that "beauty and ugliness reinforce each other".

Sandro Botticelli (toegeschreven aan / attribué à / attributed to) (Firenze, 1445 - Firenze, 1510)Allegorisch portret van een vrouw (Simonetta Vespucci?) / Portrait allégorique d'une femme (Simonetta Vespucci?) / Allegorical Portrait of a Woman (Simonetta Vespucci?)ca. 1490Tempera en olieverf op doek / Tempera et huile sur toile / Tempera and oil on canvas Privéverzameling / Collection privée / Private collection

Jacopo Negretti, bekend als / dit / known as Palma il Vecchio (Serina, ca. 1480 - Venezia, 1528)Jonge vrouw in groene jurk / Jeune femme en robe verte / Young Woman in Green Dresca. 1512-1514Olieverf op paneel / Huile sur panneau / Oil on panel Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie

Lucas Cranach de Oude / Lucas Cranach l’Ancien / Lucas Cranach the Elder (Kronach, 1472 - Weimar, 1553)Ongelijk liefdespaar (Jonge man en oude vrouw) / Le couple inégal (Jeune homme et vieille femme) / Ill-matched Couple (Young Man and Old Woman)ca. 1520-1522Olieverf op paneel / Huile sur panneau / Oil on panelBudapest, Szépművészeti Múzeum

Tiziano Vecellio, bekend als Titiaan / dit Titien / known as Titian
(Pieve di Cadore, 1488/90 - Venezia, 1576)
en atelier / et atelier / and workshop
Portret van Giulia Gonzaga / Portrait de Giulia Gonzaga / Portrait of Giulia Gonzaga ca. 1534Olieverf op doek / Huile sur toile / Oil on canvas Privéverzameling / Collection privée / Private collection

Tiziano Vecellio, bekend als Titiaan / dit Titien / known as Titian
(Pieve di Cadore, 1488/1490 - Venezia, 1576)
Vrouw met appel / Femme tenant une pomme / Woman Holding an Apple ca. 1550-1555
Olieverf op doek / Huile sur toile / Oil on canvas
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection

Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (Milano, 1538 - Milano, 1592) Grotesk hoofd van een vrouw in profiel / Tête grotesque de femme de profile / Grotesk Head of a Woman in Profile ca. 1560 Olieverf en tempera op paneel / Huile et tempera sur panneau / Oil and tempera on panel Privéverzameling / Collection privée / Private collection

Niccolò Frangipane (omgeving van / entourage / circle of) (Padova ?, ca. 1545 - Venezia ?, ca. 1600)Bacchusmaal / Repas bachique / A Bacchanalca. 1580-1590 Olieverf op doek / Huile sur toile / Oil on canvas Soissons, Musée municipal de Soissons

Jan Massys(Antwerpen, 1509 - Antwerpen, 1575)Vrolijk gezelschap / Joyeuse compagnie / A Merry Company 1562 Olieverf op paneel / Huile sur panneau / Oil on panel Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, Musée Thomas Henry

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem(Haarlem, 1562 - Haarlem, 1638)Portret van Pieter Cornelisz. van der Morsch als nar / Portrait de Pieter Cornelisz. van der Morsch en fou / Portrait of Pieter Cornelisz. van der Morsch as a Jester Eind 16e eeuw / Fin du XVIe siècle / End of the 16th centuryOlieverf op paneel / Huile sur panneau / Oil on panelAmsterdam, Allard Pierson, theatercollectie

Jean Bologne, bekend als / dit / known as Giambologna (Douai, 1529 - Firenze, 1608)De dwerg Morgante met een beker / Le nain Morgante avec une coupe / The Dwarf Morgante with a Cup ca. 1580 Brons / Bronze Firenze, Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello

Quinten Massys (Leuven, 1466 - Antwerpen, 1530) Portret van een oude vrouw / Portrait d'une vieille femme / Portrait of an Elderly Woman ca. 1514-1524 Olieverf op paneel / Huile sur panneau / Oil on panel Antwerpen, The Phoebus Foundation

Leonardo da Vinci / Léonard de Vinci (Vinci, 1452 - Amboise, 1519) Grotesk hoofd van een vrouw in pro􏰀el / Tête grotesque de femme de pro􏰀le / Grotesk Head of a Woman in Pro􏰀le ca. 1490-1500Pen, lichtbruine inkt en metaal- of zilverstift op papier / Plume et encre sépia claire, sur tracé à la pointe de plomb ou à la pointe d’argent / Pen and clear sepia ink with stylus or silverpoint on paperVenezia, Verzameling / Collection Ligabue

Anoniem / Anonyme / Anonymous Portret van Madeleine Gonzáles / Portrait de Madeleine Gonzáles / Portrait of Madeleine Gonzáles ca. 1580 Olieverf op doek / Huile sur toile / Oil on canvas Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie

Frans Floris de Vriendt (Antwerpen, ca. 1519 - Antwerpen, 1570) Pomona / Pomone1565 Olieverf op doek / Huile sur toile / Oil on canvas Stockholm, Hallwylska Museet / Statens historiska museer

Mary Cassatt An American in Paris

National Gallery

February 14 - August 30, 2026

An intimate exhibition brings together rarely-seen treasures and iconic works by Mary Cassatt, marking 100 years since her death.

Mary Cassatt’s art and life reflect an independent spirit that defied expectations for women in her time.  Explore three galleries in the National Gallery’s impressionist collection to look closely at how she worked. Some 40 paintings, drawings, and prints—largely drawn from our rich holdings of her work—show an artist shaped by tradition yet radically modern.

 

Mary Cassatt, Girl Arranging Her Hair, 1886, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.97

Mary Cassatt, Woman with a Sunflower, c. 1905, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.98

Mary Cassatt, In the Omnibus, 1890-1891, color drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint on laid paper, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.250

Mary Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.18

Mary Cassatt, Gathering Fruit, c. 1893, color drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.2757

CAFÉ SOCIETY ART AND SOCIABILITY IN BELLE ÉPOQUE PARIS

 Ordrupgaard

 6 FEBRUARY – 31 MAY 2026

In this exhibition, artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Édouard Vuillard tempt the audience to step into the Parisian cafés in the decades around 1900. They became venues for artists, musicians, and poets, who would meet there to discuss art and broaden their networks whilst coffee, beer, wine, and absinth added sparkle to their conversation. Scandinavian artists, among them Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Edvard Munch, and Anders Zorn, also flocked to the French establishments to seek new acquaintances and inspiration. They depicted modern life, a motif adopted by avant-garde artists to replace the historical and mythological motifs that had hitherto defined art for centuries. 

he exhibition Café Society. Art and Sociability in Belle Époque Paris assembles a broad selection of paintings and works on paper that trace various aspects of café culture. Through works by artists such as Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, and Édouard Manet, the exhibition seeks to convey how artists both observed and took part in the flourishing café culture during the time of the Third Republic. 

Works by such artists as Juan Gris and Pablo Picasso, who broke new artistic ground with cubism and abstraction, demonstrate the continued relevance of the cafés during the years preceding World War I. Ultimately, therefore, the exhibition attempts to uncover the emergence and development of the café culture in Paris as a central motif for the dawning modern visual art. 

ART, NETWORKING, AND MODERN LIFE The artists who lived and worked in the French capital were attracted by special cafés, including the now famous Café Guerbois and Café de la Nouvelle Athènes. To all intents and purposes, they served as miniature universes offering networks, cheap meals, and a much-needed retreat.

Artist colleagues, workers, demi-mondes, and bohemians were portrayed in the blinding glitter of intoxication but equally the morning after when loneliness and the darker side of the metropolitan city started to kick in. Women, too, gradually became a visible part of the café culture during the belle époque, reflecting contemporary views on gender and public places. The cafés and their colourful clientele became a fresh motif among the leading avant-garde artists.

A SCANDINAVIAN PERSPECTIVE 

Paris was the central hub of an increasingly international art world and, as an extra dimension, Ordrupgaard presents the theme of Scandinavians in Paris. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, many Scandinavian artists flocked to Paris where they formed their own networks and sought inspiration in the Parisian café culture. Café de la Régence became a haunt of the period’s well-known artists, among them Christian and Oda Krohg, Edvard Munch, J. F. Willumsen, and Anders Zorn, who portrayed modern city life and its characters. The exhibition also outlines, for example, how Paris left distinctive footprints in Scandinavian art and on the café culture emerging in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Kristiania (now Oslo). 

THE CAFÉ AS A NEW VENUE 

Although cafés have existed in Paris since the sixteenth century and inns can be traced back many centuries, the importance of the cafés made significant strides following the Franco-Prussian War (1870‒1871) and the formation of the Paris Commune. A new Paris emerged in the mid-nineteenth century when Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann became responsible for transforming the infrastructure of the growing city. The streets were transformed into wide boulevards, old districts were either renovated or demolished, and the working class was gradually pushed further out from the city centre. Hence the cafés became central meeting places, a fine supplement to the private salons as democratic spaces for networking and exchanging ideas. 

The exhibition is arranged in close collaboration with Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, USA, and Joslyn Art Museum, Nebraska, USA. After showing first at Ordrupgaard, it will travel on to the two American museums. Nineteenth-century French and Danish art constitutes the heart of the collection at Ordrupgaard, and Wilhelm Hansen, founder of the museum, worked tirelessly to ensure that art from this period reached the widest possible audience. With Café Society. Art and Sociability in Belle Époque Paris, themuseum adds a new facet to the visual art of this period and the artistic environments that provided the inspiration. 

CATALOGUE 

To accompany the exhibition, a richly illustrated catalogue in both Danish and English is published by GILES. The catalogue is an interdisciplinary effort of historians and curators, featuring articles by international experts such as Dr. W. Scott Haine and Dr. Jeffrey H. Jackson, whose pioneering research into Parisian café culture is internationally acclaimed. Further, the catalogue contains articles by Taylor Acosta, curator & director of collections at the Joslyn Art Museum and Julie Pierotti, Martha R. Robinson curator at Dixon Gallery and Gardens as well as Dorthe Vangsgaard Nielsen, senior curator at Ordrupgaard. The publication examines how the café culture created new social and artistic spaces, zooming in on modernity, consumption, and gender

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Press photos

We kindly request that journalists requiring free entrance contact asolig@ordrupgaard.dk prior to their visit.

James Tissot, The Artists' Wives, 1885. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia. Donation from Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., and The Grandy Fund, Landmark Communications Fund and “An Affair to Remember” 1982
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Vincent van Gogh, "In the Café: Agostina Segatori in Le Tambourin", January-March, 1887. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, "Moulin de la Galette", 1889. Oil on canvas, 88,5 × 101,3 cm. Art Institute of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, 1933.458
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Akseli Gallen-Kallela, "In a Café in Paris", 1886. Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä. Photo: Hannu Miettinen
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Edvard Munch, "The Absinthe Drinkers", 1890. Siem Group. Foto: Artepics, Alamy
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Émile-Othon Friesz, "Scene in a Parisian Brasserie", ca. 1905-6. Museum Barberini
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Fernand Lungren, "In the Café", 1882–84. Oil on canvas, 44,8 × 67,3 cm. Dixon Gallery and Gardens; Museum purchase with funds provided by the estate of Cecil Williams Marshall, 2018.2
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Vincent van Gogh. "Restaurant Rispal at Asnières", 1887. Oil on canvas, 73,3 × 60 cm. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Gift of Henry W. & Marion H. Bloch, 2015.13.10. Image courtesy of Nelson-Atkins Digital Production & Preservation, Gabe Hopkins
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Olga Meisner-Jensen, Still Life with Campanula Harebell in Sunny Window Sill, u.d., Ribe Kunstmuseum
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Kristian Zahrtmann, At the Bible Table, 1912. The HHGSA Collection, ©Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers
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Martinus Rørbye, View from the Artist's Window, 1823-1827. Statens Museum for Kunst, open.smk.dk, public domain
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Jean René Gauguin. Merman and Mermaid. (1928). Photo Anders Sune Berg
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Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard.

Kunstmuseum Bern

13 February to 27 September 2026

 

One of the treasures of the Kunstmuseum Bern is the significant holding of works of early art. From 13 February to 27 September 2026, the museum is putting this part of its collection at the centre with the exhibition Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard. Alongside masters from the early modern period, the exhibition features works of Florentine and Sienese painting from the Trecento and Quattrocento as well as masterpieces of the Baroque. A fascinating exhibition that reflects the full range of life: martyrdom meets grandstanding, asceticism encounters opulence, virtue confronts lust.

Skillful altarpieces by Niklaus Manuel and the Bern Carnation Masters, and intimate devotional works of medieval Florentine and Sienese painting from the 13th to the 15th century are juxtaposed with elegant portraits and opulent still lifes by artists such as Joseph Heintz, Johannes Dünz, Albrecht Kauw and Jean-Etienne Liotard. Joseph Werner’s allegorical representations of virtue, justice and healing meet dramatic narratives from Greek mythology. With around 70 paintings and some works on parchment, the exhibition Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard in the Kunstmuseum Bern presents an impressive picture of the rich and varied imagery from the late Middle Ages to the Baroque.

Treasures from six centuries

The exhibition encompasses works from the 13th to the 18th century, starting with Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Maestà, the oldest painting in the collection of the Kunstmuseum Bern. It includes major holdings of Bern artists, but also some works from Germany, France and the Netherlands. One major focus is formed by the elaborate altarpieces of the Bern Carnation Masters, active between 1480 and 1510, and the significant holding of works by Niklaus Manuel, born around 1484.

The main gallery is devoted to Manuel, who was not only a painter, poet and graphic artist, but also a reformer, mercenary and alderman of the city of Bern, and to the Bern Carnation Masters. Many altarpieces, some shown free-standing, present extravagant and highly detailed scenes from the lives of the saints, and invite deeper contemplation.

Earthly and heavenly goods

In the age of the Baroque, Bern was one of the powerful city states, and for centuries the more affluent parts of the population enjoyed economic prosperity. Opulent still lifes displaying the rich harvests of the rural estates, as well as a comprehensive selection of prestigious portraits reflect this ‘material culture’ and the luxury of bourgeois life.

At the same time, and in contrast with the presentation of material wealth, concepts of a good and virtuous way of life were also addressed in painting. Examples of this are allegorical paintings by Joseph Werner and the famous Bern Tablet of Cebes by Joseph Plepp. This monumental painting, over 3 metres wide and with around 200 figures, shows the vicissitudes of humankind on their way to salvation.

The Estate of Adolf von Stürler

One highlight of the exhibition is a selection of works from the estate of the artist Adolf von Stürler (1802–1881). The painter left some 170 works to the Kunstmuseum Bern, which found their way into the collection in 1902. These include works by Florentine and Sienese masters of the Trecento and Quattrocento such as Bernardo Daddi, Fra Angelico and from the workshop of Sandro Botticelli – works which are without parallel in Switzerland, and which are among the oldest and most valuable paintings in the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection. The holding also includes the Maestà by Duccio di Buononsegna, as precious as it is famous, which can be seen in a cabinet in the exhibition alongside other altarpieces and fragments.

Of Flora, Neptune and Venus

In another cabinet, mythological depictions by Bernese, French and Dutch artists serve as counterpoint to the many biblical scenes. This small but fine selection shows the fates of Greek gods and nymphs from the 16th to the 18th centuries. As a particular feature, miniatures by Joseph Werner are also on view. The small, very filigree works on parchment are shown only rarely because of their sensitivity to light.

IMAGES

Joseph Heintz d. Ä.

Portrait of a Lady, 1598
Oil on canvas
87 × 70 cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, depositum of Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, Bundesamt für Kultur, Gottfried Keller- Stiftung

Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Duccio di Buoninsegna

Maestà, around 1290–1295
Tempera on poplar wood, covered with canvas, original frame
31,5 × 23,2 × 2,5 cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, Estate of Adolf von Stürler, Versailles
Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Fra Angelico

Madonna col Bambino, around 1445–1450 Tempera on poplar wood
46,6 × 35,1 cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, Estate of Adolf von Stürler, Versailles

Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Sandro Botticelli (Werkstatt)

Madonna del Magnificat (Replica of a panel in the Uffizi, Florence), after 1480
Tempera on poplar wood, fragment of a tondo

36 × 27,3 cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, Estate of Adolf von Stürler, Versailles
Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Bernese Carnation Masters

John's Sermon in Front of Herod, 1495–1500 Mixed media on fir wood
107,5 × 125 cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, Staat Bern

Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Niklaus Manuel (I.)

The Beheading of John the Baptist, around 1514
Mixed media on spruce wood
121,2 × 84,2 cm

Kunstmuseum Bern Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Niklaus Manuel (I.)

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1518–1520 Mixed media on spruce wood
101 × 126 cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, depositum of Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, Bundesamt für Kultur, Gottfried Keller- Stiftung, acquired with contributions of Kanton Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern, Gemeinde Bern and Verein der Freunde Kunstmuseum Bern

Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Joseph Werner d. J.

Allegory of Justice, 1662
Oil on canvas
166 × 225 cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, Staat Bern Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Joseph Werner d. J.

Flora in Front of a Fountain, 1666 Gouache on parchment over copper plate

14×10,5cm

Kunstmuseum Bern, Staat Bern Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Albrecht Kauw

Storage with cock and hen, 1678 Oil on canvas
146,5 × 101,3 cm Kunstmuseum Bern

Johannes Dünz

The four Seasons: Summer, n. d. Oil on canvas
58 × 78 cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, Staat Bern Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Jean-Etienne Liotard

Simon Luttrell, futur Earl of Carhampton,

1753–1754
Oil on canvas
83×63cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, loan of the art collection of the City of Bern Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern

Represented artists

Heinrich Aldegrever (1502–1561)
Fra Angelico (†1455)
Hans Asper (1499–1571)
Jacob de Backer (1555–1585)
Berner Nelkenmeister
Balthasar van den Bossche (1681–1715) 

Sandro Botticelli (Werkstatt) (1445–1510) 

Crispin van den Broeck (1524–1591) 

Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255–1319)

 Jacopo del Casentino (1279–1358) 

Lucas Cranach d. J. (1515–1586) 

Bernardo Daddi (1295–1348)

Johannes Dünz (1645–1736)
Taddeo Gaddi (†1366)
David Cornelisz de Heem (1663–1718)
Joseph Heintz d. Ä. (1564–1609)
Jan Sanders van Hemessen (circle of) (1500–1566) 

Albrecht Kauw (1616–1681)
Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702–1789)
Niklaus Manuel (I.) (1484–1530)
Master of the Madonna della Misericordia
Andrea di Nerio (1331–1387)
Lorenzo di Niccolò di Martino (around 1373–around 1412) 

Alvaro Pirez d’Evora (before 1411–after 1434)
Joseph Plepp (1595–1642)
Nicolas Poussin (attributed to) (1594–1665)
Johann Ulrich Schellenberg (1709–1795)
Vincent Sellaer (1490–1564)
Joseph Werner d. J. (1637–1710)