EXHIBITION: Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Flrence, the National Gallery of Art, West Building, Main Floor Galleries, Washington DC, 1 February – 3 May 2015.
The first major retrospective exhibition of paintings by the imaginative Italian Renaissance master Piero di Cosimo is now open at the National Gallery of Art. Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence features 44 of the artist’s most compelling paintings, including fanciful mythologies, powerful religious works (one on loan for the first time from the church in Italy for which it was created 500 years ago), and sensitive portraits. Several important paintings underwent conservation treatment before the exhibition, among them the National Gallery’s Visitation altarpiece (c. 1489/1490).
The curators of the exhibition in Washington are Gretchen Hirschauer, associate curator of Italian and Spanish paintings, National Gallery of Art; and Dennis Geronimus, associate professor of Italian Renaissance art history, New York University; assisted by Virginia Brilliant, The Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida; and Elizabeth Walmsley, painting conservator, National Gallery of Art.
At the Uffizi, the curators include Daniela Parenti, head of the department of medieval to quattrocento art, Uffizi; Serena Padovani, former director, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti; and independent scholar Elena Capretti, under the guidance of Uffizi director Antonio Natali.
A fully illustrated scholarly catalogue in English will accompanies the exhibition in Washington. Essays and catalogue entries on each exhibition object have been written by Brilliant, Geronimus, Hirschauer, Padovani, and Walmsley, in addition to David Franklin, independent scholar; Alison Luchs, curator of early European sculpture, National Gallery of Art; Duncan Bull, curator of international paintings at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; and Federica Zalabra, art historian, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia.
Relying on close formal, technical, and textual analysis, the authors not only argue for specific interpretations and cases of authorship but also address the social and religious functions of image making in the period. Published by the National Gallery of Art, the 240-page catalogue is available in softcover and hardcover for purchase in the Gallery Shops.
The exhibition will travel to the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, from June 23 to September 27, 2015.