An excellent exhibition - "Art & Love in Renaissance Italy" - is currently on exhibit March 15 through June 14 at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth (Texas).
The exhibition offers a unique look at approximately 150 paintings and art objects dating from the 1400 to 1600 circa that were created to celebrate love and marriage.
The extensive collection includes marriage portraits and paintings, exquisite examples of jewelry, and some of the rarest and most significant pieces of Renaissance glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings of amorous subjects.
The exhibition is divided into three sections.
The first - "Celebrating Betrothal, Marriage, and Childbirth" - features wedding scenarios.
For wealthy families in cities such as Florence, Venice, and Milan, the ideal marriage depended on a sizable dowry provided by the bride’s family.
The dowry was not simply comprised of money and property, but also a variety of goods for the bride’s new home.
The lavish wedding celebrations of the period were marked by extravagant gifts such as maiolica decorated with narratives or portraits, rare Venetian glassware, rings and other exquisite jewelry, and delicate gilded boxes and vividly painted cassoni or bridal chests which would be filled with costly linens and clothing.
The safe birth of a strong healthy child was also celebrated and commemorated with the production of finely painted deschi da parto (wooden childbirth trays) and maiolica childbirth bowls known as scodelle da parto.
The trays and bowls were often painted with poignant images of a mother resting in her confinement room with charming representations of Renaissance interiors.
Often marked with heraldic devices, these objects were prized possessions handed down from generation to generation.
The second aspect of the exhibition - "Profane Love" - focuses on the erotic (at times salacious imagery, according to the curators) and how the subject was broached in drawings, prints, and other objects created by some of the most celebrated artists of the time (including Parmigianino and Giulio Romano).
"From Cassone to Poesia: Paintings of Love and Marriage" shifts the artistic sensibilities to nuptial portraits and paintings on themes of love that decorated bedchambers and private quarters.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press.
History of the Kimbell Art Museum
The Kimbell Art Museum is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding architectural achievements of the modern era.
The stunning eye-catching building was designed by talented American architect, Louis I. Kahn (1901–1974).
Since the Kimbell threw its doors open wide in 1971, the Museum has won wide acclaim for its classic modern flourishes.
Kahn’s innovative use of natural light and subtle articulation of space and materials greatly enhance the experience for the art-lover and connoisseur alike.
The architect envisioned a museum with “the luminosity of silver.”
In his design, “narrow slits to the sky” (as he described the skylights) admit natural light by virtue of perforated metal reflectors which disperse it onto the underside of cycloid-shaped vaults and down the walls.
Courtyards, lunettes, and light slots vary the quality and intensity of the light throughout.
The building’s gracious proportions, fine craftsmanship, and beautiful landscaping contribute further to an air of serenity and restraint that permeates the space.
Permanent Collection
The Museum’s holdings range from the period of antiquity to the 20th century and includes European masterpieces by Fra Angelico, Caravaggio, Cézanne and Matisse.
Visitors will also be delighted to discover rare important collections from the Egypt, the Roman antiquities, as well as Asian, Mesoamerican, and African arts on display.
Programs
The museum offers a fulls schedule of programs to promote appreciation of the collection and special exhibitions.For instance, well-thought-out symposiums feature outside guest speakers from specialized areas of expertise.
Meanwhile, there are also regular lectures and gallery talks conducted by professional staff at the Museum, regional artists, and guest scholars.
In addition, the Kimbell hosts a book-discussion club, summer camps for children, family festivals, and family gallery guides.
Workshops on art - specially designed to share the resources of the Museum with all levels of the community - are also held for children, high school students, for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, and adults of all ages.
The Museum staff take the position that an increased understanding of craftsmen and the creative process is the key to an expanded enjoyment of art itself.
Info: 817-332-8451.
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