Exhibition dates: November 18, 2008 – February 16, 2009
Exhibition location: Special Exhibition Galleries, 2nd floor
Press preview: Monday, November 10, 10:00 a.m. – noon
"It is unbelievable how much is spent on these new weddings…."
Leonardo Bruni, writing to Poggio Bracciolini
on the occasion of his marriage, 1412
Key moments in the lives of Italian men and women in the Renaissance were marked by celebrations carried out with the greatest possible degree of magnificence. Of these, betrothal, marriage, and the birth of a child were of the utmost significance. Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, on view beginning November 18 at the Metropolitan Museum, offers a unique look at approximately 150 art objects and paintings, dating from around 1400 to 1550, that were created to celebrate love and marriage. It includes exquisite examples of maiolica and jewelry given as gifts to couples, marriage portraits and paintings that extolled sensual love and fertility, such as the Metropolitan's own Venus and Cupid by the great Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto, and some of the rarest and most significant
pieces of Renaissance glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings and prints of amorous subjects.
The exhibition is made possible by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund and
the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Additional support is provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth.
It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council of Arts and the Humanities.
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy is divided into three sections: Celebrating Betrothal, Marriage and Childbirth, which features splendid wedding gifts such as maiolica decorated with narratives or portraits, rare Venetian glassware, rings (including one of the earliest known diamond wedding rings) and other jewelry, delicate gilded boxes, and costly painted cassoni, or bridal chests; Profane Love, which focuses on erotic, at times salacious, imagery treated in drawings, prints, and other objects created by some of the most celebrated artists of the time, including Parmigianino and Giulio Romano; and From Cassone to Poesia: Paintings of Love and Marriage, which shifts to nuptial portraits and paintings on themes of love that decorated bedchambers and private quarters. Here the poetic genius of Renaissance artists is on display with some of the most beguiling and sensual works by Botticelli, Titian, Lorenzo Lotto, and their contemporaries that were produced for marriages and as gifts for lovers.
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy is organized at the Metropolitan Museum by Andrea Bayer, Curator in the Department of European Paintings. The Profane
Love section of the exhibition is organized by Linda Wolk-Simon, Curator in the Museum's Department of Drawings and Prints.
Exhibition design is by Michael Langley, Senior Exhibition Designer, with graphic design by Constance Norkin, Senior Graphic Designer, and lighting by Clint Ross Coller and Richard Lichte, Senior Lighting Designers, all of the Museum's Design Department.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, edited by Andrea Bayer with essays by an international team of experts, and will be available in the Metropolitan Museum's book shops ($65 hardcover and $45 paperback). The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Charles Bloom Foundation.
Related Programs
The Metropolitan Museum will offer an array of education programs in conjunction with the exhibition, including a Sunday at the Met lecture program on November 16; Friday evening lectures in the Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall in the new Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education; and a series of gallery talks. Other programs include a November 16 teacher workshop on the Renaissance family and a December 11 workshop for adults who are visually disabled or blind. This Sunday at the Met is made possible by The Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, Inc. Additional support is provided by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York.
A variety of subscription concerts and lectures will also accompany the exhibition. Highlights include an evening of Italian and French Renaissance poetry and dialogue read by Metropolitan Museum Director Philippe de Montebello and actress Isabella Rossellini in Italian, French and English on December 9; and The Orlando Consort's "Amore," a program of secular Renaissance music, on February 10.
An audio tour of the exhibition, part of the Metropolitan's Audio Guide program,
will be available for rental ($7, $6 for members, and $5 for children under 12).
The Audio Guide program is sponsored by Bloomberg.
The exhibition and its related programs will also be featured on the Museum's website at www.metmuseum.org.
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November 19, 2008
EDUCATION PROGRAMS
SUNDAY AT THE MET
Sunday, November 16
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
The afternoon lectures explore the various exceptional objects created to celebrate love and
marriage in the Italian Renaissance. Andrea Bayer, curator, Department of European Paintings,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, introduces the event.
Lectures
The Imagery of Love and Marriage on Italian Renaissance Ceramics
Dora Thornton, curator of Renaissance Collections and of the Waddesdon Bequest, Department of Prehistory and Europe, British Museum
2:00
Sex in the Eternal City: Art and Love in Renaissance Rome
Linda Wolk-Simon, curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
2:45
Marriage in the Renaissance: What's Love Got to Do with It?
Beverly Louise Brown, independent scholar, London
3:30
This Sunday at the Met is made possible by The Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, Inc.
Additional support is provided by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York.
LECTURES
Art, Marriage, and Family in the Florentine Renaissance Palace
Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, associate professor, Art Department, Wellesley College
Friday, December 5, 6:00
Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education
This lecture is made possible by The Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, Inc.
Marriage, Love, and Lineage in Renaissance Venice
Stanley Chojnacki, Professor of History Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Friday, January 30, 6:00
Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education
This lecture is made possible by The Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, Inc.
AUDIO GUIDE
The Audio Guide features interviews with exhibition curator, Andrea Bayer, Department of
European Paintings, who introduces visitors to some of the greatest works of the Italian Renaissance, made to commemorate betrothals, marriages and the birth of a child. Together with commentaries from Deborah Krohn, associate professor, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, the program explores the array of paintings, maiolica, jewelry, glass, and
other art objects that were created or exchanged on these occasions and were part of Renaissance
love and marriage. Linda Wolk-Simon, curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, also offers commentaries on some of the exhibition's more erotic works, which drew on the art and poetry of classical antiquity.
The Audio Guide is available for daily rental: $7.00 for the general public; $6.00 for Museum Members; $6.00 for groups of 14 or fewer; $5.00 for children under 12; $4.00 for groups of
15 or more.
CONCERTS & LECTURES
SUBSCRIPTION PROGRAMS
Lectures
Music of the Renaissance
Nimet Habachy, lecturer and writer
The Renaissance not only fostered humanistic ideals but also boasted a cavalcade of stars that included the Medicis, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. No royal court was without its splendid musical entertainments, as music was thought to purify the soul and bring one closer to God.
Explore the talents of such composers as Heinrich Isaac, John Dowland, and Claudio Monteverdi.
The Renaissance in Italy: Cosimo de' Medici, Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli, and
Heinrich Isaac
Wednesday, October 29, 2:30
The Influence of the Renaissance from the Muscovite Kingdom of Ivan III to the Tudor
Court of Henry VIII of England
Wednesday, November 5, 2:30
$40 for two lectures; single tickets $23
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
The Language of Love in the Italian Renaissance
Philippe de Montebello, director, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Isabella Rossellini,
model, actress, writer, filmmaker, and wildlife activist
Poetry and art were inextricably linked in the Renaissance, and never more so than when the subject was love. Philippe de Montebello and Isabella Rossellini read in Italian, English, and French from great love poems and dialogues on the nature of love, as well as from the immensely popular bawdy verses of the period.
Tuesday, December 9, 8:00: SOLD OUT
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
This program is made possible in part by Robert S Pirie.
"Philippe de Montebello: A Triptych" is made possible in part by The David Berg Foundation.
Amore: The Art of Love in Renaissance Italy
Andrea Bayer, curator, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Marriage was a big business in Renaissance Italy. A wide variety of gifts were exchanged with the bride and groom, and fabulous objects were created for the couple's camera, or bedroom. In the 15th century these objects were typically cassoni, grand chests carved and painted with scenes from Roman history and the Bible. By the 16th century the imagery from these furnishings had migrated to the walls, in the form of inventive and splendid marriage paintings by Botticelli, Titian, and Lorenzo Lotto. Andrea Bayer discusses these aesthetic and poetic pinnacles of a great tradition of art associated with love and marriage.
Thursday, January 29, 6:00: $23
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Private Gallery Tour
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
Andrea Bayer, curator, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Linda Wolk-Simon, curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Some of the greatest works of art of the Renaissance were made to celebrate love and marriage. Extravagant gifts were exchanged at weddings and to celebrate the birth of a child, and portraits and paintings by Botticelli and Titian were commissioned to decorate the couple's new camera, or bedroom. But Renaissance love could also take a much earthier turn, and that sensual, erotic aspect is represented in this exhibition. The curators lead you through galleries filled with maiolica, glassware, jewelry, luxurious furnishings, and drawings and paintings of love both chaste and profane.
All tours are accompanied by a luncheon with wine.
Monday, February 2, 11:00: $300
For subscription program tickets call (212) 570-3949, Monday–Saturday, 9:30–5:00, and Sunday, 12:00–5:00. You may also visit the Concerts & Lectures box office in the Museum's Great Hall, Tuesday–Thursday, 10:00–4:30, Friday–Saturday, 10:00–7:00, and Sunday, 12:00–5:00, or go to www.metmuseum.org/tickets.
GALLERY TALKS
Meet at exhibition entrance, Special Exhibition Galleries, second floor.
Friday, November 21, 7:00. Eve Straussman-Pflanzer
Tuesday, December 9, 11:00. Eve Straussman-Pflanzer
Wednesday, December 17, 10:00. Andrea Bayer
Friday, January 9, 11:00. Linda Wolk-Simon
Friday, January 16, 11:00. Andrea Bayer (Sign Language–interpreted)
Wednesday, January 28, 11:00. Andrea Bayer
Wednesday, February 4, 11:00. Linda Wolk-Simon
Friday, February 13, 11:00. Eve Straussman-Pflanzer
SLIDE ORIENTATION LECTURES
Slide orientation lectures by Andrea Bayer, the exhibition curator, take place in the
Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education.
Tuesday, November 25, 11:00
Tuesday, December 23, 11:00
FEATURE FILM
Divorce Italian Style (1961), Pietro Germi, director, with Marcello Mastroianni and Stefania Sandrelli. Satiric comedy about a baron and his marital misadventures (104 min.). Italian with
English subtitles.
Saturday, December 6, 1:00
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
The Magnificent Medici (2003), Justin Hardy, director. Dramatization of the reign of Lorenzo
de' Medici in 15th-century Florence (55 min.).
Thursday, December 4, 2:00
Tuesday, December 9, 2:00
Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education
Isabella d'Este: First Lady of the Renaissance (1999), Eugene Enrico, director. The dramatic script, based on the extensive correspondence of Isabella d'Este, discusses her patronage of the arts, especially music, and her politically astute marriage to Francesco Gonzaga, marquis of Mantua (56 min.).
Tuesday, January 20, 2:00
Thursday, January 22, 2:00
Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education
FAMILY PROGRAM
Look Again!—Renaissance Affection
Topics unlocking the history, meaning, and cross-cultural connections of works of art in the
Museum are explored through conversation and sketching by visitors ages five through twelve
and their adult companions.
Saturday, January 17, 11:00–12:30 and 2:00–3:30
North Classroom, Uris Center for Education
PROGRAM FOR TEACHERS
Renaissance Families
Family life, from birth to death, is often reflected in works of art of Renaissance Europe.
Cassone panels, maiolica, musical instruments, furniture, and portraits imparted stories, values,
and lessons. Visit the special exhibition Art and Love in Renaissance Italy with the curator,
and then explore a selection of works throughout the Museum that relate to the theme of the Renaissance family. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants are invited to attend the afternoon Sunday at the Met program, which includes lectures and discussions about the exhibition. For information and to register, go to www.metmuseum.org/events/teachers, call (212) 570-3985,
or email teachers@metmuseum.org.
Instructors: Andrea Bayer and Rebecca Arkenberg
Sunday, November 16, 10:00–1:00, $40
SERVICES FOR VISITORS WITH DISABILITIES
"Picture This!" A Workshop for Visitors Who Are Blind or Partially Sighted
Participants learn about works in the exhibition through description and discussion.
Thursday, December 11, 10:00–12:00
This program is free, but places are limited and reservations are required. Please call (212) 879-5500,
ext. 3561 or email access@metmuseum.org.
Audio Guide
The Audio Guide is free to visitors who are blind, partially sighted, or hard of hearing. Audio Guide players have volume controls and headsets. Neck loops for hearing aids with T-switches are available upon request. Regular and large-print scripts of Audio Guide programming are also available upon request and are free to Deaf visitors.
Other Services
The Museum is committed to serving all audiences. Please call us about services, including Sign
Language–interpreted programs, Verbal Imaging Tours, the Touch Collection, and other programs.
Voice: (212) 879-5500, ext. 3561; TTY: (212) 570-3828
NOLEN LIBRARY IN
THE RUTH AND HAROLD D. URIS CENTER FOR EDUCATION
Nolen Library has information about the Museum's collection, special exhibitions, and a
Teacher Resource Center with a circulating collection for educators. There is also a Children's Reading Room, a specially designed space for families to read together from books in the
library's collection. For further information please call (212) 570-3788.
WEBSITE
For further information about our programs, visit the Museum's website at www.metmuseum.org.
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
The exhibition is made possible by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Additional support is provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Additional support is provided by the Charles Bloom Foundation.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth.
It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
The Audio Guide is sponsored by Bloomberg.
RELATED EVENT
Symposium: The Instruments of Passion, the Contest between the Arts
Friday, February 6, 11:00–4:45
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
This symposium, which continues at Columbia University for a second day on Saturday, February 7, brings together international scholars to consider and reevaluate the paragone—the contest between the arts. Andrea Bayer, curator, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, introduces the event. Free with Museum admission; reservations and tickets not required.
For more information, please consult the online Calendar at www.metmuseum.org, contact lectures@metmuseum.org, or call (212) 396-5460.
Press resources