Ghirlandaio and the Renaissance in Florence
Ghirlandaio and the Renaissance in Florence
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
23 June – 10 October 2010
This summer the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza will be presenting the temporary exhibition Ghirlandaio and the Renaissance in Florence. Comprising a survey of quattrocento Florentine art, its starting point is one of the great icons in the Museum’s permanent collection: Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni, painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio between 1489 and 1490.
Displayed in conjunction with this masterpiece of Florentine art will be a carefully-chosen group of 60 works including paintings, sculptures, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, medals and various decorative objects. They have been selected to illustrate three key areas of art and culture in late 15th-century Florence: the genre of the portrait, the theme of love and marriage, and religious iconography.
More than 500 years after it was painted, the Museum’s panel now opens a window onto Florentine, Early Renaissance culture: a journey in time that will reveal to us the nature of life in this flourishing 15th-century city, its social and commercial relations and its religious convictions and domestic life. Works by Pollaiouolo, Botticelli, Verrocchio, Filippo and Filippino Lippi, together with Ghirlandaio himself and other great Florentine masters will be included in this survey. The last room in the exhibition presents the methods and results of the detailed study undertaken by the Museum’s restoration team on the Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni.