For the first time since moving into the Museum’s Beaux-Arts Court in 2003, Brooklyn’s renowned Euro
For the first time since moving into the Museum’s Beaux-Arts Court in 2003, Brooklyn’s renowned European collection addresses six centuries of identity making in the Old World in various media: painting, sculpture, and now works on paper. Europeans expressed their sense of self and their place in world through their things. Here, we explore four such avenues of self-fashioning and representation: flesh (The Nude), faith (The Sacred: Religious Art), fashion (The Secular: Portraiture), and a sense of place (The Tranquil Landscape and The Menacing Landscape).With the dominance of Christianity by the Middle Ages, religious subject matter held sway in European art, expressing a yearning for spiritual salvation. In the Renaissance, privileged private citizens joined high-ranking church officials in commissioning sacred artworks for public and private consumption.Nardo di Cione’s masterpiece once again takes center stage in Brooklyn’s recent reinstallation of the European collection. Standing over six feet, the mid-fourteenth-century altarpiece—considered the finest in America, features the Virgin enthroned and supporting her infant Son before a red and white banner that symbolizes his future triumph over death, the Resurrection. Christ’s victory resonated with contemporary audiences: in 1348, the Black Death ravaged the city of Florence, killing over half the population. In the plague’s aftermath, Nardo painted the Brooklyn altarpiece most likely for the city’s cathedral in gratitude to the Virgin for her support of the survivors.Visit by our refreshed European Art galleries and see six centuries of European expression and representation.Posted by Jai Alison ImbreyNardo di Cione (Italian, Florentine, active 1343-1356/1366). Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Zenobius, John the Baptist, Reparata and John the Evangelist, mid 14th century. Brooklyn Museum -- source link
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