Renaissance modern
dal 9/12/2012 al 9/12/2012
Segnalato da
Press office Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo'
9/12/2012
Renaissance modern
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo', New York
A lecture by Richard Meyer
In January 1940, MoMA mounted Italian Masters, an exhibition of Renaissance and baroque art on special loan from the Italian government. The show featured world-famous paintings such as Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Raphael's Madonna of the Chair, and Titian's Portrait of Pope Paul III, as well as a Michelangelo bas-relief of the Madonna and Child in marble, none of which had ever before been displayed in New York. Italian Masters became the most popular exhibition in the museum's history to that date, attracting nearly 300,000 visitors during its three month run. This lecture examines the popular success of Italian Masters in the context of the mounting political tensions between the U.S. and Italy in 1940 as well as the apparent paradox of showing 15th and 16th century paintings in a museum dedicated to late 19th and 20th century art.