The fluidity of ideas reveals a futuristic side in the Renaissance
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- Antonello da Messina active 1456; died 1479, “Saint Jerome in his Study” about 1475. © The National Gallery, London
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- Sebastiano del Piombo, “Judgment of Solomon”, 1508-1510. Oil on canvas. Kingston Lacy, The Bankes Collection (National Trust) © National Trust Images/Derrick E. Witty
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- Domenico Veneziano, active 1438; died 1461, “Saint Zenobius Bishop of Florence restores to life a widow’s son killed by an ox cart in Borgo degli Albizzi, Florence”, c.1442-1448. Tempera on panel © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
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- Sassetta active by 1427; died 1450, “Saint Francis renounces his Earthly Father”, 1437-44. Egg tempera on poplar © The National Gallery, London
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- Duccio active 1278; died 1319, “The Annunciation”, 1307/8-11. Egg tempera on wood © The National Gallery, London
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- Sandro Botticelli about 1445 – 1510, “The Adoration of the Kings” about 1470-5. Tempera on poplar © The National Gallery, London
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- Carlo Crivelli about 1430/5 – about 1494, “The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius”, 1486, Egg and oil on canvas © The National Gallery, London
At the National Gallery in London soon there will be an exhibition that will offer a very conceptual approach to Italian Renaissance art. As stated on the website of the museum, the show, titled “Building the Picture: Architecture in Italian Renaissance Painting” (from 30 April until 21 September) intends to allow visitors to develop new points of view when looking at architectonic paintings by some of the greatest Italian artists of that time.
Through masterpieces such as those signed by Antonello da Messina, Sebastiano del Piombo, Andrea del Verrocchio, Carlo Crivelli, Sandro Botticelli, Sassetta and other great masters, the viewer will appreciate a conceptual approach to figurative art that proceeds in two directions. One goes back to the past: a Renaissance that, for artists, included a multidisciplinary approach between art and craft, and between different disciplines such as architecture, sculpture and painting. It is no coincidence that – as recalled by the curators of the exhibition – “Florentine architect Brunelleschi, for example, trained as a goldsmith, while Michelangelo was a painter and sculptor before he designed buildings”.
The other standpoint, however, is the one that goes in the direction of the present. It shows how even today the fluidity of thought that ran through the art in the Renaissance is still alive. Five short films commissioned to coincide with this exhibition will indeed demonstrate how contemporary practitioners and thinkers are again attempting to blur the boundaries between media and forms of practice.
“Building the Picture” – which would be liked by Marcel Duchamp: “I’m interested in ideas, not only in visual products” – authorizes us to look for ideas in the works that have always been seen only as a visual product. And this is certainly a step forward in the ability to review the history of art through criteria that are different from the traditional ones. Principles that do not betray the scientific rigors with which to study the works, while at the same time increasing their potential significance, suggestion and charm.
July 18, 2015
