Italian Medieval and Renaissance Paintings and Sculptures

On View: West Building, Main Floor

Gallery number

367 artworks on view.

This painting depicts a long, horizontal landscape viewed from an elevated angle. On the left, by a group of green trees and bushes, several people stand around one person who is on the back of a white horse. They wear garments in shades of light red, dark green, and pale yellow. In the distance behind them, a gray castle is visible, and farther away boats sail across green water near tree-covered hills. In the center of the painting is a collection of massive gray rocks. A small yellow tent is at the bottom of the rocks, with a group of small people sitting or standing around it. To the right of them, two deer drink from a small blue pool while a person in a gray shirt rests nearby, wrapped in a green cloth. On the right side of the painting, people walk down a long path that ends in a large gray castle or city in the top right corner. Some of the people hold long poles or weapons. The color palette is mostly earthy browns and greens, with dark green trees filling much of the background. The sky is visible in the left and right sections of the painting; it is a greenish blue near the top that fades into a light pink when it meets the distant green hills.

Scenes from a Legend

Giovanni Larciani (Master of the Kress Landscapes)

probably c. 1515/1520

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1939.1.344.a

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M19

The painting depicts three adults and a child. The central adult, a woman, holds the child securely to her chest. The woman has pale skin and a white cloth covering her head, and she is wearing a dark cloak over a red robe. The child has curly light brown hair and is unclothed, looking towards the left. A bald man with a white beard, wearing a red garment and holding a key is on the left. On the right, another woman wears a white headscarf and a dark garment, holding a red cross. The background is dark, highlighting the people and their attire. All four of them have thin halos around their heads.

Madonna and Child with Saints

Anonymous Artist

c. 1490/1500

Oil on panel transferred first to canvas and then to wood Accession ID 1943.4.37

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M20

Saint Lucy and a Donor

Veronese, Gabriele Caliari

c. 1585/1595

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1961.9.48

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M23

Sixteen men and boys stand around a man lying on a bed, Saint Anthony, in this square painting. A seventeenth mourner kneels on our side of the bed and faces Saint Anthony. Some of the onlookers have their hair cut into rings around their heads, and others’ heads are covered by hoods. They all have pale skin tinged with green, and they wear robes in shades of black, smoky purple, brown, or cream white. A man at the foot of the bed wears a sky-blue robe edged with golden orange down the front as he reads from an open book. Two boys to the left wear white and black and hold tall candles, and a third man, wearing black, holds a cross on a high staff. Others hold candlesticks, walking sticks, books, or stand with hands clasped. Saint Anthony has a long white beard and wears a black hood and muted pink and black robe. One hand rests by his side, and the other rests on his chest. His eyes are closed, and his head is surrounded by a gold and red halo. The bed is draped with a vivid crimson-red cloth. The walls of the room are parchment white striped with mauve pink and black on the upper half. Arched windows and doorways open onto rooms and a courtyard with trees beyond this space. The floor is rose pink.

The Death of Saint Anthony

Master of the Osservanza, Sano di Pietro

c. 1430/1435

Tempera on poplar panel Accession ID 1952.5.73

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M3

A woman sits on a narrow plinth representing the ground and holds a baby, who is wrapped in her robe, in this freestanding white marble sculpture. In this photograph, the woman’s body faces us, and her head tilts slightly to our left. Her voluminous mantle drapes over her head and falls in deep folds and creases around her shoulders, arms, the child’s lower body, and her own lap and legs. The front of the mantle lies open exposing the curved neckline of her robe and the upper body of the child. The woman’s hands curve loosely encircle the child’s hip and lower legs. He rests his head and one hand against her chest with his face also turned to us. His legs stretch across her lap and his little feet stick out from the edge of her mantle. The pair sit on a narrow rectangular plinth.

Madonna of Humility

Jacopo della Quercia

c. 1400

Marble with traces of gilding Accession ID 1960.5.2

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M5

The head and shoulders of a young boy with short, curly hair is carved from cream-white marble in this free-standing sculpture. In this photograph, his shoulders are squared to us, and he looks down and to our right. He has delicate features and smooth skin. Fabric wraps around one shoulder and across his chest, and a wide strip like animal fur goes over the other shoulder, to our right. The sculpture is cut straight across the chest just below the shoulders, and it sits in front of a background that lightens from smoke gray along the top to nearly white along the bottom.

The Young Saint John the Baptist

Antonio Rossellino

c. 1470

Marble Accession ID 1943.4.79

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M6

Shown from the chest up, a clean shaven, young man with pale, rosy skin and curly, mahogany-red hair, looks at or toward us against a black background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he turns his face slightly to look our way with sienna-brown eyes under curved eyebrows. He has a long, prominent nose and small thin pink lips. His shoulder length hair curls tightly around his face and covers his ears. He wears a tomato-red shirt with a high collar trimmed with white.

Portrait of a Young Man

Antonello da Messina

c. 1475/1479

Tempera and oil on poplar panel Accession ID 1937.1.31

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M12

Two pairs of people and a group line a rocky path that stretches away from us in this hilly, horizontal landscape painting. We look slightly down on the path as it travels steeply from the bottom center of the canvas to about the center of the composition. Dark trees and bushes are tucked on top of and between knolls and mounds rising to each side of the path. A pink-stone building with a crenelated walled area and a tower is to the left of center, and a second building is tucked in a shallow valley to the right. The hills pile up as they reach the horizon, which comes almost to the top of the composition. The narrow strip of sky above is muted aqua-blue. The pair of people nearest to us stand close to and facing each other, perhaps holding hands. They both have pale skin and wear voluminous robes. The person on the left has short blond hair and wears cardinal red. The companion wears a black cloak and may wear a turban, but details around the faces and heads of this pair are difficult to make out. A short distance farther along the path is a pair of men wearing gray, hooded monks’ robes. They also have pale skin. The person on the left appears to be cleanshaven and blond, and the man on the right has a beard. The man on the left reaches for the other man’s arm or shoulder, and they face each other. Tiny in scale within the composition, four people by the building with the tower may have pale or brown skin, and they wear clothing painted in tan, pale yellow, and soft red. Two stand facing each other, and one appears to hold a staff. They both gesture or point to a man riding a donkey to our right. Another man hunches over, perhaps pushing or pulling something, close to the building, and a fifth person peeks out an open door there.

Scenes from a Legend

Giovanni Larciani (Master of the Kress Landscapes)

probably c. 1515/1520

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1939.1.344.b

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M19

The Holy Family with Angels

Domenico Beccafumi

c. 1545/1550

Oil on panel Accession ID 1943.4.28

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M20

A bearded, pale-skinned man with shoulder-length, dark brown hair is shown from the hips up against a dark, emerald-green curtain in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled slightly to our left, while his head turns to look directly at us with dark, shadowed eyes. His chin-length hair is parted down the middle and tucked behind his ears. He wears a dark robe over a white shirt with a high collar. In his left hand, to our right, he holds a folded piece of yellowish paper or cloth, and his other hand rests just below it with fingers pointing downward. He is lit from our right so the far side of his face is thrown into shadow. At his shoulder and to our left, a shelf or table covered with green holds a globe, an open book with pages filled with text, a stack of closed books, and a quill resting in an inkwell. Some of the text in the open book is visible but not clearly legible. Most of the background is filled with the jewel-toned green curtain, but a sliver to the left, behind the objects, is black.

Portrait of a Humanist

Sebastiano del Piombo

c. 1520

Oil on panel transferred to hardboard Accession ID 1961.9.38

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M22

The sculpture is a relief depicting a scene with people gathered around a baby in a basket, surrounded by green grass. Surrounding the basket, there is a man on the left and a woman on the right with her hands clasped in prayer. Behind them is a row of more people, including two angels. Two oxen or cattle can be seen looking down at the child. The people and animals are all white against a deep blue backdrop. The sculpture is framed within an intricate gold-and-blue frame, with the words "GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO" inscribed at the top. The golden frame has detailed columns with floral and geometric patterns.

The Nativity

Luca della Robbia

c. 1460

Glazed terracotta Accession ID 1961.1.3

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M9

The head and shoulders of a pale-skinned, clean-shaven man fills this vertical portrait painting. The man’s shoulders are angled to our left, and he looks off in that direction with light green eyes. He has a straight nose, a long philtrum over pale pink lips, a cleft chin, and the suggestion of a five o’clock shadow. He has brown hair and bangs under a brimless, square-crowned cap. His hair curls under along the bottom to create a diagonal sweep from his bangs, over his ears, and to the back of his shoulders. The edge of a white undergarment is visible above the high neck of his black coat, which is pleated vertically down the front. The man is shown behind a ledge painted to look like red, brown, and black marble and the background is clear blue sky. The artist signed the front center of the ledge, “Joannes.bellinus.”

Portrait of a Young Man

Giovanni Bellini

c. 1490

Oil on poplar panel Accession ID 1939.1.182

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M12