Italian Medieval and Renaissance Paintings and Sculptures

On View: West Building, Main Floor

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367 artworks on view.

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Six women, eight men, two satyrs, and one child gather in pairs and trios in a loose row that spans the width of this nearly square painting. They are set within a landscape with craggy rocks, cliffs, and trees. Most of the people face us, and the men, women, and child have pale skin. The two satyrs have men’s torsos and furry goat’s legs, and they have darker, olive complexions. Most of the men wear voluminous, knee-length togas wrapped in short robes in shades of white, topaz blue, grass green, coral orange, or rose pink. Most of the women wear long, dress-like garments in tones of shell pink, apricot orange, or lapis blue over white sleeves. For all but one woman, their garments have fallen off one shoulder to reveal a round, firm breast. Several objects are strewn on the rocky, dirt ground in front of the group, including a wide, wooden bucket with a piece of paper affixed to its front to our right, a glass goblet, a pitchfork, a large blue and white ceramic dish filled with grapes and small yellow fruits, and an overturned cup near the center. Cliff-like, craggy rocks rise steeply behind the group to our left, filling much of the sky opposite a tall grove of leafy, dark green trees to our right. A few puffy white clouds float across the vivid blue sky. The slip of paper on the barrel has been inscribed, “joannes bellinus venetus p MDXIIII.”

The Feast of the Gods

Giovanni Bellini, Titian

1514/1529

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1942.9.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M17
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A group of four people gather around a person in a bed, seen through an open doorway to our left, while a man and woman stand near a second doorway of a beige building in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale skin. Seen through the arched opening in the room to our left, two people with flat, plate-like gold halos offer a vessel to the person sitting up in bed. The people with the halos wear raspberry-pink and white cloaks over aquamarine-blue robes. They each also wear a cap with a red, mushroom-like top over a white band that encircles the head. The person sitting up in bed wears a white robe, and her lap is covered with a red blanket. Two more people peer over the headboard behind her. A three-legged stool and a tray with a ewer sits near the bed. In the arched opening to our right, a woman wears a lilac-purple dress with a white head covering that drapes over her shoulders. She holds out a straw-colored box, perhaps a basket, to a man with a gold halo, who also wears pink and white cloaks over a blue tunic and the red cap. He holds one hand up in front of his chest and reaches for the box with the other. The door to our right is set back and the ground in front of it is covered with paving stones. Atop the wall over the right-hand door sits a wide, rounded pot with dark green plants, in front of a sliver of topaz-blue sky. There are cracks across the surface of the panel, especially visible in the building’s flat façade.

The Healing of Palladia by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian

Fra Angelico

c. 1438/1440

Tempera and oil on poplar panel  Accession ID  1952.5.3

Not on view
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Set within a gold frame, the head and chest of a young man wearing an ornate helmet and armor, facing our right in profile, is carved in relief from white marble in this vertical panel. The man has a long nose, smooth cheeks, closed bow lips, and a snub chin. Curls burst from beneath his helmet, which sweeps from up over his forehead down to the back of his neck. The lifted visor curves up and out past his nose, and is decorated with vines and flowers. The crown of the helmet spirals like a snail shell over the man’s head, and a dragon perches along the top. The dragon has a dog’s head, a scaled body, wings like a bat, a serpent-like tail, and a section of its long neck has been broken off. Two crimped ribbons flutter up and behind the man’s head from the back of the helmet, where it covers his neck. His chest is covered to his neck with a highly ornamented breast plate. At the front of the chest, an adult face with brows furrowed and mouth wide open is flanked by wings. The shoulder we can see is covered with a medallion showing a nude woman holding a cornucopia and a merman. Beneath the medallion, a row of six faces, each on its own narrow panel, fan out over the man’s upper arm. Scrolling vines, leaves, and flowers fill the remaining space around the medallion and winged head. A few pale, parchment-white veins run through the surface of the marble. The panel sits on a shallow, trapezoidal ledge and is framed in a stepped gold frame on the remaining three sides.

Alexander the Great

Florentine 15th Century

c. 1483/1485

Marble  Accession ID  1956.2.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M9
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A seated nude woman reaches for and embraces a partially clothed man as he begins to stride away in this horizontal painting. A winged child holds a dove near his face to our left, and two dogs stand to our right of the pair. The woman sits facing away from us, twisting to our right. Her knees are bent with one knee raised as she leans back on her seat and turns to wrap her arms around the man’s chest. Her flushed face looks up toward the man. She has pale skin, and her blond hair is braided and coiled on the back of her head. A sheer white cloth drapes from her left shoulder, along the left side of her body, and over that knee. Her seat is covered with an orchid-pink cloth. The man strides to our right with his shoulders angled in that direction. He turns his head to look at the woman under lowered lids. He has short, curly brown hair, and his pink lips are parted. He wears a steel-blue toga tied in place with a gold band over one shoulder. A horn is tied around his waist with a gold sash. He wears a shin-high, laced sandal on the leg we can see. The arm closer to the woman is held high, that hand gripping a tall staff. He holds the leashes of the two dogs with his other hand, by his side. A pink band is tied around that upper arm. One bronze-brown dog stands facing our right in profile, while the other, closer to us, has a white body and a brown head, which hangs down as it looks to our left. Both dogs have floppy ears, and their mouths are open with their pink tongues hanging out. In the shadows just beyond the woman’s back knee, the winged baby hunches his shoulders while holding the white dove to his cheek. The cherub has short, blond hair, rounded, flushed cheeks, and small white wings. The elbow closer to us rests on a ledge or tree branch. A tree grows up next to the cherub, reaching off the top edge of the painting. A hill rises to our right in the distance, and a rainbow arcs against a pale blue sky screened with parchment-white clouds. A bright white flash in the upper right corner illuminates the trees beneath it.

Venus and Adonis

Titian, Italian 16th Century

c. 1540s/c. 1560-1565

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1942.9.84

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M23
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A woman supports a pudgy baby who sits on a stone ledge in this vertical painting. They both have pale skin, rosy cheeks, blond hair, and subtle halos made of gold dots. The woman’s body faces us, and her head tips to our left. She looks at us with brown eyes under delicate brows, and she has a straight nose, full cheeks, and her small, bow-shaped lips are slightly parted. A translucent white veil wraps around her hair and falls to her shoulders. Her rose-pink dress is pleated vertically down the front, and her lapis-blue cloak falls from her shoulders. Gold lettering lines the neckline of the dress and the full sleeves of the cloak. A gold star is painted on her right shoulder, to our left, and gold dots create shimmering highlights on her clothing. She braces the baby’s chest with one hand, and the other rests behind the forest-green pillow on which he sits. The child has small, light brown eyes, a delicate nose, and round cheeks. A white cloth wraps around his chest and falls across his lap. He holds onto the woman’s hand with one of his own, and his other hand grips the woman’s ring finger. The woman stands behind the ledge in front of a carved, round-topped niche. The niche is inset with laurel-green stone around a half shell that curves over her head. The upper corners and back of the niche below the shell are set with pink stone against the white molding.

Madonna and Child

Fra Filippo Lippi

c. 1440

Tempera on poplar panel  Accession ID  1939.1.290

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M4
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A woman sitting on a pillow on the floor holds a baby stretched stiffly across her lap, and both are shown against a gold background in this arched, vertical painting. Ranks of four winged angels float to each side and a man hovers overhead, above a dove that flies down toward the baby. All the people have light skin, strawberry-blond hair, and their heads are surrounded by gold halos. The woman at the center wears a royal-blue, hooded cloak over a dusky rose-pink dress. The cloak is edged with gold, and there is a gold starburst on each shoulder. Her dress is covered with gold, scrolling vines and geometric patterns. She sits facing us with her head tipped to her right, our left, and she gazes down at the baby with narrowed, almond-shaped, light brown eyes. She has a long, delicate nose and her small pink lips are closed. The baby has chubby, pink cheeks but his body is more like that of an adult. He lies stiffly across the woman’s lap, wrapped in shimmering gold fabric that leaves his bare feet, chest, and arms exposed. He looks at us as he reaches up and touches the woman’s breast, which emerges from her dress near her right shoulder. He has snail-like curls, medium brown eyes, a rounded nose, and small, pink lips. The pillow the woman sits on has tassels in the corners. The muted pink floor is veined with sage green. A book with a scarlet-red cover and gilded edges sits nearby. On either side of the woman, four winged angels cluster in two rows of two, near the arched top of the panel. The angels all have coral-pink diadems in long blond hair, and they look toward the woman in profile with wrists crossed against their chests or held together in prayer. They wear robes in ivory white, brick red, or royal blue, all decorated throughout with gold patterns. Emerging from a narrow band of clouds to the upper right, a bearded man wearing a blue robe over a pink garment, also both edged with gold, floats above the woman with his right hand extended. He holds a book in his other hand. The white dove below is connected to the man's extended right hand by long lines, like stylized rays of light. Red shows through some cracks and worn areas of the gleaming gold background.

Madonna and Child with God the Father Blessing and Angels

Jacopo di Cione

c. 1370/1375

Tempera on panel  Accession ID  1952.5.18

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M2
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Shown from the chest up on the far side of a ledge, a pale-skinned, clean-shaven young man faces our right in profile in this vertical portrait painting. He looks steadily forward. The eye we can see is brown under a thin, curving brow. His nose is bumped near the bridge, and he has a slight underbite. His pale pink lips are closed, and he has a delicate jawline. Short brown hair brushes the side of his face under a coral-red turban, the ends of which fall down his back. A high-collared dark brown garment is edged with white around the neck, and a cranberry-red robe or jacket falls open over his chest. He is shown against a dark, teal-blue background. The ledge along the bottom of the painting is black with edged with gold. Gold lettering reads, “MATHEVS OLIVIERI D NI IOANNI FILI.”

Matteo Olivieri (?)

Florentine 15th Century

1430s

Tempera (and oil?) on panel transferred to canvas  Accession ID  1937.1.15

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M4
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Shown from the hips up, a woman to our left wears a sapphire-blue robe over a petal-pink dress, and she supports a pudgy, nude infant to our right in this vertical painting. Both have marble-white skin faintly tinged with green, wavy blond hair, and shiny gold halos. Their heads tilt toward each other so the woman’s cheek brushes the top of the baby’s head. She holds his body with one hand nearly flat against his torso and the other, covered with her robe, bracing his back. The baby holds the pinky of her hand against his chest with his left hand, on our right, and wraps his other arm around her heck. The woman looks down to our right with olive-green eyes under faint brows. She has a delicate nose and her pale, pink lips are parted. Her hair is covered by a sheer white cloth that falls over the shoulders of her blue robe, which is lined with golden yellow where it turns back around her neck. Her pink dress is trimmed with a band of moss green along the curving, sweetheart neckline and around the cuffs of her sleeves, and is ornamented with pearls and red, white, and blue orbs, possibly jewels. The baby looks at or toward us, his pink lips also parted and his rounded cheeks slightly blushed. He stands on his left foot, to our right, and raises his other foot, knee bent. Stylized white and pink roses with mint-green stems and leaves grow up against a royal-blue background behind the pair.

Madonna and Child

Domenico Veneziano

c. 1445/1450

Tempera on poplar panel  Accession ID  1939.1.221

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M4
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A young woman sits with a small child standing on her lap on an ornate throne as a third person, tiny in scale, kneels and looks up from the lower left corner in this tall, narrow, vertical painting, which has an arched top. The woman and child have pale skin and flat gold halos behind their heads, and the tiny person near the corner has light brown skin. The woman’s body faces us and her head tilts to her right, our left, toward the child, but she cuts her pale eyes down and slightly to our right. She has a delicate, long nose and her small lips are closed in a straight line. A white veil covering blond hair is, in turn, covered with a midnight-blue mantle that falls over her head, shoulders, and body. The underside of her cloak is emerald green where it turns back down over her chest and across her lap. The bottom hem is lined with a wide decorative band with scrolling vines and leaves in gold, and it pools around her feet on the floor. She wears a raspberry-red dress with gold vines over the chest and pearls lining the neckline. With her left hand, on our right, she supports the child on one hip. Her other hand braces the stem of the green apple the baby holds in both hands. Short, blond curls frame the baby’s face. He looks up and to our right with light eyes. He has a short, rounded nose and his lips are parted. His head is large like a baby's, but the proportions of his torso, arms, and legs more closely resemble those of an adult. He wears a pale, rose-pink tunic edged with gold, and his legs and feet are bare. The elaborate throne has an arched top that mirrors the top edge of the arched panel. An inscription in the stone up along the curve of the throne reads, “MEMENTO MEI MATER DEI REGINA CELI LETARE.” A garland of pale green and red fruit, probably apples, hangs behind the woman’s head. There are fantastical creatures where the arms of the throne would be. Carved from the same nickel-gray stone, each arm is made up of dog's face, with mouth wide open and braced against the seat of the chair. A husk-like covering curves up and back to a section of fish's scales, and each arm ends with an ornament like a bunch of grapes where it meets the back. A scarlet-red cloth hangs behind the thorne, against a gold wall, with a salmon-pink floor below. The miniature kneeling man near the lower right corner is only ankle high. His dark hair is cut into a ring around his head. He has a darker complexion and wrinkles around his mouth. He wears long, topaz-blue garment over a black robe. He holds his hands in prayer and looks up at the woman and baby, lips parted. Scaled to the woman, a jeweled crown sits on the floor nearby, projecting behond the front face of a panel of stone with a shell painted at its center.

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Donor

Carlo Crivelli

1470

Tempera on poplar panel  Accession ID  1952.5.6

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M13
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A bearded, light-skinned man is shown striding to our left and looking in that direction between two columns supporting an arch in this vertical painting. The area around the man, within the arch, is bright gold. The man has a high forehead with short, brown hair, dark eyes under dark brows, a long, straight nose, a forked beard, and his pink lips are closed. He wears a marine-blue, ankle-length cloak over a long, rose-pink robe. Folds are painted with lines of darker blue and pink. He clenches a parchment-colored scroll in his left hand, on our right, down by his hip and grasps the edge of his cloak with his other hand. His head is surrounded by a halo created by incising and punching the gold background. The shoulder-wide halo is decorated with S-shaped spirals and a ring of simple, delicate flowers around the perimeter. He stands on a dark gray floor that meets the gold background just below knee level. The columns to either side are cut off by the edges of the panel, and are brick-red with light blue, leafy capitals. The brown arch supported by the columns is inscribed, “SANCTUS JACOB LEPHI Q COGNOMINAT E IU.” The corners above are maroon red, and rough, disk-shaped areas in each corner could indicate losses.

Saint James Minor

Master of Saint Francis

c. 1272

Tempera on panel  Accession ID  1952.5.15

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M1
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Shown from the hips up, a bearded man wearing a textured shirt under a cranberry-red robe stands in front of a gold background in this vertical painting, which comes to a pointed arch at the top. The man’s pale skin has a green-gray cast in the shadows, but his cheeks are pink. His body faces us, but he looks off to our right with slitted, brown eyes under curving brows. He has a long, straight nose and his lips are closed. His shoulder-length brown hair curls around his head, and his beard falls to his chest in long ropes like thick fringe. His textured shirt is topaz blue, and the red robe is edged with gold. He holds his right arm, to our left, so it crosses his chest as he points to our right. A scroll in the other hand reads, “ECCE AGNUS DEI.ECCE Q.” A patterned halo is punched and incised into the gold background. Molding creating a three-lobed shape over the man’s head is punched with dots and marquis-shaped designs. Areas of brick red show through some areas of the gold background.

Saint John the Baptist

Lippo Memmi

probably c. 1325

Tempera on panel  Accession ID  1939.1.291

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M3
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Shown from the chest up, a light-skinned man wearing a burgundy-red turban faces our left in profile against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. He looks off to the left, and the eye we can see is light brown under a faint, possibly plucked eyebrow. He has a straight nose, and his full peach-colored lips are closed. There is the suggestion of a puffy area under the eye we can see, but the rest of his skin is smooth. His brown hair is mostly tucked under his turban, and a piece of fabric hangs down the back of his neck. A band of his white undergarment is visible at the high neck of his olive-brown shirt, which appears to be pleated or striped down the front. He also wears a black jacket, which covers his shoulder and most of his chest. A brown band across the bottom edge of the painting could be a wooden railing or ledge, behind which the man is shown. Cracks are visible across the painting, especially in the deep green background.

Profile Portrait of a Young Man

Florentine 15th Century

1430/1450

Tempera on panel  Accession ID  1937.1.14

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M4
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