In a couple of weeks, the Museum of Fine Arts will welcome Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence. The traveling exhibit will be on display at the museum from August 9 through December 4. To celebrate its arrival in Boston, Antinori wines from Italy is hosting a series of exclusive private events on August 8, including an intimate dinner at the museum to kick off the preview. This year, the Antinori family has sponsored the restoration of the Resurrection of Christ, a breathtaking, 10-foot terracotta glaze sculpture that originally lived on Antinori’s Villa in the 1500s, which will be one of the main focal points of the exhibit.
Photo Credit: Museum of Fine Arts
The beautiful exhibit features powerful expressions of faith, hope and love displayed in brilliant colors that characterize the Della Robbia glazed terracotta sculptures from the Renaissance. Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence is the first major exhibition in the country dedicated to Della Robbia sculptures, which have endured for more than 500 years. The 15th century Florentine Renaissance art features beautiful colors, including deep cerulean blues and opaque whites that remain unchanged from the time of their creation.
We look forward to visiting the museum to see the groundbreaking glazing technique used in the 15th century. The exhibition showcases 46 works of art by Della Robbia’s family and associated workshops. Included in this year’s exhibit is The Visitation (about 1445, Church of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas, Pistoia), an extraordinary masterpiece, one of six important loans from Italy that has never been seen in the United States before.
Photo Credit: Museum of Fine Arts
The Brooklyn Museum’s lunette of the Resurrection of Christ (about 1520–24) is presented at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts following a year-long conservation project. After its Boston debut, the exhibition will travel to the National Gallery of Art in Washington from February 5–June 4, 2017.
“When first approached by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, we immediately understood the value and, above all, the personal significance of the sponsorship,” said Alessia Antinori, 26th generation member of Italian wine family, Antinori. “My ancestors commissioned the masterpiece to Giovanni della Robbia back in the early 1500s, furthermore the work features a life-size portrait of my ancestor who commissioned the artwork as well as our family’s coat of arms. So, supporting the conservation of this exceptional piece of art, tied so deeply with the history of my family, has been something very natural. For us, it has been also a beautiful way to strengthen even more the historic relationship of patronage between my family and artist Giovanni della Robbia.”
The Museum of Fine Arts is located at 465 Huntington Avenue in Boston.
