SYMPOSIUM: SANCTITY PICTURED: THE ART OF THE DOMINICAN AND FRANCISCAN ORDERS IN RENAISSANCE ITALY
10 January 2015, The Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville. In conjunction with Sanctity Pictured: The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy, a groundbreaking exhibition of Italian art made between 1250 and 1550, on view 31 October through 25 January. Conceived and organized by Frist Center Curator and Renaissance art historian Trinita Kennedy, it explores the significant role of the Dominicans and Franciscans in the revival of the arts that began in Italy in the thirteenth century and shows how these orders fueled the creation of some of the most splendid works of Italian Renaissance art and architecture. On view through January 25, 2015, Sanctity Pictured is the first major exhibition to examine the art of the two great orders together during the period in which they were at the height of their power in Italy and had its leading artists in their service. The exhibition is the first major presentation of Italian Renaissance art in Nashville since 1934, when selections from the Samuel H. Kress collection were shown at the city’s historic replica of the Parthenon. The exhibition brings together more than sixty works of art, in media ranging from painting and manuscript illumination to bronze medals and printed books. Among the highlights are the Vatican Museums’ Saint Francis with Four Post-Mortem Miracles, the J. Paul Getty Museum’s Abbey Bible and dramatic painting Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata by Domenico Beccafumi.Twenty-eight American museums and libraries, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and Pierpont Morgan Library are lending works to the exhibition. For the first time in its history, the Frist Center is borrowing works from the Vatican Library and Vatican Museums. The Frist Center is the exclusive venue for Sanctity Pictured. Among the extensive schedule of public programming, the Frist Center will hold an all-day public symposium on Saturday, January 10, 2015 in the Frist Center auditorium. The speakers, in addition to Frist Center curator Trinita Kennedy, will be Donal Cooper, University of Cambridge; Holly Flora, Tulane University; Janet Robson, Independent Scholar; and Christine Sciacca, J. Paul Getty Museum. For more information and a listing of public programs, please see the press release online.