Filippino Lippi, Portrait of a Young Man, circa 1485 © Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Collection.

MUNICH.- The first presentation in the newly renovated exhibition space in the Alte Pinakothek is dedicated to the painters of Florence from the 15th century. With some 120 masterpieces, the show presents the groundbreaking artistic innovations at the birthplace of the Renaissance, with an exemplary juxtaposition of paintings, sculptures and drawings. A comprehensive selection of exquisite panel paintings, made for the churches and palaces of the Tuscan trading centre, transports visitors back to the time of the Medici and traces the development of painting in the modern age, from its beginnings with Giotto’s work to Leonardo da Vinci’s creations. 

Thanks to numerous international loans – especially from major collections in Florence, London, New York, Washington, Vienna and Berlin – together with highlights from the holdings in Munich, characteristic works are represented in the exhibition by the most prominent Florentine painters, including Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Andrea del Verrocchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sandro Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo di Credi and Fra Bartolommeo. 

Sandro Botticelli, Adoration of the Child by the Magi, c. 1475, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi © Florence, Gabinetto Fotografico delle Gallerie degli Uffizi.

The focus of the presentation is on the artists’ world of ideas and working methods. With new self-confidence they plumbed the depths of the real world in quest of the laws of harmony and beauty, they made drawings from nature and studied the works of Antiquity. The painters ambitiously explored the subjects, forms and techniques of their work and, as a result, achieved a variety of artistic forms of expression that had never been reached before, not only in the secular pictorial narratives and portraits but also in the images of private and ecclesiastical devotion. The exhibition looks at the specific challenges the artists faced due to the number of competitive workshops and powerful patrons; it discusses the places and functions for which works were originally intended and, with the help of prominent examples, shows the original composition of several important altarpieces. 

Masterpieces of Florentine painting that Ludwig I of Bavaria was able to acquire in the first few decades of the 19th century define the focal points of the presentation. These works were recently the subject of a major research project on the internationally significant collection of Florentine painting from the 14th to the 16th centuries in the Alte Pinakothek, which involved in-depth art-historical and scientific analyses as well as restauration work. Based on this, the most recent findings from the technological research on the paintings and two extensive restoration projects are also shown as part of the didactical documentary presentation. The exhibition thus provides a detailed insight into the work methods of Florentine painters and explains the close relationship between technical and stylistical change. 

Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Woman (Smeralda Brandini?), 1470-1475 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Concomitantly nearly all other paintings from Florence in the holdings in Munich – from the Late Middle Ages to the High Renaissance – will be on show in the museum, including many works that have long been hidden in the depots, so that the qualitative breadth of the artistic output of this period can also be experienced and the collection seen within its historical context. 

Curator: Dr. Andreas Schumacher 

Research assistants: Dr. Annette Kranz and Dr. Nino Nanobashvili 

Fra Filippo Lippi, Mary with Child, c. 1465, Florence Palazzo Medici Riccardi © Città Metropolitana di Firenze.

CATALOGUE 
An extensively illustrated catalogue to accompany the exhibition, in which all works exhibited are presented in depth, is to be published in both a German and an English edition. Essays by Matteo Burioni, Caroline Campbell, Doris Carl, Michael W. Cole, Dagmar Korbacher, Annette Kranz, Wolf-Dietrich Löhr, Scott Nethersole, Ulrich Pfisterer, Nicoletta Pons and Andreas Schumacher provide a detailed introduction to topics in the exhibition and throw light on current questions in the field of art-historical research on Florentine art in the Renaissance. 

Hirmer Verlag, 34.90 euros, 384 pages and more than 200 illustrations, ed. by Andreas Schumacher.

Francesco Rosselli and Gherardo di Giovanni, Book of Hours of Lucrezia de 'Medici, c. 1485. © Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Piero Pollaiuolo, Portrait of a woman in profile, c. 1475/80, Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi. © Gabinetto Fotografico delle Galleria degli Uffizi.

Biagio d'Antonio, Engagement of Jason and Medea, 1487 © Paris, Musée Arts Décoratifs, Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Sandro Botticelli, Lamentation of Christ, c. 1490/95 (detail: St. Peter) © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.