The reconstruction presented in the exhibition offers a rare glimpse into how the artist’s devotional works were first experienced. Through scientific investigations and visual analysis, Getty conservation scientists and curators determined that a series of panels – today divided between the Getty Museum (Annunciation), the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Crucifixion), and the Worcester Museum of Art (Seven Saints) – were originally part of the same ensemble, a triptych remarkably similar to the one that remains intact in Parma. In both, narrative scenes from the life of Jesus Christ are combined with iconic depictions of saints. The reconstructed altarpiece is lacking its central panel, which likely depicted the Virgin Mary and Christ Child, as seen in the intact altarpiece in Parma. This missing panel remains to be discovered. The surviving panels have been reassembled for the first time using a specially constructed metal armature. This reconstruction, together with other paintings by Paolo and his workshop, offers a rare opportunity for viewers to explore the unique visual culture of 14th-century Venice.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), The Annunciation, about 1340 – 1345. Tempera and gold leaf on panel. Framed (Panels hinged (with frames)): 22.5 × 27 × 2.5 cm (8 7/8 × 10 5/8 × 1 in.). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 87.PB.117.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), The Crucifixion, about 1340-1345. Tempera and gold leaf on panel. Unframed: 33.9 × 41.1 cm (13 5/16 × 16 3/16 in.) Framed: 37.2 × 45.4 × 5.7 cm (14 5/8 × 17 7/8 × 2 1/4 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.143 EX.2021.3.12.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), Magdalene, about 1340-1345. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, Museum Purchase, 1927.19.1 EX.2021.3.13.a.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), Saint Anthony, about 1340-1345. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, Museum Purchase, 1927.19.2 EX.2021.3.13.b.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), Archangel Michael, about 1340-1345. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, Museum Purchase, 1927.19.3 EX.2021.3.13.c.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), Saint George, about 1340-1345. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, Museum Purchase, 1927.19.4 EX.2021.3.13.d.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), Saint Barbara, about 1340-1345. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, Museum Purchase, 1927.19.5 EX.2021.3.13.e.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), Saint John the Baptist, about 1340-1345. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, Museum Purchase, 1927.19.6 EX.2021.3.13.f.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), Saint Francis, about 1340-1345. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, Museum Purchase, 1927.19.7 EX.2021.3.13.g.

“With elaborately gilded surfaces, punched and manipulated to create precious visual effects, and expressively conceived combinations of brilliant colors, Paolo Veneziano’s paintings are a feast for the eye,” said Davide Gasparotto, senior curator of paintings at the Getty Museum. “Paolo’s oeuvre is often characterized as straddling the painterly traditions of the eastern and western territories, where Byzantine cadences find harmony with the recent developments of painting on the Italian peninsula. This exhibition contextualizes Paolo’s work in relation to the transformative and cosmopolitan cultural landscape in Venice during the artist’s lifetime.”

In Paolo’s paintings, intricately worked gold grounds and hieratic representations of saints are brought together with naturalistic narrative scenes and complex renderings of spatial form to spectacular effect. Moving beyond a traditional tendency to examine the artist’s intermingling of cultural styles in terms of his own body of work, this exhibition instead explores how his work was born out of, and in turn contributed to, the broader artistic milieu of 14th-century Venice.

During Paolo’s lifetime, Venice was a powerful, multicultural city and Venice’s art and architecture reflected this unique cosmopolitanism. The exhibition showcases several painted works of art produced in Paolo’s workshop and explores his participation in the sophisticated visual culture continually developing around him. A selection of contemporaneous works in other media—carved ivory, illuminated manuscript, and woven silk—demonstrate the cross-pollination between different kinds of art-making that underpinned Venetian artistic production.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295 - about 1362), Madonna and Child, about 1340. Tempera and gold leaf on panel Unframed: 110.8 × 61.9 cm (43 5/8 × 24 3/8 in.) The Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena, California EX.2021.3.9

The exhibition was conceived by Laura Llewellyn (former Assistant Curator at the Getty Museum, now Associate Curator of Renaissance Painting at the National Gallery, London) and John Witty (former Anne L. Poulet Fellow at The Frick Collection, New York), supported by Davide Gasparotto (Senior Curator of Paintings, Getty Museum) and Xavier F. Salomon (Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator at The Frick). The exhibition is accompanied by a publication from The Frick Collection, which presents Paolo Veneziano’s oeuvre alongside contemporaneous objects in various media to demonstrate how his innovative work engaged with 14th-century advances in manuscript illumination, ivory carving, textile production, and metalwork. The catalogue was published by The Frick Collection in association with Paul Holberton Publishing and was made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The exhibition was conceived in collaboration with The Frick Collection, New York, and is supported by the Getty Museum’s Paintings Council. It will be shown exclusively at the Getty Museum.

Paolo Veneziano (Italian (Venetian), about 1295– about 1362), The Birth and First Miracle of Saint Nicholas, 1346. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, 74.5 × 54.5 cm (29 5/16 × 21 7/16 in.), Gallerie degli Uffizi. Su concessione del Ministero della cultura EX.2021.3.4

Unknown, Italian (Venetian), Triptych with the Coronation of the Virgin, about 1360 – 1370. Elephant ivory with traces of polychromy and gilding. Object (with doors open): H: 26.7 × W: 16.5 × D: 12.7 cm (10 1/2 × 6 1/2 × 5 in.), Victoria and Albert Museum Image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London EX.2021.3.1