Carlo Crivelli, Saint George Slaying the Dragon, 1470. Tempera, gold and silver on panel. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston © 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

BOSTON, MASS.- The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston will be the sole venue for the first ever monographic exhibition dedicated to Carlo Crivelli in the United States. Titled, Ornament and Illusion: Carlo Crivelli of Venice, the exhibition opens Oct. 22 and runs through Jan. 25, 2016.

Carlo Crivelli, The Angel of the Annunciation 1482. On panel. Städelisches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main. Photo © U. Edelmann - Städel Museum - ARTOTHEK.

Carlo Crivelli, The Annunciate Virgin, 1482. On panel. Städelisches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main. Photo © U. Edelmann - Städel Museum - ARTOTHEK.

Carlo Crivelli (about 1435–about 1495) is one of the most important – and historically neglected – artists of the Italian Renaissance. Distinguished by radically expressive compositions, luxuriant ornamental display, and bravura illusionism, his works push the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Crivelli manipulated the surface of each one with rare mastery of his medium, crafting visionary encounters with the divine, forging the modern icon, and offering a powerful alternative to new models of painting associated with Florence. 

Carlo Crivelli, The Annunciation with Saint Emidius 1486. On canvas, transferred from panel. The National Gallery, London. Presented by Lord Taunton. Photo: © National Gallery, London / Art Resource, NY.

The exhibition brings together 23 paintings and the artist’s only known drawing. Newly cleaned and restored, the Gardner’s iconic Saint George Slaying the Dragon is the focal point for a two-part installation. The first reunites four of six surviving panels from Crivelli’s Porto San Giorgio altarpiece, of which the Gardner painting is a fragment. The second part introduces visitors to the artist’s repertoire of dazzling pictorial effects with some of his most important works in Europe and the United States. 

Carlo Crivelli, The Crucifixion, c. 1487. On panel. The Art Institute of Chicago, Wirt D. Walker Fund. The Art Institute of Chicago © 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Included in Ornament and Illusion are unprecedented loans from The National Gallery, London; the Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt; the Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Together, the works assembled in Boston reveal the artist’s astonishing skill, encompassing artistic vision, and relentless ambition, restoring Crivelli to his rightful place in the pantheon of Renaissance painters. 

Carlo Crivelli, The Dead Christ between the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist,  c. 1475. On canvas, transferred from panel, with overpainting by by Luigi Cavenaghi (1844–1918). Harvard Art Museum/Fogg Museum, Gift of Arthur Sachs. Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Crivelli was esteemed in his own time as a painter of rank and status. Born in Venice, he trained locally and joined a workshop in the mainland city of Padua, learning from the same master as the celebrated artist Andrea Mantegna (1430/1–1506). Exiled for adultery shortly after returning to Venice in 1457, Crivelli then embarked on a peripatetic career. Early successes on both sides of the Adriatic led to prestigious commissions in the Marches, a mountainous region of northeast Italy defined by its religious and ethnic diversity and ruled by competing feudal lords. He signed the immense high altarpieces for the cathedrals of Ascoli Piceno, in 1473, and Camerino, around 1490. Recognized for his remarkable artistic accomplishments with the aristocratic title of “knight,” Crivelli died around 1494. 

Carlo Crivelli, The Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels, c. 1472. On panel. Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection © 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

The exhibition is organized by guest co-curator Stephen J. Campbell (Henry and Elizabeth Wiesenfeld Professor, Johns Hopkins University), guest co-curator Oliver Tostmann (Susan Morse Hills Curator of European Art, Wadsworth Athenaeum), and Nathaniel Silver (Assistant Curator of the Collection, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum).

Carlo Crivelli, The Dead Christ with the Virgin, Saints John and Mary Magdalene, 1485. On panel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Anonymous Gift and Julia Bradford Huntington James Fund. Photograph © 2015 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Carlo Crivelli, The Lamentation, 1470. On panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society purchase, General Membership Fund. Photo: Bridgeman Images.

Carlo Crivelli, The Last Supper, 1482. On panel. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Catherine J. Tudor-Hart Estate. Photo: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Christine Guest.

Carlo Crivelli, The Nativity (Adoration of the Shepherds), c. 1491. On panel. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg. Photo: Musées de Strasbourg.

Carlo Crivelli, Saint Anthony of Padua, c. 1485–90. On panel. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr © 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 

Carlo Crivelli, Saint George, 1472. On panel. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund. Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY

Carlo Crivelli, Saint James Major, 1472. On panel. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Helen Babbot Sanders © 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 

Carlo Crivelli, Saint Nicholas of Bari, 1472. On panel. Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund. Photo: © The Cleveland Museum of Art.

Carlo Crivelli, Saint Peter, c. 1470. Brown ink, brown wash, and white gouache on paper, laid down. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Charles A. Loeser. Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Carlo Crivelli, Saint Peter, c. 1470. On panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of E.M. Sperling. Photo: Bridgeman Images.

Carlo Crivelli, Saint Peter, c. 1470. On panel. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Gift of Hannah D. and Louis M. Rabinowitz © 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  

Carlo Crivelli, Saints Anthony Abbot and Lucy, 1470. On panel. (Not in exhibition). Krakow National Museum, Krakow, Collections of the Princes Czartoryski Foundation © 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 

Carlo Crivelli, Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Jerome (?), 1470. On panel. Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation © 2015 Philbrook Museum of Art, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Carlo Crivelli, Saints Paul and Peter, 1470. On panel. (Not in exhibition). The National Gallery, London. Photo: © National Gallery, London / Art Resource, NY.

Carlo Crivelli, The Virgin and Child, c. 1468–70. On panel. San Diego Museum of Art, Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam © 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 

Carlo Crivelli, The Virgin and Child, c. 1480. On panel. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Jules Bache Collection. Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.

Carlo Crivelli, The Virgin and Child, 1485–90. On panel. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection. Photo: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Carlo Crivelli, The Virgin and Child Enthroned with a Donor, 1470. On panel. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection. Photo: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Carlo Crivelli, The Virgin and Child with Infants Bearing Symbols of the Passion, c. 1460. On panel. Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona. Archivio fotografico. Photo: Matteo Vajenti, Venice.

Carlo Crivelli, The Virgin and Child with Saint Francis, Saint Bernardino of Siena and the Donor Fra Bernardino Ferretti, c. 1490. On panel. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore © 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.