Washington DC, February 10, 2017 \u2013 The Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, (VA) hosts from February 11 to April 7 a major international exhibition: Botticelli and the Search for the Divine: Florentine Painting Between the Medici and the Bonfires of the Vanities. The great painter of the Italian Renaissance Sandro Botticelli will be celebrated with an exhibition that features, among other masterpieces, one of only two of Botticelli\u2019s paintings of an isolated Venus. This work of art, from the Galleria Sabauda museum in Turin, will be on view for the first time in America.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am touched by the magnificence of these paintings,\u201d said the Ambassador of Italy to the United States Armando Varricchio, \u201csome of which are exhibited for the first time in this prestigious museum which I wish to thank for its excellent collaboration with the Embassy of Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Botticelli (Florence, 1445 \u2013 1510) was a prolific painter and in his paintings characters were mainly portrayed life-size. The sixteen paintings, from churches and Italian museums such as the Uffizi Gallery, the Pitti Palace, the Accademia Gallery, the Bargello National Museum and the Museum of San Marco of Florence; the Cini Foundation of Venice; the Cathedral museum of Prato and the Civic museum of San Gimignano represent a different phase of the artist\u2019s career, making this one the largest and most important exhibition of its kind ever organized in the United States. The exhibit was organized also in collaboration with the Italian Associazione Culturale Metamorfosi.<\/p>\n
The exhibition furthermore includes six rare paintings by Botticelli\u2019s great master Filippo Lippi; some of the works by Filippino Lippi, son of Filippo and Botticelli\u2019s most important student; a painting and a bronze statuette by Antonio Pallaiuolo, and finally two paintings by Fra Bartolomeo.<\/p>\n
After the Muscarelle Museum the exhibition will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.<\/p>\n
For additional information visit the web page of the Muscarelle Museum of Art: http:\/\/muscarelle.org\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n To learn more about this and other Italian cultural events in the U.S.: www.italyinus.org<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Website of the Embassy of Italy in Washington D.C.: http:\/\/www.ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n