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From
Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making of a Renaissance Master |
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| A Special Exhibition Review by Stan Parchin |
Fra Carnevale (?) (ca. 1420/25-1484)
The Annunciation
Tempera and gold on wood, 69.9 x 78 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. no. 645)
About
the show:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Robert Lehman Wing, its premiere architectural
addition that opened in 1975, houses the late Mr. Lehman's substantial
Renaissance acquisitions. Set aside in rooms that recreate the calm ambiance of
his former Manhattan townhouse, this repository of masterpieces exudes his taste
for Old and Modern masters in paintings and drawings, plus his predilection for
the decorative arts.
The court level of this skylit edifice is, therefore, the perfect setting for
From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making of a
Renaissance Master. Previously exhibited at the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the show's only other stop. It's on view
through May 1, 2005. Later this Fall and Winter, the Lehman Wing, whose staff is
a veritable font of Renaissance scholarship, will proudly present Fra
Angelico. The show will be this country's first major retrospective of this
artistically conservative, Italian Renaissance master's works.
This exhibition displays the remarkable results of exacting archival research
used to identify Bartolomeo di Giovanni Corradini (ca. 1420/25-1484). Known as
Fra Carnevale, his name is translated Brother Lent (after the 40-day,
Christian liturgical season of solemn fasting before Easter Sunday,
commemorating the day of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ).
Fra Carnevale was born in the western Adriatic duchy of Urbino, Italy (a
Renaissance papal state ruled by the Montefeltro family during the Fifteenth Century). While in early adulthood, he migrated to
artistically progressive Florence. There he refined his skills in painting while in the workshop of the Carmelite friar Filippo Lippi
(1406/07-1469) during 1445-46. The licentious Lippi was an accomplished painter
who fathered the prolific draftsman Filippino Lippi by Lucrezia Buti, a former
nun, around 1457. The show aptly begins with the elder Lippi's devotional and monumental triptych
(three-panel altarpiece) Madonna and Child with Saints Augustine, Ambrose,
Gregory and Jerome (ca. 1440), here reassembled for the first time since
1935. The Virgin and Child are surrounded by the four saints in the form of a
sacra conversazione (sacred conversation). This kind of composition, popular
during the Renaissance, shows the enthroned Madonna and Child accompanied by
saints and an angel. All of the figures coexist in the same space, suspended in
time but not necessarily interacting with one another. The devotional nature of
the masterpiece encourages the viewer to participate in this spiritual
communion.
Filippo Lippi (1406-1469)
Madonna and Child with Saints Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory and Jerome
Tempera and gold on wood
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (center panel);
Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, Turin (side panels)
A work in this show almost certainly by Fra Carnevale is The Annunciation
from the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (first image above). The painting was executed for Jacques Coeur (1395-1456), the wealthy finance minister of Charles
VII of France (1422-1461), whose coat of arms decorates the door behind the Virgin Mary. Charles was the dauphin
(prince), crowned King of France partially through the efforts of the visionary
Joan of Arc during a later phase of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) between
the nascent English and French nations.
On the left-hand side of the composition, nine columns surmounted by foliated
Corinthian capitals recede sharply into an increasingly dark background beyond the angel Gabriel. The interior space of the elaborately
detailed architecture enclosed by a garden (a Marian symbol of the Virgin's purity) demonstrates the artist's early attempt to master
the technique of perspective. Bending ever so gracefully onto an elaborately
embroidered carpet in the painting's foreground, Gabriel gestures gently forward
to inform the Virgin Mary that she will be the mother of the Christ Child.
Within her somewhat spatially restrictive setting, Mary, draped in a rich, deep blue cloak and holding an open text, receives the angel's surprising message
concerning her impending fate.
The show continues with some contemporary works by major and minor masters
leading up to Madonna and Child with Four Angels (ca. 1470s-1480s), a relatively late work by Piero della Francesca
(1406/12-1492). Piero is known largely for his fresco cycle of the Legend of the True Cross in Arezzo and his exacting portraits of his
patron, Duke Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino, and his pale wife, Battista
Sforza of Milan. In this oil and tempera (?) on wood panel, the artist reveals his
antiquarian interests in classical Roman architecture encouraged at the court of
Urbino.
The exhibition concludes with Fra Carnevale's clear and crisply illuminated Birth
of the Virgin, reunited with his Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple
(?). Recently discovered documents link the two panels as having been part of a
much larger altarpiece, for which Fra Carnevale was paid in 1466. In both works, the mature artist
reveals himself to be a learned scholar well-versed in the vocabulary of architecture. Scientific studies of both paintings, placed
side-by-side, leave the viewer with an unsolved mystery regarding their arrangement, amply examined in the last gallery of the show.
The Met's presentation is notable for its sense of clarity in design, reflected
in many of the paintings displayed. The first floor of the Lehman Wing houses many jewels
of Renaissance art. When leaving this show, one
should compare Fra Carnevale's Annunciation with that of Italian
Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli (1444-45/1510) from ca. 1485. One other
work worth viewing is the permanently displayed studiolo (study) of Duke
Federico da Montefeltro. Located on The Met's first floor behind the main
staircase and to the right, its panels were recently conserved and reassembled.
Together they describe in a glimpse the intellectually enlightened environment
from which Fra Carnevale emerged.
About the catalogue:
Christiansen, Keith, et al. From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra
Carnevale and the Making of a Renaissance Master (exh. cat.).
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.
The 384-page catalogue, with 100 color and 253 black & white illustrations,
is the definitive volume for the exhibition. Available in both hardcover and softcover editions, it details: Fra
Carnevale's emergence as
an Italian Renaissance painter; his training and development in the Florentine workshop of Filippo Lippi; and his work in
Florence and the duchy of Urbino.
For further reading:
Holmes, Megan. Fra Filippo Lippi: The Carmelite Painter.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.
Raggio, Olga and Antoine M. Wilmering. The Liberal Arts
Studiolo from the Ducal Palace at Gubbio. New York:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996.
"From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making
of a Renaissance Master" is on view through May 1, 2005 at The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82 Street, New York, NY 10028
(Telephone: 212-535-7710; Website: www.metmuseum.org).
The museum is open Tuesday through Thursday from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM and Friday
and Saturday from 9:30 AM to 9:00 PM. SUGGESTED
admission
is $15.00 for adults. Paid parking is available in The Museum Garage.
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From
your Guide: Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museum/Special Exhibitions,
is a specialist in ancient, late-medieval and Renaissance art and history. His
interests include: the art and culture of Old and New Kingdom Egypt; the Italian
and Northern Renaissances; Church history; and witchcraft, heresy and social
dissent in late-medieval and early Modern Europe.
