Renaissance Exhibition: highlights & a challenge list

This week I visited the Renaissance exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra).

The exhibition provides a rare glimpse of Renaissance works by many renowned artists, lent by Italy’s Accademia Carrara in Bergamo.

The majority of the art is religious in focus – which is a given, considering the time period and the commissioning of the works – there’s even a whole room devoted to various depictions of Madonna col Bambino.

Here are my exhibition highlights (visual rather than academic!):

• seeing the gold leaf itself/ different styles of gilding and formats of works (diptych, triptych, polyptych),
• portrayal of human bodies, and the contrast between the different styles of babies in the Madonna col Bambino section (in terms of life drawing, proportions and conventions regarding portraiture),
• inclusion of fruit and animals, and
• reflection of fashions and styles, particularly headdresses.

I thought the most interesting works were Love Procession by Marco and Apollonio (perhaps it is depicting a ye olde flash mob) Saint Jerome praying by Mansueti (with the highest concentration of animals in any of the works) and Adoration of the Christ Child by Luini (beautiful imagery of a flying angel in a twinkling starlit sky).

Can you spot any of these items or animals depicted within the artworks?

Test yourself with this challenge list when you attend the exhibition:

• A pair of eyes on a gold platter,
• A brazen parrot,
• A fish carried horizontally (like a carpetbag) with rope,
• A fly (this will be easy as it’s mentioned in one of the captions),
• Two rabbits feeding together in a domestic space,
• A dog that really looks more like a sheep, and
• Capigliara (at least two!).

Let me know in the comments if you spot any of these items or animals throughout the exhibition, or if you’d like to add something to the Challenge-spot list!