Release Date: Updated November 4, 2005

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON,
IS SOLE VENUE FOR RESTORED ITALIAN RENAISSANCE SCULPTURES

TWO OF THREE MONUMENTAL SCULPTURES
TRAVEL FOR FIRST TIME OUTSIDE OF FLORENCE

View of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Saint Matthew (1419-1421), as it was installed before conservation at Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy.
Photo credit: Alinari/ Art Resource, NY

Washington, DC — Three monumental masterpieces of Italian Renaissance sculpture by Lorenzo Ghiberti, Nanni di Banco, and Andrea del Verrocchio will travel to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, to celebrate the completion of the 21-year restoration of the fourteen exterior monumental sculptures of Orsanmichele, a renowned 14th-century religious and civic center in Florence, Italy.

The exhibition will mark the first time that Ghiberti’s Saint Matthew (1419–1421), and Nanni di Banco’s Quattro Santi Coronati (Four Crowned Martyr Saints) (c.1409–1416) will travel outside Florence. In 1993, Verrocchio’s Christ and Saint Thomas (1466–1483) traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an exhibition marking the completion of its restoration. Monumental Sculpture in Florence: Ghiberti, Nanni di Banco, and Verrocchio at Orsanmichele will be on view in the Gallery's West Building, September 18 through February 26, 2006.

"We are delighted to collaborate with our Florentine colleagues at the Soprintendenza for Tuscany and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure on what we believe to be one of the most important exhibitions of Italian Renaissance sculpture in recent memory," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "The Gallery has a long-standing relationship with Florence that was most recently seen with the exhibition here of Verrocchio’s David in 2003."

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e per il Paesaggio and the Soprintendenza al Patrimonio Storico Artistico e Etnoantropologico, Florence. This exhibition has been made possible through the generous support of an anonymous donor. The National Gallery of Art is also grateful to the Foundation for Italian Art and Culture for its assistance in making this exhibition possible. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities

Since 1984 the statues from the exterior of Orsanmichele have undergone a much-needed restoration at the prestigious Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence—Italy’s premier national restoration center. After painstaking cleaning, the statues have been placed in an interior hall of the church, while replicas are being installed in the original niches on the exterior of the building. Because Orsanmichele has remained closed to the public during this process, the three statues are able to come the National Gallery of Art. After the exhibition in Washington, the sculptures will return to Florence for the public reopening of Orsanmichele.

Saint Matthew by Lorenzo Ghiberti

Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378–1455) cast the first colossal bronze statues since antiquity for Orsanmichele. His talent as a bronze caster was legendary and in 1419 and 1420 the banker’s guild (Cambio) commissioned from him a statue of Saint Matthew. At 8’10” the bronze is a colossus to compete with his earlier Saint John the Baptist, executed for the Banker’s archrivals, the guild of dressers and dyers of foreign cloth (Calimala). In an attempt to outdo his earlier achievement Ghiberti produced one of the most majestic and elegant of all of the statues from Orsanmichele.

Quattro Santi Coronati (Four Crowned Martyr Saints) by Nanni di Banco

Nanni di Banco (c. 1380/1385–1421) was a great sculptor in his own right though his reputation has been overshadowed by the fame of his contemporaries, Donatello and Ghiberti. For the guild of the wood-carvers and stone masons (Maestri di Pietra di Legmame), of which he was a member, Nanni created his most innovative work: the marble group of the four early Christian martyred saints that were the patrons of the guild: the Quattro Santi Coronati. Departing from Ghiberti’s International Gothic style, Nanni’s figures are modeled on Roman statuary and convey the interaction of a real-life group of men caught in an everyday moment, frozen in time. The Quattro Santi Coronati is a key instance of the complex exchange of influences, medieval and antique, that mark this unique moment during the Renaissance.

Christ and Saint Thomas by Andrea del Verrocchio

Verrocchio’s (1435-1488) greatest masterpiece, the Christ and Saint Thomas, was commissioned in 1466 by the Mercanzia, a supervisory organization that regulated the guilds. After a long somewhat contentious gestation, the bronze group consisting of two interlocking figures, Christ and Saint Thomas, was finally unveiled to much acclaim in 1483. Looking back to the Quattro Santi Coronati for the idea of a sculptural group, Verrocchio’s statues break free of their niche with Saint Thomas on the lower outside ledge pushing off his right foot, caught in mid-motion as he moves forward to touch Christ’s wound. For the first time, at Orsanmichele, there was real narrative and dramatic tension: Christ’s open and generous blessing gesture complements and contrasts with Thomas’ active skepticism--well in keeping with the pragmatic spirit of the guilds of Orsanmichele.

Curators and Related Activities

The exhibition is curated by Eleonora Luciano, assistant curator of sculpture at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition has been made possible by close collaboration with Cristina Acidini, Soprintendente of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and Annamaria Giusti, Director of the Bronzes Department of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence.

Nicholas Penny, senior curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the National Gallery of Art, and Luciano will give a public lecture on “Orsanmichele and the Invention of Renaissance Sculpture” in the East Building Auditorium on Sunday, September 18, 2005, at 2 p.m. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, gallery talks will be given by staff lecturers J. Russell Sale and David Gariff in the West Building. For details, visit the Calendar of Events at www.nga.gov or call (202) 737-4215.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:

Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov

If you are a member of the press and would like to be added to our press list, click here.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, IS SOLE VENUE FOR RESTORED ITALIAN RENAISSANCE SCULPTURES TWO OF THREE MONUMENTAL SCULPTURES TRAVEL FOR FIRST TIME OUTSIDE OF FLORENCE

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON,
IS SOLE VENUE FOR RESTORED ITALIAN RENAISSANCE SCULPTURES

TWO OF THREE MONUMENTAL SCULPTURES
TRAVEL FOR FIRST TIME OUTSIDE OF FLORENCE