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The Italian Renaissance

Florence, Venice and Rome from 1400 to 1600: perspective, anatomy and the classical past.

61 works · hang 7442 ·

The rooms are imagined; every work on their walls is real.

Walk this roomRehang this room

First room, north wall

  1. Venus and Adonis, by Titian, 1550s
    Venus and AdonisTitian, 1550sCourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, by Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), early 1490s
    The Last Communion of Saint JeromeBotticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), early 1490sCourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. This shield-shaped painting shows a young man with pale, peachy skin and curling brown hair standing astride the severed head of a man with dark hair and tanned skin. The painting is wider at the top and tapers like a pint glass to a narrower base. The young man, David, holds the end of long red slingshot with his right hand. The slingshot is weighted by a rock and swings behind his body. His sleeveless rust-red garment is cinched at his waist over a long white shirt. Both garments skim David’s thighs and his legs and feet are bare. Long, curling brown hair frames the ashen and bloodied upturned face of the head at David’s feet. A palm-sized stone is embedded in that forehead. The landscape background is made up of gray boulders, a meandering river, and low palm-like trees. Frothy white clouds sweep across an azure-blue sky.
    David with the Head of GoliathAndrea del Castagno, c. 1450/1455Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

First room, south wall

  1. The Annunciation to Zacharias; (verso) The Angel of the Annunciation, by Giovanni di Paolo, ca. 1455–60
    The Annunciation to Zacharias; (verso) The Angel of the AnnunciationGiovanni di Paolo, ca. 1455–60Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. Portrait of a Woman, Possibly a Nun of San Secondo; (verso) Scene in Grisaille, by Jacometto (Jacometto Veneziano), ca. 1485–95
    Portrait of a Woman, Possibly a Nun of San Secondo; (verso) Scene in GrisailleJacometto (Jacometto Veneziano), ca. 1485–95Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. A woman wearing a crimson-red brocade dress and gold jewelry fills most of this vertical portrait, but her right hand, on our left, rests on the shoulder of a young boy tucked into the lower left corner of the panel. The woman and boy both have pale, white skin, and both face and look out at us against an emerald-green curtain that falls behind them. The woman has brown eyes, a straight nose, full pink lips, smooth cheeks, and a long neck. Her brown hair is pulled back under a turban densely embroidered with gold. The woman’s dress has puffed shoulders and decorative slashes on the sleeves. One gold chain rests on her throat and the other falls over her chest. She wears long gold earrings, a gold belt, and two gold rings. She holds a brown leather glove in her left hand. The boy’s face is even with the woman’s waist, and he raises his left hand to hold hers, which is draped over his shoulder. He has curly blond hair and dark eyes, and he wears black with a ruffled white shirt just visible at his collar.
    A Young Woman and Her Little BoyAgnolo Bronzino, c. 1540Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  4. A woman holds the hands of two nude children in front of a crimson-red cloth in this vertical painting. All three have pale skin and brown hair. The woman wears a forest-green dress with voluminous sleeves and a gauzy white headdress that wraps around her hair and is fastened with a band across her forehead. She stands crouching with one foot extended slightly forward in a sandal, surrounded by broken chunks of masonry and bits of burning logs. Her body faces us but she turns her head to the right. Her mouth is wide open, and her eyes cut back to our left. The woman clutches the children’s hands in both of her own. The child to our left turns away from us and reaches one hand up to touch the back of the woman’s hand. The child on the right twists away from the woman, eyes squinted up and to the right and mouth open. Behind them, fold lines create a grid across the red cloth. Slivers of grass and blue sky line each side of the composition.
    The Wife of Hasdrubal and Her ChildrenErcole de' Roberti, c. 1490/1493Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second room, south wall

  1. The image shows a human figure with wings positioned as though in flight. The figure is captured from a slightly frontal perspective, with the head turned downwards and the right arm outstretched. The facial features are undefined, focusing more on the body's muscular structure. The figure wears a cloth or drapery around the waist and has well-defined muscles on the chest, arms, and legs. Large wings extend out behind the figure, adding to the sense of flight. The background is plain with a light texture.
    A Flying AngelJacopo Palma il Giovane, 1580/1590Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. The Adoration of the Shepherds, by Andrea Mantegna, shortly after 1450
    The Adoration of the ShepherdsAndrea Mantegna, shortly after 1450Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso), by Michelangelo Buonarroti, ca. 1510–11
    Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)Michelangelo Buonarroti, ca. 1510–11Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  4. Two women, a man, and a satyr, a man with goat’s legs, are in two pairs in a forested landscape in this horizontal painting. The pale-skinned women are nude, and their blond hair is tied up and back. One woman sits on a brown boulder to the left of center. One hand covers her groin, and the other hand rests on the satyr’s shoulder. The satyr has deeply tanned skin, short white hair, and a long white beard. A white cloth wraps over one shoulder and across his hips. He holds up an object, perhaps a shell, with one hand. That arm crosses over the woman’s breasts. His other hand is by his lower belly, and he looks at the shell. A bit farther back and to our right, a second nude woman also sits on a boulder. She faces away from us and holds up a long stick with her left arm, which arcs over her body. A clean-shaven, pale-skinned man sits with his back against the boulder. He has long brown hair and looks off to the distance to our right. He wears a carnation-pink robe over a sapphire-blue tunic. His legs splay in front of him, his feet bare, as he holds a bow to a violin-like instrument tucked under his chin. The two pairs sit in a grassy glade occupied also by five pheasant- or peacock-like birds. A thin river running behind the glade is lined with spindly trees that together make an impenetrable bronze-brown and laurel-green canopy. The second woman’s stick points or is directed to a gray, mountain lion-like cat on the far bank. Closer inspection reveals deer and another person, who points, tucked among the trunks. A glimpse of blue sky is visible through a break in the tree trunks.
    OrpheusUnrecorded Italian maker, c. 1515Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second room, north wall

  1. Bright light from the upper left illuminates two muscular men and a winged angel against a dim landscape in this square painting. They all have pale skin, and the two men have dark brown hair and beards. One man, Jesus, stands ankle-deep in a rippling dark blue stream in the center of the composition facing us with downcast eyes. He is nude except for a white cloth that drapes over one shoulder and is tied around his hips. The other end of the cloth drops into the water. Jesus’s hands are pressed together in prayer at chest-height closer to his right shoulder, to our left. He leans his torso in the other direction and looks down at the water. The second man stands on the riverbank to our right. His body faces our left but his left shoulder, closer to us, dips down so his broad back is angled toward us. His lower body is wrapped in a cobalt-blue garment bordered with what looks like sheepskin. His near hand swings back to clutch the trunk of a tree growing immediately behind him. In his other hand, he holds up a pewter-grey dish that dribbles water onto Jesus’s head. On the left riverbank, the copper-haired angel looks on, facing our right in profile but the body faces us. The angel wears a sleeveless, pumpkin-orange robe with a shimmering salmon-pink mantle draped over the right shoulder, to our left. Petal-pink and dark grey wings extend from the shoulders, and the lower legs and feet are bare. The shadowy landscape has a dark green field stretching back to jagged, sapphire-blue mountains along the horizon, which comes four-fifths of the way up this composition. Pale blue clouds skim across the vivid blue sky, where three chubby, winged babies float. One holds a triangle and a rod with which to strike it, and another might hold a rectangular musical instrument. Blue clouds split nearby to show a sliver of golden yellow light, and possibly more angels.
    The Baptism of ChristParis Bordone, c. 1535/1540Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. Saint Anthony the Abbot in the Wilderness, by Sano di Pietro (Ansano di Pietro di Mencio), ca. 1440
    Saint Anthony the Abbot in the WildernessSano di Pietro (Ansano di Pietro di Mencio), ca. 1440Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Third room, north wall

  1. A Hunting Scene, by Piero di Cosimo (Piero di Lorenzo di Piero d'Antonio), ca. 1494–1500
    A Hunting ScenePiero di Cosimo (Piero di Lorenzo di Piero d'Antonio), ca. 1494–1500Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. The image shows a man seated with a slight forward tilt. He is muscular, with one leg bent and the other extended. His head is turned to the left in profile, revealing his facial features, which include a large nose, full beard, and curly hair. He appears naked except for a fabric drape over his shoulders. In his left hand, he holds a staff, and there is a plant with twisting vines near him. The background is a shaded rocky surface with no other details.
    Man Seated Holding a Forked StaffGiovanni Antonio da Brescia, c. 1514/1515Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. Portrait of a Young Woman, by Lorenzo di Credi (Lorenzo d'Andrea d'Oderigo), ca. 1490–1500
    Portrait of a Young WomanLorenzo di Credi (Lorenzo d'Andrea d'Oderigo), ca. 1490–1500Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art