The Milwaukee Art Museum’s current “Of Heaven and Earth” exhibition features 500 years of Italian painting from Glasgow Museums, a rare treat for art lovers in the U.S.
“Some art historians have to wait a lifetime to see some of these pieces,” said Tanya Paul, the museum's curator of European art. ”Most of the paintings have not left the city of Glasgow since they came into the collections. And a lot of the paintings actually for a long time were not on view in Glasgow.”
Of Heaven and Earth features five chronological sections from the principal artistic centers of Italy -- Rome, Milan, Bologna, Florence, Siena Naples and Venice, from the 14th century to the 19th century and includes work of Bellini, Botticelli, Rosa and many others.
The show features religious paintings from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance such as Botticelli’s "Ascension" and Bellini’s "Virgin and Child," as well as secular works like Camuccini’s "Death of Julius Caesar" and Veneto’s "St. Catherine Crowned."
Paul said spending time with the paintings has changed her opinion of the quality of the work throughout the centuries.
“The amazing thing is that as you walk through the exhibition you see that that level of creative ability with Italian painters just does not diminish. It shifts and changes as styles change of course, but you really see that there’s this consistent creative approach that these artists have across this massive span,” Paul said.
