The Renaissance Mysteries of the NGA (3 cents)

The city of Florence has spent twenty years restoring the sculpture that sits in the niches around the perimeter of the Orsanmichele (if you don't know what that is, look it up; it is one of Florence's most recognizable buildings).

Three (or six, depending on how you count them) have been on display at the National Gallery before heading back to Italy at the end of the month. They include a group of four Roman artisans who were martyred for refusing to sculpt a pagan God, Jesus and St. Thomas (the doubter) and St. Matthew, patron saint of the Banking Guild, one of guilds which supported the niches. The sculptors are Ghiberti, Verrochio and Nanni de Banco. The materials are stone (marble) and bronze. In true Renaissance fashion, they are all very life-like an approachable, particularly seen at ground level, rather than raised as they will be (again) when placed around the Orsanmichele.

While at the gallery, I glommed on a docent tour of Renaissance art. As usual, the guide was quite well informed, and she concentrated both on the paintings themselves, but also on some strange happenings that I would not have guessed.

For example, two of the paintings were painted on wood, but later transferred to canvas when the gallery acquired them. This includes a Raphael, which was purchased in the 1930s from the Hermitage in Leningrad.

One of the paintings (Feast of the Gods) was started by Bellini when he was in his 80s and finished by Dosso Dossi. Titian was then asked to paint two other canvasses which would hang in the same room, but he said he would only do so if he could make some changes to the Bellini/Dossi. Bellini painted a wooded background, Dossi painted over part of the woods with a distant town, and Titian got rid of the town and put in a mountain.

Then there is a da Vinci "Ginerva de Benci", a very nice work (surprise!) purchased from the Prinz von Lichtenstein, where it had sustained water damage. It was painted on wood (still on wood), back and front. The back is a wreath of juniper, laurel, etc. and a banner that talks about beauty. Apparently, da Vinci first talked about virtue on the back, but was asked to change it by the man who had commissioned the portrait.

This painting, as displayed is square, which is an unusual shape for a Renaissance painting. In fact, it was rectangular, but had about 6 inches cut off because of the water damage.

Then, there is a painting that at some point was cut in two, with half of it winding up at the National Gallery , and half in New York at the Met. Originally, no one knew that they were the same painting; each had apparently been restored so that they looked sort of like an entire painting. But at some point, someone notice the similarities and saw that they fit together and matched, so they were restored as one, and ownership is now apparently shared between the two museums.

As to sizing, apparently, it was not unusual for a painting to be cropped to fit a frame; there are a few examples, and then there are some paintings that have not been cropped but where the frames do not show the full painting.

All this is pretty interesting, I think. And certainly not at all what you would notice wandering by yourself.