Renaissance and Baroque exhibition explores the painters’ craft

TEMPE, Ariz. – A new ASU Art Museum exhibition featuring paintings from the Renaissance and Baroque periods will give Valley residents the opportunity to experience a rarely seen segment of the museum’s permanent collection. 

The Painters’ Craft: Renaissance and Baroque Paintings in the Permanent Collection will open Aug. 23 and run through Dec. 6. The exhibition in the museum’s multi-purpose room features 12 paintings and was designed for a Herberger College art history class. The exhibition also provides an opportunity for other museum visitors to view these works and examine them in a new light.

The works in The Painters’ Craft are drawn from the ASU Art Museum’s collection of 22 Renaissance and Baroque paintings, some of which are of the finest quality. Bicci di Lorenzo’s Nativity and L’Ortolano’s Presentation in the Temple were formerly in the National Gallery in Washington, and variants of Domenico Puligo’s Madonna, Child and St. John belonged to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

The exhibition also will include works that, because of their age and condition, offer students, scholars and those who are fascinated by art an invaluable opportunity to examine how paintings were made hundreds of years ago.

Art history professor Diane Wolfthal said that close examination of an artwork from the past can both yield aesthetic pleasure and satisfy intellectual curiosity about its content, iconography, patronage and function. 

“ Careful observation and technical analysis are necessary in addressing such questions as whether the object is genuine, and how closely it still resembles its original appearance,” Wolfthal said.

As part of their course, art history students will also examine the works using infrared light that enables them to see the painting’s under-drawings and other aspects of the creative process.

The ASU Art Museum is a division of The Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University. For more information, please call (480) 965-2787 or visit the museum online at http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu.

When You Go:

Location: ASU Art Museum, Nelson Fine Arts Center, corner Mill Avenue and 10th Street, Tempe.

Date & Time: The Painters’ Craft: Renaissance and Baroque Paintings in the Permanent Collection will run Aug. 23 – Dec. 6.

Parking: Free parking is available in ASU Art Museum-marked spaces at the south end of Tempe Center, located at the NE corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street. Visitors using museum spaces must sign in at the front desk in the lobby of the Nelson Fine Arts Center. ASU parking is also free on weekends and after 7 p.m. on weeknights.

Website: http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu

Media Contact:
Jennifer Pringle
480-965-8795
jennifer.pringle@asu.edu