Gentile da Fabriano and the other Renaissance

The suggestion of Gentile’s works of art arises from the elegant and luxurious materials, painted with extraordinary naturalness, so much so that they seem real, and the splendid goldsmith work with the gold and the silver the artist modelled onto the surface of the paintings.

Gentile fairytale world is that of the fantastic princely palaces, the novels and poetry of the courts, wonderful and luxuriant nature painted with the precision of a botanist. The maestro from Fabriano’s genial brush descried with extraordinary sensitivity the atmosphere, the light of the sun moving gently over the hills or a starlit night.

But Gentile was also a knowledgeable portrait painter, paying great attention to the physiognomic and psychological perception of the characters. Gentile is the most inspired interpreter, the most sought after by clients from the courts and rich merchants, during an artistic period, that of international Gothicism, that was one of the most significant moments for European art.

This was a period that spoke a shared courteous language, dominated by elegance and attention to nature’s beauty, a stil novo also widespread in France and Bohemia, in Lombardy, in Emilia and all along the Apennine cities between the Marche and Umbria.

Harmoniously set to tell the story of those first decades of the 15th Century, the exhibition will show precious paintings, goldsmith work, drawings, miniatures and sculptures coming from the most prestigious museums in France, England, the United States and also from the greatest Italian museums.

Next to masterpieces by Gentile, we will present the work of the most important artists of one of Italian art’s most successful moments, with paintings also by Masolino, Masaccio, Beato Angelico, Ghiberti, Pisanello and Jacobello del Fiore.

Artists who mainly worked in the March Region and were considerably influence by Gentile will also be represented, including the Salimbeni brothers, Ottaviano Nelli and Arcangelo di Cola. One of the last room showing a small selection of monographs will be dedicated to Antonio da Fabriano, a fully Renaissance artist who closed the 15h Century season in the Fabriano area. Gentile really did play the leading role in another Renaissance

A missed revolution as Andrea De Marchi described it that next to perspectival culture also drew attention to human beings, nature and atmospheric perception. With this exhibition for three months Fabriano will be the ideal capital city of this other Renaissance.
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THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

The exhibition’s scientific committee is coordinated by
Lorenza Mochi Onori
Laura Laureati

Members
Cristina Acidini Luchinat
Roberta Bartoli
Claudia Caldan
Alessandro Cecchi
Matteo Ceriana
Keith Christiansen
Emanuela Daffra
Andrea De Marchi
Giampiero Donnini
Ilaria Fiumi
Cecilia Frosinini
Laura Laureati
Fabio Marcelli
Alessandro Marchi
Lorenza Mochi Onori
Antonio Paolucci
Maria Rosaria Valazzi
Pietro Zampetti
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