Sacred and Profane Visions from Renaissance Venice

This exhibition marks the important acquisition of a monumental Venetian sacra conversazione, from around 1515. The painting, a three-quarter depiction of the Virgin and Child with saints and donors, was a recent gift of the Woodner Family Collection. The exhibition draws from Harvard’s rich holdings of Venetian art and includes important works by Paolo Veneziano, Jacopo Bellini, Titian, and Bartolomeo Vivarini, among others. It also highlights books from Houghton Library’s collection, including the rare Breviary by Petrus and the copy of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Polifilo’s Strife of Love in a Dream, first printed in Venice in 1499, and assumed to be by Francesco Colonna), given by William Morris to Edward Burne-Jones. The Fogg Art Museum’s holdings are also supplemented by works from private collections and the rare loan of a Jacopo Bellini drawing fragment from the Louvre.

Organized by Stephan Wolohojian, associate curator of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts, Fogg Art Museum.