Thirteen masterpieces by Giotto, never before shown together, are currently on display at Milan’s Palazzo Reale.
The exhibition, Giotto, Italy: From Assisi to Milan, which runs through January 10, 2016, is a chronological tour of the artist’s life. Among the works in the show are the Polittico Stefaneschi, a large altarpiece that has not left the Vatican since Cardinal Jacopo Caetani Stefaneschi commissioned it for Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Bologna Polyptych and the Baroncelli Polyptych from the chapel of the same name in the basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. For the occasion, the latter will be exhibited alongside a triangular panel, part of a collection in San Diego, California, which had been removed to make way for the Renaissance frame.
The exhibition also includes a view of the frescoes that Giotto painted in the Peruzzi Chapel in Santa Croce. The frescoes’ rich details, which had been ruined by repainting and poor restoration, are revealed through an ultraviolet mapping project by Florence’s Opificio delle Pietre Dure and Harvard University–Villa i Tatti.For more information, see www.artpalazzoreale.it.
