Art and Love in Renaissance Italy - Video

Exhibition Dates: November 18, 2008–February 16, 2009 This exhibition explores the various exceptional objects created to celebrate love and marriage in the Italian Renaissance. The approximately 150 objects, which date from about 1400 to the mid-16th century, range from exquisite examples of maiolica and jewelry given as gifts to the couple, to marriage portraits and paintings that extol sensual love and fecundity, such as the Metropolitan’s "Venus and Cupid" by the great Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto. The exhibition also includes some of the rarest and most significant pieces of Renaissance glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings and prints of amorous subjects. Above: Paris Bordon (Italian, Venetian, 1500–1571), "Venus, Mars, and Cupid Crowned by Victory" (detail), ca. 1550. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna