Overview:

Just when we are most ready for spring, an enchanting new world—the majestic French court of the years around 1500—arrives in Chicago with the exhibition Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France. As the only North American venue, the Art Institute is thrilled to feature this stunning presentation that truly captures the spirit of an age of transformation and discovery.

Vessel for the Heart of Anne of Brittany, with Its Crown, Probably Loire Valley or Paris, January 9–March 19, 1514. Musée Dobrée, Nantes, D. 886-1-1.

Please visit the website to see the full details about this exhibition, including related events and images.

Emerging from decades of civil war and struggles to defend its own territory, France was on the move in the years around 1500, led first by Charles VIII and then by his cousin Louis XII, each king in turn marrying Anne, the spirited young duchess of Brittany. Through an extraordinary range of rare and precious objects, this exhibition tells the story of art in this dynamic period—an exuberant mixture of spiritual and secular work, the union of traditional late Gothic form and a new antique vocabulary, and the combination of the many symbols of the French monarchy with the latest trends imported from Milan, Genoa, and Naples, cities that French forces occupied in this period.

A rich and varied panorama of this transitional moment is illustrated through tapestries, stained glass, goldsmithwork, monumental sculpture, painted portraits and altarpieces, and intimate illuminated manuscripts. The diverse offerings include a witty stained-glass roundel designed by court painter Jean Fouquet depicting two maidens holding the initials of Laurens Girard for the home of this courtier, one of the king’s treasurers. The luminous Nativity by Jean Hey, known as the Master of Moulins, is also on display, a commission from Cardinal Jean Rolin, bishop of Autun in Burgundy, as an epitaph near his grave. The cardinal’s favorite lapdog accompanies him as he kneels in perpetual prayer before the vulnerable, newborn Christ Child. And the poetic The Madonna of the Yarnwinder by Leonardo da Vinci and his assistants exemplifies how the French kings and leading courtiers sought from Italy marble, sculptors, and paintings in the latest fashion to decorate their castles and monuments.

Catalogue: The sumptuous catalogue accompanying the exhibition will be the first full treatment of this subject in English. In addition to entries on each object, the publication will include essays by Philippe Contamine, professor at the Sorbonne (retired); Pierre-Yves le Pogam, curator in the sculpture department of the Louvre; Philippe Lorentz, professor at the University of Strasbourg; and Martha Wolff on the historical situation of France, the range of Renaissance styles, and the patronage and the genesis of these works of art.

Organizer:

This exhibition is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, and realized with the collaboration of the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the Musée de Cluny-Musée National du Moyen Age, Paris; and the Musée National de la Renaissance, Château d’Ecouen.

Curator:

Martha Wolff, Eleanor Wood Prince Curator of European Painting and Sculpture before 1750
Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye, director, Musée national du Moyen Age, Paris
Thierry Crépin-Leblond, director, Musée national de la Renaissance, Ecouen
Geneviève Bresc, head, Département des sculptures, Musée du Louvre, Paris

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