Renaissance Mythologies as Escape from Reality

Hartford, CT – The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art presents a lecture by John Paoletti, Professor Emeritus, Wesleyan University Department of Art and Art History from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 18, 2010. Paoletti explores Italian Renaissance mythological works as conversation pieces, new for their time in both scale and subject matter. This lecture is held in conjunction with the exhibition Reunited Masterpieces: From Adam and Eve to George and Martha and is free and open to the public.

Special viewing hours of exhibition are from 5 to 6 p.m. Late fifteenth-century paintings of esoteric mythological subjects achieved two goals other than providing exquisitely beautiful decorations for the increasingly larger domestic spaces of the time. These works moved the viewer into another magical time divorced from the sometimes harsh realities of the immediate present. They also tested the viewer’s erudition and capacity to identify the narrative, its sources, and its possible variants. They represented the owner’s learning as well as his or her ability to commission some of the most captivating images of the period from the greatest artists of the time. Dr. Paoletti’s, talk will focus on the pairing of two works by Piero di Cosimo: The Wadsworth’s The Finding of Vulcan, and the National Gallery of Canada’s Vulcan and the Beginnings of Civilization, both circa 1490, and other Venetian and Florentine works.

Dr. John Paoletti, a renowned scholar of Italian Renaissance Art, received his Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University. Paoletti taught at Wesleyan University Department of Art and Art History for 37 years and held visiting appointments at other institutions, such as the Harvard University Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy. A former editor of the Art Bulletin, he has published in several journals including Apollo, Arts Magazine and Art Monthly. Paoletti co-authored two important works in the world of Italian Renaissance art titled Art in Renaissance Italy (Prentice Hall, 2005) and Renaissance Florence: A Social History (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is located at 600 Main St. in Hartford, Connecticut. The Museum is open Wednesdays to Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please visit www.wadsworthatheneum.org for more information.

Tags: Art, Hartford, Hartford County, Lectures

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