Get a rare look at Botticelli’s ‘Venus’ at the MFA this spring
You can view the painting from April 15 to July 9.
A life-sized Venus painting by Early Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli will travel to the United States for the first time ever, and it will arrive at the Museum of Fine Arts this spring.
“Venus” (about 1490, Galleria Sabauda, Turin) will be part of a 24-painting exhibit called “Botticelli and the Search for the Divine.” The painting is one of only two surviving isolated depictions of Venus that Botticelli painted.
‘Venus’ by Sandro Botticelli (about 1490).
MFA visitors will have a chance to see how Botticelli’s style changed throughout his career. His earlier works feature gods and goddesses. His later pieces were more religious, such as the MFA’s own “Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist” (about 1500).
The collection, touted as the largest display of Botticelli’s work in the U.S., will be comprised of pieces from international lenders, as well as several Boston-based works, including the painting from the MFA and loans from Harvard and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Venus is one of two life-sized pieces of art that will be in the collection. “Minerva and the Centaur” (1481, Uffizi, Florence) is the other. The exhibition will also include paintings by Botticelli’s teacher Filippo Lippi.
‘Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist’ (about 1500).
“Venus” will make its way to Boston after a stop at the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The MFA exhibit will run from April 15 to July 9 in the Lois B. and Michael K. Torf Gallery. Admission to the MFA is free for members, $25 for adults, $10 for kids ages 7-17 during the week and free after 3 p.m. and on the weekends, and free for kids ages 6 and under.
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