In the Light of Naples: The Art of Francesco de Mura
January 20 – April 2, 2017 | Pleasant T. Rowland Galleries
In the Light of Naples: The Art of Francesco de Mura, is the first ever retrospective of Francesco de Mura( 1696 – 1782), one of the greatest painters of the Golden Age of Naples. The exhibition features two works from the Chazen’ s permanent collection and is curated by Arthur Blumenthal, who, from 1968 – 1974, was the first curator of the Elvehjem Art Center, which became the Chazen Museum of Art.
In Naples, Francesco de Mura’ s refined and elegant compositions, with their exquisite light and color, heralded the late Baroque style called Rococo, while his later classicist style led to the simplicity and sculptural quality of Neoclassicism. In the Light of Naples reveals the power of de Mura’ s work through more than forty paintings and drawings, including oil sketches of his great frescoes and many of his key paintings. The exhibition features religious and classical subjects, and portraits. The works are on loan from thirty American and European museums and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples. The show not only explores the art of de Mura and his contemporaries, but also traces the role of Pio Monte della Misericordia, a charitable institution to which the artist bequeathed 192 artworks, four of which will be in the exhibition.
This exhibition has been organized by the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. Generous support for this exhibition has been provided by: The Brittingham Trust and the Anonymous Fund.
Francesco de Mura( Italian, 1696-1782), Madonna and Child with Infant St. John the Baptist, ca. 1745-50, oil on canvas, 14 ½ x 11 ½, Federico Castelluccio Collection, USA