News

Masterworks from Italy Coming to the Chazen

Announcing Offering of the Angels: Paintings and Tapestries from the Uffizi Gallery
On view August 24–November 25, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
***Updated August 2, 2012***

Madison, Wisconsin, July 3, 2012— Forty-five works by Renaissance old masters will be on view in the Midwest for the first time in the exhibition Offering of the Angels: Paintings and Tapestries from the Uffizi Gallery. The exhibition of paintings and two tapestries was curated by Uffizi Gallery Director Antonio Natali around the theme of the Eucharist, and offers recently restored works by masters such as Botticelli, Tintoretto, Titian, and il Parmigianino. Spanning approximately three centuries from the late fourteenth to the early eighteenth century, these works were executed by some of the leading painters working in Italy, principally in Florence, during the rule of the Medici dynasty. The exhibition is organized into six sections: Old Testament; Original Sin and the Fall; New Testament; Mother and Son; The Last Supper, the Passion, and the Cross; The Resurrection and the Eucharist.

Every Christmas, the Uffizi Gallery and the Amici degli Uffizi present a temporary exhibition of rarely seen artworks from the museum’s extensive collections as a gift to the citizens of Florence. The 2007 exhibition, Offering of the Angels, was so well received that it traveled successfully to a few European cities. Subsequently, four American museums—the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale, the Michener Art Museum, the Chazen Museum of Art, and the Telfair Museum of Art—partnered to bring the exhibition to the United States. The Chazen is the only Midwestern museum that will exhibit these works from one of Europe’s oldest and most famous museums.

A family activity guide will be available upon request. An audio tour will be available to rent for $5 (free for members), and a full-color exhibition catalogue will be for sale in the Museum Shop.

Guided tours can be arranged by appointment for K–12 students and adults. Tours are also available in Italian for language classes. Call 608-263-2246 at least 3 weeks before desired date.

There is no admission charge to this exhibition or to the Chazen Museum of Art.

RELATED PROGRAMMING

• Thursday, August 23, 6:30–8 p.m. Preview reception with music by Eliza’s Toyes, refreshments and a cash bar. Free and open to the public.
   
• Thursday, August 30, 5:30 p.m., auditorium. Art in the Making: Italian Painting before 1400, ca. 1989, video produced by National Gallery, London, 20 min. Conservation staff from the National Gallery in London demonstrate the stages of creating an altarpiece including making gesso, water gilding, burnishing, pigment grinding, and painting with egg tempera.
   
• Sundays, 8/26, 9/16, 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, and 11/11, 1–4 p.m., Pleasant T. Rowland Galleries. Demonstrations by tapestry weaver Ruth Manning, in the European tradition
   
• Thursdays: 9/6, 9/20, 10/11, and 10/25, 6:30 p.m., Pleasant T. Rowland Galleries. Gallery talks by Maria Saffiotti Dale, Chazen curator of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts. In each talk on a different theme, Saffiotti Dale will discuss Biblical iconography in paintings in Offering of the Angels and compare works in the Chazen permanent collection.
   
• Sundays, 9/9–11/25, 2 p.m. Drop-in docent tours of Offering of the Angels
   
• Sundays, 9/9–11/25, 2 p.m., auditorium. Sunday Cinematheque at the Chazen: Italian film series. Visit cinema.wisc.edu or chazen.wisc.edu in August for film listings.
   
• Thursday, September 13, 5:30 p.m., auditorium. Lecture by Maria Saffiotti Dale, Chazen curator of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts, about the exhibition Offering of the Angels
   
• Thursday, 10/4, 4:30 p.m., room L140. Panel discussion, “Bread: Symbol and Sustenance,” with UW–Madison faculty Corrie Norman, Religious Studies (Christianity), moderator; Jordan Rosenblum, Hebrew and Semitic Studies (Judaism and food); Grazia Menechella (Italian, food history); and Lee Palmer Wandel, History (the Reformation)
   
• Thursday, 11/1
  5:30 p.m., auditorium, “Giorgio Vasari and the Uffizi Gallery,” lecture by Gail L. Geiger, Professor of Art History, UW–Madison
  7 p.m., Rowland Galleries, Bridge Poetry Series. Invited Wisconsin poets read their poems inspired by works in the exhibition
   
• Thursday, 11/8, 5:30 p.m., auditorium. “The Conservation of Old Master Paintings,” lecture by Claire Barry, Director of Conservation, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Offering of the Angels: Paintings and Tapestries from the Uffizi Gallery was organized by Contemporanea Progetti, Florence, Italy, in collaboration with the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Rome, Italy; Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della Città di Firenze, Florence, Italy; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy; Amici degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy; Friends of the Uffizi Gallery, Inc. Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

Generous support for this exhibition has been provided by the Chazen Museum of Art Council, Dane Arts, the Evjue Foundation, and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Digital images for media use are available upon request. Contact: Susan Day, Editor, (608) 263-2068, sday@chazen.wisc.edu

The Chazen Museum of Art is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. The museum is located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The main entrance is accessible to wheelchairs. Parking is available at the City of Madison State Street Campus Ramp (entrances on Frances and Lake streets) and under University Square. Metered parking is available in the UW lot 46 lower level. Evening and weekend parking is also available in UW lot 83 under Fluno Center, entrance on Frances Street, and in UW lot 7 under Grainger Hall, entrance on Brooks Street. The Chazen will provide sign language interpreters for associated programs by three-week advance request to Anne Lambert, Curator of Education, weekdays, (608) 263-4421 (voice). Information is also available by visiting our Web site at www.chazen.wisc.edu.