The Spring of the Renaissance

On their recent trip to Italy, Wallace and his wife Deborah visited the Centro di Cultura Contemporanea a Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, where they took in the new exhibition, La Primavera del Rinascimento or The Spring of the Renaissance.

The exhibition considers what is known today as the “miracle” of the Renaissance in Florence, and features significant works by such masters as Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo, Giotto, and Tino Camaino.

“We saw a Donatello terracotta Madonna and child that was painted in rich, subtle hues like you see in pre-Raphaelite works," Wallace recalls. "It was painted in 1445 and was completely different from all his other work, before and after. I believe Rossetti saw it in Paris at the Louvre and went back to England and began his mature style within the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Stunning.”

Donatello, Madonna and Child, c.1445 painted and gilded terracotta. Paris, Musee du Louvre, (c) 2012 Musee du Louvre/Thierry Ollivier