UNEXPECTED MOTIFS in Renaissance

The Cabinet of Curiosities

You are looking at a gallery of bizarre images and unexpected motifs from real and imaginary life that displays, by means of twisted reality, the real spirit, mind and body of the Renaissance man, who is split between medieval superstition and the birth of a new Subject.

Many of these motifs were much less unusual for the Renaissance man than they appear to us today. In that time, people perceived the world in quite a different way than we do; in fact this was a short period of freedom when mind and body were equal and curiosity overpowered fear.

This cabinet of curiosities contains everything, from imaginary compositions to unusual erotic images, Madonna breast feeding the saint, a fantasy creature with fish-head and chicken feet, unusual landscapes in the shape of a human head, double images, illusionistic monsters, people with animal physiognomy, and scenes of everyday’s life like some quack removing a ‘stone of madness’ from someone’s head or a bearded woman breastfeeding…


	Good Thief on the Cross Robert Campin about 1415-1420 or 1430 Oil on panel, 134.2 x 92.5 cm (133.7 x 92.2 cm) Frankfurt am Main, Stadelsches Kunstinstitut


	Miracle of the Snow: Foundation of Santa Maria Maggiore Masolino about 1428-1432 Panel, 144 x 76 cm Naples, Museo di Capodimonte


	Arnolfini Portrait Jan van Eyck 1434 Oil on panel, 82.2 x 60 cm London, National Gallery


	Self Portrait Leon Battista Alberti about 1435 Bronze, irregular oval: 20.1 x 13.6 cm Washington, National Gallery of Art


	Werl Altarpiece: St John the Baptist and Heinrich von Werl Robert Campin 1438 Oil on panel, 101 x 47 cm Madrid, Museo del Prado


	Creation and the Expulsion from the Paradise Giovanni di Paolo 1445 Tempera and gold on panel, 46.4 x 52.1 cm New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art


	Archers Shooting at Saint Christopher Andrea Mantegna 1448-1457 Fresco Padua, Chiesa degli Eremitani, Overtari chapel


	Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels Jean Fouquet about 1450 Oil on panel, 93 x 85 cm Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten


	Saint John Altarpiece Rogier van der Weyden 1455-1460 Oil on panel Berlin, Staatliche Museen


	Saint Sebastian Andrea Mantegna 1457-1459 Oil on panel, 68 x 30 cm Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum


	Presentation at the Temple Andrea Mantegna about 1460 Tempera on panel, 67 x 86 cm Berlin, Staatliche Museen


	Virgin and Child with Angels and Saint Attributed to Sandro Botticelli about 1468 Tempera on panel, 85 x 62 cm Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia


	Saint Lucy Francesco del Cossa about 1473-1474 Tempera on panel, 77.2 x 56 cm Washington, National Gallery of Art


	Cure of Folly Hieronymus Bosch 1475-1480 Oil on panel, 48 x 35 cm Madrid, Museo del Prado


	Lactation of Saint Bernard Flemish School about 1480 Oil on panel, 39 x 26 cm Liege, Musee d'Art Religieux et d'Art Mosan (MARAM)


	Triptych of Adriaan Reins Hans Memling 1480 Oil on panel; 54 x 23 cm (wing with frame, each); 44.5 x 13.5 cm (painted surface, each wing) Bruges, Sint-Janshospitaal, Memlingmuseum


	Grotesque Head Leonardo da Vinci about 1480-1510 Red chalk on paper, 17.2 x 14.3 cm Windsor Castle, Royal Library


	Virgin of the Rocks Leonardo da Vinci 1483-1486 Oil on panel, 77 5/8 x 47 5/8 in., 199 x 122 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre


	Diptych of Maarten van Nieuwenhove Hans Memling 1487 Oil on panel; 44.7 x 33.5 cm (each panel); 52 x 41.5 (each panel with frame) Bruges, Sint-Janshospitaal, Memlingmuseum


	Madonna and Child Gerard David 1490 Oil on panel Berlin, Staatliche Museen

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