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…


	Death of Orpheus Albrecht Durer 1494 Pen drawing, 28.9 x 22.5 cm Hamburg, Kunsthalle


	Castle and Town of Arco Albrecht Durer 1495 Watercolour and body colour on paper, 22.3 x 22.2 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins


	Flaying of the Corrupt Judge Sisamnes Gerard David 1498-1499 Oil on panel Bruges, Groenige Museum


	Garden of Earthly Delights Hieronymus Bosch about 1500 Oil on panel, 220 x 195 cm Madrid, Museo del Prado


	Mystical Nativity Sandro Botticelli about 1501 Tempera on canvas, 108.6 x 74.9 cm London, National Gallery


	Triumph of the Virtue Andrea Mantegna about 1502 Oil on panel, 160 x 192 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre


	Lady with a Unicorn Raphael about 1505 Oil on panel, 65 x 51 cm Rome, Galleria Borghese


	Temptation of Saint Anthony Hieronymus Bosch 1505-1506 Grisaille on panel, 131 x 53 cm Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga


	Christian Allegory Jan Provoost about 1510 Oil on panel, 50.5 x 40 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre


	Isenheim Altarpiece: Temptation of St Anthony Matthias Grunewald 1510-1515 Oil on panel, 265 x 141 (139) cm Colmar, Musee d'Unterlinden


	Disputation of St Stephen Vittore Carpaccio 1514 Tempera on canvas Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera


	Melencolia I Albrecht Durer 1514 Engraving, 9 3/8 x 7 1/2 in., 23.9 x 18.9 cm (24 x 18.6 cm)


	La Fornarina Raphael 1518-1519 Oil on panel, 85 x 60 cm Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica


	Last Judgment Jan Provoost 1525 Oil on panel, 145 x 169 cm Bruges, Groeninge Museum


	Lucretia Joos van Cleve about 1525 Oil on panel, 75.9 x 60.6 cm San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums


	Grotesque Old Woman Quinten Massys 1525-1530 Oil on panel, 64.2 x 45.4 cm London, National Gallery


	Jupiter and Olympia Giulio Romano 1526-1534 Fresco Mantua, Palazzo del Te


	Portrait of a Boy with a Long Beard Albrecht Durer 1527 Watercolour on canvas, 55.2 x 27.8 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins


	Virgin and Child Jan Gossaert about 1527 Oil on panel, 63 x 50 cm Madrid, Museo del Prado


	Jupiter and Io Correggio about 1530 Oil on canvas, 163.5 x 74 cm Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

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