The Bizarre and the Beautiful: Fantasy as Visual Pleasure in Renaissance and Baroque Prints
Friday, September 12 – Sunday, October 12, 2008
Opening reception Thursday, September 11, 5:00-7:00pm
Gallery Talk by Nadja Aksamija, Assistant Professor of Art History, Wesleyan University, September 11, 5:30 pm
Like the swirls of ornamental grotesques that adorned architecture, metalwork, and textiles, the boundaries between beauty and strangeness were extremely fluid in Renaissance and Baroque art. Through monsters, hybrid creatures, and bodies that twisted into fanciful shapes, artists visualized myths and dreams, delighting their viewers by these seemingly limitless flights of fantasy. Drawn from the Davison Art Center Collection, this exhibition features works by Agostino Carracci, Enea Vico, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Christoph Jamnitzer, Jacques Callot, Hendrick Goltzius, and others, probing the very essence of art and artistry of the period.
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University
Tuesday-Sunday 12 noon – 4 pm
