Exhibition of The Holy and the Gory: Martyrdoms of the Renaissance

2012 Words5 Pages

Museums are usually filled with paintings which feature beautiful figures and stunning landscapes, because of this I wanted to create an exhibition which will take museum goers by surprise and create a different experience not usually found in a typical Renaissance exhibition by only featuring paintings that are out of the ordinary in a single room. My exhibition The Holy and the Gory: Martyrdoms of the Renaissance will display paintings from the Renaissance time period which depicts some of the most famous Martyrdom scenes from Christendom history. Those who are Christians will not be the only ones who can enjoy the exhibition however. Martyrdom stories are some of the most interesting ones for a person to learn about, whether they believe in Christianity or not. Also, I plan to hold this exhibition from October to November in 2014. I decided on these months because with October being the month known for Halloween and November first being All Saints Day, the day where Christians take the time to remember the saints in Christianity, both months go together with the theme of this exhibition. Though this exhibition is not meant to scare the museum goers who come to see the paintings that will be displayed, it will appeal to those visitors who will enjoy the ‘creepy’ vibe this exhibition will hold during the month of October. This exhibition is not one that is typical for the National Gallery to hold, but I feel it will be one that can be enjoyed by many museum goers of multiple faiths.
The first painting to be in this exhibition will be Head of Saint John the Baptist by Giovanni Bellini in 1468. This piece shows the recently cut off head of St. John, patron saint of cutters, done in the Venetian colorito style. St. John the Baptis...

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...ed shortly after this painting was completed and so was only able to finish two of the planned seven panels .
With the different styles of artists’ works planned to be showcased in this exhibition I hope viewers will be able to see what sorts of artworks were being done during the Renaissance that do not consist of works done by Michelangelo, da Vinci, Donatello, or Raphael. With a topic not usually covered when studying about Renaissance artist, I hope viewers will be able to not only learn about the interesting stories of famous Martyrdoms, but also learn about some of the lesser known Renaissance artists and their styles. Paintings of angles and landscapes from the Renaissance may look pretty but with these different and shocking pieces I hope to create an exhibition that will not soon fade away from visitor’s memories after they leave the National Gallery.

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