Italian Old Master Piero di Cosimo is fondly remembered as one of the more outlandish artists of the Renaissance, if not the entire history of art. Immortalized by Renaissance biographer Vasari as an eccentric and a recluse, he was purportedly afraid of thunder and fire, prepared dozens of hard-boiled eggs at a time so he wouldn’t have to cook very often, and lived alone surrounded by a wild garden that he refused to tame out of respect for nature. His eccentricities also materialize in his famously imaginative paintings, which were favored by many wealthy Florentine patrons.
But as successful as he was in Florence at the turn of the 16th century, and as fascinating as he is to art historians and collectors today, Piero is only now seeing his first major retrospective, in “Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence,” which premieres at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from February 1 through May 3. “Piero di Cosimo is an artist whose time has come,” says the exhibition’s co-curator, Gretchen Hirschauer. “With considerable new research on his life, his myths, and his sources, and with advances in the science and technology of packing and shipping art, an exhibition that would have been impossible 20 years ago is now a reality.”
The show brings together 44 of Piero’s works and takes an unprecedented look at his sacred and secular output, including his wonderfully singular takes on classical mythology and religious themes. While his High Renaissance contemporaries Raphael and Michelangelo were busy finding ways to portray man in a divine light, Piero sought to stress humankind’s more primeval roots. He often conflates animals, satyrs, and men, for instance, something you didn’t see very often back then, when so many painters were more interested in emulating the effortless grace of Raphael’s subjects or the heroic strength of Michelangelo’s.
Through May 3 at the National Gallery of Art, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th streets along Constitution Avenue NW; nga.gov
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