On view from November 9, 2023, through February 4, 2024.
This fall and winter, visitors to Frick Madison, the temporary home of The Frick Collection, will have an unprecedented opportunity to view two Renaissance masterpieces reunited for the first time in more than four hundred years.
Giorgione’s Three Philosophers, on rare loan from Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, will be shown in dialogue with the Frick’s beloved St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini. The works were owned by the same Venetian collector, Taddeo Contarini (ca. 1466–1540), and were displayed for many decades in his palazzo before their separation centuries ago.
Comments Ian Wardropper, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director of the Frick, “It would be difficult to think of a more fitting conclusion for our temporary residency at Frick Madison than this once-in-a-lifetime installation. These two complex Renaissance paintings have prompted an enormous amount of commentary over the years, and we are delighted to present the pair together as an exciting farewell to this fascinating chapter in our institution’s history.”
Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini will examine the joint history of the two paintings. It has been proposed by scholars that Giorgione conceived The Three Philosophers, most likely commissioned by Contarini himself, as a companion to Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, and they seem to have been at Contarini’s palazzo for most of the sixteenth century before being separated. At Frick Madison, the pair will be displayed—alone—in the iconic room within the Marcel Breuer–designed building where St. Francis has hung in isolated splendor, as if in a secular chapel.
This special presentation is organized by Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, who is authoring an accompanying book about the paintings and their original owner and his collection. Salomon states, “To this day, Taddeo Contarini is best known for his ownership of two masterpieces of Venetian Renaissance painting. Despite the attention that has been lavished on the paintings from his collection, Contarini remains an elusive figure, one we can understand only through some glimmers of information about him. The reunion of these two paintings brings an important part of Contarini’s collection back to life.”
ACCOMPANYING PUBLICATION
Accompanying Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini will be a book of the same name, authored by Xavier F. Salomon and published by The Frick Collection in association with D Giles Ltd., London. Alongside beautiful illustrations, Salomon presents new research exploring the origins of the paintings and re-evaluates their places in the collection of Taddeo Contarini.
INSTALLATION SUPPORT
Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini is generously funded by David and Julie Tobey, Ambassador and Mrs. W. L. Lyons Brown, Kathleen Feldstein, Michael and Jane Horvitz, the Robert Lehman Foundation, the Estate of Seymour R. Askin Jr., the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Gini and Randall Barbato, Jerald D. Fessenden, Mary and Howard S. Frank, Fernand Lamesch and Mary Pisacane, the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation, Gabelli Funds, Hubert and Mireille Goldschmidt, Casey Kohlberg, Patricia Dugan Perlmuth, Michael L. Santini, Constantine P. Sidamon-Eristoff, the Consulate General of Italy in New York, Mercy Cohen, and an anonymous donor.
ABOUT THE FRICK COLLECTION AND FRICK MADISON
The historic buildings of The Frick Collection are currently closed for renovation and enhancement, their first comprehensive upgrade since the 1930s. For the duration of the renovation project, the collections of the museum and library remain accessible to the public at Frick Madison, the Marcel Breuer–designed building at 945 Madison Avenue that was once the home of the Whitney Museum of American Art and, most recently, The Met Breuer. Now in its final months, the temporary residency ensures that the public can continue to enjoy the Frick’s masterpieces, while also giving the museum a unique opportunity to reimagine its presentation of paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts within a completely different context. Frick Madison remains open through March 3, 2024.
Website: frick.org
Frick Madison visitor address: 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, New York, NY 10021
Museum hours: Thursday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; closed Monday through Wednesday. See website for holiday schedule.
Visitor guidelines: frick.org/visit/guidelines
Ticket purchase link: frick.org/tickets. For questions: gro.kcirf@snoissimda
