The Bass Museum shows 'The Sacred and Sublime: Renaissance & Baroque'

Written by Polly Noggle Thursday, 02 June 2011 21:39

MIAMI BEACH, FL –The Bass Museum is known for important examples of Northern European Renaissance and Baroque art.  Works on view in this ongoing exhibition span two centuries and include religious paintings by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Gerard Seghers (1591-1651), Marcellus Koffermans (active 1549-1579) and Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem (1562-1638).  Secular yet sublime works include the museum’s 16^th century tapestry masterpiece The Salute before the Tournament and the major Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680) painting of Venus and Adonis. 

Throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods, secular themes such as the jousting competition in the tapestry and an episode from a popular ancient Greek myth in the Ferdinand Bol painting were common in grand art produced for wealthy patrons.  

"The Tournament" , a signature piece of the Bass Collection, has a particularly prestigious provenance in that it was part of Henry VIII’s collection at Knole House in England.  From a set of tapestries titled Tournament of Vice and Virtue (Brussels, c. 1510-20), it is a prime example of King Henry’s favorite artistic medium and was later purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in the early twentieth-century before it came into John Bass’s collection. The Sacred and Sublime: Renaissance and Baroque is currently on view in the Taplin Gallery.

Bass Museum of Art / 2121 Park Avenue (in Collins Park), Miami Beach, Florida 33139 / T: 305.673.7530 / www.bassmuseum.org

Admission
$8 general admission/ $6 seniors students. Free for members and children under 6. Group discounts available.

Museum Hours and Docent Tours
Tuesday-Saturday 10 am-5 pm, Sunday 11 am-5 pm, closed Mondays and holidays. Docent tours by request; free with museum admission.

Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. With the support of the Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council, Friends of the Bass Museum, Inc.