London-hosted exhibit to feature masters of German Renaissance

PanARMENIAN.Net - The National Gallery will host an exhibition Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance on February 19 through May 11, 2014.

It will focus on some of the best-known artists of the period, including Hans Holbein the Younger, Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder. All famous artists in their own time, the exhibition will highlight the ways in which their paintings, drawings and prints were valued in the 16th century for qualities such as expression and inventiveness.

The exhibition will also examine the evolution of the perception of German Renaissance art and the reasons why attitudes towards it were mixed in the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the context of the National Gallery Collection. While some viewers admired the artists’ technical mastery and their embodiment of a perceived German national identity, others saw these works of art as excessive or even ugly – particularly when compared to works of the Italian Renaissance, the Gallery website said.

According to The National Gallery press service, key works coming to Strange Beauty include the Matthias Grünewald drawing of An Elderly Woman with Clasped Hands (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), the renowned Holbein miniature of Anne of Cleves (Victoria & Albert Museum, London), Portrait of Young Man with a Rosary by Hans Baldung Grien (Royal Collection Trust on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen) and a collection of fine drawings and prints by Holbein, Dürer and Altdorfer (British Museum, London).