Italain Renaissance Sculpure

Usually when the Museum of Fine Arts mounts exhibits that come exclusively from their own holdings of European art, those of us who have been visiting the Museum for years see little new to marvel at. An impressionist exhibit held in the Gund Gallery a few years ago left many of us nonplussed. But Donatello to Giambologna: Italian Renaissance Sculpture at the MFA, is a notable exception. Many of the statues from the collection have never been on public view at the MFA before. Those that have are definitely worth seeing again. The exhibit will remain through July 8th and I predict that it will get pretty crowded during peak Museum visitation hours.

A Private Library and the Frick Museum

My sister's neighbor and good friend belongs to the New York Society Library . It is a private member's only library not unlike The Boston Athenaeum . There are paintings, old maps, and documents on the walls. One of the upper floors offers a quiet area for writers. He took me there so that we could both do some writing. It is located on East 79th Street in Manhattan.

From the Library it was a short walk to the Frick Museum . The permanent collection is stunning with Dutch Masters, English, Spanish, French, and Italian oil paintings. It is not a large Museum and it was not crowded like the The Metropolitan Museum of Art . The Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art was a nice small exhibit. Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804) A New Testament, was not very interesting. He lacked the strong sense of line and real mastery that his more famous father had. Few people were downstairs in that exhibit and when I saw it I understood why.