Fra Bartolommeo - The Divine Renaissance

From 15 October 2016 to 15 January 2017, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is showing the masterpieces of Fra Bartolommeo (1473-1517), an artist-monk from Florence. Together with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, Fra Bartolommeo was one of the four most important artists of the Italian High Renaissance. This is the first time that paintings by Fra Bartolommeo will be seen in the Netherlands. In this exhibition, which can be seen only in Rotterdam, eleven of his paintings will be reunited with 140 preparatory drawings after a gap of 500 years.

Fra Bartolommeo painted mostly religious subjects. After joining the Dominican order, he worked in the famous convent of San Marco in Florence. His paintings are characterised by their clear and harmonious compositions. Fra Bartolommeo is best known for more than a thousand drawings he made as studies for his paintings. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen owns the world’s largest and finest collection of his drawings. Discover the extraordinary talent of this relatively unknown painter. Be amazed by his masterful studies and eleven of the glorious paintings that resulted from them, varying from a small devotional panel to imposing 4-metre-tall altarpieces. This exhibition will be shown exclusively in Rotterdam.