Take a trip back to early Renaissance Siena, Italy, through the dazzling creative vision of Giovanni di Paolo during this mesmerizing exhibition in California.
Giovanni di Paolo was one of the first Renaissance men. Both an accomplished egg tempera painter and a manuscript illuminator, Paolo was “one of the most distinctive and imaginative artists working in Siena, Italy, during the Renaissance,” writes the Getty Museum. In an exhibition that opened on October 11, the Getty is currently displaying a sparkling array of originals by Paolo, reuniting several panels from one of his most important commissions, the altarpiece for the Branchini family chapel in the church of San Domenico in Siena.
![Gentile da Fabriano, “The Coronation of the Virgin,” circa 1420, tempera and gold leaf on panel, (c) The J. Paul Getty Museum 2016](https://fineartconnoisseur.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/J00073601_x1024-774x1024.jpeg)
The exhibition, “The Shimmer of Gold: Giovanni di Paolo in Renaissance Siena,” presents the panels together for the first time since their dispersal, alongside a number of illuminated manuscripts and other paintings by the early master and his contemporaries. Continuing, the Getty reports, “Through recent technical findings, the exhibition reveals his creative use of gold and paint to achieve remarkable luminous effects in both media.”
![Giovanni di Paolo, “Branchini Madonna,” 1427, tempera and gold leaf on panel, (c) The Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena 2016](https://fineartconnoisseur.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Jgm_239800T1V1_x1024-550x1024.jpeg)
“The Shimmer of Gold: Giovanni di Paolo in Renaissance Siena” runs through January 8. To learn more, visit the Getty.
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