Opening June 27, 2026

The works in this gallery tell the story of the development of Western art from the early moments of the Italian Renaissance until the dawn of the modern age as marked by the independence movements in the United States, France, and Mexico. The gallery is divided into three sections, which roughly cover art of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment periods. The first section begins with a work by Giotto, who pioneered perspective and three-dimensional modeling in the 1330s. Giorgione’s extraordinarily rare portrait of 1506, equally ground-breaking, is among the first realistic studies of human psychology in Italian painting.

The second section features monumental paintings of the dramatic Baroque period, made by the leading artists of the day: el Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, and Francisco de Zurbarán. At the center is the astounding still-life by Juan Sánchez Cotán. Tantalizingly real and modern in its appearance, the work launched a centuries-long tradition in Spanish art and continues to inspire artists to this day.

Finally, the third section is anchored by a masterful, “speaking” portrait by Francisco de Goya, a painter whose long career and limitless style spanned the major independence movements in North America and Europe. Included in this section are works by several of the most influential women artists of the period: Rosalba Carriera, Angelika Kauffmann, and Marie-Guillemine Benoist.

The works in this gallery, which represent six centuries of the highest artistic achievement and are predominantly from the Museum’s permanent collection, are bound together by humanity’s universal need to make sense of the world. Most of the works have recently returned from a year-long tour of Japan and Korea, where they drew record attendance, media attention, and critical acclaim. We celebrate their return with an architectural re-interpretation of the gallery and musical components to engage the visitor in a tranquil and welcoming space.

Featured at top right: Bernardino Luini, The Conversion of the Magdalene (detail), ca. 1520. Oil on panel. Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam in memory of their sister, Irene, 1936.23.