Donatello sculptures headed to New York exhibition

Nearly two dozen sculptures from the late 14th and early 15th centuries will leave Florence for New York’s Museum of Biblical Art to be showcased in the exhibition “Sculpture in the Age of Donatello,” opening Feb. 20.

The sculptures, created for the Florence Cathedral (Il Duomo), include Donatello’s “Abraham and Isaac,” “Saint John the Evangelist” and “Lo Zuccone” and works by Brunelleschi, Nanni di Banco and Luca della Robbia.

The exhibition, Monsignor Timothy Verdon said, will expose Americans, who typically have access only to “cottage-industry” Renaissance and medieval sculpture, to some of the period’s most important works.

“The American public, unless it travels to Italy, doesn’t have direct experience with works in this category, or of works of this quality,” he said in an interview in his apartment overlooking the Florence Cathedral.

The sculptures, Verdon said, speak to a time when religion informed every aspect of life. “Human creativity was almost unthinkable without this dimension of faith,” he said.

MOBIA is the only U.S. museum to host the exhibition. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection, which fill exhibition spots years in advance, were unable to accommodate the Florence museum’s timeline, the New York Times reported in April. (The sculptures must be back in Florence by midsummer to prepare for an October grand reopening.)

The Donatello show – the cost of which MOBIA is shouldering alone and which MOBIA director Richard Townsend describes only as “not inexpensive” – is the most important in MOBIA’s history, he said. “We’re really excited that we are the sole, worldwide venue. It’s a game changer for us.”

According to Nora Heimann, chairman of the art department at The Catholic University of America, the Donatello show presents MOBIA with a unique opportunity and challenge.

“The success of this exhibition could help to give that museum a new and significant gravitas in the public’s eye,” she said. “Its failure could have equally important ramifications, since the exhibition cost, by all accounts, an immense amount of money.”