MEDIA ADVISORY: Experts, Curators To Introduce Reunited Components of 14th-Century Altarpiece at U.Va. Art Museum

February 28, 2012 — The University of Virginia Art Museum will host a press preview of "The Adoration of the Magi," a 14th-century Italian altarpiece painting by Bartolo di Fredi, on March 1, from 10 to 11 a.m.

Bruce Boucher, museum director; Francesca Fiorani, guest curator and associate professor in the McIntire Department of Art in U.Va.'s College of Arts & Sciences; and Mario Scalini, director of the Pinacoteca Nationale in Siena, Italy, will be on hand to discuss the exhibition.

Completed around 1385, the altarpiece was dismantled and broken into four pieces at the turn of the 19th century. Three of the four pieces are reunited at U.Va. in the exhibition, "The Adoration of the Magi," which opens March 2 and runs through May 27.

The central painting of the altarpiece is on loan from the Pinacoteca Nationale and the Italian Ministry for Cultural Activities and Heritage. A scene of the crucifixion from the prudella, or lower portion of the altarpiece, is on loan from the collection of the Lindenau-Museum of Altenburg, Germany. These portions will be reunited with a panel showing adoring female saints that is in U.Va.'s collection.

For more about the exhibition, click here.

Contact Jane Ford at 434-924-4298 or jford@virginia.edu if you plan to attend.

Media Contact