European and American Art: Late Renaissance through 1900

This exhibition showcases highlights from the Cantor Art Center’s rich collection of later European and early American art in the first substantial refresh of the Robert Mondavi Family Gallery in over five years. The paintings and sculptures in this gallery offer a selective overview of significant developments and genres of Western art from the late Renaissance through 1900. Mythological and historical protagonists from antiquity are reimagined and adapted to suit new and changing circumstances, while Christian saints in contemporary dress translate biblical stories for modern audiences. Sumptuous still lifes allude to the pleasures and transience of life while ostentatiously displaying the spoils of colonialism, and sensitively painted portraits seem as though they could speak across time. Enhancing these selections from the Cantor’s collection are a number of significant loans, as well as an exciting new acquisition of a portrait statuette that offers an intriguing glimpse of the nineteenth-century origins of 3D printing and other technologies that proliferate in our contemporary, digital world.

This exhibition is organized by the Cantor Arts Center. We gratefully acknowledge support from the Theodore and Frances Geballe Pre-19th Century Art Exhibition Fund, the Clumeck Endowment Fund, and the Loughlin Family Exhibition Fund.