To celebrate the Neue Galerie's twentieth-anniversary year, an exhibition will be presented of selections from the collection of its co-founder. The accompanying book continues with the theme of the tenth anniversary exhibition. Whereas the earlier show and publication focused on pieces from the third century BC to the twentieth century AD from Austria, France, and Germany, this exhibition and book will represent various centuries and media, highlighting Greek and Roman works, and Italian thirteenth- and fourteenth-century gold-ground paintings. Essays by distinguished art historians and curators will reflect on the breadth of these special fields, providing a background for various works, and their incorporation into the collection of the Neue Galerie's co-founder.

Sassetta, the subtle genius from Siena, revolutionized Italian painting with an altarpiece for the small Tuscan town of Borgo San Sepolcro in 1437 1444. Originally standing some six yards high, double-sided, with a splendid gilt frame over the main altar of the local Franciscan church, it was the Rolls Royce of early Renaissance painting. But its myriad figures and scenes tempted the collectors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and today its disassembled panels can be found in twelve museums throughout Europe and the United States.

To produce this landmark volume, experts in art and general history, painting technique and conservation, woodworking, architecture, and liturgy have joined forces across the boundaries of eight different nations. A model of collaboration, it opens new windows onto the creative process of the artist as he confronted a late-medieval church at a crossroad of cultures, the miracle-working body of a holy man, and a community of Franciscan friars breathing the exhilarating air of reform. To confront such challenges, Sassetta raised the most spiritual school of early Italian art, the Sienese, to a higher level of understanding, grace, and splendor.

A visually stunning examination of El Greco's work that considers the artist's constant reinvention and professional drive Renowned for a singular artistic vision, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco (1541-1614), developed his distinctive painting style as he assiduously pursued professional success. This fresh and engaging survey of El Greco's work explores varied aspects of the artist's career-his aesthetic education in Italy, the mixed reception of his mature works in Spain, his uncompromising approach to business, and the baroque logistics of his Toledo workshop-and reveals the depth of El Greco's astounding ambition. The impressive volume focuses in particular on his 1577-79 altarpiece paintings for the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo-among them the magnificent Assumption of the Virgin-which heralded the artist's arrival in Spain after productive periods of formation and re-formation in Crete, Venice, and Rome. Lavishly illustrated and clothbound with gilded edges, this publication features reproductions and scholarly discussions of more than 60 works ranging from large-scale canvases to intimate panels, with essays that elucidate the motives and meanings behind the artist's constantly changing and inventive approach. Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition Schedule: Reunion des musees nationaux-Grand Palais, Paris (October 14, 2019-February 10, 2020) The Art Institute of Chicago (Spring-Fall 2020)

Portraits, an inherently personal subject, provide an engaging entry point to an exploration of the politics, patronage, and power in Renaissance Florence The Medici family ruled Florence without interruption between 1434 and 1494, but following their return to power in 1512, Cosimo I de' Medici demonstrated an unprecedented ability to wield culture as a political tool. His rule transformed Florence into a dynastic duchy and give Florentine art the central position it has held ever since. As Florence underwent these dramatic political transformations in the sixteenth century, portraits became an essential means of recording a likeness and conveying a sitter's character, social position, and cultural ambitions. This fascinating book explores the ways that painters (including Jacopo Pontormo, Agnolo Bronzino, and Francesco Salviati), sculptors (such as Benvenuto Cellini), and artists in other media endowed their works with an erudite and self-consciously stylish character that distinguished Florentine portraiture. Featuring more than ninety remarkable paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and medals, this volume is written by a team of leading international authors and presents a sweeping, penetrating exploration of a crucial and vibrant period in Italian art. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (June 26-October 11, 2021)