Visions of Paradise: Botticini's Palmieri Altarpiece

Lovely exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on the altarpiece by Botticini which was commissioned by Matteo Palmieri for San Pier Maggoire in Florence.

The show looked at the church, the picture, the artist and the commissioner. There was a lovely video looking at how the research team went to Florence to discover what was left of the church which no longer exists and found bits of it still extant in people’s kitchens! It looked closely at Palmieri both at his work as an apothecary and his writings on civic humanism.

It discussed the iconography of the picture and hung it with the wonderful multi-panelled gold altarpiece by Jacopo di Cione from the Sainsbury Wing which had hung in the same church. Finally it looked at the artist whose father had been a painter of playing cards and compares his to his Florentine contemporaries Verrocchio and Botticelli.

The show gives a super overview of life in Florence in a very particular period.

Closes on 16 February.

Review 
Telegraph

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