The Idea of Beauty presents Baroque treasures in a lavish catalog

More than forty paintings and drawings from the 17th and 18th centuries chronologically illustrate the development of the theme: from naturalism, which depicted unembellished reality often emphasized by dramatic light and shadow (Cecco del Caravaggio, Caroselli), through the High Baroque, characterized by decorativeness and dynamic forms (Cortona, Mola), and its rival Classicism with its calm, balanced compositions and idealized figures (Maratti, Calandrucci), to Rococo with its characteristic lightness and playfulness (Trevisani, Pesci). Thematically, the selection of exhibits focuses on religious, mythological, and historical subjects; landscape painting and genre painting are not represented.

The title of the exhibition, Idea of Beauty, is based on a lecture given by the famous Italian art theorist and antiquarian Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613–1696), entitled “The Idea of the Painter, Sculptor, and Architect,” which he delivered in 1664 at the Academy of St. Luke in Rome. The term Idea del Bello itself has its origins in aesthetics and philosophy and builds on a tradition dating back to ancient Greece.

A lavishly illustrated catalog in Czech and English has also been published to accompany the exhibition. It can be purchased at the ticket office of the Olomouc Museum of Art or in our e-shop.