"Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova to Canova"
2001-11-18 until 2002-02-03
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Houston, TX, USA

The art of terracotta sculpture flourished in Italy, beginning in the 15th century and continuing through the 18th. Italian sculptors raised terracotta to a central status in the creative processes of European art. As Michelangelo so poetically stated, sculptors made something noble from the vile earth.

Earth and Fire has been organized by the MFAH and the Parnassus Foundation for exhibition exclusively in Houston and at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This unprecedented exhibition documents for the first time the significance of terracotta as an artistic medium. Drawn from public and private collections across Europe and America, the works offer a comprehensive view of terracotta sculptures, from the Renaissance to the age of Neoclassicism.

Featured are outstanding examples by some of the most important Italian sculptors, including Donatello, Andrea del Verrocchio, Filippo della Valle, Luca della Robbia, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Antonio Canova.

Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in association with the Parnassus Foundation. Generous funding has been provided by the Parnassus Foundation courtesy of Jane and Raphael Bernstein, with additional support from the Cullen Foundatio; Goldman, Sachs & Co.; Linda and Ronny Finger Foundation; Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Duncan, Jr.; JPMorgan Chase; and the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation.

IMAGE:
Filippo della Valle,
Allegorical Figure of Temperance, 1734,
terracotta, Trinity Fine Arts, London.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Texas

Other Important Exhibitions in Houston