From June 21 to September 18, 2022, the exhibition “Botticelli tells a story. Paintings by the great masters of the Renaissance from the Accademia Carrara collection” can be viewed at the Masterpieces Gallery of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

The exhibition includes works by artists representing the most important artistic centers of northern Italy: Venice, Florence, Ferrara, Bergamo and Verona in the period from the mid-15th century to the final decades of the 16th century. Visitors will see paintings by such masters as Giovanni Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio, Cosmè Tura, Lorenzo Lotto, Giovanni Battista Moroni and Paolo Veronese.

The real star of this exhibition will be Sandro Botticelli and his History of Virginia – a painting originally serving as a spalliera in the representative interior of one of the Florentine houses of the Vespucci family.

The exhibition also includes two new acquisitions of the Royal Castle in Warsaw: “Nursing Madonna” by Defendente Ferrari (c. 1530) and “The miracle of bringing water out of the rock” by Jacopo dal Ponte from Bassano (c. 1569). Both paintings were purchased thanks to a grant from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

“Exhibitions prepared by the Royal Castle in Warsaw give us an unusual opportunity to experience works of art of the highest quality. Last year, we could admire as many as two paintings by Caravaggio, and today the Castle is treating us with a wonderful artistic feast, the main course of which is a work painted by Sandra Botticelli, depicting the dramatic “History of Virginia”, said Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage Dr Jarosław Sellin at the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition was organized thanks to the cooperation with the Embassy of the Italian Republic as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of a trade convention between Italy and reborn Poland.

Adrian Andrzejewski