CBS 2 At The Met

CBS 2 At The Met: Saint Bernardino Of Siena

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Every year, Curator Keith Christiansen does a little re-decorating with the wall space in the gallery of Italian Renaissance Paintings to make room for a visitor, Bellini's "Saint Bernardino of Siena," It's usually on a wall in a New Yorker's home, but Christiansen tells CBS2's Dana Tyler that the owner is happy to share it with the Met.

"I look forward to this picture every year because it is a picture that was unknown until 30 years ago. I can remember the day that it was brought into the museum. I picked it up and said, look at this by Bellini! Jacopo Bellini is a very rare artist, but more importantly, this is a picture of a very rare subject. This is the most famous preacher of the 15th century. You're looking at the Billy Graham of the 15th century, of Mother Theresa, all rolled into one.

Christiansen continued, "And it's funny to think of him actually being so eloquent of a preacher without any teeth, because we all know the way that people sound when they don't have teeth. but, this gives us a sort of-as close to a real likeness of a person of that importance that we can expect to get and I love it!"

Christiansen says the loan makes the gallery a family affair.

"Jacopo's son, who was a even a greater painter than Jacopo, is Giovanni Bellini. And he uses the same quality of physical presence in this marvelous picture of the "Madonna and Child." Look at the way she looks out at us, engages us directly, there's a little ledge in front which he's put his name, separating us from her. A fantastic image."

Christiansen and Tyler continued their tour.

"So we're moving from one gallery to the next, we moved from 15th century Venice. We're in 16th century Venice now. The next generation. And we're going to go into 16 century North Italy to the area of Lombardi, that's around Milan. We try to arrange things so people get a geographical orientation," says Christiansen.

Visitors will want to check out a "back to nature" portrait on loan called .. "Allegorical Head of the Four Seasons," by Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

Tyler asks Christiansen when he had heard about it. "Last spring, I was contacted by somebody representing the owner who told me they had rediscovered picture by Arcimboldo, and would I like to show it for a year, because the owner wasn't ready to hang it yet!"

Christiansen thinks it's one of Arcimboldo's best and most personal works.

He said, "Arcimboldo's famous for creating heads out of composite things. This head is all the seasons, all four seasons. Winter is the head itself. Spring, the flowers. Summer, the wheat, the cherries, two plums, and Fall is the apples and the grapes. It's actually been suggested this was done right at the end of Arcimboldo's life. That it's kind of a self-portrait quality to it. it's Arcimboldo in the winter of his life."

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