Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe

The exhibition offers new scholarship on the private lives and desires of Renaissance individuals, providing the opportunity to reexamine the universal human themes of lust, love, and loss. It focuses on early modern women as makers, viewers, and owners of these artworks. Based on the premise that women were disenfranchised but not disengaged, the exhibition aims to recover early modern women’s voices, moving beyond studies of famous individuals to explore how artworks shaped women’s everyday experiences of the world. Investigating the use and reception of art through letters, books, and artworks, Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe provides audiences with fresh insights into Renaissance women’s social bonds, intellectual engagement, and private rituals. 

Many of the works featured in Lust, Love, and Loss attest to the centuries-long popularity of certain narratives and themes throughout the European continent, while others represent more localized cultural traditions. The fifteenth-century saw an explosion of objects and images tied to familial rites of passage, including marriage and childbirth. Domestic artworks, such as painted panels and ceramics, commemorated these momentous life events, yet their narratives were often not overtly festive. The featured works of art illuminate the myriad roles Renaissance objects played in the cultural rituals and consuming desires by which relationships were formed, celebrated, and extinguished.

Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe is curated by Dr. Nora S. Lambert and is organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC. Its tour has been generously supported by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.