Carlo Crivelli (1430 or 1435 to about 1494) is one of the most important, but historically neglected, painters of the fifteenth century. He manipulated the surface of each painting with rare mastery of the medium, crafting visionary encounters with the divine, forging the modern icon, and offering a powerful alternative to new models of art associated with Florence. Crivelli produced the majority of his paintings in the Marches, a region of northeast Italy. This exhibition expands our understanding of the “Renaissance” beyond Florence and Venice and explores the work of this technically gifted – and tremendously ambitious – artist.

Carlo Crivelli was esteemed in his own time as a painter of status. Born in Venice, he trained locally and joined a workshop in the mainland city of Padua, learning from the same master who taught the celebrated Andrea Mantegna (1430 or 1431 to 1506). In 1457, Crivelli was exiled from his native city for adultery and embarked on a peripatetic career. Early successes on both sides of the Adriatic led to some of the most important commissions for deluxe devotional paintings in the Marches. Crivelli signed the immense high altarpieces for the cathedrals of Ascoli Piceno, in 1473, and Camerino, around 1490. Recognized for his accomplishments with the aristocratic title of “knight,” he died around 1494.