In this time of pandemic overload, The Frick Pittsburgh offers two ways to take a break.
One is a self-guided stroll through the 6-acre landscaped estate in Point Breeze. The other is a group of artworks that provided comfort during a 14th-century plague. Both are public and free, although timed admission tickets are required. They are assigned in half-hour slots, the last at 3 p.m.
The artworks are in the Italian Gallery of The Frick Art Museum, which celebrates its golden anniversary this month.
The museum was founded by Helen Clay Frick (1888-1984) to house her collection and to some extent that of her father, Pittsburgh industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919). Other estate properties include the 19th-century Frick family home, Clayton.
Ms. Frick had a particular fondness for early Italian Renaissance painting, and among those she purchased are a group of rare 14th- and 15th-century devotional works.
These were scaled for home display and purchased by wealthy and upper-middle-class patrons to facilitate private devotions. Epidemics like the bubonic plague (the Black Death), which spread throughout Europe in the 14th century, fueled the desire for these objects.
“Nativity” by Giovanni di Paolo is unique among the paintings exhibited because of its narrative style.
“The complex composition, with its many figures and startling division between foreground and background, contrasts sharply with the static votive paintings of the other Sienese artists in the collection,” wrote Sarah Hall when she was the museum chief curator and director of collections. (In July she left to become director at the Museum of Fine Arts-Washington County in Hagerstown, Md.)
The painting tells the familiar Christmas story, and the focus is on the newly born Christ, flanked by his parents, Mary and Joseph. A tiny white dove-like figure, representative of the Holy Spirit, hovers protectively over the child, and above all is the gilded vision of God the Father surrounded by a bevy of angels.
The precisely rendered fruit trees and peacock reflect Giovanni’s training as a miniaturist. A winding road at the top leads to shepherds and the three wise men, two traditional Nativity scene components.
Less expected are the two women near Mary, one of whom is turned away from the scene, as is Joseph. Scholars submit that Giovanni’s intent was a “circular narrative,” proclaiming Christ’s birth and foretelling his death, Ms. Hall wrote. The cave represents both place of birth and tomb; the wise men are symbols of the Roman soldiers who would come for Christ. (To examine the fine details of “Nativity” in high resolution, download the Second Canvas app and search The Frick Pittsburgh.)
Bernardo Daddi’s three-paneled “Madonna and Child” from the late 1330s includes images of the angel Gabriel announcing Mary’s pregnancy and of the crucifixion of Christ. Also represented are saints Peter, holding keys; Paul, with sword; and Francis, with the stigmata, bodily wounds that resembled those Christ suffered.
The artist is thought to have himself died from one of the outbreaks of the plague that swept through Florence in 1348, Ms. Hall wrote.
One of the more beautiful of these paintings is the early 1440s “Virgin of Humility (Madonna and Child with Two Angels)” by Sassetta, a Sienese contemporary of Giovanni. About one-half of the population of Siena died during the plague of 1348, and in the following century the two artists reinvigorated the city’s painting tradition, Ms. Hall wrote.
Sassetta was known for his use of precious materials, such as gold and costly pigments, and for his elegant figures. Ms. Hall points out the “gentle, tender embrace” of Christ and Mary with one of the infant’s fingers tucked into his mother’s cloak.
“Their faces are rendered with exquisite sweetness, and although she is depicted on a simple cushion (which is why she is called a Virgin of Humility), the angels above crown her Queen of Heaven.”
During a 1923-24 trip to Italy, Ms. Frick wrote that Sassetta’s work was “human and refreshing, perfect in its delicacy yet full of character with a beautiful line and an avoidance of the obvious,” Ms. Hall noted in a collection guide.
A fitting bookend to these earliest works in the permanent collection is the temporary exhibition “War and Pieces” by contemporary Dutch artist Bouke de Vries. The 26-foot-long installation, which blends historic inspiration and current commentary, has been touring internationally and makes its fourth U.S. stop here.
If You Go
The Frick Art Museum, 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze, is open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Timed tickets are required and assigned in half-hour slots, the last at 3 p.m. They are free and available at www.TheFrickPittsburgh.org or 412-371-0600, as is other information about the site and pandemic precautions.
The Car and Carriage Museum, Grable Visitor Center and Frick Museum Store are also open during those times. Clayton, the Frick family home, and the greenhouse are closed.
The Cafe at the Frick is selling boxed items for carry-out only from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Visitors are invited to picnic on the grounds, which are open from 10 a.m. to dusk Tuesday through Sunday, with food they purchase or bring from home. Pets and activities such as jogging and cycling are not permitted.
The Frick Mobile Landscape App, which is free at iTunes or Android stores, offers a comprehensive way to prepare for a visit. It includes an interactive map of the grounds with commentary on the buildings, trees and plantings, and walking paths; turn of the 20th-century archival photographs and audio.
Historic images may be accessed via smartphone at various locations at the estate to compare what they look like now with when the Frick family was in residence.
First Published: October 22, 2020, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: October 23, 2020, 10:46 a.m.
