Luisa Rabbia: Travels with Isabella, Travel Scrapbooks 1883/2008
June 26 – September 28, 2008

During her residency at the Gardner Museum, Luisa Rabbia was inspired by photographs Isabella Stewart Gardner collected while traveling in China in 1883. For this exhibition, Rabbia has used these archival photographs to create a video of an imaginary landscape animated with her own drawings as well as other images and music. The result is a fantastical narrative that is both contemporary and historical.

Luisa Rabbia’s work is deeply rooted in drawing, which she sees as a platform that unites rational construct with the imagination. The dynamic tension that exists in drawing between the figure and its background, the being and becoming of space and time, has influenced much of Rabbia’s work with paper, papier-maché, porcelain and animation.

Luisa Rabbia was an Artist-in-Residence at the Gardner in 2007. She currently lives and works in New York and Turin, Italy.

Travels with Isabella Programs

Introduction to the Exhibition
Saturday, June 28, 1:30 PM
A conversation with Luisa Rabbia and Pieranna Cavalchini, curator of contemporary art

Summer Night
Thursday, July 31, 7:00 PM /7:30 PM
Gallery talk with writer and critic Mario Diacono
DJ Concert by musician and producer Fa Ventilato Buy Tickets


Animation and Sound: A Two-Part Process
Thursday, September 18, 7:00 PM
Luisa Rabbia and Fa Ventilato in conversation

Memory and Invention and Personal Travel Scrapbooks
Thursday, September 25, 6:30 PM
A conversation with Alan Chong, curator of the collection, and Pieranna Cavalchini followed by the book launch and signing of Travels with Isabella by Luisa Rabbia

The 2007-2008 Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Nimoy Foundation, and generous individuals. The Gardner Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The Boston Phoenix is media sponsor.

The Triumph of Marriage:
Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance
October 16, 2008 – January 18, 2009

In Renaissance Italy, cassoni –Italian for “large chests” – were an essential part of the rituals of elite marriages. Made in pairs and often painted with historical and allegorical scenes, these chests were paraded through the streets, like trophies, when the bride moved into the house of her new husband.  The narrative paintings with which they were decorated linked marriage to history and the roles appropriate to husband and wife. Cassoni offered artists an opportunity to develop new subjects in new formats, fusing space and time in consecutive scenes; dramatizing conflicts between love and duty; and almost always concluding with a vision of triumphant harmony.

The exhibition and its programs are supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The Triumph of Marriage will travel to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, where it will be on view beginning February 2009. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Exhibition Preview: The Triumph
of Marriage
Wednesday, October 15 @ 6:30 pm
For members and patrons.

Vieni Imeneo: Music and Marriage
in Renaissance Italy
Sunday, October 19 @ 1:30 pm

Tickets: $23 General Public; $18 Seniors;
$15 Members; $10 Students;
$5 Children, ages 5-17
A musical tour of nuptial mores in Florence, Rome, Venice, and other centers of Italian splendor, circa 1450-1600.  Music of Dufay, Josquin, Marenzio, Andrea Gabrieli, Monteverdi, and others for varied consorts of voices and Renaissance instruments. Featured artists: The Boston Camerata, Anne Azéma, artistic director. Program conceived and directed by Joel Cohen.

Imagining Love in Dante’s Divine Comedy
Thursday, October 23 @ 6:30 pm
Tickets: $7 General Public; $5 Members,
Seniors; FREE Students
Dante scholar Rachel Jacoff reveals the varieties of love portrayed in the Divine Comedy – from lust to divine love – themes also present in Renaissance marriage art. The poetic landscape of Dante stood in counterpoint to the practical and political functions of Renaissance marriage.  During the Renaissance, how and where did love (in all its forms) fi nd expression?

Joan Jonas: Reading Dante
Thursday, November 20 @ 7 pm
Tickets: A Gardner After Hours PLUS
program; see page 23
Legendary performance artist Joan Jonas invites friends to read selected text from Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Experiencing Contemporary Art
Thursday, December 4 @ 6:30 pm
Tickets: $7 General Public; $5 Members, Seniors; FREE Students