Fra Angelico in Boston, Scarpa’s glass, and Tintoretto at 500

I am looking forward to one exhibition above all in 2018: ‘Fra Angelico: Heaven on Earth’, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (22 February–28 May). It will focus on Angelico as a narrative painter. All four of the artist’s reliquaries, painted by him between 1424 and 1434 for the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella, will be reunited. This will be a delicate, erudite and glorious exhibition. No doubt it will be one of those focused, clever shows that the Stewart Gardner has excelled in over the years.

The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1400–55), Fra Angelico. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

In Italy, I have been a longstanding enthusiast of the exhibitions held at the Stanze del Vetro in Venice. Over the years they have curated some of the most beautiful and interesting exhibitions I have seen. In 2018 they will host a show on glass designed by the architect Carlo Scarpa, as a young man, for the firm Cappellin. I am sure this will be an eye-opening experience.

Meanwhile, on both sides of the Atlantic, the 500th anniversary of Jacopo Tintoretto’s birth will be marked by a series of exhibitions. These will start during the autumn of 2018 and will continue into 2019. The Doge’s Palace and the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice will be the main Italian venues commemorating Tintoretto (7 September–6 January 2019), while in the United States, the National Gallery in Washington (3 March–30 June 2019) and the Morgan Library & Museum in New York (12 October–6 January 2019), will present exhibitions on this marvellous Venetian painter.

Self-Portrait (c. 1588), Jacopo Tintoretto. Musée du Louvre – Département des Peintures

Xavier Salomon is Chief Curator at The Frick Collection, New York.

Keep up with Apollo’s 12 Days selection of art highlights here.