Clark painting confirmed as masterpiece

By Linda Carman12:00AM / Thursday, November 18, 2004Print Story | Email Story

Piero della Francesca's 'Madonna and Child with Four Angels' (Photo Courtsey of the Clark Art)

WILLIAMSTOWN â€” The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute has loaned a prized Italian Renaissance painting, one of the jewels of the collection, to a major exhibition in Italy â€” where its juxtaposition with a known masterpiece by Piero della Francesca has stilled any remaining doubts about its authenticity. â€œThis is the first time ever that itâ€™s been out on loan, and certainly the first time out of the United States,â€ said museum Director Michael Conforti, who was in Italy to view the exhibition. â€œThe painting is Piero della Francescaâ€™s most important work in the United States.â€ The painting, â€œMadonna and Child with Four Angels,â€ is displayed in the Brera Gallery of Milan next to Pieroâ€™s great, and considerably larger, Brera altarpiece â€” in which the artist paints the same figures but adds others, including the kneeling donor, the Duke of Urbino. â€œEveryone is very excited,â€ senior curator Richard Rand said. â€œThis is the first time our picture has been to Italy since it left in the early 19th century. This is an opportunity for Italian scholars to see our painting in the flesh â€” and especially to see it next to the great painting in Milan that is similar in many ways. That has clinched the whole question of whether our picture is by Piero. Everyone now acknowledges that it is, and in point of fact, most current art historian specialists accept our painting as an autographed original. This is wonderful confirmation of what weâ€™ve long believed and what younger generations of scholars believed as well.â€ Some doubts had been raised in the mid-20th century, mostly because, Rand said, â€œMost scholars who specialized in Piero had never come to Williamstown and knew the painting only from books. All anyone knew about it was from old black and white photographs, and some people were uncomfortable assigning it to Pieroâ€™s hand on that basis.â€ Sterling Clark purchased the painting in 1914 in London but did not exhibit it until 1955, when the museum opened. Williams College art history professor Samuel Y. Edgerton Jr. said the Clark had been asked to lend the painting previously but a former director had declined. â€œIt would have had a chance to be seen,â€ Edgerton said. â€œBut instead, it remained in obscurity.â€ Conforti said Italian professionals were delighted that the Clark had agreed to lend its treasured painting and wanted to see his reaction to the sight of the paintings hung together. â€œOur Piero was up against the closest comparable work by the artist, so people can see for themselves how similar they are,â€ he said. â€œNow the question of authenticity has been settled, itâ€™s just a question of exactly when he painted it.â€ The artist painted in the 1460s to 1480s in Urbino, in the province of Umbria, between Florence and Rome. â€œHe is, for some, the most ethereal of all Renaissance painters. He took classical models and moved them forward with an almost angelic air,â€ Conforti said. â€œThere are very few of his works outside Italy, only two or three in the National Gallery in London, and, aside from the Clarkâ€™s painting, only a couple of fragments in the United States.â€ Pleased that any lingering doubts had been stilled, he added, â€œCertain scholars have wondered if a Piero can be in Williamstown.â€ Rand said, â€œItâ€™s our greatest Old Master painting.â€ The painting will travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the exhibition â€œFrom Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making of a Renaissance Master,â€ on display from Feb. 1 to May 1. The Brera alterpiece, deemed too fragile to travel, will not be sent to New York. The exhibition is a collaboration of the Brera Gallery and the Metropolitan â€” whose curator of European paintings, Keith Christiansen, spearheaded the show and the Clarkâ€™s loan. The Clark will, in turn, receive loans from the Metropolitan for a subsequent exhibition. Edgerton said he and Christiansen were â€œardent in our belief that the painting was by Pieroâ€ and could have been done by no one else. Placed next to the Brera altarpiece, the viewer can see striking similarities. In the Clark painting, Edgerton explained, the Virgin Mary wears a blue cloak over a red garment with a fleur-de-lis design in gold lamÃ©. That same fabric is draped over a figure in the Brera altarpiece. In addition, in the Clark painting, the Virgin Mary wears a four-cornered brooch, also worn by one of the figures in the Brera altarpiece. Edgerton said the most interesting aspect of the paintings is Pieroâ€™s characteristic play on perspective. â€œItâ€™s an intellectual trick, full of gamesmanship,â€ he said. Edgerton and Christiansen explored Pieroâ€™s perspective using a copy done by Sandra Webber of the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, tracing lines out on a huge table. Edgerton also noted that the rightmost angel in the Clarkâ€™s painting had likely been painted in the 16th century, while the others are original. He explained that the painting had been badly damaged and was partly repainted. When restored, it was removed from its original wooden panel and put on canvas. The restorer then deliberately left the painting partially unrestored rather than attempt to reconstruct Pieroâ€™s creation of the Virginâ€™s face. That was a choice some people see as â€œevidence of poor painting rather than as restoration never done,â€ Edgerton said. â€œWe hope Michael Conforti will build a whole symposium around the painting.â€

Stockbridge Grange Community Dinner

03:12PM / Tuesday, February 03, 2026

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — The Stockbridge Grange is holding a community dinner on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, featuring spaghetti and meatballs, salad, and bread with dessert choices of chocolate cream or lemon meringue pie.

Dinner is $17.00 per person, take out only with 12-1:30 pm pick up at the Stockbridge Grange Hall at 51 Church Street, Stockbridge. Orders may be made by calling 413-243-1298 or 413-443-4352.

Inclement weather postpones the meal for a week.