ALLENTOWN, PA.- A traveling exhibition of master paintings by some of the greatest names in European art ends its East Coast summer residency at the Allentown Art Museum on Sunday, September 7. Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums features works by Italian Renaissance and Baroque masters such as Giovanni Bellini, Sandro Botticelli, Francesco Guardi, Salvator Rosa, and Titian, many of which have never before been exhibited in the United States. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these forty major works; after Allentown, the exhibition will travel west to the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Society of the Arts (SOTA), the exhibition is free to all visitors, Wednesday-Saturday 11-4 and Sunday noon-4. “The elimination of our admission fees this summer, and dual-language labels in English and Spanish, are intended to deliver a message that in this, our eightieth anniversary year, the Allentown Art Museum is accessible to all and that we encourage everyone to experience what this extraordinary institution has to offer,” says David Mickenberg, Priscilla Payne Hurd President and CEO of the Art Museum.

Organized into five chronological sections, Of Heaven and Earth includes paintings originating from the principal artistic centers of Italy: Rome, Milan, Bologna, Florence, Siena, Naples, and Venice. Many of these works were conserved specifically in anticipation of this tour. The exhibition highlights significant new research and discoveries relating to attribution, dates, provenance, infrared analysis, and the reconstruction of fragmented altarpieces.

The accompanying catalogue features essays on Glasgow’s collections and the museum’s Italian paintings by Guest Curator Peter Humfrey, an internationally renowned specialist in Italian art history who teaches at the University of St. Andrews.

Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian painting from Glasgow Museums is organized by the American Federation of Arts and Glasgow Museums. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities. The exhibition tour is generously supported by the JFM Foundation and Mrs. Donald M. Cox. In-kind support is provided by Barbara and Richard S. Lane and Christie's.

The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is located at 31 North Fifth Street, Allentown, Pennsylvania. For directions or more information call 610-432-4333 ext 110 or visit the Museum’s website at AllentownArtMuseum.org.

Also on display through September 7 in Allentown is a rare first edition of eighty prints by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828). Los Caprichos—meaning “follies” or “caprices”―lampoons both high-class and low, providing an edgy analysis of the human condition while denouncing superstition and social abuses. The exhibition also features contemporary works inspired by Los Caprichos by artists Emily Lombardo and Enrique Chagoya, and by Edward Hagedorn from 1925.