ROME.- The exhibition devoted to the work of Hans Memling held in Bruges in 1994 to mark the 500th anniversary of his death in 1494 had the merit of drawing the attention both of scholars and of the broader public to this outstanding figure in the history of Flemish art and to his influence on Italian and European art in general. In the twenty years that have elapsed since then, countless publications have explored the various different aspects of his multi-faceted art and its success, the exhibition held in Bruges, Madrid and New York in 2005 pointing up the master's role as one of the truly great and most highly skilled portrait artists of the Renaissance.

This is the first exhibition ever to be devoted to Memling in Italy, despite the fact that several of his masterpieces are to be found in this country and that his genius had a major impact on artists of the calibre of Leonardo, Raphael, Lorenzo Lotto, Ghirlandaio and countless others, if it is true – as most experts now acknowledge – that even the landscape in the background of the Mona Lisa owes a debt to Memling, as Paula Nuttall argues in "Memling and Italian Painting", her entry in the exhibition catalogue.

Thanks to the exceptional loan of paintings often virtually impossible to move on account of their delicate fragility and of their importance, yet generously lent all the same in recognition of the value of the scholarly project underpinning this exhibition and of the authoritative reputation of a venue such as Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale, the exhibition which opened on 11 October and due to run until 18 January 2015 already looks set to be a huge success and to offer art historians as well as the broader public a unique opportunity unlikely ever to be repeated.

“Memling. A Flemish Renaissance” – under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic, promoted by Rome the Capital's Office for Culture, Creativity and Artistic Promotion and organised by the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo in conjunction with the Arthemisia Group – showcases the masterpieces of Memling and much more besides from such public and private collections as the Groeninge Museum in Bruges, the Royal Collection in London and the Musée du Louvre in Paris, not to mention the Frick Collection in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon and the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp.

All of this, thanks to the impeccable exhibition project devised by Till-Holger Borchert, curator of the Memling Museum in Bruges and one of the international art scene's leading experts in Flemish 15th century art, who sets out to prove that “Italian painting in Florence and elsewhere was considerably influenced by imported Flemish paintings, establishing that the work of Hans Memling played a particularly important role in this process”.

Memling became the favourite painter of the Italian community in Bruges, outshining all others and benefiting immensely from the reputation of the earlier generation of Flemish painters, especially Jan Van Eyck, Rogier Van der Weyden and Petrus Christus. From the very start of his independent career as a panel painter, Memling managed to forge a synthesis of the remarkable achievements of all three of those earlier masters, who were already held in the highest esteem by the Italian aristocracy and urban elites. Throughout the 15th century Italy and Flanders forged solid economic and financial ties, linking the two countries in a kind of ideal highway ferrying men and merchandise from one end of Europe to the other, with Bruges and Ghent in the north and Florence and Genoa in the south. These highways were travelled by Medici Bank functionaries (members of the Tani, Portinari and Baroncelli families) and marked by the transit of valuable goods such as fabrics, tapestries, jewels, illuminated books, paintings and sculptures. The wealthy bourgeoisie commissioned portraits and works of devotion in exactly the same way as the aristocracy alone had done up until then. The works eventually reached Italy and played a major role in bringing change to Italian art.

THE EXHIBITION SECTIONS
The exhibition is broken down into seven sections. The first section showcases Memling's early work alongside that of his presumed master Rogier van der Weyden. A comparison between the two artists' work helps the visitor to understand why Memling was to become so popular with Italian patrons and why his work was equally popular with patrons and with artists. The exhibits on display in this section include Van der Weyden's Deposition and the Jan Crabbe Triptych, the latter exceptionally reassembled for the first time inasmuch as the central panel is on loan from Vicenza while the internal wing panels are from the Morgan Library in New York and the external wing panels are on loan from the Groeninge Museum in Bruges.

The second section explores the theme of the major commissions produced for Italian patrons in Flanders. Testifying to the mutual interest aroused by Flanders in Italy and vice-versa, the section showcases a large wooden panel by an unknown Neapolitan master who clearly echoes, in his St. Michael, the figures in the Triptych of the Last Judgement from Gdansk, in particular the figure painted on the rear panel.

Memling was also an outstanding portrait artist, his works providing a model for Renaissance portraiture both in Italy and in Flanders.

The third section is thus devoted to his portraits, setting his work alongside that his contemporaries in Flanders for purposes of comparison. The exhibits in this section include a Portrait of a Man from the Frick Collection, another Portrait of a Man from the Royal Collection and a third from the Accademia Gallery in Venice. The section winds up with the monumental Moreel Family Triptych from the Groenige Museum in Bruges, where the figures of the donors painted on the side panels evince the master's astonishing talent for portraiture.

The fourth section focuses on Memling's narrative painting. In this field he was a true forerunner, producing a large number of fascinating works that served to boost his reputation yet further. The Passion of Christ commissioned by Tommaso Portinari, which found its way into the Medici collection, is now in the Galleria Sabauda in Turin and is on display in this room, was a work that prompted many Italian painters to start handling narrative painting in a totally new way.

The fifth section, devoted to work produced for small altars for private patrons, showcases a large number of works never previously shown in public. The section is broken down into three parts, the first displaying work by Memling, the second focusing on the painters in Bruges who worked for Italian customers – which is why some of the most important works in Italian collections, subjected to scientific investigation for the very first time, are on display in this section – and the third showcasing some of Memling's works which contain the first hints of the Renaissance style of adornment that was adopted in northern Europe. The works of art on display in this section include the Madonna and Child with Angels from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, certain panels recently rediscovered in Spain, and an extraordinarily monumental triptych from San Lorenzo della Costa, painted for the Genoese merchant of the same name and partially attributed to Memling, bearing witness to the trade and the cultural exchange that existed between Genoa and northern Europe.

Special attention has been devoted to the story of devotional painting in northern Europe. Many Italian masters meticulously copied Memling's prototypes in an effort not only to emulate his art but also to meet the demands of their Italian patrons, who had been struck by the quality of devotional painting from northern Europe. This section showcases a part of the Memling Diptych, the figure of Christ Blessing from Genoa and the exact copy that Ghirlandaio made of it, pointing to the picture's presence in Florence in the course of the 15th century.

The final section explores the important commissions awarded by families of the highest rank to Memling and his contemporaries, including the exceptional loan of the Triptych of Adriaen Reins from Bruges, the Triptych of the Resurrection from the Louvre, and last but not least, the Pagagnotti Triptych reassembled, with the central panel of the Madonna and Child with Two Angels from the Uffizi and the side panels of St. John the Baptist and St. Lawrence from the National Gallery in London specially brought back together for the occasion.