Palace of Wonders: The New Galleries of Renaissance and Baroque Art

The Walters celebrates the 100th anniversary of its original Palazzo Building with the reinstallation of over 1,500 objects largely from the museum’s Renaissance and Baroque collection—one of the largest troves of Italian paintings in North America. This original Walters’ art gallery was modeled after Renaissance and Baroque palace designs with the Sculpture Court a replica of Genoa’s 17th-century Palazzo Balbi. Paintings from the 14th through the 18th century, some of which have never been on view before, are displayed with sculpture and decorative arts of the period. In this reinstallation, beloved Walters’ masterpieces by Raphael, El Greco, Bernini, Veronese, Pontormo, Lievens and Cranach are joined by recent acquisitions and works that have undergone dramatic conservation treatments. The installations take advantage of the character of the collections and the Palazzo Building to present art as it was displayed in domestic settings of the 16th to 18th centuries, providing the Walters visitor an unexpected and exceptional art experience. A particular highlight is the re-creation of a new Collection of Art and Wonders as it might have been assembled by a 17th-century nobleman in the Southern Netherlands: his entry hall of arms and armor, a private study and a Chamber of Wonders encompassing curiosities of nature and human creativity. These galleries are complemented by rooms evoking an elegant Dutch residence around 1700.

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Chamber of Wonders, The Walters Art Museum
Photography by Patrick O’Brien