On View at the Frick, a Little Slice of Heaven

Get up close to ‘St. Francis in the Desert,’ relish its meticulous details, and consider the notion that every last thing on God’s green earth is worthy of attention.

Henry Clay Frick bequest
Giovanni Bellini, 'St. Francis in the Desert,' 1480. Henry Clay Frick bequest

The worst thing you could say about “Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini,” an exhibition that just opened at the Frick Madison, is that the glare is annoying. Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, which has loaned Giorgione’s “Three Philosophers” (circa 1505-09) to the Frick, has seen fit to place the canvas behind glass. When this was done, I don’t know; the practice has long been commonplace. With the increased vociferousness with which the eco-righteous nitwits at Just Stop Oil are having at it with our common cultural patrimony — well, you can’t be too careful. Still, that glare? Annoying.

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