Backstage With Botticelli

You probably already know that the Michener Museum is hosting an international exhibition of Renaissance art from Italy's Uffizi Gallery.

You may not know, however, that the gallery walls upon which those paintings hang have been painted four shades of red in preparation for the exhibit.

You also may not know that those paintings were driven up to Pennsylvania from Florida, where they were last exhibited, in a caravan of trucks accompanied by extra security guards to prevent any possibility of art theft.

You also may not know that Sandro Botticelli's painting "Madonna with Child" is so revered that the representative of the Uffizi laughed when asked to put a price on it.

"No, no," said Linda Carioni, an exhibition project manager who traveled from Italy to oversee the installment of the exhibition in Doylestown. "No, we don't talk about that."

Those details are just a few glimpses behind the curtain of what may be the Michener Museum's most ambitious exhibition ever.

Offering of the Angels: Treasures from the Uffizi opened April 21 and runs through August 10.

It is expected to draw so many visitors that the Michener is offering timed tickets to enter the exhibit.

The Michener's most popular exhibit to date was one based on Jim Henson. That exhibition attracted nearly 60,000 visitors, Michener spokeswoman Ilene Dube said Tuesday.

The Uffizi exhibition is in a different class altogether.

When it appeared in Barcelona, it attracted 700,000 visitors, Carioni said.

Michener officials anticipate about 250,000 people will visit the Doylestown museum to gaze upon the Italian works of art.

And works of art they are.

Like the Uffizi itself, many of the pieces are the legacy of the Medici family, Carioni said. They were collected by or commissioned for the family dynasty in Florence, Italy, throughout the Italian Renaissance.

Put together by Uffizi curator Antonio Natali, the exhibit takes the viewer on a tour de force of Biblical images.

It opens with depictions from the Old Testament, including Jacopo Da Empoli's "Creation of Adam," which dates to 1632, and Giovanni Da San Giovanni's "The Expulsion From the Garden of Eden," 1634.

Several paintings portray Mary and baby Jesus, including the stunning Botticelli rendering of the "Madonna With Child" encased in an elaborate tabernacle frame.

The exhibit unfolds to reveal portrayals of New Testament events including the 1550 depiction of "The Last Supper" by Bonifacio De’ Pitati, the "Crucifixion" of Christ dated 1600, and Cristofano Allori's "Resurrection," dated 1605.

This may be the last time many of the pieces are allowed to travel away from the Uffizi, Carioni said. Many of them had been in storage at the famous museum, but renovation projects underway now will create new galleries and spaces to display them when they return home.

"They'll go back to Italy and a permanent display in the Uffizi," Carioni said.

Before then, though, they will have two different stops. When the exhibit leaves the , it will head to the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisc., and then Telfair Museums in Savannah, Ga., before heading back to Italy.

Admission is $15 for adults; $13 senior citizens; $11 college students; and $7.50 ages 6-18. To buy tickets or for more information, visit the museum's website.

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