On Tuesday afternoon, teachers and faculty at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Tamiami looked on as workers uncrated centuries-old paintings and other artifacts that had been shipped from Italy. The artworks will be displayed as part of an exhibition in the school's gallery titled "Faith, Beauty, and Devotion: Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Paintings."
"We're really lucky," says Sylvie Daubar-San Juan, humanities department chair and director of the Olga M. & Carlos A. Saladrigas Art Gallery at Belen Jesuit. "It's something that's especially unique for South Florida."
The 30 artworks in the show, running from Thursday, September 14, through Saturday, December 16, range from the medieval period in Europe through the Renaissance and into the Baroque era. The oldest work, a painted cross by an unidentified master artist from the Italian region of Umbria, dates from around 1295. Some famous names in the exhibition include the Venetian Renaissance painter Tintoretto, Flemish Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens, and the circle of Caravaggio.
![](https://media2.miaminewtimes.com/mia/imager/u/blog/17813584/2023_september_5_faith__beauty_and_devortion_uncrating_masterpieces_from_the_italian_renaissance_26.jpg?cb=1694520153)
Experience the newly arrived masterpieces from the Italian Renaissance, part of an upcoming exhibition, "Faith, Beauty, and Devotion," at the Saladrigas Gallery.
Photo by Lisa Morales
The artworks are on loan from Federico Gandolfini Vannini, a fourth-generation art dealer from Florence, Italy, whose business Frascione Arte specializes in old masters. Vannini's two sons attend Belen Jesuit, and his wife, Daisy Diaz, is a South Florida native. Daubar-San Juan says he approached the school about possibly exhibiting old master paintings. They met the school's president, Father Guillermo "Willy" García-Tuñón, who agreed to the show.
Vannini and Daubar-San Juan agree that a show focused on classical European art is a rarity in South Florida. Although institutions like the Bass Museum of Art and the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum have a few works from the era, contemporary art is generally king in South Florida.
![](https://media1.miaminewtimes.com/mia/imager/u/blog/17813582/2023_september_5_faith__beauty_and_devortion_uncrating_masterpieces_from_the_italian_renaissance_30.jpg?cb=1694520153)
An Italian Renaissance masterpiece from the 13th or 14th Century is carefully uncrated by a professional art handler.
Photo by Lisa Morales
Only a few pieces were hung by art handlers during the uncrating event. Many were still in various states of unpackaging or resting on the floor on top of blankets, cardboard pallets, and other protective devices. Vannini, at one point, held up an Italian "desco da parto," or birth tray, still in its wrapping. One school staffer exclaimed, "It's like Christmas, open it!"
– Douglas Markowitz, ArtburstMiami.com
"Faith, Beauty, and Devotion: Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Paintings." On view Thursday, September 14, through Saturday, December 16, at Olga M. & Carlos A. Saladrigas Art Gallery at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, 500 SW 127th Ave., Miami; 786-621-4079; belenjesuit.org/exhibition. Admission is free by appointment.