On view throught january 2008

Samuel H. Kress Loans/ Cultural Democracy

Marco Basaiti, MADONNA AND CHILD, c. 1510, Tempera on wood panel, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; The Samuel H. Kress Study Collection, GMOA.

The Dayton Art Institute, in partnership with the University of Dayton and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, proudly presents an installation of remarkable Renaissance oil paintings on loan from The Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia.

Included in the display, which is located in the Berry Wing of European Art's Late Medieval and Renaissance Gallery, are St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. John th-e Baptist by Giusto di Menabuoi; Madonna and Child by Marco Basaiti, and Christ of Derision by Antonio Cicognara.

These paintings originally belonged to Samuel H. Kress (1863­1955), founder of the S. H. Kress & Co. Five-and Ten-Cent stores. Mr. Kress began collecting art in the late 1920s with an emphasis on Italian painting of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. While housing

Giusto di Menabuoi, ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA and ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, late 14th century, Tempera on wood panel, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; The Samuel H. Kress Study Collection, GMOA,

his collection in his Renaissance-style apartment in New York, Kress envisioned his own museum. By the late 1930s, Kress had committed to giving his art to the nation. When the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., opened its doors in 1941, the majority of its Italian masterpieces came from the Kress collection. What Kress did with the rest of his art, however, was even more unprecedented and public­minded.

The Samuel H. Kress Foundation distributed hundreds of other works to museums, colleges, and universities across America including, in 1961, the Georgia Museum of Art.

Antonio Cicognara, CHRIST OF DERISION, c. 1500 Tempera on wood panel, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; The Samuel H. Kress Study Collection, GMOA

By bringing these paintings from permanent residency at the University of Georgia to temporary display at The Dayton Art Institute, this exhibition recalls the early history of collecting in America, invites contemplation of Mr. Kress¹s concept of cultural democracy, and invites visitors to share in his legacy.

Samuel H. Kress and Cultural Democracy is made possible through the generosity of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in collaboration with The Georgia Museum of Art, The Dayton Art Institute, and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Dayton. Descriptive labels for the works of art were written by students of Renaissance art at the University of Dayton under the direction of Professor Roger J. Crum, a former Kress Fellow to the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence.

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