Alana collection works on display in Paris for the first time

One of the lesser known but richer private collections of works from the Italian Gothic and Renaissance periods in the world, is in Paris at the Jacquemart-André Museum-Collection. 75 works from the Alana Collection are on public display for the first time.

About a third of the Alana Collection is on display in the stunning 19th home of Nellie Jacquemart and Edouard André on Boulevard Haussman in Paris.

The Jacquemart-André Collection has some fabulous treasures of its own from the Italian Gothic and Renaissance of the 13th to 16th centuries.

Time and place
Alvaro Saieh, a leading Chilean businessman and his wife Ana Guzman have assembled a panorama of Italian art from the 13th to 15th centuries. They have added to it and acquired works from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Today, the collection includes artists active in Florence, Pisa, Rome and Venice during these periods.

Line and colour
The painting chosen to illustrate the exhibition and to attract visitors reflects the Renaissance's influence on contemporary designers. Around 1420-1424 Lorenzo Monaco used tempera and gold to paint an annunciation scene on a wooden panel. The angel Gabriel announces the birth of her son Jesus Christ to the Virgin Mary.

According to specialists of this period, including Pierre Curie co-curator of the exhibition, 'Masterpieces of Italian Painting', the Alana Collection of Gothic and Renaissance works, is one of the world's most extensive collections privately held.

The Alana Collection takes visitors into many worlds, Fra Angelicio's, Tintoretto's or Vasari's, from Gothic to Renaissance to Baroque, from religion to business to government.

The essential notion of the collection is set in the first room, with paintings from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, cover the four walls densely in an attempt to mirror the way Alvaro Saieh has hung his collection in Newark.