A Snowy Sunday at the Morgan

A quiet winter afternoon, the park hushed beneath fresh snow

After Traditional Latin Mass, we returned to the Morgan Library & Museum on a quiet, snow-dusted Sunday afternoon to see several of the season’s most anticipated exhibitions—each a meditation on faith, beauty, and memory.

Pletà, ca. 1470, tempera and oll on panel, transferred to
fiberglass panel, Giovanni Bellini (1424/26-1516)

Giovanni Bellini’s Pietà — Restored

This presentation marks the first U.S. showing of Giovanni Bellini’s Pietà, newly conserved and on loan from the Museo della Città in Rimini. Displayed in J. Pierpont Morgan’s Study alongside Renaissance works from the Morgan’s own collection, the painting reveals Bellini’s restrained vision of grief, with youthful angels quietly preparing Christ’s body for veneration. The result is a deeply contemplative image whose sorrow is expressed through stillness rather than drama.

(L) Boy with a Basket of Fruit, ca. 1595, oil on canvas, Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio (1571-1610). (R) Head of a Bearded Man, ca. 1580-90, black and white chalk on blue paper, Simone Peterzano (1540-1599)

Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit

This focused exhibition centers on Caravaggio’s early Boy with a Basket of Fruit, on loan from the Galleria Borghese in Rome, a work whose frank naturalism broke sharply with Roman ideals. Shown alongside Lombard precedents, paintings by Annibale Carracci, and works documenting Caravaggio’s influence, the installation traces both his roots and his immediate impact. It concludes with Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s portrait drawing of Scipione Borghese, the painting’s early owner and great champion.

(L) Girl with Cherries, ca. 1491-95, oil on panel, attributed to Marco
d'Oggiono (ca. 1467-1524). (R) Four Seasons in One Head,
ca. 1590, oil on panel, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593)

Basket of Fruit, ca. 1620, oil on canvas, Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587-1625)

(L) Study of a Young Man, ca. 1594-95, black chalk, Giuseppe Cesari,
known as the Cavaliere d'Arpino (1568-1640). (R) Head of a Youth,
ca. 1620, black and white chalk on light brown paper,
Francesco Rustici, called Rustichino (1592-1626)

A Life Study: A Monk Sleeping Against a Pile of Books,
ca. 1616, red chalk, Rutilio Manetti (1571-1639)

(L) Portrait of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, ca. 1632, red chalk
over graphite, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) (R) Head of a Youth
in a Hat, ca. 1600-1610, red chalk, Cristofano Allori (1577-1621)

Collections Spotlight, Spring 2026

This seasonal rotation in J. Pierpont Morgan’s library draws from across the Morgan’s collections, spanning medieval manuscripts, early printed books, literary papers, and musical autographs. Highlights range from Mozart’s wartime dance music and a medieval astrological treatise to Vesalius’s revolutionary anatomy and the fantastical worlds of Mandeville’s Travels, revealing how knowledge, myth, and art were recorded and transmitted across centuries. Shown together, these objects trace a continuous intellectual tradition shaped by curiosity, conflict, and imagination.

Contredanse "La bataille" (The battle), K. 535, autograph manuscript,
Vienna, January 23, 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

String Quartet in D Minor, H. III, 83, autograph manuscript,
1803, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) 

(L) The Pence Table, Set to Music, London: printed for the author
by L. Lavenu, 1796-98, Thonas Attwood, (1765-1838). (R) Mozart
autograph manuscript, 1925, Reynaldo Hahn (1875-1947)