Remember Me: Renaissance Portraits

Around 1500, portraiture flourished like never before. In countless European cities major Renaissance artists such as Antonello da Messina, Hans Memling, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger and Sofonisba Anguissola produced lifelike portraits at the highest artistic level. For the first time in history, they not only immortalized kings and the nobility but also increasing numbers of powerful bankers, wealthy merchants and renowned scholars. These paintings, busts, medals, prints and drawings still bear witness to their power, status, ambitions, friendships and religious beliefs.

Remember Me brings together international masterpieces with surprising, lesser-known works to tell the personal stories of the people portrayed. How did they want to be remembered? Whether of loved ones, celebrities or believers venerating saints, each portrait essentially says to us: ‘Remember me!’