The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute celebrates its Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450–1850 exhibition with a special Renaissance-themed gala on Saturday, February 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. This special evening features music and mead, jugglers and jesters, festive fare—and an opportunity to view Eye to Eye’s extraordinary, rarely seen portraits. Tickets are $50 ($40 per member) and may be purchased online at clarkart.edu or by calling 413 458 0524.

The evening’s entertainment will include musical performances by the Williams College Elizabethans in the courtyard and the galleries and juggling by Scott Wieman and Stewart Stewart of the Anti-Gravity Society in the courtyard and the café          

The hors d’oeuvres menu prepared by the Clark’s own chef Steve Wilkinson will feature meat pies, stuffed mussels, mini shepherd’s pies in potato shells, pigs in blankets, apple tart, sherry trifle, and honey gingerbread. There will be a carving station in the café, as well as a selection of wine, beer, honey mead available in the courtyard.

Eye to Eye, a special exhibition of European portrait painting featuring works by master artists from the late fifteenth through the early nineteenth centuries, will be on view at the Clark from January 23 through March 27, 2011. Representing the range of styles and themes in Old Master portraiture as practiced in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, and France, the twenty-nine paintings and one sculpture in the exhibition include remarkable works by Memling, Cranach, Parmigianino, Ribera, Rubens, Van Dyck, Greuze, and David, as well as other extraordinary works by lesser-known painters. This exhibition is the first opportunity for the public to see many of these works, which have been lent exclusively to the Clark from a private collection.

Eye to Eye is curated by Richard Rand, the Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Senior Curator and Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, and Kathleen Morris, the Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Collections and Exhibitions and Curator of Decorative Arts, both at the Clark. The fully illustrated catalogue includes an essay by noted scholar David Ekserdjian and many works published for the first time outside auction and gallery catalogues. 

The Clark

The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm (daily in July and August). Admission is $15 June 1 through October 31. Admission is free for children 18 and younger, members, and students with valid ID. Admission is free November through May. For more information, call 413 458 2303 or visit clarkart.edu.