This virtual exhibition, “France 1500:  the Pictorial Arts at the Dawn of the Renaissance,” brings together 53 diverse works from this period including Books of Hours, illuminated manuscripts, single leaves and cuttings, coffrets with early xylographs, and stained glass.  The many themes the exhibition explores—Patronage, the Dominance of Paris, the Influences from the North and South, Other Centers, Patterns and Models, and French Humanism—encourage a re-appreciation of the flourishing of the pictorial arts at the dawn of the Renaissance, a period of great prosperity and stability in France.  With a click viewers can see works of art included in the exhibit, read and print their descriptions, familiarize themselves with the timeline, the chronology of the kings and their queens, the centers of production, and turn the pages of a few select manuscripts.  Don’t miss the video of the exhibition in its Paris venue. Our exhibition is coordinated with a major international exhibition, “Entre Moyen Age et Renaissance:  France 1500” organized by the Réunion des musées nationaux (Paris).  The museum exhibition opens first in Paris (Grand Palais, October 6, 2010 to January 10, 2011) and then in Chicago (February 26, 2011 to May 30, 2011) under the title “Kings, “Kings, Queens, and Courtiers:  Art of Early Renaissance France.”