One of the treasures of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection is the significant holding of works of earlier art. The presentation Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard places a particular focus on the Bernese renaissance and early Florentine and Sienese painting from the 14th and 15th centuries. A fascinating exhibition that reflects life in all its diversity: martyrdom meets grandstanding, asceticism meets opulence, virtue meets lust.

It includes artistically rich altar panels made by the Bernese Carnation Masters between 1480 and 1520, and the exceptional holdings of works by Niklaus Manuel, who was not only a painter, poet and graphic artist, but also a reformer, mercenary soldier and alderman of the city of Bern. Opulent still lifes and majestic portraits made by artists such as Joseph Heintz, Albrecht Kauw and Johannes Dünz, reflect the economic affluence of Bern in the age of the baroque.