Federico Barocci is the type of artist who often is mentioned in art history books, but never the center of attention. St. Louis will get its first real look at the Renaissance painter when the Saint Louis Art Museum opens its exhibition, Federico Barocci: Renaissance Master, which runs from Oct. 21 through Jan. 20.

Tucked away and forgotten in the basement of the Penn Museum from about 1900, the last surviving Mississippi panorama found its way to the Saint Louis Art Museum because of a dinner party conversation in the 1940s, when then-museum director Perry Rathbone heard about the find from another guest. “He was already planning an exhibition about images of the Mississippi from the 19th century,” says museum senior curatorial assistant Janeen Turk. “He knew right away that he wanted to borrow the panorama, and he did. That exhibition was from 1949 to 1950 and then a few years later the museum purchased it from Penn.” 

The ancient Maya crafted objects fashioned with the most sophisticated tools available. These objects, together with the latest technology of this century, bring the Mayan world to life at the Saint Louis Art Museum’s new exhibit, Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea. The show brings together 90-plus works of art, including a giant crocodile who tips the scales at more than 1 ton. Fiery Pool, which comes to St. Louis on the last stop of a three-city tour, also features an interactive display described as ‘quite fun’ by Matthew Robb, assistant curator of ancient American and Native American art.

           Almost one year to the day that ground was broken on the Saint Louis Art Museum’s $130.5 million expansion, the transformation is beginning to take shape, inside and out. Once complete, the David Chipperfield-designed addition will increase the museum’s galleries and public space by 30 percent, and include a three-level underground parking garage. “When we broke ground in January, the first few months of construction consisted of digging a very deep hole,” says museum director Brent Benjamin. “Now, as I look out my window, they’re finishing up the pouring of the second floor, and soon, they’ll be pouring the first parking floor.” There is still excavation underway, he notes. “It’s taking place where the cafe and museum shop used to be, and it’s one of the main reasons why the south wing is inaccessible to the public.” 

Joe Jones is a common name, appropriate for an artist who spent his career championing the common man and woman. Joe Jones: Painter of the American Scene, on view Oct. 10 through Jan. 2 at the Saint Louis Art Museum, investigates how Jones’ work was influenced by his time in St. Louis, his passionate commitment to social causes and his staunch identification with the working class. Four years in the making, the show is curated by Andrew Walker, assistant director for curatorial affairs and curator of American art, and Janeen Turk, senior curatorial assistant.

Grief is a collective experience, common to all people and times. Mourning customs vary from culture to culture and era to era, but the immutable, overwhelming sense of loss remains the same. This timeless link is powerfully expressed in two upcoming exhibits at the Saint Louis Art Museum, The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy, and Bill Viola: Visitation, both on view June 20 through Sept. 6.

The excitement is palpable these days at the Saint Louis Art Museum. With each scrape of a shovel, every drag of a backhoe and every rattle of a jackhammer, the museum gets closer to completing its ambitious $130.5 million, David Chipperfield-designed expansion. The new wing will increase galleries and public space by 30 percent and more than double its current parking capacity. “This is the most significant construction undertaken at the museum since the original 1904 Cass Gilbert building was built,” says museum director Brent Benjamin. He anticipates a mid-2012 completion date on construction, with a public opening later that year or in early 2013.

An unprecedented display of one of Japan’s most ancient art forms is coming to the Saint Louis Art Museum. Five Centuries of Japanese Screens: Masterpieces from the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago opens Sunday, Oct. 18. “This is the first major exhibition of folding screens that goes beyond the end of Japan’s classical period in the mid-1860s, all the way to the late 1990s, and includes works by living artists,” says Philip Hu, associate curator of Asian art at the museum.

Reviving Antiquity: Artists and Their Study of Ancient Rome is the Saint Louis Art Museum’s current exhibition, on view through Sept. 27. The exhibit highlights six recent museum acquisitions, and focuses on the influence of Roman art on 18th- and 19th-century painters and sculptors.