CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If you're rolling into Cleveland this Thanksgiving weekend (or family and friends are coming to you!) and wondering what's doing beyond the usual holiday hustle, here's something unexpectedly deep.
Cleveland Museum of Art's new exhibition, "Filippino Lippi and Rome" is one of those moments when art history opens a door you didn't even know you wanted to walk through -- and once you're inside, you're completely hooked.
Filippino Lippi, for those who don't live and breathe Renaissance painters, was not just another Florentine artist -- he was a wizard of invention. He trained under his dad -- the legendary Fra Filippo Lippi -- and later Botticelli.
Yet, his real breakthrough came during a pivotal stretch he spent in Rome between 1488 and 1493. That Roman chapter changed everything for him.
At CMA, they've brought together 25 works -- paintings, drawings, even antiquities -- that trace how Lippi's style evolved before, during, and after that trip to the Eternal City.
Central to the show is the museum's own "Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret," a monumental tondo that's been reunited with its preparatory drawing for the first time. What's really incredible about it?
They also built a digital, full-scale animation of that tondo so you can peer beneath the surface, tracking Lippi's artistic decisions -- underdrawing, brushstrokes, corrections -- like you're watching a painter build a masterpiece in real time.
It is more than a show about Lippi; it comes across as a dialogue between ancient Roman sculpture, architecture and Lippi's own imagination, laid out so clearly you can feel his fascination with antiquity.
After his Roman period, you can trace how that influence rippled back into his later Florentine works -- the influence sticks, it evolves.
Best part? This exhibition is free, open from November 28 through February 22, 2026, no tickets required.
So if you're in town for Thanksgiving, this is a standout option: rich in history, visually arresting and totally accessible. Whether you're with family, friends, or just hanging out solo and craving something soulful between big meals -- this is a move that will get you moving.