Some of the most wonderful works of art were produced during the Renaissance, but most of us haven’t had the memorable experience of seeing them in person. Seeing a work of art in a book or online isn’t without its merits. After all, a picture speaks a thousand words! But there’s something incomparably special about seeing a piece up close; about taking it in from every angle, realizing that it is truly real.

The first time I visited an art museum, it was the realness that struck me most. Of course I knew that all those paintings I’d seen in textbooks and online were physically out there somewhere. But when you stand before one of them in the flesh, they’re more real than they’ve ever been. You can imagine the artist more fully as a person, picturing them with paintbrush in hand. You can better understand what made this work of art special enough to find its way into books to begin with, because you too will want the whole world to know about it! That’s the beauty of art in real life, whether you’re looking at the paintings of Titian or pieces hanging in a café down the street from a local artist.

One of the best things about a great deal of art is that it can travel. If you want to see the Eiffel Tower you’re going to have to go to Paris; if you want to kiss the Blarney Stone, you’ll be needing to head to Ireland. But you might not have to travel the world to take in your favorite art – it might just come to a city near you! Here are a few places some Renaissance art can be found right now or in the near future. Hopefully one of them will be close by…

Botticelli’s Venus – University of Hong Kong Museum and Art Gallery
Through December 15, 2013

Face to Face: Flanders, Florence and Renaissance Painting – Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA
Through January 13, 2014

Imperial Augsburg: Renaissance Prints and Drawings, 1474-1540 – Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin
Through January 5, 2014

The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia – The Material of Culture: Renaissance Medals and Textiles from the Ulrich A. Middeldorf Collection
October 26, 2013 – January 12, 2014

Seeing the Monumental in the Minute: German Renaissance Prints in the Age of Dürer – The Gallery of the College of Staten Island/CUNY
Through November 9, 2013