The upstairs galleries of the Muscarelle Museum echo with emptiness, the rich red walls bare and the space scattered with hollow glass cases. Not for long. In a matter of weeks, the elevator doors will start to empty thousands of people into galleries containing 26 works by Italian painter Sandro Botticelli and his colleagues.

Once inside, gazing upon the paintings, it will be hard to think of anything but their beauty and scale. But an extensive amount of thought precedes a show with the significance of "Sandro Botticelli and the Search for the Divine: Florentine Painting between the Medici and the Bonfire of the Vanities," opening Feb. 11.