Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Venetian painting of the Italian Renaissance


The National Art Center, Tokyo 
July 13 – October 10 2016

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan, an exhibition of works from the Gallerie dell’Accademia will be held in Japan for the first time. The exhibition’s theme‐Venetian painting of the Italian Renaissance. While artists in Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, took as their principle the careful application of colors in a well-ordered composition on the basis of a clear design, the artists of Venice preferred rich coloring in bold, dramatic compositions and explored ways to directly communicate feeling and emotion. 

This exhibition will survey Venetian painting from the 15th to early 17th century through some 60 of the Gallerie dell’Accademia’s most important works. Arriving in Japan will be a dazzling array of masterpieces by painters ranging from Giovanni Bellini to Carlo Crivelli, Vittore Carpaccio, Tiziano Vecellio, Jacopo Tintoretto, and Paolo Veronese. Of special note will be The Annunciation (Church of San Salvador, Venice), a late-period altarpiece of large scale by Tiziano, the great master of the Venetian High Renaissance. An exhibition thus focused on Venetian paintings of the Renaissance period has almost no precedent in Japan. It will be a precious opportunity to marvel at paintings that counted among the splendors of Renaissance Venice, City of Water. 

Section 1: Early Renaissance in Venice: Painters of the 15th Century

Giovanni Bellini
The Virgin and Child (The Madonna of the Red Cherubs)
1485-90, 77 × 60 cm
Antonio de Saliba
The Virgin Annunciate
c. 1480-90, 47 × 34 cm
Carlo Crivelli
St. Sebastian
1480-90, 70 × 33 cm
Vittore Carpaccio
The Visitation
1504-08, 128 × 137 cm
Venice, Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro

Section 2: Golden Age: Titian and His Followers

Andrea Previtali
The Nativity
1515-25, 133 × 215 cm
Tiziano Vecellio
The Annunciation
c. 1563-65, 410 × 240 cm
Venice, Church of San Salvador
Tiziano Vecellio
The Virgin and Child (The Madonna Albertini)
c. 1560, 124 × 96 cm
Paris Bordon
Sleeping Venus and Cupid
c. 1540-50, 86 × 137 cm
Venice, Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro
Bonifacio Veronese
God the Father above the Piazza San Marco (from the Annunciation triptych)
1543-53, 165 × 130 cm

Section 3: Protagonists of the Later 16th Century: Tintoretto, Veronese and Bassano

Jacopo Tintoretto
The Assumption of the Virgin
c. 1550, 240 × 136 cm
‘Haeredes pauli’ (Heirs of Paolo Veronese)
The Adoration of the Shepherds
1592-94, 235 × 137 cm
Paolo Veronese
The Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto
c. 1572-73, 169 × 137 cm
Jacopo Bassano
St. Jerome in Penitence and the Virgin and Child Appearing in Glory
1569, 222 × 162 cm
Jacopo Bassano and Workshop
The Animals Entering Noah’s Ark
c. 1580-90, 133 × 119 cm

Section 4: Last Phase of the Renaissance: Heirs of the Great Masters

Palma il Giovane
Madonna and Child in Glory with Sts. Dominic, Hyacinth, Francis
c. 1595, 309 × 180 cm
Padovanino
Orpheus and Eurydice
c. 1620, 164 × 119 cm

Section 5: Venetian Renaissance Portraiture

Cariani
Portrait of a Man
1510-20, 70 × 55 cm
Bernardino Licinio
Portrait of a woman with “the Balzo”
c. 1530-40, 48 × 46 cm
Jacopo Tintoretto
Portrait of Procuratore Jacopo Soranzo
c. 1550, 106 × 90 cm