Davis Museum at Wellesley College exhibits ' the Age of Dürer and Titian '

Written by Paul Fogg Thursday, 17 February 2011 23:22

 

Wellesley, MA – The Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College presents an astounding exhibition of monumental works on paper in Spring 2008.  Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian is a major loan exhibition that highlights the little-studied phenomenon of large-scale printed imagery in Renaissance Europe. In the fifteenth century, prints were essentially limited by the size and shape of single sheets of paper and the size of a standard press.  On exhibition March 19 – June 8, 2008.
 

In the sixteenth century, however, a variety of impulses led to the expansion of printed imagery beyond these confining boundaries. Ambitions to rival paintings and other large-scale images prompted print ensembles to expand horizontally into frieze-like sequences and up and out to mimic murals or tapestries. They achieved these effects by combining coordinated blocks to build single compositions and sheets, at first mainly woodcuts and then increasingly engravings and etchings.  The nearly fifty sixteenth-century prints included in the exhibition are rarely exhibited, and many of them have received scant scholarly attention.
 
This will be the first exhibition since the 1970s to explore this genre in printmaking by some of the most important artists and printmakers of their day.
 
Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian will be shown at the Davis Museum as well as at Yale University Art Gallery and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. With the exception of an exhibition of giant woodcuts in Germany in the 1970’s, this will be the first exhibition to explore this genre in printmaking by some of the most important artists and printmakers of their day.
 
This project is funded by major gifts from the Marjorie and Gerald Bronfman Foundation, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, and Wellesley College Friends of Art with additional funds from International Fine Print Dealers Association, Lindsay Mace Joost ’88 Acquisition Fund, S. Jane Burrell Lacy ’49 and Benjamin Lacy Endowed Fund for Acquisitions and Programs, Claire Freedman Lober ’44 Program Endowment, E. Franklin Robbins Art Museum Endowment, Constance Rhind Robey ’81 Fund for Museum Exhibitions, June, Feinberg Stayman ’48 Art Fund, Judith Blough Wentz ’57 Museum Programs Fund, and Mary Tebbetts Wolfe ’54 Program Endowment.
 
Davis Museum and Cultural Center hours and information .. Visit : www.wellesley.edu/DavisMuseum/
 
The Davis Museum is open Tuesday–Saturday, 11am-5pm, Wednesday until 8pm, and Sunday 12noon-4pm. Closed Mondays and holidays.  Admission is free.  The Center is located on the Wellesley College campus, 106 Central Street in Wellesley, Massachusetts.  Parking is free and available in the lot behind the museum. Additional parking is available in the Davis Parking Garage.
 
For docent tour information, please call 781-283-3382. The museum, Collins Café and Collins Cinema are wheelchair accessible and wheelchairs are available for use in the Museum without charge. Special needs may be accommodated by contacting the Director of Disability Services, Jim Wice at 781-283-2434 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Level access with power door at main entrance.
 

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