Masterpieces of the Renaissance from the National Galleries of Scotland on View at MIA

Written by William Ackerman Saturday, 29 October 2011 21:07

MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, in conjunction with the National Galleries of Scotland, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents an exhibition of 25 Venetian masterpieces, 12 paintings and 13 drawings, including two of the greatest paintings of the Italian Renaissance, Titian’s “Diana and Actaeon” and “Diana and Callisto” (1556–59). The exhibition will also include paintings by Tintoretto, Veronese, and Lotto from the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ presentation of “Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland” will be on view February 6 through May 1, 2011. Visit the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) at : www.artsmia.org/

In addition to Titian’s famous Diana paintings, “Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting” will showcase 10 other paintings that illuminate the depth of the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection of Venetian Renaissance works. The drawings are by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and their contemporaries. “We are delighted to be a co-organizer of this fantastic exhibition, which will present the cream of the National Galleries of Scotland’s renowned Venetian paintings to our public,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of MIA. “This will be the first time these two ravishing oils, Titian’s “Diana and Actaeon” and “Diana and Callisto”, will travel to the United States.” Originally commissioned by King Phillip II of Spain as part of a series of six paintings, which included Danaë and “Venus and Adonis” (both now at The Prado, Madrid), “Perseus and Andromeda” (Wallace Collection, London), and “Rape of Europa” (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston). The Diana paintings, completed when Titian was well into his sixties, depict scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and represent the Venetian master’s accumulated skill and experience. They were designed as a pair and a stream flows from one painting to the other. In 2008, the National Galleries of Scotland, together with the National Gallery of London, were given the opportunity to acquire these works in order to keep them in a public collection in the United Kingdom. In less than five months, the National Galleries of Scotland and London secured the funds to acquire shared ownership of “Diana and Actaeon”. Currently, the two institutions are campaigning to acquire “Diana and Callisto”. “These two paintings have long been recognized as among Titian’s very finest creations and as supreme masterpieces of Venetian Renaissance art.

As a complement to the Titian exhibition, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts presents a small show of important works on paper from the museum’s permanent collection. From Renaissance woodcuts designed by Titian, to views of Venice by Canaletto and Whistler, “Venice on Paper” explores the city through the graphic arts, bringing together five centuries of original prints, drawings, books, and photographs, all made in or about this enchanting "floating" city. Also on view, for the first time since its purchase in December 2010, is the Minneapolis Institute of Arts magnificent View of Venice map. This Renaissance masterpiece, published in Venice in 1500, is a mural-sized birds-eye view of the city, at the time of Titian’s boyhood. Over nine feet wide, this map reveals the design and dazzling technical skill of it’s creator, Jacopo de’Barbari (Italian, c. 1460/70–before 1516).

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts features an encyclopedic collection of approximately 80,000 works spanning 5,000 years of world history. Its collection includes paintings, photographs, prints & drawings, textiles, architecture, and decorative arts. There are collections of African art and art from Oceania and the Americas, and an especially strong collection of Asian art. The Asian collection includes Chinese architecture, jades, bronzes, and ceramics. The largest item in the collection is the Purcell-Cutts House, one of the most significant examples of Prairie School architecture. “Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting” and “Venice on Paper” are just two of the 21 exhibitions that can be viewed at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Other exhibitions currently include; “Chu-shingura: Japan's Favorite Story”, art inspired by the story of the “47 Samurai” including prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai; Beauty and Power: Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Peter Marino Collection; and Facing the Lens: Portraits of Photographers.

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