myinternet Limited would like to thank the publishers of 'Italy down under' for the exclusive use on this website of the three articles published in 'Italy down under - No. 8 Autumn 2002'.

Three Centuries of Italian Art - From Titian to Tiepolo

Advice to Teachers: The following articles are useful for teachers and middle to senior students acting as primary source material for the analysis of artworks and provides a view of a selection of fine art from the Renaissance to the late Baroque period.

The articles are also beneficial for students studying studio production and professional practice and the role of public galleries, commercial and other art spaces. Students can consider current issues that arise from the promotion and the marketing public perception and industry recognition of art.

Some of the themes of these artworks require the teacher to decide suitability for students in regard to sexual and violent descriptive analysis of mythological and religious subject matter, and as such these articles are intended for viewing by a mature audience.

The Italians - Three Centuries of Italian Art
Presented by Melbourne Museum in association with the National Gallery of Victoria
5 July - 6 October 2002
Touring Hall

THE EXHIBITION

This exhibition brings together an extensive collection of Italian art spanning the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries, a period rich in history and cultural achievement. The works have been carefully chosen to show the full range of trends developing throughout the entire period, and in the different regions of Italy.

Leading off with the Sixteenth century the exhibition presents works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo, the greatest exponents of Renaissance art - and precursors of the mannerist trend represented here by Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Rosso, Bachiacca and Vasari. Colour and substance - characteristics of the Venetian school - are evident in the exhibition with works by Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Jacopo Bassano and Paris Bordone. Titian is represented by three great masterpieces, as two of them Dance of Capodimonte and the Sacred Conversation from the the Fondazione Magnani-Rocca; Giorgione by his mysterious Double Portrait from the Palazzo Venezia Gallery.

The brilliance of Lombardy is seen in paintings by Moroni, Moretto, Savoldo and Romanino, foreshadowing the arrival of the great Caravaggio.

There is no finer example of Sixteenth century portrait-painting than Moroni's Cavaliere in Rosa.

The Roman school is represented by Federico Barocci (the Madonna of the bowl) and a number of his contemporaries. The Ortolana by Campi, the Marcelleria and Pescheria by Passerotti are Italian parallels of Pieter Aertsen and Joackim Bouckeler.

Seventeenth Century works in the exhibition include those by Ludovico and Annibale Carracci's Accademia Felsinea and the renowned Emilia school of Reni, Guercino, Domenichino and Cagnacci.

The revolution in painting wrought by Caravaggio is seen in his Narcissus from the Palazzo Barberini, his San Francis from the Chiesa dei Cappuccini, and his St John the Baptist from Galleria Corsini. Other contemporaries represented include Serodine, Tanzio da Varallo, Borgianni and Manfredi.

From Naples the exhibition includes fine examples from Battistello Caracciolo, Ribera, Stanzione, Cavallino and Guarino. Luca Giordano and Solimena.

Papal Rome is represented by Bernini (Clemente X) and Pietro da Cortona (Guardian Angel) Baciccio, Sacchi and Caroselli.

Lombardy by the beautiful Martyrdom of Saints Rufina and Seconda by Cerano, Procaccini and Morazzone, and an important Christ's Capture recently appeared by Giulio Cesare Procaccini.

The Eighteenth Century section of the exhibition shows work by great masters of landscape and visual painitng such as Vantitelli. Canaletto, Belotto, Pannini, Luca Carlevaris, Joli, Francesco Guardi and Van Bloemen.

Next come the leading interpreters of Italian rococo with Sebastiano Ricci, the Tiepolos, Creti, Pittoni, Pellegrini, Piazzetta, Giaquinto and De Mura, and the Gandolfis.

The "reality painters" in Lombardy are represented by Ceruti and Fra Galgario.

The period concludes with the great Canova (Ebe) and the Venus and Adonis by Giani.

The Italians is being organised by the exhibition company Artificio Skira of Milan, in association with the National Gallery of Australia. It is being curated by the Arte e Civiltà Fondazione Culturale Lombarda and the Soprintendenza of Rome, under the direction of Professor Claudio Strinati.
Organiser: National Gallery of Australia.

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