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Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting

June 18 – September 17, 2006
West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 72 through 79

Giorgione, Italian, 1477/1478 - 1510, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1505/1510, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.289

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: 50 paintings by Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and their contemporaries were shown in this exhibition, which explored the art of Venice during the first three decades of the 16th century. Included were works from the National Gallery of Art and loans from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and other institutions in Europe and North America. The Louvre loaned Titian's Pastoral Concert (Concert Champêtre) for the exhibition, the first time the work had been shown in North America. The installation was arranged by theme: sacred images, pictures of women, allegories and mythologies, and portraits of men. One room was devoted to conservation studies of Venetian paintings, undertaken by Elke Oberthaler of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Elizabeth Walmsley of the National Gallery of Art. Titian's Bacchanal of the Andrians from the Prado and Giovani Bellini and Titian's The Feast of the Gods from the collection of the National Gallery were hung side by side to evoke the Camerino of Duke Alfonso d'Este.

An audio tour was narrated by National Gallery director Earl A. Powell III, curator David Alan Brown, and others.

A summer lecture series, Five Hundred Years of Art in Venice: Achievement, Allure, and Influence, was presented by education department lecturers as part of the National Gallery's Summer in Venice celebration. Two Sunday concerts were presented in June as part of the celebration, and a special menu of Venetian-inspired cuisine was available in the West Building Garden Café. A public symposium, Rediscovering Venetian Renaissance Painting, was held on September 16 and 17. The symposium was organized by the National Gallery of Art in conjunction with The Solow Art and Architecture Foundation.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The exhibition curators were David Alan Brown, curator of Italian paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, curator of Italian paintings at the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Sponsor: The exhibition was made possible by Bracco, an international leader in diagnostic imaging. It was supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Early support for planning and research was provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

Attendance: 147,063

Catalog: Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting, by David Alan Brown et al. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art and Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London,  2006.

Brochure: Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting, by Susan M. Arensberg. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2006.

Other Venues: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, October 17, 2006–January 7, 2007