Past Exhibition

The Poetry of Light

Shown from the chest up, a young woman with pale, smooth skin and dressed in a light blue gown holds a paint brush and palette in this vertical pastel drawing. The woman’s body is angled to our right. She turns her head back to our left but then looks back off to our right from the corners of her eyes under faint brows. Her wide-set eyes are gray, her nose long and straight, and her delicate pink lips are closed in a slight smile. Her curly, ash-blond hair sweeps back from her forehead to gather in a braid across the crown of her head. Soft, loose tendrils frame her round face, which has touches of ice-blue shadows at the corners of her mouth and eyes. Sky-blue and white flowers with mint-green leaves adorn her hair to our left, and two touches of royal blue near her ear on our right suggests a ribbon. Gleaming white pearl earrings hang from her ears. Her dress is created with filmy layers of arctic blue, taupe, white, and pale pink. The gown has a deep, V-shaped neckline, and a long sleeve is turned back from the wrist we can see. In that hand, she holds the wooden paintbrush at about chest height, and it extends off the right edge of the sheet. In the lower right corner of the composition, the thumb of her other hand hooks through a hole in the palette, which has daubs of pink and white. The corner of a blank easel is visible over her shoulder to our right. The background is mouse gray tinged with the blue of the paper on which it is drawn.
Rosalba Carriera, Allegory of Painting, 1730s, pastel and red chalk on blue laid paper mounted on canvas (on strainer), Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.136

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Ground Floor, Outer Tier Galleries G26 through G29
Shown from the chest up, a young woman with pale, smooth skin and dressed in a light blue gown holds a paint brush and palette in this vertical pastel drawing. The woman’s body is angled to our right. She turns her head back to our left but then looks back off to our right from the corners of her eyes under faint brows. Her wide-set eyes are gray, her nose long and straight, and her delicate pink lips are closed in a slight smile. Her curly, ash-blond hair sweeps back from her forehead to gather in a braid across the crown of her head. Soft, loose tendrils frame her round face, which has touches of ice-blue shadows at the corners of her mouth and eyes. Sky-blue and white flowers with mint-green leaves adorn her hair to our left, and two touches of royal blue near her ear on our right suggests a ribbon. Gleaming white pearl earrings hang from her ears. Her dress is created with filmy layers of arctic blue, taupe, white, and pale pink. The gown has a deep, V-shaped neckline, and a long sleeve is turned back from the wrist we can see. In that hand, she holds the wooden paintbrush at about chest height, and it extends off the right edge of the sheet. In the lower right corner of the composition, the thumb of her other hand hooks through a hole in the palette, which has daubs of pink and white. The corner of a blank easel is visible over her shoulder to our right. The background is mouse gray tinged with the blue of the paper on which it is drawn.
Rosalba Carriera, Allegory of Painting, 1730s, pastel and red chalk on blue laid paper mounted on canvas (on strainer), Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.136

Overview: 140 drawings by Venetian artists from the Renaissance to the 19th century were selected from the collection of the National Gallery for this exhibition. The installation began with works by 15th- and 16th-century artists, including Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Lorenzo Lotto, and Titian. The second flowering of Venetian drawings in the 18th century was represented by Rosalba Carriera, Giovanni Battista Piazetta, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and others. A special room of landscape drawings included works by Canaletto and Francesco Guardi and architectural fantasies by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The final section of the exhibition explored the impact of Venetian art in the 19th century as Venetian artists traveled abroad and other artists visited Venice.

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 offered in June, and a special menu of Venetian-inspired cuisine was available in the West Building Garden Café in honor of the Venetian exhibitions.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Andrew Robison, A.W. Mellon senior curator of prints and drawings, was exhibition curator.

Attendance: 72,607

Catalog: The Poetry of Light: Venetian Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, by Andrew Robison. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2006.

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