The Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary will host its second exhibition in a year of Italian Old Master paintings, “Painting the Italian Landscape: Views from the Uffizi.” Opening January 26, the show will feature more than 40 paintings from renowned artists such as Botticelli, Nicolas Poussin and Canaletto.
On view through March 23, this exhibition covers five centuries of landscape painting and reflects the truly international collections of works at the Uffizi, one of the greatest museums in the world. Beginning with the work of the great master Botticelli in the 1500s, the exhibition showcases the best Old Master artists, including Guercino, Filippo Napoletano, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, and Canaletto, as well as works from the Twentieth Century, such as futurist Giacomo Balla.
The exhibition explores the evolution of landscape painting in Italy, by Italian artists and their counterparts from France, Germany and the Netherlands. From its early roots as background settings in paintings in the 1500s, to its role as protagonist in paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, and finally as an important part of the artist’s life in Modernity in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, these paintings illustrate the glory of the Italian countryside.
“This winter, Italian art lovers won’t have to journey across the ocean to experience some of Italy’s greatest artists,” says Dr Aaron De Groft, director of the Muscarelle. “Instead, these beautiful works of genius will grace the walls of the Muscarelle in Williamsburg, Va. We are incredibly excited to offer this opportunity to our patrons and visitors, especially during 2008, our 25th anniversary year.”
Exhibition highlights include Claude Lorrain’s “Landscape with the Dance of Farmers,” circa 1637; Canaletto’s “The Tower of Marghera,” circa 1750; Poussin’s “Theseus finds the Arms of His Father,” circa 1635; and Botticelli’s “Adoration of the Magi,” from 1500.
Five important works have been borrowed from the Lauro Collection in Naples, Italy, for this exhibition. They are “The Forge of Vulcan” by Diego Velazquez, “Abraham and the Three Angels” by Micco Spadaro, two romantic landscapes by Salvatore Rosa and a painted preparatory study for a major ceiling fresco by Luca Giordano.
Since 1989, “The Forge,” which is a final compositional sketch for a large painting Velazquez finished in Italy in 1630 and brought back to Spain, has been on long-term loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The painting is a preview of when the entire Lauro Collection will be on exhibit here in January 2010.
The painting can be likened to a theatrical comedy and offers an unusual treatment of mythology. Instead of setting the Olympian gods on pedestals, it pokes fun at them and combines Velazquez’s Spanish instinct for naturalism with Caravaggio’s fondness for lifelike models.
The show is curated by the director of the Uffizi, Antonio Natali, and is organized by Contemporanea Progetti in Florence in association with the Friends of the Uffizi and the Trust for Museum Exhibitions of Washington, D.C. The Muscarelle exhibit will be the first venue for this traveling exhibition.
The Muscarelle Museum of Art is on Jamestown Road. For information, 757-221-2700 or www.wm.edu/muscarelle .
