Art professor Bernard Aikema, the academic
supervisor of the exhibition, says that
the main idea of the exhibition is to select
works exploring the three main characteristics
of the artists and Venetian painting.
“This is the color, the drama and the innovation
of the style,” he explains.
Unlike other exhibitions, “Renaissance
Venice” at the Pushkin Museum is not
organized thematically: The artworks are
instead arranged in such a way as to highlight
the differences in style between the
artists—proof enough that they were never
true rivals. The relationship among these
Venetian Renaissance masters is reflected
in their different artistic language and style;
nevertheless Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese
were constantly observing and studying each
other’s work, allowing them to complement
rather than oppose one another.
After the end of the Venetian Renaissance,
the three masters played an important
role in the formation of the European
artistic culture, inspiring the masters of the
17th century, such as Rubens, Rembrandt,
Velazquez.
The main exhibition
hall is dominated by
Titian’s “Salome,” painted
in the mid-1520s when
the Renaissance reached
maturity. “Salome,” which
belongs to the collection of
the Doria Pamphilj Gallery
in Rome, is rarely seen
outside Italy. Its poetry
and brightness of color
impress, even given the
small scale of the painting,
placed between two works
that were commissioned
to the Italian painters by
private buyers, Veronese’s
“Mars and Venus” and
Tintoretto’s “Christ and the
Adulteress.”
Working alongside the
Russian curator Viktoria
Markhova, the custodian of
the Pushkin Museum’s Italian
collection, Dalla Costa and
Aikema also tried to show
portraits by the three painters.
These are on display in
the museum’s main corridor.
In the open room behind the colonnade,
the characteristics of Titian, Tintoretto and
Veronese are clearly visible in their religious
works. These are compositions made for
private customers and large altarpieces, a
type of painting revolutionized by Venetian
artists in the 16th century. At this time,
Venetian painting was also known for the
originality of its interpretation of erotic
scenes, and artists from the republic often
tackled sensual subjects in their explorations
of mythological themes. Several of these
paintings have been selected by the curators
for the exhibition.
The exhibition is being held with the assistance
of the Italian Embassy in Moscow
and Ambassador Cesare Maria Ragaglini,
who stressed the importance of relations
between the two countries.
“Since I arrived in Moscow, several exhibitions
have been presented at the Pushkin
Museum; for this one the embassy definitely
went to an unusual effort, but I am sure the
visitors will appreciate it,” he said.
