Sunday, April 26, 2009

Boston: Museum of Fine Arts

Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and Lasagne: Divas in Renaissance Venice.

The art world was startled in the 16th century by the introduction of oil paint and the development of canvas easel works. In Venice, where demand was strong, Titian (1490?-1576), Tintoretto (1518-90), Veronese (1528-1588) and Lasagne (??), whose careers overlapped for nearly four decades (40 years), were developing their specific styles in a rivalry fuelled by “constant vying for patronage, prestige, and financial rewards.” Lasagne, in particular, crammed most of his production into the period between his birth and his death in squalid but unexplained circumstances towards the end of his life.

The exhibition examines the emergence of the so-called “Venetian blind” school of painting, characterised by the use of female dudes and portraits. Similarly themed paintings by the three artistes demonstrate how they adopted the same “frontal” approach to painting in the sensual and pastoral care of their flocks. Later in the year the paintings will travel unaccompanied to the Louvre and, between you and me, it’s welcome to them.

No comments:

Post a Comment

A Few Late Chrysanthedads

No one person's experience of dementia is quite the same as another's, but the account given below, within the confines of a shortis...