Opening December 7 and on view through April 14, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art will present an exhibition of the work of Paolo Veronese (1528‱588), a master of Venetian Renaissance painting. The first comprehensive exhibition of Veronese’s work in North America in more than two decades, “Paolo Veronese: A Master and His Workshop in Renaissance Venice” brings together more than 50 of the artist’s finest paintings and drawings from North American museums and private collections.
Presenting imposing altarpieces and smaller religious paintings for private devotion or collectors, striking portraits, depictions of sensual narratives drawn from the classical tradition and majestic allegories glorifying the Venetian state, the exhibition will introduce the range of Veronese’s art, in which the opulence and splendor of Renaissance Venice comes to life. Veronese was also a highly accomplished draughtsman, and this exhibition will provide audiences a rare glimpse into his work on paper, from gestural sketches to highly finished chiaroscuro sheets. The Ringling will be the sole venue for the exhibition.
One of the exhibition’s highlights will be the Ringling’s own work, “Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” circa 1572, one of only two complete Veronese altarpieces in North America and the first Old Master painting acquired in 1925 by the museum’s founder, John Ringling. The exhibition will also feature two other works from the Ringling’s collection: “Portrait of Francesco Franceschini,” 1551, the artist’s first known surviving, full-standing portrait, painted when Veronese was just 23 years old, and a painting John Ringling bought as a Veronese, “A Family Group,” circa 1565, now understood to be the work of his talented pupil Giovanni Antonio Fasolo.
Conceived and organized by Dr Virginia Brilliant, the Ringling Museum’s curator of European art, in cooperation with Frederick Ilchman, curator of paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the exhibition highlights Veronese’s artistic process and his rich and varied artistic production.
Veronese often depicted the same subjects time and again throughout his career, and the exhibition will examine the artist’s evolving perspectives on the “Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” the “Baptism of Christ” and the “Death of Christ” through the side-by-side comparison of works in a variety of formats, sizes and media. For example, the Ringling’s “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” will be placed in conversation with the National Gallery of Canada’s painting and the Harvard Art Museums’ highly finished drawing of the same subject, as well as the Cleveland Museum of Art’s preliminary sheet of sketches in which the artist’s ideas for all of the finished works originated.
The museum is at 5401 Bay Shore Road. For information, www.ringling.org or 941-359-5700.
