Palazzo Grassi

Report by Rachel Le Goff

This exhibition aims to demonstrate the reciprocal influence painters had on one another from the North of Europe and the South. When Bellini reigned as supreme painter of Venice at the end of the 15th century his fellow Venetians were collecting prized panel paintings from Northern masters such as Van Eyck. Durer himself travelled to Venice keen to study the art of Bellini and his circle and at the end of the sixteenth century, the tradition of exchange carried on with Elsheimer and Rottenhammer arriving in Venice around 1600 to learn from Veronese and Titian. 
An important geographical map dating from the period opens the show, a marvellous idea by the curators as it immediately alters our modern-day concept of time, space and ease of travel. We can then marvel all the more at the way art reached different corners of Europe. The map shows the most important cultural and commercial centres of the day and the routes artists would have travelled.
This ambitious exhibition covers a period of nearly two centuries beginning with early Flemish master Van Eyck (died 1441) and ending roughly with Tintoretto's death in 1594. It includes highlights such as the huge triptych which is the first known Venetian painting on canvas, Madonna and Child with Angels and Saints Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, dated 1446 by Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d’Alemagna and Antonello da Messina's St.Jerome in his Study on loan from the National Gallery in London.

To give you an idea of the scope of this major exhibition, following is a list of the artists whose works appear in this wonderful exhibition on loan from museums all over the world:

Albrecht Altdorfer, Christoph Amberger, Antonello da Messina,  Hans Baldung Grien, Jacopo de’ Barbari,  Dirck Barendsz,  Marco Basaiti, Francesco Bassano, Jacopo Bassano, Giovanni Bellini, Simon Bening, Nicolò Boldrini da Pordenone,  Paris Bordone, Hieronymus Bosch, Jörg Breu I, Jan Breugel, the Elder, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hans Burgkmair, Giovanni Busi known as Cariani, Johan Stephan von Calcar, Carletto Caliari, Paolo Caliari known as il Veronese,  Domenico Campagnola, Giulio Campagnola, Vittore Carpaccio, Petrus Christus, Giovanni Battista (Cima) da Conegliano, Marten van Cleef, Joos van Cleve, Hieronymus Cock, Giovanni Contarini, Cornelis Cort, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Jan De Beer, Herri Met De Bles, known as il Civetta, Giovan Battista Del Moro, Benedetto Diana, Albrecht Dürer,  Adam Elsheimer, Paolo Fiammingo, Peter Flötner, Frankfurt Master,Giorgione, Hendrick Goltzius, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, Georg Hoefnagel, Ambrosius Holbein, Hans Holbein, Daniel Hopfer, Jacometto Veneziano, Pieter de Jode I, Lucas van Leyden, Lorenzo Lotto, Master of the Prodigal Son,  Master of the Legend of St.Catherine, Giovanni Mansueti, Andrea Mantegna, Quentin Massys,  Master of the female Half-Lengths,  Master of the London Pliny, Andrea Meldolla known as lo Schiavone, Hans Memling, Bartolomeo Montagna, Antonio Moro, Jan Mostaert, Palma the Younger, Palma the Elder, Joachim Patinir, Georg Pencz, Bonifazio de’ Pitati, Marcantonio Raimondi, Hans Rottenhammer I, Jan Sadeler, Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, Cristoph Schwartz, Jacob Seisenegger, Michael Sittow, Bartholomäus Spranger, Jacob von Strassburg, Lambert Sustris, Domenico Tintoretto, Jacopo Tintoretto, Tiziano Vecellio, Lodewijk Toeput known as Pozzoserrato, Roger van der Weyden, Jan van Eyck, Hubert van Eyck, Jan van Scorel, Bartolomeo Veneto, Peter Vischer the Younger, Antonio Vivarini, Dirck de Vries, Jan Wellens de Cock, Wolf Huber