Italian Renaissance masters are coming to The National Gallery for the first time with more than 70 works by Raphael, Botticelli, Bellini, Titian, Mantegna, Carpaccio and Perugino. The works are on loan from the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy which is closed for renovations.
Nine hundred thousand Australians visit Italy every year and an important part of that visit is to marvel at the art museums and churches but for those who haven’t had the pleasure, a trip to Canberra this summer is a must.
Bergamo cultural councillor Claudia Sartirani says the exhibition presents a unique opportunity to see Italian masterpieces that have never left Italy before. "There were a lot of people that said 'Why Australia?' Why so many pictures, so far away from Italy?” She added "The Gallery is very good, the people are very interested, very serious, professional, they have a lot of passion for culture, for the arts and for our art, so I think they will take good care of our pictures."
During the summer of 2009/10 the gallery hosted Masterpieces From Paris which broke all attendance records with almost 500,000 visitors. National Gallery director Ron Radford said "We've never seen a Renaissance exhibition before and never 15th century pictures - so there's never been a Botticelli or a Bellini or a Raphael seen in Australia before," he said.
Renaissance opens today at the National Gallery of Australia until April 9, 2012. http://nga.gov.au/Home/Default.cfm
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