1540 to the Present. This exhibition will draw largely on two acquisitions that have greatly enhanced the Museum's reputation in the field of Italian art. Each of the major Italian regional schools is represented, including Milan, Bologna, Florence, Venice, Genoa, Rome, and Naples.
1540 to the Present
For over thirty years Arti Grafiche Amilcare Pizzi S.p.A. in Milan has published a series entitled Grandi disegni italiani (Italian Master Drawings), consisting of large, beautifully produced volumes drawn from museum collections worldwide, introducing and encapsulating each museum's holdings of Italian drawings. In 2004, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s collection will be featured in this lauded series, and to celebrate the occasion an exhibition of the works presented in the publication will be on view.
This exhibition will draw largely on two acquisitions that have greatly enhanced the Museum’s reputation in the field of Italian art. The Anthony Morris Clark Bequest, received in 1978, is comprised primarily of eighteenth-century Roman drawings. In 1984, the Museum acquired a large and diverse collection of mostly Italian old master drawings, from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. These works date from the sixteenth century through the mid-nineteenth century, with particular strengths in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Each of the major Italian regional schools is represented, including Milan, Bologna, Florence, Venice, Genoa, Rome, and Naples.
Over the years, the Museum has also acquired many fine Italian works in the early modern and contemporary fields, so that the selection for Philadelphia’s Grandi disegni italiani volume includes drawings from c.1540 through 2001, with fine examples by artists like Francesco de’Rossi (Salviati), Girolamo da Carpi, Guercino, Pietro Testa, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Giambattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo, Pompeo Batoni, Giuseppe Cades, Giovanni Boldini, Vincenzo Gemito, Amedeo Modigliani, Francesco Clemente, Carlo Maria Mariani, and Giuseppe Penone.
Image:
Melancholia
c. 1660
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1609-1664)
Brush and reddish brown oil-based paint on beige laid paper
Sheet: 11 1/8 x 16 1/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Muriel and Philip Berman Gift, acquired from the Matthew Carey Lea bequest of 1898 to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with funds contributed by Muriel and Philip Berman and the Edgar Viguers Seeler Fund (by exchange), 1984
Sponsor
The exhibition and publication are supported by a generous grant from the J. J. Medveckis Foundation.
Curator
Ann Percy • Curator of Drawings
Location
Berman and Stieglitz Galleries, ground floor
venue:
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 26th Street | Philadelphia, PA 19130