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A major exhibition featuring nearly 60 masterpieces from the Renaissance opens Sunday at Washington's National Gallery of Art with paintings by such artists as Titian, Bellini and Giorgione.
Organized in conjunction with the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the exhibit includes such famous masterworks as Titian's "Pastoral Concert", which is on loan from the Louvre Museum in Paris for the first time.
The painting, considered one of the greatest erotic masterpieces in the history of Western painting, depicts two handsome young males clothed and making music, accompanied by two nude women.
David Alan Brown, curator of Italian and Spanish painting at the National Gallery of Art, said the exhibit, which covers the first three decades of the 16th century Renaissance period, is aimed at reconnecting the public with Venetian painting by focussing on three themes.
It also explores the relationships between the artists of that time by comparing and contrasting their works .
The first theme covers the pastoral landscape, with its Arcadian motifs of nymphs, shepherds and shady groves, which became a quintessentially Venetian mode of painting.
The second theme covers the female nude and eroticism and includes Giorgione's famous "Laura" which is on exhibit next to Titian's "Flora" for the first time.
Male portraits make up the third theme which includes paintings by Giorgione, Titian, Cariani and others that depict an individual in the guise of a lover, poet, musician or soldier.
Apart from the masterpieces on display, another interesting aspect of the exhibit is a room devoted to conservation studies of Venetian paintings, including x-rays and infrared reflectography that reveal changes of mind as the artists worked out their compositions.
For example, an x-ray of Titian's "Gypsy Madonna" shows that the artist changed his characterization of the Virgin.
The exhibit closes in Washington on September 17 and then travels to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna where it will be on view from October 17 to January 7 of next year.
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AFP 160935 GMT 06 06
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