"Sensual" and "opulent" are words that come to mind when describing the 50 magnificent paintings in "Masters of Venice" at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
A presentation of works by Renaissance masters from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, it will be seen only in San Francisco, and it is the first time that Venetian paintings of the period have been shown in the United States since 1938.
These works by Titian, Giorgione, Veronese, Tintoretto and others represent the cream of Venetian paintings. All are exquisite but none so rare as the four Giorgiones on view. Look at them carefully. It's doubtful that you will have another opportunity to see them anytime soon.
Rare, too, is Andrea Mantegna's painting of St. Sebastian pierced by arrows, one of the most famous images in art history. It takes you by surprise after the sombre note struck by the first room of paintings of powerful Venetian men in dark clothing. It was customary for affluent men of the period to dress in simple black costumes as fashionable and essential as today's little black dress for women.
The Mantegna, by contrast, is rendered in precise detail and jewel-like tones belying the horror of the arrow wounds. But St. Sebastian's suffering visage tells the story of his martyrdom.
After the Mantegna come the Giorgiones – a stunning scene of three philosophers in a landscape that has the dignity of a Piero della Francesca and the soft atmospheric sfumato (a soft, delicate blending of tones) of a Leonardo.
That sfumato is apparent also in a portrait of a youth with an arrow and a portrait of a young woman, sometimes thought to be the Laura to whom Petrarch wrote his sonnets. She is the epitome of sensual elegance with her discreetly bared breast and a spray of laurel leaves over her head.
Titian, the giant of Venetian painters, comes next with a dramatic scene of an assassin pulling a knife on a male figure sometimes identified as the wine god Bacchus. Again there are many portraits, including an idealized view of Isabella d'Este, one of the greatest patrons of the arts in Renaissance Venice.
Lovely as she is, she pales in comparison to Titian's unusually precise portrait of Johann Friedrich, elector of Saxony, a man with a small head and massive body, his clothes rendered in varying shades of rich black.
Titian is also known for his nudes, none more sensual than a racy scene of Mars and Venus sharing a passionate kiss as Cupid looks on. Sensual, too, is his depiction of Danaë, a maid to whom Jupiter appeared in a shower of gold, the gold here being coins falling from a cloud in the sky. The porcelain whiteness of Danaë's body and the rich draperies behind her, along with the pure gold give a sense of the sumptuous opulence for which many Venetian painters are known.
Paintings of women – most often with blond tresses, creamy skin and rich garb – follow. There may have been sumptuary laws at the time, but you wouldn't know it from these opulently dressed women. Even Lucretia, on the verge of committing suicide in an image by Veronese, is bejeweled and elegantly dressed, her plump white shoulders bared.
The works in this show are among the first oil paintings on canvas, a new development that arose around 1500 in Venice. The method of painting allowed for subtle atmospheric effects, lush brushwork and an emphasis on color above form. These aspects of Venetian painting can be seen in Rembrandt as well as the beginning of modern painting from such masters as Cezanne and Monet.
The show comes through fortuitous circumstances, the paintings on loan to the de Young while the Kunsthistorisches Museum, repository of one of the few imperial collections amassed by the Habsburgs (rulers of the Holy Roman Empire), undergoes renovation. How lucky for us to be the beneficiaries. Don't miss it.
ARTARTMASTERS OF VENICE
What: This exhibit carries the subtitle, "Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power From the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna." Venetian paintings from this period have not been shown in the United States since 1938, and they will be shown only at the de Young.
Where: De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
When: The exhibit continues through Feb. 12. The museum is open 9:30 a.m to 5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. It is closed Nov. 24, Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.
Cost: $10-$20
Information: (415) 750-3600, www.famsf.org
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