AN ANTIQUITY OF IMAGINATION: Tullio Lombardo and Venetian High Renaissance Sculpture At The National Gallery of Art – July 4–November 1, 2009
The first exhibition ever dedicated to Tullio Lombardo (c.1455–1532) focuses on the romantic antiquarian ideal created by Venetian sculptors around 1500. Tullio was a brilliant marble sculptor who both learned from and influenced the great Venetian Renaissance painters Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian, his contemporaries. Twelve rare works are assembled from Venetian churches as well as museums and private collections in Europe and the U.S. Inspired by ancient sculpture and contemporary painting, Tullio created modern Venetian visions, epitomized by two mysterious reliefs at the core of the exhibition—the haunting Couple (c. 1490/1495) from the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro, Venice, and “Bacchus and Ariadne” (c.1505) from the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. The young couples portrayed at bust length in these works appear simultaneously naturalistic and idealized, with restless expressions and a sensuous treatment of flesh and hair that brings the marble to life.
