Brescia. The Renaissance in Northern Italy

Moretto – Savoldo – Moroni. Raphael – Titian – Lotto

2 June – 28 August 2016

With this exhibition, the National Museum in Warsaw will showcase more than 50 paintings by masters of the Northern Italian Renaissance, gathered from the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia and from private collections in Italy, alongside the most outstanding paintings of masters of the Lombardo-Venetian cinquecento from Polish museums. As an exception, there will be one painting by Raphael (1483-1520), who was active in central Italy and was the youngest of the three artists collectively known as the Big Three of the Italian Renaissance. Like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Raphael was considered a divine painter. In his own lifetime, he was proclaimed a genius and upon his death he was eulogised in the verses of the world’s greatest poets. His work came to be a symbol of Renaissance harmony and a standard of perfection. And so, visitors to the Warsaw exhibition will have a chance to compare paintings by cinquecento Northern Italian artists against the magnificent Blessing Christ by Raphael.    

The exhibition is organised under the Honorary Patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda and the President of the Republic of Italy Sergio Mattarella by the National Museum in Warsaw in partnership with Fondazione Brescia Musei and STart to coincide with the 1050th Anniversary of the Babtism of Poland and World Youth Day. The supplementary programme is organised in collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Italy and the Italian Institute of Culture in Warsaw.