Botticelli to Titian: Masterpieces of Two Centuries of Italian Art

At weekend I visited the above mentioned exhibiton in the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
The Hungarian public have the opportunity to see one of the most famous and valuable paintings in the world, the emblematic Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci, which is permanently exhibited in the Czartoryski Museum in Cracow and has so far in Europe only been loaned to Italian museums. I really wanted to see this well known painting from Leonardo da Vinci, which is more likely for me than his Mona Lisa and I think the picture itself is also much better.

However there was so cold in the space, the visitors (especially French and Italian tourists) walked from one picture to another as slowly as they can. Looking at the paintings it is absolutely understandable.

The most comprehensive exhibition to date dedicated to the Italian Renaissance run in the Museum of Fine Arts between 28 October 2009 and 14 February 2010.

The large-scale exhibition entitled Botticelli to Titian. Masterpieces of Two Centuries of Italian Painting display paintings on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts from over fifty museums, including the Uffizi in Florence, the Louvre in Paris, the national galleries of London and Washington, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Galleria Borghese in Rome and the Prado in Madrid. In addition to works by Botticelli and Titian, the 130 paintings on show represent the art of over eighty masters, among whom are Leonardo, Giorgione, Raphael, Veronese and Tintoretto.

The exhibit of 15th-16th-century Italian painting offers visitors the opportunity to familiarise themselves with masterpieces by the greatest artists of the period and explore the emergence and development of intellectual and artistic processes in the most important cultural centres. For the very first time in Hungary the Italian Renaissance will be presented in a spectacular, large-scale exhibition with a sound scholarly foundation. The works on loan will be supplemented by thirty-five paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts’ own prestigious Italian collection.

The Budapest exhibition display works that are a sensation in themselves: Titian’s Man with a Glove, Bartolomeo Veneto’s Flora, Botticelli’s Story of Virginia, Cossa’s Portrait of a Man, Perugino’s Portrait of Francesco delle Opere, Savoldo’s Tobias and the Angel and Palma Vecchio’s “La Bella” are all outstanding pieces of the period.

Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine, Krakow

Bartolomeo Veneto’s Flora

Botticelli’s Story of Virginia
Titian’s Man with a Glove

Palma Vecchio’s “La Bella”
Cossa’s Portrait of a Man