Courtesy of the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
	John Singer Sargent, Rio di Santa Maria Formosa, Venice, 1905. Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth.

RISD Museum of Art exhibition focuses on Italy

Rhode Island,
© 2012 Group Tour Media
February 3, 2012

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Italy has long served as a source of inspiration for artists.

In the 19th century, its lush landscape, storied history and magnificent architecture and art enthralled Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, J.M.W. Turner, John Singer Sargent and James Abbott Whistler.

Opening today at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art is the exhibition “Pilgrims of Beauty: Art and Inspiration in 19th-Century Italy.” The exhibition offers a window into this remarkable period of experimentation and artistic collaboration with more than 60 works  drawn from the museum’s collection.

“Pilgrims of Beauty” runs through July 8.

“Italy’s magic is both familiar and fresh,” RISD Museum Director John W. Smith said. “Every work within this show is a unique and intimate journey into this timeless world. As we explore Rome’s grand ruins and the sparkling Venetian canals through these artists’ eyes, we discover how each developed a distinctive, often highly personal, visual experience of this one special place.”

As the foremost study destination for 19th-century artists from across Europe and from the United States, Italy was an essential stop on any artist’s Grand Tour and a cultural crossroads where generations of artists from Canova and Granet to Lear and Signac mingled under the Mediterranean sun and motivated each other to explore new styles and subjects.

"Pilgrims of Beauty” features an array of paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs and jewelry and celebrates the artistic styles and techniques that emerged during this period in one of the world’s most beautiful and culturally rich lands.

	Photo: Erik Gould, courtesy of the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
	Unknown artist, after Antonio Canova, Cameo Brooch: The Three Graces Dancing, after 1798. Gift of Mrs. John Carter Brown

“These artists traveled to Italy because it was a tradition in art training, a step along a scripted path toward professional success,” said exhibition curator Crawford Alexander Mann III, the RISD Museum’s former Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs and the newly-appointed Joan and Macon Brock Curator of American Art at the Chrysler Museum of Art.

“But when we view their work, we see how they adapted and transformed this curriculum,” he said in a statement. “Yes, many studied the classics, ancient Roman statues and architecture, but others found beauty in countless subjects that were outside the usual tourist routes, visiting obscure alleys and villages and looking at peasant life. For 19th-century artists, travel to Italy became an opportunity for creative freedom, and we see its fruits in this exhibition.”

Shown in RISD Museum’s Linda and Vincent Buonanno Works on Paper Gallery and the Bill and Nancy Tsiaras Gallery in Honor of Aaron Siskind, the first room of the exhibition explores how the elite itinerary of the Grand Tour changed following the Napoleonic Wars and the birth of middle-class tourism, with new sites and spectacles guiding the work of artists.

Rome is the centerpiece of this room, represented through landscape watercolors, artists’ portraits and exquisite micromosaics, which are special mosaics using unusually small pieces of glass or enamel-like material to make small figurative images.

The second half of the show focuses on Italy’s role within the birth of modern art, serving as a link between the past and future — with special attention to the growing appeal of Venice among later generations of artists.

The RISD museum has a permanent collection of more than 86,000 objects that includes paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, costume, furniture and other works of art from throughout the world, including objects from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and art of all periods from Asia, Europe and the Americas, up to the latest in contemporary art.

Group tours are available at RISD Museum by reservation only, with tours scheduled at least four weeks in advance for guided visits and two weeks in advance for self-guided visits.

For more information, visit http://www.risdmuseum.org/visit.aspx?id=2147484532 or call (401) 454-6534 for groups or (401) 454-6500 for general details.

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