The exhibition “There’s a beautiful land…”, organised in cooperation with the Italian Embassy and dedicated to Italian masters of the 16th-20th centuries in the fields of painting, graphics and sculpture, will open in Minsk on 22 September at the National Museum of Art of the Republic of Belarus.
Among the paintings on display one of the most interesting is ‘Portrait of an Unknown Man with a Letter’ by an unknown Venetian artist of Tintoretto’s school, and an important part of the collection consists of works by Caravaggio’s pupils. There is also a painting attributed to the famous artist Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino, of the Bologna school.
Among the sculptures, the marble statue ‘Juno’ made in 1716-17 by the Venetian master Antonio Tarsia, previously exhibited in the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg, deserves special attention.
There are also representatives of the Italian school of engraving from the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The highlights of the collection are the sheets from the series ‘Raphael Loggias in the Vatican’ by Giovanni Ottaviani and Giovanni Trevisan Volpato and Volpato’s engravings from the series ‘Raphael Rooms in the Vatican’.
The exhibition offers the possibility of taking a “virtual trip” to the Belpaese (or Beautiful Country as Italy is known), like in the days of the “Grand Tour” that many European intellectuals and aristocrats made in Italy as part of their cultural preparation.
The exhibition will be complemented by the collection of the photographic project “Piazze In-visibili” (In-visible Piazzas) curated by Marco Delogu, consisting of photographs taken during the 2020 lockdown, accompanied by short texts by Italian writers.
“I am happy that the Belarusian public can see these works for the first time. They testify to the richness of the Italian artistic heritage, which Belarus has preserved for many years with care and love, and which today seals the friendship between our two peoples,” Ambassador Baldi concluded.
The exhibition will remain open to the public until 21 November 2021.