Venetians in Boston, A Model Show in Many Ways

Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice has been on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,* since mid-March, and reviewed with high praise elsewhere. But I was able to go to Boston to see it for myself just this week, so I'll simply concur with any and all of that praise. It's a lush, revealing exhibit, not to be missed if you can get to the MFA before Aug. 16, when the show closes and moves to the Louvre.

As Holland Cotter said in his review, the exhibition consist of "56 grand to celestial paintings -- no filler here, not an ounce of fat." But as he also wrote:

You can pretty much kiss goodbye, at least for now, the prospect of more exhibitions like "Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice."...Transatlantic loans of the kind that make this show the breathtaker it is are a big drain on strapped museum budgets. Boston was lucky to partner with the Louvre on this project, but such masterpiece gatherings are likely to be rare in years to come.

I hadn't read Holland's review until after I saw the exhibit. Nonetheless, while I walked around it, studying the pictures, I couldn't help but think that, if exhibits do have to contract, Titian, Tintoretto, Venonese also proves a model for the future. (Perhaps I was still thinking about the coming one-woman La Velata exhibit, which I wrote about here over the weekend.)

Within Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, there are several smaller, less grand but no less satisfying exhibits -- two in particular are spectacular.