DAM Once in a Lifetime Experience - The Glory of Venice

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Since the beginning of October 2016, the Denver Art Museum has been host to an amazing exhibition of colorful creativity which helped Venice to become internationally known throughout and after the Renaissance period. The artists of this period in Venice used color and depth in a way that it had rarely been used before. Mostly religious in nature, many of the paintings were probably commissioned by the Catholic Church and one can see the true passion that the artists had when painting them.
The Triumph of Venice by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni



We made a visit to see "The Glory of Venice" about a month ago and it is one of the best displays of art that I have seen from this time period. Dating from the mid 1400s to the early 1500s, it is some of Venice's greatest work. It contains about 50 pieces, 19 of which come from Venice's Gallerie dell'Accademia, which houses some of the greatest collections of Venetian Renaissance art in the world. It also includes works from Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice and the Fondazione Magnani Rocca in Parma, Italy. The DAM has also added in a few of it's own signature pieces as well.


This collection will be at the Denver Art Museum until February 12, 2017 and will then make a stop in South Carolina for a while before going back home. If you have not had a chance to get out and see it, I recommend that that you do as soon as possible. If not, the only way that you may ever have a chance to see some of these paintings again is if you make a trip to Italy. This is not just your average ordinary collection of art. When you go to see it,you will notice the abundance of security personnel in the gallery and if you get to close to some of the pieces you will set off silent alarms. Trust me, I saw it happen more than once when I was there.Not to me but to some others who were trying to get too close of a view. I did get stopped when trying to take a picture of one piece in which photography was not allowed. Never the less, you get the picture. These are priceless works for which anyone should feel lucky to see, especially in the comfort of their own local art museum.

While touring the gallery I overheard some very interesting information about this collection. One of the museum employees was talking to someone and he said that many of these paintings were almost not allowed to leave Venice and once they get home they will probably never leave again. Exhibitions like this take years to put together and planning for this one started about 10 years ago. Just before the paintings were to be shipped,  officials from Venice decided that it was to risky to let the paintings go and that it should be canceled, but due to the agreements in place they could not back out. The exhibit was eventually put together and shipped to the States. The Venice officials say that they will never let these paintings leave again. So unless you are planning to go to Venice you may never see these paintings in person again.

I really enjoyed this exhibit. Whether you are a fan of Renaissance art or not, this is something that you really should see if you have a chance. There's not much time left, so get out there soon. You can find more information about it at the DAM website :

www.denverartmuseum.org



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