Met Museum Presents ITALY OBSERVED Exhibit

In the 18th century, privileged Europeans embarked on the Grand Tour, traveling principally to sites in Italy, where they visited cherished ruins of the ancient world and the splendid architecture of the Renaissance and Baroque eras. The influx of these travelers to destinations north and south - Venice, Rome, and Naples in particular - led to a flowering of topographical paintings, drawings, and prints by native Italians serving a foreign market eager to return home with pictures and souvenirs. Italy Observed: Views and Souvenirs, 1706-1899, currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum through January 2, 2011, showcases a selection of the rich holdings of Italian vedute(views)
collected by Robert Lehman. From paintings of Venetian life by Luca Carlevaris to a Neapolitan album of gouache drawings documenting the eruption of Vesuvius in 1794 to sketches and watercolors of Italian antiquities, the installation captures the artist's romantic attraction to Italy and its irresistible Roman heritage. It also includes various marketed souvenirs-exquisite fans, spoons, teapots, and pocket watches-on loan from the Museum's Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.

Italy Observed is divided into three sections: Venice, Rome, and Naples. The British elite constituted the largest percentage of Grand Tourists, and their fascination with Venice and its surrounding landscapes fueled the vedutemarket. Artists like Luca Carlevaris, Canaletto, Bernardo
Bellotto, and Francesco Guardi produced veduteof the Venetian Grand Canal. In Rome, wealthy aristocrats commissioned artists such as Pompeo Batoni to paint their portraits surrounded by imagery of the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, Saint Peter’s Basilica and other emblematic
souvenirs of the Grand Tourist culture. And in Naples, the picturesque Bay of Sorrento, Mount Vesuvius, and Pompeian frescoes inspired a prosperous trade in affordable mementos to foreign visitors in port. The spectacular eruptions of Mount Vesuvius were particularly popular, and
found expression on porcelain, fans, and even pocket watches. The installation combines the rich artistic tradition of Canaletto and his contemporaries with marketed souvenirs adapting the same iconic monuments as keepsakes.

Italy Observed: Views and Souvenirs, 1706-1899 is organized by Dita Amory, Acting Associate Curator-in-Charge and Administrator of the Robert Lehman Collection, with assistance from Emma Kronman, Kress Interpretive Fellow.

The installation is featured on the Museum's website at
www.metmuseum.org:
http://email.metmuseum.org/a/tBMvNQQB7u9PqB8VPHtJoEkbOgF/home1.