Raphael and Titian may have given a wry smile at the flurry of paparazzi activity yesterday when the Italian media and their Australian colleagues descended on the National Gallery for the opening of its summer blockbuster Renaissance: 15th and 16th Century Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo.
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The exhibition of 70 works is the biggest collection from the little known, but highly esteemed, art museum to ever travel overseas and provides a rare opportunity for Australians to see so many Renaissance works of such quality.
![Into the light: Canberra's Renaissance Into the light: Canberra's Renaissance](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/12d0b127-87ee-444d-8c5c-1e3045494427.jpg/r0_0_729_486_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Italian television crews and print journalists jostled to interview City of Bergamo councillor of culture and tourism Claudia Sartirani and Accademia Carrara conservator Giovanni Valagussa, who seemed bemused by the level of media and visitor interest.
When the paintings were being packed at the Accademia Carrara in October for their long journey they were being treated with a respectful familiarity, like old family friends.
The contrast in Canberra was stark, there was awe and reverence as visitors first laid eyes on works by masters such as Titian, Raphael, Bellini and Botticelli.
Gallery director Ron Radford said, ''This magnificent collection of Renaissance art from the Accademia Carrara has never left Europe before. We're delighted to present this unprecedented exhibition of works on panel and canvas by some of the most celebrated artists of the Italian Renaissance right here in Canberra.''
The National Gallery was only able to secure the exhibition because the Accademia Carrara is renovating its display spaces and is closed until 2013.
Mr Radford said it would be impossible to borrow so many famous works from institutions such as the Uffizi in Florence or the Vatican collection because millions of tourists flocked to see them every year. ''But the beautiful and ancient hilltop city of Bergamo is not well known to tourists - yet.''
Ms Sartirani said Bergamo was known as the Italian city of art. ''It is one of best preserved and most magical of all Italian hill towns, located between Venice and Milan.''
She said the Accademia Carrara was ''one of the world's great cultural institutions, with more than 2000 paintings and more than 10,000 prints and drawings.''
She said the Accademia had provided works for exhibition in other countries but the Canberra show was the most ambitious.
''While we were closed we didn't want the works to stay stored away, we wanted to share them with the world.''
Mr Valagussa, who has been the driving force behind the selection and restoration of the works, said the most exciting thing for him was the quality of the paintings and the hang.
''It's the first time I can see the paintings in this light.
''I think it will be very special for visitors because we have a great space and architecture in a Renaissance style which all adds to the flavour of the experience.''
Gallery curator Lucina Ward said the Renaissance was an extremely important period for the modern world and for European art.
''Art as we know it in Australia without the impact of this European Renaissance tradition would not be the same. This is also a period of exploration, of new inventions, of extraordinary new ways of seeing the world, and that impacts on the works of art in the show.''
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