FRANKFURT, GERMANY.- The Städel Museum presents From Titian to Tiepolo - Venetian Drawings from the Collection of the Städel Museum, on view through January 28, 2007. The Department of Prints and Drawings at the Städel Museum holds one of the most important collections of Venetian drawings in Germany. Due to the generous support of the Gabriele Busch-Hauck Foundation, the valuable pieces ranging from the 15th to the 18th century have been subject to scientific research over the past two years.The results will now be presented to a broader public.

For many years Venice was an independent centre of the arts, and the special character of the city on the lagoon and its art made it distinctly different from other Italian cities such as Florence or Rome. Far more than in painting, the art of drawing comprises very different functions: quickly sketched figure studies express the personal viewpoint of the artist; designs for altarpieces and frescoes reveal the struggle to find aesthetic solutions; autonomous pictorial compositions prove how drawings were regarded and collected as works in their own right; portraits and ‘vedutes’ provide vivid depictions of the reality at that time.

The exhibition presents a highly varied selection of 80 drawings taken from the comprehensive stock of roughly 300 pieces. They will be presented next to specific examples of printmaking that underline the close links between the two graphic media. The exhibition provides a wide-ranging overview of Venetian drawings from the Renaissance to the Rococo era. Aside from works by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese there is further emphasis on the renaissance of Venetian art during the 18th century showing drawings by artists such as Pellegrini, Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo, Piazzetta, Canaletto and Francesco Guardi.