Georg Baselitz pays homage to Venice and Venetian art by re-establishing historical continuity on one side, and showing the breach with celebrated Renaissance-era portrait art and its modern equivalents on the other. The title of the exhibition and the twelve paintings installed at Sala del Portego allude to an enigmatic portrait of Cardinal Filippo Archinto, painted by Titian in 1558. By translating the art of ancient maestros into a modern context, Baselitz’s art proves the artist’s interest for engraving and for the theme of human mortality.
