From 5 September until 1 March 2020 the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, together with the city of Antwerp, VisitFlanders and the Flemish Community, presents “From Titian to Rubens. Masterpieces from Antwerp and other Flemish collections ”, an exhibition curated by Ben Van Beneden, director of the Rubenshuis in Antwerp. The spectacular apartments of the doge will be transformed into "constkamers", rooms enriched by wonderful works of art that represent the riches of the Flemish collections. Together with masterpieces by artists such as Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Michiel Sweerts, the exhibition brings a great variety of refined works of art to Italy.

Three icons of Venetian painting return to their birthplace, Venice: Jacopo Pesaro presented to San Pietro by Pope Alexander VI by Titian, the altarpiece from the former Church of San Geminiano, defined by the international press as “David Bowie's Tintoretto ”, And Titian 's Portrait of a Lady and Her Daughter (thought to represent the painter's mistress and their daughter Emilia). These masterpieces belonging to the Flemish collections, both public and private, are rarely on loan, and some are shown in public for the first time.

“From Titian to Rubens” is therefore a unique opportunity. A special section of the exhibition will be dedicated to the famous Flemish composer Adriaan Willaert, who settled permanently in the Serenissima to become Chapel Master of the Basilica of San Marco in 1527. It was Willaert who founded the acclaimed Venetian School of Music, attended by, among others , by Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi.

Curated by Ben van Beneden, Rubenshuis director, with the scientific direction of Gabriella Belli, director of the Civic Museums Foundation.