Drawings in Dialogue: Italian and Northern European Works on Paper from the Joseph B. and Ann S. Koepfli Trust

This installation reflects two centuries of artistic dialogue between Italian and Northern European artists. Home to classical Greek and Roman sculpture and architecture, Italy was also a destination for ambitious painters from Northern Europe. Study in Italy’s major art centers has long been a prerequisite for any aspiring artist in the Western tradition. Among the artists featured is leading Flemish landscape painter Matthijs Bril the Younger, whose drawings of ancient ruins and landscapes served as models for other Northern European artists. The presentation also includes works by the foremost mural painter of 18th-century Europe, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo from Venice, whose drawings and etchings resonate with assured, virtuosic strokes.