A major exhibition of Renaissance and Baroque Masterworks are presented by scholar-dealers Otto Naumann and Robert Simon. More than forty significant paintings dating from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries will be presented, including several important discoveries never before publicly exhibited. 

The rich history of the collecting of Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting in America has been explored in several recent books and exhibitions. This past September the Frick Collection sponsored a two-day conference “Going for Baroque; Americans Collect Italian Paintings of the 17th and 18th Centuries.”  It was at this event that the idea for “Looking South” was born.   

Attending the conference were Otto Naumann and Robert Simon, both Old Master painting dealers with a passion for Italy and Italian art who began their careers as art historians. During the lunch break they lamented the fact that there had been no major commercial exhibition of Italian paintings in New York for many years – this despite a resurgent interest among collectors and museums for paintings of the period. They decided to combine their resources and expertise in order to mount “Looking South.” 

The exhibited works range from portraits to still-lifes, from mythological subjects to mysterious allegories, from intimate devotional paintings to grand altarpieces. Paintings by some of the greatest names of Italian art will be featured, including Titian, Palma Vecchio, Ribera, Baglione, Crespi, Cavallino, Mattia Preti, Ceruti, and Bellotto. These have all been carefully conserved and meticulously researched, a process that draws on the academic backgrounds of the two organizers as well as their decades of experience in the connoisseurship of Old Master paintings. 

While Renaissance and Baroque art continues to attract enthusiastic audiences in museums, the exhibition hopes to highlight the availability of major works accessible to collectors who have become devotées of Italian painting.