Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Visit
  • Exhibitions & Events
  • Art & Design
  • Search

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Introduction

Pilgrims of Beauty

Art and Inspiration in 19th-Century Italy
February 3 - July 8, 2012

Throughout the 19th century, the landscape, history, architecture, and art of Italy served as a tremendous source of inspiration for artists. Masters such as Ingres, Turner, Sargent, and Whistler were among those who benefitted from, and contributed to, the spirit of artistic experimentation and collaboration Italy offered.

Featuring more than 60 works of art—including paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, and jewelry, all drawn from the Museum's permanent collection—Pilgrims of Beauty is a window into the array of styles and approaches that emerged from Italy in this period.

Pilgrims of Beauty is made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support for the exhibition is provided by Shawmut Design and Construction.

"Pilgrims of Beauty" will be a collection show surveying works of art made in or about Italy by the international range of artists who visited and worked there in the 19th century, including landscapes, portraits, historical and religious scenes, and genre subjects, comprising roughly 60 works on paper, paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts objects.

Throughout the 19th century, Italy educated and inspired visitors through its landscape, history, architecture, and art collections, serving as a catalyst for the creation of a wide variety of beautiful and innovative works of art. As the foremost destination for artistic study for artists from across Europe and from the United States, Italy was also a cultural crossroads where these "pilgrims of beauty" met and learned from one another's work. Through works of art which demonstrate this culture of intellectual collaboration and stylistic experimentation, viewers of this exhibition will appreciate how the 19th century Grand Tour to Italy was not only a visual "pilgrimage" to celebrated sites, but also a transformative journey in which these sites became stages for professional growth and self-discovery as artists and art lovers.

The 19th century is one of the least studied chapters within the artistic history of Italy, and this exhibition will be the first English-language show and publication to emphasize the international character of the art world in Italy in this period and the diversity of artistic practices fostered by travel here. It thereby offers a more accurate and comprehensive presentation of this cultural milieu, while also challenging the centrality of Paris within most existing narratives of the history of 19th-century art. Finally, the exhibition will introduce several under-studied artists and striking but rarely-exhibited objects from the RISD collection, paired with some of the Museum's most esteemed and beautiful works of art.

Selected Objects

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

San Giorgio, 1879/1880

Italian

Cameo: Portrait of Dante, ca. 1850s

Italian, Rome

Micromosaic of St. Peter’s, mid-1800s

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Pinelli alla Trattoria (Pinelli at the Restaurant), 1824

Richard Parkes Bonington

A Portico in St. Mark's, Venice, ca. 1826

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Salute Dawn, 1879/1880

Carlo Ponti

Panorama from the Clock Tower of St. Mark’s, ca. 1860s

Italian

Micromosaic: Two Dogs, mid 1800s

Tommaso Minardi

Lunette Design with Madonna and Child Enthroned, Flanked by Two Flying Angels, ca. 1815-1835

Attributed to Gaspare Galliari

Double-sided sheet: Recto: Stage setting in antique funerary hall; Verso: Stage design for a ruined portico, ca. 1779-1823

Auguste Raffet, printmaker

Ouverture de la tranchée (Beginning the Trench), 1852

William Stanley Haseltine

Amalfi, 1858

Edward Lear

Capo di Noli, from Capo Basteggi, 1864

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

The Piazetta, 1879/1880

Vincenzo Gemito

The Water Carrier, ca. 1880

Théodore Chassériau

Fisherman's Wife from Mola di Gaeta Embracing her Child, ca. 1849-1851

Victor Jean Nicolle

Castel Sant 'Angelo, ca. 1779-1811

Victor Jean Nicolle

Roman Temples and Ruins, ca. 1779–1811

Italian, Rome

Micromosaic Tabletop with Nine Views of Rome, ca. 1830–1850

Italian

Brooch with Pittura d’Ago (Needle Painting) of the Rialto Bridge, Venice, ca. 1880s–90s

Italian

Cameo Brooch: The Hunter's Return, 1800-1839

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Portrait of Thomas-Charles Naudet, 1806

Carlo Naya

Venice, the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, 1874

Wilhelm Friedrich Gmelin, designer

View of Neptune's Grotto, 1816

Albert Christoph Dies, designer

Temples of the Sibyl and of Vesta at Tivoli, 1793

Martin Rico y Ortega

Fishermen's Houses, Giudecca, ca. 1896

James Duffield Harding

Bologna, 1834

George Inness

On the Campagna, 1875

Randolph Rogers

Nydia, the Blind Girl of Pompeii, ca. 1860

Italian

Lava Brooch, 1855

Italian

Lava Earring, 1855

Italian

Lava Earring, 1855

Italian

Micromosaic: View of the Forum, Rome, mid 1800s

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Pass of St. Gotthard, Switzerland, ca. 1842-1843

Adolph von Menzel

Head Studies, ca. 1882-1884

Charles Lock Eastlake

The Celian Hill from the Palatine, ca. 1823

George Loring Brown, designer

The Falls of Tivoli, 1854

John Ruskin

Siena, 1870

Johann Adam Klein, designer

Gioncataro di Roma (Cheese-Seller of Rome), 1822

James Holland

St. Mark's, Venice, ca. 1835-1857

Karl Friedrich Voigt

Portrait Plaque of Pietro Tenerani, Sculptor, 1853

Victor Jean Nicolle

Arch of Titus, ca. 1779–1811

Thomas Jones

Road to S. Maria de Monti, Naples, 1781

Angelica Kauffmann

Portrait of Stanislas III Poniatowski, ca. 1788

Unknown artist

Cameo Brooch: The Three Graces Dancing, after 1798

William Merritt Chase

In Venice, ca. 1877

John Singer Sargent

Rio di Santa Maria Formosa, Venice, 1905

Thomas Rowlandson

A Meeting of Cognoscenti (After Dinner), ca. 1790-1800

François-Marius Granet

View of the Basilica of Constantine, ca. 1802-1824

Maurice Brazil Prendergast

Fiesta, Venice, ca. 1898

Paul Signac

Venetian Scene, 1919
No Image Available

Larkin Goldsmith Mead

Venezia, ca. 1865-1866

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, designer

Souvenir d'Italie (Recollection of Italy), 1866

Hubert Robert

Antique Ruins with Figures, ca. 1765-1778

Italian

Micromosaic: View of the Coliseum, Rome, mid 1800s

François Edouard Bertin

San Saba, Rome, ca. 1822-1825

Elihu Vedder

Italian Scene: Pompeo, Monte Colognola Landscape, ca. 1877-1879

Joseph Anton Koch

Paliano, Seen from the Campagna between the Volsker and Albano Mountains, ca. 1825

Louise Girard

The Architects Achille Leclère and Jean-Louis Provost, 1850

Johann Adam Klein, designer

Felicissimo Capo d'Anno 1822 (Happy New Year 1822), 1821

Giovanni Battista Lusieri

The Baths of Caracalla from the Villa Mattei, 1781

Johannes Riepenhausen, author

The Life of Raphael of Urbino (Vita di Raffaelle da Urbino), 1833

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

Pilgrims of Beauty : Art and Inspiration in 19th-Century Italy

February 3 - July 8, 2012
View Checklist PDF

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use