Cima da Conegliano maître de la Renaissance vénitienne (Master of the Venetian Renaissance)

Precise brush-strokes, jewel-like colours – consummate mastery of oil painting can infuse faces and glances with an overwhelming depth of expression. Contemplating a canvas by Giovanni Battista Cima (1459-1517) is to be plunged headlong into the flamboyant era that was Venice at the end of the fifteenth century, and to see the city illuminated through the eyes of one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance. Although his talent has often been obscured by the success of his disciples, Giorgione and Titian, he is nonetheless one emblematic masters of his time. He liked to play with the infinite possibilities of composition, fearing neither asymmetry nor the challenges of perspective and achieving what was then a revolutionary modernity through his casually confident groupings of architecture, nature and human subjects. The small exhibition devoted to him by the Musée du Luxembourg offers a rare opportunity to immerse oneself in his serene vision over the course of some 30 works – some of which had never, until now, travelled outside of Italy.