With around 560 paintings, the collection of Italian painting constitutes the most extensive holdings of early art in the Staatsgalerie. The works on display range from gold-ground painting at the beginning of the 14th century to large-format canvas paintings at the end of the Baroque period around 1800.
Early Panel Painting
With the "Stuttgart Apocalypse Panels", painted around 1332/34, the Staatsgalerie owns two extraordinary works of early Italian painting: created for King Robert of Anjou in Naples, the paintings with the blue ultramarine ground are distinguished by their precious painting technique.
Other panel paintings, especially from Florence and Siena, trace the development towards the early Renaissance: Lorenzo Monaco's "Mary and Child", dated 1407, is still painted on a traditional gold ground, while Fra Angelico's "Feeding of the Dominicans", created around 1452/55, already presents a spatial stage constructed from central perspective.
Venetian Painting
Venetian painting is another focal point: in 1852, King Wilhelm I of Württemberg acquires around 250 paintings from the Barbini-Breganze collection. These include devotional paintings from the workshop of Giovanni Bellini and two large paintings by Vittore Carpaccio. "The Disputation of St Thomas Aquinas", which he painted in 1507, is his only altarpiece in German museum possession. Also from this acquisition is the presentation model Giovanni Battista Tiepolo made in 1751 for the fresco in the Kaisersaal of the Würzburg Residenz.
Later acquisitions expanded the Venetian collection with major works of the late Baroque, such as the "Allegory of Vigilance" by Rosalba Carriera, painted with pastel chalk, the "Portrait of the Soprano Farinelli" by Jacopo Amigoni or Tiepolo's late work, "The Calm on the Flight into Egypt".
Florence, Naples, Rome
The Staatsgalerie sets special accents with its Florentine Baroque holdings, which include paintings by Francesco Furini and Baldassare Franceschini (called Il Volterrano). Other Italian art centres such as Bologna and Rome are represented by outstanding paintings by Annibale Carracci and Giovanni Paolo Pannini. Finally, the holdings of Neapolitan painting are remarkable, with artists such as Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano and Francesco Solimena.
