PURchase exhibition tickets

More than half of the exhibition works come from the vast collections of Venice’s civic museums (Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia). Highlights include paintings by Gentile Bellini and Vittore Carpaccio and an array of Venetian and Ottoman textiles, ceramics, metalwork, glassware, armor, printed books, woodcuts, and leather wares.

The Venetian loans are joined by a trove of objects salvaged from a major Adriatic shipwreck—the large Venetian merchant ship Gagliana Grossa that sank en route from Venice to Istanbul in 1583. These spectacular items, destined for trade in the Ottoman world, have never been exhibited outside of Europe.

Related works from the NCMA, Ackland Art Museum, and Gregg Museum of Art + Design broaden the visual representation of the periods and cultures under examination.

This exhibition is organized by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and The Museum Box.

In Raleigh additional support is made possible, in part, by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources; the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation, Inc.; and the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment for Educational Exhibitions. Research for this exhibition was made possible by Ann and Jim Goodnight/The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Curatorial and Conservation Research and Travel.