SOUTHEAST BRAZIL - Brazil - page 137

Museu de Arte de
São Paulo (MASP) t

VISITORS' CHECKLIST
Av Paulista 1578. Map 4 F2.
Tel [phone].
Q Trianon-Masp. # 11am-
6pm Tue-Sun. & free admission
on Tue. 8 0

One of Brazil's finest museums, MASP preserves a vast
collection of European old masters and early Modernist
paintings. Pietro Maria Bardi, a Brazilian of Italian
origin, scouted around Europe between 1947 and 1953.
He bought the now priceless works of Degas, Van
Gogh, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Turner, Titian, Bellini, and
Raphael at absurdly low prices. By the 1960s, the works
had become so important that Bardi persuaded the São
Paulo authorities to build a gallery to house them.
The extensive collection is constantly rotating, as
paintings are taken in and out of the archive. The
works are loosely grouped by country.

quality, covering the 150 years
of Venetian Renaissance and
Baroque painting between
Bellini and Saraceni. A Titian
and a Tintoretto are promin-
ently featured, besides Bellini's
beautiful Madonna and Child .

The Schoolboy by Van Gogh (1888),
Northern European Collection

FRENCH ART &
PARISIAN SCHOOL

ART FROM THE IBERIAN
PENINSULA & NORTHERN
EUROPE With more than 300 paintings,

from the 18th to early 20th
century, France dominates the
museum. The collection has a
wonderful chronological
consistency. A few notable
exceptions apart, including
David, Millet, Seurat, and
Braque, all the major artists
are represented. Also show-
cased here are those who
drew influence from late 19th-
to early 20th-century Paris,
such as Van Gogh, Chagall,
and Picasso. Many of the
works are among the artists'
greatest masterpieces,
especially those by Manet
and Cézanne. Another gem
is Toulouse-Lautrec's Paul
Viaud Dressed as an 18th-
century Admiral (1901).

The rest of Europe is
represented as a chrono-
logical mishmash of glorious
paintings. Of particular note
are very fine Spanish pieces
by Velázquez, El Greco, and a
magnificent series of etchings
and portraits by Goya, the
best of which is that of
Cardinal Luís María de
Borbón y Vallabriga (1800).
Central Europe has some fine
works by Bosch, Holbein,
Memling, Rembrandt, Rubens,
and Franz Hals. There are
also a few paintings by Frans
Post, depicting Dutch colonial
Pernambuco. England is
represented by a group of
respectable works by
Constable, Gainsborough,
Joshua Reynolds, and Turner.

Resurrection of Christ (1501/1502)
by Raphael, Italian collection

ITALIAN ART

Of the museum's three dozen
pre-19th-century Italian
paintings, 17 date from the
early Renaissance, prior to
1510. These include a series
of iconogaphic religious
works from Florence and
Modena, a particularly
haunting painting of a
penitent St. Jerome in the
desert by Andrea Mantegna,
and Resurrection of Christ
by Raphael. There are also
10 paintings of impeccable

BRAZILIAN ART

Though not as vast as Rio de
Janeiro's Museu Nacional de
Belas Artes (see p74), or the
Pinacoteca do Estado (see
pp140-41), MASP contains
works by Almeida Junior,
Brecheret, Di Cavalcanti,
Tomie Ohtake, and Candido
Portinari, among others.

The room displaying works from MASP's French collection