“Masters of Venice” closes a splendid run this weekend with a masked ball on Saturday, Feburary 11, 2012

Paris Bordone's "Allegory of Mars, Venus and Cupid," ca. 1560 is just one of the splendid paintings in "Masters of Venice" at the de Young Museum through Sunday. Photo courtesy: FAMSF

Celebrate those sumptuous Venetian paintings one more time before there’re off to Vienna’s Gemäldegalerie!  “Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power” is closing this Sunday and at the de Young Museum and ArtPoint is throwing a fabulous masked ball on Saturday to give it a festive send off.  Revel in the anonymity afforded by your finest Venetian mask and black tie attire; transport yourself to 15th-century Venice where the use of the mask became the perfect accessory to the love of transgression.  Just what may happen is up to you but let it all transpire in the midst of some of the most celebrated paintings in the history of art.  Titian, Giorgione, Veronese, Tintoretto, Mantegna are all represented.  

Experience firsthand the mystery that for centuries has surrounded the Masquerade Ball. Revelers can expect exquisite works of art, spirited dancing, exotic cocktails provided by Solerno Blood Orange, and a few surprises. Dynamic performers and the musical stylings of San Francisco favorite DJ Solomon will set the stage for an utterly unforgettable night. Who will you be?

VIP guests will enjoy priority entry an hour before the main event, tours of the stunning exhibition, and access to a private VIP lounge all evening serving Stags’ Leap Petit Sirah and Viognier, along with Greg Norman Sparkling Wine and heavy appetizers provided by Union Street Catering.

After indulging in these worldly delights, you’ll to descend into the museum’s lower lever to view Masters of Venice. The exhibition features 50 magnificent paintings representing the height of Venetian Renaissance painting; these works are among the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s most celebrated holdings from art collections built over centuries by the emperors and archdukes of the royal house of Habsburg.  The Venetian Renaissance was one of the singular movements in the evolution of Western Art.  It forged an artistic vocabulary that took full advantage of the poetic potential of rich atmospheric effects, lustrous color, and the sensuous beauty observed in nature.  Venetian painters of the cinquecento transcended the spatial, textural, and representational realism of their predecessors to create works unsurpassed in their emotional and sensual depictions, velvety surfaces and glorious treatment of light.

Details:  Masters of Venice: A Masked Ball is Saturday, February 12 at 8 P.M.  Tickets: $95 to $250. Purchase tickets online here.  The de Young Museum is located at 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive in Golden Gate Park.  Masters of Venice: Renaissance Paintings of Passion and Power from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, runs through February 12, 2012.at 1 p.m. For more information call (415) 750-3600 or visit http://www.deyoungmuseum.org. Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power runs through Feb. 12, 2012.