Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish, 1577-1540
Study of the Head of a Youth,
Oil on paper mounted on panel
14 x 9 inches

Nicolas Poussin, French, 1594-1665
Pastoral Landscape, circa 1627
Oil on canvas
31 1/2 x 40 inches

Claude Vignon, French, 1593-1670
David with the Head of Goliath
Oil on canvas
53 3/4 x 38 3/4 inches

Giovanni Domenico TiepoloItalian, 1682-1754
The Story Teller
Oil on canvas
13 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches

Giovanni Battista Passeri, Italian, 1610-1679
Musical Party in a Garden
Oil on canvas
28 1/2 x 38 1/2 inches

"The Suida-Manning Collection will greatly enrich the educational resources of our campus and will serve as a major cultural asset for the city of Austin and the entire state of Texas," said Larry R. Faulkner, President of The University of Texas at Austin.

The opening of Masterpieces of European Painting from the Suida-Manning Collection is one of the highlights of UT Interactive, a campus-wide open house presented by The University of Texas at Austin on Saturday, March 6, 1999 from 12 to 6 PM. UT Interactive invites people of all ages to visit the campus and experience the full depth and variety of the University's resources. Featuring some 400 free programs and activities, including exhibitions, demonstrations, lectures, and concerts, UT Interactive is an unparalleled opportunity for the public to learn first-hand how the University's teaching, research, and people are benefiting society and are transforming the Texas of today and tomorrow.

THE EXHIBITION
Masterpieces of European Painting from the Suida-Manning Collection includes nearly fifty works of art from the 1300s through the 1700s. Presented chronologically, the exhibition features paintings by some of history's greatest artists and reveals the extraordinary depth of the Suida-Manning Collection in the Italian and French Baroque. In addition to being the most extensive exhibition ever presented of the Suida-Manning Collection, this installation is its first showing in Austin and the first in Texas since 1974, when the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presented an exhibition of the Collection's Luca Cambiaso holdings.

"Until its acquisition by the University, the Suida-Manning Collection was perhaps the most important collection of Old Master paintings and drawings still in private hands," remarked Jonathan Bober, the Blanton's Curator of Prints and Drawings and Curator of European Painting. "The Collection's masterpieces, many of which are shown publicly for the first time in this exhibition, bring the European tradition at its highest level to the campus, to the city of Austin, and to the state of Texas. The less familiar works in the Collection will expand the understanding of the history of art and provide students, faculty, and visiting scholars with countless opportunities to conduct original research."

Among the numerous masterpieces in the Blanton's exhibition are: Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of a Man, circa 1516, an exceptionally fine and rare example of High Renaissance portrait painting; Veronese, The Annunciation, 1580s, a late altarpiece that is particularly luminous and ethereal; Claude Lorrain, Pastoral Landscape, circa 1628-30, one of the artistís earliest known works; Peter Paul Rubens, Study of the Head of a Youth, a fresh, vibrant study by this master of Flemish painting; Nicholas Poussin, Pastoral Landscape, circa 1627, a rare early painting by the artist and one of a number of exemplary works in the Collection illustrating the classical landscape tradition; Simon Vouet, Saint Cecilia, circa 1627, perhaps the most beautiful painting by this artist in any American museum; Giovanni Battista Passeri, Musical Party in a Garden, 1640s, one of only two paintings in the world accepted as the work of this important biographer; Mattia Preti, Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, circa 1657, a dramatic oil sketch for a ceiling painting in the church of San Pietro a Maiella in Naples; Sebastiano Ricci, Flora, circa 1712-16, a beautiful mythological painting that evokes the work of Titian and Veronese; and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, The Story Teller, 1765, one of a famed series of canvases by the artist exploring life in eighteenth-century Venice.

The Suida-Manning Collection's unparalleled holdings of works by Luca Cambiaso, Guercino, and Daniele Crespi are also highlights of the exhibition. Cambiaso, the founder of the school of Genoa, is represented by three of the seven paintings by the artist in the Collection: Esther before Ahaseurus, circa 1565-70; Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine and an Angel, circa 1570; and Lucretia, circa 1575. Daniele Crespi's two finest paintings in the United States--The Conversion of Saint Paul, circa 1620, and Ecce Homo, circa 1623-24--are included, as are two outstanding paintings by Guercino--Landscape with Tobias and the Angel, circa 1616-17, and Mary Magdalene, circa 1623-24--which will be joined by Astrology, circa 1650-60, another major work by the artist already in the Blanton's collection.

THE SUIDA-MANNING COLLECTION
Comprised of approximately 250 paintings, 400 drawings, and twenty sculptures, the Suida-Manning Collection reflects exceptional depth in sixteenth through eighteenth-century Italian art and seventeenth-century French art, with smaller but important groups of eighteenth-century French art and seventeenth through eighteenth-century German art. The Collection was assembled over the course of two generations by a family of scholars who were experts in the field of early European art and who upheld the highest standards of connoisseurship. In the early 1900s, William Suida (1877-1959), an Austrian-born art historian who worked as principal advisor to Samuel H. Kress, began to acquire the Collection's first works. Suida's daughter, Bertina (1922-1992), and her husband, Robert Manning (1924-1996), a native of Mart, Texas, inherited the Collection following Suida's death and continued to refine and add to its strong holdings and character. Through their collecting, scholarship, and active involvement in a number of museums, the Mannings played a significant role in fostering appreciation for the art of the Baroque across the United States. The couple also helped shape two major public collections of Old Master paintings: in the 1950s, Bertina served as curator of the Chrysler Collection, and Robert worked with his father-in-law as a curator for the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

The Suida-Manning Collection was acquired by the Blanton in November 1998 through a partial gift from the Manning's daughter, Alessandra Manning Dolnier, and her husband, Kurt Dolnier, as well as through lead gifts of $5 million from four anonymous museum supporters. The University has embarked on a campaign to raise an additional $17 million to support the acquisition, and to date, has received donations from Charles and Judy Tate and the Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation. The Blanton's acquisition of the Suida-Manning Collection already has had a profound impact on the cultural landscape of Texas and the entire Southwest. Not only is the Collection one of the pre-eminent gatherings of Renaissance and Baroque art in the United States, but its Italian Old Master paintings, combined with the Blanton's existing holdings, rank as one of the ten largest collections of its kind outside of Europe. The Blanton also now houses the largest and most important collection of Old Master drawings between the coasts and south of Chicago. The addition of the Suida-Manning Collection to the Blanton elevates the institution into the highest echelon of the country's university art museums and transforms The University of Texas at Austin into a major center for Renaissance and Baroque scholarship. The Collection also gives the city of Austin, already well known for its live music scene, dynamic business environment, and high quality of life, a world-class museum rivaling those of the region's major cities. The Suida-Manning Collection will attract visitors from throughout the United States and abroad as one of the principal collections housed in the Blanton's new museum building, designed by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron and scheduled to open in late 2002.

"The acquisition of the Suida-Manning Collection is an historic moment for the Blanton Museum of Art and the city of Austin," remarked Jessie Otto Hite, Director of the Blanton. "It brings a new level of quality and distinction to the Blanton and gives Austin a cultural resource with international significance. The Collection will create new opportunities for the Blanton to undertake groundbreaking research on the art of the Renaissance and Baroque, to develop major exhibitions and collaborations with museums throughout the world, and to attract other collections and works of this caliber to the Museum."

JACK S. BLANTON MUSEUM OF ART
Since its founding in 1963, the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art of The University of Texas at Austin has emerged as one of the foremost university art museums in the country, with the largest and most comprehensive collection of art in central Texas. The Blanton's permanent collection includes more than 13,000 works of art from antiquity to the present. Among the highlights are strong holdings of European art from the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries, including the Suida-Manning Collection; modern and contemporary American art, including the Mari and James A. Michener Collection of Twentieth Century American Art; contemporary Latin American art; and prints and drawings from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries. As a teaching museum, the Blanton is an important center for scholarship, research, and professional training in the visual arts, and it regularly presents temporary exhibitions and extensive educational programming for the University and surrounding region. Currently, the Blanton is planning a major new facility, designed by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, that will unite its collections, exhibitions, and programs under one roof for the first time in its thirty-five year history. Scheduled to be completed in late 2002, the new Blanton Museum of Art eventually will encompass more than 100,000 square feet and include state-of-the-art exhibition galleries, classrooms, and facilities for conservation and storage. To date, the University has raised more than $36 million in gifts and pledges for the Blanton's capital and endowment campaign.

VISITOR INFORMATION
The Blanton currently presents its collections and exhibitions in two different buildings on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin: selections from the permanent collection, including Masterpieces of European Painting from the Suida-Manning Collection, are shown in the Blanton's galleries in the Harry Ransom Center, located at 21st and Guadalupe, and temporary exhibitions and the Clark Print Room are housed in the Art Building at 23rd and San Jacinto.

The Museum is open to the public, free-of-charge, seven days a week. Hours are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM; Thursday, 9 AM to 9 PM; and Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 5 PM. The Clark Print Room is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 2 to 5 PM, or by appointment. The Museum is closed during all University holidays. For recorded information about current exhibitions, programs, parking, and hours, call 512-471-7324.