Venetian Renaissance Paintings

Located inside three former religious buildings in that supposedly most romantic of Italian cities, the Gallerie dell’Accademia is the essential one-stop shop for Venetian painting, and one of the world's greatest art treasure houses. Home to some 2,000 pieces, it's lent around 60 Renaissance masterworks to Tokyo's National Art Center for this summer special, which celebrates 150 years of diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan. Compared to its birthplace of Florence, Renaissance painting took a bolder turn in Venice, with masters like Titian, Giovanni Bellini and Vittore Carpaccio preferring to infuse plenty of raw emotion into their vivid works. Covering a period from the mid-15th to the 17th century, the exhibition puts this fearless streak into focus, including as its crown jewel Titian's renowned 'Annunciation', usually displayed at the Church of San Salvador in Venice.