Manama: The beauty, creativity and authenticity of the Italian culture will be highlighted during two weeks in Bahrain through "Festival Italiano 2011", the Italian ambassador has said.

"The festival, to be held from January 29 until February 11, celebrates Italy as the modern, fascinating and alluring country that it is today, pays rich tribute to its outstanding and wonderful heritage and offers people in the region a chance to experience the culture and delights of our country," Enrico Padula said.

"Art features prominently in the festival, and includes, for the first time in the Gulf, an exhibition of a six-painting collection dating to the Renaissance period. This important art collection showcases works of famous 16th century painters from Lombardy and Veneto, two regions in the north of Italy. It will be the first of its kind in the Gulf and is expected to attract a significant number of art admirers."

Work by well-known names such as Tiziano, Jacopo Tintoretto, Paris Bordon, Sebastiano Del Piombo, Giulio Campi and Pietro Della Vecchia will go on display for the first time in Bahrain starting February 3, he said.

The six paintings are portraits of historic personalities who include a Venetian Doge, a prelate, a noblewoman and a painter, and reflect the era often described by experts as a landmark in the development of world painting and in the history of figurative arts in general.

The annual festival also includes a presentation of other masterworks from the city of Florence, said Padula, a career diplomat who has been in his country's foreign service since 1991 and who has authored articles and books on Italian contemporary history and international relations.

"As in the previous years, the festival will include other cultural and social moments. There will be a cinema review, featuring recent releases from Italian directors as well as events that highlight Italian cuisine," Padula said. "The closing of the festival will be a premiere of the Italian Grand Ball that will be prepared during the week through dance classes and conferences."

The opera, "Venice: the music reflects in the sea", will focus on the unique city as the theme of a musical journey, following the steps of famous Italian composers who devoted their life to music, he said.

According to the diplomat, the festival will be an "auspicious occasion" for visits by Italian business people who will look into possibilities of cooperation and joint ventures.

TINTORETTO

Tintoretto (September 29, 1518 - May 31, 1594), real name Jacopo Comin, was an Italian painter and a notable exponent of the Venetian Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso, and his dramatic use of perspectival space and special lighting effects make him a precursor of Baroque art.

TIZIANO

Tiziano Vecelli (c. 1473/1490- 27 August 1576) better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars" (recalling the famous final line of Dante's Paradiso) Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects.

GIULIO CAMPI

Giulio Campi (1500-1572) was a painter and an architect. His numerous paintings are grandly and reverently conceived, freely drawn, vigorously coloured, lofty in style, and broadly handled.

PARIS BORDON

Paris Bordon (or Bordone) (1495 - January 19, 1570) was a Venetian painter of the Renaissance who while training with Tiziano, maintained a strand of mannerist complexity and provincial vigour. He is known for his religious, mythological, and anecdotal subjects.

SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO

Sebastiano del Piombo (c. 1485, Venice - June 21, 1547, Rome), byname of Sebastiano Luciani, was an Italian Renaissancee-Mannerist painter of the early 16th century famous for his combination of the colors of the Venetian school and the monumental forms of the Roman school.

DELLA VECCHIA

Pietro della Vecchia (1603 - September 8, 1678), born as Pietro Muttoni.

Well known among his contemporaries for his ability to imitate the styles of 16th-century masters, he was also known for his grotesque paintings and portraiture.