The untamed beauty of the American landscape is showcased in a major new exhibition here in the northern town of Brescia celebrating the evolution of painting in the United States during the 19th century.
Around 250 works, many in characteristically large format, trace over one hundred years of artistic tradition at the Museo di Santa Giulia, from images of natural wonders to portraits of cowboys and Indians peopling the country's great plains.
''This is an absolute first for Italy,'' said curator Marco Goldin. ''We can marvel at paintings that are almost unknown here but that are imbued with a profound beauty and remarkable charm''.
The stars of the show are the artists of the Hudson River School (1825-1875), whose topographically accurate landscape paintings emphasized the awesome vastness of the natural scenery.
On display are images of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains by Thomas Cole, the swirling water mists of Niagara Falls by Frederic Edwin Church, and ominous arcs of cloud over mountains by Albert Bierstadt.
Tropical and exotic landscapes are on show too, as North American painters inspired by tales of South America by the German explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) began to travel and record scenes from Colombia, Brazil, the Caribbean and the Arctic regions.
Humming birds and orchids by Martin Johnson Heade from voyages to Brazil and Jamaica and William Bradford's studies of icebergs from trips along the coast of Nova Scotia and Labrador are among the works here.
The American love affair with Italy is also documented in paintings by artists such as Thomas Cole, George Innes and Sanford Robinson Gifford, who were inspired by the layers of history and the Mediterranean light on their grand tours of Europe.
Cowboys, native American Indians and life in the Wild West take over the next section of the show in paintings with strong narrative impact by Frederic Remington and George Catlin as pioneers began to move west beyond the frontier in the second half of the century, conquering and settling new territories.
Rounding off the exhibition is a series of works documenting the influence of Impressionism on American painting following an exhibition by French artists including Monet, Renoir, Manet and Degas that wowed New York in 1886.
A special section is dedicated to two of the greatest artists working at the end of the century: Winslow Homer, famous for seascapes such as 'The Fog Warning' (1885), and portrait painter John Singer Sargent.
Alongside the paintings are around 60 photographs illustrating 19th-century America, from city life in New York to cowboys herding bison on the plains.
Some 60 native American Indian artifacts including tomahawks, buffalo-horn headdresses, decorated moccasins, children's toys and objects for religious rites are also on show, on loan from the Gilcrease Museum of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
''This isn't just an art exhibition,'' Goldin explained.
''I wanted to reconstruct the history of a civilization and a nation in the 19th century in the museum spaces''.
A special section has been reserved for Buffalo Bill, the frontiersman-turned-showman who travelled Europe with his Wild West spectacular, staging recreations of battles with native American Indians.
Rome and Naples were among the dates of his 1889-90 tour of Europe, when he brought Arapaho and Sioux Indians to Italy for the first time.
Snaps of Bill under Vesuvius, in front of the Colosseum and in a Venetian gondola from his 1906 tour are included here, and his original Colt revolver and Remington shotgun are also on display.
Goldin said the show had been made possible thanks to the collaboration of major American museums such as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts but also of institutes such as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.
''People who know about the history and the painting of the era also know that museums of smaller cities conserve collections that are absolutely unforgettable,'' he said.
America! Stories of Painting from the New World runs at the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia until 4 May 2008.
