79 paintings created in the northern Italian province between 1500 and 1700 were shown. John Pope-Hennessy of the Metropolitan Museum in New York chose the 16th-century Emilian paintings, Sydney Freedberg of the National Gallery chose the 17th-century works, and Andrea Emiliani of the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna oversaw negotiations and loans in Italy. Each venue showed a slight variation of the exhibition.