Masterpieces by Canova. A tribute on the bicentenary of his death
Galleria Carlo Orsi
This exhibition-dossier dedicated to Antonio Canova (Possagno, 1757 - Venice 1822), sculptor of universal renown, celebrated in his own lifetime as a "modern-classic", is the only event that Milan dedicates to this artist on the occasion of the bicentennial of his death, in Venice on 13 October 1822.
Canova had a very special relationship with the city of Milan, characterized by large projects that remained unrealised.
This exhibition therefore seeks to make kind of reparation for all the works and projects that were conceived for but directed away from Milan, by means of a series of the sculptor's works now preserved in the city.
The exhibition has as its centre, one of the most beautiful existing plaster models of the group of Venus and Adonis (1794) one of Canova's masterpieces, and an outstanding example of the graceful aesthetic he brought to this genre. The marble version made for Marchese Berio of Naples is now in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva. This plaster is flanked by a beautiful preparatory drawing from the collections of the Civic Museums of Bassano.
The exhibition then moves on to the fortunes of the image of Canova himself, represented in two famous and diverse portraits by the Milanese master Andrea Appiani and the English artistic genius, Thomas Lawrence, who had a special relationship with Canova. The sculptor's studio in Rome is evoked by two large paintings by Borsato that represent two ideal views of this famous studio.
Among the works on display is the Herm of Domenico Cimarosa, a version of the famous honorary bust of Domenico Cimarosa preserved in the Protomoteca Capitolina, in which nature takes over from the usual idealisation referable to the tradition of the antique nude bust.
The exhibition finishes with an important unpublished painting where, inspired by one of his most famous sculptures, the Penitent Magdalene, Canova executed a painting of arresting and moving beauty, painted in 1798 at Possagno where Canova had retired to escape the French who had invaded Rome.
This exhibition therefore seeks to make kind of reparation for all the works and projects that were conceived for but directed away from Milan, by means of a series of the sculptor's works now preserved in the city.
