Possagno: Possagno - Gysotheca e Museo Antonio Canova - Canova George Washington

photograph by Fabio Zonta - courtesy Fondazione Canova Onlus 

Possagno - Gysotheca e Museo Antonio Canova  

Canova I George Washington

Directly from New York, after being on show at The Frick Collection, the exhibition Canova George Washington arrives at the Gysotheca e Museo Antonio Canova in Possagno, until April 28, and is curated by Mario Guderzo in collaboration with Xavier F. Salomon, Chief Curator of The Frick Collection. The exhibition was organized jointly by both museums to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Antonio Canova's production of the model for the monument of the First American President  and therefore thus honoring the great Italian sculptor, first ambassador for Italian art in America. 

Antonio Canova - George Washington - Modello - 1818
plaster
http://www.frick.org

http://www.museocanova.it/  

Curators

 Xavier F. Salomon, Chief Curator of The Frick Collection 

Mario Guderzo director of the Gysotheca e Museo Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova - George Washington - Bossetto - 1817

plaster  

In 1816, the North Carolina State House in Raleigh commissioned a full-length statue of George Washington to stand in the hall of the State Senate. Thomas Jefferson, believing that no American sculptor was up to the task, recommended Antonio Canova (1757–1822), then one of Europe’s most celebrated artists. The first and only work Canova created for America, the statue depicted the nation’s first president in ancient Roman garb, per Jefferson’s urging, drafting his farewell address to the states. It was unveiled to great acclaim in 1821, and people traveled from far and wide to see it. Tragically, only a decade later, a fire swept through the State House, reducing the statue to just a few charred fragments.The exhibition in Possagno traces the history of the lost masterpiece, probably the least known public monument among those performed by Canova. For the first time, the full-scale plaster preparatory model, four preparatory models, the related drawings and the translation engravings are seen together. 

  
Xavier F. Salomon, Chief Curator of The Frick Collection and Armando Varricchio, Italian Ambassador to Washington

 Sir Thomas Lawrence - Antonio Canova - portrait -1815–19
oil on canvas

Canova by Fabio Zonta 
Gypsotheca e Museo Antonio Canova

Also on show the  photographic exhibition Canova by Fabio Zonta which was previously presented at the Italian Consulate in New York, it hosts giant format photographs of the works from the Gypsotheca di Possagno including some interpretations of George Washington's sculptures.

Fabio Zonta

Photographer Fabio Zonta, has collaborated with major architectural and design magazines and in the realization of various films on architecture. From his first exhibition in 2003 he has focused on the photographic interpretation of nature and still life.

 Fabio Zonta - Canova photographs 

  
Romano Vio - New Canova
Gypsotheca e Museo Antonio Canova 

A seperate exhibition documents the restoration of Canova's sculptures by Romano Vio (1913 - 1984), sculptor and lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Venice.   Thanks to his skill as a modeler he was commissioned by the Superintendency to produce the new model of the George Washington sculpture from the work preserved in Possagno, which he sculpted in Pietrasanta marble in 1970, the monument is now exposed in Raleigh, North Carolina to replace that of Canova destroyed in 1831.

Possagno - Gysotheca e Museo Antonio Canova  

The Opening Ceremony

photograph by Fabio Zonta - courtesy Fondazione Canova Onlus 

Canova by Fabio Zonta  

 

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