“The re-presentation in the same venue of so many masterpieces of the most representative Venetian artists of the nineteenth century, re-discovered when lost, re-studied when already known, allows us to visualize the features of the
Venetian protagonists of an entire century, chosen in 1923 by Nino Barbantini
and, a century later, still capable of fascinating surprising the public of
Ca’ Pesaro.”
Elisabetta Barisoni and Roberto de Fero
Curators
Venezia - Ca' Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna
Venetian Portrait Painting of the Nineteenth Century
You could time travel back to 1923 and see the same exhibition, in the same venue - Venetian Portrait Painting of the Nineteenth Century - until April 1 - curated by Elisabetta Barisoni and Roberto De Feo - that now - one hundred years later - is re-presented at Ca' Pesaro, that the then first director - Nino Barbantini - of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna organised and staged. Even today, the 1920s show it is still considered a crucially important exhibition, which rediscovered an entire century of Venetian art, introduced many of its key artists and fostered appreciation for many of the masterpieces on display, and heralded a new direction for the Venetian gallery and Barbantini’s work, which turned to planning major exhibitions on specific periods or individual Italian artists.
Lattanzio Querena - 1768-1853
The catalogue compiled by Barbantini included 241 works by fifty artists, among them painters, sculptors and miniaturists, all of whom were active from the beginning to the penultimate decade of the nineteenth century, opening with Teodoro Matteini and closing with Giacomo Favretto. The list, organised in alphabetical order, not only presents brief biographies of the artists but also names the works’ respective owners at the time. This information was the initial source for the painstaking task for the curators in researching and identifying the works one hundred years on for their exhibition at Ca’ Pesaro. Partly due to the success of the 1923 show, many works entered public collections, while others have remained with heirs or, to a lesser extent, have been permanently lost.
Teodoro Matteini
Il Conte Lodovico Widemann -1799
The exhibition at Ca’ Pesaro is a unique occasion for reconstructing the 1923 review, and revisiting numerous prominent personalities from the world of art, culture and society in a wide geographical area that extends from the capital of Veneto to Friuli Venezia Giulia. Not only Venice, but also Treviso, Bassano, Padua, Trieste, Belluno, Udine, Pordenone, Caneva di Sacile were among the places where the brilliant director of Ca' Pesaro Nino Barbantini was the first to discover works that represented the artistic greatness of a century, which had been neglected in order to mythologise the previous one.
Odorico Politi Self-portrait -1830 - Antonio Canova - 1823
The Painter Giuseppe Borsato - 1830 - Anna Borsato Orsi - 1830
Giovanni Carlo Bevilacqua
Anna Borsato Orsi - 1811
Odorico Politi
Nude of a woman: study for the figure of Campaspe - 1812-1816
The painter's model - 1837-1838
Elisabetta Barisoni and Roberto De Feo
curators
Lodovico Lipparini
La Contessa Elena Vendramin Calergi Valmarana - 1838c.
Il Conte Andrea Valmarana - 1838c.
Giuseppe Tominz
The Brucker Family - 1820-1830
Visitors had the opportunity in 1923 to to examine famous artists such as Hayez, Molmenti, Grigoletti, Schiavoni, Lipparini; artists discovered and rediscovered, who had lived and trained in Venice, leaving precious testimonies of the society, the spirit of the age, its protagonists and its great upheavals: a heritage of images of families, intellectuals, artists, patriots, women, some of whom themselves artists. All this comes to life again today thanks to meticulous and lengthy research work conducted by the curators to reconstruct the layout and catalogue of the historic exhibition: this enormous critical effort over two years has led to the tracing of no less than 166 works by 52 artists from the original exhibition, now preserved in museums and collections throughout Italy.
Giuseppe Tominz
Ciriaco Catraro - 1836
Donna Mariquita d'Adda Falco' - 1855
La nobildonna Matilde Speck Pirovano Visconti - 1837-1840c.
Tito Catone Perlotto
Lucietta Memmo Mocenigo - album Perlotto Ritratti - 1838c.
Giuseppe Tominz
La Famiglia Sinigaglia - 1844
Joseph-Desire' Court
Albert Guillon - 1836
Albertine Guillon - 1845
Maria and Lorenzo Schiavi - The Two Grandchildren - 1832
Felice Schiavoni
Angela Fassetta - 1850c.
La Granduchessa Elena Paulowna - 1841
Late Neoclassical Sculpture
Maria Malibran - 1836c.
Luigi Borro
Natale Schiavoni - 1856
Giulia Schiavoni Sernagiotto
The Painter natale Schiavoni - 1853
Giovanni Busato
Elisabetta Zigiotti Manin and Her Son Angelo - 1857-1859
Anonymous Author
Young Man - 1850c.
Luigi Ferrari
Il Conte Giovanni Papadopoli - 1860c.
Pompeo Marino Molmenti
Il Conte Giovanni Papadopoli - 1862
Alfonsa and Adele Carlini with Palette - 1860c.
The Press Preview
Roberto De Feo, Chiara Squarcina, Stefano Zecchi and Elisabetta Barisoni
