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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Possagno – Asolo and Crespano del Grappa: Venere Nelle Terre di Antonio Canova – Exhibitions

photograph by manfredi bellati

Venus is the Absolute Star

Possagno – Asolo and Crespano del Grappa: Venere Nelle Terre di Antonio Canova – Exhibitions. Three exhibitions, entitled Venus in the Land of Antonio Canova, until April 24, 2016, in three different small towns in the Treviso foothills, Possagno, Asolo and Crespano del Grappa pay homage to the figure of Venus, as depicted by greatest neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, in honor of the loan of Antonio Canova’s Leeds Venus.  The magnificent marble sculpture of Venus emerging from the bath, arrived directly from Leeds in Great Britain, it was sculpted for an English nobleman in 1817-20, and is placed in Canova’s home, now the Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova in Possagno. It majestically takes final stage of the exhibition that coils within the museum, where the visitor can admire and examine all the “Venuses” that Canova sculpted, from the Le Grazie, (see below) the Dancers, Dirce, Najade and Pauline, as well as, his plaster casts, and  the original models that Canova produced before carving, his paintings and his memorabilia.

Above. Antonio Canova – Leeds Venus – 1817-20 – marble – Leeds City Art Museum.

http://www.venicefoundation.org/projects/canova-mon-amour/

 http://www.museocanova.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=798%3Avenere-nelle-terre-di-canova-dove-la-bellezza-e-di-casa&catid=36%3Acomunicati-stampa&lang=it

http://www.asolo.it/eventi/venere-nelle-terre-di-canova/

 

Possagno: Venere nelle Terre di Antonio Canova. In front of the Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova, Franca Coin, President of the Fondazione Canova, together with the three mayors of Possagno, Asolo and Crespano del Grappa, welcome guests at the opening of the exhibition Venus in the land of Antonio Canova. “For this occasion, we wanted to represent all three locations of this magnificent region, which boasts the creation of the works of the sculptor, the locations are all “dressed up” to create an art itinerary to intrigue visitors; both for the works that are on show and for the places that are home to the three exhibitions, of this ideal path of art: Asolo, Possagno and Crespano del Grappa. These three small-town gems are set in an environment, the Asolo and the Monte Grappa foothills, of which the charm and  the beauty are often poignant. " Franca Coin stated.

Above. Franca Coin and the mayors of Asolo, Possagno and Crespano del Grappa, in the background the Tempio Canoviano.

Museo and Gipsoteca Antonio Canova.  In the square, in front of the museum, “drawn” in the cobblestones, is the plan of the Tempio Canoviano, above, designed by architect Toni Follina. 

Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova. The museum of Antonio Canova is lodged in his birth-house, where a complete view of his art and his life can be admired. Here his memory is preserved thanks to his stepbrother Giovanni Battista Sartori. Today, this museum, collects almost all his plaster cast models, his terracotta scale models, drawings and paintings, they constitutes a necessary reference point for all the museums of the world that jealously preserve his marble masterpieces.

Above. Antonio Canova – Paolina Borghese Bonaparte – 1804-08 – plaster cast.

http://www.museocanova.it/index.php?lang=en

 

Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova.   Antonio Canova - Le Grazie – 1813 – plaster cast – original model – metallic points sculpture in marble – 1812-1816 – St. Petersburg  - Hermitage.

Note. The famous Canova "dots" on the plasters are the immediate tacks (Repere), units of measurement, necessary for the work, of the famous sculptor, to be translated from plaster cast sculpture into marble.

 

  Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova

Senator Patrizia Bisinella, Gianni De Paoli, mayor of Possagno, Franca Coin, president Fondazione Canova and Venice International Foundation, Marco Baratto, deputy mayor of Crespano del Grappa, Paolo Carollo, president Lascito Fondazione Canova, Mauro Migliorini, mayor of Asolo, Mario Guderzo, director of the Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova.

 

Andrea Bellieni – director of the Correr Museum in Venice

Note: In The Museo Correr in Piazza San Marco, Venice, The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, in collaboration with the support of Venice International Foundation,  Friends of Venice Italy and the Comite Français pour la Sauvegarde de Venise, presented the “Sublime Canova” project, aimed at the restoration of the precious section dedicated to Antonio Canova in the museum, with the intent to allow full enjoyment of Beauty, Harmony and Purity emanating from the works of Antonio Canova.

http://correr.visitmuve.it/en/sublime-canova-project/

www.venicefoundation.org/

www.friendsofvenice.us/  

www.cfsvenise.org/

 

In the foreground – Antonio Canova - Marie-Louise – 1809 - plaster cast – original model – lose mould with pencil markings

 

  How Canova Worked – life-size plaster cast

Franca Coin president of the Fondazione Canova and Mario Guderzo, director of the Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova

Around the fabulous Leeds Marble on loan to the museum, Mario Guderzo, director of the Gipsoteca, has created a real show-path, offering the many testimonies that Antonio Canova left around the theme of Venus and, more generally, of the female nude. "The theme of beauty is inherent to Canova says Guderzo. There is never anything vulgar in the bodies, whether they are young women or young male bodies; they are portrayed with equal passion. Canova loved beauty and transferred it into perfect shapes staying true to real form.”

   

Marco Ceresa and Marco Arosio 

  Lucio Pollo

 

Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova.   Antonio Canova – Funeral Monument to Marie-Christine of Austria – 1799-1800 – plaster cast – bas-relief and figures – metallic points.  Sculpture in marble – Vienna – 1798-1805 – Augustinian Church.

 

Pinotto and Fiora Marelli

Piergiorgio Coin

 

Antonio Canova - Terracotta Models

Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova – Antonio Canova 

Figures in Movement 

mixed media 

 

  Fabio Zonta

Photographer of the beautiful catalogue

Venere Nelle Terre di Canova

 

Francesco and Crista Casarin

 

Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova – Canova’s noble vestments  

  How Canova Worked – life-size plaster cast

Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova

Asolo – Museo Civico - Venere nelle Terre di Antonio Canova.  The cutting of the ribbon at the Museo Civico in Asolo, Franca Coin, president of the Fondazione Canova with the mayors of Possagno, Asolo and Crespano del Grappa the three towns, hosting the Venus in the Land of Canova exhibitions, until April 24, 2016 and closely associated in the life of Antonio Canova. 

http://www.asolo.it/eventi/venere-nelle-terre-di-canova/

 

 

 

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