Description

The exhibition Canova, Hayez, Cicognara. L’ultima gloria di Venezia, published by Marsilio, is an opportunity to honor a special moment in the artistic history of the Serenissima. It recalls that season of cultural revival in 1815 with the return from Paris of the four horses of San Marco, the symbolic work of the city.

In the first large part of the catalog, you can find a series of essays:

from the general framework provided by Fernando Mazzocca, Canova, Cicognara and Hayez
the protection of heritage and the promotion of contemporary art
Cicognara: L’Omaggio delle Provincie Venete alla Maestà di Carolina Augusta imperatrice d’Austria by Roberto De Feo
The Didactics of the Academy between 1808 and 1820. The new course of Cicognara, Diedo and Selva by Marina Manfredi, “An immense hall of great ancient works of art”.
The hall of public functions and its first exhibition layout by Giulio Manieri Elia
La Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo – Da Pantheon delle glorie veneziane a museo della scultura by Antonella Bellin and Elena Catra.
Art publishing in Venice in the first half of the nineteenth century by Leopoldo Cicognara and Antonio Diedo by Isabella Collavizza
Each contribution in this large section is accompanied by images and concluded by a detailed set of notes.

The second part of the catalog is dedicated to the works on display and is divided into ten sections, each introduced by a brief essay complete with a bibliographical note that contextualizes and explains the exhibition’s juxtapositions and retraces, in their succession, the historical and artistic period that the exhibition evokes:

The Glorious and Controversial Return of the Works of Art Requisitioned by Napoleon: The Horses of San Marco and the Young Egioco;
Cicognara patron and promoter of the arts. Friendship and collaboration with Canova. The common trust in the young Hayez;
The Homage of the Venetian Provinces. An extraordinary collection of contemporary works of art for the court of Vienna.
The Legacy of Giuseppe Bossi. The arrival of Leonardo’s and Raphael’s drawings in Venice; V) Masters and students of the Academy between Venice and Rome.
Byron in Venice and the fascination for Canova’s Elena. Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi and Giustina Renier, queens of the intellectual salons.
The myth of Canova, national glory and universal icon
Hayez, true heir of Canova, creates Romanticism and abandons Venice for Milan. The catalog concludes with the apparatuses relative to the sections of works exposed and the chronology.