Archives of Venetian painting. Ettore Tito (1859 – 1941)

This exhibition traces the career of Ettore Tito through approximately 100 works, including numerous drawings and over 70 paintings (most of which are fairly large). A Venetian master who lived through the struggle between tradition and the avant-garde, Tito gained international success and recognition but perhaps fell victim to prejudice, if not into oblivion, amidst more lasting cultural shifts.
Ettore Tito’s extraordinary sensitivity to colour is especially evident in his views and landscapes of the Venetian lagoon and in his peopled scenes (such as the opening of the new bell tower in St Mark’s Square). His figurative work and his portraiture are of equal impact and vision, as attested by his famous portraits of people from Venice or elsewhere (Albertini, Volpi and others) and the particularly evocative and elegant portrayals of women, or the nudes painted in a style somewhere between realism and symbolism.
Tito was the star of many Venice Biennales (1909, 1912, 1914, 1922). He was also chosen, being, perhaps, the only artist qualified, to re-create the Tiepolo ceiling at the church of the Scalzi, which had been destroyed during the First World War (model on display).
This exhibition marks a shift in the expositive programme of the Giorgio Cini Foundation, which, for almost fifty years, has concentrated mainly on the most important centuries in the history of Veneto art. With this effort, the Foundation has chosen to apply the tools of a more knowledgeable and open criticism to a phase in the evolution of Venetian art, beginning with the unification of Italy, that has often been overlooked or misunderstood and deserves an impartial historical analysis.
The exhibition was curated by Alessandro Bettagno with the assistance of Fernando Mazzoca, Anna Mazzanti (recent studies), Giorgio Fossaluzza (archival research), and the authors who contributed to the catalogue (Electa).

Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
5 September – 29 November 1998

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