Francesco Guardi

1793 – 1993: The Institute of Art History at the Giorgio Cini Foundation has always focused on the art of the Veneto and could on no account allow the bicentenary of Francesco Guardi’s death to go by without a commemorative exhibition. Beyond the constraints of pure philology and historiographic discussion that continue to fester around the artist’s development and identity, it is necessary, above all, to exemplify Guardi’s sheer artistic greatness and originality. He is, after all, the last great painter of a prolific and auspicious century, and his death, which practically coincides with the fall of the Republic, has taken on a somewhat symbolic meaning. It is with Guardi that the history that gave a face to Veneto art and an irrefutable identity to the image of the Republic ends.
The Giorgio Cini Foundation has already addressed the work of other 18th-century artists in exhibitions that are still remembered for the quality of the work they brought together and for the breadth of the various phases and techniques they managed to present for each artist. This exhibition takes a similar stance. Alongside significant paintings (views, capriccios, festivals), it displays an exceptional group of large drawings which reflect the same aptness, sensitivity, naturalness, movement and atmospheric vibration as the artist’s paintings. The choice of works is highly selective. In certain respects, it represents the height of a progressive exploration of the figure of Francesco Guardi that was begun by Giuseppe Fiocco and continued through the efforts of Rodolfo Pallucchini, to which the Institute of Art History made a significant contribution in the exhibition of drawings by Canaletto and Guardi held in 1962.

Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
28 August – 21 November 1993

Information
Institute of Art History
Island of San Giorgio Maggiore – 30124 Venice
tel. +39 041 2710230
fax +39 041 5205842
e-mail: arte@cini.it

Thanks to Assicurazioni Generali Spa, Consorzio Venezia Nuova, "La Repubblica", "La Nuova Venezia", Zitelle Spa