Image and scene

The exhibition Image and Scene, in collaboration with Civic Museums of Venice, the Amici della Fenice, Il Gazzettino di Venezia and the Teatro La Fenice Foundation, illustrates the work of two important artists, Giuseppe and Pietro Bertoja, father and son, from 1840 to 1902.
Giuseppe was the prototypical romantic set designer. He expressed the height of the Venetian school of theatre design, which began in the 17th century, making a name for himself as one of the greatest set designers of his era. While Giuseppe was in charge of set design at La Fenice, five of Verdi’s operas premiered there, he himself producing the memorable sets for ‘Attila’, ‘Rigoletto’, ‘La Traviata’ and ‘Simon Boccanegra’. His son Pietro, who begin collaborating with his father at an early age, is known for having opposed the crisis in set design brought on in the 18th century by the commercial production of the ‘case d’arte’. In the face of rampant serialisation, he responded with the highly expressive pictorial technique seen in important stagings at Teatro La Fenice such as Jules Massenet’s ‘Il re di Lahore’, Arrigo Boito ‘Mefistofele’ and Pietro Mascagni’s ‘Guglielmo Ratcliff’.
The skill of the Bertojas is evidenced in the quality of the drawings and sketches on display in this exhibition. In all, there are around 100 drawings (documenting about 45 operas and ballets), most of which are on loan from the collections of the Civic Museums of Venice and were recently restored by the Amici della Fenice and ‘Il Gazzettino’ of Venice. There are also various sketches from private collections as well as important autograph documents (by Verdi and Giuseppe and Pietro Bertoja) from the archives of the Teatro La Fenice, a model of the 19th-century stage, and some pieces of the original sets from Teatro la Fenice’s 1986 staging of ‘Attila’, designed by Emanuele Luzzati on the basis of original drawings by Giuseppe Bertoja.
The exhibition is accompanied by a volume that catalogues about 300 of the drawings made by the two artists for the Venetian theatre (published by Marsilio).

Venice, Palazzo Cini at San Vio
9 May – 30 June 1999

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