Venice from Nation to Myth

The exhibition has grown out of a project sponsored by the Veneto Region for the bicentenary of the fall of the Venetian Republic. It has been organised by the Institute of Art History at the Giorgio Cini Foundation. On display are 150 highly-evocative works by renowned ‘Venetian’ painters who portrayed the public life of the Venetian state and society through depictions of its major figures and events as well as of its symbols and allegories of power. Works by Carpaccio, Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto are accompanied by masterpieces of sculpture and by later works by Canaletto, Tiepolo and Guardi painted just before the fall of the Venetian Republic, the close of that historical millennium.
History notwithstanding, the ‘myth’ of Venice has continued to regenerate and to expand through the city’s timeless charm. This is attested by artists ranging from Turner to Bonington, Ruskin and Whistler, from the German Romantics to the Impressionists and the Fauves. It is reaffirmed by the Americans (represented by numerous, rare evocations of the ‘sites’ of the no-longer-capital city) and the Italians (from Hayez to Boccioni and the later decades of the 20th century).
The exhibition was curated by Alessandro Bettagno with the collaboration of leading experts from Italy and abroad. Special thanks go to the private collectors and major museums world-wide who have generously lent their works in an effort that has re-affirmed the values which Venice continues to embody and of which it is a timeless symbol.

Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
31 August – 30 November 1997

Information
Institute of Art History
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