Antonio Canova Bicentenary, VIF’s tribute

A love for Antonio Canova is one of the driving forces behind VIF’s activities. Indeed, our Association’s tribute to the genius of the Possagno-born artist is remarkable.
The five rooms dedicated to him at the Museo Correr, and the four in the Palladian Wing of the Gallerie dell’Accademia, owe not only their existence but also the restoration of the works and their display to the generosity of our members since 2015.

The celebrations for the bicentenary of Canova’s death now offer an opportunity to recap our activities and to present new initiatives: these include the exhibition Canova e Venezia 1822-2022. Fotografie di Fabio Zonta (Canova and Venice 1822-2022. Photographs by Fabio Zonta), which opens on Friday 28 October in the Salone da Ballo (Ballroom) of the Museo Correr. The master’s sculpture is re-read and interpreted through the lens of a true artist of photography. The exhibition will close on 5 February 2023.

We also like to recall VIF’s involvement with the Museo Gypsotheca in Possagno, crowned by the exhibition of the plaster of George Washington in New York in 2018. The friendship that binds VIF to the Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova in Possagno is a bond born ten years ago when our association began an extraordinary adventure in the name of Canova that, like circles in water, has expanded to involve the precious treasure chest that is Possagno.

We stepped off with… not the right foot, but rather with the ‘right feet’ because one of our first interventions was the restoration of the two archaeological finds placed at the entrance to the Gypsotheca. The process set in motion now continues with VIF’s participation in the project to create exhibition spaces in the Ala Gemin (Gemin Wing) in the year in which we rightfully pay tribute to the sublime art of Antonio Canova.