While following the life of Giacomo Casanova is a fascinating journey into the era of this multifaceted figure, a paradigm of eighteenth-century Venice, contextualizing him with drawings and paintings that reconstruct the historical and artistic landscape of Venice at the time means evoking those years with a cultural project that speaks not only of Casanova but also of his city. A vibrant, vibrant city, where theatrical, musical, and dance performances, as well as gambling halls and entertainment venues, made it a major European cultural center.
Which brought many travelers of the time to visit Venice, and in many cases to stay for long periods in the lagoon city. Among the many who this year wanted to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Casanova, there is also the Cini Foundation. Two proposals: the first, Casanova in Venice, Cini Palace; the second, Casanova and Europe. A play in several acts., on the island of San Giorgio. They are open until March 3rd.
Casanova in Venice
In the Gallery of Palazzo Cini, in San Vio, they are almost a hundred works on display, including drawings and paintings. They focus on Giacomo Casanova and his century, of which the Venetian is one of the most significant representatives. The exhibition reconstructs the cultural ferment of the Venetian context of the time through the reading of Casanova's storyIn addition to prestigious loans from important Venetian, national, and international collections and museums, the Foundation wanted to commemorate this anniversary with Vittorio Cini's documents and collections: paintings, correspondence, drawings, furnishings, and archives.
The result is an exhibition that aims to explore that character and that century through the eyes of the passionate collector Vittorio Cini, and in his Palazzo. At the heart of the exhibition is the album – 39 sheets – of caricatures by Anton Maria Zanetti the ElderIt was acquired by Vittorio Cini in 1969, and a "twin" album exists, once owned by Joseph Smith, the English consul to the Venetian Republic, and now housed in the British royal collections at Windsor Castle. A replica, owned by Francesco Algarotti, is also on display, now at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. On display works by Canaletto, Francesco and Antonio Guardi, Pietro Longhi, Rosalba Carriera, Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, by Gianbattista, Giandomenico and Lorenzo Tiepolo, by Bartolomeo Nazari and by Giovanni Battista PiazzettaArtistic testimonies of a city and a century, an extraordinary panorama of the eighteenth century told through works that are rarely exhibited to the public.
Casanova and Europe. A play in several acts.
The second chapter of the exhibition project dedicated by the Cini Foundation to Giacomo Casanova is curious and surprising. It is hosted in the Sala Carnelutti and the Piccolo Teatro dell'Island of San Giorgio MaggioreIt was created in collaboration with the Fondazione Teatro La Fenice in Venice and with the participation of all the Institutes and Study Centres of the Giorgio Cini Foundation. Here, Europe becomes a theater, and the scenography is a journey through the Foundation's works, materials, and historical documents. A scenic machine.A story with Europe as its perspective and Venice as its point of view, both experiences of Casanova in his search for common values in different cultures. A narrative journey where the common thread is Casanova's interests, his relationships, and the themes he addressed as a writer, even in his novels. Memories, the places he visited and the great European cities.
The visitor is provided with a lantern, because this is a A path to explore. Discover details, mechanisms, maps, documents, and visions.You pass through nocturnal streets, mirrored rooms, a wunderkammer of objects, paintings and mysteries, between the vertigo of the Piombi roof and the puppet theatres that brought the theatre into the living rooms.
From room to room there are ten doors that mark the acts of the Opera being staged. a journey where you can encounter historical materials from the Foundation's collections. Including precious books on esotericism, rare puppet theatres, Nino Rota's scores for the Casanova of Fellini, the precious engravings of the Invented prisons by Piranesi.
(Photo credits: Cini Foundation press office)
