The Antonio Canova Gypsotheca Museum in Possagno opens the Canova and power exhibition to the public on 18 March . The Giovanni Battista Sommariva collection, conceived by Vittorio Sgarbi and curated by Moira Mascotto and Elena Catra, which pays homage to the great master by reconstructing the prestigious relationships that the artist had with the greatest exponents of the political and cultural panorama of the time, highlighting the indissoluble bond existing between art and power. Sought after and admired on an international scale, Antonio Canova had in fact as clients the most influential personalities of contemporary Europe: sovereigns, popes and nobles from the various European courts up to the United States of America.

The exhibition, which will remain open until 3 September, investigates for the first time the complex figure of Giovanni Battista Sommariva and his precious collection which included nine works, five of which are important marbles, by Canova himself as well as those by Francesco Hayez, Bertel Thorvaldsen and Pierre Paul Prud'hon, some of which exceptionally gathered for the occasion at the Antonio Canova Gypsotheca Museum in Possagno.

Also extraordinary is the presence of the marble work depicting the Apollino , from the Municipal Art Collections of Bologna, exhibited for the first time to the public in all its renewed beauty after the restoration supported by the Canova Museum and carried out by the Opificio of the hard stones of Florence. The paintings and sculptures from public and private collections, both national and international, also give prestige to the exhibition.

The itinerary of the exhibition is divided into three sections , the first of which is dedicated to the relationships that Canova had with the protagonists of the political, cultural and economic power of the Lombard circles. Among these are Napoleon and some members of the Bonaparte family, his friend Giuseppe Bossi, up to the wealthy collector Giovanni Battista Sommariva. The second section of the exhibition is dedicated to the refined patron of the arts, a leading figure in the political world between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and Napoleon's trusted man, which explores the extraordinary relationship that bound him to Canova throughout his life, united by a love for the art and a passion for collecting. Finally, the third section of the exhibition allows visitors to admire some works related to Canova's Roman workshop, thus revealing the organization of this industrious atelier, the forge of those masterpieces now preserved in the most important museums in the world.