After almost five centuries since its creation in 1542, the Gallerie dell’Accademia present, on Tuesday, August 28, 2024, the extraordinary and unprecedented complete reassembly of the wooden ceiling painted by Giorgio Vasari for Palazzo Corner Spinelli in Venice.

In the year of the celebrations of the 450th anniversary of the death of the painter and art historian from Arezzo (Arezzo, 1511 - Florence, 1574), the complete and, until a few years ago, unthinkable reconstruction of the Corner ceiling is proposed, which had been dispersed in its component elements, dismembered already by the end of the 18th century, and which, starting from the 1980s, were reacquired, in Italy and abroad, by the initiative of the Ministry of Culture and the Venetian institutes, primarily by the Gallerie dell’Accademia.

It is an exceptional work, first of all for the enormous effort made by the Ministry and the Gallerie dell’Accademia, which, in collaboration with public entities and private foundations, have launched an important research and fundraising campaign to recover the dispersed panels. Secondly, for the intrinsic and iconological value of the work, an absolute masterpiece that is compared with authors such as Tintoretto, Titian, and Veronese, who take up some ideas and figures, facilitating the influence that Central Italian Mannerist art had on the great Venetian artists of the 16th century.

The Gallerie present the work, unprecedented as a whole and restored in its parts for the occasion, in a room entirely dedicated along the Palladian loggia and exhibit it strictly on the ceiling, in an immersive environment that carefully and lovingly reproduces the room of Palazzo Corner for which it was intended, taking the visitor back in time.

Created in 1542 on commission from Giovanni Corner, belonging to one of the most influential and noble families of Venice, the work consists of nine painted panels: the five main ones depict the Allegories of Virtues (Charity, Faith, Hope, Justice, and Patience), while on the four smaller corner compartments, the artist paints Putti with tablets.