NEOCLASSICAL FLAVOR, Exhibition Ca 'Rezzonico - Museum of the Venetian eighteenth century, Venice

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NEOCLASSICAL FLAVOR:

The Cicognara Album

From 26 September to 12 January 2026

Ca 'Rezzonico - Museum of the Venetian eighteenth century

Dorsoduro, 3136, Venice

Closed now: open at 10:00

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The Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of the Foundation Musei Civici di Venezia preserves an extraordinary testimony of neoclassical art and culture in Italy. It is the Album Cicognara, named after its owner, Count Leopoldo Cicognara (Ferrara, 1767 - Venice, 1834), one of the most fascinating personalities of his time. After a youth spent studying humanities and traveling for training throughout the Peninsula, he immediately joined the Cisalpine Republic, of which he was a member of the legislative body. In 1808, he became president of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, a position he held even after the fall of Napoleon, until 1826. A cultured and brilliant man, particularly active in the cultural politics of the city and beyond, during his tenure at the Venetian institution he published his main works, including the monumental History of Sculpture and The most prominent buildings of Venice. To him are due leading initiatives, such as the arrangement of the Galleries of the Academy, which were taking shape at that time with the arrival of paintings from the religious buildings suppressed by Napoleonic decree. The close friendship with the artists of his time is evidenced by this album, a sort of liber amicorum composed of 81 sheets. We find all the names of Italian Neoclassicism: Vincenzo Camuccini, Andrea Appiani, Giuseppe Bossi, the young Francesco Hayez; but also French artists such as François-Marius Granet, Lancelot-Théodore Turpin de Crissé, and Louis Léopold Robert. Six drawings belong to a lifelong friend: Antonio Canova, whom Cicognara was a passionate admirer of. The drawings were originally bound in an album kept in a sumptuous case decorated with bronze friezes framing ancient cameos and, in the center, a delightful miniature with a View of Venice. The sheets document all graphic techniques and every possible subject. There are pencil drawings, pen drawings, colored chalks, and watercolors depicting views, portraits, landscapes, genre scenes, animals, sacred and profane compositions. We find preparatory studies for major works, or finished drawings executed specifically for Cicognara. Overall, a unique work, considering both the political and cultural role of the collector, and the number of artists present, representing all the artistic schools of the period.

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	opens - closes	last entry
monday	10:00 - 18:00
tuesday	Closed now
wednesday	10:00 - 18:00
thursday	10:00 - 18:00
friday	10:00 - 18:00
saturday	10:00 - 18:00
sunday	10:00 - 18:00

NEOCLASSICAL FLAVOR:

The Cicognara Album

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