On 10 November 2013 Canaletto returns, 270 years later, to the place where he created one of his most fascinating works: "The entrance to the Grand Canal from the Basilica della Salute". The magic of San Gregorio, the magic of the best Canaletto, the magic of auteur cinema and above all the eternal magic of Venice. Together, to offer a unique experience, to be lived.
The great landscape artist's masterpiece will return exactly where it is fascinating to think that the artist conceived and created it. He will return to the enchanting loggia from which he, with the optical camera, drew the precise lines of the architecture which between 1740 and 1745 he transposed into his famous canvas. And these are simply magnificent architectures: the baroque marvel of white marble created by Longhena as a votive offering of the city for the health rediscovered after the umpteenth plague, further on the Magazzini del Sale and the Punta della Dogana and, on the other bank of the Gran Canal, Palazzo Ducale and Riva degli Schiavoni, on which the view is lost to infinity in a tight and highly detailed rhythm of architectural details.
All against the backdrop of a city teeming with life, meetings and commercial activities. Noblemen and merchants swarm from the Doge's Palace, boatmen and house gondoliers pull up to the bank of the Basilica, at the Punta della Dogana the sacks of salt, the barrels of wine and the cotton are collected in the warehouses. It is the extraordinary everyday life of a very lively city and still a great capital. Illuminated by an ultramarine sky that is reflected on a turquoise green water full of refractions of light and color.
Canaletto tackles better than any other a problem common to all painters of view: embracing with a single glance what the eye fails to understand. And this oil represents an absolute and emblematic synthesis that is reflected in an extremely harmonious and unitary composition with such a daring cut, that it will not be found even in the best nineteenth-century "vedutists", from Ippolito Caffi to the Impressionists.
“The entry into the Grand Canal from the Basilica della Salute” fascinated Lady Lucas and Dingwall, its first owner. The work was subsequently purchased by Henry Grey, Duke of Kent. In April 1970 it is purchased from current private ownership at Sotheby's in London. Before returning temporarily "to his home", Canaletto's oil was exhibited, among others, in Madrid (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum), Rome (Vittoriano), Milan (Palazzo Reale) and Paris (Maillol Museum) .
In ways never before experienced in Europe, for the almost fifty days of exhibition, around this magnificent picture, what is proposed is an experience that is not a simple visit, but an encounter, an intimate, emotional suggestion. An experience that begins, and accompanies us, right from the evocative, magical spaces of the medieval Abbey of San Gregorio and which culminates in the splendid corner room with a unique view of the world over the Basilica della Salute, the Grand Canal, the Basin of San Marco. Hypnotic place, full of dreamy magic. Never open to the public for years, this room will welcome Canaletto's canvas with an incomparable comparison between canvas and urban space, between unreal and real, between history and contemporaneity.
Just entering this hieratic and severe place, immersing yourself in the silence that recalls that generations of Benedictines lived and prayed here for almost seven centuries, is a strong emotion in itself, but even more so if experienced and savored in the evening or at night . Yes, because Canaletto can be admired 24/XNUMX. Even alone, for an entire hour, or with a few friends. In fact, the extraordinary exclusivity of this "encounter" with the opera will be underlined by the fact that access will be allowed for a maximum number of eight people for each time slot, and only after booking online on the dedicated website www.canalettovenezia.it .
To introduce the work and its Master is a video, a true arthouse film made by Francesco Patierno, director and screenwriter, renowned author of documentaries, video clips and commercials. His first film "Pater Familias" was invited to compete at the Berlin Film Festival and in more than fifty international events. Since then a succession of successes, which have won important awards in Italy and abroad. Together with Tonino Zera, he will take care of setting up the exhibition/emotional itinerary. Zera, expert production designer, has worked during his career with established Italian and foreign directors including Liliana Cavani, Gabriele Muccino, Carlo Carlei, Spike Lee, Sam Mendes, Dennis Hopper, Giuseppe Tornatore. He has received four nominations for the David di Donatello for best production design for the films: “The Unknown Woman” by Giuseppe Tornatore, “Hotel Meina” by Carlo Lizzani, “The First Beautiful Thing” by Paolo Virzì and “Gli angeli del male” by Michael Placido.
Maurizio Calvesi, director of photography and internationally renowned professional, filmed the details of the painting with an innovative technique in very high definition which will be proposed as an in-depth multimedia experience, through which it will be possible to experience an unprecedented and very detailed reading of the work.
10 from November to December 27 2013
