Venice: Museo Correr - Neoclassical Rooms - "Venere Italica" (Venus) by Antonio Canova

For our day out in Venice, Mike and I headed to Piazza San Marco. During our time there, we visited the Museo Correr, which is housed in the Procuratie buildings that once served as the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace). After exploring the museum's Imperial Rooms, Wunderkammer (''Collection of Wonders''), and Venetian Culture displays, we made our way back through the Neoclassical Rooms and Canova Collection exhibits on our way out.

Here, you can see a view of the building's Napoleonic Loggia and one of its centerpieces -- a plaster statue of Venere Italica (Italian Venus), which was sculpted by Antonio Canova circa 1804-1811. (This shot offers a closer view of the statue from the previous photo.)

Informational placards and the museum's website provided more details on the sculpture and the room's decoration; I've transcribed those descriptions below:

Canova, the Empire, the Glory: Creating the Myth
After working in Vienna on the funerary monument for Maria Christina of Austria, Canova began working in the Napoleonic field, since the aesthetic ideals he was championing had been adopted by Napoleon as a symbol of the Empire. The Bonaparte family commissioned him with numerous sculptures, including Paris (the plaster model of which is on display in the museum). He also sculpted works that had become famous before he even completed them in marble, some of which he repeated and varied: Venere Italica, Perseus, The Boxers, The Dancers, many funerary bas-reliefs, and the monument to Vittorio Alfieri in Santa Croce in Florence.

The Venus displayed here is a plaster cast of Canova's marble sculpture of the same work; the original is in the Galleria Palatina in Florence.

Napoleonic Loggia
With large windows overlooking St. Mark's Square, this loggia has a rich interior decor that is inspired by classical antiquity and comprises ancient grotesques and motifs based on the discoveries made in Pompeii. The overall scheme was the work of the painter Giuseppe Borsato, with figures painted by Pietro Moro. The first room, known as The Room of the Fine Arts, has a vaulted ceiling decorated with geometrical motifs and a central tondo of The Virtues Triumphing over Envy; in the corners are mythological figures and two chiaroscuro works with female figures and cherubs. On the wall are bands of decoration with grotesque motifs, musical instruments, and foliage. The wall of the St. Mark's Square side of the room is decorated with an allegory of two female figures and Cupid holding a small yoke; opposite are the figures of Truth, Justice, and Prudence flanked by monochrome trophies, and tondi with episodes from Roman history. In the upper part of the wall are eight monochrome tondi depicting The Arts, while the panels above the doors are decorated with allegories of Strength and Truth.

Taken on: August 27, 2016

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Sets appears in: • Italy + Riviera/Adriatic Cruise on Celebrity Constellation - August 2016 • Venice - August 2016

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