Venice: Museo Correr - Neoclassical Rooms - "Daedalus and Icarus" 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).
We began our self-guided tour of the museum in the Imperial Rooms, then continued through the Neoclassical Rooms. Here, you can see a view of the Sala da Cena (Dining Hall) and its centerpiece -- Dedalo e Icaro (Daedalus and Icarus), which was sculpted by Antonio Canova circa 1777.
An informational placard provided more details on the sculpture, while the museum's website provided a few details on the room's decoration. I've transcribed those descriptions below:
Canova and Venice: Daedalus and Icarus
This marble group of Daedalus and Icarus is one of Antonio Canova's earliest masterpieces. The work was commissioned by the procurator Pietro Vettor Pisani for his Palazzo Pisani Moretta overlooking the Grand Canal. Just 20 years old, with amazing genius, Canova achieved a suggestive contrast between the classical model (Icarus) and the characteristically Venetian 18th-century pictorial naturalism, inspired by Giambattista Piazzetta's ''heads'' (Daedalus).
This skillful composition links the two figures around an ''empty'' void, enclosed circularly by the thread that goes between Icarus's wing and Daedalus's hand. Expressing a form of emotional and dramatic communication, with his face contracted by doubt, the father Daedalus is attaching the wings -- made of feathers held together by wax -- to the arms of his young son Icarus, who is humoring him in all tranquility, looking forward to the joy of flight that will allow him to flee the labyrinth and the threat of the Minotaur.
The treatment of the marble surface is vibrant and still a long way away from the polished purity that was to become a characteristic of Canova. An eloquent trademark of the sculptor, the mallet and chisel lying at the feet of the elderly architect place Canova in continuity with Daedalus.
Presented at the ''Fiera della Sensa'' (Ascension) in 1777 where it met with resounding success, young Canova earned 100 gold zecchins for this work, which he used to travel to Rome for the very first time. It was there that his experience of the ancient and the support of a variety of different people were to result in his decisive turn to the classical and his rise to international renown.
Sala da Cena (Dining Hall)
The Dining Hall of the palace has maintained its original neoclassical decor completely intact. The ceiling fresco depicts Olympus and is the work of Giovanni Carlo Bevilacqua; the tondi with stories of Cupid and Psyche are by Pietro Moro. On the walls, between grisaille decoration against a gold background, are small tondi with the months of the year and the signs of the zodiac. In the lower band of decoration are tondi with views of the capitals of the Lombardy-Veneto regions. Above the doors are pairs of putti by Sebastiano Santi; dating from 1824-25, they allude both to the seasons of the year and to the childhood of Apollo and Diana.
Venice: Museo Correr - Neoclassical Rooms - "Daedalus and Icarus" 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).
We began our self-guided tour of the museum in the Imperial Rooms, then continued through the Neoclassical Rooms. Here, you can see a view of the Sala da Cena (Dining Hall) and its centerpiece -- Dedalo e Icaro (Daedalus and Icarus), which was sculpted by Antonio Canova circa 1777.
An informational placard provided more details on the sculpture, while the museum's website provided a few details on the room's decoration. I've transcribed those descriptions below:
Canova and Venice: Daedalus and Icarus
This marble group of Daedalus and Icarus is one of Antonio Canova's earliest masterpieces. The work was commissioned by the procurator Pietro Vettor Pisani for his Palazzo Pisani Moretta overlooking the Grand Canal. Just 20 years old, with amazing genius, Canova achieved a suggestive contrast between the classical model (Icarus) and the characteristically Venetian 18th-century pictorial naturalism, inspired by Giambattista Piazzetta's ''heads'' (Daedalus).
This skillful composition links the two figures around an ''empty'' void, enclosed circularly by the thread that goes between Icarus's wing and Daedalus's hand. Expressing a form of emotional and dramatic communication, with his face contracted by doubt, the father Daedalus is attaching the wings -- made of feathers held together by wax -- to the arms of his young son Icarus, who is humoring him in all tranquility, looking forward to the joy of flight that will allow him to flee the labyrinth and the threat of the Minotaur.
The treatment of the marble surface is vibrant and still a long way away from the polished purity that was to become a characteristic of Canova. An eloquent trademark of the sculptor, the mallet and chisel lying at the feet of the elderly architect place Canova in continuity with Daedalus.
Presented at the ''Fiera della Sensa'' (Ascension) in 1777 where it met with resounding success, young Canova earned 100 gold zecchins for this work, which he used to travel to Rome for the very first time. It was there that his experience of the ancient and the support of a variety of different people were to result in his decisive turn to the classical and his rise to international renown.
Sala da Cena (Dining Hall)
The Dining Hall of the palace has maintained its original neoclassical decor completely intact. The ceiling fresco depicts Olympus and is the work of Giovanni Carlo Bevilacqua; the tondi with stories of Cupid and Psyche are by Pietro Moro. On the walls, between grisaille decoration against a gold background, are small tondi with the months of the year and the signs of the zodiac. In the lower band of decoration are tondi with views of the capitals of the Lombardy-Veneto regions. Above the doors are pairs of putti by Sebastiano Santi; dating from 1824-25, they allude both to the seasons of the year and to the childhood of Apollo and Diana.