Padova in Evidenza

A great exhibition soon to be opened at Palazzo Zabarella is "Faces from the Nineteenth Century", or portraits in their widest meaning: from the image of a face to the whole figure, from family groups to larger groups of unrelated people portrayed in official, social, or private occasions. Briefly, the paintings propose the whole kaleidoscope of a society experiencing an extremely fast and powerful transformation. The Nineteenth century was characterised by unimaginable social and political changes, which transformed mankind and the whole world. Artists recorded these changes, or even forestalled them in many instances. Canova and Modigliani were symbolically chosen to mark the beginning and the end of the exhibition pathway. The first witnesses the greatness of classicism; the second symbolizes the burst of innovations. A simple element suffices to understand how the artists of that century were forced to find new original ways to produce portraits: the coming on the scene of a new, competitive and stimulating medium - photography. The exhibition tells a truly Italian story without turning into autarky, rather the opposite. Italian artists lived in an environment of international exchanges, they influenced their foreign colleagues and were influenced in turn, they felt and confronted innovations: this, and much more, is told in this exhibition.