The major exhibition Canaletto, Van Wittel, Bellotto Il Gran Teatro delle città. Capolavori dalle Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica is open to the public from Saturday 30 November 2024 to Sunday 30 March 2025. The exhibition is promoted by Fondazione CRC and Intesa Sanpaolo in the spaces of the Monumental Complex of San Francesco in Cuneo. The exhibition project is realised in collaboration with the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Rome and with the organisational support of MondoMostre.
Curated by Paola Nicita and Yuri Primarosa, of the National Galleries of Ancient Art, the exhibition adheres to the museum's project Le Gallerie Nazionali nel mondo (The National Galleries in the World) and offers an unprecedented insight into the representation of urban scenes in Rome and Venice in the 18th century through the works of three undisputed masters of landscape painting: Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, Gaspar Van Wittel and Bernardo Bellotto, joined by the works of the painter Giovanni Paolo Pannini from Piacenza.
The exhibition project, conceived especially for the Cuneo venue, brings together twelve masterpieces from the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Rome which explore and reinvent the image of cities in the age of the Grand Tour and enlightened cultural circles, at a time when the first stop on every cultural itinerary around Italy was Rome and the final destination coincided with Venice.
The portrayal of Venice is entrusted to the brushstrokes of Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, with four of his masterpieces on display in the exhibition. Baroque and 18th-century Rome is at the centre of the five landscapes by Gaspar Van Wittel featured in the exhibition. Van Wittel, an artist of Dutch origin active between the 17th and 18th centuries, is also the protagonist of the two works in the exhibition by Giovanni Paolo Pannini. Lastly, Bernardo Bellotto takes up the legacy of Canaletto, as his pupil and nephew, continuing the tradition and extending it beyond the borders of the Italian peninsula.
Holders of tickets to the exhibition are entitled to discounted admission to the four venues of Gallerie d'Italia until 30 June 2025