Lett

era

da S

an G

iorg

io

Year IX, n° 17. Six-monthly publication. September 2007 – February 2008Spedizione in A.P. Art. 2 Comma 20/C Legge 662/96 DC VE. Tassa pagata / Taxe perçue

Programmes (September 2007 – February 2008)

Editorial

Main Future Activities

Exhibition Rosalba “prima pittrice de l’Europa”

Hello, Mr. Fogg! Round the world in music on fifty-two Saturdays

Inauguration of the exhibition The Miracle of Cana. Originality through re-production

I Dialoghi di San Giorgio Inheriting the past. Tradition, translation, betrayal, innovation

Third World Conference on the Future of Science: Energy

International Study Conference Artistic bronze production in Venice and Northern Italyduring the Renaissance

International Study Conference Forms and currents of Western Esotericism

Course Interpreting Luigi Nono’s works for live electronics and tape

International Workshop The new forms of cultural co-operation in the globalised world

Polyphonies “in viva voce” 11 Seminar Female Polyphonies from GeorgiaConcert by the ensemble Mzetamtze

International Seminar of Ethnomusicology Visual ethnomusicology

Books at San Vio

CollectionsRecent acquisitions by the Institute of Art History Library

Projects and researchThe Wedding at Cana facsimile

Presences on San GiorgioPaolo Veronese on San Giorgio

Publications

Contacts

I

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

10

11

12

12

13

14

16

21

24

III – IV

Contents

3

“It’s a pity that you could not have spoken beneath the light and colour of one of the

most prodigious colourist miracles of Venetian painting – The Wedding at Cana by Paolo

Veronese. Here it was in ideal harmony, or rather inspired symbiosis, with the composed

architecture designed by Palladio for this Refectory. Veronese the painter, Palladio the

architect, and André Malraux their poet”. This was how Vittorio Cini complimented

André Malraux on his enlightening introduction to “The Secret of the Great Venetians”,

a speech given at the Giorgio Cini Foundation on 17 May 1958 to officially open a series

of seminars entitled “The Venetian Civilisation of the Baroque Age”.The feeling of loss

after Napoleon’s commissars had removed the famous painting is something that can only

be fully understood when you are standing in front of the bare wall in the Palladian

Refectory, stripped of its masterpiece. Over the last hundred years, that feeling has driven

many leading figures in Italian culture from Canova to Branca to attempt to retrieve the

“colourist miracle” and place it back in its original setting.Today a previously apparently

impossible undertaking has been completed and the “symbiosis” so deeply mourned by

Vittorio Cini can finally be admired again. The leading players in this “miracle” are the

visionary English artist, Adam Lowe, and his assistants in the Factum Arte workshop.

They have made a one-to-one scale facsimile of The Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese,

reproducing the harmony of the composition, the detail of the paint and the variety of

colours. The result cannot be distinguished with the naked eye from the original in the

Louvre. On 11 September 2007 this incredible feat of technology and the imagination

will be unveiled to the public, and the inspiring space of the Palladian Refectory will once

again be enjoyed in its entirety. The museum of the Louvre played a key role in this

remarkable recovery operation. Symbolically, the project completes the large-scale

restoration works on the monumental complex on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore,

begun by Vittorio Cini over fifty years ago. By a nice coincidence, the work will

be unveiled in the year of the 30th anniversary of the founder’s death. Our next

commitment will be to promote the further development of the island, fully respecting its

original vocation. This objective includes the projects for the Branca School, the

completion of the large library in the Manica Lunga, the creation of extra exhibition

spaces and the construction of a new residence, providing accommodation for students

and researchers who will come to the Giorgio Cini Foundation from all over the world to

enhance their education.

Editorial

President

Giovanni Bazoli

1 September – 28 OctoberExhibition Rosalba “prima pittrice de l’Europa”Venice, Palazzo Cini at San Vio

Following on from the international conference this spring, the Giorgio Cini Foundation

and the Veneto Region pay further homage to Rosalba Carriera with an exhibition

wholly dedicated to the artist to mark the 250th anniversary of the death. The aim of

the exhibition is to present her art – she has never been the subject of a one-woman

show – to a broad international public and at the same time further knowledge about

a long career still full of problematic aspects. The exhibition will feature pastels, minia-

tures and drawings from major private and public European museums and collections.

Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757) was the most celebrated Italian artist of her day.

Everyone concurred about the excellence of portraits – from English Lords to princes

of the empire. For almost half a Century all the European courts sought her services.

Yet despite the frequent invitations and generous offers, apart from three brief periods

spent in Modena, in Paris and in Vienna, she chose to stay in Venice, where she worked

constantly throughout her life. Consequently, her strong link with her Veneto home-

land is one of the central topics in the exhibition, especially since Rosalba made some

of the most perceptive portraits of leading figures in 18th-Century Venetian society. She

also made a key contribution to the development of French portrait painting. She was

an unsurpassed interpreter of the ideals of grace and elegance in an age when the

“happy life” entered the collective imagination and was identified with the ancien régime.

Rosalba’s excellence in the artistic field is not the only reason for celebrating her.

She was also at the centre of a network of European relations involving sovereigns,

members of the aristocracy, connoisseurs and art lovers. All English, French or

German-speaking nobles passing through Venice wished to have a portrait made by

Rosalba Carriera, or bought some of her miniatures. As far as the miniatures are con-

cerned, the exhibition will present for the first time an extraordinary selection of

paintings of great quality, including the morceau de réception sent from the Accademia

di San Luca in Rome.

Today, however, Rosalba’s fame with the wider public still mainly rests on her pastels. A

new technique meant the work could be completed rapidly, thus avoiding long boring

sittings in pose. All of this meant much more naturalness. But through the new media

– coloured dust only takes a puff of air to be blown away – the painter grasped both the

fleeting grace and transience of appearances. In the gentlest possible way Rosalba

suggested that the reality of each individual, the truth of each face, was ephemeral.

Main Future Activities

4 Main Future Activities

1. Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of George, First Marquess of Townshend, Milan, FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano

Cover of the first Supercharge record, 1976, photograph by Eric Meola

5

In her pastels Rosalba takes us to the threshold of interior life. Some of her most

emblematic portraits are on show in the exhibition. Her faces are not easily forgotten,

such as that of the prelate of Casa Le Blond (Venice, Accademia). He is permeated by

a kind of intelligent thoughtfulness, the lips slightly stretched into a bitter twist in a

grey-on-grey portrait that is a masterpiece of chromatic sobriety. But Rosalba Carriera

also portrayed herself. She did so several times throughout her career and more

often than any other Venetian painter. The series of self-portraits form an impressive

sequence, directly illustrating her development towards a more introspective style,

increasingly focused on the face, almost seen in isolation. In the first self-portrait, dating

from 1708-1709 (courtesy of the Gallery of the Uffizi, Florence) she is smiling with a

rose in her hair, while showing a newly painted portrait of her beloved sister Giovanna.

The exhibition has been able to rely on the practical collaboration of several insti-

tutions in Italy and abroad, including the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, the

Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, the Munich Residenz Museum and the Bayerische

National Museum, Bavaria, the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, the Musée des Beaux-Arts,

Dijon, the Accademia di San Luca, Rome, the Sabauda Gallery and the Palazzo Madama

Museum, Turin, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan, the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, the

Ca’ Rezzonico 18th-Century Venice Museum, the Accademia Galleries, Venice, and

the Civic Museums of Padua, Treviso, and Ala Ponzone Gallery, Cremona.

1 September – 29 December 1

Hello, Mr. Fogg! Round the world on fifty-two Saturdaysidest Harmonia caelestis seu Melodiae musicae per decursumtotius anni adhibendae ad cultum humanae voluptatis acvenetiarum civitatisVenice, Palazzo Cini at San Vio

Hello, Mr. Fogg! continues the experiment in the form of a permanent “exhibition” at

the Palazzo Cini of recordings and films of rare and recherché music to be presented in

fifty-two afternoon sessions at 5.30 pm every Saturday. The voyage is dedicated to

exploring the monuments, roots, foliages, oases, bushes, shoots, cuttings, petals,

archetypes, models, monsters, seeds, grains, fragrances and moods of music worldwide

in an undefined but real historical period.

1 Sepember - Sicily Alfredo Casella: Suite op. 41 La Giara / Strauß – Huillet: Sicilia! 8 September -

New Mexico Sacred and profane folk music. Devotions and Bailes; 15 September - Amatrice Le ciaramelle

di Amatrice; 22 September - USA Songs from various immigrant enclaves; 29 September - Pratolino

Händel. Selection of opera arias for the Grand Prince: Vincer se stesso è la maggior vittoria; 6 October

- Peru Siglo de oro en el Nuevo mundo; 13 October - Vercelli Canti di mondine; 20 October - Itaca

Selections from Il Ritorno di Ulisse in patria by Claudio Monteverdi; 27 October - Dartford One plus one,

conferences and exhibitions

6

film by Jean-Luc Godard, Simpathy for the Devil; 3 November - Roma città occupata The Missa pro

pace in tempore belli by Alfredo Casella; 10 November - Bologna Messa per l’incoronazione di Carlo

Quinto; 17 November - Helsinki Saariaho: Nymphea; 24 November - Amiata (Tuscany) I Bei dei

Cardellini; 1 December - La Alberca (Salamanca) Alborade sagrade; 8 December - USA Stephen

Sondheim, Thomas “Fats” Waller, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and other American musicians

sing their songs; 15 December - Napoli - Montecatini Ruggero Leoncavallo, the complete piano

works; 22 December - Venice Gian Francesco Malipiero Magister Iosephus, St Mark’s cantata;

29 December - Novgorod La rosa di Novgorod Nino Rota, musical scenes from War and Peace.1 For updates, consult www.cini.it

11 SeptemberInauguration of the exhibition The Miracle of Cana. Originality through re-production Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

In conjunction with the unveiling of the facsimile of The Wedding at Cana in the

Palladian Refectory on San Giorgio Maggiore, an exhibition dedicated to the painting

will be held on the island. Entitled The Miracle of Cana. Originality through re-production,

the exhibition has been designed and curated by the Giorgio Cini Foundation Institute

of Art History and the Factum Arte atelier, Madrid, and made possible thanks to the

collaboration of the Musée du Louvre.

There are two main sections in the exhibition. The first explores the history and popularity

of Veronese’s painting through videos and the display of a large literary and icono-

graphic documentation consisting of ancient printed books and a series of copies or

works derived from The Wedding at Cana.

They include two major copies made at the end of the 16th Century and the early 17th

Century (now in the Vicenza Civic Museum and the Giorgio Cini Foundation) and

some engraved versions by Giovan Battista Vanni and John Baptist Jackson. Charles

Lebrun’s The Feast of the Pharisee with Mary Magdalene at Christ’s Feet will also be on

show. Two videos tell the history and recount the critical success of The Wedding at Cana.

Other items on show include ancient printed books, such as Vincenzo Maria Coronelli,

Veduta del refettorio di San Giorgio Maggiore, Marco Boschini, Le Carta del Navegar

pitoresco, Carlo Ridolfi, Le Maraviglie dell’Arte, and Anton Maria Zanetti, Della pittura

veneziana.

Curated by Factum Arte, the second section will illustrate all the various stages in the

creation of the facsimile through videos, images, panel presentations and the presence

of some of the instruments used to make the facsimile, such as the 3-D scanner, an

outline of the painting on a white background, the tiles used for the surface testing and

samples employed in colour comparisons. Part of this section will be dedicated to the

still unsolved greatly debated issue of the colour of the clothes of one of the figures in

Main Future Activities

Montage with The Wedding at Cana in its originalsetting

7conferences and exhibitions

the foreground. The facsimile is sponsored by Enel, Consorzio Venezia Nuova, Fondazione

Banco di Sicilia, S.Pellegrino and Casinò di Venezia.

The Miracle of Cana. Originality through re-production is a section in a large travelling

exhibition on the theme Facsimiles. Originality through (digital) reproduction, curated by

Bruno Latour and Adam Lowe, organised by Factum Arte in collaboration with the

Giorgio Cini Foundation. The exhibition will go to many world museums, including

the ZKM, Karlsruhe, and the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

12 – 14 SeptemberThe Dialoghi di San GiorgioInheriting the past. Tradition, translation, betrayal, innovationVenice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

People have always wondered how to give meaning, value and uses to traditions,

knowledge and artefacts handed down to them from previous generations. For us the

question is particularly obvious in the field of works of art. In the modern collective

imagination they have become the most precious legacy of the past. The ‘sanctuarization’

of art works thus cuts away their links with their traditions: the ‘original’ work acqui-

res a value per se for its uniqueness and the ‘aura’ associated with it. Subsequently, the

copy is divested of its etymon – whereby it was abundance and wealth – to become

an impoverished version and therefore the “fake” or “false” version of a “true” original.

The radical distinction between the original and the copy and the translation of this

dichotomy into terms of true and false has weakened the transmission of knowledge

– both formal and tacit. From time immemorial this has been based on repetition,

duplication and the reinterpretation of an original experience. The past will vanish, if

it is not reproduced, imitated and re-invented. Today, new technology is available for

reproducing historical items of all forms and nature, leading us to raise these questions

in a different way. The new intimacy with works of art created by these technologies

reveals unexpected aspects and potential, and in some cases allows us to study them

more freely and more creatively: by placing the work of art in the context for which

it was created, re-establishing the original conditions of its enjoyment or, conversely,

recreating it in another environment making it easier to ‘read’. How we inherit the

past is a crucial question not only in the world of art and art conservation, but also

in other fields, at the center of the contemporary debate on the subject. The mainte-

nance of ecosystems, for example, is taking on special importance. Here we can ask

exactly the same questions: is it possible and legitimate to artificially create an appro-

priate way of keeping a “natural” system alive? How far can the new technologies help

us maintain the character and balance of ecosystems by reinventing their constituent

elements and relations? Musicology – and especially ethnomusicology – is showing a

growing interest in the diachronic dimension of musical traditions and the problem

Stages in printing the facsimile of The Wedding atCana, Madrid, Factum Arte Atelier

8

of their relationship with the context in which they were created: how can an oral

music tradition survive and be re-elaborated in the present without losing its character?

The key issue thus lies in understanding how it is technically possible to revive the

past or ‘to let the past resonate’, avoiding at the same time fetishism and refusal,

slavish imitation and betrayal; and how, through comparisons, the practices used in

the different fields mentioned mutually can inform and enhance each other. At a

time of growing fundamentalism of all denominations, this comparative exercise focused

on understanding how we can inherit the past “well”, seems a decisive way of being

faithful to the calling of ‘I Dialoghi di San Giorgio’, aimed at encouraging exchanges

of views between experts from various disciplines and cultural traditions on issues of

crucial importance to contemporary society. The participants at the dialogues include:

Frederick Brenk, Paolo Fabbri, Steven Feld, Carlo Ginzburg, Joseph Koerner, Bruno

Latour, Adam Lowe, Pedro Memelsdorff, Richard Powers, Shirley Carol Strum, David

Western and Albena Yaneva.

19 – 22 SeptemberThird World Conference on the Future of Science: EnergyVenice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

The Third World Conference on the Future of Science will examine the immense

problem of future sources of energy, consonant with the Venice Charter’s declaration that

major goals of applied scientific research must be: – reduced use of fossil fuels – expanded

use of alternative energy sources. Following the tradition of past editions, the Conference

will last three days, gathering together in Venice speakers of international renown from

various scientific disciplines. They will be able to exchange views in a debate in which all

the participants will contribute to spreading and developing scientific thought.

Thursday, 20th the theme of discussion will be Energy. Present and future Sources. It is

vital to have the means to assess the environmental, social and economic impacts of

different approaches to energy production and storage for the future. In this session

various energy sources will be surveyed, including nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, fossil

fuels, plant biomass, solar energy and geothermal energy, and their possible roles in a

future sustainable energy scenario examined. Friday, 21st the theme of discussion will

be Enviroment and Health. Carbon dioxide, released into the atmosphere by burning, is

a major greenhouse gas, and is now known to be causing climate change on a massive

scale. There will be changes in the atmosphere, the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems

that will profoundly affect the lives and health of ordinary people, the world economy,

and the well-being of the planet. These far-reaching effects of past and future energy

use will be discussed: the projected climate changes and their consequences will be

examined, including their effects on biodiversity, individuals and humanity as a whole.

Lastly, Saturday 22nd, the theme of discussion will be Energy. Ethics, Politics and Economics.

Main Future Activities

9conferences and exhibitions

The energy challenge is now known to be related in a fundamental way the global

environmental challenge. Both have major ethical, political and economic implica-

tions. For both, a key concept is sustainability, whose ramifications and implications

are emerging from research involving the physical and natural scientists on one hand

and the social scientists on the other. Strategies to address energy needs and environ-

mental problems must be practical enough to form a basis for stable international

agreements but cannot afford to neglect the ethical dimension, since decisions are

being taken that will have major impacts on future generations.

23 – 25 OctoberInternational Study Conference Artistic bronze production in Venice and Northern Italyduring the Renaissance Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

The National Committee for the Celebrations for the 550th Anniversary of the Birth

of Tullio Lombardo has organised a conference to follow up the 2006 conference on

Tullio Lombardo sculptor and architect in Venetian Renaissance artistic culture. This

second conference sets out to explore another aspect of the artist and the whole family

workshop in general: i.e. the production of large monumental bronzes and small

collectors’ bronzes. The Lombardo’s bronze output is one of the most difficult histo-

riographic issues to solve. In the case of works generically attributed to Tullio and

Antonio Lombardo we still have to tackle the particularly tricky question of working

out the relation between a possible model and the work of the caster: i.e. to establish

whether behind the very fine series of small ideal heads, small figures, and ancient-style

busts, there might have been an autograph model, or if they were simply works

influenced by the dominant style in 15th- and 16th-Century Venice. Since the indu-

strial and artistic practice in the output of bronzetti is characterised by continuity in

the techniques and workmanship – for example, the long line of families of artists and

craftsmen throughout the Renaissance – it is worthwhile extending the enquiry to the

whole of the Cinquecento and thus also take into account the work of Alessandro

Vittoria, Girolamo Campagna, Tiziano Aspetti and Nicolò Roccatagliata. The docu-

mentary and historical wealth of the second half of the 16th Century could produce

elements casting light on the preceding period.

As happened in the 2006 conference, the last part of the meeting will focus on the

‘material’ aspects of the works, their techniques and workmanship but also their resto-

ration. This is not simply because conservation is inevitable, but because in such a

specific sector as the small bronzes, the aspects of workmanship are indispensable in

reaching a complete understanding of the nature of the work.

Master of the Barbarigo Altar, Our Lady of the Assumption, Venice, Ca’ d’Oro

10

29 – 30 OctoberInternational Study Conference Forms and currents of Western Esotericism Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

This first unique conference of its kind in Italy is dedicated to the history, prominent

people, texts and doctrines of Western esotericism. The conference will be attended by

leading experts on this relatively new subject which has been becoming increasingly

popular in many European and other universities. The experts’ papers will update the

current state of studies and research concerning the main forms and currents of

Western esotericism, starting from the last centuries of the ancient world and going up

through the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the contemporary age. The participants

will analyse migrations, derivations, breaks and transformations in this complex and

still little-known aspect of European culture in the light of the most recent research.

The subjects examined will thus include neo-Alexandrine Hermeticism, giving rise to the

so-called “Hermetic Philosophy”, of which Giordano Bruno was the leading exponent,

the art of memory, spiritual alchemy, the Christian Kabbalah, Paracelsism, Rosicrucian

literature and Theosophy. There will also be a special emphasis on the historically crucial

phenomenon of the complex interaction between Western esoteric religiosity and the

processes of modernisation, originating in the Renaissance. Lastly, contemporary currents,

which since the 18th Century have more or less followed in the wake of previous

movements, will also be considered.

3 – 7 NovemberCourse IInntteerrpprreettiinngg LLuuiiggii NNoonnoo’’ss wwoorrkkss ffoorr lliivvee eelleeccttrroonniiccssaanndd ttaappeeVenice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

Promoted by the Luigi Nono Archives, the Giorgio Cini Foundation and the

Experimentalstudio für akustische Kunst e.V., Freiburg, this course is intended for pro-

fessional musicians who wish to further explore Luigi Nono’s poetics and the interpre-

tation of his works for live electronics. The course is also open to graduate or final

year students from music schools (flute, clarinet, tuba, piano, violin, singing, and

sound direction). The course will be taught by leading historical interpreters of Nono’s

repertoire: André Richard, Susanne Otto, Roberto Fabbriciani, and some collaborators

of the Experimentalstudio who will bring along equipment on which many of the works

studied in the course came into being (Das atmende Klarsein, Io, frammento dal Prometeo,

Quando stanno morendo, Diario polacco 2°, Prometeo, Omaggio a György Kurtag, A

Pierre. Dell’azzurro silenzio, inquietum, Post-prae-ludium n.1 “per Donau”, La fabbrica

illuminat... offerte onde serene..., La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura). The course

Main Future Activities

Luigi Nono in the Experimentalstudio, Heinrich Strobel Foundation, Freiburg

Poliphilo at the three doors leading to the divine way to Virtue, the worldly way to Vice, and the central way to love, from HypnerotomachiaPoliphili by Francesco Colonna, Venezia, 1499

11conferences and exhibitions

will be organised into individual study sections (instruments, voice, sound direction)

and group classes on sound direction. At the end of the last day there will be a final

concert.

15 – 16 NovemberInternational Workshop The new forms of cultural co-operation in the globalised worldVenice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

Organised by Michele Trimarchi, a lecturer in the economics of culture at the

University of Bologna, the workshop will bring together scholars of culture and

society, philosophers, creative artists, and experts and people working in the field of

international cultural co-operation. They will exchange ideas with the aim of encouraging

critical thinking on the forms, technologies, practices, functions and objectives of

international cultural co-operation.

The “waning of ideologies”, the rise of the “free-market logic” on a global scale and

the simultaneous forceful re-affirmation of local identities have increasingly outmoded

the conception of cultural co-operation as a vehicle – often indirect and subtle – of

ideological propaganda. Even the naive and spurious “exporting” of political values

and systems has turned out to be a tragic illusion.

Although globalisation cuts across borders and annuls distances, multiplying the

opportunities for meetings/clashes between cultures, the problem arises for all cultural

systems of how to exchange values and resources with other systems, since no system can

survive autarchically in a globalised world. The search to “link up systems of meaning”

will probably become the primary objective of future co-operation.

The inevitable questions become: today who are the “others” with whom we must

establish meaningful contact? What general conditions generate mutual trust making

such contact possible? Is the offer of a free physical space, put forward by generous

and hospitable animators, still attractive in the age of the Internet and its powerful research

engines, capable of making billions of web pages available in a fraction of a second?

What role do the so-called “virtual” scientific communities play today (although in

actual fact because of ICT they are becoming remarkably “real”)? Having gone beyond

the traditional form of the bilateral agreement, can the organisational model of the

web give rise to promising new forms of intercultural co-operation?

The Venetian workshop aims to offer possible answers to these question through a

critical exchange of ideas, experiences and broad heterogeneous overviews, elaborating

the guidelines for effective and appropriate forms of exchanging values. It will thus be

possible to trace a global map of new routes used in exchanging and spreading creative

ideas, passions and skills.

“Plate of the longest rivers in the world”, in Maps of the Society for the Diffusion of UsefulKnowledge, England, 1844

12

28 NovemberPoliyphonies “in viva voce” 11Seminar Female Polyphonies from GeorgiaConcert by the ensemble MzetamtzeVenice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

Begun in 1997, the Polyphonies “in viva voce” programme has hosted singers from many

Italian and European regions at the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice. For the experts,

researchers and music-lovers who have flocked to the venue on San Giorgio, the

seminars and concerts have led to a deeper knowledge and greater appreciation of the

major examples of the art of polyphony. This year the eleventh edition will be dedicated

to female polyphonies from Georgia. Many musicologists have for long considered and

described Georgia as the “cradle” of polyphony in Europe, on the grounds of its great

exuberance and variety of procedures and genres found in the practices of ensemble singing

in the region. Although this interpretation has gradually been put back in perspective,

Georgian polyphonic phenomena are still undoubtedly extremely lively and complex.

Indeed for Georgians, singing in groups is an almost spontaneous everyday custom.

Although mainly a male practice and often associated with convivial experiences, in

Georgia there are also female polyphonies found in arguably less ostentatious occasions,

but equally important in social and cultural terms, with fascinating musical results. The

evening concert for this year’s seminar will feature the female polyphonic group

Mzetamtze, created in 1987. Now also well-known outside Georgia, they perform songs

both from the traditional repertoire and recently composed music, a sign of the con-

tinuity and vitality of Georgian polyphony. The afternoon seminar session, aimed at

furthering knowledge about the musical features and cultural aspects of Georgian

polyphonic practices, will be attended by some leading experts in analysing and

classifying polyphonic practice: Maurizio Agamennone, Simha Arom, Polo Vallejo and

Nato Zumbadze. The seminar and concert have been organised in collaboration with the

G. Mazzariol Department of Art History and the Conservation of the Artistic Heritage,

Ca’ Foscari University, Venice.

24 – 26 January14th International Seminar of EthnomusicologyVisual ethnomusicology Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

The theme chosen for the 14th ethnomusicology seminar – Visual ethnomusicology –

has multiple meanings: from allusions to cinema techniques involved in rendering the

sounds and images of a musical event, especially in oral traditions, to more general

theoretical considerations with possible interactions between different languages and

Main Future Activities

The Mzetamtze ensemble in concert

conferences and exhibitions

forms of communication. If music is primarily organised sound, as it is defined today,

it is also sound in movement: not only because it can be realised and perceived in its

time dynamics, but also insofar as it is the outcome of an action. Moreover, the

musical sound materialises and propagates in a physical and social space, in which

individuals and groups are organised and interact according to modes variously

encoded and formalised. In this sense, music in action is an overall perceptive expe-

rience, situated in a crossroads between various languages: linguistic-verbal, non-verbal

sound, spatial-gestural, playful, ritual, etc. Naturally cinema captures and shows the

audio-visual experience, also for the purposes of analysis, in a much more realistic way

than a straightforward sound recording. From this point of view, as Diego Carpitella

was fond of saying, when film has the right syntax and grammar it can replace books

of words.

For three days the seminar will discuss how cinema can attempt to grasp the overall

expression of music. The relation between sound and filmed image will be assessed

starting from the presentation of some of the most interesting recent examples of visual

ethnomusicology and in discussions with their directors. The seminar will also provide

the opportunity to update the participants’ knowledge as regards the use of new

digital filming technology and editing for the purposes of ethnomusicological research.

Books at San VioVenice, Palazzo Cini Gallery at San Vio

The autumn season of the series Books at San Vio continues with the launch of new

Giorgio Cini Foundation publications in the splendid setting of the Palazzo Cini.

The first date, in October, will be dedicated to the presentation of AAA TAC and AAM

TAC, the third issue of the annual magazines edited by Giovanni Morelli. The magazines

aim to investigate acoustic arts and artefacts from an unusual and fresh point of view,

with a special emphasis on aspects of technology, aesthetics and communications.

In November the featured publication will be the fourth issue in the series Viridarium:

Cenacoli. Circoli e gruppi letterari, artistici, spirituali, edited by Francesco Zambon. This

book brings together a series of studies on the role and influence that the existence of

small groups or circles have exercised on the literary, artistic, philosophical activity of

individuals, including figures of great intellectual stature. The book considers themes

and phenomena in both Eastern and Western cultures over a long period – from antiquity

to the 20th Century.

Sequence from the film Zene by István Gaál,Hungary, 2006

13

The Italian President Giorgio Napolitano visitingSan Giorgio Maggiore, 26 March 2007

The Giorgio Cini Foundation documentary resources, consisting

of huge library collections and valuable archives, will play a key

role in the strategies of reorganising, developing and giving greater

visibility to the Foundation. To this end, in addition to creating

new spaces (e.g. the Manica Lunga) for consulting, studying and

promoting the documents kept in the Foundation, a number of

ongoing activities are aimed at making greater use of the materials

and increasing the already rich collections in the Foundation.

The core of the collections in the Institute of Art History Library

is made up of specialised libraries on the history of art, including

those once belonging to Giuseppe Fiocco, Rodolfo Gallo, Raymond

van Marle, Antonio Muñoz and Achille Bertini Calosso. They

have recently been enhanced by valuable major donations.

In 2003 a large bibliographic archive was acquired containing

works once in the personal library of Egle Renata Trincanato, an

architect and lecturer in the Elements of Architecture and Surveying

Monuments at the Venice University Institute of Architecture

(IUAV). Trincanato made a big impact on the IUAV because his

best-known work Venezia minore, renewed architectural research,

shifting the focus of study from the major palaces to so-called

“minor architecture”.

This donation has brought into the Institute of Art History Library exhibition cata-

logues and specialist monographs dedicated to artists and art collections, general

reference books, museum catalogues, books on photography, city guides, local mono-

graphs and books on Venice, works of history and the history of architecture,

restoration, town planning and countless art and architecture magazines. The around

2000 publications were marked with an ex-libris indicating their provenance. They

were also inventoried and catalogued by the library staff and therefore can be

consulted by all those interested through the SBN’s OPAC system.

The Giorgio Cini Foundation has also been presented with the library of Franca Zava.

A student of Giuseppe Fiocco and assistant of Rodolfo Pallucchini, Zava is an eminent

scholar of Veneto art history (see, for example, her contribution to 16th-Century

Venetian painting, her book on Pittoni, and studies of frescoes in 17th- and 18th-

Century Venetian villas), and formerly professor of modern art history at the University

Collections

Recent acquisitions by the Institute of Art HistoryLibrary

14 collections

Longhena’s salone in the Art History Library of the Giorgio Cini Foundation

15

of Padua. Made up of important and rare exhibition catalogues,

valuable monographs and essays, the donation significantly

enhances the existing material in the art history library.

There have also been a number of more recent donations: the

personal libraries of Pietro Zorzanello and Mario Manzelli and

books which once belonged to Francesco Valcanover.

Pietro Zorzanello was a leading figure on the Venetian library

scene. He began his career in the Biblioteca Marciana, and later

became director from 1927 to 1934. After being director of the

Biblioteca Palatina, Parma, for political reasons he was then de-

moted and transferred to the Biblioteca Marciana, where he

devoted himself to making catalogues of the Italian manuscripts

in the library. The Zorzanello donation, made thanks to the

generosity of his son Giulio, includes some interesting periodical

material, a rich collection of essays on the history of books and

some valuable historic volumes which have already been given

an appropriate location and pre-catalogued.

Mario Manzelli is a scholar of 18th-Century vedutismo and the

author of monographs on Antonio Joli, Michele Marieschi and

Francesco Albotto. In addition to his photo library, he donated a

large number of volumes reflecting his overall research interests.

A former superintendent of the artistic and historical heritage in

Venice, Francesco Valcanover dedicated his studies to 14th to 18th-Century Veneto

painting. He has published countless papers, essays and monographs. His precious

legacy adds material of great interest to the Foundation collections, building up the

section on Venetian art in all its aspects: from exhibition and museum catalogues to

monographic essays on the leading figures in Veneto and Venetian artistic life.

Combined with a careful longsighted policy of acquisitions, these donations make the

Giorgio Cini Foundation a key facility for art scholars, especially of Veneto art, from

all the world. The strengths of the library services may be summed up in the constant

improvements with a focus on being user-friendly (facilitating stays and research), the

availability of huge collections of documents, and the inspiringly austere, peaceful

18th-Century reading room, encouraging concentration and fertile study activities.

Lucia Sardo

recent acquisitions

16

When Factum Arte started working with the Giorgio Cini

Foundation on the production of an accurate facsimile of

Veronese’s vast painting The Wedding at Cana we asked a

simple question: “if Paolo Caliari walked into the Musée du

Louvre now would he recognise the painting as the work that

he finished in 1563?”

He would certainly be surprised to see it where it is, and would

be perplexed by the unimaginable series of historical and

political events that lead to its removal from the refectory for

which it was painted, but surely he would feel flattered by the

fact that it has retained its reputation as one of the world’s

greatest paintings, and that time has not diminished the im-

portance of his achievement.

As a painter he would be more aware than most that everything is in a constant state

of transformation, and that without constant care and attention his efforts would have

gradually faded into obscurity.

When he originally painted the picture it is reported that he wanted it to have all the

qualities of a fresco. In the damp saline environment of Venice traditional fresco

techniques are unstable so he went to great lengths to ensure its longevity by

preparing the walls, covering them with canvas, gesso coating the surface and working

with the finest pigments, oils and resins to create the specific illusion he sought. He

was a master technician working with a team of skilled craftsmen. They worked fast

and with a confident control of anatomy, drawing and painting techniques that

resulted in a harmony of colour, tone and composition for which Venetian painting is

famous. These skills seem even more remarkable today than they would have been

when he painted the picture.

We cannot know how the painting looked when it was finished and its appearance

has certainly changed. Some of these changes are the product of time and some are

the result of human intervention. It is not the same size, significant loss has occurred

at the edges of the image, the whites have become more transparent and the ground

has yellowed, other colours have darkened and become more opaque. It has been

framed and was cut into strips when removed from the wall. It has been repeatedly

re-lined and re-stretched, varnished (more recently with an optically clear varnish),

cleaned, filled and partially re-painted.

The Wedding at Cana facsimile

Projects and research

Stages in scanning the painting of The Wedding at Cana, Paris, Musée du Louvre

projects and research

17

Every intervention and change says as much about the values that prevailed at the

time they were done as they do about the painting. If the painting had had another

history and had been taken to England it would certainly look very different from the

way it looks today. You only need to compare the three panels of the Battle of San

Romano by Uccello that went to the Musée de Louvre, the National Gallery (London)

and the Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence) to see how dramatic the interventions can be.

The transformations have now become part of The Wedding at

Cana and are a reflection of its continued importance. In a

world of genetic modification notions of originality may not be

as obvious as they once seemed. It is becoming clear that

originality doesn’t exist in a quasi-religious notion of ‘aura’ but

lies in things that are more physical. It lies in the qualities that

are intrinsically part of the object and in the biography of that

object. Originality is not fixed. As it moves it changes and it is

changed. Some of these changes are beneficial, others not.

Veronese might be alarmed by some of the transformations that

his masterpiece has undergone and as a virtuoso he would

certainly be both opinionated and articulate. However he would

be satisfied that a painting to which his name is attached has

continued to be studied, shared and discussed and appreciate the fact that the

qualities that make The Wedding at Cana specifically what it is continue to be valued.

He could hardly have imagined that an estimated nine million people visit the room

where it now hangs every year (a significant percentage of these hardly notice his vast

work as they stream in to see the Mona Lisa).

All good restoration projects begin with an in-depth study of the painting and an

open-minded questioning of the reasons a painting looks the way it does. It is a

forensic activity involving many people. Cross-section images of the paint layers,

multi-spectral photography, chemical and microscopic analysis now all play an

important role. New technologies are constantly being developed that facilitate new

perceptions and deeper understandings. But human judgement and manual skill

ultimately define the interventions that are made. This is as true in the production of

an accurate facsimile as it is in the restoration of a painting. Since last year this work

has been ongoing and has involved a number of people from different parts of the

world with different skills. In the autumn of 2006, in fact, the Musée du Louvre

reached an agreement with Giorgio Cini Foundation and granted Factum Arte access

to record The Wedding at Cana.

The record of the painting of 67.29 square meters created logistical problems. Factum

Arte decided to develop a new scanning system that could record at actual size and at

the highest possible resolution within the limitations of both time and budget. The

result is a non-contact colour scanning system that uses a large format CCD and

integrated LED lights. During the recording 1516 individual files were saved resulting

Stages in printing the facsimile of The Weddingat Cana, Madrid, Factum Arte Atelier

the wedding at cana facsimile

18

in an archive of 400 gigabytes. The lower part of the painting was recorded using a

3D scanning system made by NUB 3D (Spain). NUB 3D Sidio White Light

Scanning System uses a mix of optical technology, 3D topometry and digital image

processing to extract 3D coordinates from the surface of an object. This technique,

known as structured white light triangulation, produces accurate measurements of the

surface by analyzing the deformation caused when lines and patterns of light are

projected onto the surface of an object.

During the recording great emphasise was given to the colour.

Extensive colour notes were made using a series of colour sticks

made on site and matched to specific points on the surface of

the painting. These were fixed into a book containing a 1:1

scale line drawing of the painting and a section of the colour

stick was fixed into the book at the corresponding point on the

painting. The system we use was originally developed for

recording the colour in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings in

Egypt. Colour is one of the least understood and most complex

subjects. In the production of a facsimile you are seldom

dealing with a standard flat colour. Most coloured materials age

in complex ways – some of the most important are the changes

in transparency revealing or obscuring the layered nature of the paint, complex changes

in texture resulting in an irregular surface complete with shadows and highlights and

an uneven surface reflectivity. The recording is now complete. The archives of different

types of data have been joined without distortion and merged together. Extensive

material, printing and colour tests have been carried out and a direct comparison

between the colour of the printed samples and the colour of the painting have been

made. The logistical and practical task of producing the facsimile is now under way.

This work resembles the task of physically restoring the actual painting in almost every

way. The facsimile will be installed in the refectory in August and unveiled on 11th

September. An exhibition is being organised by the Giorgio Cini Foundation that

will include early copies, documentary evidence, written descriptions of the painting

and detailed information about the production of the facsimile.

While the practical work is going on research continues into the history of the

painting in the hope that we will find information that will help us understand why it

looks as it does. In the archives of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux in Versailles the

records describe a restoration that took place between 1852 and 1854. Particular

attention is paid to a join just above the balustrade and the repair work around the

edges of the painting. The join was described as a “disagreeable fold that had been

filled with mastic”. It was redone and refilled and the edges were subjected to similar

work that resulted in a thick impasto surface. An important part of the facsimile work

is to replicate the surface characteristics of the whole painting. This means that equal

attention is paid to the changes brought about by time and restoration as it is to the

projects and research

Stages in printing the facsimile of The Wedding atCana, Madrid, Factum Arte Atelier

19the wedding at cana facsimile

paintwork itself. As a result a brush-mark made by Veronese or

an assistant is treated in the same way as an infill, join or repair.

This approach results in a surface that resembles the original in

more ways than we are used to. It would be possible to work

with a number of experts and attempt to present the painting as

it might have looked when finished. But this was not the

current brief and would be an inherently subjective task. Our

aim is to create a harmonious visual experience that allows the

viewer to concentrate on the painting (in its current state)

rather than the fact that it is a copy.

The many hours spent in close scrutiny of the image yield some

interesting insights. The 1854 restoration was heavily criticised

for “disfiguring the painting” by a M. Planche, a claim that the

Musée du Louvre publicly denied. However, the criticism rumbled on until the mid

1870’s by which time the allegations were that the harmony of the painting had been

destroyed. Disfiguring the painting is a very specific allegation and it seems likely that

the allegations surround changes made to the faces of Christ and Mary.

Count Nieuwerkerke wrote a report on the restoration work that he had supervised

and he alludes to repainting in the sky but does not mention any work on the faces of

Jesus and Mary – two central figures in the composition. Nowhere in the records is

there any reference to significant changes to the painting until Jean Habert’s book

The Wedding at Cana by Veronese was published after the restoration in 1992. This

book explains in detail the changes that were made – some of which are significant

like the removal of the red paint from the robes of the attendant. It is clear, both from

the detailed information recorded by Factum Arte and from the x-rays photographs

taken during the 1992 restoration that something has happened to the faces of

Jesus and Mary even if it is not recorded in the archives. The early copy now hanging

in the entrance to the refectory shows Jesus semitic face full of expressive character.

The x-ray seems to confirm this and shows modeling in the painting. In his current

state the figure has an idealized romantic face staring blankly into the middle distance.

A discordant black line runs along the left shoulder, across his collar and into the edge

of his beard. When studying the scanned data at high resolution you can also see that

the paint is thin and the canvas texture predominates. Mary appears to have a similar

surface and colour (a pinky grey as opposed to the ochre flesh colour) while the group

of heads that surround them are richer, darker and in harmony with the rest of the

picture. Taken in isolation and put in line like a police identification parade these two

faces don’t seem belong in this painting. A great deal more research is required before

making any comments about why this might be the case. Going back to the primary

sources and studying the published criticisms of M. Planche may be a good place

to start.

An accurate facsimile installed in its original setting makes sense of the composition of

The colour reference book used in scanning the painting of The Wedding at Cana, Paris, Musée du Louvre

20

the painting and the architectural references that have

conditioned its design. The collaboration between Palladio and

Veronese resulted in an environment that was one of the

crowning achievements of the Venetian renaissance. The

refectory, once in a very poor state of repair and significantly

altered from its original design has now been fully restored.

Without the painting (that was a major part of the original

design) it is incomplete. It is to be hoped that when the fac-

simile is installed its magnificence will be returned and scholars

and tourists alike will be able to see the painting in its proper

context, at the right high and without a frame.

Adam Lowe

Stages in scanning the painting of The Wedding at Cana, Paris, Musée du Louvre

21

In 1560, when the Benedictine monks on the Island of San Giorgio

Maggiore chose the great architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580)

to renew their monastery, they wanted the reconstruction work to

begin with the refectory. Initially the great hall designed by

Palladio was furnished with benches and ornamental hangings.

Then, in 1562, Paolo Veronese was asked to decorate the rear wall

behind the Abbot’s chair. Veronese and Palladio thus once more

worked on the same project, as they had the previous year in the

Villa Barbaro at Maser. For around a decade Veronese had been

enjoying considerable success in Venice and had obtained a num-

ber of major commissions, such as the decoration of the Libreria

Marciana, the church of San Sebastiano and the Palazzo Ducale.

The contract for the commission of the great canvas (6,8 x 10,4 metres), which because

of its size had to be painted in situ, was stipulated on 6 June 1562. Veronese worked on

his masterpiece in the monastery refectory using a similar procedure, also in technical

terms, as he would have used for a fresco. In addition to the contract conditions, which

included board for the painter in the monastery, this procedure suggested that “Veronese

was present on the worksite every day. He arrived in the morning on San Giorgio by boat

from his house at San Samuele, and spent the whole day on the island, lunching in the

refectory and returning home in the evening” (J. Habert, Il restauro delle ‘Nozze di Cana’

di Veronese: qualche osservazione, in Arte Veneta, 1993). This information thus fully

justifies our including him among the “presences” on San Giorgio. The contract was

signed by Veronese, Father Alessandro from Bergamo and the cellarer Don Maurizio

from Bergamo. It established that Veronese should “make a painting for the new

refectory the height and width of the wall, filling it completely with the story of the feast

with Christ’s miracle at Cana in Galilee, and ensuring the appropriate number of figures

required for such a creation can fit in easily; the said Master Paulo shall provide his work

as a painter and also all the paints whatever their nature and shall prepare the canvas and

everything else required at his own expense; the monastery will only provide the canvas

and will have the canvas for the said painting made; moreover it will include the canvas

and other items that may be required in its expenses, while the said Master Paulo will be

obliged to provide the work and excellent colours and not leave out anything which has

very fine ultramarine and other flawless colours approved by all the experts. And for his

Paolo Veronese on San Giorgio

Presences on San Giorgio

Paolo Caliari called Veronese, The Wedding at Cana,Paris, Musée du Louvre

22

remuneration we have promised for the said work the sum of 324 ducats of 6 lire 4 soldi

per ducat, giving the monies as required each day, and as a deposit we have given him 50

ducats, the said Master Paulo having promised to complete the work by the Feast of the

Madonna in September 1563. Furthermore, we have promised him a barrel of wine to be

taken to Venice and placed at his disposal. The monastery will provide him with board

for the time he shall work on the said painting and that board will be consumed in the

refectory... the monastery will give him the scaffolding so that he can work with ease.”

The work was actually completed by 6 October 1563, almost completely respecting the

contract deadline, and earning the maestro, as had been agreed, the considerable sum of

324 ducats. The subject of the painting was the celebrated episode from the Gospels of

the “Wedding at Cana” (St John, 2, 1-12), the first miracle attributed to Christ, and

obviously a particularly fitting theme for the refectory decoration. This work is one of

several famous feast scenes by Veronese mentioned by the historical sources as among

the marvels to be seen when in Venice (the Feast in the House of Simon, once in the

refectory of the Servite Friars, was donated by the Venetian Republic to Louis XIV and

is now in Versailles, while the Feast in the House of Levi for the monastery of Santi

Giovanni e Paolo is now in the Gallerie dell’Accademia). Veronese can thus be seen as

having been an unsurpassed specialist on this subject.

Veronese gave the work a marvellous architectural construction which, in addition to

being an illusionistic continuation of the hall, allowed him to harmoniously arrange the

figures in a lively arrangement of fleeting light and very luminous shade. Set in the centre,

the figure of Christ is portrayed with hieratic rigidity, estranging him from everything

that is going on all around. This is the immobile driving force in a skilful composition

in which the festive liveliness is achieved through continuous variations in poses,

gestures and expressions. Far from giving the subject a purely secular interpretation, as at

times he was accused of having done, here Veronese proposes a version both noble and

full of empathy for the episode, a harbinger of the Eucharist – significantly Christ is in

line with the slaughtered lamb on the balustrade above (for this and other iconological

details, see D. Rosand, “Theater and Structure in the Art of Paolo Veronese”, in Art

Bulletin, 1973). The painting was thus also a very human testimony to Christ’s love for

his children and their joy. Immediately next to Christ, Mary is a figura Ecclesiae, here in

the guise of the sponsa Christi.

According to some experts (P.P. Fehl, “Veronese’s Decorum: Notes on the Marriage at

Cana”, in Art the Ape of Nature. Studies in honour of H. W. Janson, 1981), Veronese

probably fairly faithfully followed the description of the feasts provided by Pietro

Aretino in his Quattro libri de la humanita di Cristo (1539). The “Four Books on the

Humanity of Christ” narrate the story with a great wealth of detail not found in the

Gospels, dwelling particularly on the large number of guests, their clothes and the

luxurious tableware used for the banquet.

The chromatic harmony in the painting is remarkable. Not only in the individual parts

but also in the overall effect, where Veronese skilfully apportions complementary colours.

Paolo Caliari called Veronese, The Wedding at Cana,detail, Paris, Musée du Louvre

presences on san giorgio

Marco Boschini justifiably described the maestro in his Carta del navegar pitoresco (1660)

as the “treasurer of art and colours”, and “the truly laureate Apollo”. Boschini goes on to

comment on the Wedding: “Questa no xe Pitura, l’è magia / Che incanta le persone che la

vede / O vera de Virtù divina rede / Che l’anime impersona e i cuori pia!” (This is not

painting, this is magic / which enchants people who see it / O true heir to Divine Virtue /

who bodies forth souls and beguiles hearts!).

From Zanetti (1771) onwards, most experts agree that many of the figures in the painting

are portraits of contemporaries: Alfondo d’Avalos and Vittoria Colonna are the couple to

the left, Francis I and his wife the characters beside them with “Acmer II”, the King of

Turks, while in the corner of the same portion of the painting is a portrait of Charles V.

But the most famous portraits concern the celebrated concertino. Without any apparent

historical justification the musicians were said to be Titian with the bass, Paolo himself

with the cello, Tintoretto with the violin, Bassano with the flute, and Veronese’s brother

Benedetto Caliari, standing wearing a flowery drape and holding a glass.

In the eighth position on the right, as was discovered in a recent restoration, Veronese

added the face of a priest, made on paper and then applied to the canvas. In this case

the critics believe the figure to be the Abbot of San Giorgio, Andrea Prampuro from

Asolo, appointed to the position in 1564, when the painting had already been

completed. The artist clearly had to meet the demands of the newly elected Abbott who

wished to appear in the work like his predecessor, Girolamo Scrocchetto, the third

banqueter from the right, wearing dark blue clothes.

Almost overnight the work became one of the marvels of Venice and the whole of the

history of painting, on a par with Raphael’s School of Athens and Leonardo’s Last Supper.

Indeed Giacomo Barri (Viaggio pittoresco, 1671) was to write that “anyone who comes to

Venice, and leaves without seeing it, may say that they have seen nothing”. Since the work

was being copied by so many artists, often commissioned by foreign princes and rulers,

in 1705 the monks met in the chapter and decided to limit the number of reproductions.

In August and September 1797, with the fall of the Republic and the French conquest, the

great painting was requisitioned by the Directory commissars and, after a long journey

of almost ten months, eventually reached Paris on 15 July 1798. Antonio Canova

attempted to retrieve the work but his efforts were in vain. The French claimed it was too

fragile to travel and offered in exchange Charles Lebrun’s painting of the Feast of the

Pharisee with Mary Magdalene at the Feet of Christ, now in the Gallerie dell’Accademia.

Since then Veronese’s painting – a source of inspiration and study, admired by whole

generations of artists from Delacroix to Cézanne – has been in the Musée du Louvre.

From 1989 to 1992 the painting underwent major restoration work. In the cleaning

stages some red paint, which although old was judged to have been added later by

another hand, was removed from the seneschal, who now appears dressed in green, on

the left of the painting.

Denis Ton

23

Paolo Caliari called Veronese, The Wedding at Cana,detail, Paris, Musée du Louvre

paolo veronese

publications24

Publications

Il segno dell’arte. Disegni a figura della collezione Certanialla Fondazione Giorgio Cini (1500-1750)edited by Vincenzo Mancini and Giuseppe Pavanello

Bononia University Press, Bologna, 2007

The extraordinarily rich collection of graphic works in the Certani archives includes

figure and landscape drawings, architectural and decorative studies, stage designs, and

various other kinds of works, spanning a period from the early 16th Century up to the

mid-18th Century. This major collection now belonging to the Giorgio Cini Foundation

was put together by the eminent Bolognese musician and cellist Antonio Certani

(1879-1952), who acquired the works on the local antiquarian market between the

wars. The collection is quite exceptional because it features examples of works by the

leading artists from the golden age of the celebrated Emilian school. In fact an invaluable

group of around one hundred of these drawings generated the most interest in a

Bologna exhibition (Signs of art. Figure drawings in the Certani Collection at the Giorgio

Cini Foundation 1500-1750) held at the Palazzo Saraceni from 20 April to 17 June 2007,

and organised by the Giorgio Cini Foundation in collaboration with the Francesco

Francia Association and the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation, Bologna.

Preceded by essays dedicated to the figure of Antonio Certani and an analysis of his col-

lection, the exhibition catalogue publishes all the works showed, accompanied by entries

compiled by a team of specialists. The works are divided in two sections: an initial section

of seventy drawings by leading Emilian painters from 1500 to 1750, and a second

section featuring a selection of eighteen graphic works by artists chosen to represent

significantly different schools of painting in Italy – from the Veneto to Rome.

The most interesting works include a young St Sebastian attributed to the 15th-Century

master Nicoletto da Modena and two drawings by the Bolognese artist Passerotti – all

very high standard examples of 16th-Century art. The golden age of the 17th Century

is represented by some invaluable works, such as a drawing by Ludovico Carracci,

some studies by Guido Reni and his contemporaries and followers, like Cantarini,

Schedoni, Cavedone, Torri, Brizio, Pasinelli and Sirani. Among the more immediately

striking works are four red-chalk masterpieces by Guercino, including the celebrated

Woman Feeding a Child for the fresco of Venus Feeding Love on a bedroom mantel-

piece in the Palazzo Pannini, Cento, and an extraordinarily freshly rendered Head of

Boy with Hat. Less well known but no less representative of 18th-Century Emilian

Catalogues

various authors 25

figurative art are the artists from that century present in the selection: in addition to

a remarkable thirteen drawings by Donato Creti, there are works by Rolli, Stringa,

Dal Sole, Crespi, Bigari, Bertuzzi and Gionima. The works on show also included

drawings by artists outside Bolognese and Emilian circles, such as the Lombard painters

Polidoro da Caravaggio and Aurelio Luini, the Venetian Battista Franco, Marc’Antonio

Bassetti from Verona, and Central Italian artists of the calibre of Pollini, Balducci and

Diamantini. To these we must add the rare item of a drawing attributed to the sculptor

of Flemish origin Giusto Le Court, represented in the exhibition by a study for a

figure in the Pesaro Monument in the church of the Frari, Venice.

Essays

Esumazione di un Requiem. Edizione anastatica della partitura e note informative sul ritrovamento del giovanileRequiem di Bruno Madernaedited by Veniero Rizzardi

Collana “Studi di musica veneta. Archivio Gian Francesco Malipiero”, vol. 3

Leo S. Olschki Editore, Florence, 2007

Bruno Maderna composed his monumental Requiem in 1946. Long thought to have

been lost, it has now been musicologically “exhumed” in a facsimile version of a manu-

script score found in a US library in September 2006. In his introductory note to the

facsimile score, Veniero Rizzardi relates how the manuscript was lost and found.

Rizzardi also reconstructs the genesis of the composition, mainly by considering the

composer’s correspondence. Bruno Maderna (1920-1973) wrote the Requiem just after

the Second World War, when he was already seen as a leading member of “that young

Italian school”, whose main reference point was Gian Francesco Malipiero. Indeed it

was Malipiero who introduced the young Maderna to the American composer and

critic Virgil Thomson on a visit to Venice. Greatly struck by the young Venetian’s

score, Thomson wrote an enthusiastic article in the International Herald Tribune and

made efforts so that the work would be performed in the United States. Maderna

prepared a copy of the manuscript for Thompson but when the attempts to perform

the Requiem on the other side of the Atlantic came to nothing, he did not bother to

recover it. Written for four soloists, a double choir and large orchestra, Maderna’s

Requiem may be considered not only a valuable contribution to the artist’s biography

but, most importantly, a highly significant posthumous addition to the symphonic-

choral repertoire of the 20th Century.

26 publications

Giovanni Viviani, Silvana ZanolliFiabe e racconti veronesi raccolti da Scipione Righi. Volume III“Cultura Popolare Veneta”

Angelo Colla Editore, Costabissara (Vicenza), 2007

This third volume completes the publication of Fiabe e racconti veronesi raccolti da

Ettore Scipione Righi (“Veronese fables and stories collected by Scipione Righi”), a

project begun in 2004 as part of the Veneto Popular Culture series, a Veneto Region

initiative with a contribution from the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice.

The seventy stories in the third volume complete the total of 230 in the whole collec-

tion, making it one of the largest collections of popular narrative in Italy, comparable

in size to the works put together by Giuseppe Pitrè or Vittorio Imbriani.

The great interest and positive comments not only from experts in ethno-anthro-

pology, folklore, linguistics, and dialectology, but also from schools and non-specialist

readers, have confirmed the remarkable impact of the collection.

As Daniela Perco points out in the introduction to the first volume, Righi was driven

by a “kind of mission, informed by a linguistic-type sensitivity, but also by a faith in

progress and the conviction that nothing should be neglected or is pointless in the

world, and that everything contributes to the incessant development of civilisation, to

which the wills of all great minds and honest spirits tend in different ways”.

Maria Pia PaganiI mestieri di Pantalone. La fortuna della maschera tra Venezia e la Russia “Cultura Popolare Veneta”

Angelo Colla Editore, Costabissara (Vicenza), 2007

The publication of the book I mestieri di Pantalone. La fortuna della maschera tra Venezia

e la Russia by Maria Pia Pagani coincides with the third centenary of the birth of Carlo

Goldoni.

Pantalone’s centuries-long theatrical journey took him from Venice to the remote land

of the Tsars, bringing great success. The portrait built up from the main 20th-Century

studies on Commedia dell’Arte, shows him as a father and man busy with various socially

important crafts and trades: merchant, professional actor and physician (associated with

the martyr St Pantaleon, whose cult spread from the Christian East to the Byzantine

world, Venice and Russia). Pantalone has lived on in the Russian memory thanks to an

epic song about a Venetian merchant who goes to Kiev on business and after various

misadventures marries the niece of the Grand Prince Vladimir. His presence is also

various authors 27

corroborated by important theatre sources, such as the Peretc and Tikhonov collections,

and especially in the intermezzo “The fake German” and the “Intermediary n°7”, trans-

lated here in Italian for the first time. The book ends with a memoir by Prof. Erik

Amfitheatrof. His grandparents, Aleksandr and Illarija, a couple of Russian intellectuals

who emigrated to the West in the early 20th Century, made a significant contribution

to consolidating the considerable fame of Goldoni and his favourite character Pantalone

in Venice and Russia. The book has been published as part of the initiatives financed

by the Veneto Region to mark the third centenary of the death of Carlo Goldoni.

Il culto dei santi e le feste popolari nella Terraferma veneta.L’inchiesta del senato veneziano, 1772-1773edited by Simonetta Marin

“Cultura Popolare Veneta”

Angelo Colla Editore, Costabissara (Vicenza), 2007

In 1772 the Senate of the Venetian Republic launched a survey to find out which religious

feasts were celebrated in each parish on the Venetian mainland in addition to the

obligatory dates imposed by the official Church calendar. The reason for doing so was

to attempt to drastically reduce the number of festivities in the variegated popular

and peasant calendar and so stem the fall in production due to lost work and the vices

associated with all the uninhibited celebrations and fun. In this way the Venetians

also hoped to beat the competition from neighbouring powers in farming and trade.

The detailed answers provided by the parish priests enable us to explore the plethora of

popular cults of saints, ranging from those in ecclesiastical orthodoxy, like the ever-

present St Roch, St Anthony Abbot, St Sebastian and St Mark, to those invented by

the collective imagination, such as the legendary San Defendente.

The written reports sent to the Senate, now in the Biblioteca Marciana, transcribed and

published for the first time by Simonetta Marin, also describe the types of votive and

devotional feasts, their known or supposed origins, the rites characterising them, proces-

sions, vigils, worship of relics, prayers, the excesses of superstition and the attendant

social and moral disorders.

This book provides a vivid picture of popular religiosity, rural habits and folklore

throughout the Veneto and Friuli and as far as Brescia and Bergamo. Moreover, as

Claudio Povolo points out in his enlightening critical essay introducing the survey, the

documents provide interesting material for broader considerations concerning cultural

anthropology and even the aspects of justice linked to moral problems.

In the foreword, Antonio Niero outlines the history of attempted reforms of saints’ cults

and reductions in religious feasts, made to little effect by the post-Tridentine popes.

28 publications

Manlio CortelazzoDizionario veneziano della lingua e della cultura popolare nel XVI secolo“Cultura Popolare Veneta”

La Linea Editrice, Limena (Padova), 2007

This dictionary of 16th-Century Venetian language and popular culture was edited by

Manlio Cortelazzo, who had previously collaborated with Gianfranco Folena on

designing and setting up the Venetian Lexical Archives at the Giorgio Cini Foundation.

Initially the aim was only to increase the growing card catalogue by processing a number

of more obscure 16th-Century Venetian authors. But as the catalogue gradually grew,

Cortelazzo realised it would be more useful to have a larger systematic work, with the

results being included in the Archives. This in turn gave rise to the idea of a large

dictionary. Now, after forty years’ preparing and compiling, the dictionary is a very valua-

ble tool not only for linguists and dialectologists but also for enthusiasts of the history

of Venice, historians of customs and society at the time of the Serenissima and experts

on popular traditions, who enjoy or need to interpret the many rare and common terms

used during one of the most fascinating periods of Venetian life – the 16th Century.

The individual entries, which compared to the best-known historical dictionaries are

wider ranging since they include idioms, the first lines of songs, Latin and foreign words

and expressions, and other previously neglected elements, are illustrated by examples

taken from the most disparate sources – educated, average or plebian Venetian and also

regional Italian. At times the entries are followed by explanatory notes to facilitate

understanding of the many unknown or in some ways obscure terms.

Francesco Zorzi MuazzoRaccolti de’ proverbi, detti, sentenze, parole e frasi veneziane,arricchita d’alcuni esempi ed istorielleedited by Franco Crevatin

“Cultura Popolare Veneta”

Angelo Colla Editore, Costabissara (Vicenza), 2007

Francesco Zorzi Muazzo (1732-1775), an eccentric 18th-Century Venetian patrician, was

known to scholars not only for his dissolute life, which led his relatives to lock him up in

an asylum, where he died, but also as the compiler of a dictionary sui generis. Starting from

a dialect word as an entry, he described the meaning and, most importantly, made use of

it in a meandering digression on his experiences and people he had met as well as various

considerations on Venetian customs at the time. Despite its obvious value, the work has

29various authors

never previously been unpublished. This was partly due to its size and partly because of

objective difficulties in interpreting many sections and the need to continually explain

remote and now obscure situations associated with daily life in 18th-Century Venice.

Muazzo’s biography and manuscript were made known in detail by Paolo Zolli in 1969.

After lengthy reflection, however, Zolli gave up the idea of trying to publish “the col-

lection of Venetian proverbs, sayings, judgements, words and phrases”. The linguist

Franco Crevatin from the University of Trieste, partly to commemorate his friend and

colleague, courageously took the work in hand again and has successfully completed it.

Even a cursory look through the book reveals the huge amount of information of all

kinds it contains.

Opere musicali, edizioni critiche

I giuochi d’AgrigentoLibretto by Alessandro Pepoli and music by Giovanni Paisiello

Facsimile edition of the opera score and edition of the libretto, with an essay

by Lorenzo Mattei

“Drammaturgia musicale veneta”, 27

Publisher BMG Ricordi, Milan, 2007

The result of a collaboration between an eccentric nobleman devoted to the theatre

and one of the greatest of European opera composers, I giuochi d’Agrigento by

Alessandro Pepoli and Giovanni Paisiello is a summation of the most progressive

currents within opera seria at the very end of the eighteenth Century. The primacy of

the aria – a form treated here with great structural variety – is challenged by the frequent

appearance of separate ensemble numbers (introductions, act finales, ensembles placed

within scenes) and sumptuous choruses. The voice of the castrato singer remains subor-

dinate not only to those of the first tenor and the prima donna but even to that of the

bass, which is assigned one of its first great roles in the history of modern opera. The

music is required to assume new narrative functions by means of the introduction of

diegetic choruses, the employment of interesting motivic reminiscences and some

sophisticated associations between solo instruments and the psychological states of cha-

racters. The credit for such experimentalism can be laid at the door both of the refor-

ming tendencies of Count Pepoli, a disciple of Calzabigi, and of the Venetian operatic

milieu, which was hospitable to the commingling of dramatic styles that accompanied

the move from Metastasian dramma per musica to romantic opera.

30 publications

Antonio VivaldiConcerti con molti Istromenti, RV 558, RV 552, RV 540, RV 149Facsimile edition with a critical introduction by Karl Heller

“Vivaldiana”, 5

S.P.E.S., Florence, 2007

The fifth volume in the series “Vivaldiana” reproduces the elegant manuscript containing

a group of instrumental works that are today among those most familiar and dearest to

the public: the sinfonia and three concertos “con molti Istromenti” composed in celebra-

tion of the visit paid by the crown prince of Saxony, Friedrich Christian, to the Ospedale

della Pietà in 1740, one year before the composer’s death. Although the manuscript

preserved in Dresden was seriously damaged by the bombing of March 1945, this

facsimile edition thanks to a patient work of restoration, restores the text in its

completeness. Karl Heller, who has already edited these concertos once for an edition –

today very scarce – published in 1978 by the Zentralantiquariat der DDR, now provides

a new, exhaustive historical-critical commentary enabling us to reach a complete under-

standing of this precious group of works that mark Vivaldi’s final farewell to Venice.

Antonio VivaldiConcerti con due violini e due violoncelli RV 575 Critical edition by Federico Maria Sardelli

Edizione critica delle Opere incomplete di Antonio Vivaldi

S.P.E.S., Florence, 2006

The collection of incomplete works by Vivaldi is enriched by a new title both substantial

and interesting: the concerto for two violins and two cellos RV 575. This is a work that

has already been published by Ricordi, and performed and recorded several times

without its incompleteness being noticed. The case is extremely peculiar in that the loss

of a folio from the manuscript, containing about 14 bars of music, has nevertheless

resulted in a situation where the surrounding portions make a good join, both harmo-

nically and melodically, thereby giving the impression that the work has come down to

us complete. However, closer examination of the work reveals the presence of this

significant gap, which the editor has filled with a plausible attempt at restoration. In

addition to this long passage of music, the manuscript can be shown to lack some

intended brief echo responses among the soloists: a further reason for offering a critical

edition and commentary aimed at future, better informed performances.

31various authors

Federico Maria SardelliVivaldi’s Music for Flute and RecorderAshgate, Aldershot, 2006

This is a new, English-language edition, with additions, of the book La musica per flauto

di Antonio Vivaldi (“Quaderni vivaldiani”, 11, 2001), which is a detailed study made by

Sardelli of Vivaldi’s music for flute and recorder. The favourable reception of the Italian

edition and its wide sale necessitated a new edition in English, enriched with much new

information and updated as far as the latest Vivaldian discovery, the recorder sonata RV

806. A further “added value” of this edition is its translation by Michael Talbot, who, besi-

des turning the original prose into elegant English, collaborated with the author by

exchanging views and making suggestions that have contributed towards the book’s

enrichment. In addition to establishing the central place occupied by Vivaldi in the history

and repertory of the flute and recorder, Sardelli’s study sheds light on the date and desti-

nation of several works, clarifying some uncertainties about the choice of instrument. In

the light of this study, as many as eight works previously attributed to Vivaldi are shown

to be spurious, while other works discovered only recently are described for the first time.

CD

Ottorino RespighiLiriche da camera IEdizioni Stradivarius, Milan, 2007

The CD Liriche da camera I di Ottorino Respighi was presented on 30 May, during a

concert given on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Released by Stradivarius, the CD

has sixteen tracks, mostly given over to the Poema Paradisiaco by Gabriele d’Annunzio

and Il Tramonto, a lyrical poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley translated into Italian by

Roberto Ascoli. The music is performed by Marta Moretto, mezzo-soprano, and Aldo

Orvieto, piano. In his essay Tra D’Annunzio e Elsa. Figure e tipi della lirica da camera di

Ottorino Respighi, 1914-1920, Virgilio Bernardoni describes Respighi’s approach to the

texts by D’Annunzio: “In the output of lyrical works for the period 1914-20 what

stands out is the large number of works to texts by Gabriele D’Annunzio and, of these,

especially the series of Quattro liriche dal poema paradisiaco ... The content of the Quattro

liriche dal poema paradisiaco are completely different in nature, and fully oriented towards

a discursive musical quality. This is the case with the beatless rhythmic scansion in

the irregular metre (in the unusual time of 11/8) and the continuous harmonic shifts of

Un sogno; similarly, the circumlocutions of the sustained series of five chords in the

piano part of La Najade are almost indifferent to the declaiming scansion of the song text,

which becomes vibrantly prosodic in La sera, underscored by the iambic beat of the sustai-

ned piano. In Sopra un’aria antica, arguably rather ingenuously taking D’Annunzio’s

poem to the letter, Respighi creates a discourse on two contiguous but not parallel levels:

on one hand, the song monologue unfolds with almost scenic implications; on the other,

the piano with an alienating effect sets out the melody of a 17th-Century air “as if from

afar”. In this way Respighi ultimately confirms he prefers the verse of the poet’s early

period, i.e. when what emerges is the idea of poetry as an independent fascinating music

of the word, culminating in the Poema paradisiaco (1891-92). And in fact Respighi

produces his best results in this “Decadent” world, when he tackles languidly crepuscular

lunar topics, as is clearly illustrated by the examples of Un sogno and La sera.

Three sonata concertante for fortepiano, violin and celloA rare Beethoven edition

Last July at the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Davide Amodio (a lecturer in string ensemble

playing at the Conservatory of Trieste), Edoardo Torbianelli (professor of fortepiano at

the Schola Cantorum, Basilea), and Franck Bernède (professor of cello and musicology

at the University of Taipei), made a very unusual recording of a previously unrecorded

composition by Ludwig van Beethoven. Highly innovative recording techniques were

used to capture the sounds of period instruments: a fortepiano from 1823, identical to

the instrument owned by Beethoven, a perfectly intact Teckler cello, and a Pique violin

from 1793, with bare gut strings and classical bows, all played using period performing

techniques (violin with no chin or shoulder pads, cello with no endpin). The great variety

of the fortepiano harmonics create balances unimaginable for a modern piano as the trio

explores the world of the infinitely soft with extremely delicate touches (Beethoven was

famously one of the first to introduce “ppp”) but also breaks out into startlingly ener-

getic fortissimi. The overall effect is thus always tight and invigorating. Each instrument

dominates its own range with extreme ease. The pieces played here (the original trans-

criptions for trio of quartets I, II and IV, opus 18) provided a unique opportunity to

perform works that are both well-known but previously unperformed in this form, thus

free of influences and previous interpretations.

The CD will be released with the magazine Amadeus in autumn 2007.

32

Paolo Caliari called Veronese, The Wedding at Cana, Paris, Musée du Louvre