From 27 October 2023 the Civic Museums of Bassano del Grappa will present Dreams of light and ink to the public: Venetian drawing from Tiepolo to Canova in a new room dedicated to exhibitions of graphic masterpieces - the pride of the Bassano Museum - not usually exhibited to the public .

The choice to begin this exhibition activity with an exhibition of eighteenth-century Venetian drawings finds its answer in the graphic collections of Bassano's heritage. In fact, a significant part of the drawings donated by Giuseppe Riva is made up of sheets created by the major artists who lived in the Republic of Venice between the end of the 17th and 18th centuries. To this important selection must be added what was donated by Pietro Stecchini and Giambattista Sartori Canova: not only the albums and notebooks of his brother Antonio but also some traces of the great interest that the sculptor from Possagno had for the graphics of his masters and contemporaries.

The 18th century marks a significant rebirth of the arts in Veneto and its artists return to the center of the European panorama. Among the various arts that flourished in this long period, great attention was paid to engraving and drawing. The latter, once considered only workshop material and an object of study, is now also considered as an autonomous artistic product, intended for attentive collectors or wealthy travelers engaged in the Grand Tour.

All these innovations find a synthesis in the works of the two great masters who marked the century: Giambattista Tiepolo and Antonio Canova. But more generally it is the Venetian artistic environment, described in the exhibition through works by Francesco Guardi, Pietro Antonio Novelli, Bernardino Bison and Giacomo Quarenghi, that is full of charm and experimentation: dreams of ink and light that still tell the story of the century today gold of the Venetian design.

Graphics exhibitions are rare and relevant events. In fact, these precious and delicate materials can only be visible for limited periods of time as, if exposed to light for a long time, they risk being significantly damaged.

For this reason, Dreams of light and ink: Venetian drawing from Tiepolo to Canova, is an exhibition not to be missed.