Museo Canova

Antonio Canova, known today as the greatest neoclassical artist, was the star of his time: he worked for the most eminent personalities of the 18th century and was famous worldwide for his unique, solemn and harmonious style, and his home now stands as a museum holding a complete oversight of his life and work.

The house-museum, a typical 17th-century Venetian building, is comprised of different sectors which visitors can explore. The private quarters and laboratory, each partially filled with Canova’s original furniture, display a large collection of paintings and hand drawn sketches. The true attraction of the museum is the 19th-century gypsotheque, a neoclassical barrel-vaulted gallery which holds most of the plaster cast models which the artist made for various subjects. There is also the modern wing, perfectly integrated into the building’s main body and designed by Italian architect Carlo Scarpa in 1957, which holds a mixed collection of terra cotta sketches and plaster models, some of them never realized, and some lost or destroyed, such as a fabled George Washington statue.

Visiting the Canova house is a highly immersive experience for anyone who wants to fully discover the life, thought, style and art of one of the greatest artists in modern history.