Trieste celebrates Revoltella Museum's 150th anniversary with an exhibition of its sculptures

On the occasion of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of its founding, the Revoltella Museum in Trieste offers, starting November 3, 2022, the exhibition Sculpture in the Collections of the Revoltella Museum. From Canova to the 21st Century, an exhibition designed with the aim of enhancing the important sculptural heritage held by the Museum. Founded in 1872 by the will of Baron Pasquale Revoltella, among the most representative figures of imperial Trieste, who in his will arranged to leave his palace and his vast art collection to the city, the Revoltella Museum is the first modern art gallery established in Italy.

While as early as the end of the 19th century the collection included the likes of Francesco Hayez, Domenico Morelli, Giacomo Favretto, Luigi Nono and Filippo Palizzi, during the 20th century the most significant names of the Italian twentieth century joined the museum’s collection: Felice Casorati, Mario Sironi, Carlo Carrà, Giorgio Morandi, Giorgio De Chirico, Giacomo Manzù, Marino Marini, Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri. A heritage of more than two hundred works, making this museum one of the most important references for modern and contemporary art.

The exhibition Sculpture in the Collections of Museo Revoltella, which presents a wide variety of works in marble, stone, bronze, terracotta, wax, ceramics, wood and fabric, spans temporally from the early 19th century to 2003: from Antonio Canova ’s plaster sketch for the colossal statue of Napoleon in the guise of Mars the Peacemaker to the assemblage entitled Histoires de Boites à Lettres no. 12 - Le Carnaval d’Ensor, a work by Daniel Spoerri, among the founders of Nouveau Réalisme.

The exhibition, which runs through all six floors of the Museum, is divided into six thematic nuclei: the Goddess Rome (1950), a monumental plaster statue by Attilio Selva, restored for the occasion and presented to the public for the first time, which opens the exhibition at the entrance to the Museum; Early 19th-century Classicism, with works by Canova, Houdon and Bartolini; Pietro Magni and the palace sculptors; the sculpture of Marcello Mascherini, with fifteen works created from the 1920s to the 1950s by the celebrated artist from Trieste; the acquisitions of the Revoltella from its establishment to the First Postwar period; and the twentieth century, with works from the Second Postwar period to the informal art of Arnaldo Pomodoro. Also part of the itinerary are some new and previously unseen works: the collection of bronzes and other works by regional and national sculptors, from the 1940s and 1950s, which have not been exhibited to the public for a long time; and more recent sculptures, from the 1980s to the early 2000s, with the presentation of the recent donation of a work representative of so-called Fiber Art or Soft Sculpture by Trieste artist Lydia Predominato.

Accompanying the exhibition is the publication of the collection’s scholarly catalog, edited by Susanna Gregorat and Barbara Coslovich, which brings together two hundred in-depth fact sheets on as many sculptures (including those that are part of the display) and documents one of the most valuable and substantial sections of the Museum’s entire holdings. Also constituting an indispensable element of the program for the enhancement of the sculpture collection are the various significant restoration projects, carried out for the occasion in agreement with and with the advice of the local Superintendency.

The Municipality of Trieste has invested heavily for ’’its’’ Revoltella Museum on the occasion of an important anniversary also to renovate spaces and layouts and bring back to light and restore works long hidden in storage. For the City Council, it is a “gift to the city that all the people of Trieste, and not, will be asked to ’unwrap’ on the occasion of Opening Day on November 3 - the anniversary of the patron saint - by visiting the Museum and the exhibition for free.” The exhibition can be visited until April 25, 2023 with the following schedule: daily, except Tuesdays, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The ticket is included in the Museum entrance fee (full €7.00 / reduced €5.00).

Trieste celebrates Revoltella Museum's 150th anniversary with an exhibition of its sculptures

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