An important painting long thought to be missing enriches Juliet's House in Verona

The Civic Museums of Verona will present from Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in the House of Juliet the Venetian painter Cosroe Dusi’s large-scale painting Juliet and Romeo, made in 1838, depicting the nocturnal meeting of the two lovers in the young Capulet’s mansion. Long thought to have been lost and only recently traced, the painting, after nearly two centuries since its only public appearance, will be permanently displayed in Juliet’s House; in fact, it was purchased as part of a project to refurbish the latter, thus enriching the museum complex’s visitor route.

The painting, which is large in size (an oil on canvas measuring 218 x 164 centimeters) and in perfect state of preservation, depicts Romeo embracing Juliet, turning a tender gaze to her in the intimate space of a balcony or loggia. The pained expressiveness of the two lovers and the preciousness of their clothing, from bright red for Romeo’s robe to white for Juliet’s, stand out. The work dates from the artistic maturity of Cosroe Dusi, who in those very years was broadening his artistic horizons to Romantic-style history painting, updating his style in the direction of Francesco Hayez’s experience. After a stay in Munich, where he had achieved some success as a portrait painter, Dusi returned to his homeland where, in 1838, an exhibition was held at the halls of the Accademia in Venice to celebrate the visit of the Emperor of Austria Ferdinand I. Here Dusi exhibited seven works, including Juliet and Romeo, which he had completed on a commission from Count Francesco Gualdo of Vicenza, as confirmed by documents, preserved at the Bertoliana Library in Vicenza, that attest to the payment for the work and the provenance from Milan of the gold-leaf frame that still embellishes the painting. The subsequent fate of the canvas, which probably became part of the collection of the Count of Vicenza, a member of one of the city’s noblest families, and then probably passed onto the antiques market following the sale of the collection after the mid-19th century, is not known at present.

Dusi’s work experienced an extraordinary iconographic fortune. As early as 1841 it appeared in an engraving from a lost drawing by Lilburne Hicks, an English illustrator who may have seen Dusi’s painting in Venice. The engraving was later used both to accompany books and magazines and in loose sheets, and then circulated in postcard form in the early twentieth century.

The painting, rediscovered by Professor Sergio Marinelli and also studied by Elena Lissoni and Fernando Mazzocca, returns to Verona today after being loaned for the exhibition, held at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo among the initiatives of the city Capital of Culture 2023, Tutta in voi la luce mia. Painting History and Melodrama curated by Fernando Mazzocca and Mariacristina Rodeschini.

"It is in the sphere of theater and live performance that the love story of Juliet and Romeo, although originally told from a novella, meets with success, diffusion, until it becomes celebrated. The theatrical fortune manifests itself even in times before the publication of William Shakespeare’s tragedy The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, set in Verona," stresses Marta Ugolini, Councillor for Culture, Tourism, and Relations with UNESCO of the City of Verona. “Juliet’s house on Via Cappello in Verona is an extraordinary example of a house museum, set up by Antonio Avena in neo-medieval style in the wake of the myth’s growing popularity. Avena also interprets the place as a theatrical backdrop on which the story of the two young people unfolds. Juliet’s house, a stone’s throw from the Teatro Nuovo, is therefore the ideal place to host Cosroe Dusi’s work, which again offers a theatrical reading of the meeting scene, from the two protagonists in the limelight to the scenic play of lights that illuminate them. We hope visitors will be able to catch this particular flavor, melodramatic and blatant, in Dusi’s painting and its surrounding context. After all, only in theater ”everything is fake, but nothing is false.“ Certainly, it is important for the city administration to continue on the path of enhancing Shakespearean places in Verona, starting from Juliet’s Courtyard, to the House with the Balcony and continuing to Juliet’s tomb and the Scala palaces. All of this is part of a vision of the city as a destination for culturally motivated tourism that does not disdain pop phenomena, such as the myth of Romeo and Juliet, but rather seeks to interpret them and bring them up to date.”

“The acquisition of Juliet and Romeo by Cosroe Dusi and its installation in Juliet’s House have a particular significance in the plans to increase the civic collections and interventions for the enjoyment of the Shakespearean myth in Verona,” says Civic Museums director Francesca Rossi. “To improve the accessibility and enjoyment of this iconic place in the city, an extensive plan of interventions is in the works, including management aspects and the development of information tools to encourage informed tourism and bring citizens, scholars and visitors closer with new eyes to the House-Museum, a public good that needs more than ever to be recognized for the actual cultural, material and immaterial value it has for the city of Verona and beyond.” “Dusi’s work,” the director continues, “is now presented in the so-called Ballroom, next to Danilo Donati’s stage costumes for Zeffirelli’s famous 1968 film and in dialogue with Pietro Roi’s opera ’Giulietta’ of 1882.” The two nineteenth-century masterpieces by Cosroe Dusi and Pietro Roi mark the first stage of a new exhibition project, led by Civic Museums director Francesca Rossi and conceived with Fausta Piccoli, curator of Juliet’s House, which will mark the entry of other valuable works from the Civic Museums’ collections.

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An important painting long thought to be missing enriches Juliet's House in Verona

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