Venice, an exhibition on Giulio Aristide Sartorio's Poem of Human Life at Ca' Pesaro

From May 16 to September 28, 2025 Ca’ Pesaro - International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice presents the exhibition Giulio Aristide Sartorio. The Poem of Human Life, curated by Matteo Piccolo and Elisabetta Barisoni.

Giulio Aristide Sartorio, frequenter of the Caffè Greco in Rome - an unavoidable crossroads for the nascent Italian Symbolism - and member of the association “In Arte Libertas,” was among the protagonists of the first edition of the Venice Biennale, an event in which he would continue to participate.

At the invitation of Antonio Fradeletto, secretary general of the Biennale, in the spring of 1906 Sartorio accepted the commission to create a large decorative cycle for the Central Hall of the 1907 International Exhibition. He was given the task of illustrating, inspired by ancient mythology, the Poem of Human Life. In this ambitious project, divided into four main scenes-Light, Darkness, Love, Death-and ten vertical canvases depicting Grace and Art supported by virile energy, the artist constructs a dramatic representation of the existential journey from birth to death. At the center of the tale are the allegories of Darkness and the contrast between Eros and Himeros, metaphors for good and bad love.

The complex iconography devised by Sartorio, also approved by Gabriele d’Annunzio, is presented as a synthesis of the Mediterranean world and Nordic culture. The cycle, devoid of architectural elements and dominated by monochrome, is distinguished by the imposing dynamism of the figures, which in the panels dedicated to Darkness and Death assume a rotating arrangement, emphasizing the symbolic value of the entire composition.

To complete the work-about 230 square meters in area-in just nine months, Sartorio adopted a particularly rapid painting technique based on a mixture of wax, turpentine and poppy oil. This composition was confirmed by scientific analysis carried out by the DAIS Conservation Science Laboratory at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. The fourteen scenes, first exhibited in 1907, remained installed in the following edition of the Biennale, and were then transferred to Ca’ Pesaro thanks to a donation by Vittorio Emanuele III to the Venice International Gallery of Modern Art in 1909.

The cycle’s troubled conservation history has left clear traces on the pictorial surfaces. The latest restoration conducted between 2018 and 2019 has allowed not only to intervene on the most compromised elements, but also to collect extensive scientific documentation, which is fundamental for the ongoing care of this masterpiece of early 20th-century Italian painting.

In order to offer a full understanding of the significance of the great cycle, the current exhibition aims to reconstruct the original context, through archival documents and a selection of Italian and foreign works exhibited at the Biennales in the same period and subsequently brought into the collections of Ca’ Pesaro. These materials will be complemented by the complete presentation of the cycle itself, together with technical documentation related to the latest restoration work.

Venice, an exhibition on Giulio Aristide Sartorio's Poem of Human Life at Ca' Pesaro

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