Verona celebrates one of the greatest sculptors and collectors of 19th century Verona, Ugo Zannoni

From June 27, 2020 to January 31, 2021, the Achille Forti Gallery of Modern Art in Verona, at Palazzo della Ragione, presents the exhibition The Creating Hand. The Public Gallery of Ugo Zannoni (1836-1919). Sculptor, collector and patron, curated by Civic Museums director Francesca Rossi.

The exhibition focuses on the story of one of the greatest sculptors of 19th-century Verona, Ugo Zannoni. He lived a long career between Verona, Milan and Venice, animated by his civic commitment to the city’s culture and museums; between 1905 and 1918 he donated his rich art collection to the Verona Civic Museums, contributing to the birth of a Modern Art Gallery.

“The exhibition has the merit of offering the first in-depth study of the events of the Zannoni collection,” said Francesca Rossi. “Thanks to a systematic reconnaissance campaign, the approximately two hundred donated works have been the subject of research, conservation interventions, photographic documentation and filing.”

The collection of the approximately two hundred donated works includes artists whom Zannoni frequented and other animators of significant sculptural and pictorial research in the second half of the 19th century: Domenico Induno, Mosè Bianchi, Filippo Carcano, Leonardo Bazzaro, Julius Lange, Luigi Nono, and Angelo Morbelli. The Veronese include Angelo Dall’Oca Bianca, Francesco Danieli, and the sculptor’s cousin, Giuseppe Zannoni. Prominent among the subjects represented are figurative genres of landscape and portraiture.

The Zannoni collection represents a significant cross-section of the world of 19th-century art collecting. The Gallery’s fourth room will also re-enact the sculptor’s atelier and the artist’s collection, typical of a 19th-century private gallery.

The artist’s fame is mainly linked to the creation of the famous statue of Dante Alighieri who, in the center of the Piazza dei Signori, turns his gaze to the Scaligeri palaces where Dante was welcomed by Cangrande della Scala. Zannoni executed this work when he was not yet 30 years old, winning an important competition promoted to mark the sixth centenary of the poet’s birth. On display is the bronze sketch of the famous Dante monument.

For info: www.gam.comune.verona.it

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays. Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28 special 1 euro admission.

Image: Vincenzo Hayez, Portrait of Ugo Zannoni (1873; oil on canvas, 72 x 59.5; Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Achille Forti.

Verona celebrates one of the greatest sculptors and collectors of 19th century Verona, Ugo Zannoni

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