A TRIUMPH OF NEOCLASSICISM
Canova's Colossal Horse is stealing the show at the current exhibition “Eterno e Visione” (“Eternal and Visionary”) in the Galleria d'Italia museum in Milan.
The Horse, a towering 4m-high gilded plaster cast model, was originally intended by Canova to be the prototype of a heroic statue of the Emperor Federico Bourbon of Naples but the finished work was never carried out, due to the shifting political patterns of the era.
The Colossal Horse was divided into sections and stacked away in the basement of the Civic Museum of Bassano del Grappa, where it languished forgotten until it was recently “rediscovered”.
The subsequent restoration, accomplished by a team of highly skilled experts, has been hailed as a “brilliant achievement”.
The “Eternal and Visionary” exhibition, organized together with the City of Milan and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, contains over a hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings, and marble reliefs dating to the Napoleonic golden era in which both Paris and Milan were the Neoclassical capitals of Europe, attracting artists and artisans from all over.
Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy's biggest banking group, with a long tradition in art and culture sponsorship. The bank also possesses a network of museums in Italy's major cities.
The exhibition “Eterno e Visione: Roma e Milan” runs until the 6th April 2026.
Info: Tel. +39.800.167610 https://gallerieditalia.com
