So much to see and do in the art world of Venice. Be sure this won’t make you overlook a small yet great exhibition: De’ Visi Mostruosi e Caricature at Palazzo Loredan, sponsored by Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue.
The interesting exhibition, curated by Pietro C. Marani, comprises 75 pieces coming from international private collections and public museums. Leonardo, Anton Maria Zanetti, Tiepolo, Arcimboldi, Carracci, Parmigianino, Bacon and their other art: caricatures, deformed faces, incorrect drawings that reveal incredible attention in the depiction of ugliness, truly a reversal of aesthetical canon that equate beauty solely with the perfection of human features.
The detail, the grotesque, the benevolent teasing, is for the artist a moment of study, reflection, and insight. Says Marani: “We will see how, over the centuries, artists researched the human face and its deformities, meaning the reflections of their character, passion, unspeakable animal instinct, inner impulse, and maybe the incubus of their psyche and their subconscious.”
