Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova Historical Timeline

The studio comes to Possagno

Canova died in Venice in 1822. His half-brother Giovanni Battista Sartori had the contents of his Roman studio — plaster models, working casts, clay sketches, tools — transported north to Possagno rather than dispersed or sold.

A gallery built for them

A purpose-built gallery on a basilica plan was raised beside Canova's birthplace to hold the large plasters, opening in 1836. It was designed to show them in top light, which was how they had been seen in the studio.

Shelled in 1917

Monte Grappa above the village became a front line in the First World War, and the gallery was hit by artillery in 1917. A number of plasters were badly damaged. The restoration that followed is part of why some surfaces read as they do today.

Scarpa, 1957

For the bicentenary of Canova's birth, Carlo Scarpa was commissioned to extend the museum. He built a small wing for the smaller works and the clay sketches, and in doing so produced a building that architecture students are still sent to see.

Now

The museum, the birthplace and the archive operate together as a single institution, with the Tempio and Canova's tomb a few minutes up the hill.

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