Italian
A conference at the Ateneo Veneto celebrates the meeting between two masters of art criticism and the exhibition that, in 1945, marked the cultural rebirth of Venice
VENICE – In the sign of the eighty years since the Liberation and one of the most important exhibitions in Venetian history, the Ateneo Veneto on November 7 and 8 hosts the conference “Five Centuries of Art in Venice. Pallucchini, Longhi and the Viaticum (1945-2025)”, curated by Barbara Guidi and Paola Marini.
The event, organized in collaboration with the Giorgio Cini Foundation, the Roberto Longhi Foundation, the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the University of Padua and the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan City of Venice, with the contribution of the Veneto Region, aims to reinterpret a crucial moment in the history of Venetian art and its critical narrative.
The 1945 exhibition: a foundational event for the history of Venetian art
In the summer of 1945, the Municipality of Venice, under the guidance of Rodolfo Pallucchini, inaugurated at the Procuratie Nuove in Piazza San Marco the exhibition “Five Centuries of Venetian Painting”. The exhibition brought together over two hundred works, coming from museums, churches, and villas in Veneto, saved in the last months of the war.
The exhibition offered for the first time an overview of the evolution of Venetian painting, from the XIII to the XIX century, and represented a symbol of cultural rebirth for the newly liberated Italy. As Pallucchini himself wrote in the catalog, the exhibition constituted “a synthesis of artistic experiences among the highest and brightest of all Italian painting, from Paolo Veneziano to Tiepolo to Canova.”
Roberto Longhi’s “Viatico”: a masterpiece of criticism and literature
Among the visitors of that historic exhibition was Roberto Longhi, then a professor at the University of Bologna, who drew inspiration for one of the most significant texts of art criticism of the twentieth century: the “Viaticum for five centuries of Venetian painting”.
Written between 1945 and 1946, the Viatico was created as a tribute and reflection on the Venetian exhibition, soon becoming a fundamental text for the history of Italian art and its teaching.
Longhi defined the exhibition as “the splendid opportunity” to retrace the great Venetian painting tradition, “painting par excellence” throughout the world. His gaze, clear and poetic, transformed the exhibition experience into a critical and literary journey through centuries of beauty.
In the Viatico, Longhi brings together stylistic analysis, militant criticism, and historical and social vision, delivering a work that is both an art essay and a narrative of an unparalleled figurative civilization. A reflection that, eighty years later, continues to inspire scholars and enthusiasts.
A conference to revisit a dialogue between masters
The Venetian conference of November 2025 aims to rebuild the dialogue between Pallucchini and Longhi, two protagonists who have profoundly influenced the interpretation of Venetian art.
Through interventions by art historians, academics, and conservators, the study days will offer new interdisciplinary perspectives, comparing the historical context, research methodologies, and the legacy left by the two scholars.
An opportunity, therefore, to reflect on the continuity and relevance of Italian critical thought, in the symbolic place of Venetian culture.
The meeting is free admission until all available seats are filled.
